Day 12: A book you used to love, but don't anymore

The Outsiders by SE Hinton

I really loved this book when I read it  (8th grade).  But I never had any desire to read it again.  The older I got, the less sad endings I like.  BUT, I feel like this is a book that all middle schoolers should read.  I won't read it again, but it is an excellent book. If this was in the grown-up books or classics category, the book would be Wuthering Heights. 

Day 11: A book you hated

This, I think, kind of goes under the most overrated books.  Oh well.  A book I hated.  Well, let's just say that I am the type of person, that if I can't make it through the book, there's a good chance I am going to "hate" it.  

That being said, there is only one book I can recall reading all the way through when I was younger, and I had no desire at all to read it again.  That book is:  From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  

I don't recall much of the story, except I read it in 5th grade and I did not like it at all.  And, I have had no desire since reading it, to pick it up again.  So, that's the end of that.  :) 

Day 10: Favorite classic book

Ugh.. I haven't read most children's classic books, but there does come to mind one book in particular.

 
Winnie-The-Pooh by AA Milne.  I love this collection of stories.  My mom has a bunch of classic Winnie-the-Pooh collectibles, and among those are a treasury of stories by A.A. Milne.  I just love how this stuffed bear comes to life because of the love Christopher Robin has for him.  A definite "classic".  

Day 9: A book you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

 The crown prince's bride will come from Mt. Eskel, the small mountain village where Miri (dainty, petite and 14) lives with her widower father and sister.  Miri is too small and frail to work in the quarries, so she feels as though she doesn't help out much. 

In order for the crown prince to choose a bride, many of the girls are to attend an academy in order to learn to be a princess.  And Miri learns many, many things about herself and how she, in her own way, can help her family. 

Okay... seriously.  Where do I even begin with this book?  I was teaching 7th grade, and my mom, who is a former elementary school librarian/media person, called and told me she had gone to a book fair and bought some books for my classroom library. 

I was pretty excited, and when she mentioned this title, we discussed it and said it was probably good chick lit so that way the girls would want to read some of the books that I had. 

Seriously, though, I was blown out of the water with this book.  When I hear "Princess", in any phrase, I think Disney, and well, this was not Disney.  The teacher of the academy was a strict, witchy lady who looked down on the girls for their lack of education.  And Miri manages to learn so much about herself.  She doesn't want to end up with the prince, but she wants to be the top of the class to prove she can.  And in the very end, Miri not only helps save the academy from some terrible people (bandits), but she also manages to help save her village and nab the guy that she has liked for a long while.  This girl knows how to get it done!   This book completely surprised me.  I didn't think that I would like it, but I tried it, and well, I am happy to say that it's a book that I would recommend to all my students to read (especially the girls). 

Day 8: Most overrated book

Nothing but the Truth by Avi
Star Girl by Jerry Spinelli

I don't think that this has to do with any of the contents of these books.  I think is has to do solely with the author's style.  I've just never been a big fan of either of these authors.  I don't like the way they write, and although the books both ended up being better than I expected, I still ended up disappointed in the end. I think the books just started up a little slow and I never got in to them.  Or, it may just be that they're a little dry in my opinion.  Anyways, I really don't have much else to say about them. 

Day 7: Most underrated book

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman, is another book that I read in middle school, this time 7th grade.  Catherine is 14, and she lives in the medieval age.  (The year being 1290).  Her father is a minor nobleman, and she, being his daughter is to marry a suitor that her father approves of.  Unfortunately for said suitors, Catherine is a little bit of a troublemaker.  She scares off most of the suitors by playing humiliating pranks on them, while infuriating her father. 

She tells her story through the diary that she keeps, and in it are a lot of little facts and tidbits about the time period that she lived in.

I love this book.  It's funny and cute.  It has a nice resolution to the book, and I really enjoyed seeing an early feminist being portrayed, because girls like her, I hope, really did exist and didn't give in too easily to the whims of men. 

I think that this is a really underrated children's book that you really don't hear too much about. 

 

 

 

Day 6: A book that makes you sad

 I think that Katherine Paterson is an underestimated author.  I love everything that I've read by her.  And, this story is the first one that I read. I read this in my own 8th grade Language Arts class when I was 13.  After reading it, I wanted to get my own copy because I liked it so much.

Lyddie is about a young preteen girl in the middle of the Industrial Revolution who is sent to work as a maid at a tavern and later as a factory worker in a textile mill. While working at the mill, she is taken under the wing of one of the leaders working toward better working conditions.  And during her time as a factory worker she witnesses several things that are quite horrifying to a young girl, including a friend with turberculosis and having a close encounter herself while working.

I really like this book, but it is sad, because this girl, who was the same age I was when I read it, was forced to work in the factory and to try and provide for her desolate family.  She learns a lot about her self though, and eventually decides to go to college instead of giving in to her trials and problems.  It always makes me sad, though, thinking about this book and all of the problems that she had to face.  Still a favorite though.  :)