A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, by  Betty Smith

The title of this book refers to a persistent little tree that is growing through the concrete in the Brooklyn neighborhood that Francie is growing up in.  The tree comes around time and time again as an analogy to Francie’s life.  What is great about Francie is that she sees everything with these big, innocent eyes.  She gets excited about every little thing, when the fact is her life kind of sucks.  Her family is pretty much shot:  she has this tragic, alcoholic father, a crazy aunt, a favored brother… and she just continues to see life as totally magical.  It’s wonderful.

Of course, I loved Francie too because she was a big old book nerd.  One of my all time favorite quotes comes from this book:

“From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived.”

The whole book is just funny and sweet and kind of perfect.  This is another one of those great-girl-heroine books that I read about a dozen and a half times growing up.  So good.

Also:  From the minute I read this book until this very second I LOVE the name Francie.  LOVE IT. If we have a girl, this is going to be on our list of potential names.  It is one of my all time favorites.  That’s all.

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The Baby-Sitter’s Club: Where Are They Now?

Ha.

Ann M. Martin (or someone!) needs to write this book.  Seriously.

Enjoy.

• I love, love, love how this one starts:  The “Muggle” Prime Minister and the Minster of Magic having this creepy little meeting and the Prime Minister being totally freaked out. Awesome.
• Oh all the back-and-forth about Snape is pretty awesome.  Even though I know how this all turns out, I still have a hard time not switching sides every few pages
• The twin’s shop is amazing.  I haven’t seen the movies, so I have this pretty incredible picture in my head of what their shop looks like and it is one of the main things I’m scared of the movies ruining.  I love the twins and their shop and that was a really bright point in a pretty dark book.
• Draco is such a little creeper.  I feel like J.K. tried to rustle up some sympathy for him during this book, but it didn’t work for me.  Ugh.
• Cannot believe that Snape finally got his job as teacher of the Dark Arts.  Again, I know how this turns out and I still find myself just hating him most of the time.
• Hermione’s objections against the Half-Blood Prince never included that trustworthy people don’t write in books. Duh.
• All of the trips into different memories were pretty amazing.  It’s like on LOST when we finally got a Ben flashback.  Amazing.
• Harry making Ron think that he drank the good luck potion = pretty hilarious.  Oh, Ron.
• Speaking of Ron… Ron and Hermione are finally out in the open with their lovin’.  Woo Hoo!
• And Ginny and Ron.  I love love love them.  Eek!
• Haaaaagrid, I looooove you.  That’s all.
• And now the sad stuff.  Getting to the end, I just wanted to get it over with.  I read the last 100 pages or so in one fell swoop and came out the other side feeling like I’d been kind of cleansed.  A good cry can do that for ya.
• I think that J.K. Rowling did a great job here of painting Dumbledore as this really REAL person.  He is amazing and understanding and knows pretty much everything, but he still screws up sometimes and he’s still oh so human.  I think that in this book, more than in any other, his humanity really comes out.  I found myself just lingering on the last couple of conversations that he had with Harry and thinking about how lucky Harry was to have him in his life.  *sob*
• Fleur and Mrs. Weasely bonding over Bill’s scratched up face?  Beautiful.
• Dumbledore’s funeral?  I can’t even talk about it.  So. Frigging. Sad.
• I think that watching Harry, Hermione and Ron become better and better friends is one of the really wonderful things about this series.  By now they are solid and neither of them even hesitated to come with Harry on his search for the Horcruxes.  They kind of acted like it was the natural thing to do because they  love Harry and want the best for him.  I love that.

Seriously, this one is an emotional roller coaster.  Some of the best scenes in the series are here, but so are some of the hardest to read.  I think that, so far, this is my favorite this time around too.  Last time, however, I read Deathly Hallows in about 40 minutes or something like that, so I’m really looking forward to savoring it and taking it all in.  I don’t think I’m even going to wait this time, I’m just going to jump right in.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margory Williams Bianco

The original Toy Story, right?  I remember my mom reading this to me and me beeing just totally into the idea that maybe my stuffed animals (of which I had about 45 million) came to life when I wasn’t around.  The idea didn’t really freak me out but it did make me nicer to them- I was one of those kids who was pretty hard on toys

Seriously though, this book is pretty beautiful.  It is a kid’s book, but I read it again when I was older and got so much out of it.  One little part I copied down into one of my high school planners and read over and over:

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

That still kind of gets me in the gut.

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Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective

To say I loved Encyclopedia Brown would be quite the understatement.  I was a little bit obsessed.  What I loved about these books was that they weren’t really set up like a story, they were more like a collection of “cases” so I didn’t have to read the whole book every time I needed  a fix, I could just open up to my favorite cases and read them over and over and over.  I loved that the reader was given all the clues that they needed to solve the mystery but it was pretty much impossible until Encyclopedia used his huge brain to put it all together.

