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Books I Love
The gothic, people-eating house in Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore made me want to re-read York: The Shadow Cipher by Laura Ruby, with its trickster, quirky house and House of Many Ways by Dianna Wynne Jones, with its mysterious, dusty, infinite house. I loved them both more the second time around. This time I read York more slowly and took the time to appreciate how so many of the characters in this book are anxious in different ways. Tess has a therapy cat and meltdowns. Theo has robot moments and nightmares. Jaime is constantly drawing, which I saw as an artistic outpouring but also a way of dealing with his…
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Books I love: The Thief
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Where Did Malenie Come From?
By the time I was in 6th grade, I kinda didn’t want to go to school every day. By the time I was in 9th grade, I really didn’t want to go, and by the time I was in 12th grade, I dreaded going. The problem was bullying. In 6th grade I was awkward and was shy and read SFF when that was totally completely really uncool. I remember reading the Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey and a boy telling me, You have to read that nothing book because you’re nothing, too. By 9th grade, the insults were more pointed, the isolation sharper. Sometime after that the threat of…
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The Red Fortress, coming in 2019
I thought I’d share a sneak preview of The Red Fortress, the sequel to The Desert Wall. It’s told from Nes’s point of view as she continues the search started in the first book… When I was little, I choked on a chicken bone once. It scraped the sides of my throat, and the bone and panic closed off my breath. I was afraid I was gonna die. Well that’s what it’s like for me most times with words. They stick in my throat and choke me. It doesn’t matter if they’re words of love or anger. I feel like I’m trying to swallow something too big, except I’m trying to…
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What I’m Reading: Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore
Spoilers ahead. From the back cover: Jane has lived a mostly ordinary life, raised by her recently deceased aunt Magnolia, whom she counted on to turn life into an adventure. Without Aunt Magnolia, Jane is lost. So she’s easily swept away when a glamorous, capricious, and wealthy acquaintance from years ago asks Jane to accompany her to a gala at the extravagant island mansion called Tu Reviens. Jane remembers her aunt telling her: “If anyone ever invites to you to Tu Reviens, promise me that you’ll go.” What Jane doesn’t know is that the house will offer her five choices that could ultimately determine the course of her life. One…
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Books I love: The Thief
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Deserts and Secrets
The first time I saw a desert I was 15. My parents took me and my sister and cousin to the American Southwest: Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon. It was so different from the Northeast; the sky was so wide, the colors so strong, the mountain shapes against the sky so harsh. Also, it was really hot. My sister and cousin ran down the Grand Canyon and then back up, while my mother and I panted and sweated and poured water on bandanas and put them over our heads and then didn’t have enough water to drink. Each step was an effort. I can’t say that I…