Category: reading

Posted on

The Book Thief – A Book Review

The Book Thief
By Markus Zusak

The Book Thief, set in a small German town  during the 2nd World War, tells the story of a young girl Leisel Meminger. It opens with her being taken to a foster home along with her brother. On the way her brother dies and has to be buried. That’s where Leisel steals her first book – A Gravedigger’s Handbook. She preserves it as the last link to her family even though she cannot read.

With the help of her gentle foster father, Hans, she learns to read falling in love with the written word. The book talks of her journey as she grows into an aggressive yet sensitive, football playing, boy bashing, book loving girl.

As the war progresses Hans gives shelter to a Jew Max, and Leisel strikes up a wonderful relationship with him. Max strengthens her friendship with the written word.

During the bombings Leisel passes time and comforts the townsfolk by reading in the underground shelter. She spends time writing in her own basement and that is what saves her life.

As a rule I dislike ‘sad’ books with no happily ever after. This one turns out to be an exception. If I had to describe The Book Thief in one word I’d call it ‘unusual’. It took me the first few pages to realise the story is a first person account by ‘Death’. It is Death who labels Leisel the book thief while turning out to be a book thief himself.

The other thing that I liked about the book was the non-Jew perspective of the War. I’ve read many books on the 2nd World War (there’s something fascinating about a single small man taking on the world) but most have been from a Jewish perspective. That many non-Jew Germans hated and dreaded the war as much, that they hated Hitler with the same intensity, made for a refreshing read.

Lastly, I loved the way the book is written. At the start of each chapter Death gives a summary, spilling all the suspense, telling you how the chapter will unfold. Which author has the courage to do that? To play his own spoilsport? This one does. And Death makes for a wonderful narrator – witty and garrulous and with a bit of a heart too.

The Book Thief certainly doesn’t have a ‘happily ever after’. How can it when Death is the tale spinner? However barely anywhere does it come across as a sad-depressing-heavy story. Maybe it is because of the strain of humour runs through the book or that it has a lively protagonist in Leisel – I cannot say. But it certainly doesn’t pull you down. 

All I’ll say is – Give it a read.

PS: It’s a free online read.

Linking to Write Tribe’s super initiative ‘7 days of rediscovering your blogging grove’ where we blog seven days in a row according to a format. The idea is inspired by Darren Rowse. Today, on Day 3, we had to ‘Write a Review’.

For more reviews hop across to the Write Tribe blog.

Posted on

Dragons and giants at the book club

Come Saturday and it was the second meeting of The Book Club. Since our last story was about a dragon we kicked off with a craft activity – making a dragon out of paper cups. It was fun if a little chaotic, but the kids seem to thrive on the confusion.

Hard at work

This is what they looked like.. Not very ‘scary dragonish’ but dragons nonetheless. As one of the kids put it, ‘It doesn’t need to look scary since the dragon of our story was a nice one.’ Which was of course undebatable!

 

I have to add that N behaved perfectly while H was as much trouble as possible. Twice I turned him out and twice I took him back in. 

Story of the week

The story for the day was The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde. The older kids were thrilled because apparently they were doing it in school too. Like last time, they were all eager to read, which is suprising since I thought that would be too much like school and they wouldn’t like it. Rather than an exercise in reading it turned out to be an exercise in patience as they waited for their turn. 
Over chips and biscuits we dealt with some interesting words. We took turns trying to talk in a ‘gruff’ voice like a giant. We discussed the difference between frost and snow. The kids wanted to know what hail was too. One of the girls wondered what a peach looked like and because we happened to have one it was seen and duly appreciated. The demand for more chips was firmly declined because often mouths were found to be too full to read!

Then we stumbled upon some similes and metaphors and so we talked about them. Here’s how the kids figured out the difference.
Simile: H is as naughty as a monkey.
Metaphor: H is a monkey.

So his naughtiness wasn’t in vain after all!

We had barely done half the story and it was way past our stipulated time of one hour so it was a wrap.

For next week..

Activity on The Selfish Giant

I’m at a bit of a loss on this. I thought we could maybe…
1. Make a ‘perfect garden’ diorama together. However, it’s the ‘together’ that might pose problems unless I plan and allocate tasks.
2. Or maybe they could make their own gardens out of playdough but that would involve arranging for boxes. I definitely do not want to pressure the mums at home.
3. Or we could do something on winter fruits and flowers.
What do you think? Which one should I go with? Do drop a line if you can think of anything else to do with giants, winter, selfishness, gardens. I’m hoping I can figure something out till the next meeting.


