The Midwife's apprentice

The Midwifes apprentice by Karen Cushman is a book that was published before I graduated high school. That being said, I have passed it millions of times in countless libraries and bookstores and it always caught my attention but didn't have that "je na sais quoi" to hold it. So why now? I would be lying if I said that I read this book last week but I have recently came across a read alike and I figured I would share both.

The Midwife's Apprentice is on countless grade school reading lists and it is the recipient of the Newbury Award in 1996. This is a great choice for a child who needs a book for a historical fiction project. The book relates the story of a young girl named Beetle (this is not her given name) who is taken in as a apprentice by a midwife in England during the Middle Ages. Beetle works for the Midwife learning her trade but after a setback involving a town woman's delivery and the constant criticisms and insults by her master Beetle runs away from home and re-invents herself as Alice and begins work as an inn girl.

Hap and Circumstance eventually bring the innkeeper and her former apprentice back together and after the delivery of an inn guests child. Alice returns to the midwife with a new understanding of life and her future career.

This is a great read I believe for students six grade and older. I made this decision because of the content and some thematic elements that may be a little difficult to grasp for younger readers. However is depends as always on the child and their parents.

The Field Guide: The Spiderwick Chronicles Book 1

The Spiderwick Chronicles was a series that always seemed to slip through my hands. I would be all set to read it and then something else would cross my path and occupy my attention. So Spiderwick became one of those series that I placed on my "to do list" and swore that I would get to. I am glad that day has finally come.

The Field Guide is the first spellbinding book in the Spiderwick Series. The Field Guide introduces us to the books main characters, the three Grace children Mallory and the twins Simon and Jared. After their parents divorce the children move to an aging Victorian house owned by a distant relative. Soon after moving in things start to go amiss for Jared he's getting in trouble at school, fighting with his mom and strange things are going on in the old house. One day when their mother is out the children decide to explore their new surroundings. In a secret room Jared stumbles across Arthur Spiderwick's guide to the world around you and this is where the mischief begins.

The Spiderwick Chronicles are an excellent series for boys and girls alike. The authors Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi manage to recreate the flavor of an old Victorian fairytale mixed with just the right amount of humor. It is these elements that make the Field Guide so exciting. This series is also a great choice for reluctant readers because the book's size isn't overwhelming but the narrative however entertaining is not oversimplified. Check it out!! Book two is the Seeing Stone.


Oh the books website is awesome check it out.

http://www.spiderwick.com/

Coraline: Movie vs. Novel

Okay, anybody who knows me personally knows I am hypercritical of children's novels that are made into movies. Let's face it very few can hold a candle to their book counterpart. Now, I know that some artistic liberties must be taken to make the book translate to screen but often times it is these edits and liberties that ruin the spirit of the actual novel and the movie is just a bad replica like dollar store soda. All that being said there are some notable exceptions and Coraline at least to me happens to be one of them.

Coraline the novel just happens to be one of my favorite books and one that I recommended many times to kids that I believed could handle it. So when I heard they were making a movie I was to say the least disappointed. I immediately thought that Neil Gaiman had sold out and that Hollywood was about to ruin another one of my favorite characters. Then I heard that Henry Selick one of the creative minds behind the "Nightmare Before Christmas" was involved my initial skepticism turned into curiosity. I liked the "Nightmare Before Christmas" is it possible that I could end up enjoying this travesty? The answer is YES. I have to say that Coraline the movie though still no comparison to the original was actually good.

Even though I normally do not approve of movies making to many artistic liberties and Coraline had many. I have to hesitantly admidt that these liberites were probably for the best. What I mean to say is even though they changed specific scenes and characters the flavor of the novel was not lost. Coraline was still represented, I was still creeped out and most importantly I still was inspired.

Dark Sons

Nikki Grimes's "Dark Sons" is a compelling story of loss and forgiveness as told by two young men. This novel, told all in verse draws the reader in with it raw emotion and dynamic characters.

"Dark Sons" follows the lives of the biblical Ishmael and his modern parallel Sam as they both experience a sense of abandonment when their family dynamics change. Grimes. takes the old testament story of Abraham and his sons and reworks it from another perspective. Ishmael voices his side of the story, the first son replaced by Issac and then forced to leave his home by the jealous first wife Sarah. The story's other protagonist Sam is a young African American boy whose father leaves him and his mother for a younger white women. The story follows Sam's feeling of anger and abandonment as his father remarries, has another child and, eventually relocates across the country to his final acceptance and eventual forgiveness.

I loved this novel for so many reasons and found it hard to put down for even a minute. It's heartfelt honesty and emotion was so powerful that I felt all of Sam and Ishmael's highs and lows. Dark Sons is a reminder to parents that divorce and separation is often harder than children than we think.