We don't do stars...
We don't do thumbs...
We read children's books and grade them in 10 categories:
literary quality
plot
voice
originality
descriptive ability
humor (if attempted)
illustrations (if present)
believability of characters
believability of situations
overall reading enjoyment

There is no grading curve. There are no points for classroom participation. There is no extra credit.
If you disagree, come speak to us after class.

The Grading System

A+.....this means (guess what) we think it's great. So great it surprised even us.
A.....this means it's pretty darn good. A book we'd recommend to just about everyone we know.
B.....better than most. Not exactly Shakespeare for kids, though, if you get our drift.
C.....mediocre. Like the color beige, it didn't stand out.
D.....we didn't like it. There were more bad aspects than good ones.
F.....it reeked of badness. We read it over and over when we are in dire need of hysterical laughter.
F-.....We're pretty sure Dante had a circle of hell for the people who wrote these...and a lower circle for those who published them.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Reporter's Review: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, by Trenton Lee Stewart

Overall Grade: B+
Little, Brown; May 2008

OK...so it has the longest name of any decent book we've read since From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, but the point is: it's decent. It's refreshing to read a book where the author treats his readers with respect, dropping words like "phalanx" without a pause for breath or explanation. Overall, it fell into the category of sequels that don't live up to "the first one"; the beginning was very slow, and the conflict was non-existent for the first 70 pages. On the other hand, it kept us laughing almost constantly, with ridiculously lovable characters and brain-stimulating humor on practically every page. On the whole, the book was almost as clever as its protagonists.

Literary Quality: B+ (We got oh, so tired of all the parenthetical comments and repetitive back-story)
Plot: A
Voice: B+ (It jumped around so much from one character to another that we got confused...)
Originality: A
Descriptive Ability: A
Humor: A
Illustrations: B
Believability of Characters: B+
Believability of Situations: B
Overall Reading Enjoyment: A

Possibly Objectionable Material*: None we could find

1 comment:

Faith said...

what does this mean?