Eleanor (age 10) lent me a book this weekend that reached out and grabbed me from the first page. I picked it up during every free moment and raced to finish it so that she could read it right away too. It wove a story of magic, friendship, and challenges (moving, family, hard choices) set with vivid images and strong young characters.
Over the weekend’s social and family gatherings, in the natural courses of conversation, I found I kept recommending this book, The Mostly True Story of Jack, by Kelly Barnhill. There are so many of my daughter’s books that I have enjoyed just as much as I have my ‘own.’ Once another mom confessed her passion for YA fiction, we were off swapping recommendations for twenty minutes. Also the mom of two girls, her list of favorites started with The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak. When I searched for this on Amazon.com, I found it was ‘frequently bought together’ with another book that seemed all the buzz, and which I had already ordered, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.
At a family event at the Carroll Gardens library, I chatted with a mom who participated in a mother-daughter book club with four other families. Each month, one girl would choose the book that all the pairs would read and discuss at the next meeting. Her third-grade daughter, Elliot, put forward her favorite book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin. Their current book-club read, the choice of a different girl, was The Birchbark House, by Louise Erdrich. In searching for the latter book on Amazon.com, I found it is offered together with Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan, which my daughter read this summer and enjoyed tremendously.
Tell us what you’re reading! I’ll add it to my list.
