Misty of Chincoteague, by Marguerite Henry
Started 02.26.20 • Finished 03.24.20 / 5 stars
"this story is about a boy and a girl who catch a horse no one had ever caught. She races against another horse named Black Comet. The Phantom won. Sometime later they let her go."
Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
Started 03.05.20 • Finished 03.24.20 / 5 stars
How much do you trade to defeat lonesomeness?
This book has been recommended to me many times over by trusted reader friends. I was so glad to pick it up after my last book. And it turned out it provided a good contrast. Whereas Unsheltered spoke about nature in a way that was tedious, Where the Crawdads Sing brought nature to life in an especially beautiful way.
She knew it wasn't Chase she mourned, but a life defined by rejections. As the sky and clouds struggled overhead, she said out loud, "I have to do life alone. But I knew this. I've known a long time that people don't stay."
Owens also wrote about loneliness in a way that was heartbreaking but resonating. Kya's story as a whole is a sad one, marked by grievous abandonment and shattering abuse. But she is exceptionally resilient and continues to find ways to move on with her life, finding solace in the land she has come to love, and helps the reader to fall in love with as well.
Faces change with life's toll, but eyes remain a window to what was, and she could see him there.
I'd rather not give away the end of the book, but I will say that it's a book about love and loss in many forms, and about what that those kinds of losses can lead a person to do and not do. I highly recommend it.
A Single Shard, by Linda Sue Park
Started 02.26.20 • Finished 03.20.20 / 5 stars
"Two things a man never grows tired of watching," he heard Crane-man say in his mind. "Fire and falling water. Always the same, yet always changing."
"The story is of a young boy who becomes an [apprentice] of a potter. He has to get wood and clay for him. One day the emissary comes to the village to examine the creation of the potters in the town and give a commission. Tree-ear, the boy who is apprenticed to potter Min has to make a long journey to where the emissary lives and show him two vases that Min made. Along the way he runs into [thieves] who break both vases. He finds the biggest shard of one [and] keeps it to show the emissary. At the end potter Min gets a commission." - Timothy, age 11
We are afraid of the things we do not know -- just because we do not know them...
"This story is about a young man named Tree-ear. He lives on a bridge with his friend, Crane man. Tree-ear decides to work for potter Min. He has to deliver some of Min's work to the palace. Robbers break it, though. So he brings a single shard to the palace." - Neph, age 9
There were some things that could not be molded into words.