I received Night Gardener before Christmas break and was
very excited by the cover. I’m not going
to lie; I judge books by their cover. It
doesn't stop me from reading them, but like all those with preteen mentality…I
prejudge. The creepy night man on the
front and the black pages…as Dia said I love creepy. And this book would be creepy for div 2 or 3
students! It’s not a Children of Wolves
novel, which teetered on psychotic. Instead,
it’s a beautiful mix of magic, history (I love me some Irish history), and childhood
nightmares. I couldn't get over Jonathan’s description of
the setting; he built this whole world that I could see the characters weave through. I even wrote down some excerpts to use with
my class for creating mood through setting.
Jonathan also had these amazing characters. He did an incredible job of including accent
in dialogue. I loved hearing Molly’s
Irish accent and Bertrand’s stutter come to life as I read. I may be dating myself here, but my mother
game me Something Wicked This Way Comes when I was in junior high and I
devoured that book. They both shared the
lesson that you should appreciate what you have and that things may seem like a
gift but there is a price to pay. I was
interested to read how Jonathan was inspired to write this book Ray Bradbury’s
book! Maybe this is why I enjoyed Night
Gardener so much.
Aviary Wonder…was okay.
I read it in 10 minutes. I loved
the colors and the sarcasm ( or at least I read sarcasm in the message). I did appreciate the author’s attempt to
create a futuristic world where you could order birds, because they've been
eradicated. Don’t get me wrong, I love picture books. Anyone who knows me understands my obsession
with Shaun Tan. There just wasn't
anything in the book to hold my attention or some deep moral issue that
resonated with me like Tan’s books. I
don’t have much to say on the book, because there wasn't much to read. So…. Night
Gardener reigns as champion for this round in my record keeping journal.
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