What am I reading today?

Girls With Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young

Total read in March thus far: 5

What am I reading today?

Clean Eating for Busy Families by Michelle Dudash

Total read in March thus far: 3

Read with me this month

Every March, to celebrate Reading Month, I make it a point to read more. And also, to carefully track every book that I read. I'll be tracking those books this year here, with an extra post every morning. The plan is to simply post a cover image of whatever book I'm currently reading. I'll also keep a running tally of my total books for the month (all books - picture book, graphic novel, audio book, etc). Why this attention to numbers? I'll be making a donation to RIF (Reading is Fundamental) and the end of the month based on that total. And March is a great time to make a donation to RIF as they're matching all donations made in March. You can learn more about RIF here. 

So what am I reading today?

The Bigfoot Files by Lindsay Eagar

Total read in March: 0
 

Book review - Recipe for Disaster

Title: Didi Dodo Future Spy - Recipe for Disaster
Author: Tom Angleberger
Genre: humor
Similar books: The Bolds by Julian Clary
                      Claude in the City by Alex T Smith
Rating:

cleverly silly

Summary (provided by publisher): In this series opener, Koko Dodo the cookie chef has a big problem. Today is the day of the royal cookie contest, and someone has stolen his top-secret fudge sauce! Luckily, a spy enters the scene just in time (or rather, crashes in on her roller skates): Didi Dodo! This might be Didi’s first case ever, but she has a daring plan to help Koko. Koko would prefer a safe, simple, sure-to-work plan, but without another option, he and the amateur sleuth take off on a wacky caper full of high-speed chases and big belly laughs that could only come from the mind of the inimitable Tom Angleberger. Each book in the series will focus on a food-related mystery.

My opinion: Angleberger certainly has a talent for developing unique characters. In the case of an early chapter book like this one, unique characters are what make it enjoyable and memorable. The mystery of the stolen fudge sauce follows a pretty obvious story arc but it includes some great elements. First we have this wild adventure with crazy exploits, constantly adding to the cast of characters. Secondly, there's a message about fair play and competition. Not just the standard message about not cheating, but the idea that a contest where the same competitor always wins entertains no one. Not knowing, anticipation, is what makes a contest worth doing/watching. Making that the final conclusion elevates this above the standard early elementary story.
More information: Recipe for Disaster releases March 19.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Book review - Stand on the Sky

Title: Stand on the Sky
Author: Erin Bow
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books: Everlasting Nora by Marie Miranda Cruz
                      Running on the Roof of the World by Jess Butterworth
Rating:

compelling

Summary (provided by publisher): It goes against all tradition for Aisulu to train an eagle, for among the Kazakh nomads, only men can fly them. But everything changes when Aisulu discovers that her brother, Serik, has been concealing a bad limp that risks not just his future as the family's leader, but his life too.
When her parents leave to seek a cure for Serik in a distant hospital, Aisulu finds herself living with her intimidating uncle and strange auntie—and secretly caring for an orphaned baby eagle. To save her brother and keep her family from having to leave their nomadic life behind forever, Aisulu must earn her eagle’s trust and fight for her right to soar.  Along the way, she discovers that family are people who choose each other, home is a place you build, and hope is a thing with feathers.

My opinion: The life of nomads is so different from what most of us experience, that exploration alone makes this worth reading for most of us. A close look at the ins and outs of life in another culture is always uplifting. But while those little details will be foreign to most readers, there's a universality to the larger messages. Aisulu's culture undervalues her because of her gender. And because she doesn't fit a traditional gender role, she feels rejected and invisible within her own family. Her family crisis actually opens up her world. In seeking solace in raising an eagle, she begins to challenge her societal norms. And this challenging she begins to view those around her through anew lens. She begins to value other outsiders, to find a secondary family. It's a great read in and of itself and would make a great starting point for a group discussion, especially if you paired it with a book set in the US with similar themes.

More information: Stand on the Sky releases March 5.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

Books on screen

A Wrinkle In Time

 

I wrote previously about my less than pleasant viewing of the first movie version of A Wrinkle in Time. It wasn't terribly long after that experience that I heard another movie was in the works. I had some hope, given it's bigger name cast and big budget, but had managed expectations.

Let's start by pointing out the obvious: A Wrinkle in Time is a complex, theoretical story. It takes the reader through multiple dimensions, talks about physics and time travel, dips into philosophy, and has heavy religious and moral overtones. This makes it difficult to represent on film, especially for the mass market. Necessarily, changes get made. Some have little bearing on the overall tone of the story, even if they are startling or disappointing (like removing Aunt Beast - I love the character but she can be removed without harming the plot). I want to take a look at three changes and their impact on the movie.

1) The nature of Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Whatsit. In the book, they are described as looking like crones, our standard idea of witches. They are craggy, wispy, and a bit disconcerting. The movie version of the Mrs is more spritely. They're like fairies, but more substantial. This is primarily a cosmetic change but also impacts their general perception. 

2) Camazotz. In the book, the planet Camazotz is eerie. It's disturbingly uniform. This is it's menace. The scenes on Camazotz are meant to make us uneasy. The movie makes Camazotz a little "off" but more enticing. Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace are seduced  by IT rather than being beaten down by the sameness.

3) The religious elements. L'Engle's writing isn't Christian, per se, but has definite religious overtone. Various religious texts are quoted throughout the novel and religious figures are pointed to as the heroes of the light. The movie quotes, instead, artists and scientists and the light bringers. While this makes it more accessible to the general public it does take away from L'Engle's message.

Here's the thing about A Wrinkle In Time: it's complex. It is intentionally opaque. We're not supposed to understand it in a single reading. L'Engle believes in the importance of asking questions that we can't answer. She values asking questions, thinking about them. I  think that's the main point of the book, to get us thinking about big questions. As such, it makes it difficult to film. Movies are generally built on clear answers, solid conclusions. Two people may read the book and take completely different things from it, conclusions that are different from the one in the movie. And for the viewer who hasn't read the book, there's a lot of weird, unexplained occurrences that are hard to understand without the book for context. It's a much stronger effort than the last version but it simply can't hold a candle to the novel. Give this movie a view, but always go back to the book if you really want to understand the story.

Non-fiction book review - Flower Talk

Flower Talk by Sara Levine

I can't say as I'd ever put much thought into why flowers come in different colors. I knew that certain creatures pollinated specific flowers. I didn't realize just how much color played into that selection. As a picture book, this is a very brief overview and I'm sure color selection is more complicated than is represented here. Still, it's a solid introduction to the idea, walking us through the general assumptions we can make about pollination based on color and scent alone. 

Flower Talk releases March 5.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.