Three Summer books

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was a second reading occasioned by our grandsons who road out west with us.  We did it on cd and that is my favorite version - the reader is superb and creates the voices and personalities that I want to hear when I read.  We then came home and watched the movie with the Twins - their first Harry Potter experience and that was wonderful fun.

The reread was a real treat for many reasons.  Now that I know the story it was not the constant page turner, instead I could enjoy Rowling's skill.  I think the plot might overshadow the fact that she is really excellent at developing the story through characters that become very real - not just good fictional people, but people in an outrageously creative alternate world that become real.

The descriptions and details of the setting for all the books are laid out in this opening novel. The plot is fun, but thinner than the progression of dark secrets and magical battles that will follow.  This is a book that is more setting and tease.

Of course Valdemort is evil, but he will become more frightening as the series develops.  Here he is merely scary.  Snape is given his shadowy personality and Dumbledor becomes the lovable wizard.  But it is the kids who carry the story and their exploits are something all kids can relate too.

Marshes (2007) by William Burt is a gorgeous book that rides on its photographs.  There are many books that gather photos of coastal seascapes, lakes and waves, and even the dark and seemingly forbidding swamp - but marshes have not gathered the aesthetic appeal.  They are wetlands of grasses, sedge's, rushes - plants with rather dull looking flowers and the water is shaded by the denseness of the vegetation.

But Burt talks about the importance of marshes and the terrible abuse that has been visited upon them.  It is almost impossible to find a pristine marsh - they have either been ruined by construction and draining or invaded by voracious plant species that have been allowed to cross over the seas.  He describes the monster phragmites: "which grow up to 250 lateral feet per year, sending up shoots every four or five inches."

However, if you cannot be persuaded of the beauty of the marsh by words, it is his photo essays that close the deal.  The alluring and seldom seen birds of this community are shown off with clarity and focus - something that had to take tremendous patience.  The least bitterns and the rails are seldom on a birder's list, but they are on these pages.

 This is an intense book about a camp for delinquent boys that is run by a tyrannical female warden who has the boys digging holes in a dry lake bed.  Supposedly this is causing them to reform and think about their crimes.  In reality, she is using them to seek a treasure.  In this situation, our hero - Stanley Yelnats - is a victim of a wrongful conviction and a sentence to Camp Green Lake.Now Green Lake may have been the largest lake in Texas at one time, but now it is home to poisonous yellow spotted lizards and rattlesnakes and these are nicer than the guards.  It is an intense story of escape, the threads of a personal curse that cannot be shaken, and some really good story telling.  Ultimately it is about justice and redemption and the kids will be pleased with the ultimate reward that goes to the two troubled youth who come out on top.  However, I am not sure the right age for this intense book, perhaps 10?