The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

This is a sweet novel about a woman who, after being repressed all of her life, breaks free.
Valancy Stirling is a twenty-nine year old woman, unmarried, living with her mother and elderly cousin in turn of the century Ontario. Valancy is your textbook old maid. She's not very pretty, is quiet and subdued, and has never once been anyone of distinction. Every day of her life has been a disappointment and all she's ever wanted was one day of happiness, little does she know, her life is about to change forever. After a small act of rebellion, she decides to visit a heart doctor about some odd palpitations she's been having. She eventually learns that she has a very serious heart disease and has maybe a year to live. Valancy decides to stop living in fear of what other people might think or say, and starts doing and saying things she's always kept inside. She also leaves her mother's house to go work as a caretaker of an ill girl whom she went to school with who had an illegitimate child, and who's father was a known town drunkard, much to the horror and disapproval of her family. There is a man named Barney Snaith who visits this house on a regular basis to visit these people, and who holds something of a speculatively dubious reputation himself. As Valancy interacts with these people more and follows her own thoughts and wishes above those of other people's, and is finally needed by others, she begins to grow into the person she has always wanted to be.
The author was a bit wordy at times, giving descriptions that were a little too long about family members or situations or even quotations from novels Valancy enjoyed, but overall these didn't detract from the plot overmuch. There were also some annoying spelling errors, Valancy spelled Valance, Snaith spelled Smith, 'an' instead of 'a', things like this. They were few and far between, but still noticeable. I don't really find these annoying as I find it kind of a game to spot these errors in novels, but if that does annoy you they are here. They story is better than it's errors though, so I would recommend that you read it despite the spelling.
This was a very sweet novel. We are introduced to Valancy in all of her spinsterly misery. She was born into a tight-knit, very judgmental, upper middle class family. Her family does, and always has, pick on her for being unmarried and unattractive, and generally ignore her if they're not using her as a butt of one of their jokes. However, there is a hidden fire in Valancy that no one in her family can guess at, and after discovering her imminent death, decides that she need not be a slave to her fear anymore and let that fire out, as she won't be alive to have to deal with the gossip-mongering disapproval of her family. Events lead her to be living in the Muskokas, scenic cottage country a couple of hours north of Toronto, and the novel becomes a celebration of nature. The author describes the wildlife Valancy encounters with majesty and splendour. Her descriptions of the lakes and forests are magical. I have been to Muskoka and it was beautiful, but after having read this book I feel that I must go again, in winter this time.
The title of the book, the Blue Castle, makes reference to Valancy's dream castle. The place where she would mentally go when her physical life seemed unbearable. As the novel progresses, the Blue Castle moves from Valancy's dreams to the world she's living in. It represents her happiness, and as she openly becomes the person she has always been inside, her Blue Castle seems that much nearer.
This novel  was written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables, Emily of New Moon and many others. The Blue Castle is one of her few adult novels and holds all of the charm and magic that her young adult novels have. I would definitely pick up this author, not just this book. There have been film adaptions to many of her stories, including: Anne of Green Gables, Road to Avonlea, Emily of New Moon, and Jane of Lantern Hill. If you don't want to read the novels (which I recommend that you do) at least watch the films. They're all heart-warming, charming, slightly romantic stories with strong characters and whimsical prose. Do it.

Whale Rider (2002)

This is a movie about a girl from a broken family, in a broken culture, who defies her personal and collective past to create a new and possibly better future.

Paikea is a girl who, in the eyes of her grandfather, shouldn't have been born. Paikea was born into a patriarchal Maori tribe, of which her grandfather, and his grandfather before him, and his before him, etc. is chief. The story behind her culture is that they all came to where they're living now because one of their ancestors, a man named Paikea, rode on the back of a whale, and they really cherish whales because of this. The problem is that the blood of the community is growing weak, and not many people are choosing to follow the old ways. Paikea's father chose to leave the country instead of take his place as next in line, and her grandfather was hoping that his firstborn grandson would take his place and lead the people. Paikea was born along with a twin brother, but the boy didn't survive. Paikea's father left soon after her birth, and she was raised by her grandmother and grandfather.

