Friday, March 12, 2010

A few more books...

I have read a couple of books that have been sitting on my "to read" shelf for a long time. Down the Rabbit Hole is an Echo Falls mystery. I had some concerns about the content for my level of students. The book reminds me quite a bit of Nancy Drew, but there are a couple of things that have me keeping the book in my office instead of putting it out in the library. It was Peter Abraham's first "kids" book, but I fail to understand why it was necessary to bring up the idea of fetish with a 13-year-old character. In terms of my own pleasure reading, The book was great. Ingrid, our heroine, loves Sherlock Holmes and finds herself wrapped up in a murder mystery - the first in her sleepy little town. It was a pretty good mystery, though a little obvious to the experienced reader who the villain was. I'm still undecided on if my 4th & 5th graders are ready for it.

I finally dug in to Chasing Lincoln's Killer. I downloaded the audio book from Audible and that made it a lot more interesting. The narrator had such an amazing way of pulling you in. You almost understand (though not agree with) why John Wilkes Booth did what he did. After a little bit, I realized that the narrator sounded a bit like the coach from Remember the Titans. After looking it up, I found out that, yes, Will Patton was the narrator for the book. No wonder he was so good at it! While the story was very interesting (I didn't know there was another assassination attempt that night), Patton's delivery of the audio book made it truly riveting. I got goosebumps when we reached Booth's death scene. There is a bit of graphic detail regarding Lincoln and Seward's injuries, but it's approached with almost a medical detail. It does not come across as gratuitous. I think once I pry the book out of my teachers' hands, my students, especially my boys, will enjoy it.

For a quick read, I got The Viper's Nest, Book 7 in the 39 Clues series. I'm enjoying the series, but very interested to see where we are going to get all the rest of the clues from! :-D I can't wait to pick up Book 8, The Emperor's Code.

I'm out of Audible credits - and have been for a week. I won't get more until the 21st! I requested some audiobooks from the library, but they haven't become available and the mp3 player I have to use with them is not the best. I might have to break down and pay for another audiobook. I get so much more "read" when I get to use the hour or so I have in the car everyday to do it!