A storybook Halloween

I'm a proud mama everyday, but tomorrow I'm gonna be especially proud. Both my girls are going out for Halloween in costumes inspired by books! And they are both so cute!!

First up is Jaya. She's going as a paper bag princess a la Robert Munsch's The Paper Bag Princess.

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch

Princess Elizabeth is engaged to marry Prince Ronald when a dragon smashes her castle, burns all of her clothes and carries Prince Ronald away. Elizabeth dons a paper bag and goes off to rescue her prince. Using her smarts, Elizabeth tires the dragon and rescue her prince only to have him tell her to come back when she looks like a real princess! My favorite lines of the story:

"Ronald," said Elizabeth, "your clothes are really pretty and your hair is really neat. You look like a prince, but you are a bum."

The Paper Bag Princess is my favorite Robert Munsch story because of the valuable lesson it teaches little girls - and boys.



5

On to Julianna's choice....

I'm not going to lie, Julianna chose to be a tooth fairy before we read the book. I went in search of a tooth fairy book to get some inspiration for her costume. I was hoping for a short but sweet book and came across R.G. Cordiner's Candy Wars.

Candy Wars: The Tooth Fairies vs. The Candy King by R.G. Cordiner

It all starts when James' tooth is stolen by a green jelly monster. James follows the jelly monster into the magical world of candy land, where he becomes a general in the Candy King's army and helps to launch a war against the tooth fairies. Emily arrives on the tooth fairies side of the magical world just in time to fight on the side of the tooth fairies. With the help of a toothless dragon and a phoenix with hay fever, Emily is able to help save her brother and the tooth fairies from the wicked Candy King.

Candy Wars is a great book for pre-teens. There are valuable lessons about friendship, family loyalty and the importance of standing up to bullies.

3/5

Jaya's take on Robert Munsch's The Paper Bag Princess.



Miss. Julianna Ivy as the Queen of the Tooth Fairies.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel published by Mark Twain in 1884. It's the story of Huckleberry Finn, a pre-teen with a drunk for a father and a dead mother. When the novel opens, Huck is living with the Widow Douglas and receiving interest on money he came into before the start of the novel. Huck's adventures begin when his father reappears and kidnaps him from the Widow Douglas and locks him in a cabin, in an attempt gain access to Huck's money. Huck fakes his own death and embarks on an adventure with his friend the escaped slave, Jim. Huck and Jim make their way down the Mississippi River dodging close calls and getting to know each other.

It's easy to get the wrong idea about this novel. Mark Twain employs a first-person narrative, southern vernacular and a lot of language considered racist by today's standards, to tell the story in a believable way from the perspective of Huck Finn. When reading this novel it's important to consider the time in which it was written.

I've read a lot of books about the U.S. in the 'olden days' but most of them have been from the perspective of slaves or the descendants of slaves. So this novel gave me a completely different perspective on an old topic.

I really enjoy the way Mark Twain navigates Huck's emotional maturity. He goes from viewing Jim as a possession to a person capable of the same feeling and emotions as white people. Towards the end of the novel, the question on my mind is what becomes of Huck Finn? Do his views towards Jim affect the man he grows up to become? Or, does he continue to believe and obey the immoral rules of a society that dictates that blacks are not human and thus subject to slavery as possessions to he owned?

*SPOILER ALERT*

I was a bit disappointed by the end of the novel and the appearance of Tom Sawyer. Tom's character irritated me, I feel like he took away from all of the lessons Huck seemed to be learning about morality and Jim as a person rather than as a possession. On the other hand, Tom's character made me realize just how smart and compassionate Huck Finn is, especially at the very end when we realize that Tom risked his own life, Jim's life and Huck's life all so that he could have an 'adventure.' It reminded me of kids from the suburbs going to the inner city and getting mixed up in crime just to prove that they are tough.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a must-read for history and classic buffs.

5

The Man in the Brown Suit

From the book cover:

The newly-orphaned Anne Beddingfield came to London expecting excitement. She didn't expect to find it on the platform of Hyde Park Corner tube station. When a fellow passenger pitches onto the rails and is electrocuted, the 'doctor' on the scene seems intent on searching the victim rather than examining him...

-----

The Man in the Brown Suit is my fourth Agatha Christie novel. If you're a regular to this blog, you probably already know that I've pledged to read all of Agatha Christie's novels in order of their publication.

The Man in the Brown Suit is the first of four novels in Agatha Christie's Colonel Race chronology . Colonel Race is an ex-army colonel and former leader of the British spy agency MI5. (Look out for my reviews for the remaining Colonel Race novels - Cards on the Table, Death on the Nile, and Sparkling Cyanide.)


Back to The Man in the Brown Suit. I really enjoyed this Agatha Christie murder mystery; it isn't as formula driven as the other Christie books I've read to date. I'm actually starting to wonder if there's an Agatha Christie novel out there that I won't enjoy. I guess this is why her books are out sold only by the Bible and William Shakespeare!

The plot takes a lot of shocking turns, some of them don't make much sense, but at the end of the day the protagonist, Anne Beddingfield, is such a likable character, one can't help but look past some of the plot failures.

*SPOILER ALERT*

One of the aforementioned shocking turns, comes at the end when the protagonist discovers that one of the people she depended for protection is actually the villain. This point doesn't make sense because he has so many opportunities to do away with her but doesn't. It's almost as if Mrs. Christie was fighting the necessity of him being a villain. In fact by the end of the story, one of the protagonists displays a reluctance to fully accept that the villain is an evil person.

4/5

The Murder on the Links

From the book cover:

An urgent cry for help brings Poirot to France. But he arrives too late to save his client, whose brutally stabbed body now lies face downwards in a shallow grave on a golf course.

-----

The Murder on the Links is my third Agatha Christie novel and my second Hercule Poirot mystery. If you're a regular on this blog, you probably already know that I've pledged to read all of Agatha Christie's novels in order of their publication.

I really enjoyed this novel, I think I prefer it to the first Hercule Poirot mystery The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Poirot is even more eccentric. The addition of the younger Detective Giraud, and their constant banter and one-upmanship behaviour adds a a bit of fun and comedy to the plot.

In this novel, Captain Hastings' character becomes even more naive and clueless. He's the perfect side kick to Poirot's brilliant mind. The reader is most likely not at Poirot's level but is most definitely further along than Hastings.

Another plus, for me personally, are the few brief mentions of Canada.

3.5/5

Sounding Line

From the book cover

Pocket Snow has a lot on his mind even before the unidentifiable flying object crashes into the water at Perry's Harbour, sending local fishermen scrambling to find survivors of an assumed plane crash. The excitement seems far away from the Snow household, as Pocket's mother approaches death, and his father tries to cope.

-------

I came across Anne DeGrace's Sounding Line at Coles Bookstore. I was there to buy a book light using my a birthday GC I got from my mom. After buying the book light, and three other books, I still had some room on my GC. Sounding Line was by the cash and had a 'Heather's Pick' sticker on it, so I figured I'd give it a try.

It's a decent read. While reading it, I kept thinking about Marilynne Robinson's Home. I don't know if it's because both novels take place in a small town and are based loosely on real-life events, or it could be that I found DeGrace's writing style very similar to Robinson's.

Sounding Line is a nice light read, but there's really nothing new or exciting about it. I really enjoyed DeGrace's depiction of life in a small fishing village. The characters are entertaining, although some of them seem to be based on small town stereotypes. The only think I really dislike about this novel is the short,  second-person chapter intros. I was never able to say for certain which character they were referring.

While I don't regret using my birthday GC to buy this novel, I can't recommend it but I won't try to dissuade anyone from reading it either.

3/5