The Wanderer by Sharon Creech

Book Interview with Gloriana

Miss Blessing:  What jumps out at you about this book?

Gloriana:  Characters that become alive and character growth.  Sophie goes sailing for England with her two cousins and her uncles.  Sophie’s mom says that she thinks Sophie will have a lot of fun with her cousin Brian, who is sort of a know-it-all boy, and that she’s afraid Sophie might learn some bad habits from her cousin Cody.  When Sophie gets to the boat, Brian is sort of an annoying boy, and Cody is unfocused all the time, but he is so happy, rolling with the punches and making her laugh.  Cody is sort of out of control with his silliness, but he grows through the book to use his fun in the right way.  Your impression of Cody really changes from crazy and clownish to the kind of friend you would want to have.

If these three main characters walked into the room right now, I would know them right away because of the way Sharon Creech makes them come alive.

Miss Blessing:  If you were going to give a commercial to get people to read this book, what would it be?

Gloriana:  Interesting!  It never bores you!  There’s always something new happening!  The characters are fascinating in the way they think, each one of them in a different way!

Miss Blessing:  What else do you want us to know?

Gloriana:  Sophie is clever and can change the subject whenever she wants to.  When anyone says something insulting or that she doesn’t want to talk about, she says something like, “Look at that amazing tree!” or “I wonder if you can throw a rock farther than me.”  She is strong.

At the same time, she admires the way Cody laughs at himself when people make fun of him.  When someone said he would be a good wife someday because he is good at cooking, he answered, “Mr. Mom at your service!”  I would like to be able to handle things with humor like that.

Miss Blessing:  Give us a cliffhanger to capture us.

Gloriana:  Sophie dreams of a wave, a huge dark wave, but always wakes up before she gets hit with the water.  She wakes up with her mouth ready to scream.  Now go read this book!

Would you like a few good laughs this summer?  Dylan stopped by the school today to recommend Diary of a Wimpy Kid:  Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney.

Dylan says, “I chose this book because Brandon, Collin, and I came up with the idea of reading all of the books in this series.  I read the first one, and it was really good, which got me into all the other ones.

I like how it is comedy.  It made me laugh because it is a diary about Greg’s life and it looks like his journal.  He might tell about school or home, and there are at least fifteen funny scenes in each book.  I like how the book uses cartoons, little lines without any color, and they are funny too.

I remember in one of the books Greg’s friend Riley was playing a game with his new bicycle.  Greg would throw the ball, and it would go right by.  One time it went in front of the front wheel, and Riley flipped completely over and broke his arm.  Then all the girls liked him because he had hurt himself and they felt bad for him.

Every one of the books seem to get better and better, and Rodrick Rules is especially good because it talks about Rodrick more than the other books do.  Find a good reading spot and try a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book!”

When I was in fourth grade, my favorite tales were ones like My Side of the Mountain, where a young person ventures out independently, using his or her own creativity to solve problems.  If you like that too, try Lionboy, by Zizou Corder.

In Lionboy, Charlie sets out to find his kidnapped parents, using his special gift of being able to speak Cat to help him.  He ends up traveling in a circus through France, with many suspenseful moments along the way.

My niece is in a cat mood these days, so she chose the book for me to read along with her.  It got me interested enough to read all three books in the series, with its mixture of realistic adventure, fantasy, and science fiction.  It fascinated me that the author Zizou Corder is an adult and child writing together.  I also enjoyed some of the leisurely description sprinkled into the action, such as “the wide, empty mudflats and saltmarshes, where the light hung like gauze, and the silvery grasses rippled, and the tiny voices of hundreds of invisible birds carried over the water, mingling with the rush of the river beneath the little boat’s hull.” (p. 50)  My favorite part of the book is his relationship with the lions he meets at a circus and the solution he finds to their problem of longing to be free again.