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From: Karen Cruze <kcruze>
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 10:21:37 -0600
I read "how I live now" in a prepub edition last year and loved it. More recently I've heard a lot of criticism of the book on another list serve and from some librarians I know (though the librarians I work with thought it excellent). Given all this I decided to reread the book with my daughter who is 17. (Yes I still read to her, she finds it soothing while she works on art projects.) What an enlightening experience! She loves the book and kept interrupting my reading to make comments. Right after the scene where the war begins, she stopped me to talk about 9. After the scene where Daisy and Piper have returned home and are sitting in the garden reading and being rather ordinary under unordinary circumstances, she stopped me to talk about how it seems in every account of war she's read there come these timeless moments and how this seemed to connect the book to a history. She took the love story between Edmond and Daisy in stride, was very upset that Piper's Mom was so far away when disaster struck, gasped at Joe's and the Major's death, and listened very quietly to Daisy's story of the aftermath. When I asked her if she liked it, she said "Are you kidding? Yes!" I think one of the reasons it worked so well as I read it aloud was Daisy's voice - very run on, breathless, aware but not too aware of the meaning of what was happening to her. The fact that this was a book about her, rather solipsistic in her reactions and rather vague about the war's details, was what ultimately made it so teenlike. When my daughter started talking about 9 it was about her perception and the perception of her peers to what was going on, how strangely isolated they felt and out of the loop compared with the adults around them at school. And the quiet moments of the war reminded her of the day shortly after 9 when the sound of an airplane, usually so ordinary, startled her. Given her reactions, the book's worthiness was reinforced for me. It definitely deserved its award.
Karen Cruze, Youth Services Librarian, Young Adult Specialist Northbrook Public Library Northbrook, Il.
Received on Thu 24 Feb 2005 10:21:37 AM CST
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 10:21:37 -0600
I read "how I live now" in a prepub edition last year and loved it. More recently I've heard a lot of criticism of the book on another list serve and from some librarians I know (though the librarians I work with thought it excellent). Given all this I decided to reread the book with my daughter who is 17. (Yes I still read to her, she finds it soothing while she works on art projects.) What an enlightening experience! She loves the book and kept interrupting my reading to make comments. Right after the scene where the war begins, she stopped me to talk about 9. After the scene where Daisy and Piper have returned home and are sitting in the garden reading and being rather ordinary under unordinary circumstances, she stopped me to talk about how it seems in every account of war she's read there come these timeless moments and how this seemed to connect the book to a history. She took the love story between Edmond and Daisy in stride, was very upset that Piper's Mom was so far away when disaster struck, gasped at Joe's and the Major's death, and listened very quietly to Daisy's story of the aftermath. When I asked her if she liked it, she said "Are you kidding? Yes!" I think one of the reasons it worked so well as I read it aloud was Daisy's voice - very run on, breathless, aware but not too aware of the meaning of what was happening to her. The fact that this was a book about her, rather solipsistic in her reactions and rather vague about the war's details, was what ultimately made it so teenlike. When my daughter started talking about 9 it was about her perception and the perception of her peers to what was going on, how strangely isolated they felt and out of the loop compared with the adults around them at school. And the quiet moments of the war reminded her of the day shortly after 9 when the sound of an airplane, usually so ordinary, startled her. Given her reactions, the book's worthiness was reinforced for me. It definitely deserved its award.
Karen Cruze, Youth Services Librarian, Young Adult Specialist Northbrook Public Library Northbrook, Il.
Received on Thu 24 Feb 2005 10:21:37 AM CST
