Twilight, A Scent of God, and a pile of homeschooling books

Twilight (2006)

Stephenie Meyer
498 pages
4.5 out of 5 rating

Twilight is the first book in this series with the same name by Stephanie Meyer. 17 year-old Isabella Swan moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona to cloudy Forks, Washington to live with her dad. There she meets the mysterious Edward Cullen. Who is he? Or more like it, what is he? A great girl-meets-vampire-and-they-fall-in-love-though-he-wants-to-suck-her-blood kind of story. I thought this story would just be some corny YA romance, but I was so wrong. There were so many parts that had me holding my breath or clutching my chest.

Homeschooling

Right now I am in the middle of the engaging memoir of A Scent a God by Beryl Singleton Bissell. It's a great read even from page one. Sadly, I have to temporary put all non-school reading on hold while I research and write my paper on home schools and what public schools can learn from them. I have about five books to read within the next week, so my life will be like a week-long Read-a-thon. I'm going to read:

How Children Learn -John Holt

Teach your Own - John Holt

Coloring Outside the Lines - Roger Schank

Home Learning Year by Year - Rebecca Rupp

Guerrilla Learning- - Grace Llewellyn

Wish me luck.

Fables: Legends in Exile

Fables: Legends in Exile (2002)
Bill Willingham
128 pages
Winner of the 2003 Eisner Award for Best New Series

I am becoming the newest biggest fan of graphic novels. This was a genre, that until recently, I didn't pay any attention to. I'm glad things have changed so much.

Fables: Legends in Exile is the first book in a series created by Bill Willingham. The characters from various fairy tales have been exiled from their homelands by an enemy called The Adversary and now have to live among humans in America. The characters that can pass for humans live in New York City while those that can't live upstate at a place called "The Farm." All the characters hope to one day defeat The Adversary and go back home.

Book 1 features Bigby Wolf a.k.a. The Big Bad Wolf trying to solve the murder of Rose Red. Also feature is Snow White, her ex-husband Prince Charming, Cinderella, Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk, The Frog Prince, Bluebeard, Beauty and her husband, the Beast and many more. The story is so funny and realistic. I started reading the novel and didn't put it down until I was finished. It deserves my 5 out of 5 rating.

With that said, I just realized this was my last book for the Once Upon a Time 2 Challenge. I have to thank Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings for hosting this great challenge. I had so much fun reading books I usually don't read. So it's official: I'm hooked on the strange and the unusual.

I read:

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1 - Alan Moore

The Stolen Child - Keith Donahue

Fables

The Sandman Vol. 1 - Neil Gaiman

The Resurrectionist - Jack O'Connell

My favorite reads for this challenge: Fables and The Stolen Child.

My least favorite: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 1. Maybe it's the feminist in me, but I couldn't understand why Mina Murray couldn't kick ass herself.

P.R.4

The Sandman Vol 1: Preludes and Nocturnes (1993)

Neil Gaiman

240 pages

4 out of 5 rating

Summary: Haunting, disturbing, page-turning story.




Still reading:
Time and Materials by Robert Hass,
The Scent of God by Beryl Singleton Bissell,
Rules for Old Men Waiting by Peter Pouncey
Rent by Jonathon Larson

The Stolen Child

The Stolen Child (2007)
Keith Donohue
336 pages
4.5 out of 5

The Stolen Child is Keith Donahue's enchanting debut novel that's part-fairy tale, part coming of age story. One afternoon after running away from home, a seven year old boy named Henry Day hides in a tree. Soon he is found, stripped, and tied up by a band of children, who he later finds out are changelings. One of the changeling takes his place in the real world becoming Henry Day and goes undetected, while the new member of the group is named "Aniday" and has to live in the forest and learn the ways of the faeries. After many years Henry Day realized that he too, was a human boy at one time and tries to find out about his lost family, stolen from him by the changelings. Both Henry Day and Aniday are going through life trying to figure out how they are and how to their the lives they have been given.

I love how much folklore Donohue found and invented about changelings. If you don't know changelings are fairies that take children, leaving one of their own in the child's place or something else like a log. Some folklore have changelings down as trolls or other "earthly beings".

I really liked this book and it's now on my top ten list for books that I read this year. This was my second attempt in reading it and it proved to be worth it. I was hooked from the first sentence "Don't call me a fairy", and spent almost every waking moment reading this book until I finished. Donohue did such a good job describing the everyday life of a changeling, changeling folklore, the aftermath of the switch between changeling and human, and what happens when the world changes and no longer needs folklore or the creatures who created it. What surprised me is that I grew to love almost every character in the book. One of the characters I couldn't love was the changeling Henry Day. He was one dimension until the end. I think Donohue showed with such skill Henry Day as a changeling that lived the fairy ways for more than a century before he made the switch with Aniday, and then had to figure out how to be human again. It's only at the end of the story that both Henry and Aniday find their humanity and also peace.

My fourth read for the Once Upon a Time 2 challenge.

Once Upon a Time 2

Though school is kicking my butt, I joined another challenge the Once Upon a Time 2. It's hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings. The challenge is one that is bringing me back to my childhood. For the challenge you read at least one book that is forklore, a fairytale, fantasy, or mythology. I've decided to do Quest 1 and read five books from those categories. I plan on reading at least five books out of this growing list.

1. The Stolen Child - Keith Donahue


2. Penelope - Marilyn Kaye


3. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger


4. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Alan Moore


5. Love and Murder - Jodi Picoult


6. Little Black Book of Stories - A.S. Byatt


7. American Gods - Neil Gaiman


8. Forever - Pete Hamill


9. The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly


10. The Ice Queen - Alice Hoffman