Received a copy of
Anna's World from Chiron Press. Set in a Shaker colony in the 1840's, it is a good, detailed depiction of life at that time. Anna has been sent to live with the Shakers after a flood has sickened and destroyed much of her town. She chafes at the strict ways of the Shakers and longs to be reunited with her father, but when she finally joins her father in Boston, she finds that he manufacturing munitions, which goes against what she has been taught. Much in this book is informative, from the depiction of racial relations to Henry David Thoreau as a character to the day-to-day workings of a Shaker community. There is some excitement and intrigue with both the war and people at odds with the Shakers, but the lenghthy sermons and philosophical discussions could have been trimmed up a bit. A useful book if your school covers this period of history.
I am done with Lisi Harrison, no matter how much my daughter adores her books. Her latest,
Charmed and Dangerous: the Rise of the Pretty Committee, was too much. 7th graders are completely different from 4th graders, and since this book discusses the genesis of the group when the girls are ten, I could not believe that the girls were at a New Year's party, in designer clothes, pulling the pranks that they do, at that age. While there is a place for shallow, fluffy literature, there's a huge difference between harmless and hurtful, and this crosses the line. Massie is irredeemably evil, and I felt like a bad mother and librarian allowing my daughter to read this. There is a new series out,
Alphas, and I will just pass.
Received a copy of Anna's World from Chiron Press. Set in a Shaker colony in the 1840's, it is a good, detailed depiction of life at that time. Anna has been sent to live with the Shakers after a flood has sickened and destroyed much of her town. She chafes at the strict ways of the Shakers and longs to be reunited with her father, but when she finally joins her father in Boston, she finds that he manufacturing munitions, which goes against what she has been taught. Much in this book is informative, from the depiction of racial relations to Henry David Thoreau as a character to the day-to-day workings of a Shaker community. There is some excitement and intrigue with both the war and people at odds with the Shakers, but the lenghthy sermons and philosophical discussions could have been trimmed up a bit. A useful book if your school covers this period of history. 
I am done with Lisi Harrison, no matter how much my daughter adores her books. Her latest, Charmed and Dangerous: the Rise of the Pretty Committee, was too much. 7th graders are completely different from 4th graders, and since this book discusses the genesis of the group when the girls are ten, I could not believe that the girls were at a New Year's party, in designer clothes, pulling the pranks that they do, at that age. While there is a place for shallow, fluffy literature, there's a huge difference between harmless and hurtful, and this crosses the line. Massie is irredeemably evil, and I felt like a bad mother and librarian allowing my daughter to read this. There is a new series out, Alphas, and I will just pass.
Thanks for suffering through Clique so the rest of us didn't have to! I did get Alphas for my library - too many requests to ignore - but on my Clique read-alike list I've tried to steer girls towards books that have all the pink glitter and girl friendships they want with a bit more substance, like Jenny Han's Shug and Lauren Myracle's stories.
ReplyDeleteThe Clique series. Blech. I tried to read one and it about killed 20 of my brain cells. Maybe I'm just too old. Or maybe I'm just tired of that kind of lit, with mean girls and rich girls and backstabbing girls who name drop all the time.
ReplyDeleteLauren Myracle = awesome. And she's very nice, too.
Just say no to Lisi Harrison! Couldn't she put her skills to use writing something with better substance?
ReplyDelete