Book Blogger Appreciation Week: Interview

As part of the Book Blogger Appreciation Week, I interviewed the lovely Jess from Barney's Book Blog

And it went a little something like this:

What’s the story of the title of your blog?

Have you ever seen the television show ‘How I Met Your Mother’? One of the characters (played by the fantastic Neil Patrick Harris) is named Barney and he has a blog where he writes about picking up chicks and being awesome. When I decided to start my blog, I didn’t like the name Jessica’s Book Blog, so instead I named it after the only person (although not real) I knew who had a blog.

What was the impetus to start blogging?

I read too much and needed an outlet to discuss my opinions on the books I read. My family and friends were at the point where they would roll their eyes every time I said, “I just read the most incredible book...”

When you started did you have an imagined reader in mind? Or were you writing for yourself primarily?

I didn’t really think about who would read my blog. It was more for me to vent my ideas and opinions about the books I was reading.

What lifted the number of subscribers and readers of your blog? Was it a particular post?

It wasn’t a particular post. It was embracing the blogger community and getting involved with weekly memes and commenting on other blogs. Commenting and engaging within the community made other bloggers search me out and become subscribers.

Do you blog all of the books you read?

No, I don’t usually review books that are a part of a series that I started reading before I started blogging. I do usually mention them in posts where I discuss what I am reading for the week.

Has your writing/ your ‘voice’ changed over the time you have been blogging?

My writing has changed. I have a very different reviewing format than I did in the beginning. I write more about the themes I see in books instead of just talking about what I liked. I also try very hard to be spoiler free.

Thanks Jess and happy Book Blogger Appreciation Week!

b0Ok h00t #16 The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian

This award winning novel is told from the viewpoint of Arnold Spirit (Junior) a teenage cartoonist who lives on the Spokane Reservation, the rez. Arnold has a couple of strikes against him: he was born with "water on the brain", has seizures and oversize hands and feet. Against the wishes of his best friend, and the Indian community, Arnold decides to leave the local high school and head to the rich white high school Reardan. His tale is illustrated with his cartoons.

Does this sound like a funny book? Well, Sherman Alexi's character is funny! The voice of the 14 year old is realistic and the content is spot on for this age group. But this is tempered with the racist prejudice that Arnold faces, and the very real problems of the rez- alcoholism, poverty, hunger, loss of cultural identity and so on. Overall though, this is a book with heart, and I can see both boys and girls enjoying reading about such an unfamiliar world. The friendship between Arnold and Randy is lovely and real.

Overall, I think this would be a great book for thirteen year olds. And in Australia, it could lead to discussion about our treatment of and attitudes towards our Aboriginal people.

Happy tales.

Barking Owl


It looks like a wild and windy night, perfect for cuddling up with a book :)

BooK Hoot #15 Tender Morsels

**spoiler alert**

Margo Lanagan's controversial fantasy has a very dark start. Liga is abused by her father, sexually and psychologically, but out of this horror comes a beautiful daughter, Branza. As if this isn't enough, she is then raped resulting in another daughter Urdda. The three live and heal in a place which is on the edge of what we would consider the 'real' world. Both of these worlds are nudging and tearing though, and there is movement between them from some minor characters. And a lot of bears!

This sort of text is not my usual cup of tea, but I found it strangely compelling. I wanted to know that life would be better for Liga and the girls. And I thought the writing was poetic and beautiful. Lanagan constructs a dialect which goes to making the world of the text fascinating. It is certainly an original fairytale, borrowing from Grimm's and like those shows just how cruel and unjust life can be. There are moments of tenderness, as the title suggests, and these are poignant and a relief.

Would I recommend this to teenagers? Well, yes. Older ones, who can cope with the darkness. Or those who like fantasy. It is an honest and brutal tale that has much to say.

And as for the controversy, fairy tales are not sweet nor Disneyesque. There are clear signs on the back that this is not a children's book. I hope most adults who are complaining about this text also stop their kids watching crime dramas, or playing violent games. If you don't want this stuff in your head, then you've every right to not read/ watch.

And what a beautiful cover! The artist's work can be seen here.

happy tales,
Barking Owl

Get with the program!

There's an article in the NY Times about a 'revolutionary' idea- letting kids pick their own reading materials for class.

So. not. new.

“What child is going to pick up ‘Moby-Dick’?” said Diane Ravitch, a professor of education at New York University who was assistant education secretary under President George H. W. Bush. “Kids will pick things that are trendy and popular. But that’s what you should do in your free time.”

