Just because we haven't been reading picture books doesn't mean we haven't been reading!

[conuly]

No, we've been doggedly plodding through Anne of Green Gables. It took us two different copies (and, at least twice, Project Gutenberg) but we finally made it through the entire book of little print and absurdly descriptive landscapes. You have no idea how many passages I just cut from that book in the hopes of making it through a little faster. "No, we don't need three pages on the trees, Anne, let's move along to the action already!"

Ana loved the book, and Evangeline sat through it happily enough, but by the time we were done (this evening) I was more than ready to move to something a lot lighter.

So now we're reading Ten Kids, No Pets.

...

Why on earth did Ann M. Martin give the twins their own twin language? It's actually not as common as all that, and my understanding is the words are generally real words that happen to be babytalked, so you can generally figure out the "etymology" of the words if you pay attention. And the kids are in the fourth grade when the book starts... so shouldn't they mostly not be doing that in public too much? Speaking in a private language in a new school strikes me as a good way to not get friends.

What is it with her and twins anyway? There were like three or four sets of twins (and the triplets) in the BSC books as well, weren't there?

Comments

[jadeejf.livejournal.com]

Aww... I love Anne of Green Gables and all her tree descriptions. But I guess that's because I like trees an awful lot ;)

[conuly]

The description of the trees (and the rocks, and the grass, and the sky, and the clouds, and the flowers) is all right when you're reading at a reading pace.

It's quite different when you're reading at a read-aloud pace.

[jadeejf.livejournal.com]

True. I guess I haven't read them aloud, but I can see how that would get boring in a hurry.

[ncp.livejournal.com]

OMG, LM Montgomery's oeuvre gave me SUCH an inferiority complex as a writer. I'm still not over it. I'm really bad with adjectives, and with simile and metaphor. And Montgomery's writing is ALL ABOUT the vivid, descriptions and purple prose. I spent YEARS and YEARS trying to emulate that sort of writing and falling short and thinking myself inadequate. I'm much more of a "Hemingway" writer, which is weird, because I seriously dislike Hemingway.

[conuly]

What's hilarious is that Anne apparently writes like that as a young teen, right up until her teacher gives her the strict rule to not add a single unnecessary word to her compositions, nor use a big word when a short and simple one will do.

Anne takes it to heart and apparently never suffers from it, but Lucy Maud Montgomery is a hypocrite. It's very pretty writing, but it takes SO LONG to read!

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

I love all Montgomery's books! The secret is to skim -- just like in real life, you kind of let your eyes drift across the landscape instead of focusing on one. tree. at. a. time. Just stop and focus when something is especially nice.

If the kids like the abridged version, that gives them something more to look forward to later when they read the real thing. ;-)

[conuly]

I just wish I'd been reading the abridged version. I had to do the abridging myself!

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Ann M Martin is just a weirdo. I owned, and read and reread, her babysitter books from one through one hundred and eleven or so (I was missing a few numbers here and there, but I had almost all of them, except the last ones written). She seems to LOVE researching a LITTLE bit about something (disability, illness, race, whatever) and then writing about the most extreme examples she can find. I think the only issue she ever researched in depth was deafness, but even that was lacking a bit. She can get away with it because they were children's/young adult's books, but really. I mean, I loved them, but they were just so incomplete.

[conuly]

One of her more recent books once again has an autistic character. She seems to have learned a bit more since the 80s (yay!) but then she has the guy up and kill himself. Um. Yeah.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

That sucks (but illustrates my point about her writing/researching skills perfectly). A lot (even, most) people don't do any research for themselves so the only thing they'll know is what they see on tv or read in a book. It'd be nice if people tried to present a wider and more realistic picture...though I know there is such a huge range of normal for any issue that it's impossible to present them all.