Friday 26 October 2012

More on DUST

More on Dust, by Arthur Slade.  

I read a set of 10 texts for an assignment for my middle years ELA course this term.  My focus was on immigration, and one of the books I picked was called Andrei and the Snow Walker (which I will write about another day).  I was checking out a review in CM Magazine and the author suggested that the book Dust was a much better read if you wanted to read a good book about life on the prairies. 

I don't agree at all.  Each has a completely different focus -- I wouldn't compare the two in terms of prairie life of the past -- although each have elements of magic interspersed with historical fiction. The book has excellent descriptions of prairie life in the depression.   If you like your historical stories spiced up with the unbelievable and magical, you'll enjoy Dust.  It's set in the dust bowl of 1930s Saskatchewan; it has an evil villain who has obvious links with the devil; people are captivated by a belief that everything will get better if they follow a mesmerizing peron's bidding; a boy is kidnapped; another boy, his older brother is pivotal to the rescue of the entire town (spoiler alert... oops).

I want to project something onto this story -- why else would the author mix historical realism with magical fantasy?  Maybe there's a link with the prairie prophets of the 1920s and 1930s --  William Aberhardt, the Baptist preacher who lead the Social Credit party, might be some short of opposite model for the man who tried to convince the entire town to follow his particular vision.   I'm not sure of the reasons for mixing the two -- creativity?  A way to show how two styles can work together?  I don't know if I'm fond of this particular method, but I did find the descriptions of life in Depression-era prairies very well written. The main character, a boy named Robert, is smart and wise, and you want him to solve the mystery of the missing younger brother.

by Brigitte (mom)

Sunday 21 October 2012

Sketches

Sketches

Author: Eric Walters
Publisher:


Sketches is a book about a girl named Dana and her friends Brent and Ashely, but they aren't normal children. They live on the streets of New York.

Dana ran away from her house because of horrible stuff between her, and her step dad. She hopped on a bus and then another and another to get away. That night, she slept on the floor behind a locker in a warehouse. When she woke up, her backpack was stolen. Then all she had was her clothes and her wallet.

The story sketches is about how Dana and her friends deal with the problems of being on the streets and about the problems with her step dad. I rate this book 8 out of 10.

By Kai



Dust

By Arthur Slade.

Mom and I each plan to review this book before we discuss it with each other.

Matthew Steelgate can't wait to go to town to buy candie, his mom really wanted Robert to go help him, however Robert doesn't feel the need. Robert wants to stay home and read too, when Matthew gets abducted, Robert can't help but think that it was his fault.

 A new stranger has showed up in town, and bought and refurbished the abandoned theatre. His name is Abram. Who is this Abram? Why would he move to a town where there is nothing but dust and dashed hopes? Is there a connection between other abductions in nearby Regina and Matthew's abduction?

As the book progresses magical things start to happen. People seem to be hypnotized and fall asleep at certain times. Abram makes a machine that can make rain, it is called a rain mill. Soon the town is green and there is hope for this years crops, but the greenness is only around the town, people in other towns still have their hopes and dreams dashed, because they haven't had rain in years. When Abram gives a lesson on butterflies at the school, everyone has dreams of butterflies especially a big one that tries to make them come with her.

Worst of all Robert's parents have almost forgotten about Matthew, and Robert feels the need to investigate further. The ending is fast paced with a surprisingly mythical conclusion.

Dust is an interesting read, if a little slow during the beginning and middle of the book. I would give this book a 7 out of 10. During the beginning, I would not have thought this book to be mythical. A good read I would suggest it readers who like reading, as I said before it is not fast paced.                        

Gabriel (son)

Monday 8 October 2012

Insurgent

By Veronica Roth

Prelude:

In what appears to be a post apocalyptic world,  a new society has sprung up. The new society is divided up into five factions. Each believes in it's own virtue, each lives by it's own virtue. Candor, the honest, Abnegation the selfless, Dauntless the brave, Amity the peaceful, and Erudite the intelligent. However on one day one choice decides your future, in an almost cruel way, and if you can't decide or are incompetent or fail the initiation into your new faction you join the factionless, the outcasts of society.

We meet up with our hero Tris Prior struggling with guilt from what she did during the Erudite attack on the rest of society. Missing her parents, and wondering if she is doing things right she runs into relationship problems, all the while having to make choices, that cause her even more grief and guilt. Even though she is Divergent she soon has to start worrying about the simulations and how she might not be in control of them and herself the next time the head of Erudite Jeanine decides to accomplish something in that sick way of hers. With her relationship problems growing worse, Jeanine manages to guilt Tris into coming to Erudite headquarters to be experimented on so that Erudite can improve the simulations and make even the Divergent susceptible to the simulations.

After a big escape from an unexpected source Tris realizes that life is important, and that she wants to live it. Tris soon finds out why Erudite attacked everyone, it wasn't for power. Abnegation had been trusted with information that Jeanine wanted to protect. She didn't think the entire society was ready for it. So after a big fight where the resistance army plans to destroy Erudite and their information, Erudite crumbles.

Tris knowing that the army will be ruthless and destroy all the information says that she is not emotionally and psychologically ready to attend the battle but, instead sneaks into the Erudite compound during the assault and tries to find the information with a couple of other people. Confronting her fears and having to use her Divergence she gets caught by her own army, and worse, she can deal with the army but she is also caught by her boyfriend making her relationship problems unbearable. Labeled a traitor she talks one last time to Tobias her boyfriend and manages to sort out their problems and gets him to find the information. Finally a win for Tris.

