"Ender's Game" and "Tatty Ratty"

Adri asked me to write a book review this month. She should know that the only books I read are with Bookworms!  The only non-bookworm book I’ve read recently was “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card, but I didn’t love it. But, I guess a “book review” doesn’t necessarily have to be a book recommendation, right?

“Ender’s Game” is a (mild) sci-fi novel set sometime in the future. Earth is genetically creating genius children to go into space and train at a “Battle School” to fight the enemy aliens. Ender, a particularly young genius, rises through the ranks ahead of his peers, which bring him persecution. But, his skills end up being very important to the future of the Earth. The book did hold my interest and was pretty quick to read. But, I thought the plot was fairly repetitive and by the end I still had a lot of questions about what was actually going on. It’s definitely creative—I’ll give it that. It just wasn’t one of my favorites. There are many people who adore the book, though. It has won some prestigious awards. And, several sequel books made it the first of a series.

For my first sci-fi book, I must say I liked it more than I thought I would. But, I don’t think I’ll go around touting it as a “must-read” because overall it was a little strange and didn’t really have a “message” that spoke to me.



If you do want a “recommendation,” I’m much more familiar with children’s picture books. My 3 year old’s latest favorite is “Tatty Ratty” by Helen Cooper. It’s about a little girl who loses her stuffed rabbit. She imagines all the places he might be traveling and people he is meeting (including Cinderella and the Three Bears) and how he is changing---getting cleaner and more plump. When the lost rabbit never turns up, the girl’s parents take her to a toy store and buy a new clean white rabbit, which looks just as the girl pictured Tatty Ratty would after all his adventures!