Spring Book Thingy, 2016 •• Some Blog Site

Spring Book Thingy, 2016

May

2016

Due to a long flight for business travel, I’ve been reading books when it’s not summer vacation. Rather than wait until my annual summer book review and write an interminably-long post, I decided to write about them now.

Here they are, approximately in the order that I read them.

Airman by Eoin Colfer
I read this book because my older kids wanted to read it. They go through a lot of books, so I can’t preview them all. Consider this a random sample of their books.

It was intense. Or maybe it just felt more intense because I don’t go through many stories like this anymore. My reading choices are either non-fiction or books for young children (like Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter kinds of plots).

It was very engaging, with some mild language and a bit of violence. I thought about how to recommend or rate this, and I settled on a comparison to Treasure Island. The bad people are bad, and they threaten murder and harm, and they accomplish it. But the descriptions of violence are brief and not any more gory than they need to be.

I’d say ages 10 and up.
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
I chose this book because it was purported to be an inspiration to C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

It’s a quick story, and more along the lines of old fairy tales than it is to any modern story. Especially after finishing Airman.

I’m having a hard time deciding on an age limit. Maybe ages 4 and up?
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
This was another book that my kids wanted to read but I took it to preview it first.

There was not any gore in this, and I don’t remember any offensive language. The story was not as intense as Airman, mainly because there aren’t any villains. There are some antagonists, but they aren’t evil.

The main problem with this book is a common malady among modern stories – kids are the heroes and adults are the problems. It wasn’t that overt, but the general theme was there.

I’d say ages 9 and up.
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
This is the original story. Another one which inspired some great authors. Beware when checking out or buying the book that it is the original story. Some books in the library were retellings.

The plot is pretty much as you expect, if you’re familiar with any versions of Peter Pan. Of course, there are some nuggets in there that make the book worthwhile. I’m in particular thinking of the descriptions of Nana.

If your kids are fine with the movie version of Peter Pan, then they’ll be fine with this book. If you’re reading to younger kids, then you might have to gloss over some parts, such as why Smee’s sword has the name that it does.

Maybe ages 7 and up for reading on their own?
Jack by Liesl Shurtliff
I didn’t read this one, but my wife did – in order to preview it for the kids. She said it was okay, so go ahead and let your kids read it.
Magicalamity by Kate Saunders
I didn’t read this one, but my wife did – in order to preview it for the kids. She said it was not acceptable, so we returned it to the library. It had an overall air of rudeness and disrespect, plus some other things. So avoid this book unless you want your child learning new insults and certain medical procedures.