I remember the big case-breaker in one was that someone confessed in the beauty shop but there was no way that anyone could hear because all the women were under hair driers…. but oh my word!  One of the women is deaf and can read lips.  Crazy, right?  It didn’t fool Encyclopedia Brown for even one minute.  That’s why I loved him, folks.  Brilliant

I’m sure that they would seem pretty dated now, but man oh man, this series was incredible.

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Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery

Really, though, who didn’t love Anne?  Everyone has a soft spot for an orphan, of course, but Anne wasn’t just any orphan.  She was sweet and quirky and funny and… a redhead!  You guys know I have a soft spot in my heart for redheads (have you seen my husband and baby?!), and that includes characters out of books.

I love books that have these girls with big, strong personalities.  Anne was seriously a handful.  She was always getting into something or saying the “wrong” thing or just acting exactly how she wanted to act.  I was never a quiet kid and I loved how much I could relate to Anne.  She loved laughter and fun just for the sake of fun.  She was one of these characters who had everything against her but just overcame using her strength and guts.  What’s not to love?

I know that at one time I probably read this whole series.  To be honest, the only one whose plot I can really remember is Anne of Green Gables.  It wasn’t one that I read a lot but I remember just absolutely loving it.

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Here’s what I took away this time:

• I know that I’ve said this in all 3 previous reviews, but I always love the first chapter of these books.  The Dursleys always crack me up and them meeting the Weaselys?  Classic.  Frigging love it.
• I love imagining just the scale of the World Cup.  I thought that these first chapters were a great set up for the rest of the book and I thought that it was really fun to see everyone out of their Hogwarts comfort zone.
• The Dark Mark and Death Eaters… this is getting serious.  Malofys, you are the worst.
• Fred and George, I love you.  Bill and Charlie, nice to meet you.  I love you already.
• Speaking of Weasely love… Am I the only one who kind of felt like siding with Ron during his fight with Harry?  Poor guy. Major middle-child syndrome… and having a super-famous best friend?
• I loved all the little romances and crushes here.  Krum’s crush on Hermione… and Ron’s reaction to it?  Perfection.
• I remember reading through this the first time and being shocked that Harry didn’t somehow end up in the Tournament as Hogwart’s champion.  When Cedric’s name was pulled, I remember kind of gasping.  This time around, I had somehow forgotten again that Harry’s name wasn’t pulled first and I kind of scratched my head.  How can my memory be that bad?  Anyway, it always keeps me on the edge of my seat
• To be honest, the whole S.P.E.W. thing kind of annoyed me through the whole book.  I know that Hermione usually gets a little sub-plot, but this one grates on my nerves for some reason, but I think it perfectly shows who Hermione is.  Makes me think of the girlfriend in Orange County.  Anyone with me?
• I love the suspense and the drama of all of the challenges.  Obviously the last one is crazy, but even the suspense of the second one where they are underwater… so crazy.  I love that Harry is noble and does what is right not to be looked at as noble but because he truly cares.  I know that he felt stupid for it later, but it made me love him a little bit more.  Such a good guy.
• This is the first time we’ve had a death. R.I.P. Cedric.  This was a tough scene over all, but Cedric’s parents talking to Harry?  Totally heartbreaking.  I think that this moved the series to a whole new level.
• Voldemort is back.  Eek.

Like I said before, after Goblet of Fire, I remember everything getting way, way dark.  I’m looking forward to reading them, but I also go in with some hesitation.  There are parts that I seriously do not want to read again.  I guess I’ll have to buck up, huh?  Book five, here I come!

Here’s what else I loved:

