Cathy the Librarian

I FINISHED three books:

Runaways (2 & 3)
Little Long Nose

I read, but did not finish:

Abarat
The Summer Tree
A Dogs Life
The Ordinary Princess
Jennifer Government

I love the Runaways series, and you can read my review here.

I also loved Little Long Nose. The book itself was in a compact format perfect for a pocket. The illustrations were gorgeous although tiny. The plot was neat and made me glad that I still read children’s books.

The book is about a young boy who helps his mom at her vegetable stand. He will help people bring the vegetables to their houses and in turn will give him eggs, flowers or whatever they can manage.

An old woman comes by, checking out the herbs and vegetables and complaining loudly. The young boy yells at her for her opinions and also makes fun of her appearance. She tells him that he will regret his words, and makes him carry six huge cabbages to her house. He takes them in and she offers him some delicious soup, which he greedily eats. After that things get pretty crazy, and not in a good way.

I’m listening to Jennifer Government, and its the next book for my teen book discussion group. It’s VERY interesting. Its a futuristic book where large companies have taken over and people are basically “owned” by the company they work for. If you work for Nike, your name would become, Cathy Nike. Since I work for a government agency, my name would be, Cathy Government. The USA is the most powerful nation in the world, but the government is nearly powerless. In order to do anything, you need money. Lots and lots of money.

The Summer Tree and Abarat are both fantasy, which I must say, I’m quite partial to. I actually read The Summer Tree years ago, but its one of those books that you remember vaguely and want to read again.

The Summer Tree is a alternative universe kind of fantasy, in which some college students are transported to a magical world of kings and umm.. magic. They find themselves in a world in turmoil, and learn that they each have their own purpose to set the world right.

Abarat is about a teenager that is unhappy with her life in a hog farm dominated town. She’s tired of the desolate area, tired of the smell, and tired of being lonely. She goes off into the desert to find something interesting, and gets more than she bargained for. She helps a strange skinny man, and an ocean appears, taking her to unusual places.

A Dog’s Life is a book as seen from the perspective of a dog that grew up wild and travels in order to find a place that she can call home. The book is well-written and you truly feel like the dog is talking to you. I’ve had it for a while now, and I am amazed that I haven’t finished it yet, because I really do like it.

Unlike all the others, which I have almost finished, I have only read about one chapter of The Ordinary Princess, so I don’t think its really fair to you to even talk about it.

I really enjoyed the weekend, and even though I didn’t get to read as much as I hoped, my family knew that I was taking on this challenge, and they would call me and make sure that I was actually reading like I was supposed to. What a supportive family I have!