One day, her grandfather decides to open a school for all of the young boys in the village, to teach them the old ways, and to choose one of them to be the new chief. Paikea tries to join in, but her grandfather gets angry and kicks her out of the school. She is of course upset by this and gets her uncle (her grandfather's second born, also not good enough for her grandfather) to teach her the traditional fighting style. To pick one of the boys to follow in his footsteps, her grandfather throws a whale tooth to the bottom of the reef and says that the one who can retrieve it will be chosen. Of course none of them can do it. And of course Paikea asks her uncle to take her there and successfully retrieves it. That night at her school she says a speech in her grandfather's honour, but he doesn't make it to the event because for some reason all of the whales have beached themselves. The whole community comes down to the beach to try to save the whales, but nothing seems to be able to fix this situation. Will Pai be able to do anything!?

This is kind of a slow-moving film, but I really love it. It's a story about inner strength, about fighting adversity, and most importantly, about valuing tradition and your heritage and fighting to keep it alive, even when doing so seems impossible or useless. Everything in Pai's life seems to be working against her, or falling apart. She comes from a tradition that seems to be losing it's place, where her place as a woman makes her voice a little bit harder to hear, and yet she's the only one with the power to speak. She's also from a broken family. She rarely ever sees her father who lives in another country, her mother died during childbirth, and her grandfather resents her existence because of her gender. But despite the fact that so many things in her life are 'broken', Pai keeps trying to fix them. A great scene symbolizing this is when her grandfather is trying to start a motor with a piece of rope and he explains that their ancestral line is like the rope, many small strands woven together to become something stronger. He then snaps the rope trying to start the motor and angrily goes off to find a better one. Pai picks up the rope and fixes it, ad then uses it to start the motor and her grandfather comes back and scolds her. She's able to gather people, and lead them, but because she's a girl, her value is overlooked and belittled. And what's so inspiring about the movie is that she barrels forward despite all of that.

I'm kind of a sucker for tradition and culture, and keeping your own alive in a modern world that does not immediately make room for older modes of thought and being, so this film always strikes a chord with me. I often feel the richness and beauty of my own family's culture and traditions fading slowly away with every generation, and movies like this one give me a confidence boost when I'm feeling like I'm the only one who wants to treasure that heritage. And it gives me confidence that I can adapt that older way to fit the new world I'm living in now.

Even if you're not female, and you're not very traditional, this is still a good movie about finding yourself and standing up for your beliefs or standing up to outdated thoughts or closed-minded adversaries. A definite watch.

 

The Brave Little Toaster (1987)

This is the story about several house hold appliances that come to life (have always been 'alive') and decide to journey to find their master.

The story begins at an old cottage. At first it just seems like a regular, old cottage that hasn't been used for a while, but then we begin to see objects around the house come to life. A toaster, an electric blanket, and clock radio, a desk lamp, and a vacuum cleaner are the main appliances in the story. When they wake up they all go about their chores, stopping every time they hear a car coming, because they are constantly waiting for their master, a young boy, to come retrieve them and use them again. Well on one fateful day, they realize that the cottage is going to be put up for sale, and that they might never see their master again. Instead of just sitting to rot and waiting for their next masters to take possession of the cottage and them as well, the toaster convinces them to go off in search of their master. They travel through many forests and fields, and actually fall into a swamp at one point and are found by a man who repairs broken appliances. He takes them back to his shop, a scary place where appliances apparently go to die under torturous circumstances. Just as the radio is about to go, they create a diversion and make their escape and miraculously find their master's apartment in the city. When they get there though, the new furniture is jealous of the old furniture and tells them that their master doesn't need them anymore and throws them into a dumpster, and they are taken to a landfill. Little do they know, their master drove to the cottage to retrieve them, only to find them gone. When he returns home his old tv (friends with toaster and gang) direct the master to the dump, in hopes that he'd find toaster and bring the gang back. Things at the dump get a bit dangerous when a magnetic machine spots our appliance friends and tries to crush them. What will happen I wonder.

This is a great movie. And actually this is a terrifying movie. I can't believe I didn't notice the sheer terror this movie should have caused me when I first watched it, but kids are always stronger than we give them credit for.. and maybe it's adults who are more susceptible to fear, or knowledge of fear anyway. If you want to preview some of the scenes look up the clown scene, or the scene with the air conditioner. They're on YouTube. It's a really interesting movie to watch, and it has catchy songs too.

Another quality that is good about this movie is it really pushes the idea that you have to cherish and take care of the things you buy. So often we develop the mentality that everything is disposable, everything has an expiry date, and you don't need to care for what you have because if it breaks, you can buy another one just like it. Instead, if more people developed the habit of caring for and taking pride in what they own, we would waste less money on useless purchases and reduce our garbage.

