Young Adult | Book Chatter

As a reader, it’s hard for me to understand a person who doesn’t like to read. For me, reading is the ultimate activity. For this reason it’s irks me to no end that my son does not enjoy reading. I’ve come to the conclusion that some kids are natural readers and others aren’t!

However, there are a few books that he WILL read without complaint and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney falls into that category. I had to read it myself to see what the fuss was all about.

My Thoughts:

As I was reading the book, the first thing that I noticed was the format. It’s a diary, and let’s face it, reading someone’s diary is a lot of fun. The other thing that I noticed right away is that Kinney has a really good grasp of what it’s like to be a kid. This kid being Greg Heffley, a sort of wimpy, nondescript kid that is just trying to get through the day-to-day stuff that kids go through.

I laughed out loud in some places because much of what happens in the book, has happened to my son. The references to soccer were so similar to my son’s experiences with soccer that I had to go back and re-read that section to see if what I was reading was actually written, or if I somehow imagined it.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. This book happens to be book #3 in the series. For more info on Jeff Kinney and the other books in the series, check out this website. As I said, my kid loves the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series so much that he just submitted an audition clip to play the lead in the upcoming Twentieth Century Fox live-action movie adaptation. Details for that are on the website too!

I received this book from Jason and Laura over at Abrams Books For Young Readers/Amulet Books. Thank you Jason and Laura!

I don’t think there is a living, breathing person on the planet that does not know what Twilight is about so I am going to spare you the synopsis and just gush over what I loved about it.

1. Stephanie Meyer did an excellent job of taking me back to the days of girlhood. All those awkward moments. The clumsiness. The teen crushes that you swore would make your heart break into two. It all came rushing back to me while reading about Bella and Edward’s romance.

2. I loved the dangerous quality of it all. Edward has that naughtiness that you know you need to stay away from, but can’t. Bella has that “forbidden fruit” thing going on. It’s an impossible relationship that you want to see work.

3. I loved the setting. The rainy, gloomy town of Forks. An ideal place for a family of vampires to live. They are isolated but sort of not, with Seattle just a stone’s throw away.

4. Edward has got to be the most charming vampire ever known. I mean, who would even care if they were bitten by someone like that? Not me.

5. I also loved the innocence of Bella. Fragile, beautiful and somewhat naive. I usually do not like femme fatales but for some reason, I didn’t mind her being saved all the time. She truly seemed to need it.

6. I enjoyed the family dynamic. Both Bella’s family and Edward’s. Two very different families for sure, but ones that I cared about.

I held out for a long time before picking the book up. I have this thing about reading blockbuster books when everyone else is reading them. I like to take my time… ease into it a bit. I’m also glad I haven’t seen the movie yet. I really wanted to read the book first so I could picture the characters in my mind without the movie influencing me.

As for it being geared towards young adults, I found the storyline to be appealing and I am forty-years-old! My son is ten, and although Bella and Edward’s relationship is mostly innuendos, I do feel that it might be a bit much for a ten-year-old, unless that ten-year-old is more on the mature side.

Overall, it was thoroughly enjoyable and I cannot wait to read New Moon.

Chatting with friends about books and life…