Booky Goodness, August Ed:

I've decided to make August Sharon Creech month. I re-read Replay the other day, which I imagine is quite possibly the best book to introduce kids to the odd feeling of wanting to laugh and cry at the same time. There is the cacophany of a pain-in-the-ass family; a grumpy dad; shadowy pasts; a pair of tap shoes; a best friend who makes lemonade out of being cast as a talking donkey in a school play. There's also death, as there has been in all of the Creech books I've read so far: Absolutely Normal Chaos, Love That Dog, and Walk Two Moons. I'm really trying to finish Ruby Holler, but I don't like it and so am dragging my feet through it. It reminds me of when Anne Tyler wrote Back When We Were Grownups and littered it with too many overly colorful characters with wacky names and annoying personalities.

Anyway, because I love Replay and LOVE love Absolutely Normal Chaos, I bypassed all the new library books during my kids' lib lesson yesterday and grabbed Walk Two Moons (1995), which is about a girl named Salamanca Tree Hiddle who goes on a road trip with her grandparents for several different purposes. The most prevalent feature of the first half of the book is a general one: pain and loss. The pain and loss actually never stop but by the second half it's become a foundation for Sal to build on. Missing mothers, odd neighbors, and a scene with a snakebite that moves like it's happening underwater (which is interesting, because the snakebite itself occurred underwater) ... I did not like WTM as much as I liked ANC, its prequel, but both are excellent. There is so much pain in all of Sharon Creech's stories you wonder how she managed to include the almost slapstick comedy without making it seem like a band-aid or a counterweight but she does it, and that is why August is Sharon Creech month. Here in my little bloggy world.