Twelve year old grand-daughter, Ishbel, is a bookworm. I can categorically say that I have never been what you would call 'a reader'. Yes, I read off and on but other things being equal I am more often found windmilling around from one project to another. You would never fine me, as a child or even today, sitting in a corner curled up with a book.
Things are changing! (Maybe old age has something to do with it!) Chatting to Ishbel about what she's reading these days I decided to have a go at one of her books. (Actually this all started with Alastair asking me if I had ever read any R L Stevenson ... all of which I have written about elsewhere on this blog.)
So here is my first 'go':
This is a wonderful book and would make a good topic for book club discussion. Yes, it is about teenagers but these teenagers are being treated for cancer or other life-limiting diseases. It raises lots of questions with no easy answers. Lots of dialogue and a good shape to the story; well written.
A second absolute cracker! Teenage focus with the topic being about racism. Set in America it could be anywhere with universal themes of justice, social mobility, speaking out when it is easier to keep quiet. Excellent shape to the story, lots of dialogue... another well-written book.
A book worth reading... certainly not my first choice but Ish (and, indeed, Alastair) are learning about the Holocaust, Judaism, and talk at the dinner table of Tuesdays nights in detail about, for example, Auschwitz: the names of individuals, the types of tattoos and what they stood for, experiments that were done. Sheessh! I never knew all that stuff!
At the end of the book the author describes how she came to write the book based on the story of one man's experience of 3 years in this concentration camp. Latterly she give an overview of how his life played out in subsequent years.
No comments:
Post a Comment