Monday, October 25, 2010

Books

With all the travel time to and from DC I finished a couple of books that I would highly recommend. First up was the sequel to the Maze Runner -- The Scorch Trials by James Dashner. It was as good as the Maze Runner and didn't leave me on some cliff hanger where I am mad not to have the 3rd book yet. The third book comes out next year I think. I am really enjoying this series and I look forward to having my questions answered when I read number three next year. If you liked Hunger Games I am fairly certain you would like this series as well. Check it out.

Second up was the Book Thief by Markus Zusak. If you love beautiful, creative language that will help you see ordinary things in a new way AND a compelling story told from an unusual point of view, you will love this book. It is based in Germany during World War II. So it involves Nazis and Jews and Germans. But it tells its story from a fresh perspective that I had never explored before. Granted I hadn't read many books about this time period but the few I had read focused so much on what the Jews experienced in this terrible time. This book looks at the same story from a poor little German girl's perspective. And the narrator is Death itself - you know, the Grim Reaper.

I loved and I mean LOVED the language in this book. There were so many ways the author described everyday things like weather or feelings or hair color that painted such a vivid image in my mind and helped me see new things in the everyday. I loved the characters with all their complexity and realism.  Zusak was amazing in this work and it has made me ready to go see what else he has written.

These two are worth putting on your "to read" list.

6 comments:

Puhlman said...

OK so my nephew LOVED the Hunger Games...but he is only 12. I have a 12 year old that LOVED reading the Percy Jackson series and we were told that if he loved that he would love the Hunger Games. But then I was also told that Hunger Games might be a bit to mature for a 12 year old. What is your opinion on that?

Dean and Sheri said...

The Book Thief. Hmmm...sounds like a good excuse to get to the book store today and I'll take any excuse to get to the book store! Thank you for the recommendation.
Sheri M.
Oh and...LOVE YOUR BLOG! What a lovely family you have. What a lovely woman you are.

Stephanie Waite said...

Puhlman,

I think whether you 12 year old is ready for hunger games or not is hard to say. Different parents are different on what they let their kids read. I haven't let my 9 year old read Harry Potter yet (any of them) because I think they are too mature for her. She is a young 9. I had nephews that read the whole series by her age.

So maybe I will tell you what Hunger Games has in it that is questionable and you can decide? It does have lots of killing and death. Some of these "scenes" are described in detail. It isn't the same as watching on a movie but I doubt they could make a movie of it that wouldn't be PG13 just for violence. I mean the whole premise is that the kids are stuck in an arena in a fight to the death. So your child has to be okay reading violent scenes. I am not familiar enough with Percy Jackson to compare these.

It also has some romance. It is not very descriptive in this area. It tells of some you that a person is naked but will not say much more than that. (And the person isn't naked because of anything sexual but because he or she is being cleaned or inspected or had something attack them that left their clothes in shreds etc...) There is some kissing but again there isn't any read detail in the description of this or how the characters feel about it.

That is all I can remember. It is definitely less mature than Twilight. I would probably let my 12 year old read it - depending on the 12 year old's maturity.

I would say the Maze Runner is better to start with. It is "safer" than Hunger Games. It is less violent and has almost no love scenes (the Scorch Trials has a kissing scene and some flirting but not much more than that.) If I were you I would start my 12 year old on Maze Runner and if he is okay with that I would then introduce Hunger Games.

Hope that helps
Stephanie

Lindsay RC Wilson said...

There was an article today about the possibile rating of the movie being made of Hunger Games and whether or not it will be helped/hurt by the rating it receives. Interesting...

As for Harry Potter, I personally feel it gets more mature as the series goes on. Whether you like the series or not, J.K. Rowling was genius, writing the series to the reading level of Harry in the books, hence why it matures. So, the first book, he turns 11, and it is written at the 11 year old level. I'll probably wait until my kids are 11 for them to start reading it, but everyone' children and their ways of choosing when their children are ready is different.

Anonymous said...

I just read The Maze Runner and the only thing that I didn't like was how they name called constantly. And the use of words like, "Shuck it." When you know what it's supposed to say. I'm still mulling over if I'll let my 12 yr. old read it yet. Did you notice any of that?

Anonymous said...

im reading "even silence has an end" by ingrid betancourt. it was captivating for the first line. love reading of her journey. she did a wonderful job.