This made me so happy!

So, I've been reading the Secret of Rover to my 12-year old son every night before bed. It's an adventure story with quite a few edge of your seat, nail-biting moments. He is enjoying the book. But, that isn't news really.

What surprised me was the reaction of my oh-so-grown-up teenage daughter. She "hates reading" and hasn't let me read to her for several years. Well, she was in the bathroom and overheard me reading to her brother. And, she was hooked. She actually wanted to listen to the story; she wanted to see what would happen next. So much so that the three of us ended up sitting in my bed reading together. And, she begged me to continue reading even after her brother fell asleep.

I have often told her that she will enjoy reading if she just finds the right book. I am hoping that she will realize how much fun reading is and maybe at least, she will start enjoying audiobooks.

For someone who loves to read as much as I do, having a daughter who claims to hate reading borders on intolerable...

Original post: readingismyescape.booklikes.com/post/1260244/this-made-me-so-happy

A child's perspective...

Review:

Like every grandmother, Dounia was once a little girl herself.

Tonight, she's finally ready to tell her granddaughter a secret about her childhood -- something she never even told her son.

Tonight, Dounia is ready to share her memories of Paris in 1942. Memories of wearing a Star of David, of living in fear, of the kindness of strangers.

Memories of being hidden.

-- from the book jacket

In this graphic novel, a grandmother tells her granddaughter about her experience during the holocaust. Dounia (the grandmother) was kept hidden from the Germans by various people who kept her safe. Dounia's parents were taken and she was alone, but the people who helped her did their best to make her feel secure. Dounia expresses her fear, sadness, anger and hope through the words and the images.

Because this is a graphic novel, the images are very important to the story. And the images are beautiful. The expressions on the characters faces convey strong feelings, even when there are no words. And in the end, when Dounia sees someone who survived one of the camps, the image captures what survivors looked like and we can completely understand when Dounia says she doesn't even recognize the person.

A great story with beautiful pictures that may make it easier to convey to kids what it felt like to be a jewish child during this time.

Recommended to:
Good for parents who want to help their kids understand this time in history. And for 4th through 8th graders to read on their own.

Original post: readingismyescape.booklikes.com/post/1257403/a-child-s-perspective

No more Internet. No more social media, no more scrolling through litanies of dreams and nervous hopes and photographs of lunches, cries for help and expressions of contentment and relationship-status updates with heart icons whole or broken, plans to meet up later, pleas, complaints, desires, pictures of babies dressed as bears or peppers for Halloween. No more reading and commenting on the lives of others, and in so doing, feeling slightly less alone in the room. No more avatars.

Original post: readingismyescape.booklikes.com/post/1256047/post

What was lost in the collapse: almost everything, almost everyone, but there is still such beauty.

Original post: readingismyescape.booklikes.com/post/1256044/post

Reading progress update: I've read 145 out of 352 pages.

Hint: In a post-apocalyptic world, if you hear about someone calling himself The Prophet, run away as fast as you possibly can.

Original post: readingismyescape.booklikes.com/post/1256042/reading-progress-update-i-ve-read-145-out-of-352-pages