• The suspense at the beginning with Sirius being on the loose and on the hunt for Harry.  That plus the Grim, plus the dementor craziness equals serious suspense.  I think that this book absolutely keeps you on your toes.
• Crookshanks!  It’s funny, I knew when we met the cat that something was up but I couldn’t remember for the life of me what it was.  When it all came together in the end it was a total facepalm moment.  How did I forget that?!
• Hermione’s antics with time travel.  Time travel blows my mind so I didn’t try to over-analize how all of that worked out for her, but I love that she was nerdy enough to use time travel to take more classes.  She’s funny.
• Again with the friendship between Hermione, Ron, and Harry.  It never gets old for me.  I love how they bicker and fight but then ultimately stick up for each other and fight for each other.  Moving and wonderful.
• I think that we get a clearer picture of who Snape is here.  It’s hard not to feel sorry for him.  He was kind of this weird, confused kid with the popular kids picking on him.  I can absolutely picture that and even though he’s still pretty crazy I really do feel sympathy for him.
• Fred and George are the greatest.  I want to be their friends.
• The map! The tree! The tunnels! Love it!
• I frigging love that Ron’s crappy little rat played into this.  When Sirius points at Ron when Lupin asked where “he” was…. great moment. Total confusion. I love it.
• Like I said earlier, the peek into the past is what really makes this book for me.  I love how we get to see Lily and James’ Hogwarts friendships and see how they evolved and who everyone became.
• Sirius being a “good guy”  was shocking the first time through, but to be honest it got me more excited this time.  I love his character throughout the series and it was great to meet him again for the first time through Harry’s eyes.
• Best scene in the book, by far:  Harry casting the patronus and mistaking himself across the lake for his dad.  At this point, I really think that Harry is growing in confidence and coming into the man he’s going to be.  He hasn’t had a great picture of what a noble guy is like but he’s learned a lot about it from his dead father.  I think that this scene kind of shows that he’s becoming a man and he can kind of fend for himself because of who his parents are.  I love this and I totally teared up.

So I’ve been slowly accumulating the series off of Paperback Swap and just got number four in the mail yesterday.  I seriously am chomping at the bit to get started, but I really want to space them out this time.  Last time, I read all seven in one fell swoop and I have a really hard time remembering what happened in what book. I think spacing them out will help me with that, although I wouldn’t be surprised to see number four re-read really soon!

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

When I was really young, probably 3 or 4 years old, I got totally obsessed with the movie The Wizard of Oz.  I would watch the whole thing, rewind it and watch it again.  I remember laying on my grandparents’ floor and watching it on their console TV.  Ahhh. Memories.

A few years later, I remember my mom bringing in a copy of this to read to me before bed.  We always read before bed but had probably only done one “chapter book” before this one.  I had not the slightest idea that this was a book as well as a movie and I thing I probably actually squealed.  This isn’t a particularly long book but I think it took us a couple of weeks to read the whole thing.  This is the first time I remember the excitement that comes with having a good book waiting for you.  I’d even try to bump bedtime up so that I’d get to hear more of the story first.

Later, when I could read on my own the Oz series became something that I came back to over and over again.  I still love the movie of course, but nothing can top these books.  They are fantasy and sci-fi and fairy tale and just incredible.  I read to Isaac every day already but I can only hope that he’ll get as excited about these books when the time comes as I did!

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Here’s what I loved in this one:

• I love the opening scene of this book.  This is one of the few parts of the movies that I’ve seen and I have to say the movie and book lay this scene out perfect and I love it.  The mean ol’ Dursleys are having guests and Harry is of course sent to his room to be silent.  Dolby, everyone’s favorite house elf is there and he’s totally crazy.  He gets Harry in tons of trouble and totally freaks him out, telling him that he’s in serious danger.  Loves it.
• Learning more about the Weasleys and getting to see their house!  I know that eventually you’ll get sick of my Weasley lovin’, but you’re just going to have to deal.  I cannot get enough.  Ron stealing the car? Priceless.
• Oh, Lockhart.  I think that he is one of the funniest characters in the series.  Totally full of himself and just so totally clueless.  Hermione’s big ol’ crush on him.  So funny.  I know he plays a big role at the end, and thats great, I’m glad he was there for that, but mostly I loved reading about him bumbling around messing stuff up and signing autographs!
• This is one of the first times that we really get a good picture of Hogwarts’ history.  Through Tom Riddle’s diary, Harry was able to get back into the past and see Tom and Hagrid and Dumbledore.  I was on the edge of my seat.
• My Hagrid love grew as he was kind of screwed around with in this book.  I think this hilarious and adorable that he’s huge and tough looking but is so tender and such an animal lover.  He was suspected for a minute of being the one that opened the Chamber, but everything turned out ok for him and I was so glad. Again.
• Moaning Myrtle!  I always crack up at her because she reminds me so exactly of someone I went to school with.  Is that bad?
• Ew. Malfoys are the worst.
• Harry saving Ginny. So sweet.  Love it.
• For me, one of the most memorable parts of this book is when you find out that Tom Riddle’s name is a anagram and that he’s Voldemort.  Classic.
• The diary writing just popping up always reminds me of the TV show Ghostwriter.  Anyone remember that?  It was amazing.
• Fawkes!  Dumbledore’s bird saving the day was incredible.  Another one of those moments that I could just picture so exactly.  Perfect.

When I read through these the first time, I still wasn’t sold on the series.  Now that I’m all in, I enjoyed it so much more.  There was a lot of character development and relationship building going on here.  There were also super important plot pieces (Hello! Harry can talk to/hear from snakes!) that come into play in a big way down the road.

Number three is where it really picked up for me the first time around, so I cannot wait to move on!