2 Book Reviews - Highly recommended (light reading)

Dear All

Unlike Albert, my readings are based on what I have to borrow for the children according to their reading list given by the school.

I had recently read 2 quite good books recommended to P6. The first is simple and straight-forward in writing that Tiffany also enjoyed reading thoroughly. The details are:

Title : Caddie Woodlawn
Author : BRINK, Carol (Bold type is the surname of author)
Call No: F BRI
Library borrowed from : TRL (Tampines Regional Library)

Caddie Woodlawn is a real person though her surname is changed in the story. It is partly a autobiography of the author's grandma when she was growing up as a young pioneer child in Canada where the red indians run free and the white men were "invaders" to the land. It isn't heavy (read as boring) reading. The story is a hard to put down book as it captures all the adventures of this tom-boy with her 2 brothers. It covers only one year of the young adventurer's life and gives us an insight into the tough life of a pioneer in red indian land.

Recommendation : 4 popcorns (ha ha..cinema style!!)

Next read is a book that Tiffany finds a little difficult to follow. She says the plot is too complicated for her. I guess it's because it is peppered with chinese dialects and based on the political climate in China during the cultural revolution. Personally, I find it a great read too, if you gloss through those parts and get into the actions of the main character in the story. When I related the adventures of the main character, Young Fu, to Tiffany last night (as bed-time story), she lapped them up whilst forcing her eyelids to be awake.

Having said that, the story also gives us a glimpse into the hard life of a lowly educated farm boy in a booming city. Young Fu uses his wits and intelligence to survive in the city where soldiers act like hooligans, and outside the "safe" walls of the city where bandits lurk. It also gives us Singaporean Chinese a taste of what our mothers tell us --- to fear the "unknown" (e.g. angmohs) and to fear offending the gods. Young Fu overcomes many obstacles and faced death at least twice in the book. It traces his apprenticeship with the coppersmith to learn a trade in order to survive, at the age of "13 years and 7 moons" (an age considered too old for apprenticeship at that time) till 2 years after his 3 years apprenticeship (which should have been 5 years apprenticeship but because demand for copperwares was booming, this training was shortened). His adventures are good reading and shows how he uses his wits to manage problematic situations and sometimes even to outsmart his enemies. For those parents with teenagers, it also gives a glimpse into the growing up years of a teenage boy into a young man of 17 years where the story ends!!

Title : Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze
Author : LEWIS, Elizabeth
Call No: F LEW
Lib : TRL

Recommendation : 3.5 Popcorn

Love Theresa