We went to see City of Ember on Halloween night. We like getting out of the house and away from the trick or treaters. It was a good movie. It is set in a post-apocalyptic future. To save a portion of humanity from nuclear fall-out, a city is built deep underground. The people in the city have no idea there is any other world than their city, and now it is starting to fall apart. Visually, it was very stunning. The story was not completely well done. There were too many little things that were unexplained if you hadn't read the book. Also the pacing was kind of off. All in all, though, it was a very enjoyable way to spend our evening. I would recommend this movie. I hope the boys will post comments to tell you what they thought of the movie.

I also really like the book this movie is based on. I thought the concept was fascinating, a story about people who don't know what the sky is or weather or lots of things we take for granted. The sequel People of Sparks is also good.

Best books I've read lately

When I was in the school library a couple of weeks ago, I checked in a large hard-back book and noticed it had the Caldecott Medal winner label on it. For those who don't know, Caldecott Awards are given to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published each year. You can understand why I was surprised that this very thick novel won for illustrations! It is called The Invention of Hugo Cabret. This book has some regular chapters, but also some chapters with little to no words, only pictures. It was a very good book, and a fascinating way of telling the story. I recommend it to everyone. Kids who don't like to read much like to get it and pretend they've read a very long book. :)

Another good book I read lately is a sci-fi book called Encounter With Tiber, by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes. You can probably guess what caught my eye on this book. I wanted to know what kind of book Buzz Aldrin would write. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It is very long and kind of slow (Christopher thought it was too slow), but I really liked it. It's a good story.

Book reviews

One of the funniest books I have read recently is The True Meaning of Smekday. It had me laughing out loud. I talked Christopher and Isaac into reading it, too. It is an alien invasion story told by a young girl whose mother was kidnapped by the aliens. She is telling the story for a school project.

A book to avoid: Rune Warriors. This book isn't published yet, but I signed up for an Advance Reader's copy. The description looked interesting, and the cover looked cool. You can't judge a book by it's cover, though. This book is a stinker. The writers are used to writing scripts for cartoons and it shows. The story is predictable. I didn't care about any of the characters. I wouldn't even have finished the book if I hadn't promised HarperCollins I'd write the review for it.

A great series I've been reading recently is the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith. They are set in Botswana, and they are funny, light reading. They really give you a look into the lives of the people there.