The Cardturner, more from me

Some readers (Sam B) have teased me about how Holes was not one of my favorite Newbery's, but I speak from my point of view.  I think it might be a book that appeals more to boys (my brother likes it more than me).  But, the teasing was good because it lead me to read The Cardturner, which I loved. I loved it so much that I wanted to learn to play bridge, lucky for me a friend of my dad's, Mrs. Testin, is a life master.  She recently retired and together with some ladies in her neighborhood is teaching me to play.  I had to laugh when I read that Betsy Bird of FUSE #8 asked, "why a person would want to read a children’s book on playing bridge".  Bridge is the perfect game to write and read about because there are lots of things to think about in this game.  Another interesting thing about this book is that I am finding people who have never read a children's book before (or at least not as adults) are really liking it.  This book crosses ages, if I included more than 5 titles in my Mock Newbery group this would have been a great book to include.  I think lots of kids are like Betsy and might think at first this topic would not interest them, but The Cardturner would quickly change their minds!

The Cardturner

This is for Sam B from Cincinnati, who was very unhappy with my low ranking of Louis Sachar's Newbery winner, Holes.  Sam, I gave Louis another chance and found a great book.  I read The Card Turner in about 48 hours; it is the kind of book you don't want to put down.  I liked reading about the game of bridge in this story, and I hope to learn how to play.  Bridge is becoming so scarcely know that I had barely even heard of the game (my grandparents play), but now that I know it exists, I want to play.  Anyways, this was a great book and I think that it has a fairly good chance at being the Newbery.  It is SO hard to eliminate any!!!

Rating:  *****

Also (this has nothing to do with the book), I am in the car driving to DC with my family for ALA.

Holes

This one was odd, but a little enjoyable. I sort of felt bad for the boy because it wasn't his fault (Stanley, the main character, gets sent to a juvenile detention camp when he finds a pair of shoes that someone stole from Clyde "Sweet Feet" Livingston). It was a little hard to read, not lots of hard words hard, but you don't really want to know what happens hard. This book was alright, but not too great.


Rating: ***