2010...and I'm freezing!!

I feel like I've been playing hooky but really I've been scattered.  I lost my phone for a day (left it at church-in the nursery) and my house is freezing, which makes my fingers too numb to type-Yes, it is that cold!  I spent the weekend (except when I had to go out...to church) hunkered down on my sofa, wrapped in a sleeping bag, watching movies or playing Jeopardy on the new PS3 game system.  What fun!!

Monday brought the first day of school, which is dreadful usually, but students were coming to the new school and that made the first day back from break very exciting and tolerable!  It is pure joy to walk into my new library!!  Classes have been going very smoothly and it is a fantastic to have seven working computers!!! 

I finished one last book in 2009 and have yet to review it.  I give it to you here:

The Blind Faith Hotel

by Pamela Todd

2008

I picked this up off the YA library shelf at random-something about the cover struck me as interesting. 

It is the story of three siblings, Nelia, Zoe, the narrator and Oliver.  Dad works on a fishing boat off the coast of Alaska and Mom is ready to find her own path, away from Dad.  She is busy packing up from their rental home, getting ready to move everybody to her family home someplace in the Midwest.  The crisis through most of the book is Zoe and Oliver missing their dad and we are never quite sure why the mom chooses to take the kids and run.  Through Zoe's memories we get a general understanding of an unstable family existence with dad missing often to chase the fish.  Zoe is mad at her mom for moving them to this tiny town where her mother has a history-this is the town where her mother grew up and Zoe doesn't want her mother to be happy away from her father.  There are a few hidden family mysteries along the way and Zoe gets in to some trouble.  She ends up working at a local prairie preserve with Hub, a grizzled old man whose own story ends up connecting him to Zoe as well.  At the preserve she also meets an intriguing, young man, Ivy, who runs wild and helps Hub out.  Through Ivy's family story Zoe learns to face her own life with clearer vision.  I did really enjoy the prairie information and thought that added a very interesting and different twist to the story.  Understanding how the grasslands are affected by urban sprawl and Zoe's newfound passion for the natural world around her did enhance her character, for me.

My thoughts: While I liked the story line and Zoe's voice was strong, I didn't fall in love with any character.  They seemed fairly wooden and since we don't find out the true issues behind her mom's choices to abandon dad until 3/4 of the way through the book-it made me wonder "why" too frequently.  Zoe's anger at her mother seems unfounded without having that good reason earlier on. 

Pamela Todd's website-click here.

Another review can be find by clicking here.