I like emotional things and Nova Rocks is very emotional.
Nova tells a story that she wrote. Her story's point of view is a nice touch to this book. I liked it.
It's about a girl named Nova who loves to shop at a mall named Mallorama and she has a sister named Venus. There is a library in the Mallorama where Nova works for extra credit at school.
At home, Nova does ballet but she loves to play the guitar. Her mom thinks that Nova likes ballet but she really doesn't. Nova's tries to tell her mom that she doesn't like ballet anymore, but she is afraid that her mom's feelings will be hurt. Instead Nova wants to ask her mom for guitar lessons, but won't.
This book is good because it wasn't too short and it's about a girl who I can relate to. I liked when Nova finally tells her mom about not liking ballet. That part created a really good picture in my head. I also liked the part when Nova and Yumi were giggling on the floor. The author, Tea Emesse, uses unusual and interesting words to describe this scene.
Nova Rocks is a good book. Nova Rocks is interesting, weird and sometimes sad. Someone said Nova Rocks is "Laugh Out Loud Funny". I agree~
Tea Emesse's, Nova Rocks gets 3 1/2 PAGES!
By Rowan
(Age 9)
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
What's Lost: The Book of TIme
It took me fifteen pages of frustration to start wondering what editor thought to acquire The Book of Time by Guillaume Prevost. As it turned out, the book does improve over time. But luckily for for me, my initial frustration at the writer's stale prose, elucidated something: this book is a translation. Not to say that is the key to why I didn't like the Book of Time, but it may explain a few certain things that I think got lost in translation- excuse the pun.
The Book of Time, by Guillaume Prevost, is about one boy, Sam, whose father occasionally goes missing after the death of his wife. Fourteen year old Sam is on a mission to discover his father's whereabouts, when he stumbles upon a small stone sculpture and is accidentally transferred to Colm Cille, some part of merry old U.K. What ensues are scenes of laughable disbelief and discomfort as Sam comes to grips with the fact that he is no longer in modern day Canada.
To say the first 1/3 of this book was a bad attempt at pulling the reader in with formulaic false starts, may be a bit steep but warrants consideration. It must be noted, however, that the beginning is not at all reflective of the middle and end of the story. That's a good thing. The story doesn't really pick up until Sam gets to Egypt where the description is vivid and the world and characters come to life as you read.
What I meant by writing something got lost (or I hope I meant) in translation, is the depth of emotion from the main character. Sam is starving and only his stomach growls. He isn't irritated. He isn't thinking about food constantly. It would have been interesting for the writer to have Sam respond more wholistically to the situations he was faced with. It's possible that, as the words were taken from their french origin, all those lovely adjectives and adverbs got lost. I can only guess, but I will give the author the benefit of the doubt, here.
What I do put at the doorstep of the author, is the extreme coincidences of the plot. OK- I'll write off Sam's unquestioning acceptance of his situations as more missing adjectives. Still, even kids question coincidence, espeically so many recurring coincidences. How much more excited I would have been, had the author shaped his main character to be inquisitive about all the unusual coincidences. Well, a story once published... I guess.
Needless to say, I suggest borrowing this book from the library. Guillaume Prevost's Book of Time gets no more than 2 PAGES.
The Book of Time, by Guillaume Prevost, is about one boy, Sam, whose father occasionally goes missing after the death of his wife
To say the first 1/3 of this book was a bad attempt at pulling the reader in with formulaic false starts, may be a bit steep but warrants consideration. It must be noted, however, that the beginning is not at all reflective of the middle and end of the story. That's a good thing. The story doesn't really pick up until Sam gets to Egypt where the description is vivid and the world and characters come to life as you read.
What I meant by writing something got lost (or I hope I meant) in translation, is the depth of emotion from the main character. Sam is starving and only his stomach growls. He isn't irritated. He isn't thinking about food constantly. It would have been interesting for the writer to have Sam respond more wholistically to the situations he was faced with. It's possible that, as the words were taken from their french origin, all those lovely adjectives and adverbs got lost. I can only guess, but I will give the author the benefit of the doubt, here.
What I do put at the doorstep of the author, is the extreme coincidences of the plot. OK- I'll write off Sam's unquestioning acceptance of his situations as more missing adjectives. Still, even kids question coincidence, espeically so many recurring coincidences. How much more excited I would have been, had the author shaped his main character to be inquisitive about all the unusual coincidences. Well, a story once published... I guess.
Needless to say, I suggest borrowing this book from the library. Guillaume Prevost's Book of Time gets no more than 2 PAGES.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
How the Seems Seem (3 and 1/2 of 5 pages)
I often avoid reading books of collaboration as a rule. In fact, as of three weeks ago I had yet to read a book which I felt showcased the creative perks of multi-authored stories. But as I was given a copy of The Seems and asked to read it for review, it seemed the Powers That Be wanted me to give multi- authored books another chance.