An interesting scene in this movie takes place when Toaster and gang take a break from their journey in field and all of the animals and flowers start interacting with our friends, especially with the reflection they see in Toaster. There is one flower that sees it's reflection in Toaster and falls in love with it, but there's no flower there, and the reflection can't love it back, so the flower begins to wilt and die. It's a depressing part of the movie that doesn't immediately fit in. Of course it could symbolize the other side of the 'love your things' theme, where you can't actually love your things because they'll never love you back, because they're not alive. But it, like the whole movie, is really interesting in it's lack of fear to go to darker places, for a children's movie.

Each of the characters grow a lot in this movie, too (just keeps getting better and better, I know). Characters who begin afraid of everything find an inner strength, characters who don't show a lot of emotion really open up, etc. They all do their own part to complete their journey and make their own sacrifices to achieve a greater happiness.

I really recommend you watch this film. Okay, maybe not the most amazing children's film ever made, but a definite watch.

Gifts by Ursula LeGuin

This is the first book of three in a series called The Annals of the Western Shore. The story takes place in a world where magic exists, but only to those who live in the northern territory called the Uplands. To those who live elsewhere, magic is little more than bumpkin superstition. Magic isn't as we traditionally know it in fantastical literature either. In the Uplands, a person is limited to a certain ability they inherit from their ancestors, and the strength of the ability depends on the purity of the bloodline, amongst other things. These abilities are called gifts.

The story is about a boy named Orrec. We begin by learning that Orrec is blindfolded because of the strength of his gift. His is the gift of unmaking, which basically means he has the power to destroy anything he looks at if he wishes it. Orrec's gift was too powerful however and he had no control over it, which is why his father blinded him. The plot basically leads up the that first scene and paints Orrec's life and his struggles with this gift.

More than a fantasy, this is a coming of age story. Orrec is given a powerful 'gift' but has absolutely no control over it, making himself a deadly threat as a result. He tries to match himself to historical figures and satisfy his father's wishes, but no matter how hard he tries, or how seemingly powerful his gift may be, he feels weak and powerless and completely out-of-place. His gift is ironically more of a burden. It's only when he realizes that he must take his power into his own hands and makes it what he wants to be that it truly becomes a gift. We all have 'gifts' or abilities or skills, and they can either be a burden or they can enrich your life. This is the story of Orrec's journey learning how to make his gift be a gift.

The Pagemaster (1994)

For me this is one of those films that every time it's suggested as a film to view I don't initially want to watch because I think it will be cheesy but then end up enjoying a lot.

The story is about a very cautious young boy who is afraid of just about everything he comes in contact with. His father, who wants both to spend some time with his son and help him get over his fear, is building him a tree house. His dad sends him out to buy more nails for said tree house, but Richard (the boy) gets caught in the middle of a rain storm on the way and runs into the nearest building for shelter, and this building happens to be a library. When he enters the library he is bombarded by a very passionate librarian who is more than willing to help him find any number of stories, but Richard is just looking for a telephone and goes on his way to find it. As he is walking through the stacks he comes across a huge mural on the ceiling of a rotunda. As he's admiring this mural the paint starts to melt off the ceiling and drop onto the floor, turning everything it touches into a cartoon. Richard of course runs away and this paint chases him until both he and the entire library have been turned into a cartoon. He meets up with three books, Adventure, Fantasy, and Horror, and with their help, face three challenges (found within some classic books from each genre) as they make their way to the exit sign.

This plot of this movie sounds so cheesy, like one of those direct to film movies designed to make a quick buck, but instead it's one of those hidden gems that encourage imagination and self- confidence. Christopher Lloyd plays the librarian as well as The Pagemaster, and I think he was one of the best actors for the job. He speaks with a mixture of both a hushed and an explosive passion that could make you see the magic in a wet dish towel and draws you in so completely to the plot. It inspires both reading and imagination and  is a fast paced adventure, to be enjoyed by young and old.

I Dream Dragon

I have loved dragons all my life. Here are some fictional books that have enhanced my love and have helped to paint the world in which they live.

Harper Hall of Pern Trilogy - Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums- great trilogy about a young girl who lives in a place where music is forbidden to girls and dragons are only for dragon riders, until one day she runs away from home and stumbles upon a clutch of small dragons that bond with her.

