On behalf of Wendy, Kevin, Laura, and myself, we unanimously vote through Bomb to the final round without any debate. We all agreed that Bomb would be a great choice for students who prefer reading non-fiction, as it was accessible, fun to read, and made history interesting.
We found More Than This to be a little too far out there and at times repetitive and overly long. After 500 pages of Seth trying to figure out what the heck was going on, having the book end without ever finding out if he made it back to his old (or real?...) life was disappointing. It would have been nice to see some more resolution for the various issues he struggled with throughout the story. I don't see many junior high students sticking with this book until the end, but perhaps it would fare better with an older audience.
Also, is it just me, or have there been a lot of books this round where the parents in the story are either absent (mentally or physically), too heavily medicated/high to know what's going on, or too absorbed in their own careers/problems/appearances to properly look after their children? I don't know about the other books, but this has been the case so far in More Than This, Leonard Peacock, Ask the Passengers, and The Book of Blood and Shadow. I don't know what to make of it or if it even matters, but I just thought I'd mention it!
This from Robin: I totally agree!! I, too, found More Than This too "out there" and I was confused a lot of the time. I really hated all the horrid things these kids had had to face in their lives. There is too much of this going on in real life for me to want to deal with this issue is some strange sort of sci-fi after-life. I just finished The Bomb last night and sure learned a lot! Thanks for posting.
ReplyDelete