Book Reviews

I am going to catch up on my reviews for my 888 list.  I have a whopping two books completed, but I’d rather not get too far behind.  I have already commented about The Goose Girl here, but Anne has been asking for more details, so I am going to oblige.  I will also include a review here about Just David.

I will start out by saying that I enjoyed The Goose Girl, but I really wanted to love it.  The premise was very interesting to me.  It is about a princess (Ani) who was born “with a word on her tongue” and did not open her eyes for three days because she was trying to figure it out.   The tale reveals her process of coming to discover what that “word” was.  The story was well written and very engaging.  As I mentioned before, I had a hard time putting it down.  A lot of people have said that they had a hard time getting into the book, but that was not my problem.  I loved Ani’s relationship with nature and how that developed from the beginning.  The book became less compelling for me the longer it went on.  My big fall-out with the book occurred towards the end when out of nowhere someone tells a story about the women who go to war with their husbands and end up getting naked to spur their husbands on to victory.  It seemed so out of place with the rest of the book.  I had a hard time enjoying the rest of the book and the ending felt forced and unsatisfactory.  Like I said, I wanted to love it, but I didn’t.  To quote from my previous post, “it was a fun story, the kind that is easy to loose yourself in.  It was light, but adventurous, slightly thought provoking, but didn’t require too much brain power, and romantic” but it was wanting something for me.  A great book always leaves me reveling in it for days, this book just left me.

Now for Just David. Again, I have already mentioned this book here, but I will give you the complete review now.  As I said in that post, “ The book is about a ten year old boy who has been raised in the mountains by his father.”  He teaches him to “play” the beauty he finds in the world on his violin, and only exposes him to things that are beautiful and good.  He teaches him that he has a “great work” to do in the world, and the story is about David’s attempt to discover what that work is.  I loved this book.  It was a very simple, story.  It was written more for older children, but the message in it was so pure and uplifting.  It made me want to be a better person, and a better parent.  It was touching and insightful.  I will admit that it was rather predictable in the end, but the message made up for that, for me.  This is a book that I would highly recommend, and is on my list for a future family read-aloud. 

Well, now that that’s done, I have about 8 other books I am in the middle of reading, so hopefully I will have some more reviews soon.  

Happy Reading!