Book review time!
Feb. 28th, 2011 11:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulyI didn't really read picture books to Evangeline this month, she and her sister had that all sewed up between them, but I thought I'd review the books her sister has been reading to her: Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack!
Rapunzel's Revenge
First, let me say that Shannon Hale is still awesome. She has never stopped being awesome.
Rapunzel's Revenge is a wildly popular book. Ana has been reading it to her sister, and also to her classmates at school. She's lent it out, in wild defiance of the "No Lending Out Books!" rule. (I don't trust her grubby little friends with their grubby little siblings. Plus, it's hard enough to keep track of the books as it is!) She's read it to her sister. She's snuck out of bed to read it... which isn't that unusual for her, but it is when she's re-reading it for the third, fourth, or fifth time in a row.
If you ask me, this is all the endorsement you need. It's about a kick-ass girl, Rapunzel ("At least in THIS book the princess saves herSELF. I'm *so* tired of the PRINCE doing all the saving!", as Ana said) who, after escaping with her lasso-braids from the tower, goes through the Wild West analog hoping to help people and stop Mother Gothel (the witch) from oppressing everybody.
I don't think I'm spoiling things when I say she succeeds.
The art is great, the story is awesome, there's a pleasant diversity in the human characters, and while she *does* fall in love with this guy she picks up on the way (Jack) it's not the main focus of the story.
My favorite line has got to be the scene where Rapunzel is about to topple Mother Gothel once and for all, and Mother Gothel comments that she's "exactly what I hoped", to which Jack replies with a bit of consternation "Wait, you wanted her to become a vigilante?" No, Mother Gothel wanted her to be strong. Fair enough.
I wish Gothel were better written as a character, though. We hear a scrap of how she was abandoned for her family for having weak magic, and about how she made that power stronger. We see that before Rapunzel found out the horrible truth she was actually a fairly decent mother. (It's not actually abusive to give your child a good education, pretty dresses, and nice birthday parties, with carefully managed doses of "freedom". The lack of real freedom is creepy and obsessive, but not abusive, right up until the three-years-in-a-tower bit.) But otherwise she's just pure evil, almost a caricature. I prefer my villains more well-rounded, and a prequel fleshing her out would not be amiss, I think. It'd have to be a depressing prequel, I guess, because then she goes batshit evil, but I could live with that.
Calamity Jack
Ana likes this one almost much as Rapunzel. (In this house we tend to call books by their proper names. Anne of Green Gables is "Anne" as in "Have you seen Anne?" "Yeah, she's on the table!", and Henry Huggins likewise is "Henry" and "he" is currently resting on the bookcase.)
The timeline was a little confusing for her, though, because first it starts *before* Rapunzel, setting up what Jack did before he met her (petty thievery, mostly - he's Jack and the Beanstalk, which was a plot point in the previous book) and then it jumps to right after the end of Rapunzel - they go back to his hometown and end up fixing the problems he started before he left.
This book is much more clearly plotted than the first. Some folks on Amazon criticized how in Rapunzel the two go on a lot of (their words) "video game like" fetch quests to get plot coupons and... I can see that. There's a lot of side trips there where the only reason they're going is because Rapunzel hates that the world outside the wall (and the tower) is poor people grabbing and snatching.
In this one it all centers around fixing ONE problem in ONE city, and also about Jack trying to be suave and confident instead of... himself. (At one point his rival picks up cake as a surprise because "You're sweet, like cake" and Rapunzel asks Jack if he agrees. "No, not on your life!" This, he's thinking, is because she's cool and awesome and not some wimpy pastry kind of girl... but he's not bright enough to say what he thinks, so she just feels insulted.
The intrigue is intriguing, the action scenes are exciting, and the end is... well, it's a good ending.
It's interesting to note that now we find out that Jack is supposed to be Native American from some undefined tribe. (His mother at one point complains that he's not even remotely in touch with his heritage (AND he's a petty thief!), which saves the author from having to find out about any specific tribe, and also saves her from making egregious errors, I'm sure. This is probably a clever move on her part. His ethnic identity doesn't end up coming up much.)