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles- Dealing with Dragons, Seaching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, Talking to Dragons- amazing series about a princess who was captured by a dragon... and doesn't want to be rescued. Instead she befriends the dragon and they go off on adventures. The old covers look so much better than the new ones.

The Dragons Chronicles- Dragon's Milk, Flight of the Dragons Kyn, Sign of the Dove - a collection of books about girls who can speak with dragons in a time when dragons are being hunted down and killed. These girls try to save the dragons.

Song in the Silence - story about a young woman who falls in love with a dragon. Not as cheesy as it sounds.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader- chronicles of Narnia. book 5. One of the selfish children gets turned into a dragon.

The Ice Dragon- story about a girl who loves the cold and because of her inhuman tolerance and love of it, creates a bond with the legendary ice dragon.

The Book of Dragons- great collection of short stories by E. Nesbit, a classic children's author.

Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher- a young boy escapes some bullies by running into a magic shop and comes out with a dragon egg.

How to Train Your Dragon- story about a viking boy who isn't very good at being a viking, but his strange dragon training techniques may just save his town.

Kira (Shadow of the Dragon)- after the capture of their family, two sisters befriend a dragons and go about fulfilling a prophecy about bring down an unwelcome kingdom.

Dragon Slippers- Taking a few notes from Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, this is a story about a girl whose aunt offers her to the local dragon so that a prince will come to save and marry her. When the prince comes she blows him off and goes her own way, but takes a pair of shoes from the dragon's cave. She meets with another dragon later on and befriends it.

Dragon's Blood- boy tries to train a dragon

Dragonhaven- boy takes care of a dragon. Not as good as her other books, but not horrible.

The Paper Bag Princess - classic story book about a princess who goes off to save her prince from a dragon. After she outwits the dragon and saves him however, she realizes that he's not worth the trouble and leaves him in the dust. All of his stories are better when you hear him read them, so look up the audio... it might be on his website.

Tell Me A Dragon- This book doesn't really have a plot, it is more a collection of different people saying what kind of dragon they have, and by dragon I would assume they mean imagination. It goes through many different kinds of dragons, fire breathers, ice dragons, big dragons, etc. and is more a kind of book to inspire you to take pride in your own imagination than it is taking you through someone else's.

Eragon- farm boy finds a dragon egg and forms a bond with the dragon when it hatches, they go on adventures.

Dragonheart- Great movie about a dragon who gives his heart to save the life of a prince.. and it backfires. Two words. Sean Connery.

Pete's Dragon- An orphan and his dragon friend, who is invisible unless he so chooses, meets a nice lighthouse keeper and his daughter.

Pirate and the Penguin by Patricia Storms

This story is (as you might have guessed) about a pirate and a penguin. The pirate lives a life on the seas plundering, pillaging, and the like, but as it turns out, this pirate is getting a bit sick of the whole 'pirate thing' and begins wishing for a quieter life. In the antarctic there's this penguin, and just by looking at him you can tell he's out of place. He's wearing a sweater because he's cold all the time, and instead of sliding around on the ice like the other penguins, he dreams of adventure and travel. So the penguin and the pirate each decide to leave their homes to find a place where they can fulfill their desires and end up where the other left.

This story is a 'you can be anything you want' kind of book, as one could assume from reading the first couple of pages. The penguin wants what the pirate has and vice versa, and the story comes to a close with them switching places and being happy. It sounds like it would be a rehashing of a cheesy, over-played plot that's been so watered down by politically correct sentiments that it's lost any value whatsoever as a decent story... but surprisingly this is not the case. The story telling is fresh and fun and the illustrations are colourful and animated. It's a fun read with a nice little moral.

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

This book was so adorable! I read it in a couple of hours, I was hooked from the first page.

It's the story about two kids, a girl and a boy, and how they feel about each other as they grow older. It was decently written and was more complex than I initially assumed it would be. At first glance this looks like your typical story of unrequited love, girl loves boy, boy wants nothing to do with girl. But the story is actually much more than this. The girl, Julie, is a headstrong, genuine person who lives her life with conviction. Hearing a summary of the book you would assume that she is some spineless, wilting heroine who feels like she needs a boy to know who she is, but she's just the opposite. The reason she goes after Bryce the way that she does is because she puts 150% into everything she does. She's a dreamer and an activist, one of those people who you meet only once in a lifetime.. if you're lucky. Bryce comes to realize this, and by getting to know her, comes to see how prejudiced and superficial he is.

