“I wonder how old we are when we stop thinking like kids?” – This Kid Reviews Books (Quote used with permission. Thanks, Erik!)
Posted in Mostly About Reading, Writing
Tagged inspiration, quote, reading, ThisKidReviewsBooks, Writing
These are brief reviews of four more of the books I’ve read in the 52BookClub challenge and the Indigo reading challenge.
Title: Our House is on Fire: scenes of a family and a planet in crisis
Author: by Malena & Beta Ernman, Svante & Greta Thunberg
Published: March 5, 2020
The climate change is a big deal – as in, CRISIS – and this Swedish family, specifically 15-year-old Greta, has made more of the planet’s population aware of the seriousness of it in the recent past – and ongoing.
This book is written mainly by her mother and is in scenes rather than chapters. Readers are taken through the past few years so that we get to know Greta, her family, and her cause. Her passion for saving our planet is real, the crisis is real, the need for change is real. There is not much time left to make a positive and effective difference.
I read this book for the Indigo 2021 challenge and used it for the prompt “a book about helping the environment.”
Title: The City in the Middle of the Night
Author: Charlie Jane Anders
Published: February 12, 2019
This is one of the strangest books I have ever read — and I had to finish it! It’s a story about a planet that’s dying, a society with strict, regimented rules and traditions, and a rebel named Sophie who is their unrealized way to change. This is a story to get pulled into and when it ends it leaves you wishing for more.
I chose this book for the Indigo reading challenge, prompt “A book by a trans* or nonbinary author.”
Title: Big Burn
Author: Lesley Choyce
Published: May, 1995
Although this little book was written in 1995, it is still valid today with regard to pollution of soil, water and air, and the ill effects that has on wildlife and human health.
Two teenagers meet and become great friends, while taking on a big business that is polluting the environment. Both their families have been deeply affected by the secrets and underhandedness of the companies they had been involved with, and it is time to do something about it.
I used this book for the 52BooksClub challenge, prompt #52 – featuring the environment.”
Author: Marjan Kamali
Published: April 6, 2021
This is such a beautiful and heart-wrenching story of young love in Iran during a politically tumultuous time in 1953. Teenagers Roya and Bahman are deeply in love but his mother fiercely disapproves, although Roya does what she can to please her. The day they are going to start a life together everything changes for them.
This story takes the reader through the early days of their relationship, and then decades later to an emotional ending and surprising twist. Excellent!
Included is a section Topics and Questions for Discussion. I used this book for the 52BookClub reading challenge, prompt #11 – “Book with discussion questions inside.”
Perhaps you have enjoyed one or more of the above books. If so, any comments on them?
Thanks for reading, and … now get lost in a good book! 🙂
Hi there!
With all the things that draw my attention, and as a family caregiver, I fell behind again! I am still reading, but more slowly, so I haven’t as many books to list here as I had hoped to have read by now. I also found that I am changing some around on my reading challenge lists, but since they are of my own choosing I can do that. Because it makes my lists not quite accurate for posting here, from now on I will combine them into one list for you to read. The books below are quite a variety.
I currently have eight other books in various stages of being read.
Two questions for you this time: Have you read any of the above? Do you usually have more than one book on the go at once?
Thanks for reading … And Sharing! Do Come back for more!
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Thanks for reading, and … Keep Smiling!
Today – September 30, 2021 – is Canada’s first Truth and Reconciliation Day.
Here is the information I found about it:
“This solemn day has been established to honour the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, their families and communities, and to ensure public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools as a vital component of the reconciliation process.”
The inspiration for Orange Shirt Day (also September 30) came from Phyllis Webstad who is Northern Secwpemc (Shuswap) from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation (Canoe Creek Indian Band). On her first day of residential schooling at six years old, she was stripped of her clothes, including the new orange shirt she had picked out and her grandmother bought for her. She never got it back. The orange shirt now symbolizes how the residential school system took away the indigenous identity of its students.
What this day symbolizes hurts my heart. It is hard to grasp that children could be given no love or tenderness by adults, but instead were handled with cruelty and degrading, inhuman treatment – just because of who they were.
I’ve noticed that a few people around here have hung out orange t-shirts or orange somethings, so I attempted to shape a heart and hung it on my weathered deck railing.
There are many posts I want to add to my blog but this one takes priority today.
Have you done anything special for this important day?
Thanks for reading, … and keep in touch!
Reading is my go-to thing, more than ever. Although I’m painting on Thursdays again I’m keeping up my close relationship with books. Here I’m continuing to tell you about the books I’ve read for the reading challenges. Perhaps you have read some of them.
Title: The Tale of Despereaux
Author: Kate DiCamillo
Published: September 9, 2008
This is the four-part sweet story of a teeny, tiny mouse – Despereaux – who fell in love with a human princess. Because of that, and not repenting of it, he was condemned to the castle dungeon where rats lived and mice died. Despereaux proved to be clever and brave, not only for himself but for the princess who was in danger. Enjoyable black and white illustrations.
In the 52books challenge, I used it for prompt “author with a 9-letter last name,” but it could also fit four other prompts.
Title: Someone To Watch Over Me
Author: Jill Churchill
Published: September 3, 2002
I read this book for an extra challenge prompt (author or character with a floral name) for 52booksclub, and found it to be quite enjoyable. A brother and sister – Robert and Lily Brewster – who were once wealthy, now lived in their uncle’s mansion after the Crash of 1929. Robert finds a man’s mummified body in the old icehouse, and soon after that another man’s body was found in the woods. New to the community, the Brewsters tried to help the police chief solve the mysteries.
Title: The Pursuit of Happyness
Author: Chris Gardner
Published: October 24, 2006
Having seen the movie starring Will Smith, I was pleased to have found the book. I used it for the 52BooksClub reading challenge, prompt #31 – Book that shares a similar title to another book. (The Pursuit of Happiness by Douglas Kennedy)
Chris Gardner lived through an unenviable childhood of poverty and abuse, shuttled from one family to another. His mother was the person he most loved, but who was not always able to be there for or with him. It was she who planted in him the desire to succeed in life, and the belief that he could succeed in a big way. This is his story of how that transpired, and it is told in an open, honest, raw way, foul language and questionable behaviour included. It is a true rags-to-riches story, and the promise of a boy-to-man to always be there for his future children.
Author: Robin DiAngelo
Published: June 26, 2018
This is a difficult book for me to review as it is told from the viewpoint of someone who teaches others how to define and expose racism that seems to be in everyone, and how to recognize it. She then explains ways to deal with it in oneself and when noticing it in others. It is rather like a textbook in content and presentation, but still is interesting, educational, and helpful.
I chose this book for the Indigo reading challenge for prompt “A book to build your antiracist reading list.”
So… have you? Read any of these, I mean? Or maybe they are on your TBR list? What are your thoughts?
Thanks for stopping in, and … Happy Reading! 🙂
Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators & Performers
Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia
"The odd thing about people who had many books was how they always wanted more." - Patricia A. McKillip
Polilla Writes 