The story for next week

…is almost decided – The Happy Prince. Another one from Oscar Wilde. Maybe I can tell them a bit about the author too then. Or, if Amazon obliges, I’ll take up We the Children of India by Leila Seth. This one is suggested by my sister. Thank you S.
Huge thanks to all of you too for your suggestions from last week. I’m already on the lookout for a story that can be acted out like Cathy suggested. Uma, special thanks to you. Pratham books has some great titles as well as Art Tales. Sangeetha those quizzes are a great idea but I’m keeping them for later. For a month at least the focus is completely on having fun. Taking baby steps.
Posted on

Starting a book club

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, often something good stems from something not so good.

N plays every evening with a bunch of girls. Since it’s a mixed crowd across age groups, they often end up simply ‘hanging’ out much like teenagers : chatting, arguing and sometimes fighting, often ending in tears for at least one of them.

Many times I have tried to make peace but convincing a group of 11- 12 year olds to give up prejudices, however temporary, is hard. After N came home on two consecutive days crying since the girls had ‘boycotted’ her for some reason I decided to do something about it. In no way am I implying she’s always a victim. I am sure there are days she’s at the other end too.

I’ve often shared here, how I’ve been trying to get the kids to take to reading and also that that I’ve had little success.

I’d been toying with the idea of a book club for a long time and I thought it would be a great diversion for the girls. It would give them something constructive to think about and talk about. And so The Book Club was born and inaugurated this Saturday, without any fanfare, I might add!

Here’s the plan

1. The children meet each Saturday for an hour. They get a story to read which they have to finish till the next meeting.
2. Since none of them are into heavy reading, it shall be short stories first. If the story is too long it’ll be broken up into parts. Or we’ll take up excerpts.
3. When we meet the following Saturday we’ll talk about the book.
– one of the kids will do a short recap.
– we’ll pick some tricky words to talk about.
– pick some characters to discuss – their favourite ones, what they liked or didn’t like
– we’ll discuss alternative endings or anything else that takes our fancy
4. And – this one’s purely to keep the kids hooked – we’ll do an activity based on the book. It could be drawing a scene from the book, or acting out a sequence, or dressing up like the characters.
5. Oh and one last thing to keep the kids coming – there’ll be some snacks too!!

We’ll have a few rules

… For what’s a club without rules?
1. Read the book before you come to the meeting
2. No interruptions. Raise your hand if you do have to interrupt.
3. Listen to each speaker
4. Address the group not individuals.
5. Be polite
6. Any problem? Suggestions. Do discuss. 
(I find the stories too long, too short, too simple, too tough. 
I have exams I will not be able to read the story.)
7. If you cannot come to a meeting let us know in advance.

So this Saturday we had our first meeting

Since it was the first class and the kids hadn’t been given a story I asked them to draw a scene from their favourite story and let the others guess what it was. We had a Mermaid, a Rapunzel, a Cinderella, A Red Riding Hood, an Alice in Wonderland and even a Supandi.
Then I gave them the story for the next week. A simple one called ‘The Dragon Rock’ (I have to keep H enthused also, you see). Since we had time I got each of the kids to read a paragraph from the story. They had so much fun that we might make book reading a regular feature.
I am keeping it an open exercise as of now because I don’t know what the kids will like. I don’t even know if they’ll keep coming but I sure as hell am going to try.

 

On next week’s agenda

..is a craft activity : Making a dragon
and a brand new story.

Now here’s where I need your help… 

This is a first for me and I’m pretty much on my own so I’m hoping you guys can be my sounding board. 
1. If you have any tips about book clubs do let me know.

2. If you can think of book related activities drop me a line.

3. If you know of any short stories that would appeal to the age group of 6-12 ping me please, specially ones from other cultures – Chinese folk tales or Russian stories. I’m leaving out Panchatantra and other Indian stories since the kids might have read them and the novelty factor is essential to keep them hooked. Links would be hugely appreciated since I can print out the stories.
Posted on

Z is for Zadie Smith

Born 1975
From the age of 5 to 15 Zadie Smith wanted to be an actress. She was pretty good at tap dancing and dreamt of starring in a musical. By the time she was in her mid teens she realised there were hardly any musicals being made and decided to part with that dream. And then writing happened.

She was born in London to a British father and Jamaican mother who migrated to Britain in 1969. She was christened Sadie Smith. At 14 she changed her name to Zadie. Interestingly a love for music runs in the family as two of her younger brothers are rappers.

