While some of us have to go to our local library, in a village in Indonesia, the library comes to you.
Called Kudapustaka (Horse Library), three days a week Ridwan Sururi and his horse, Luna, go to visit villages and schools.
The best part is, Ridwan is not looking for money to read his books, but really operates it as a library.
From BBC
Illiteracy in Indonesia has been a massive issue however in recent years the numbers have dropped drastically due to interventions.
Is Luna his? Nope! Luna belongs to a neighbor who doesn’t notice the horse missing so off Luna and Sururi go to help spread the written word.
Just like all of us book lovers, Sururi dreams to have his own library one day, but for now is settling on the goal of owning his own horse and keeping up his amazing work.
“When Lewis Barnavelt, an orphan. comes to stay with his uncle Jonathan, he expects to meet an ordinary person. But he is wrong. Uncle Jonathan and his next-door neighbor, Mrs. Zimmermann, are both witches! Lewis is thrilled. At first, watchng magic is enough. Then Lewis experiments with magic himself and unknowingly resurrects the former owner of the house: a woman named Serenna Izard. It seems that Serenna and her husband built a timepiece into the walls–a clock that could obliterate humankind. And only the Barnavelts can stop it!”
-From Amazon.com
Review
I actually only read this book because of the upcoming movie, which I am SOOOO excited about.
Of course, once I found out that it was a book, I had to get it. I will start off by saying that it is a younger YA novel, but that really didn’t bother me at all.
The book kept me page turning and so curious as to what would potentially be happening next. It was a very simple book to read, due to it being made for younger readers, but it wasn’t so simple that I felt like I was loosing brain cells as I was reading the book, which is always really nice.
As for the story, it was pretty straight forward. There was a boy in a house with some magical people and there was a clock, somewhere, and they had to find it. The people who used to live in the house were bad so there was that basic good versus evil idea going through the book. My complaint with the climax was it wasn’t very…climatic. I wouldn’t say it was anti-climatic because it resolved and it did go somewhere, but with adult novels they generally are a little bit more epic. I had to keep reminding myself that it was a book for younger kids so there couldn’t be the kind of violence and epicness that older YA novels, and adult novels, have in them. For the age it was meant for, it was good!
As for the main character Lewis Barnavelt, for me, he was a little bit obnoxious because he seemed like a real wimpy kid. I haven’t read the whole series of books with him so I know nothing about the series, but in this book I just wanted to shake him sometimes. He wanted to cry a lot and he felt like curling into a bawl quite a few times. I don’t generally mind a weak-ish character but just the timing of it and then his sudden bounce back was a little…meh. Of course, once again, it’s for younger readers so they won’t be noticing those kinds of things.
The novel, overall, was still an enjoyable read. It was also wonderful because it had illustrations. Not tons of them, but a few were dropped here and there, which brought the inner child in me out as I have’t had a book will illustrations in soooooo long! I was extremely happy!
In relation to the movie….
I’m definitely curious as to what the movie is going to do. Based off the trailer, it looks to be pretty big and epic, doesn’t it?
Just based off the trailer, I can already see so many differences between the book and the movie. The two adults should be older, the uncle should be a redhead, Lewis should be quite fat…the small things. There also seems to be some sort of creature or something in the movie?
I mean, I’m still going to see it as I don’t have an attachment to this book like with others….but I can already see that it has been Hollywood-ized.
That all aside, I still give the book 4/5 teacups! I don’t give it 5 because it’s a little bit below me and reading it, I see some flaws in the book, but for a child me, I’d have given it 5 teacups.
Still, 4 teacups means I thoroughly did enjoy it and do recommend checking it out. Especially if you’re going to be going to see the movie!
A new upcoming book to movie is The House with a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs has me soooooo excited!
So first, it’s a book! I’m reading through that currently! Check it out here. It’s a young YA kind of book, but honestly as an adult, I’m still absolutely loving it!
Now, there’s a moving coming out in the next few months and based on the trailer I am so happy. It looks pretty close to the book, and it has Jack Black!
Check it out and let me know what you think.
But I am definitely going to be watching this movie ASAP!
“Which Reality Would YOU Choose? Seventeen year-old Emily’s dad is in prison for securities fraud and her mom’s strung-out on pain meds, leaving Emily to parent herself and her younger brothers and sister. She’s got things mostly under control until a couple weeks before Dad’s release, when voices start whispering in her head, and Gabe, the hot lifeguard at the pool, notices the strange brands engraved on her arm…the ones she’s trying desperately to hide. Emily doesn’t know how the symbols got there or what they mean. They appeared overnight and now they’re infected and bleeding. She’s pretty sure she’s losing her mind. Stress, insomnia, and her wounded egos drive Emily to self-medicate, which has to be why the nightmares from her childhood have resurfaced, why they’re commandeering her conscious even when she’s awake. It has to be why the fairytale creatures she created as a little girl insist they need her help. Triggered by the return of her childhood abuser and unable to cope with reality, Emily slips completely inside her elaborate fantasy world. She’s powerful in the First Realm, maybe even more powerful than her attacker. It would be so easy to stay there, to lose herself in enchantment…to lose herself in love. But something sinister lurks in the forest shadows. Emily soon discovers her demons have followed her inside her fairytale. They’re hunting her. With the help of the Fae, she frantically searches for the weapons she needs to defeat her greatest fears and escape back to reality before the man who tortured her can prey on her younger brothers and sister, too. Time is running out…”
I have to say that this was quite a unique book – nothing like I expected at all. I received a copy from the Publicist, Paula Margulies, (thank you for that!) after I was asked if I’d host a book spotlight. Paula was generous enough to send me a hard copy of the book (which I always loveeee receiving) and I flew through the book! Well…flew through it in university free time standards.
So the book covered some interesting themes from child abuse to managing depression. This kind of theme is generally glossed over in books now as children don’t like to read it, parents don’t like their children to read it and authors don’t write it because they know it will not sell. However, this is an incredibly important topic to cover in book, especially in a way that children will understand. Childhood depression, child abuse, and struggling for children is a common thing that they encounter and if they don’t understand what they are facing, they won’t know how to deal with it or how to properly address it. So that is one reason I really did like the book. The book ended with a reminder of who to contact if you, or someone you know, was struggling with abuse.
Now the story itself was a little confusing to me, but I did still enjoy it. It kept mixing between this fantasy world which Emily created to escape reality and reality. As the book progressed, you started to understand that there was a clear parallel between the fantasy world and the world which Emily was living in with the boys she started to like, her family and her father (being the bad guy). There wasn’t tons of character development until the end when the protagonist realized what she needed to do and the fact that she wasn’t alone and could do this. However, it wasn’t a completely neat ending as there are three more books to be in the series. I don’t know how the series will go, and I may check up on it in the future to see what the other two books will cover, however one book would have be sufficient in my opinion.
I don’t know if I will be picking up the other books in the series, as it’s not really my kind of story, however I do recommend checking this kind of book out because it was just so unique and beautifully covered the struggle which children can face. It also wasn’t a difficult read so it won’t take too long to get through.
The Washington Post came up with a list, from a Librarian, of books which will help children through this really tough time that the United States, and our world is facing.
Yes, they are picture books, but everyone, no matter which side you are on currently, is facing a tough time. So sometimes helping your children understand everything going on in the world and how to find hope and strength is needed. These 19 books really do speak to me as I’ve read quite a few of them. Even as an adult I may want to check some out again.
A friend sent me this link and so I am sharing it with you. Now it is your turn to share it with others.
Summary
