Well, I had the best of intentions, but... this reading challenge didn't pan out for me, once again. I believe there is only a week or two left before the end of the fall season, so unless I'm getting a lot of reading done in the three days I have between the last day of school and heading north for family time, this will more than likely be my only update.
Since the beginning of FIR'10, I have completed only three books. Pathetic, I know, but work often leaves me in a zombified state by the end of the day. I pick up a book, and I'm out like a light within the first ten pages.
I can't say I was terribly touched by this one. It was an interesting enough read that I was curious about this man everyone seemed to be talking about. The writing and sentence structure was very simple, making for an easy read. While I was interested enough to keep reading, I don't feel changed in anyway by having read this story. It did, however, make me upset with my own students for not realizing how valuable their education is. Sigh. Oh well.
Last spring, I read The Maze of Bones and tried to read The Red Pyramid, both by Riordan. I wasn't impressed with the first installment of the 39 Clues, and so had no intention to read any more. The dialogue and narrative of The Red Pyramid was just too wacky for me. I couldn't find defining voices for Sadie and Carter and would often forget whose point of view I was reading, as they both sounded the same. Yes, even though one is a boy and the other a girl; one an American accent, and the other English. The characters also felt entirely too similar to the brother and sister from the 39 Clues. But what really turned me off was the albino alligator and baboon that only eats things ending in "O."
But I'm here to talk about Riordan's next series: The Heroes of Olympus. The Lost Hero is the first in this new series set in Percy Jackson's world. I read the first two chapters online when it was still just a sneak-peek, and I loved it. I will say the wind gods, the monsters, and the minor characters did not impress me as much as the more well-known gods and creatures of the first series did. What I did enjoy was that Riordan incorporated Roman mythology with the already placed Greek, which makes it that more appropriate to share with my students as they study both aspects of mythology. The final revelation of who Jason is was a bit obvious as soon as the first mention of the purple t-shirt in the cyclopes factory, but it took 500+ pages for all to understand. All in all, kids will like this one.
3. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster -
I think someone may have been hitting the you-know-what a little too much when they came up with this story. I felt like I was in someone's cracked-out dream, going from one crazy character to the next. It reminded me of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, crazy. I get that Juster was playing with puns and idioms, words and sayings, and as an English teacher, you think I would have enjoyed it. But it was all a little too creepy of a world for me, and the illustrations didn't ease my consternation. Fortunately for me, the book is a glorified picture book, and required no time to complete. I raced through it to say I did it and can now return it to its rightful owner on Monday. It was a student's recommendation.