From: Kathy Prestidge <prestidgek>
Date: Fri, 04 May 2001 08:25:16 -0500

I waited very impatiently for the final book in the Dark Materials trilogy. It is a maddening set of books--reading them worked best if I just submerged myself in them, like letting ocean waves wash over me. I understood them subliminally but not consciously until the final book. I listened to the first 2 on tape while driving to work at the time I was reading the final book. That was great--the pieces of the giant jigsaw puzzle drifting back and forth between universes finally began to coalesce.
    My daughter worked very hard at learning to read until she was about 13. She rarely finished a chapter book unless I read it to her. She was 13 when she began reading the Golden Compass, spending months struggling with the complex language. She moved on to Subtle Knife and then kept asking and asking when the third book would come out. She actually knew when the publication date was before I did! During this time her reading has bounded forward (as her teachers assured me it would someday) and now she is tackling Dune and she wants to read the Dark Materials all over again. This trilogy is heavy and dark, no doubt, but it draws in the willing readers and pulls them along with an emotional/intellectual/spiritual mix which makes all the stress of reading them worthwhile.

Kathy Prestidge Theisen Media Specialist 525 E. Pioneer Rd Fond du Lac WI 54935d99 920?9(66 Kathy_Prestidge at fonddulac.k12.wi.us
Received on Fri 04 May 2001 08:25:16 AM CDT