River Secrets

by Shannon Hale

Booklist calls this a stand alone adventure. I think it could be read on its own, but I think it works better to read it after Goose Girl and Enna Burning.

Razo is the main character and is one of the ambassadors of peace to a country that was just defeated by his country. He is in a difficult position and he has quite a bit of self-doubt, but he tries to push himself into the role his leader has for him.

This is not my favorite of Shannon Hale's books, but it was still very good. Her writing is engaging. I often catch myself mulling over an arrangement of words that caught my attention. Unfortunately, I didn't mark any, for which I'm kicking myself. That's one of the highlights of finishing a book for me - to go back and read certain passages. It helps review certain aspects and events of the story.

Anne of Avonlea

by L.M. Montgomery

What a delightful book. I was a bit worried that after Anne finished school (in Anne of Green Gables) the series would loose some of its magic. Not so. Although I missed Matthew, the addition of the twins was fun. Davy is definitely a kindred spirit for Anne.

I used lots of bookdarts in this book. I'll probably use a dozen more when I reread it. Here are some of the ones I marked:

"We make our own lives wherever we are, after all. They are broad or narrow according to what we put into them, not what we get out." --Mrs. Allan

"I wish you could think first and do things afterwards, 'cause then you wouldn't do them." --Davy

"I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string." --Anne

"That is one good thing about this world . . . there are always sure to be more springs." --Anne

Charlotta the Fourth admired Anne wholeheartedly. It was not that she though her so very handsom. Diana Barry's beauty of crimson cheek and black curls was much more to Charlotta the Fourth's taste than moonshine charm of luminous gray eyes and the pale, ever changing roses of her cheeks.
"But I'd rather look like you than be pretty," she told Anne sincerely.
Anne laughed, sipped the honey from the tribute and cast away the sting. She was used to taking her compliments mixed. . . . Anne herself would never believe that she had any claim to beauty. When she looked in the glass all she saw was a little pale face with seven freckles on the nose thereof. Her mirror never revealed to her the elusive, ever-varying play of feeling that came and went over her features like a rosy illuminating flame, or the charm of dream and laughter alternating in her big eyes.

"Now where is the romance in all that?" asked Marilla.
"Oh, there isn't any, when you put it that way," gasped Anne, rather as if somebody had thrown cold water over her. "I suppose that's how it looks in prose. But it's very different if you look at it through poetry . . . and I think it's nicer."
Marilla glanced at the radiant young face and refrained from further sarcastic comments. Perhaps some realization came to her that after all it was better to have, like Anne, "the vision and the faculty divine" . . . that gift which the world cannot bestow or take away, of looking at life through some transfiguring . . . or revealing? . . . medium, whereby everything seemed appareled in celestial light, wearing a glory and a freshness not visible to those who, like herself and Charlotta the Fourth, looked at things only through prose.

Anne of Avonlea was published in 1909 - the year my grandmother would have turned ten, almost 100 years ago! It's story is still as fresh and mood-altering today.

A big THANK-YOU to Raidergirl3 who presented me with my copy of Anne of Avonlea when we visited last summer in the PEI. Every I picked up or laid the book down I would be flooded by those memories in the Pub, our good visit, and the bagpipes marching by. Delightful evening!

Homeless Bird

by Gloria Whelan

Homeless Bird won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2000. Aimed at the audience of 9 to 12 year olds, it has charm for any age reader. I often found myself wondering about young Koly throughout the day.

Koly's parents arrange for her marriage to a young man in another village when Koly is only 13 years old. She tries to catch glimpses of her husband during the wedding and hears his voice for the first time as he says the wedding vows. He is much younger than the 16 years his parents were told, perhaps even younger than Koly, and he is very sick. Soon after the wedding, the bridegroom dies and Koly becomes a widow.

I felt a great deal of pain for Koly who tries to make the most of her situation even though she is filled with despair at times. Whelan handles the isolation of widows in India in a gentle manner for young readers, while providing glimpses of the fear and despair, the separation from family and the trials of both young and old women who are not taken care of in society.

I highly recommend this little gem.

Gossamer

by Lois Lowry

I love Lois Lowry and her books. I didn't know anything about Gossamer before reading it. Sometimes it's fun to open a book and just let the story come from the unknown. Lowry reveals the story of a inquisitive, almost transparent and courageous dream maker in a tantalizing manner. I was engaged with questions and pieces of the story that made me keep eagerly reading. She is an expert storyteller.

Gossamer is aimed at ages 9 - 12, but can be enjoyed by those of us who are MUCH older.

Austenland

by Shannon Hale

"Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane's fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined." -from the Publisher

I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this romantic escapade, but I did. In fact, I enjoyed it a lot. Hale has added some fun twists to this modern retelling of Austen's masterpiece.