Wednesday, June 11, 2008

happy Summer :)



Summer is here...although I don't really feel like it is summer yet, it takes a little while to get used to be done with school. :) I recently read two books that I didn't have time to blog about because the last week of school was BUSY!

Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby interested me because it involved sign language. I have been signing for a long time so I was anxious to see what this book was all about.

from Barnes and Noble:
Thirteen-year-old Joey Willis is used to being left out of conversations. Though she's been deaf since the age of six, Joey's mother has never allowed her to learn sign language. She strains to read the lips of those around her, but often fails.
Everything changes when Joey meets Dr. Charles Mansell and his baby chimpanzee, Sukari. Her new friends use sign language to communicate, and Joey secretly begins to learn to sign. Spending time with Charlie and Sukari, Joey has never been happier. She even starts making friends at school for the first time. But as Joey's world blooms with possibilities, Charlie's and Sukari's choices begin to narrow—until Sukari's very survival is in doubt.


The White Giraffe by Lauren St. John was another animal story but had some mystical elements to it, which I enjoyed.

from Barnes and Noble:

Martine’s parents are killed in a fire, and she must leave her home in England to live on a wildlife reserve in Africa with a grandmother she never even knew she had.
As soon as Martine arrives at the reserve, she hears whisperings of a mythical animal living there–a white giraffe. No one has ever seen the animal, but it leaves footprints behind. Her grandmother insists that the white giraffe is just a legend, but then, one stormy night, Martine looks out her bedroom window straight into the eyes of the tall and silvery animal. The white giraffe is real!
But why is everyone keeping the giraffe’s existence a secret? To find out, Martine will use all of her courage and smarts, and an emerging gift for healing, in a daring adventure to save her new friend.

Happy Reading! If you read Hurt Go Happy or The White Giraffe, comment on this post and let me know how you liked it. :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I really liked Hurt Go Happy because I think it's really amazing to see how Joey and Sukari communicate through signing. It also shows that people aren't the only ones who are "smart."