Here’s what I have been reading lately…
Junk by Melvin Burgess
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book formed part of the contemporary teen fiction module of my Children’s Literature course. It is a brutally realistic portrayal of teenage runaways that fall into the world of drugs, sex and crime. It is not an easy read but it is fascinating and certainly a clever deterrent since Burgess uses the unreliable characters of the book to narrate their own stories, in the process inadvertently revealing their ignorance, delusion and naivety. It is a book I would recommend for teens and adults alike – it may deal with some challenging subject matters but I think this is the kind of literature that can actually get through to teenagers and perhaps make them think.
Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another book read for my Children’s Lit course, this was a superb read which I managed to get through in one day (more by necessity than anything else, though!). The story follows a teenager in norther Ireland in 1981, right in the midst of the Troubles. He discovers an Iron Age body of a girl preserves in the peat and as the book unfolds, both their stories are revealed. The tension from the volatile political situation plays well with the suspense for this murdered ancient girl. I will most definitely be reading more by Dowd, though I was saddened to learn that she has died and this book was her last, published and awarded the Carnegie Medal posthumously.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another set book from my course, this is the kind of book I would have lapped up when I was in school. I wrote my extended essay on Alice Walker and Tomi Morrison. This book does not quite live up to those great writers but all the same, this brand of social realism is very worthwhile and Taylor’s storytelling is still masterful and particularly compelling for younger readers. The 1930s South in which the book is set was a time of segregation, lynchings, and hardship. The book is inspirational but also revealing – another example of how literature can educate.
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is the perfect example of why I am so happy I did the Children’s Lit course. Once of my set books, this is a book I would never have read otherwise. Not only is it a children’s book, it is aimed at boys (or tom-boys) judging from the cover (which I know you are not supposed to do but I do, so sue me). I am so glad I did read it because it showed me to a whole new world of fantasy fiction for kids which is intelligent, exciting and eminently creative. The world creative by Reeve is an environmental warning but also an intriguing challenge for the book’s characters. I will most definitely be reading more.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I must admit, this one took a bit of getting into. I started reading this book three or four times before it finally ‘took’. the problem was that the world created by Fforde requires a fair bit of imagination and participation by the reader – it is not an easy concept to get a hold of at first. Each time I had tried to start it, I would read late at night (so, tired) and I would read for just a little while. Then on the last try, I read for a good couple of hours and I was hooked. The complex ideas of time travel, moving into works of literature (and characters coming out of their books), the world which is like ours but just a little off (the Crimean war is still waging on in 1984 over a hundred years after it started), all these things make for a challenging but rewarding read. I absolutely loved this book. This is the first in the Thursday Next series and I am sure I will be reading more at some point.
The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Having blasted through the first of my Jasper Fforde books, The Eyre Affair, I was on a roll and couldn’t wait to crack open The Big Over Easy, the first in his Nursery Crime series. Just like The Eyre Affair, Fforde presents a word that is at once familiar and strange. The abstract notions are a lot easier to get your head around one you have got into the flow of his writing and I thought this book was both really funny and also rather suspenseful.
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You would think that after my course, I would be sick of children’s books but it has only increased my love for them! I am currently reading Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book and enjoying it immensely.
