6 posts tagged “fiction”
I can't understand why so many people, particularly men, seem to look down their noses at fiction. Theories and hard facts are all very well in their place but the world also needs people with vision and imagination and I think reading fiction helps to encourage this.
This is not a very good photograph (in fact it is quite atrocious) but I wanted to get a photo of myself at the exact time I was listening to a my Vox neighbour, Renee (aka Elentari), doing her segment on The Read Carpet podcast (which just happened to be when I was on a busy peak hour train). I really enjoyed the whole podcast (apart from the bits I couldn't really hear because of the sound quality) and was impressed with what a smart and articulate young woman Renee is. There were some other great segments on the podcast which I would highly recommend to anyone interested in Young Adult literature. You can even download it free from iTunes (which is what I did).
My results:
At the moment the results are split:
You are JACK TRENT of the Adventure series. Brave, independent and a bit of a dreamer, you hunger for adventure and love a challenge. You don't mind roughing it and would be happy to go travelling in remote regions, enjoying nature and wildlife. Follow your heart by all means, but weigh things up carefully before putting yourself — and perhaps others too — in unnecessary danger.
Recommended reading: The Adventurous Four
You are ALICIA JOHNS of the Malory Towers series. Bright and quick-witted, things come to you easily and you enjoy life to the full. You are brimming over with enthusiasm and ideas and you have a daredevil streak, which makes life fun for those around you. You don't always work as hard as you could but you still manage to achieve good results, and an element of competition will always spur you on to do your best. Impatience is your downfall — you are so quick yourself that you easily become irritated with those who are slower. Try to bite your tongue and give people more of a chance!
Recommended reading: Fifth Formers of St. Clare's
I am not familiar with Jack Trent but was a huge fan of the Malory Towers and St Clares series. I thought a boarding school in England sounded like the best fun ever! My husband's 10yo niece is currently devouring all the Famous Five books. I might see if I can find some Adventurous Four books for her. It is a pity so many of the books are now out of print. One that had a particular effect on me as a child was one of my mother's books called Hollow Tree House. It was extremely dark for an Enid Blyton and I think was out of print even back when I read it in the 1970s. I recently managed to find a second hand copy on ebay and re-read it and was quite surprised at some of the themes, eg, covering things like child abuse, neglect and divorce. The Enid Blyton Society website has a review of it here.
but would prefer something a bit more well written, try this Carnegie Award winning novel by New Zealand writer, Margaret Mahy. It is really fantastic and just a taste of what this writer has to offer.
From the Amazon website:
Product Description
"When three-year-old Jacko is stricken with a baffling illness, his teenage sister Laura, a 'sensitive,' is the only one to recognize that demonic possession is the true cause of his malady. . . . The beautiful characters grow with readers and the style is beautiful but ornate. An extraordinarily rich and sensitive novel."--School Library Journal, starred review. Winner of the Carnegie Medal; ALA Notable Book; ALA Best Book for Young Adults; School Library Journal Best Book of the Year; Booklist Editor's Choice.
Thought you might be interested in this book by an Australian Young Adult writer (and lawyer), Randa Abdel-Fattah:
I actually prefer the Australian cover of this as the girl on the front looks more like a normal school girl (rather than a fashion model). It is about an Australian teenage girl who decides to wear hijab full time and all the trials and tribulations she experiences along the way. It is not the best written young adult novel I have ever read (ie, is quite reminiscent of another Australian novel Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta) but is still an entertaining and interesting read and quite valuable in that it explores a particular issue of identity in a way that anyone can relate to. It has been very popular with both Muslim and non-Muslim girls in Australia so that has to be a good thing.
Interestingly (and probably disappointingly for a lot of Australian Muslim women), I saw an interview with Randa Abdel-Fattah a few years after this book was released and it seems that she is no longer wearing hijab herself as she felt it would hinder her career in the legal profession - quite the opposite of what Amal's journey is all about.
Still a good read for anyone who enjoys young adult fiction and/or would like to know more about the practice of wearing hijab and the challenges of being true to ones cultural and religious identity in a place where you are in the minority.
What book are you reading right now?
I am really enjoying this. It is kind of an anti-autobiography, ie, she will launch into some interesting tale that you think is about her life and then at the end say "Actually, that didn't happen at all. It might have though". I have read a few of her novels before including this one and loved them. She is a very clever and restrained writer and has what I regard to be a very English sense of humour. They are good books to linger over, not devour in one sitting.
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