Wonder by R.J. Palacio

why: book club and also I wanted to read this with my daughter.

when: start 8/3/13 end 8/17/13

how: As an ebook on my ipad (purchased as always from the local independent book store). And this is the first ebook my kid has read--normally she likes books with actual pages and stuff, but I convinced her to try this one on the screen.

thoughts: I loved this book. Just loved it. Take a wonderful child with a severe facial deformity who has been home schooled his whole life and send him to middle school. What happens? Well, that's what this book is about. It shows the courage of young people, both through the main character Auggie's experiences and through his friends' fierce devotion to him (even though some are slow to come around).

Click on the book image to get to information about the book from the author's website.

review haiku:
we can be so mean
met by of something different
accept--and we grow

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

why: Jane asked me to read this to her (I haven't read a book to her for a long time! She reads on her own voraciously, but for some reason, she wanted me to read this one to her).

when: start 6/3, end 7/10

how: The photo is of my copy of this book that I've had since I was a child. Jane found it on her book case and asked me to read it to her. So I've read some to her at bed time when she gets to bed early enough for that. I also read a lot of this to her (and to the husband as well) while we were driving to and from Montana this summer.

thoughts: Such a great story. I haven't read it since I was a kid--yet it's just as vivid and wonderful now as it was then. It's amazing how clearly I do remember much of this book even though it has been so many years!

Click on the book image to get to the wikipedia entry on the book.

review haiku:
all is lost to Sara
but she doesn't change herself
and finds it all again