Back to the books

After 31 days blogging for the Slice of Life Challenge with the Two Writing Teachers, I am back to writing about books. And I have an excellent one for you today. If you haven’t read it yet, go oust asap and get a copy of Pax by Sara Pennypacker.

I got an arc of this in Boston, but only got around the reading it over Spring Break.

Right from the opening I was hooked. In fact, I started it at school during silent reading and was so enthralled by the opening paragraph that I read it aloud to my class.

Publisher’s Summary:From bestselling and award-winning author Sara Pennypacker comes a beautifully wrought, utterly compelling novel about the powerful relationship between a boy and his fox. Pax is destined to become a classic, beloved for generations to come.

Pax and Peter have been inseparable ever since Peter rescued him as a kit. But one day, the unimaginable happens: Peter’s dad enlists in the military and makes him return the fox to the wild.

At his grandfather’s house, three hundred miles away from home, Peter knows he isn’t where he should be—with Pax. He strikes out on his own despite the encroaching war, spurred by love, loyalty, and grief, to be reunited with his fox.

Meanwhile Pax, steadfastly waiting for his boy, embarks on adventures and discoveries of his own. . . .

Although very different, Pax reminds me a lot of that heart book of mine, The One and Only Ivan. Told through alternating chapters, with one strand following 12-year-old Peter and the other Pax, we see each of them grow as they try to find their way back to each other. Peter makes an actual journey, while Pax waits steadfastly. Pennypacker’s writing is beautifully poetic and fable-like. This book is grimmer than The One and Only Ivan, but the beauty of the cover is found in the honey of the prose.

 

BORING? Subversive!

Meet the Dullards. Their home is boring. Their food is plain. Their lives are monotonous. And Mr. and Mrs. Dullard like it that way.

But their children–Blanda, Borely, and Little Dud–have other ideas. . . .

Mr. & Mrs. Dullard decide to move when their children show a spark of color. Literally. But no matter what they do, the children keep rebelling against the life of dullness their parents have mapped out for them. They refuse to watch the paint dry.

As they are unpacking in their new home, a friendly neighbor stops by with a house warming gift.

“‘Welcome to the neighborhood,’ she said. ‘I baked you an applesauce cake!’
‘Please don’t use exclamation marks in front of our children.'”

This is the sort of humor infused into the book. Some of it might be a little more advanced than the readers who are most likely to pick up this book, but this also make it the sort of picture book that older readers can enjoy as a mentor test.

I really enjoyed Daniel Salmieri’s illustrations which capture the dullness and vibrancy of the Dullard family.