The story is told by both Bryce and Julie, and they take turns telling the reader what happened chapter by chapter. And, as one might assume, the story starts off with the girl being obsessed with the boy and the boy wanting nothing to do with the girl. Since this is a romance of sorts I would assume that you would be able to fabricate the basic plot line from that information, so I won't 'spoil' it for you.

The characters go through self discovery and heartbreak. There is a theme of 'breaking free of one's old mentality' and embracing a passion for life and the main characters emphasize this transition (or the state of being if not the actual transition itself... though the moving from one state to the other is the most fascinating aspect and would be the crux of the story).

I really love finding stories like this. It's a sweet, innocent romance (in the actual sense of the word, not in the smutty sense), but with some depth to it which makes the story all the more real and palpable. You get to watch these kids grow into the people they will be. Julie is such a free spirit, though you don't quite expect this right away as Bryce starts off the first chapter, I really enjoyed her character. and Bryce gets an inner strength as he grows older that represents a real struggle for the individual's own self awareness.

The ending was somewhat unsatisfying because it kind of left the reader hanging... and it was excellent because of that. this isn't a story about dating, it's about before that happens, when you first discover love. You can tell the author did an excellent job with this because you're left wanting more, you want to know how it will end. We as the western audience we are crave the 'honeymoon' phase, even if it means destroying true love just to have somewhere to start all over again. This book gives the reader hints of the honeymoon phase, but doesn't go into it, leaves the reader at the cusp of what could be.

Much more amazing than I initially assumed it would be, this book is great and I recommend it.

Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey

This is a great book about a girl with passion for music. The story takes place in a fictional land called Pern. McCaffrey has fully developed this world in a whole series of books, this is only one series of many that take place in this land, but a lot of them are adult novels as opposed to this one which is meant for kids. The book focuses on this girl named Menolly, who lives in a very conservative fishing village; in a time before modern technology and in a world where dragons exist. Menolly loves music, but it is frowned upon for women to participate in music in any significant way, AKA singing in a chorus is OK, but it is unheard of for a woman to play instruments or compose music. To be a 'harper' which is a person treated almost like a scholar or a priest. Men with talent go off to study in a harper school and to be a harper is a very prestigious position. Every little town is sent their own harper to teach the children songs and to preside over the music at ceremonies and events.

So this girl Menolly is very talented and loves music, but because of the society she lives in, she can't enjoy her gift. The old harper in her village recognized her talent and fostered her gift, and because she was a child her parents allowed this, but as the story opens we find that this old harper is dead and the town (of which her father is the chief) has requested for a new harper. Before the old harper died, he had sent off some songs Menolly had written to the master harper, who is the most important harper of all. He really liked these and told the new harper to find this (thought to be male) prodigy. and this is where we walk into the story.

Menolly then goes through some trials, one of which is cutting her hand while gutting fish. This is particularly tragic because she is told that she can no longer play music. She already feels useless because she's taller and stronger than 'a girl should be' and she has no interest in what she should be doing. Her parents, especially her father, are against her playing music. Her father even beats her when he finds her absentmindedly strumming a guitar after he forbid her to make any music, as he doesn't want her to shame their village when the new harper comes. Because of this she makes herself scarce and eventually runs away to live on a cliff with these little dragons called fire lizards. Will she ever play music again?

This is the first in a trilogy and is a great story for both budding fantasy lovers as well as for veterans. It's a quick read, but has memorable characters and a fast-paced plot. Fun for all ages.

Millenium Actress (2001)

I'd heard of this movie and seen it around on and off for several years, but the clips I'd seen and the description turned me off, so I didn't watch it despite having heard good things about it. After seeing it however, I don't know why I waited so long! The movie is about two guys who want to interview a famous actress for the documentary they're doing on her life. Clips of the movies she has been in are featured throughout the film to tell the story of her love for a man she doesn't really know. This sounded extremely boring to me. The pacing of the movie isn't fast and exciting either, but more of a slower building up to the climax, so if one were to fast forward through to see segments of various scenes... well it just looked boring. But, the movie is actually really good.

First of all, the art is amazing. A lot of attention paid to detail and it's a pleasure to watch purely from an artistic perspective.

