Book Review: Thursday's Child

From Goodreads: Through the long years of the Great Depression, Harper Flute watches with a child's clear eyes her family's struggle to survive in a hot and impoverished landscape. As life on the surface grows harsher, her brother Tin escapes ever deeper into a subterranean world of darkness and troubling secrets, until his memory becomes a myth barely whispered around the countryside.

Thoughts: Sonya Hartnett does not write cheery, happy books. No, instead she complex, dark, thoughtful stories that leaves her reader shocked and bleeding - I love it! Her real strength is in her characters, so simply drawn but with such depth you feel you would know them the moment you saw them.
She frequently uses the Australian landscape to punctuate the desolation felt in her stories - the stark, dry landscape, the tough, suspicious people it breeds. If I close my eyes, I can see the Flute family standing in front of me, sunburnt and dusty, squinting into the sun, sunbaked earth all around them.
Like most of her books, Thursday's Child is character driven. The story happens around the people in it, with seemingly every day events taking on greater meaning as the story builds to it's climax. In less talented hands the story would drag and falter, but Hartnett's characters keep you there with them, watching as their lives fall apart, sharing with them the belief that finally, eventually it must get better. Hartnett is, without a doubt, one of Australia's most talented writers.

Challenges: Aussie Author Challenge.

EmmaApproved: Clueless

Clueless is a modern day adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma. Cher, the Emma-ersque character is played by Alicia Silverstone - rather well I thought!

Half the fun of watching this was working out who was who, drawing parallels with the book and today's world. I also walked away feeling like I shouldn't like Cher and her friends, but I did. Best of all, it does stand alone. While having an understanding of Emma gives you some aha moments, it is not necessary. It was pleasant way to while away an afternoon.

Book Review: The Boy Who Fell To Earth

From Goodreads: Meet Merlin. He's Lucy's bright, beautiful son -- who just happens to be autistic. Since Merlin's father left them in the lurch shortly after his diagnosis, Lucy has made Merlin the centre of her world. Struggling with the joys and tribulations of raising her eccentrically adorable yet challenging child, (if only Merlin came with operating instructions) Lucy doesn't have room for any other man in her life.
By the time Merlin turns ten, Lucy is seriously worried that the Pope might start ringing her up for tips on celibacy, so resolves to dip a poorly pedicured toe back into the world of dating. Thanks to Merlin's candour and quirkiness, things don't go quite to plan... Then, just when Lucy's resigned to a life of singledom once more, Archie -- the most imperfectly perfect man for her and her son -- lands on her doorstep. But then, so does Merlin's father, begging for forgiveness and a second chance. Does Lucy need a real father for Merlin -- or a real partner for herself?

Thoughts: I've never been a big fan of Kathy Lette as an author. Apart from Puberty Blues, I have never managed to finish one of her books. I read this on the recommendation of a friend who has a young child with high functioning Autism. I mention this because it did colour the way I read the book.
I don't have a child with special needs. I have taught children with a variety of special needs - either physical, intellectual of behavioural. I have many friends who have children with autism, ranging from you wouldn't know the child had a diagnosis unless you had spent a lot of time with them through to the child who will need care for the rest of his life. I have seen people who react (for want of a better word) to children with special needs in atrocious ways and those who don't react any differently than they do with any other kid. I've dealt with the education system as a teacher, trying to provide the best opportunities and I have heard stories of an education system that want to wash their hands of anything out of the ordinary that make me so angry. I'd like to thinking that I have at least a basic understanding of autism and the challenges faced by families with children with autism, but I know I have no real idea of what it like day to day.
I had some issues with this book. I had some issues with Lucy. I has some issues with Lucy's mother, her mother-in-law, her boyfriend and her ex husband. I had no issues with Merlin. 
My thoughts can best be summed up by another reviewer over on Goodreads, Sam Pope, who has a daughter with Asperger's.

