Wow, the start of the new school year has really slowed my reading down! Thanks for being patient...hopefully with the finish of Frogkisser I can get back on track. Nix has been writing fantasy books for teens for many years, and I have to admit I have never read a single one. Not for any particular reason, they just never floated across my radar. This year one of his books made it into OBOB, and I was happy at the opportunity to read his writing.
Frogkisser is a mash up of fairy tale and fantasy story. It is the story of two princesses and their evil step-stepfather. Anya, the younger princess, finds herself on a journey across the land, first to turn a frog back into a prince for her sister, but eventually this turns into a quest to return the entire kingdom to its original, and long-past, glory. It is a really fun frolicking adventure through monsters, dwarves, wizards, flying carpets, and a lot of frogs (and weasels, and talking dogs, and ogres)...you get the picture!
Most of the time I found myself really drawn into the story, not being able to read the action fast enough. Other times, like the climax of the story, I found Nix rushed too quickly through what should have been the core of the adventure story. I like strong female characters, and Nix tried to mix up traditional fairytale gender roles with good female wizards and evil male sorcerers, which I appreciate (although he occasionally muddies up his attempts to do this with confusing titles for different characters). All in all, I was glad to be reading Frogkisser, but by the end I was looking forward to whatever I am going to read next. I would try another of his books again, just to see if his other work wasn't slightly better. That said, I can only give this one 3 1/2 paws.
All things reading by a middle school librarian (and a very smart four-legged fur friend!) and hundreds of awesome students!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Two Roads, by Joseph Bruchac
It's been a minute since I've read a Joseph Bruchac book - actually, several minutes - but I am glad to have come back! He is ...
-
My last OBOB title for this season, and a first book by author Pancholy . The Best At It tells the story of 7th grader Rahul Kapoor,...
-
Another graphic novel - that's two in a row! - and another book on next year's OBOB list! The Girl from the Sea is the stor...
-
One of the earliest books from one of my all-time favorite non-fiction authors, Two Miserable Presidents tells the story of the Americ...
No comments:
Post a Comment