Aidan Chambers

I read this for the first time in Italian when i was 12 and my parents bought it for me without knowing what was inside (DO NOT buy it for your kids), and it is honestly the book that i best remember from my past.
The protagonist, Cordelia, is pregnant and wants to give her daughter a book that she wrote, following her life from when she was sixteen to the present. So we follow along the life of this teenager who wants to grow up, maybe quicker than necessary, having her first boyfriend and losing her virginity. Then a few major plot twist will happen but obviously no spoilers! So yeah, it is a very graphic book considering the amount of sex talk, but it's not crude or gross, it actually feels pretty natural.
Hands down, the best thing about it is the characterization of Cordelia, written by a man but so realistic that it kinda scares me at times. (Oh btw it's 850 pages, soooo...) I mean I just have very fond memories about this book, and I really really recommend it. It's full of wisdom and it makes you feel more in contact with reality (makes sense?)… (mehr)

This book (which is actually two books, at least the version I read), mostly deals with how to get children to read and how to get kids to talk about what they've read ... which isn't really relevant to my life at all. I don't hang out with kids, I don't want kids, and I don't work with kids. Even so, it was interesting.

Actually, it made me think about reading, how I read, and what made me a reader as a child. I have no answers though, but maybe that's not always necessary. This year I read more than the past three years combined, but I can't tell you what was different, just that something was. The same way I can't tell what made me such an active reader, while my siblings barely read at all. I don't think book discussions had anything to do with it: I can't remember having participating in those at all when I was younger. Maybe that's a shame.

I did like one quote though, about how a lot of people don't read for pleasure. They read right before bed in the evening, so they can fall asleep, but that's not because they find it particularly enjoying or anything. It was an interesting observation I've never really made before, but it also makes sense: a lot of people that read a lot (myself included) can't really read before bed because we get too into it and stay up way too late. It's dangerous.

Anyway, my sister is studying to be a teacher for young children, I maye have to force this book upon her.… (mehr)