Additionally, if [Lucy] is meant to be portrayed as a sympathetic character, Lette has failed miserably. She talks constantly of how much she loves her son but doesn't properly inform her army of lovers of his difficulties and when he puts his foot in it and talks inappropriately she just feels embarrassed rather than protecting him. I have a child who at times blurts out things that are best left unsaid and try to gently steer her away from a topic of conversation if it is inappropriate. What we see with [Lucy] is her just sitting there and indulging her own embarrassment rather than shielding her son.

 And that was my issue. For all of her talk of love, for all of her trying to get Merlin into a decent educational setting, she never seemed to sooth the way for Merlin in social situations. Even I know you don't take someone to meet someone with Asperger's without first explaining the person's quirks, their lack of filter, their inability to pick up social cues. It astounded me that she continued to have conversations with people within Merlin's hearing, saying things you really don't want repeated (like the fact your MIL is two faced and you wonder which one she will be wearing today), knowing there is a really good chance he WILL repeat it. I was infuriated by Archie's inability to understand that Merlin would take things literally - that if you told him to play in the traffic he would.

And yet, despite all of that, I did enjoy the book.It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me wince. I do think it gave insight into what life with a child with Asperger's could be like. However I don't think it took any time to celebrate the joy a child with Asperger's can bring as well - and for that it is a poorer book.

Book Review: Behemoth

From Goodreads:The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker powers.
Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan's peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory.
Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face what's ahead.

Thoughts: This is the second book in the Leviathan series. I reviewed book one here as part of the 13 in'13 challenge. 
So Deryn, a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek, the heir to an empire posing as a commoner, are back as World War I continues to heat up. Set largely in Istanbul, it once again give a bit of a view into world history - even if it is set in an alternate universe.
I love the steampunk universe, the way what we consider the natural order of things may not be so. The question also being, would you be a Darwinist - someone who tinkers with the natural to make it more than it was, or a Clunker - someone who replies on pure mechanics. Personally, I like the idea of living, breathing machinery!

EmmaApproved: Emma - The Movie

So once again I am hitting off the challenge by watching the movie.

Having not read the book, it's hard ot tell how good a job the movie does. Gwyneth Paltrow makes a better Emma that Keira Knightly made Elizabeth. I love Toni Collette in anything and I think she made a wonderful Harriet. In the end, the movie was sufficient for it's purpose - to make me familiar enough with the story to allow me to tackle the book.

Challenge: Emma Approved

I mentioned awhile ago that my friend, Miss Dove over at the Doves Nest, had issued a challenge in regards to Jane Austen's Emma.

After the success of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Pemberly Digital (who produced LBD) are now doing an Emma adaptation.

So, to celebrate, Miss Dove issued a challenge. Of course I'm in.

My plan - watch the Gwyneth Paltrow movie version, watch the BBC version, watch the movie adaptation, Clueless, read the book, watch Emma Approved and (so help me!) join up for the Tumblr stuff! (I won't link there, I have no idea what I'm doing!)

In the meantime, look out for my review of the Gwyneth Paltrow movie!

Book review: The Deep

From Goodreads: Alice lives in a house by the sea. Snakes and spiders don't scare her, but she's very afraid of the deep ocean water. Her swimming, splashing, diving family urge her to come out and play with them, but no matter how hard she tries, Alice still can't leave the green shallows for the deep. This moving story about a girl besting her fears is matched with warm, light-splashed illustrations.

Thoughts: I thought if I was going to aim to read all of Tim Winton's books, I couldn't ignore one just because it was a picture book.
The Deep is about Alice and how she is afraid to swim in the deep. Every day her family jump off the jetty to swim, but Alice is afraid. She knows how to swim, so why can't she swim in the deep? Then one day some new friends help her conquer her fear. 
Winton captures the fear and frustration of Alice beautifully, helped by Karen Louise's illustrations. I am seriously in awe of this mans ability to move between audiences.