Taken from a painting of Kapiti Island at Sunset.
by Sonia Savage.

Monday, May 21, 2012

What Are You Reading?



It's Monday and again I am joining in the meme over at Mentor Texts.
Hop on over and join in over at the Mentor Text Blog. Just click on the picture below.




This last week I read the 1999 Newbery award winning book, Holes by Louis Sachar.  I know most if not all of you will have read this book, however for me it was the first time.  It was to me a book that could be described as a tall tale, a legend, a mystery and an adventure.  The stories of differing generations were skilfully interwoven.  It showed how the choices of one generation impacted on another.  I b felt sorry for those boys who were sent to dig holes and at the same time admired there tenacity and perseverance.  I had a number of favourite characters, Stanley and Zero and also Sam the onion grower.  There were a lot of coincidences but then it was a tall tale. Tall tale my opinion only!)  I highly recommend this book if by some chance you haven't read it.



I also finished listening to Insurgent, the second in Virginia Roth's Divergent trilogy.  I again liked this as much as the first one. There were surprises, and upsets along the way, not saying more because I know everyone won't have read this yet.  Also I need to confess I am going to need to listen to this again, I am planning to listen to both Divergent and Insurgent before the last book comes out next year, so that my brain is totally sharp on all characters and turns of events.

The narrator (Emma Galvin) who reads this book captures it really well for me, her voice is the voice of Tris as far as I am concerned.  I 'read' Divergent ever before I read the Hunger Games trilogy, I then felt if I could cope with Divergent I could cope with The Hunger Games.  It's not a natural genre for me to go to, however both trilogies have been well worth the read.  It has been a good experience to read outside my comfort zone.

For the coming week I am keeping it simple, I am going to read my first Lunch Lady book and I am also going to read Guts, by Gary Paulsen - the True Stories behind Hatchet and the Brian books.

7 comments:

  1. I'm in just the beginning third of Divergent, so thanks for not telling much about it. Maybe I will look for the audio of the next one! I stopped to read another book, but will continue for sure. I have read Holes, & thought it terrific & fun the way the author wove everything together. I haven't heard about Guts, so thanks for telling about it, Kathryn. Fun reading!

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  2. Just finished reading the original "How to train your dragon" by Cressida Cowell to my class. We are learning about comparing and contrasting and this is fantastic for comparing and contrasting text and film. As for me personally, I am reading "Daily5" for the first time and am slowly being convinced to give it a go...

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  3. I just listened to Holes last summer on audio with my husband on a road trip. He described it as a story of coincidences . . . funny that you emphasized that, too!

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  4. At first all the coincidences in Holes really bothered me, but then I realized I was looking at it all wrong. It is, as you say, a Tall Tale and, as such, the coincidences fit in beautifully. Really one of my favorite novels now.
    Good to know Insurgent is as good as Divergent (gosh, I am constantly getting those titles mixed up - they are so similar!)
    You will love the Lunch Lady Graphic Novels! They are so much fun!

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  5. I am glad to hear Insurgent is as good as the first. I haven't had a chance to read it yet. Mostly because I have been a giant reading slacker lately. Here is what I intend to tackle this week http://wp.me/pzUn5-Zj

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  6. I love Holes! When I taught 6th grade we did is as a read aloud of a hero's journey and I think tall tale definitely describes it.

    Have fun reading your first Lunch Lady book- they are so wonderful :)

    Happy reading this week! :)

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  7. Glad to see you enjoyed Holes! And isn't that what is so great about the book world? Even if you don't catch it the first go-round, it's always (well, almost) easy to pick up later!

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