How I Live Now -- Meg Rosoff
I went into this book with a bad attitude. I was mad that it had won the Printz Award this year, especially since my two favorite books of last year weren't even nominated. I refused to believe that this book could even hold a candle to Realm of Possibility or Saving Francesca. People argued about the book for months on YALSA. It seemed like people either loved it--over the moon loved it--or hated it. Hated it to the point that they couldn't even finish it.
I've been having trouble sleeping lately--I woke up at 2:30 in the morning, picked up the book, and all of a sudden it was two hours later. I don't think that I looked up once.
I loved it. LOVED IT.
In a nutshell? Daisy's father's girlfriend is going to have a baby, so Daisy gets shipped off to England, to live with her cousins. While she's there, England is invaded and occupied by some sort of terrorist group. Stuff happens.
It would be much easier to tell this story if it were all about a chaste and perfect love between Two Children Against the World at an Extreme Time in History but let's face it that would be a load of crap.
It's a perfect book. Perfect. Go read it. Now. Even if you have to go and read it in the bookstore without buying it. Just. Go. Read. It.
Yes Ma'am. It sounds awesome.
Posted by: C.C. | 28 February 2005 at 06:18 PM
Good. Read it and let me know. I'm totally retarded about it. Obviously.
Posted by: leila | 28 February 2005 at 06:27 PM
I hate that. I tend to rant about books that I don't like the idea of (or the first chapter!)and it's quite humiliating to have to admit their greatness, and my own stupidity. On the other hand, I do get to enjoy a really good book! I'll have to look that one up.
Posted by: thevamp | 01 March 2005 at 05:24 AM
The Printz awards were announced? I asked my CHILDREN'S DIRECTOR about the rest of the book awards and she told me that those weren't announced until spring. This didn't seem right to me, but I have a bad sense of time and I couldn't remember when they were announced and besides she's the CHILDREN'S DIRECTOR and I figured she would know.
If you couldn't tell, I'm not digging my job at the moment. I'm sorry to rant about it here. Can I assume I can find the award announcements on the ALA and YASLA websites?
Posted by: Chrissy | 01 March 2005 at 12:00 PM
Oh dear. Yep, they're there. Just google Printz Awards 2004 and they should pop up. Or just go to the ALA site and look around.
Posted by: leila | 02 March 2005 at 11:22 AM
I FINALLY got around to reading this one and, of course, loved it. The very ending I was a little 'meh' about but what a page-turner. I wanted more, but I think a lot of its beauty was in its slenderness (which is maybe a totally horrible thing to say about a book that deals with eating disorders?)
Posted by: jess | 12 July 2006 at 12:55 PM