Thursday, December 29, 2005

It's not my fault - It was shiny!


I always meant to read Esme Raji Codell's Educating Esme, but I never got around to it, so when this book with it's sparkly cover came across my path, well, I just had to. I'm a fish like that. I'm all of 30 pages in, and I had doubts for the first 15 or so, but once I realized that she's playing with established fairy tales, I was all in. So far, so good!

UPDATE 12/31/05 1:15pm
I read some review somewhere (probably when I stole the cover image) that this book was "uneven." I won't disagree, but I don't think that is really the point. In my admittedly unimportant opinion, when books are written for this demographic (girls ages 8-12)it is sometimes more important that they are reading and enjoying doing so. That is what this is. It is entertaining. It is not great literature, but it is exposure to the concept that well-known material can be shaped into something entirely different. Besides, sometimes great literature is boring. Really boring. (Oh, and there was a groovy list of witchy books in the back and that makes me happy. I like lists. Well, as long as they aren't lists of things I have to do. Of those lists I'm not such a big fan. I also like glue sticks, but that's another, non drug-related story.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was shiny? Boy, you really are one of those people that judges books by their cover. Don't worry, I'm totally one of those people too. :)

Anonymous said...

Caw! Shiny!

Ms. Yingling said...

Girls who are being forced to read fantasy when they would much rather be reading Louise Rennison LOVE this book. They will read it because... it has a shiny cover! Good call. I have no major complaints with this one!