Wonderstruck

Sitting proudly at the top of Ben's Christmas book stack this year was Wonderstruck, the newest offering from Brian Selznick.   Of course I was just as excited to get it as he was, but I managed to hold off reading until after Christmas, and then I devoured it on a quiet, relaxing December 26th.  It did not disappoint.


Wonderstruck is the story of two young children, a boy and a girl, living 50 years apart, but connected by many threads and living similar lives in many ways.  One story, that of Ben, is told in words, while the other, of Rose, is shown in breathtaking drawings.  The stories take turns and mingle giving the reader little clues as to how they will actually become one.  (I loved trying to guess just how the two would be connected!)

From Wonderstruck: Cabinets of Wonder


The setting is split between  Northern Minnesota (yay Gunflint Trail!)  and New York City, giving the author plenty of beautiful and exciting scenes to portray.  The Museum of Natural History plays a big part in the story and I found the idea of a Cabinet of Wonders-sort of a nature table on steroids- irresistible.  I think I need one.  

Perhaps like this:

rocks and minerals

Or maybe this:

Scary stuff!

But I digress.

Selznick's words and illustrations pull you along through the story and keep you interested in guessing if the children will somehow meet in the end.  It is beautiful and sad and tender.  Every bit as wonderful as The Invention of Hugo Cabret! 

Notes To Myself On Recent Reads

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
A Year of Food Life
by Barbara Kingsolver

This was an inspiring book and makes so much sense. Eat what you have available to you in season in your area. Unfortunately I don't have the energy or creativity to pull it off in the all-or-nothing fashion Kingsolver does.

Boy in the Striped Pajamas
by John Boyne

This is a head-in-your-hands, oh-my- God kind of book. I honestly didn't see the ending of this book coming until, well, the very ending chapters. At which point I wanted to throw it across the room and never finish it. A story of two young boys, very much alike but worlds apart. One the son of a high-ranking Nazi officer, the other a Jewish boy imprisoned in a concentration camp. Their lives become intermingled, then become one. I can't believe I actually said out loud at one crucial moment "But, he doesn't belong there." Made me weep.

Chasing Vermeer
by Blue Balliett

The kids loved this mystery/puzzler about 2 young kids trying to figure out who has stolen a priceless Vermeer. Adventure as they go in search of the painting's hiding place right in their neighborhood!

The Wright 3
by Blue Balliett

Another enjoyable way to learn about famous art/architecture. This time the kids go in search of a secret code within the geometric designs of a Frank Lloyd Wright home scheduled for demolition. Will they be able to crack the code and save the house?


The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer

Loved this one! Thanks to Caryl for the recommendation! This is on my read again list I enjoyed it so much. Very snarky and funny at times, with a touch of the weepies any story set in war-time will give. The story is presented through a series of letters and centers on a literery society formed to cover up the theft of a pig.Reminded me a lot of 84 Charing Cross Road, a book about the love of books and the art of personal correspondence, also written in epistolary form.


When Children Love to Learn
by Elaine Cooper

Subtitiled-"A practical application of Charlotte Mason's Philosophies for Today" I think I need to go back and re-read/spend more time with this book. It didn't seem like a practical application to me at all. Maybe I just don't get it?


Parenting Beyond Belief
On Raising Ethical caring Kids Without Religion
ed. Dale McGowan

Interesting essays. I found that the editor, Dale McGowan had the most intelligent and even-handed views on the various topics discussed. A decent read but mostly common sense ideas, nothing ground-shaking.

The Calder Game
by Blue Balliett

Another artist mystery. This time someone has stole an Alexander Calder sculpture. A good intro to an artist we haven't paid much mind to before. While the books by Blue Balliet become a bit formulaic by the third, it was still a fun read.

Swallows And Amazons Forever!

We finally finished up Swallows and Amazons a couple weeks back. I'm not sure how long it took us to read it, I know it really stretched out. It was the kind of book that was best savored at a leisurely pace, though. We read it a chapter at a time at bedtimes and it was always satisfying. Each chapter was so thick with sophisticated language and pure good old-fashioned kid adventure that we always agreed to let the the story "sit" at just one chapter a night. I think we all got a chance to really get to know the characters that way, and to savor the storyline.

In this first book of Arthur Ransome's series about childhood adventure and imagination, we were introduced to the Swallows, a family of children on vacation who are set free with a small sailboat to camp on an island near their summer retreat home. They soon encounter and befriend the Amazons who are two sisters also with their own sailboat. The land of imagination they then share is the focus of the book. The appeal of the fun the children have comes not from it being extraordinary in any way, rather it is the fact that this fun is so real. Their games and their plans are so absolutely child-like and beautifully true, that you cannot help but be carried back to your own childhood memories of friends, forts and make-believe. That time in your life when anything seemed possible.

Enchanting. Charming. Joyful. Just some of the words I would use to describe this book. Now the boys want me to buy the next book in the series. Especially Will. I think he loved this book the most.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Now how did I manage to miss this one? Back in the mid- nineties, I was on a must-read-everything-by-or-about-F. Scott-Fitzgerald kick, and I thought I had seen it all. Evidently I was completely deluded as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button seems to have escaped my notice until now. I read through it at a good clip last night and really enjoyed it. Nary a bit of the Jazz-age angst Fitzgerald is so well known for.