Her debut

… was the stuff of fairy tales. At the University while studying English Literature she published a few short stories for a collection of new student writing called Mays Anthology. A publisher read those stories and offered her a contract for her first book, which made her go in search of a literary agent. Seems like a dream debut, doesn’t it? 
On the basis of a partial manuscript her book was auctioned among publishers. During her final year at Cambridge she finished her book, White Teeth. It was an runaway success. So overwhelmed was she that she went into a writer’s block. “I think (the success of this book is) a surprise which will last me my whole life,” she said in an interview. Her second book Autograph Man also proved to be a success.

White Teeth 

…began as a short story except it was hardly short, more of a Novella. And so she decided to expand it into a full sized novel. It spans three generations telling the story of two friends, World War II veterans Archie and Samad. It follows their lives and then of their children who pick varied paths in life. It touches upon issues of immigrants, war, religion and friendship. I liked the way the book jumps back and forth between England, Jamaica and Bangladesh bringing it all alive through vibrant descriptions.

On writing


…. Smith has rather interesting views. First, she doesn’t believe in creative writing classes. She dismisses them as ‘support groups for writers who find writing therapeutic’.  And writing’s no therapy, she feels. She advises extensive reading as the best way to become a writer. “The more people you read the better writer you become,” she says.
She likes to write in ‘any small room with no natural lighting’. She’s quite the rule breaker when it comes to a writing regime. Some days she writes all day and some days she cannot get beyond two hours. She hates being told about successful authors who follow specific regimes. 

Isn’t that heartening? Perhaps it IS okay to do things your own way and follow no one at all. So it doesn’t matter that Enid Blyton wrote 10,000 words a day in her ‘red’ room, or that Ian Fleming needed to get away to Jamaica each year to get that novel done, or that Dahl moved to his tiny shed away from the house. All one needs to do to become a writer is do things her own way and write from the heart.

************

And finally that’s The End! The April A to Z Challenge ends today and I really have no idea what I’ll do with myself. Looking forward to visiting all you lovely people now.

************
This post is part of the April A to Z Challenge, 2014 for the theme AMAZING AUTHORS.

Also linking to the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

Posted on

Y is for Yiyun Li

Born 1972

Though born a Chinese, English is her chosen language of expression. Yiyun Li was born in Beijing China. As a student of Immunology she moved to America for further studies in 1996 intending to become a researcher just like her parents wanted her to. She had never written anything and writing was far from her mind. 

Writing happened quite by chance

During her days in America she attended an evening community writing class. She followed it up with more classes. Meanwhile she wrote some short stories. One of her stories, Immortality, was read by the Pulitzer Prize winning author Alen Mc Pherson. He was so excited he tracked Li down through a friend and sent a message saying she must continue too write. That made up her mind for her. A writer she did become.

Short stories and more..

Yiyun Li draws her subjects from China. Most of her stories are about small powerless people. Perhaps that’s why they are often cynical, tragic and frustrating. Her first book, which includes the story, Immortality, was a short story collection titled A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. I like her stories but more than that I like the glimpse of China she offers. Bits of history, the mood of the people, life under a dictatorship – all of that woven together in heat rending tales. Her writing is richly sprinkled with Chinese mythology and Chinese proverbs that she translates into English lending it a quaint quality.

The novel

Set in the 1970s The Vagrants is her debut novel. It opens with the gruesome hanging of a young woman and goes on to explore how different people in the city react to it. This one is no cheerful read, nor is it for those with weak stomachs. You despair as you find the eyes of dictatorship everywhere, corrupting everything and everyone, allowing for no escape. It reminded me a bit of George Orwell’s 1984. This one however is way more gruesome and graphic in gory detail. Not really my kind of book.

In China..

…Li refuses to release her books. They have been translated into over 20 languages but not in her native Mandarin. In a number if interviews she has said she feels China is not ready for her books just as much a she is not ready for them to be read in her country of birth.
Talking about whether her books represent China and its way of life she says, “It’s never my job to explain China.. We never ask an American writer to represent America or a British writer to represent Britain.” Yet it seems unavoidable that her characters are taken to depict China. Reminds me how Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth has come to represent China of another age.

*********

And finally it’s time for the last post tomorrow. This last author, is half British, half Jamaican and aspired to be an actress before the literary world beckoned.

**********
This post is part of the April A to Z Challenge, 2014 for the theme AMAZING AUTHORS.

Also linking to the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

Privacy Policy Proudly powered by WordPress