As you fellow Kindle owners predicted - I am reading more books than ever now I own the Kindle - BUT two of the books this week were read the conventional way. They were not available on Kindle so I ordered them through the library. I apologize up front for this epistle. I will give you a brief synopsis here and you can pick and choose which paragraph to read. The first one is for our book group in a month or two, the second is a book about teenage suicide that apparently the RI schools are going to put on the must read list in the next couple of years for the High Schools, the third paragraph is a children's book series, The Bobbsey Twins.
Sometime in the next couple of months "Chinese Cinderella - The Story of an unwanted daughter" by Adeline Yen Mah will be the selection for our book group. Last year my daughter Heidi gave me "Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society" to read. Ashley Halverson and I enjoyed the book very much. Ashley especially enjoyed it and was asking to re-read it the other day. I couldn't find it so I hope it has returned home. The thing that struck me is that the structure of both books is the same. So her fictional "Secret Dragon Society" was really a fantasy she had made up because she had such a miserable childhood. I was also fascinated to find out Adeline was an MD. I imagine she was a good one. "Unwanted Daughter" was a very thin book - actually shorter than "the Secret Dragon Society" I think. Anyway I finished the book in just a few hours. I am glad I read the book.
13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher is book that Pam recommended that I read. I had actually forgotten about if until I found out that it was going on many schools 'must read' lists. I decided I would read it. It is Young Adult fiction. I am not sure I would want the youth in our ward reading it though - however it is a book that I think their parents and any parents working with young adults should read. It is a book about a young woman that commits suicide. She sends out 7 tapes with both sides filled explaining why to 13 people and how they affected her decision. The protagonist, Clay, is a really nice guy and agonizes the whole time what he possibly could have done to have set her off. I was actually surprised that I finished it and I even wanted to read the book. Not only that - I finished this book in a day because I couldn't put it down. Maybe it was morbid curiosity but mostly I wanted to make sure that Clay was going to be OK. I am going to be more aware now and start watching our youth better and loving them more because of this book. I kept thinking, what if Cody, Devon or Josh received something like this and had no one they dared turn to. I want them to know they can turn to me and hopefully know their parents are there for them too.
The Bobbsey Twins were a favorite books of mine as a child. I was looking at the 'free' downloads and saw The Bobbsey Twins, Pollyanna and so many other books that I had always wanted to read. So I downloaded 13 Bobbsey Twin books for 99 cents and had a really good time for the about the first 5 and then it depended on the author whether I enjoyed the book or not. Laura Lee Hope is a pen-name made up by the original publishing company that came up with the idea for the Bobbsey Twins in 1904. When Grosset and Dunlap bought that company out in 1940 they just kept the concept going and wrote books into the 60's. Of the four 'original authors' there was one that made Freddie and Flossie (the younger twins) imbecilic in their antics and attitudes and that to me made it hard to read. They also made Freddie a little rebellious. If he was told not to do something - quite frequently that just set him up to do it anyway. I guess I really don't like disobedient children. This is why I REALLY had a hard time with Seth in Fablehaven. I don't like children that deliberately over and over do not listen and follow the rules. I know that all children do little things without thinking but Freddie was doing things like being told to 'stay right there and NOT get on the subway' because they were in New York and it was a strange city. He did anyway. Then when the guard found him at the end of the subway line, he told Freddie to sit and wait for his parents, Freddie wandered off again! He was told not hang over the edge of the banister at the big aquarium several times by his father (in the same book) or he would fall in. His father even pointed out the sign that said not to do that. So Freddie does it again and falls in. Page after page is what I didn't like. So when I happened on that author (which was 2 more times) I just read the first paragraph and the last of every chapter until the last two chapters. Amazing how much you can glean that way. I am glad I got those out of my system but as for reading to your children - DO IT. They will love them. They are all available at Barnes and Noble online or Amazon (or if you have a Kindle, download them and read them from that to you children one at a time for free!) The Bobbsey Twins of Lakeport is a reprint of 1904 edition and the first one but was updated several times to be more timely through the 20th century (and now the 21st). I think children will find Freddie's antics funny and not annoying like I did.
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