At any rate, I'd recommend both these books. They're just fun, and it really is nice when the princess saves herself. (And everybody else!)
Rapunzel's Revenge
First, let me say that Shannon Hale is still awesome. She has never stopped being awesome.
Rapunzel's Revenge is a wildly popular book. Ana has been reading it to her sister, and also to her classmates at school. She's lent it out, in wild defiance of the "No Lending Out Books!" rule. (I don't trust her grubby little friends with their grubby little siblings. Plus, it's hard enough to keep track of the books as it is!) She's read it to her sister. She's snuck out of bed to read it... which isn't that unusual for her, but it is when she's re-reading it for the third, fourth, or fifth time in a row.
If you ask me, this is all the endorsement you need. It's about a kick-ass girl, Rapunzel ("At least in THIS book the princess saves herSELF. I'm *so* tired of the PRINCE doing all the saving!", as Ana said) who, after escaping with her lasso-braids from the tower, goes through the Wild West analog hoping to help people and stop Mother Gothel (the witch) from oppressing everybody.
I don't think I'm spoiling things when I say she succeeds.
The art is great, the story is awesome, there's a pleasant diversity in the human characters, and while she *does* fall in love with this guy she picks up on the way (Jack) it's not the main focus of the story.
My favorite line has got to be the scene where Rapunzel is about to topple Mother Gothel once and for all, and Mother Gothel comments that she's "exactly what I hoped", to which Jack replies with a bit of consternation "Wait, you wanted her to become a vigilante?" No, Mother Gothel wanted her to be strong. Fair enough.
I wish Gothel were better written as a character, though. We hear a scrap of how she was abandoned for her family for having weak magic, and about how she made that power stronger. We see that before Rapunzel found out the horrible truth she was actually a fairly decent mother. (It's not actually abusive to give your child a good education, pretty dresses, and nice birthday parties, with carefully managed doses of "freedom". The lack of real freedom is creepy and obsessive, but not abusive, right up until the three-years-in-a-tower bit.) But otherwise she's just pure evil, almost a caricature. I prefer my villains more well-rounded, and a prequel fleshing her out would not be amiss, I think. It'd have to be a depressing prequel, I guess, because then she goes batshit evil, but I could live with that.
Calamity Jack
Ana likes this one almost much as Rapunzel. (In this house we tend to call books by their proper names. Anne of Green Gables is "Anne" as in "Have you seen Anne?" "Yeah, she's on the table!", and Henry Huggins likewise is "Henry" and "he" is currently resting on the bookcase.)
The timeline was a little confusing for her, though, because first it starts *before* Rapunzel, setting up what Jack did before he met her (petty thievery, mostly - he's Jack and the Beanstalk, which was a plot point in the previous book) and then it jumps to right after the end of Rapunzel - they go back to his hometown and end up fixing the problems he started before he left.
This book is much more clearly plotted than the first. Some folks on Amazon criticized how in Rapunzel the two go on a lot of (their words) "video game like" fetch quests to get plot coupons and... I can see that. There's a lot of side trips there where the only reason they're going is because Rapunzel hates that the world outside the wall (and the tower) is poor people grabbing and snatching.
In this one it all centers around fixing ONE problem in ONE city, and also about Jack trying to be suave and confident instead of... himself. (At one point his rival picks up cake as a surprise because "You're sweet, like cake" and Rapunzel asks Jack if he agrees. "No, not on your life!" This, he's thinking, is because she's cool and awesome and not some wimpy pastry kind of girl... but he's not bright enough to say what he thinks, so she just feels insulted.
The intrigue is intriguing, the action scenes are exciting, and the end is... well, it's a good ending.
It's interesting to note that now we find out that Jack is supposed to be Native American from some undefined tribe. (His mother at one point complains that he's not even remotely in touch with his heritage (AND he's a petty thief!), which saves the author from having to find out about any specific tribe, and also saves her from making egregious errors, I'm sure. This is probably a clever move on her part. His ethnic identity doesn't end up coming up much.)
At any rate, I'd recommend both these books. They're just fun, and it really is nice when the princess saves herself. (And everybody else!)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 03:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 05:22 am (UTC)