Wednesday, March 22, 2006

THE BOOK WITHOUT WORDS by Avi

Fantasy, Evil, Magic
book cover
Book Description
The Book Without Words: A Tale of Medieval Magic (2005) "Thorston, an alchemist who has spent his life trying to decipher the secret to immortality contained in the Book Without Words, is on the brink of realizing his dream when he drops dead, leaving Odo, a talking raven, and Sybil, a servant who was about to be sacrificed to Thorston's plan, to reap the rewards of his work."  (Follett)

My Comments
Avi is a safe bet as recommended reading for most people and I am personally addicted to him. I always make sure to offer one of his books to browsing students. This is not one of my favorites, as I don't feel drawn into the plot or very interested in the characters, except perhaps the talking bird, Odo and the servant girl. Are the characters too simple in this story of greed? That said, I'm still looking forward to reading it later tonight. There you go; Avi should be a staple for all reading diets!

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

INKHEART by Cornelia Funke

Fantasy, Book Arts
book cover
Horn Book Magazine (January/February, 2004)

Who hasn't dreamed of it--characters leaping from the pages of a book to interact with the reader? Or, better yet, the reader transported--quite literally--into the make-believe world of a novel? In this tale of adventure and fantasy by the author of The Thief Lord (rev. 11/02), twelve-year-old Meggie and her father Mo live in a house overflowing with "small piles of books, tall piles of books, books thick and thin, books old and new." But it's one particular book that brings a stranger named Dustfinger to their house one rainy spring night. Meggie learns that many years earlier, while Mo was reading aloud a novel called Inkheart, his voice somehow brought many of its characters--including Dustfinger and the evil despot Capricorn--"slipping out of their story like a bookmark forgotten by some reader between the pages." Now Dustfinger (who longs to return to his fictional origins) wants Mo to read him back into the book, while Capricorn (who likes it here just fine) wants Mo to use his powers to read gold and riches out of stories such as Treasure Island and summon a malevolent, immortal character called the Shadow from the pages of Inkheart. Thanks to Harry P., kids may not be scared off by this volume's heft, though they may wish the pacing wasn't quite so leisurely--even the novel's many chases and hostage-takings are related in a deliberate fashion. But bibliophiles will delight in a story that celebrates books (each chapter begins with a literary passage ranging from Shakespeare to Sendak), and the conclusion is especially satisfying.



My Comments

I have to mention both of these books as 'must-reads' for anyone who loves fantasy. I was completely pulled into the world of Inkheart and didn't want to come home!

Monday, March 20, 2006

THE RACE TO SAVE THE LORD GOD BIRD by Phillip Hoose

Nonfiction, Endangered Species, Birds
212 pages
book cover
Book Description
From Follett

Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-199) and index. Tells the story of the ivory-billed woodpecker's extinction in the United States, describing the encounters between this species and humans, and discussing what these encounters have taught us about preserving endangered creatures.

From the Publisher

The tragedy of extinction is explained through the dramatic story of a legendary bird, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, and of those who tried to possess it, paint it, shoot it, sell it, and, in a last-ditch effort, save it. A powerful saga that sweeps through two hundred years of history, it introduces artists like John James Audubon, bird collectors like William Brewster, and finally a new breed of scientist in Cornell's Arthur A. "Doc" Allen and his young ornithology student, James Tanner, whose quest to save the Ivory-bill culminates in one of the first great conservation showdowns in U.S. history, an early round in what is now a worldwide effort to save species. As hope for the Ivory-bill fades in the United States, the bird is last spotted in Cuba in 1987, and Cuban scientists join in the race to save it.


All this, plus Mr. Hoose's wonderful story-telling skills, comes together to give us what David Allen Sibley, author ofThe Sibley Guide to Birds calls "the most thorough and readable account to date of the personalities, fashions, economics, and politics that combined to bring about the demise of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker."


The Race to Save the Lord God Bird is the winner of the 2005 Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for Nonfiction and the 2005 Bank Street - Flora Stieglitz Award.


My Comments
This is a heart-wrenching, but hopeful story. A dark side of human history is told here, portraying the environmental destruction humans wreak in order to "collect" wildlife or to manufacture goods. This is a powerful book for all ages. Visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ for the postscript to this story. There is some hope that this magnificent bird may still be around.