Benjamin Button is born under unusual circumstances-at the age of 70. The story of Button's life is told as he ages backwards into infancy. The final stages of Benjamin's life are described so simply and soothingly...it really puts you in the mind of a child. I read the edition illustrated by Calef Brown. The pictures are amusing, but I'm not sure they completely fit the feel of the story. They didn't ruin it for me or anything, I'm just sayin.

Real and Imagined

The Invention of Hugo Cabret-this was quite a unique book, full of imagination and great writing. Parts of the story were told only with illustrations, which I loved.

From Amazon:

Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo's undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo's dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.

Ben read this before I did and had this to say-

I liked the illustrations and how well they actually filled in big parts of the story. It was a great book. My favorite "side-track" was finding out about Georges Melies who wrote the first science fiction film in 1902, A Trip To The Moon. I wanted to find out if he was real or just a made-up character in the book. It was fun to find out he was real. You can see his film here.

Bees, Utopia and Olive Kitteridge

Doing a little catch-up as I haven't posted in awhile. Here are my thoughts on some of the books I read in the dead of winter....

The Secret Life of Bees-After reading this one it took me quite a long bit of pondering to decide whether or not I liked it. My final word on it is that it was OK. Somehow the story never quite got me to where I wanted to go. I liked the beekeeping bits and life at the "farm", but the whole oddball religious worship of honey and a ship's wooden figurehead just made me roll my eyeballs.

The Giver- I read this one after Ben finished with it. A good story of Utopian society and how it went wrong...they all do, ya know. Ben and I had an interesting discussion about the end of the book. Just what was real and what was memory? Was it really a happy ending? It was a new genre for Ben so he was quite taken with it.

Olive Kitteridge-Loved it! This is the life story of Olive Kitteridge. Or more accurately how the life story of Olive Kitteridge touched others, for better or worse. Think "It's A Wonderful Life" and that's the basic idea. Each chapter takes a look at a moment in time of the life of a character from Olive's small town, and how a glance, a wave or a word from Olive affected those lives. Not a sappy book by any means. A very cool look at how all we do can affect those around us, whether we know it or not.

Roxaboxen

How in the world did I miss reading this book until now? Don't you just love finding a new treasure when you think you've already seen it all? Roxaboxen by Alice Mclerran is that treasure for me. I stumbled across it at Amazon while looking for something completely different and decided to order it on a whim. I am so completely not disappointed!

The idea of the book is simple imaginary play. The kind of play I remember as a child when I spent my summer hours completely outdoors building forts, playing tag and exploring the neighborhood with friends. The kind of play that is in such decline for kiddos today.

In the story, Roxaboxen is an imaginary town created by Marion, her sisters and their friends. It becomes an important place in their childhoods which lived on into their adult lives. Based on real kids and real events. Sweetly simple.

See Dick And Jane Wish They Were This Cool

On a recent library trip I impulse- grabbed this book by Lane Smith from a display shelf.

I am constantly judging books by their covers and this one had me thinking "Man, that looks funny!". Let me tell ya. I was right. It is juvenile humor with a certain sophistication. It is Dick and Jane had they skipped the frontal lobotomies. It is a dry wit that leaves you thirsting for more. (and luckily there is another!) It is entertainment for the whole family. Well, for most "whole families", I guess. One Amazon reviewer gave it only one star calling it " A recipe for insolence and irony". I say, Bring it on!

The Happy Hocky Family is really quite happy despite their little mishaps and mischievous scenarios, from Baby's balloon popping to a fatal trip to the zoo (for the dog). Ahh, childhood! A time of such simple joys! Our favorite was the gentle treatment of Grandma when confronting her overbearing perfume. Without causing her any undue embarrassment, the children employ the help of a magic monkey to get her to "OPEN the WINDOW WIDE". Who wouldn't want their child to read this? Respect for elders, Magic Monkeys, a Happy Family...who could ask for more? Insolence and irony my ass! I give it 5 stars!!

The Nemirovsky Books

Suite Francaise-A very honest, human look at the German troops occupying France during WWII. Nemirovsky's characters struggle in their own minds and hearts with concurrent feelings of hatred, compassion, and sometimes even love, for their young foreign captors. Although unfinished (Nemirovsky was sent to Auschwitz during the writing of Suite Francaise, and killed a month after her arrival there) the book's "ending" seems as natural as if it had been intended to stop where it does. Although I was left with some very particular questions about how the lives of two characters pan out, (Louise, a french woman and Bruno a German officer), notes written by Irene Nemirovsky included in the appendices give a good idea of where she was headed with their story. It was the conclusion I didn't want. Such is life.

Fire In the Blood- Set in France, a story of love and loss. Subtle twists and turns in the story lead to a surprising ending. I really didn't see it coming! Does the "Fire in the Blood" really leave us once our youth is spent, or does it forever course quietly through our veins, just waiting for the right moment to re-ignite?

I Can't Get No Satisfaction From This Book

I had high hopes for Double Negative by David Carkeet, a murder mystery set in the offices of a group linguists focused on child language development. For me, a linguistics nut (I love to calculate my kids' MLU for fun), I thought this would be a great read. Wrong! The characters were not well developed, the main character and the police chief had a completely unreasonable relationship, and there really wasn't much speech pathology-ology happening to grab my attention, either. No suspense, no intrigue. I guess it really couldn't be called a mystery. I did finish the book, but in my defense, I have a sickness that way, and only the most banal of books can make me stop reading before the end. I always hold out hope that things will get better, but I should trust my first instincts more often and just chuck 'em when they start to smell. I wouldn't have missed much had I put Double Negative down and walked away. Pfft. That's all I have to say.