Tag Archives: Children’s Literature

The Trouble with the Magical Talisman

Why is it that so many kids’ fantasy adventure books can be boiled down to: “Children find a magical talisman that transports them to a wondrous world where they must fulfill their destiny or be trapped for ever.” I swear I’ve read this book about a zillion times for work, and today was no exception. Some, like today, are better written than others but it makes me wonder if we’ve run out of stories with which to delight and dazzle children. Is it just me,…

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One Little Building Block

I just finished a work read that was a children’s book that makes me happy that people write for children. It was simply lovely. Dostoevsky decoder & newish reader Meli has tagged me for a teeny meme, which goes well with a teeny work read. Turn to page 161 of the book closest to you (no cheating) and copy out the fifth full sentence. From page 161 of Finding Alice by Melody Carlson: “So many young people out on the streets these days.” I feel…

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Traumatized by Johanna Spyri’s Heidi

Read a novel tonight for work–literary fiction. Gorgeous prose, interesting ideas. But not bloggable because it’s work, so you get a glimpse into the twisted past of the Superfast Reader, and link to the next book on my shelf. I feel like all my childhood memories are from when I was eight, except for when I knocked my tooth out when I was seven. But I am fairly certain that an incident involving Johanna Spyri’s book Heidi happened when I was a buck-toothed, thick glasses-wearing,…

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How to Skim–and Why

I have a fun little job where I get to read books before they are published. I won’t be blogging about them for various ethical reasons, but since I want to post every time I read a book, I think I’ll take the opportunity to write about reading. In these posts, I’ll also be listing the books on my bookshelf one at a time in the order they appear. I get asked a lot about my speed-reading. The most frequest question is, “Do you really…

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