It was really hard to let Morgan go. It's hard to let all of your chidren go no matter where they are in life. When Morgan left I looked at it this way. I will not always be here to take care of Morgan. I did not want that too fall on his siblings when I was gone. I also looked at that it willhelp his independance. It really has. I tend to over mother my children. My 21 year old son (Jason) who just moved out still can't wash his own clothes. MY FAULT. Morgan learned all these things his "normal" brother has not yet! Morgan is having a ball with his friends. He has a girlfriend at another home.It's like he is off to college. I tell everyone when I grow up I want to be just like him! Thanks for allowing me to share
I just wanted to say that I am proud of you and anyone else who has a special needs child or family member to care for. It puts life into perspective.
Also...I understand about the southern slang...lol. My sister visited here from NY in October. She said she needed me to translate some of the things she had heard!!! LOL
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Marina's problem is the other way around. She was able to read and sound out plenty of words but her comprehension was behind.....now she reads for-6 books at any given time.Originally posted by The_Preacher's_Kid:
Does this ever happen with Marina? When MOlly was little, she was able to read books that were quite advanced for her age. She comprehended them well, but didn't always know how to pronouce some of the words. She had a really vast vocabulary, though, and sometimes would have us rolling on the floor laughing! She'd use her big words in sentences, only mis-pronounce them horribly. It was qutie a hoot. She thought it was funny, too.
<font color="#051E50"><font size="1">[ January 08, 2005 11:02 AM: Message edited by: The_Preacher's_Kid ]</font></font>
<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ January 09, 2005 08:34 AM: Message edited by: Sail-Away ]</font>
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">But children DO act like this! It totally reminded me of some people I knew. There is so much about Marisol and her life that is realistic, she really could be a real girl.Originally posted by Nellie girl:
Think of a child reading this book and seeing a child who is supposed to be her age doing that and thinking, "I don't act like that. Maybe even, "the girl down the hall dosn't act like that." Maybe it is what is making Marisol so hard to relate.
That boy's mourning a popsicle reminds me a lot of my dad. He'll talk about how good something was for DAYS after having it. He is always talking about Black Bottom Pie and how good they are and how he wishes someone would make one. He'll even get silly about it and start talking about how he's "never" had one but heard they were delicious and how "he'd love to try one". Seriously, he spends a LOT of time doing this. So much so that for Christmas I surprised him with a homemade Black Bottom Pie!
And he doesn't just talk about fancier desserts. He's gone on and one about his favorite candy bar. I wouldn't be surprised if he'd mourn a popsicle as a kid. It's just something funny that he does and adds to his uniqueness. From that passage in the book, I think the author was showing that this kid really likes food.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It's an expression. I don't think it's necessarily Spanish, because I've heard it a lot. Haven't you heard of things like "cute as a button", "quiet as a mouse", "cute as a bug in a rug"? There are tons of them and a lot don't make sense if you analyze them, but some do. It's just what people say though. "Shy as a pony" just means really shy. I think it's referring to when a pony shakes it's head and backs away from a stranger. Perhaps people who really know ponies wouldn't interpret that as being shy, but it's not uncommon for those who don't really know the animal to interpret it that way. When I read that line I immediately thought about the time my Girl Scout troop went horseback riding and how some of them moved away from us when we arrived. They seemed shy.The descriptive words make NO sense, shy as a pony..what does THAT mean??
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think you are wrong here. Your complaint is very misleading. First, the storyline is simple. Marisol is a girl who loves dance and has lived all her life in one place. Now she's having to move and she's realising just what she is going to be leaving behind, including dance classes. The story is about her moving and accepting somethings and finding solutions to others. No, it's not a very deep story but it is realistic and it was written for children. It's not supposed to be some deep thinking material. At the same time, I don't feel it was poorly written. I've taken a college class on Children's Literature and feel it is comparable in quality to some of the other popular children's titles we looked at. And I found myself wishing those had been available when I was younger because they would have been more my reading level than the books that were available and just too easy to read. It's not destined to be some great children's classic, but it isn't trash either.There is NO story line almost twenty pages of the book are discription of nothing. Her father screwing in a light bulb, the size of cookies and black olives vs green olives.
Also, the descriptions are not like you say. It doesn't actually describe him changing the lightbulb. She's at her new friends house and looks out the girl's window and sees him go from being really tall to normal height. Then she realizes he had been standing on a chair to change a lightbulb. From what you said about it, one would expect a page of every single movement he did that resulted in the lightbulb being changed. And that isn't what is in the book. Neither is there a long passage about green and black olives. It's only in one sentence that she says she loves olives, with green being her favorite. They are at lunch in the cafeteria, that paragraph is letting us know that by describing her getting her lunch. It's not an important part to the story, but it is transitioning the reader from the previous chapter into the current one that is taking place at school.
You really did a lot of exaggerating in your review of the book. And many of your points are based on things that really have little to do with the overall story. It's more like you sat down with determination to dislike the book and hunted for reasons to dislike it, without actually just reading it. It's a fiction book for children, not some textbook to be studied.
One thing the book did do for me- make me hungry for Mexican food.
littledarling...thanks for you post. Sometimes people are just going to be bent on hating a book just because. I haven't heard very many positive things about the LE books but then I have never read any of them and I hope that if I ever do I will do so with a more open mind.
The historical books have made us expect a higher standard of books from AG. They are the books that make grown women go out and buy dolls.
Susan, I agree. I went into reading Lindsey, Kailey, and Marisol's books knowing that they were written from what is supposed to be the perspective of a child. All three books kept my DD's attention, and she was always eager for more. I only read a couple chapters to her per day, but she remembered what happened and was able to keep up with the story. She loved all three books thouroughly. I enjoyed reading them with her.
Littledarling, thanks for your thorough review of the Marisol book. [img]biggrin.gif[/img]
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I also want to thank you for your post. Now I understand and appreciate some aspects of the book that I hadn't before.Originally posted by *Susan*:
littledarling...thanks for you post. Sometimes people are just going to be bent on hating a book just because. I haven't heard very many positive things about the LE books but then I have never read any of them and I hope that if I ever do I will do so with a more open mind.
Thanks little darling. I appreciated your post.
One thing I didn't quite get was the original statement of "Also the kids around her block are they retarted or something? I have yet to see a ten year old mourning a Popsicle he ate and was unhappy it was gone for hours...that is not entertaining.... this kid needs serious help" If you stress not talking down to children what would that statement be considered? No where in the book when they first introduced the character of Victor did it say, nor do I believe, intend to give the impression that he was mentally handicapped. So why would you think that? And why would it have been ok to use the word "retarded" even if they had suggested somehow that he was mentally challenged?
I agree with Teri. Immature or something similiar to that from a thesaurus would have been a better word to use instead of retarded. [img]frown.gif[/img]
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