Better Stock up at the School Library Before the Hols!

Through a Glass, Darkly by Jostein Gaarder was a lovely book that looks at some of the big ideas concerning life, death and being human.  Cecilia is very sick  and her family prepares her for her last Christmas. It is then that her angel, Ariel makes himself known to her. I found the story poignant and funny and I was strangely gladdened at the end. I found the next book I read to have a Louis Sachar feel to it, in that the character is very self deprecating and honest. The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp by Rick Yancey is a book about a boy who, through the greed of his uncle, is caught up in an ancient legend and the quest to keep the legend and it’s treasure secret. I really liked Alfred because he was a hero not because he was particularly smart, strong, handsome or had some latent powers but because he always wanted to do the right thing.  Alis by Naomi Rich felt a bit like the Arthur Trilogy books in that they were simply told. Maybe a little bit Girl With a Pearl Earring too. Alis lives in a world that could be a mirror of Puritan England/America. She is to marry the local minister, even though he is an ‘old’ man. Trying to put off the inevitable she visits a friend in a neighbouring community. It is there that she meets Luke and her life is changed greatly before being put back on course, with tragic consequences. I liked this story because it was a love story with conflict and tragedy and no supernatural beings, yet it was still lovely and powerful. The book I finished today was a gentle, universal ‘lightbulb’ book. The Heaven Shop by Deborah Ellis is a about a girl in Malawi called Binti and her family. Binit is full of her own self importance because she is in a radio show and goes to a private school. Even so, her life is alien to a first world audience.  Little do Binti and the reader realise, there is much more of an unknown world out there, when Binti becomes an AIDS orphan and has to redefine herself in the new circumstances she finds herself in. A beautiful and heartbreaking story that makes me want to get out there and make a difference.