I feel like if people could throw rotten tomatoes through the computer, there'd be several splatting up against my head any time now. I just didn't reI feel like if people could throw rotten tomatoes through the computer, there'd be several splatting up against my head any time now. I just didn't really like this book. 2-and-a-half-stars, really. And why? I just don't like time travel books. They never make sense to me. So sorry, fans. Here are the thoughts that came to me after I finished reading:
SPOILER ALERT! Stop reading if you haven't read the book yet!
Why didn't the Laughing Man/Marcus just "trip" back to the time when he punched Sal, then intervene or distract Marcus so he wouldn't punch Sal in the first place? Then Sal would have had no reason to fear him and go running into the street.
If Marcus knew the journey would be dangerous, and he wouldn't "be himself" when he reached Miranda, why didn't he just tell the truth, lay it all out on the papers along with his mysterious instructions? "I know this is almost impossible to believe, but I'm Marcus, I have discovered the secret to time travel, and as I write this, I'm a grown man...." He was taking a mighty HUGE chance that Miranda would understand his messages and write the letter that was pivotal to the plan.
Miranda was a well-rounded character, and I liked Richard and Annemarie, but.... I guess I just have too much "common sense" (as Marcus refers to it) to suspend disbelief and allow the story to work for me. I know it's been getting a lot of attention, and people are loving it, but here again I'm reminded that not every book is for every reader, and that's a good thing. ")
Riding in a bathtub, two children float through a creepy canal inhabited by trolls, monsters, skeletons, and other vile creatures in this bizarre ABC Riding in a bathtub, two children float through a creepy canal inhabited by trolls, monsters, skeletons, and other vile creatures in this bizarre ABC book. The intended audience for this tale is unclear, as the rhyming storyline is hard to follow, letters V and W are out of order for no apparent reason (although it is alluded to in the introduction), and many scenes are too graphic for young kids. Grimly's illustrations are well-done, to be sure, but too frightful for the average elementary schooler. One page features a bottled heart and some sort of fetus sitting atop a cage imprisoning crying children, while another child hangs by bloody shackles on the wall next to them. While teens may get into this, most elementary librarians and parents of young children will want to leave this one on the book store shelf....more
This was a completely weird book. Was this kid being held captive by abusive adults? Were the "woolvs" gangs, or real wolves? I... just don't know. I This was a completely weird book. Was this kid being held captive by abusive adults? Were the "woolvs" gangs, or real wolves? I... just don't know. I suppose someone somewhere could explain this book to me, but I certainly don't know who that would be. Ick....more
With lines like “You could die While Choking & Holding Your Nose,” this book gets my vote for "Picture Book Most Likely to Give Your Kid Nightmares."
IWith lines like “You could die While Choking & Holding Your Nose,” this book gets my vote for "Picture Book Most Likely to Give Your Kid Nightmares."
I didn't like this book. At all. It felt like a piece of political propaganda disguised as a children's book. It looks like a picture book, but it reads like a depressing poem written by that the weird guy in my college poetry workshop who wore a skull t-shirt and army jacket and wrote about death and public urination. The guy whose poems made me wonder why he couldn't write one single poem without profanity. (Was his constant use of offensive language supposed to impress us all with how "deep" he was? Mostly, it made me wonder, "Can't you find INTELLIGENT words to express yourself?")
Perhaps it's the timing of this book's release that makes it so offensive to me. Were we not in the midst of a controversial war, perhaps I would not have resented it so much. But we are, and I do. Not so much for what it contains, but for what is omitted: where is the cruel injustice that so often leads to war? Where is the joyful freedom of those liberated by war? Where is the mother hiding her child in a closet for fear her own countrymen would steal him away only to leave his bullet-riddled body in a mass grave with dozens of others just like him?
