From: linnea hendrickson <lhendr>
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 19:53:21 -0700

I was interested in Dean Schneider's comments on _Frenchtown Summer_. This is one of the few new books being discussed that I have read, and although I enjoyed it, I did have the feeling that I'd read it all before. I'm trying to figure out in which of Cormier's other books he's done almost exactly the same scenes, and the two that come to mind are _Fade_ and his collection of newspaper columns _I Have Words to Spend_. In fact, I kept having to think whether I was reading fiction here, or autobiography -more so than I've done in other of Cormier's books. I'm wondering if anyone else had this feeling that the territory has been covered before? Although many of Cormier's books have settings in Monument/Frenchtown and there are recurring images of the 3-story houses, the factories, and the aunts and uncles, in the other books the plots have been stronger than the setting.

        I did enjoy _Bud, Not Buddy_ -- in fact I read it in one fell swoop. I was struck by the range of characters and the way Curtis made them come alive in relatively few brushstrokes. I also enjoyed the structuring device of Bud's rules, and, of course, the portraits of the librarians! In a similar way, I enjoyed Fleischman's _Mind's Eye_ , its structure of the imagined trip with Baedeker, and its depictions of the retired English teacher! I thought both of these books were ones that would lend themselves well to classroom use -- _Bud, Not Buddy_ for upper elementary and middle grades and _Mind's Eye_ probably for high school.

Linnea

Linnea Hendrickson Lhendr at unm.edu http://www.unm.edu/~lhendr
Received on Wed 15 Dec 1999 08:53:21 PM CST