The Seems is a young adult (YA) novel about a twelve year old boy (Becker) who stumbles upon a "fantastic" job opportunity to keep the world a better place-- literally. Six months after filling out a job application for the "best job in the world" young Becker is recruited to work in the world that maintains our own. This world, "The Seems" is run like a big conglomerate corporation with its various departments such as the Department of Time, the Human Resources Department, and ultimately the Department of Sleep. These and other departments function as a whole with an executive branch and all, to fabricate every experience of our world, from the smell of eggs and toast in the morning to the snores coming out of our mouths at night and the beautiful sunsets in between.
But on occasion, something happens, an anomaly that makes this "seemless" system hiccup: A Glitch. In the movie "Matrix" they called this anomaly "The One", aka Neo. Well Neo isn't the world's liberator in this story. The Glitch is an ugly son of a bug who lives to create havoc and chaos in both worlds. The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, the many years of the Depression, your insomnia two nights ago? You have the Glitch to blame for that.
Which is where our hero comes in. Twelve year old, Becker Drane is a human trained in locating and fixing hiccups in the Seems. Written as if he were 36 not 12, Becker doesn't remind me at all of my years as a youth. His perceptions of the world reflect none of the innocence that is at the heart of any YA character. For all intensive purposes, Becker Drane is a man stuck in a twelve-year-old's body.
What is wonderfully attractive about this book is the world of the Seems. Hulme and Wexler have built a kid's fantasy world, where the most important jobs can be given to those that are often written off as inexperienced or worse, ignorant: children. YA's will love imagining all the various silly tools the hero uses in his travels and will feel the rush of adrenaline as Becker is kidnapped by Bed Bugs and forced to live out his greatest nightmare. Unfortunately, our YA's may also miss out on major chunks of subtle humor used to add complexity to the book such as jabs at the white collar industry that sends out standardized job applicant "Thank you" letters or footnotes that sound like well-written Mike Meyers lines in "Shrek" and its sequels. What works in the movies, comes up lacking in books partly because only one person at a time can fully enjoy a book. Reading a story is not a communal activity. My laughs as I read from one page to the next are not contagious to my daughter who has no idea of the pictures in my head. The humor one gets from books can not be transferred from those that know to those that don't.
Ultimately, however, the Seems is a well written and creative, if not completely original piece of YA fiction which, like the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" or "Donnie Darko" may create its own unique following of readers as the years go by. 3 1/2 PAGES for the Seems by John Hulme and Michael Wexler.
The Seems is a young adult (YA) novel about a twelve year old boy (Becker) who stumbles upon a "fantastic" job opportunity to keep the world a better place-- literally. Six months after filling out a job application for the "best job in the world" young Becker is recruited to work in the world that maintains our own. This world, "The Seems" is run like a big conglomerate corporation with its various departments such as the Department of Time, the Human Resources Department, and ultimately the Department of Sleep. These and other departments function as a whole with an executive branch and all, to fabricate every experience of our world, from the smell of eggs and toast in the morning to the snores coming out of our mouths at night and the beautiful sunsets in between.
But on occasion, something happens, an anomaly that makes this "seemless" system hiccup: A Glitch. In the movie "Matrix" they called this anomaly "The One", aka Neo. Well Neo isn't the world's liberator in this story. The Glitch is an ugly son of a bug who lives to create havoc and chaos in both worlds. The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, the many years of the Depression, your insomnia two nights ago? You have the Glitch to blame for that.
Which is where our hero comes in. Twelve year old, Becker Drane is a human trained in locating and fixing hiccups in the Seems. Written as if he were 36 not 12, Becker doesn't remind me at all of my years as a youth. His perceptions of the world reflect none of the innocence that is at the heart of any YA character. For all intensive purposes, Becker Drane is a man stuck in a twelve-year-old's body.
What is wonderfully attractive about this book is the world of the Seems. Hulme and Wexler have built a kid's fantasy world, where the most important jobs can be given to those that are often written off as inexperienced or worse, ignorant: children. YA's will love imagining all the various silly tools the hero uses in his travels and will feel the rush of adrenaline as Becker is kidnapped by Bed Bugs and forced to live out his greatest nightmare. Unfortunately, our YA's may also miss out on major chunks of subtle humor used to add complexity to the book such as jabs at the white collar industry that sends out standardized job applicant "Thank you" letters or footnotes that sound like well-written Mike Meyers lines in "Shrek" and its sequels. What works in the movies, comes up lacking in books partly because only one person at a time can fully enjoy a book. Reading a story is not a communal activity. My laughs as I read from one page to the next are not contagious to my daughter who has no idea of the pictures in my head. The humor one gets from books can not be transferred from those that know to those that don't.
Ultimately, however, the Seems is a well written and creative, if not completely original piece of YA fiction which, like the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" or "Donnie Darko" may create its own unique following of readers as the years go by. 3 1/2 PAGES for the Seems by John Hulme and Michael Wexler.
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