Roth was able to finally towards the end of the book make her negative book a positive one. I was able to predict most of what would happen in the next chapters, again and again. But I did not guess the ending, the truth about the apocalyptic world and human nature rocks the book to its core. I suggest that you read this book, the ending to me was worth 500 hundred pages of stalling, and Roth has opened the story for another book. I predict there will be a third novel better than the first and second combined. I would suggest this book and especially the first book (Divergent) to grade 7 and 8 readers, and of course anyone older. This book has some violence in it. I really liked it a Insurgent a lot, especially the ending.

By Gabriel (son)

Stand Your Ground


Stand Your Ground is about a kid named Jonathan. Jonathan isn't a normal boy because his dad is a con-artist. So what do you do when your dad has a mob of angry people after him? You lay low at your grandparents, who you've only met at your mom's funeral.

Stand Your Ground is about a man and a 14 year old teenager learning about each other's differences.
One trained to be a con-artist, the other an old Dutch wood worker. Jonathan thinks that his dad will come pick him up right away so he starts scamming kids. Eventually he makes friends with his Grandfather who helps him get a job to pay off the scammed kids, and in the end it all comes down to staying with his grandparents, or going on with his dad.

I strongly suggest you read this great novel by Eric Walters.

By Kai


Author: Eric Walters
Publisher: Stoddart Publishers

Dusty Winds Of Impact

Survival, courage, friendships, and the Resilience of the Human spirit...

Dusty Winds Of Impact
L.C. Plischke

When a a broken up asteroid strikes different parts of the planet, three teens must unite to find their way back to Winnipeg from downtown Toronto. Staying at a hotel in Toronto, Darian, Alexa, and Skyler have accompanied Skyler's father on a business trip. (Darian and Alexa Cruz are siblings). But when a meteor hits just east of Toronto the teens have to find if Skylers' dad is alive, because he will know how to survive, and get them safely back to Winnipeg, and out of severely destroyed Toronto.

However he is not, and they manage to find a working cellphone to call Winnipeg and see if Darian, and Alexa's parents are still alive, and see how Winnipeg is faring. The lucky teens now have a purpose and eventually through different modes of transport manage to get to Winnipeg, only to find that Darian, and Alexa's mother is on her death bed, due to possible internal injuries. To top it all off their father has left to Toronto to find the three of them. The next day their mother dies but she has a plan to ensure their survival. Skyler, Alexa, Darian, Sebastian, and Nikkita (Darian and Alexa's two younger siblings that they are reunited with) are to go to Mexico where the Cruz family have Grand Parents. Mexico has been hit very little by the asteroid and still has a government. The story ends when the Cruz family, reunited save for dad who's whereabouts are unknown and Skylar, begin their journey to Mexico, towards family, and to safety.

I give this book a 6.5 out of ten. The book has a staggering amount of grammatical issues and spelling mistakes, and somethings just jump in from nowhere. Making me think who is that, when did that happen? I would suggest this book for a strong mature grade five reader and up because of some parental control issues. I think this would be a good class read for grade six and sevens, especially if you teach in a Canadian school.

All in all, it was a nice quick read and I did enjoy it a lot.

Reviewed by Gabriel (son)

Saturday 29 September 2012

The Fire Within

Author     Chris D'Lacey

Publisher     Scholastic inc.



 This book  is the first out of a trilogy. I had never heard of it until my mom brought the second book home. A couple of days later I was in a Thrift store looking for books when I came across the first one, so I bought it to try it out.

 It is about a young college student, who when looking for a place to stay, found a single mother(Liz)  and daughter(Lucy) with a free room. The mother is a potter to sculpts clay dragons. The girl, likes animals, but especially squirrels, so when David, the young college student agrees to help Lucy find a certain squirrel, it leads him not just to find the squirrel but to find more and more questions about dragons and their fire within.

D'Lacey is very good at describing the scene and he makes the characters sound like they've come out of a English  family home.  I found this book funny and really well written.



By K. (son)

Sunday 23 September 2012

WORD NERD

Take a twelve year old male with a peanut allergy, give him an odd name (Ambrose), an overprotective mother, a father who died before he was born, add a tale of woe with 3 horrid adolescent males in the school and bang, you've got E-T-O-L-B-R-U ... a 7 letter word.  You'll figure it out.

Ambrose is likeable.  His mother isn't.  Ambrose needs to get a life, because mom keeps pulling him away from life.  She's keeping him safe.  So when she removes him from school because she's scared for his life, he has to take matters into his own hands or die of something other than a peanut allergy. 

O-E-D-M-O-B-R

Ambrose taking things into his own hands means he makes a few unlikely friends (ex-con, older landlords, Scrabble club), learns about life (winning and losing), and takes a huge risk in order to keep what he's finally got -- the ability to figure out who he is.

Author:  Susin Nielsen
Publisher:  Tundra Books

Reviewed by Brigitte, mom

Saturday 15 September 2012

Why are we doing this?

The Wiebe Roberts family are all avid readers, so we have decided to start documenting what we've read in the form of reviews. In doing so we hope to help you find a book to have a pleasurable reading experience. We also hope that you write in with comments telling what you thought about a certain book. One of us will post a review as soon as we are done reading a book or series.