Coraline

At first I was not a fan of "Coraline". The first few chapters were difficult to get intio because they were kind of wierd and I think the fact of Spring Break did not help much. However, I did get through it and once Coraline passed into the other mother's house, I became much more interested. I loved how at first, she loved the new house even though it was very different from her real flat. I especially loved how Coraline reacted to her pink and green room, she felt such distain and disgust!
I feel for Coraline, because I also know what it is like to be ignored by parents, especially when you are a young child that cannot just find something fulfilling to do. I think that Coraline realized this because she explains this to the other mother's version of the crazy old man in the upstairs flat.
I think that this book is a perfect example of how people are never happy with what they have. You parents will always be your parents and they will always love you, even if they don't happen to show it. I don't know if I would like having a mother like Coraline's other mother. She is kind of crazy and I would be soooo annoyed with always having my mother around to make me happy. I will also never learn to make myself happy, so what would happen if/when my extremely attentitive mother was not around. "Coraline" is a perfect book for children because it has a message that is pretty blatant, but she has to go on this journey to realize that she already has what she wants. Many of the books we have read have this same moral.
I still have about 30 pages to read, but from what I can tell, and what I hope is that Coraline finds her parents and that the other mother lets her go back to the world she was always suppossed to be in.

LWW C.S. Lewis

This is one of my favorite books, ever and it was a joy to have to read for class. I have been reading and re-reading this series since I was 11 years old and it never gets old. Although I do understand those who may not appreciate this type of book because of its religious symbolism (most clearly in salvation through a substitutiary sacrifice of Aslan's death and resurrection), I do still feel that this book has a lot to offer to its readers. It's adventurous and imiginative and, for me at least, makes you wanting more. Lewis' writing style in these books is juvenile enough to be understandable, yet now as though he's talking down to his audience. I love how he interjects things throughout the story to relate to his readers, like when he'll write something like "have you ever..., well it's kind of like that." I think when he does that he's puting the text into terms and emotions that the audience has had experience with that and so can relate that feeling to the ones being felt by the characters which makes the characters more understandable and allows the readers to feel empathy towards them. This approach also makes the characters feel more approachable, more human and less like figments of another's imagination. I feel that Lewis' ability to create a world that is appealing to the readers is quite impressive. He made Narnia into a world that I could imagine and made me feel like I wanted to go there. I wouldn't say this book is overly descriptive (like say L.M. Montgomery), but what descriptions he does use, he uses them well and consequently has been able to construct Narnia in the hearts and minds of many, adult and children alike. This series of books was a turning point in my reading experiences. This was the first book I actually liked, wanted to read more of and got excited about reading. Lewis has since remained one of my favorite authors and I have gone on to read most of his literary works and although different than Narnia, most equally impressive. In fact, I've been so impressed by Lewis, that when I read somewhere that he was an associate of Tolkien's, I thought that maybe Tolkien might be worth reading. And even though I do like LOTR (but not nearly as much as LWW), I would never had read them if it weren't for Lewis.