Seriously.

How can we NOT foster a love of reading? I think that's my primary role! (That and teaching possessive apostrophe rules...)


And Meg Cabot agrees.

b00k H00t #14 The Other Side OF The Island

Yes, another dystopian YA novel on the list for year nines. But this is my favourite yet! It is eighteen years after "enclosure", the world as we know it has been flooded, presumably due to global warming, and there is only a series of numbered islands left. "Earth Mother" who is in charge of the Corporation, has enclosed some islands to control their weather, and the people's minds!

Allegra Goodman's combines globalisation and global warming in her dark vision for our potential future. The writing is tight and pacy and there's certainly much to be discussed in terms of language choice and her extrapolation of current global events. For example, the punishment for not filling out forms correctly is 24 hours of "Persuasive Reasoning and Positive Reinforcement" and the potential loss of teeth. As in all the best dystopian texts, the price of freedom is pain.


Honor (all the children in her birth year have names beginning with 'h') and her parents move to island 365 where there is New Weather and all people are controlled down to their jobs, housing and reproductive rights. Sound familiar? This totalitarian scenario has been seen before in texts, and of course in our world. The complications come when Honor's family defy the rules- even her name isn't really complying, and they begin to fight back. Of course along the way Honor tries to fit in with this new order.

I can't recommend this one highly enough. Speculative fiction has an important place in the classroom and in our lives, it always has. There are subtleties that adults will enjoy. For example: the Corporation are in the process of 'ceiling' the world; there are hotels just visible beneath the ocean and there's one memorable scene with a lone polar bear which reminded me of the scene from An Inconvenient Truth.

I think teenagers will lap this one up- and Honor certainly kicks some corporation ass!

Happy reading,

Barking Owl

No Blyton-esque endings- but where's the hope?

There's an interesting article over at Guardian books blog about Anne Fine's comments at the Edinborough international book festival (how cool would that be?!)

It raises some of the issues that I'm interested in, namely the fine line between reality and despair.

Recently as a faculty we were discussing just this problem; we want students to read realistic texts, that are gritty and deal with issues worth discussion, BUT we also want them to retain a sense of hope. If you're being fed texts about the end of the earth in English, then moving to science to learn about global warming and then to social studies to learn about overpopulation, then you can see why some of them have such a bleak outlook.

And is it our place as English teachers to raise these issues?

I'm about to read Tender Morsels which has been so controversial in the UK this summer.

Watch this space :)

BooK H00t # 13 Life As We Knew It

I loves me a good disaster book and Life As We Knew It delivered in spades, BUT it also had a feisty female protagonist and that made the read all the better for me.

The disaster that initiates the apocalypse in this novel is that the moon has been hit by a meteor and has been knocked closer to earth. This causes all sorts of cataclysmic events such as tsunamis, volcanic activity and climate change. The family's response to this forms the bulk of the novel.

Miranda is 16 and is preoccupied with all the things readers and viewers of American texts will recognise: prom, grade point average, friendships and budding romance. Her father has remarried and is expecting a new baby, and Miranda's response to this modern, but common, family composition will be a point of recognition for many readers. Over the course of the text she moves from the typical self-centered, argumentative teenager to someone who will do anything to ensure that her younger brother (at least) will survive.

Susan Beth Pfeffer tells the story in diary entries from Miranda's perspective. She has captured an authentic teenage voice with all the complaining, angst and arguments that will certainly ring true with teenagers, and those who live or work with them! Her relationship with her mother is an example of this- she loves her, she hates her, they fight hammer and tongs. I'm just grateful that the mother character isn't killed off! So much of this relationship forms the heart of the novel, and I found it both realistic and moving.

If you were to compare this disaster novel to some of the adult versions of the genre, then it is probably closest to Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which I loved. BUT the humanity in this text is completely different: the doctor character remains working in the local hospital when most are fleeing; people volunteer in the post office; teachers try to keep the schools open and the community shares when they can afford to. There is also lovely relationship with an older woman.

My one gripe is with the representation of faith. The church and its representatives are certainly not shown positively, and the character who chooses to starve herself to be closer to God is one I could have done without. I think discussing this in a christian school might be tricky.

This is the first in a trilogy, and like The Hunger Games, I'm hooked.

If after reading this, teenagers can get an appreciation for the little things in life, like hot showers and electricity, then that can only be a good thing!

Happy tales, and don't forget to stock up on the canned beans, *just in case!*

Barking Owl