The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles

I haven't posted for nearly a year. Truth be told, I haven't read much for nearly a year, so there simply has been nothing to post. I had a rough year, as I took too many classes and had an amount of homework to match. Now that it's summer, and I am sufficiently recovered from this year's double dose of band camp, it occurred to me that perhaps a blog post was in order. So I picked out a new layout to suit me better, as I've changed a lot this year. Grown up a lot. I figured that the old layout belonged to the old me. Plus, blogger added more pre-made layouts, and they're pretty darn cool. I wound up going with this layout instead of the obvious, a bookshelf. But I think the picture of the old falling apart house has character. It's somehow otherworldly, and since I write a blog about fiction books, I think that makes a good match. Anyway, to get to the point...

The Last of The Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards

Believe it or not, whangdoodle is a real word. It's in the dictionary (although it is classified as slang, so I suppose their is room for debate). According to the foreword, the word whangdoodle is actually what inspired Julie Andrews to write this book. And what a book it is. It's one of my all time favorites. I love it so much that when I first discovered it in the fifth grade, I read it for nearly a week. Meaning I read the entire book, once a day. My teacher got pretty anoyed with me. (Apparently I needed to "branch out" and read something else. Hmph.) Anyway, this is one of the most creative and imaginitive books I've ever read. From flowers that smell like bread to a river that makes music to a bird that has so many feathers it can't fly in a straight line, this book is like playtime for your imagination or your dreams.

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles is the story of three children, a professor of biology, and their journy across the wonderful world of Whangdoodleland, a place you can only get to through use of your imagination. Their goal is to meet the last whangdoodle, the lone survivor of a fanciful species. However, it seems the whangdoodle would prefer to remain isolated in his castle, and away from the humans who no longer believe in mystical creatures like himself, such as unicorns and dragons.

This book is for the most part an easy read, and appropriate for anyone about age six and up, although children of this age would require someone reading it to them. Don't think this book is only for little kids, though. I'm nearly 15 and still enjoy it immensely. If you still appreciate pure, solid imagination, then you never can be too old.

The best bit of advice from this book, whether taken literally or metaphorically: always remember to look up.

Dragonflight

Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey is the first book in the Dragonriders of Pern series. In this science fiction novel, animals named dragons for their mythical look-alikes are the only way people on pern can survive. After consuming rocks containing phosphine the dragons could spit flame at the enemy - Thread. Threads were mycorrhizoid spores that came from the Red Star and would fall from the sky. If allowed to land, they would eat all organic matter in their path. Therefore, the dragons and the Weyrfolk who rode them had to turn them to ashes before they hit the ground.

Lessa, heir of Ruatha Hold, has been hiding out as a kitchen drudge for years. However, when F'lar comes to call on Search for a new Weyrwoman, she finds herself on a daring adventure to rescue Pern. For the threads will come, invited or not... and they don't bother to see if you're ready for them.

Fish

The war is coming to the country where Tiger's parents are serving as aid workers. They have no choice but to pack some clothes and provisions and hotfoot it out of there. They find a guide, put their packs on his donkey, and start walking. But first, Tiger catches the fish in the puddle and puts it in a pot. The fish comes with them.

One might say that one little common fish in a puddle is not that important. Is not worth going out of your way to save. After all, there are a lot of fish in the world. But what about a fish that, other than you, your parents, and your guide, is the only thing left in your little village? For Tiger, what to do is obvious. Save the Fish.

In this book by L. S. Matthews, one could say that there are four people, a donkey, and a fish. I prefer to say that six people set off on a hike to the border, for the donkey is as smart as human and the fish, well... he reminds them of the true meaning of courage and survival.

I would recommend this book to any one 4th grade and up.

The Divide by Elizabeth Kay

Felix is, for the most part, a normal boy. But he can’t run around, can’t exert himself. He mustn’t, because he has a rare heart disease and doesn’t know how long he’ll live. Felix passes out frequently, and he knows that one day he won’t regain consciousness.



Felix wants to see the Continental Divide. He wants to put one foot on the Atlantic side, one foot on the Pacific side. Unfortunately, on the hike up to the spot his parents notice he is tiring and want to turn back. Felix knows he should obey them, but it’s only a bit farther…



Felix sprints ahead, puts one foot on each side. As he stands split in half, he feels himself lose consciousness. When he wakes up he is still on the Divide, but his parents are gone, his surroundings different, and there is a strange feather lying on his chest. He assumes someone must have moved him… until a griffin shows up. Felix then begins a journey in a world not his own to find a cure for his disease, and maybe even do some good in this magical place. But how did he get here, and how can he get back home?

