Reading and Eating

Since I already have a foodie blog, this one will be for the other love of my life... books! I have been a voracious reader since childhood (about Kindergarten) and have finally fulfilled my lifelong dream to become a librarian (and a public librarian, to boot, which was my ultimate goal!). I work with young adults (a.k.a. teens) in Virginia, which means most of my current reading is YA literature. However, I try to find time to read, "adult" titles, so once in a while I will blog about them here as well! I hope visitors to this blog will post about their own favorite titles and respond if they've read the same ones. Recommendations are always welcomd!!

This week, I've been listening to a Juvenile book, actually, as part of my job on the Mock Newbery Committee at our library system. I finished, "Bird Lake Moon," by Kevin Henkes last night. It was an audio book and since I have a short commute, it took me a little while to finish. It is the story of two boys going through difficult times, who meet through coincidence at Bird Lake. Twelve-year-old Mitch and his mother are staying at his grandparents' house after his father left them for another woman. Ten-year-old Spencer, whose older brother, Matt, drowned at the lake eight years ago, is visiting the house with his family as they try to decide whether or not the tragedy will affect their ability to live or vacation there. As Mitch tries to deal with his parents' impending divorce, he falls in lovce with Spencer's family's house, and struggles with the seemingly-perfect family live they also enjoy.

Bird Lake Moon was really good in the beginning - great character development and very descriptive, especially with regards to the setting and people's actions. However, by about two-thirds of the way through, I was ready for it to be over with. I don't know if it was the reader (Oliver Wyman) that was the problem (his different character voices, especially Lolly's, the little sister, began to grate on me), or that the ending was just dragged out. A nice story about friendship, but not much action. The moon (part of the title) seems to get thrown in at the end of the book. On my rating scale of 1-4 stars, I give this about a 2 1/2, maybe three.