So the story is about two guys who interview a famous actress about her life, and she tells this story through movies she's been in. Basically when she was young she met a wounded rebel in the streets and hides him from the police for a night. When she goes to see him in the morning he's gone, but he left a picture of her that he drew saying something like 'until next time'. So she sort of falls for this man and then obsesses over him for the rest of her life. She gets an offer to be an actress and accepts because the job she was offered took her to where the guys escaped to. So we find out that her success as an actress stems from her desire to find this guy. And this sounds superficial and weak as a motivation to do something with your life, kind of playing off the stereotype that a woman needs a man to complete herself, which is why I like this movie so much. When a typical North Amercian thinks of Japanese culture, or for some people Asian culture in general, they think of the stereotypes of weak- willed, submissive women because of how the media portrays them and such, but this movie subtly twists that stereotype on its head. The girl spends her entire life chasing after this guy and during many parts in the movie I wondered why she doesn't just give up on the guy and live her life for herself. At the end of the movie though ... I guess spoiler alert, but if I'd known this sooner I'd have watched it sooner... she tells the interviewer that it didn't matter to her if she ever actually caught up with the guy. In fact if she did catch him she would probably get bored of him because it was the chasing that she lived for. And this is like anything in life. If you chase a man or a job or even an ideology of some kind, the journey is the important thing, meaning that she is in fact living for herself, even though from a supercifical or incomplete understanding of her situation, it seems to be otherwise. That made the movie for me. So I liked it.

Whisper of the Heart (1995)

This movie reminded me slightly of Kiki's Delivery Service. Kiki's Delivery Service was made before it though, and I'd have to say that it was a better story of self discovery. But as Whisper of the Heart is also from Studio Ghibli, the fact that it pales in comparison to Kiki in no way makes it a bad film.

Whisper of the Heart is the story of a girl who is at odds with herself. She has no direction and doesn't know what she will do in the future. She meets a boy who loves music and is inspired by his passion, so decides to write a novel. There isn't a lot of action in the movie, but watching Shizuku struggle with her frustration at discovering what she enjoys and what she should do with her life, and then the passion and effort she puts into attempting to fulfill that endears her to the audience. She struggles with some conventions that the young people of today are encouraged to participate in. I won't say exactly what so as not to spoil anything, but suffice it to say that she resisted this convention because didn't see the use of participating and later returned to it when she saw the use. 

At the end of the movie, Shizuku finds her beginning, and I have to say that the story she is writing bears more than a resemblance to The Cat Returns, another Ghibli film created after this one.

Overall a sweet film, but Kiki does a better job of it on the whole.

Psyche in a Dress by Francesca Lia Block

I'd heard a lot of great things about this book before I read it, so when I started reading and didn't immediately see the draw I was kind of disappointed. It wasn't bad by any means, but it wasn't fantastic. As I got closer to the end, however, and the different aspects of the story started coming together for the final conclusion I really thought to myself, this is a really good book.

The writing style is some kind of poetic, stream of consciousness, almost dreamlike approach that allows the reader to take in the information a different way than if it were presented normally. You almost want to pause over the information to make sure you're taking it in correctly. The author doesn't knock her self out with punctuation for most of the book. If there's supposed to be a period or a comma she just skips down to the next line and continues on, but it wasn't hard to read because of this, it just adds to the mood she's trying to create.

The basic premise of the story is that there is this girl who lives out Greek myths in the modern day. She is psyche predominately, but after she looses Eros she goes through different phases and meets different people and becomes other mythological figures, which the author uses to describe different stages of life.

From the book, kind of near the end, but don't worry you won't know how it's relevant until you read it

I have been young too
I have been Psyche, I have been Echo
I have been Eurydice
I have been Persephone, like you
I thought I was not a goddess
My mother was a goddess
Now I am Demeter, like my mother
Because of you

Reading that kind of sums up the book, and when you tie in what the author creates around these myths, its kind of touching. A lot of time is spent on the details which makes the story more than just a plot, and in every part of the book we are told what dress psyche is wearing. I'm not much into fashion so I can't tell you if the dresses she wore at certain times were significant to the plot, but in the beginning the dresses are her mother's and by the end i think she gets one of her own.

Anyway, Psyche learns to stand on her own, exist by herself, which is a nice ending. And if you know your myths there won't be any real surprises in plot, maybe in execution, but that why it's interesting right? Great read.

Luna: A Novel by Julie Ann Peters

This was a phenomenal story about struggle and rebirth. The story focuses on a transgendered guy through the eyes of his sister. And quite honestly I didn't go to sleep last night as I read it from start to finish.

