book reviews

#44 Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
#45 The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
#46 Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath

#44 was an interesting book. The basic premise is that when you die, you take a ship to a place called Elsewhere where you proceed to age backward until you are a week old and then you're sent down the river (which is in the middle of the Ocean) back to Earth as a baby and you start over. A very interesting concept of the afterlife, even if I totally disagree with it. Again, no judgement, but you are met in the afterlife by your closest relative where you live. There are Observation Decks where the deceased can look down on their living loved ones. There is a place called the Well (forbidden) where the deceased can attempt to contact the living. It was an okay book, however, the character development really needed to be fleshed out more. Still, I did enjoy it.

#45 was a typical "orphan girl" book. The heroine is mad at the world, steals, lies, mistreats everyone especially the kindly foster mother and brother who take her in all because of her need for her "real" mother. The story was okay, but it could have been more developed. I don't understand why authors write down to kids. The Harry Potter phenomenon has shown that a more complex plot and highly developed characters really appeal to kids. Granted this book was written in 1978, but it was like a speed boat, skimming along the surface, when it could have been a submarine, exploring the depths of the human experience. In addition, I didn't get closure at the end. I don't know what happened and I always like to know the direction the author intended us to go - did she go back to the foster family or did she end up with her "real" family.

#46 was cute, but really shallow. The heroine's parents are lost at sea and she alone thinks they are still alive. The cast of characters was interesting and well developed, the plot however, was shallow and could have been more. The one thing that REALLY made me mad was the presentation of the heroine's parents. The book starts out with a storm at sea and her dad is out fishing (he's a commercial fisherman) and his ship hasn't come in so her mother gets in their little skiff and goes out in the middle of a storm to find him. LEAVING HER DAUGHTER ALONE!!! That makes me furious. And all throughout the book this is portrayed as some great love, that the mother is willing to die to save her husband. What about the kid? What about the person who is completely dependent on her parents? The child has no real rights and no one to take case of her and her mother leaves her with a babysitter to go find the person who is an adult. I cannot express how awful this is. I love my husband, my best friend, but we both agree that our son comes first. He needs us. And while the idea of someone being your complete other half is wonderful, I cannot even begin to think of what could possibly occur so that I would abandon my child to go and find my husband. My husband can look out for himself, my son cannot. This was my big complaint (among many) about M. Night Shamalan's latest movie - whose name I cannot remember. And now my son is in need of my attention so I must go.