Welcome the new Peck Reads! blog. This is an exciting opportunity for all of us to share with each other information and thoughts related to all things books. I will be the monitor of this blog, and will post info about new books that I am reading and my thoughts on them. The summer months have given me a great opportunity to read some new books and I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts here with you on them, and hearing about the great books you are reading as well. Please note the guidelines in the side bar. These are really important!
Just a few thoughts to get things started. I finally got to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last weekend. My guess is many of you saw it this summer too, and I would love to hear what you thought about it. I re-read the book before going to see the movie (I read it the first time the weekend after it was released in publication, and I was amazed how many details I had forgotten when I re-read it). Personally, I thought that they did a great job of keeping the right "dark" tone of the book in the movie, but I was a little disappointed that they left some pretty key elements out (i.e. the battle for Hogwarts in the end, and the funeral). Also, in the book there is a lot of talk about how even Dumbledore cannot apparate out of Hogwarts, and in the end has to ride a broom to return to the school after being injured. I was hoping to see Dumbledore ride a broom! What did all of you think?
Also, I just finished reading this year's Newbery Medal winner The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (author of the book Coraline, later made into a movie). If you have not read it yet, then you must. It was fantastic. I have not loved the last couple of years choices for the Newbery Medal, so it was great to find one that I liked. It isn't the usual book for Newbery, seeing as it starts out with a rather gruesome murder, and is creepy throughout (sort of like Coraline). See description below, and come check it out of the Peck Library if it sounds like you might want to read it!
-Somewhere in contemporary Britain, "the man Jack" uses his razor-sharp knife to murder a family, but the youngest, a toddler, slips away. The boy ends up in a graveyard, where the ghostly inhabitants adopt him to keep him safe. Nobody Owens, so named because he "looks like nobody but himself," grows up among a multigenerational cast of characters from different historical periods that includes matronly Mistress Owens; ancient Roman Caius Pompeius; an opinionated young witch; a melodramatic hack poet; and Bod's beloved mentor and guardian, Silas, who is neither living nor dead and has secrets of his own. As he grows up, Bod has a series of adventures, both in and out of the graveyard, and the threat of the man Jack who continues to hunt for him is ever present. Bod's love for his graveyard family and vice versa provide the emotional center, amid suspense, spot-on humor, and delightful scene-setting. ...Gaiman has created a rich, surprising, and sometimes disturbing tale of dreams, ghouls, murderers, trickery, and family.-Megan Honig, New York Public Library Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
Just a few thoughts to get things started. I finally got to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last weekend. My guess is many of you saw it this summer too, and I would love to hear what you thought about it. I re-read the book before going to see the movie (I read it the first time the weekend after it was released in publication, and I was amazed how many details I had forgotten when I re-read it). Personally, I thought that they did a great job of keeping the right "dark" tone of the book in the movie, but I was a little disappointed that they left some pretty key elements out (i.e. the battle for Hogwarts in the end, and the funeral). Also, in the book there is a lot of talk about how even Dumbledore cannot apparate out of Hogwarts, and in the end has to ride a broom to return to the school after being injured. I was hoping to see Dumbledore ride a broom! What did all of you think?
Also, I just finished reading this year's Newbery Medal winner The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (author of the book Coraline, later made into a movie). If you have not read it yet, then you must. It was fantastic. I have not loved the last couple of years choices for the Newbery Medal, so it was great to find one that I liked. It isn't the usual book for Newbery, seeing as it starts out with a rather gruesome murder, and is creepy throughout (sort of like Coraline). See description below, and come check it out of the Peck Library if it sounds like you might want to read it!
-Somewhere in contemporary Britain, "the man Jack" uses his razor-sharp knife to murder a family, but the youngest, a toddler, slips away. The boy ends up in a graveyard, where the ghostly inhabitants adopt him to keep him safe. Nobody Owens, so named because he "looks like nobody but himself," grows up among a multigenerational cast of characters from different historical periods that includes matronly Mistress Owens; ancient Roman Caius Pompeius; an opinionated young witch; a melodramatic hack poet; and Bod's beloved mentor and guardian, Silas, who is neither living nor dead and has secrets of his own. As he grows up, Bod has a series of adventures, both in and out of the graveyard, and the threat of the man Jack who continues to hunt for him is ever present. Bod's love for his graveyard family and vice versa provide the emotional center, amid suspense, spot-on humor, and delightful scene-setting. ...Gaiman has created a rich, surprising, and sometimes disturbing tale of dreams, ghouls, murderers, trickery, and family.-Megan Honig, New York Public Library Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
