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Favorite books of 1996
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From: EWRIGH61 at MAINE.maine.edu <EWRIGH61>
Date: Mon, 02 Dec 96 21:27:50 EST
Ginny asked us to talk about our favorite books published this year. I'm a fan of fantasy, and these are my three favorite fantasy books published this year:
_Sabriel_ by Garth Nix. Sabriel travels between side-by-side worlds of reality and magic, and beyond both to the realm of Death, to complete her father's unfinished work. Great eerie setting and characters, and Sabriel is my favorite heroine since Aerin in Robin McKinley's
_The Hero and the Crown_.
_Chuck and Danielle_ by Peter Dickinson. The fantastic element in this story is that the reader can see inside the panicky mind of Chuck the whippet. Chuck's uncomprehending fears -of pretty much everything -- lead her and her owner Danielle into seven hysterical adventures, one per chapter, which add up to one funny book. I love it as a read-aloud, too; Dickinson has done most of the work for the reader with punctuation, italics, capitalization, and even word placement on the page. My favorite example, from Chuck's terrified thought process about the cat next door:
Watch it! Some
cats
are
MONSTERCATS!!!
_Grandmother's Pigeon_ by Louise Erdrich, illustrated by Jim LaMarche. Having seen the monument to the passenger pigeon at Wisconsin's Wyalusing State Park, and read Aldo Leopold's essay about the monument and the pigeons' extinction at the hands of humans, I felt the aching wish that this gentle fantasy could come true. Two children find eggs among their grandmother's possessions that hatch into passenger pigeons. But the time of redemption is brief; since the pigeons are all the same sex there won't be any more, and the children must decide what to do with these last survivors. I think LaMarche's gorgeous, realistic illustrations help place the story just on the edge between imagination and reality. This one has great adult appeal, as well; I've recommended it to adult friends who have then bought it for their parents. Truly for all ages.
These are my fantasy favorites so far; let me
(and the rest of the CCBC community) know about yours!
Beth Wright Asa Adams Elementary School Library Orono, Maine ewrigh61 at maine.maine.edu
Received on Mon 02 Dec 1996 08:27:50 PM CST
Date: Mon, 02 Dec 96 21:27:50 EST
Ginny asked us to talk about our favorite books published this year. I'm a fan of fantasy, and these are my three favorite fantasy books published this year:
_Sabriel_ by Garth Nix. Sabriel travels between side-by-side worlds of reality and magic, and beyond both to the realm of Death, to complete her father's unfinished work. Great eerie setting and characters, and Sabriel is my favorite heroine since Aerin in Robin McKinley's
_The Hero and the Crown_.
_Chuck and Danielle_ by Peter Dickinson. The fantastic element in this story is that the reader can see inside the panicky mind of Chuck the whippet. Chuck's uncomprehending fears -of pretty much everything -- lead her and her owner Danielle into seven hysterical adventures, one per chapter, which add up to one funny book. I love it as a read-aloud, too; Dickinson has done most of the work for the reader with punctuation, italics, capitalization, and even word placement on the page. My favorite example, from Chuck's terrified thought process about the cat next door:
Watch it! Some
cats
are
MONSTERCATS!!!
_Grandmother's Pigeon_ by Louise Erdrich, illustrated by Jim LaMarche. Having seen the monument to the passenger pigeon at Wisconsin's Wyalusing State Park, and read Aldo Leopold's essay about the monument and the pigeons' extinction at the hands of humans, I felt the aching wish that this gentle fantasy could come true. Two children find eggs among their grandmother's possessions that hatch into passenger pigeons. But the time of redemption is brief; since the pigeons are all the same sex there won't be any more, and the children must decide what to do with these last survivors. I think LaMarche's gorgeous, realistic illustrations help place the story just on the edge between imagination and reality. This one has great adult appeal, as well; I've recommended it to adult friends who have then bought it for their parents. Truly for all ages.
These are my fantasy favorites so far; let me
(and the rest of the CCBC community) know about yours!
Beth Wright Asa Adams Elementary School Library Orono, Maine ewrigh61 at maine.maine.edu
Received on Mon 02 Dec 1996 08:27:50 PM CST