In a perfect world, this book's message would ring true. But in our world, it doesn't. The ugly truth is that war is sometimes necessary. If I could convince myself that Walker's message is only about the damaging effect of war on nature, perhaps I could stomach it. But I don't believe that's her sole focus. Yes, war harms our landscape. But sometimes it halts the cruelty, torture, and terror of human beings. And that's the trump card for me. Nature rebounds and rebuilds. Stolen lives do not.
That's why I say, don't buy this book. I guess you could buy it for your local pacifist, but definitely not for kids or anybody you're fond of. Unless you're trying to give them bad dreams. Or indoctrinate them... which, now that I think of it, sounds completely like the intended purpose. ...more
Blech. I can hear people curse lots of places. Doesn't impress me. Holden is THE most unlikeable protagonist of all time for me. Blech. I can hear people curse lots of places. Doesn't impress me. Holden is THE most unlikeable protagonist of all time for me. ...more
I love Cary Grant. I don't want to hear this kind of stuff about him! Eww! This book is one giant IMAGE-BUSTER. So I'm just going to go with "it's allI love Cary Grant. I don't want to hear this kind of stuff about him! Eww! This book is one giant IMAGE-BUSTER. So I'm just going to go with "it's all a pack of lies," and keep loving him....more
A few pages of spoonerisms I could manage. But an entire book? Too much. I kind of figure there's a reason this was never published when he was alive.A few pages of spoonerisms I could manage. But an entire book? Too much. I kind of figure there's a reason this was never published when he was alive.......more
Okay, if I must.... Boy climbs tree, brontosaurus comes along and eats leaves from tree, accidentally ingestsUgh. Leave this to extinction, I beg you.
Okay, if I must.... Boy climbs tree, brontosaurus comes along and eats leaves from tree, accidentally ingests boy as well--whole, of course--bronto gets sick. (No anachronisms here.)
Bronto's parents go to dino doctor, who X-rays bronto and finds said boy. Now, how to get boy out? 3 options: 1] vomit him out (lovely illustration there) 2] wait for him to be... um, excreted out (picture bronto on potty, passing a person) 3] drink lots of soda and belch boy out
Dinos take option three. Never mind that it's... oh, I don't know, IMPOSSIBLE. Nevertheless, bronto drinks, bronto belches, boy erupts from bronto's big mouth and flies across forest, safe at last.
I have no idea the purpose of this book. But it was a serious waste of pressed tree and ink. ...more
We need to get one thing straight right off the bat. Girls CANNOT stand on their hands and shoot a stream of pee up in the air. If we tried it, we'd hWe need to get one thing straight right off the bat. Girls CANNOT stand on their hands and shoot a stream of pee up in the air. If we tried it, we'd have a face full of pee. So I'm thinking that, even with the "kids-love-toilet-humor" factor, this book is not the best tool around for toilet training. Please, I beg you, don't even take it off the shelf....more
Beyond "goth" and into the world of the bizarrely perverse. Twin adult men who take turns sleeping with their mother's taxidermied head. A girl who cuBeyond "goth" and into the world of the bizarrely perverse. Twin adult men who take turns sleeping with their mother's taxidermied head. A girl who cuts off her dead mother's hands, taxidermies them, and sticks them in her coat pockets so she can walk down the street and hold her mother's hand anytime she wants. Do I really need to go on?
Ooookay. In a perverse story of the Oedipus Complex taken to a higher level, a young girl named Ivy discovers she has inherited the “Love Curse of the Rumbaughs”--obsessive love for one’s mother--and takes steps to ensure that she will always have her beloved mother with her. Although the first-person narrative begs sympathy for Ivy, she and the other major characters, including creepy twins Ab and Dolph (who have stuffed their dead mother and take turns sleeping with her detachable head), are so far beyond the stretches of normalcy that not only will most readers not sympathize, they will find them shocking and repulsive. Students with a penchant for the bizarre may get some enjoyment from the psychological aspects of the story and hope Ivy has the fortitude to break the curse (she doesn’t), but mainstream readers will be turned off, and rightly so.
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