The Road - Book Review

I just finished the latest Oprah book club selection, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, and I'm amazed at how different it is than the stereotype of what her book choices are. It's a far cry from Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie or Night by Elie Wiesel.

As readers of All the Pretty Horses know, McCarthy isn't the cheeriest writer on the planet, but his new book does an amazing job capturing the horror and desperation of a post-nuclear world.

McCarthy's spare style is a perfect parallel to the isolation felt by a father and son, known only as "the man" and "the boy," as they walk alone down the titular road. The themes of the role of the family, the decadence of the world, and the search for one's place in the world are all explored in a new way in this book.

I wouldn't recommend this book to young students as it does depict some terrifying scenes of cannibalism and brutality, but if you have a class of mature students looking for something contemporary to read, this would be an engaging choice.

Link.

Book Review: The Secret Life of Bees

I just finished reading Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, which has quickly become on of our top selling new books, and I can see why.

I have to admit that, although I thought this was going to be the saccharine story of a girl's coming of age, I really enjoyed reading it. Although it will draw the inevitable comparisons with To Kill a Mockingbird, a story about a young girl's coming of age in a racially charged South, Kidd's story maintains its own identity in building a strong feminist voice without creating an anti-male feeling.

This book should succeed in many classrooms -- especially if you're looking for a book to engage young female readers.

Book Review: The Life of Pi

Since Yann Martel's appearance at last year's NCTE conference, we've seen a big uptick in teacher interest in his book The Life of Pi, winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize, though many teachers still aren't familiar with this fun story, and some with just a back-cover knowledge may have put it aside (or considered adding it) to their classroom, when it might be a good (or bad) choice.

Summary: Pi Patel is a young man growing up in a zoo in India. In the first third of the book (my favorite part) we find Pi wandering the streets of India getting to know many holy men, and becoming a devote of Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism. He gets himself in trouble because he doesn't feel that these religions are mutually exclusive, while everyone else tells him he must choose one faith and follow only that faith.

When Pi's family plans to move their zoo to Canada, they board a ship for the journey. Caught in a storm the ship goes down, and when the chaos ends, Pi finds himself aboard a life raft with an Orangutan, a hyeena, and a Bengal tiger. The bulk of the story involves young Pi's survival at sea on a life raft on a tarpaulin over the head of a 400 lb. Bengal tiger. His ingenuity and faith keeps him alive for 227 days as he fishes, not only for himself, but also for his tiger.

The story eventually gains a bit of a surrealistic quality, and I won't spoil the ending, but you'll be left wondering at the end what's real and what's imaginary.

While I'd recommend the book to many classrooms, and as far as I remember, there's little or no foul language, there is a bit of cannibalism that might come as a bit of a shock to some readers. The story, however, is told in a delightful way that will really interest most of your students, and there's really something in here for everyone.

Link.