The Graveyard Book

You may be familiar with Neil Gaiman as the author of Coraline but I never read that - or saw the movie. I came across this title when I was reading some reviews and it sounded like something I might like. It's weird - a boy living in a graveyard - but fun and very believable (as long as you enjoy fantasy).

The Sea of Trolls

Young adult fiction. If you enjoy reading about Saxons & Northmen in 793 - and runes, trolls, beserkers, druids, bards, skalds, and frost giants, then you will love this book. I thought it a lot of fun and I've already started the 2nd book of the series, The Land of the Silver Apples.

There's a lot of action, a lot of fantasy and I found it well-written.

Brett McCarthy: Work in Progress by Maria Padian

This is the first book by Dad's cousin, Maria Padian. She lives in Maine in the same town as your cousin Matt Stuart. This is a young adult book with the main character the age of 14.

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The book is organized into 45 chapters, each one with a new vocabulary word. The word is listed at the top of each chapter and then described later in the chapter. I found this to be very irritating. I could overlook the chapter being defined by a vocabulary word but I found having the description in the chapter itself (rather than at the top with the chapter title) to be distracting.

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So, I had to force myself to read this book. I decided on reading a chapter a night. Even so, I would have dropped it after a few chapters had it not been written by a Padian. By the time I got to about page 50, I found I was enjoying the book and the characters and I was reading a few chapters each night. Before long, I left my latest mystery book sitting at the bedside table while I read this book! Overall, I really liked it - the story, the characters, how everything was tied up but also very believable. It was a good book and very enjoyable once you really get into it.

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I have a copy (given to me by Marna) so if you want to borrow it, just let me know. :)