The books in this series are:

1. The Divide
2. Back to the Divide
3. Jinx on the Divide

all by Elizabeth Kay.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes – even the most uninformed person, upon hearing this name, will think of a great detective. But how many of us have actually read the stories?

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is much famed. Yet you really must read them to take in the full awe of Holmes’ logical reasoning. When Holmes solves a crime by a spot on the knee of someone’s pants or some such seemingly unimportant detail, all we can do is watch in wonder and keep reading.

I can’t provide a summary of this book because it is a collection of short stories. Each one is a work of genius, and quite interesting to read. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like a classic, unequaled read.

Beka Cooper - Terrier

Terrier is the first book in the Beka Cooper series by Tamora Pierce. Tamora Pierce is my favorite author now. I still like Garth Nix’s writings, but I like Pierce’s even more. Terrier is her most recent book, and the sequel, Bloodhound, will be coming out in 2009. Some other series and books by Tamora Pierce are The Song of the Lioness Quartet, The Immortals Quartet, The Protector of the Small Quartet, Trickster’s Choice and its sequel, Trickster’s Queen. I have read them all at least twice. All of these books are interconnected and all are set in the realm of Tortall and neighboring countries. Pierce also has two series not set in Tortall, (but in a place quite similar) The Circle of Magic Quartet and The Circle Opens Quartet. These two series are also intertwined.

Beka Cooper is a girl who grew up in the Lower City, one of the eight districts of Corus, the capital of Tortall. The Lower City is the poorest part of town, and filled with pickpockets and murderers. When Beka turns in a troublesome gang to My Lord Provost, he takes a liking to her. Soon Beka finds herself moving from the Lower City to the Provost’s house in Patten district, along with her single mother, two brothers, and two sisters.

When Beka joins the Provost’s Guard, a police force commonly known as the Dogs, her sisters turn up their noses and sneer. They are training to be maids and seamstresses for nobility, and don’t understand why Beka would want to run around chasing Rats, the term for lawbreakers.

But Beka still counts herself as one of the Lower City folk, and will stop at nothing to protect them. When rumors of kidnappings and murders for money reach her ears, as an eager Puppy, or trainee, she’s on the scent. With the help of unhappy spirits and miniature tornados, Beka is determined to let nothing slip through her fingers. I would recommend this book to anyone middle school and up who would like an exciting read. Now I have to wait for the next book in the series…

Gone With the Wind

I have met my match.

I was walking through the rows of books in the school library the other day, asking myself the immortal question one asks themselves in libraries – “Oh what shall I read now?” I swept my eyes over the neatly stacked volumes, but no titles or covers caught my eye. Then I spotted a book with a washed out cover that might have been yellow decades ago, and big, faded yet bold print proclaiming the title to be Gone With the Wind. Hmm. The eighth graders were reading that, right? Hmm….
And so, for the next WEEK AND A HALF I read. And read. And read some more. By the time I reached page 837, I was a wee bit irritated. Most books, I’ll read them in under a week, tops. Usually they take about 2 days. But this book…
Don’t get me wrong. It was an excellent book. It’s just that 1037 pages tend to take a while to read. For an impatient gal like me, waiting that long to find out the end is a lot to ask.

I repeat, I have met my match.

Gone With the Wind is an amazing book in the time of the Civil War. It is in the point of view of a southerner, which is interesting because we get to see the thoughts and beliefs of the losing side.
This book gives us the story of Scarlett O’Hara, a determined young woman with a fighting spirit. Scarlett doesn’t give a hoot about what people think, as long as she gets what she wants. Consequently, no one can stop her, not even her husband, when she decides to start a business. At a time when woman were expected to stay at home and respect their husbands, Scarlett ignores custom and does what she wishes. For Scarlett pledges allegiance to only one thing – the red dirt plantation where she grew up.

Note: The entire time I was reading this, my dad the Flymaster kept saying numerous variations of “My dear, I don’t give a damn.” Whenever my mother the Great Yogini tried to say it, the Flymaster would say “Shh! You’ll ruin the book for her!” Mystified and bemused, I continued reading the book. As a result, my first thought when I finished the book was “OH.”