So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane 🔖🔖🔖

This was a cute read for younger folks.

I found some parts to be quite confusing, some of it speaking as if we were all aware of what they were talking about when, in fact, it was fiction and we had no basis for understanding it. The children were exceptionally smart and intuitive for 12 year olds, which was a tad hard to buy into. There were several parts that were left unresolved, like the ending wasn't the ending. I realize this is a series, but it is a nice idea to have endings in each book anyway.

Yet ... this was thrilling to read, kept me on the edge of my seat, and I stayed up past my bedtime to finish it.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline 🔖🔖

This gets three stars because I actually enjoyed the thrill and excitement in watching how underdogs may or may not win. It was also fun to have a ton of 80s references I could relate to.

It doesn't get more stars as there was almost no character development, no arc to speak of, the main character was supremely self-interested, and so much of what happened was pretty far fetched and unbelievable. Too much had to happen at the exact right time for it to be remotely possible.

I'd probably not recommend.

Banyan Moon by Thao Thai 🔖🔖🔖

This was overall a good book. It was pretty slow in parts, some of the phrasing was cliche and overly dramatic in descriptions. It was interesting enough, however, that I wanted to finish and find out the ways the past intertwined with the relationships. The character development was great.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding 🔖🔖🔖🔖🔖

I read this book for the first time in high school and did not enjoy it. Now that I'm *much* older, it holds a bit more meaning and symbolism for me which I missed back in the day.

William Golding said once that the point of any book is not that you get the meaning the author intended, but it's how you experience being in the story, move through it, and whatever you interpret the meaning to be ... that's the right one. It isn't what the author put in, but what the reader gets out of it that matters. That being said, one could go on quite the tangent about the state of power and control, politics and charisma vs vulnerability. That's obvious - yet there's more to it than that. I hope you can find it.

I did not find the trajectory of these boys to be unbelievable or far-fetched. I loved the character development of Jack and of Ralph in particular. Ralph's thoughts and feelings were described quite well. I loved, loved in the end when someone asked who was in charge. And when Ralph reacted a few minutes later ...pulled me right in in ways I never expected.