Number One: Educating Esme by Esme Raji Codell. Awesome! Amazing! Really funny! It's the diary of a first year teacher in Chicago. It's a beautiful book, and the ending is my favorite part. It makes me want to be a teacher more than I already do. Esme is twenty four, with a class of thirty one students. The book starts with Esme attending a funeral, which is a great example of starting in media res. Esme does all manner of crazy things with her class - including roller skating and doing an Indian dance through the hallways. A book I think any reader would like, especially teachers and those who want to be teachers. Warning: it's in the teen section for a reason!
Number Two: Wise Child by Monica Furlong. Another good book - I haven't finished it yet, and I've never read it before. It's about a ten year old named Wise Child in the medieval ages, in Scotland. She's training to be a doran, which is a fancy word (in Gaelic) for a healer and practicer of magic. At the moment, Wise Child is learning about herbology from her mentor, Juniper.
Number Three: The Odyssey. I just finished reading book eight, and it leaves you on a cliffhanger. I think I'm going to like this part of the Odyssey much better than the Telemachy. I think that Homer describes everything way too much, but the story is really cool. I like the queen that Odysseus just met - I think her name is Arete. I also like Odysseus much better than Telemachus, because Odysseus seems more honorable and intelligent.
Did anyone else notice that the Telemachy is Telemachus' name with a y instead of a us, just like the Odyssey and Odysseus?
Question-Is Educating Esme based on the author's life or is it fictional? It sounds like it could be either, so I want to know! (Oh yes, nice fish!)
ReplyDeleteEducating Esme is her direct diary, so it is autobiography nonfiction. Thank you about my fish - I like them too.
ReplyDeleteQuestion for you: can other people feed my fish, or just me?