Wow!

Can you believe it? An award already and we’ve only just begun! Althought many of you probably already know this, I wanted to see how easy it was to add the graphic and link in. Piece of cake! I hope!

Skinnybones and the Wrinkle Queen- Glen Huser

Doesn’t the title alone just grab you? Looking through my group of Snow Willow books, I realized that this was the other one I needed to comment on. In a time when teenage angst is at an all-time high in young adult novels, it was refreshing to find one that found a way to put some humour into it as well. Tamara has been in many foster homes and when she decides she wants to take a modelling course, she knows Shirl and Herb will never be able to fork over the fee. Tamara is also frustrated with the community service project her teacher has dreamed up- being paired with an old person in a nursing home. Both of these characters are well-drawn with lots of humour interjected throughout as the pair strike up an unlikely alliance in an attempt to both get what is important to them. Tamara needs money for her modelling course and the “Wrinkle Queen” needs a driver to take her on a trip to see her favourite operas. Will it work or will they kill each other first?

One of the things I miss about not being in a classroom setting is the lack of opportunity to read novels aloud to older students. I believe this would be a fun read-aloud with lots of room for discussion and would also fit well with the emphasis we have on teaching the moral intelligences. It would be fun to make comparisons to other books about unlikely friendships, both novels and picture books. It would be fun to write about a personal unusual relationship we may have encountered in our lives as well.

But aside from all that, if promoting great reads is what we, and the Willows, are all about, the Skinnybones and the Wrrinkle Queen fits the mandate well.

My huge apologies- apparently I really wanted this book to be on this year’s Snow Willow list and thus assumed it was. So just call it a really great read!!

Observations

Although I did not post anything this weekend, I spent some time ruminating on the purpose of blogs. As simple on-line journals, their purpose seems quite straightforward- a personal diary. But as I subscribe to a number of blogs through my RSS feed (which I learned about at last year’s conference), I realize that blogs have as many purposes as authors. So then I thought about what my purpose would be- aside from the fact that this is an assignment to enable us to become comfortable with the blogging format. As you will see from the title of my blog, books are always going to be my focus. So I believe that if I continue this blog after our course is over, it may turn into a rather rambly discourse on what I’m reading and enjoying now; both children and adult literature. Not that I have much time for the adult stuff at the moment.

The other concern for many bloggers seems to be- I write, but will anyone read and comment? Or should we care? So this blogging experience should help me to decide what my priority will be- blogging in such a way and with content others may wish to read or as a way to contain some of my scattered thoughts and memories and make them more useful personally. But enough of that for now!! On to books!

I was saddened last week to read of Madeline L’Engle’s death. I have admired her and loved her works for a long time and had the privilege of meeting her when she came to Bookworm’s Den in Saskatoon. I have a much treasured, autographed copy of a Wrinke In Time. My son in Ontario e-mailed me a link to a site with a review of her life, as we read many of her books at the same time.

This weekend’s read was Eyes of A Stalker- a Shelby Belgarden mystery writtten by Valerie Sherrard. I thoroughy enjoyed this light, fast-paced novel- totally appropriate for our YA section 0f the library. Valerie is the author of Sam’s Light, which was a Snow Willow nomination several years ago and a very powerful novel.

So that’s it for today. I have not included comments on any other of this year’s Snow Willow titles- at this point, they can be found on my library blog.

Keturah and Lord Death- Martine Leavitt

Author- Martine Leavitt 

I read this award-winning book last year as part of the Snow Willows selection committee, and as usual, forgot many of the details except for the fact that I absolutely loved it and couldn’t put it down. So I have started re-reading it and am every bit as fascinated the second time around. I also read many of the reviews on-line and started to puzzle somewhat about what made this book so attractive to me. I do not do a lot of self-analysis as I read, so this will be a good exercise for me. In thinking about this question, it became evident that as a rather fanciful young girl, with a very vivid imagination, this is the type of reading that has always appealed to me- a fairy-tale, a love story, and strong vivid characters. It reminded me quickly of what Robin McKinley and Gail Levine have accomplished in turning some of the familiar fairy tales into full-fledged novels. I loved them; not only for the rich detail, but for the well-developed characters. It also reminded me of The Princess Bride, a long-time favourite; which tells you that I am also a sucker for “true love”; and that is another story in itself!
When Keturah chases the famed hart into the forest, she becomes lost. At the end of the three days, her strength waning, Lord Death comes for her, as expected. What is unexpected is the dialogue which ensues. Keturah does not wish to die and attempts to bargain for her life, but Lord Death is cold and implacable. He offers her a reprieve, that she choose anyone else from the village to take her place, which she refuses to do; showing her kind and generous nature. She then begins to relate to him a story of love, that no one, not even Lord Death can overcome. With that, she begins to pique his interest and she promises to tell him the rest of the story the next day. He allows her this option but also says that the end of the day, he will take her as his consort (isn’t that a great word?) unless she is able to find and marry her true love in one day. And thus, as her friend Gretta puts it- “we go a man-hunting.”