It's Monday - Time To Share!

"Reading gives us a place to go when we have to stay where we are."

           Every Monday, different bloggers link up with Jen at TeachMentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders. and Sheila at Book Journeys.to share books they've recently read. You'll discover so many great books.  Come visit, and tweet at #IMWAYR. Thanks to Jen, Kellee, and Ricki for hosting!

Ready Player One - by Ernest Cline 

        It's taken me a long time to finish this book, and only because I had so many other things to do. It is long, and definitely for young adults. I read it because numerous students continued to say how much they loved it, and that they had read it more than once. I must say I didn't ever want to stop, and I'm also sure that I didn't understand quite a few of the references to eighties video games. It's a futuristic story told in first person by a young teen who is immersed in the Oasis, a virtual world created by a former video game creater, James Halliday. The plot begins with a description of how the boy, Parzival (the avatar name) or Wade (his real name) lives with a not-so-friendly aunt in a place named the stacks, where old trailers are staked and jimmied together for those who need shelter, but space isn't available except "up". It sounds like a junkyard, or a most depressing warren of dwellings, and this world is not very pleasant, and at least it's a place "inside". Parzival also has a hideout where he logs into Oasis, is in touch with specific other characters, soon to be his friends and compadres, all through this virtual adventure. It doesn't stop moving, it has some mature language and subject matter, but Cline has introduced a new kind of hero, a smart gamer who at the end faces big challenges and has a love challenge, too. I enjoyed it.

              

Special Delivery - written by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by Matthew Cordell

               I loved the craziness of this book, glad to have read it just to read something lighter than a YA book I was currently reading. A little girl, Sadie, wants to do something nice for her 

grandmother, whom she says is lonely. She decides to send her an elephant, but encounters quite a few obstacles along the way. It would take too many stamps, the postman tells her, and too much fuel for the airplane when Sadie asks a pilot to fly her (and the elephant). Finally she does settle on a good idea for transportation, but I'll let you discover what the ending is like-fun surprises. Matthew Cordell's beautiful water color illustrations with black outlining are full of whimsy and silliness. It's a fun and imagined adventure!

Next: In addition to writing all my evaluations this week, starting Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan.