Friday, August 24, 2007

128. My Latest Book Review Column

My latest book review column (on books for kids and young adults) is up at the Marianas Variety: Seeing and Reading. The title is yucky, but I had fun writing this column, thinking about the importance of visualization in learning, and how reading helps.

I also loved reading the books, especially the First Second book, GARAGE BAND by Gipi. The foray into graphic novels is me trying to find lures for reluctant readers. This book is a real winner.

The other graphic novel I reviewed, TO DANCE, will attract girls, but it's not as good. I mention casually in the column that I didn't like the ending to it, but that is a mild statement of my real reaction. I literally threw the book across the room when I got to the end. The story, which was a compelling read, just lamely died, and I found that intensely frustrating. I'd still recommend this book for kids (obviously, since I do in the column), but it offers a good opportunity to talk about how some books can be great at some points and not at others.

3 comments:

Bon said...

I loved the article and I'll be ordering some of the books for class novel sets. If I were a teacher, I'd throw the textbook out and get a class set.

Saipan Writer said...

Boni, I'll donate three of the books (ROOM ONE, Zelda and Ivy and TO DANCE) to GES. Is it okay if I give them Anna to pass to Hope who can then give them to you? Or do you have another suggestion?

Bon said...

OMG! That is awesome, it'll give us a chance to read them so that we can offer them to teachers who want to order class sets. Thank you, thank you:)