From: Karen Cruze <kcruze>
Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 13:37:19 -0500

I'd like to jump in here and put my spin on Block's books. They are not fantasy - but they're about magic. Sometimes the magic includes fantastical elements. But more often the magic is about the familiar made new; the joy of friendship, the sadness of growing up, the landscape around us (often kitschy). And then there is the magic of discovering how to go on with your life even when hard things happen. I like that her books include young adults who have relationships with unique people older and younger then them. And how the characters discover that most often the so?lled adults in their lives are quite lost and so the young people have to figure out how to make their own way and make their own rules to live by.
       Granted - these books don't have broad across-the-board appeal. The teens I see who like them are usually sensitive and arty and open-minded. To these, the books really really speak in a way most books don't. And that's magic too.

Karen Cruze, Youth Services Librarian Northbrook Public Library Northbrook, Il.
Received on Tue 07 Jun 2005 01:37:19 PM CDT