It seems that some people really like horror/occult/supernatural stories
and others don’t. So it was with our group. One of our members likes that sort
of story, but didn’t love The
Diviners. She felt it was too long, included too much extraneous stuff, that
the events of the first chapter were never addressed again in the story, and
that the ending was “like a belly flop in a pool.” One person thought the
characterizations were excellent, but a few others felt that the opposite was
true…that they didn’t really care about Evie or some of the other main
characters. We all agreed that from a historical point of view it was very
accurate and enlightening as to the “Flapper” era in New York, and all of the
political and social issues that were occurring there at that time. We all felt
that there was a great deal of unnecessary gore, and wondered what that was
supposed to add to the total story. Many of us felt that a lot of the story seemed contrived, and since it
seems to be the beginning of a trilogy or maybe even a series, the author could
have held off on her expositions on a lot of issues. It was a looonnnnnngggg
book!
Art and Max by David Wiesner:
Our picture book, Art and Max,
brought up a good discussion on the purpose of picture books. We all agreed that
this book would not be thrilling for a group of wiggly four-year-olds sitting
cross-legged on a carpet for a library story hour. We also determined that it is
the sort of book that needs to be looked at very carefully and also thoroughly
discussed…since the real premise seems to be ‘What is art and who gets to make
it?’ which might be a bit nebulous for younger children to recognize, much less
understand, without some guidance from an adult. It would be a great book to
introduce concepts of art to older kids…even in high school, and it would
certainly fit into the ‘Picture Books for Older Readers’ category. We agreed
that the illustrations were excellent, and that the more you look at it, the
more you notice interesting details…which is always a big plus for a picture
book.
