nomadreader

Summary:   The Graveyard Book  by Neil Gaiman is the story of Bod, a boy who was orphaned as a baby when his parents and older sister were murdered. He escaped to the cemetery, where he lives and is able to see the ghosts who dwell there.  Review: The Graveyard Book  is both dark and funny, which is a difficult combination to achieve, but Gaiman does. Bod is smart, and given his interactions with dead people from hundreds of years, he was a fantastic grasp of history, the history of language and customs. All the ghosts speak and act in the manners of their times. The mystery was compelling, even for me as an adult reader. The story is accessible, but isn't elementary. I adored The Graveyard Book , and I think it has the crossover appeal for teens and adults the Harry Potter books do.  Award:   winner of the 2009 Newbery Medal (I'm ready for the 2010 Newbery Medal announcement now!) Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5 stars) Pages: 320 pages Publication da...

The Night Tourist is a mesmerizing tale of Jack Perdu , a fourteen-year-old Classics prodigy (seriously, he's helping a Yale professor translate Ovid's Metamorphosis ) who takes a mysterious trip into New York City's underworld. Jack isn't initially sure if he's live or dead, but he meets Yuri, a definitely dead young girl who becomes his tour guide. Jack's goal is to find his mother, who died years ago. The novel is part adventure, part ode to New York (perhaps my favorite city in the entire world), and part reinvention of a classical myth. It is a beautiful, engaging tale of friendship and the level of magic Marsh creates rivals the Harry Potter universe. While it is not rare for me to delight and enjoy a children's book, it is rare for me to forget I'm reading a children's book. The Night Tourist is so thoroughly engaging, any adult reader (especially sci- fi and fantasy fans) would love it. Despite being filled with intrigue, humor and fun, it...

I read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in the summer of 2000. I remember liking it more than Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone . After rereading it, I was thrilled with the level of suspense and storytelling. I did, indeed, enjoy it more than the first book in the series. I appreciated Rowling's building on seemingly superfluous events and characters from the first book and transforming them into major plot pieces. Rating: 4 stars (really liked it) Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge, Support Your Local Library, Young Adult

I'm on a quest to re/read all of the Harry Potter books. I started reading Harry Potter the month before the fourth book came out, and I was spoiled. By the time the fifth book came out a year later, I didn't remember what was happening, and I didn't even finish it. Now that all seven are out, I'm rededicated to my efforts. I thoroughly enjoyed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone , even though I still maintain the first fifty pages are unnecessarily slow and depressing. Once Harry gets to Hogwarts, the story really comes alive, and I enjoyed the story much more this time than I remember enjoying it last time. Perhaps because I had more realistic expectations going in. When I first read it, I was expecting the greatest children's book ever written. It's really good, and at times it's great, but I don't think the books themselves are brilliant. J.K. Rowling is brilliant, and the world she created is mesmerizing. She's a good storyteller, but ther...