The whole story is about how Luna (Liam's true self) is trapped within Liam, and Liam is a construction what the most acceptable way he can exist without revealing his true self turns out to be, which throughout the book we are told is like a shell of a person. Regan, the sister, has known from a young age that her brother is really a sister and devotes her entire life to keeping up the facade of Liam and dealing with Luna's problems. As a result Regan doesn't really have an identity. Both she and Luna are repressed 'Liam' Liam being society's rejection of transgendered individuals, and 'Liam' stifles those who know the truth to the point where the death of the individual wouldn't matter because the spirit, their soul, is already dead, crushed by society's rigid rejection. As depressing as that sounds however, this book is a phoenix rising out of the ashes story. For most of the novel everyone rejects Luna, even Regan and Liam as they are more embarrassed and wanting to keep Luna underground more than anything else. As the story progresses however, Luna decides that she needs to make herself known, she needs to break free, so she hesitantly goes about doing this, at first just recognizing this fact, than taking ever growing steps toward freedom. People accept or reject her as this process takes shape, but the only viewpoints the readers focus in on are Luna/ Liam's and Regan's. We never hear the final conclusion the other characters come to, which is appropriate as we can fill in our own selves or those we know into those characters, because this is very much an unfinished story as sexism still exists in a huge way today.

For most of the book Regan is just used as a lense through which the reader can learn about Luna and has no personality or character of her own, but she along with Luna, comes to the realization that she has no 'self' because of 'Liam' and though she doesn't act on it the way Luna does, she gets proddings from the outside world (in the shape of a new guy in school) to bring attention to her own life and not focus everything on Luna.

I teared up a few times reading this. Everyone has an inner self to let out, it's a struggle we all go through, some more so than others.

Sophie’s Masterpiece: A Spider’s Tale by Eileen Spinelli

 Sophie the spider goes out into the world to do something great, to create a masterpiece. She settles herself in this boarding house and attempts to help out the people who live there, but none of them accept her gifts and scream at the sight of her. Sophie eventually finds a new mother who doesn't scream at the sight of her, but welcomes her. The mother is poor though and Sophie sees an old blanket covering the mother's baby. Sophie decides to make a new blanket for the baby, her masterpiece.

The pictures are beautiful and the story touching. A great addition to the bookshelf.

Ish by Peter H. Reynolds

 This was a cute book about a little boy who loves to draw, and he draws quite a bit. One day his brother looks at his drawings and says that it doesn't look like what he was trying to draw. The boy looks at it again and agrees with his brother and he gets mad. I forget if he keeps drawing or not, but at one point he crumples up his 'last drawing' in frustration and swears to never draw again. His sister grabs the drawing and runs to her room. He chases her and when he goes in her room he sees all of his drawings. He asks why she kept them as they don't look anything like what they're supposed to, a vase. She replies, 'Well it looks vase-ish'. He looks around and agrees that it does look vase- ish. and continues drawing. 

The guy's drawings don't have to be perfect. He draws because he loves it, not because he wants to make perfect pictures. It's sweet.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

This was a pretty good book. It's about a seagull with a passion, or a vision of something beyond his current reality. He strives for this vision, much to the dismay of the other seagulls and in the end he achieves what he's looking for, which I guess would be enlightenment. This is a quote that pretty much sums up the book for me

"iInstead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there's reason to live! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can learn to be free! We can learn to fly!"
 
The moral is about having a dream and making that dream happen. The process is not without its difficulties but essentially the end goal makes the whole process worth it. ... In a nutshell. Not the most groundbreaking read, but worth the trek if you're in the mood.

Kiki’s Delivery Service

This movie is in my list of most watched movies. It's about a witch who (after going to live on her own for a year) loses her ability to fly and has to struggle with herself to find who she is to be able to fly again. Every witch has a special power that she does best, like her own personality manifested. When Kiki loses her power, its like the struggle a lot of young girls (and boys) go through to find out why they're here and who they are.

I first saw this movie when I was in grade 7, and her not knowing what her power was at first, finding it, loosing it and then how she gained it back by realizing what was truly important really touched a chord in me. I thought to myself 'hey! I go through that all the time!' and watching her rise out of her inability always made me feel better about myself when I was feeling a bit sad. Showing a light at the end of the tunnel if you will.

I recommend this movie to all young girls as its a truly touching movie of finding your own way in the world, your purpose, which is to be the best you you can be.