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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Within a few pages of this book, I could feel the emotion of the story. There are some books that you just know will touch you and will make you feel. Loftin's Nightingale's Nest is certainly one of them. The writing in this book is spectacular and demands to be read not only silently but aloud to a whole group. This is a book that I found myself thinking about reading it to a class and discussing it with them. I do not feel this way about all books. Additionally there is a timeless quality to this story. Though there are some things that hint at a present day world, much of the story could pass for any time. There is a classic feel to the story.
Little John and his grieving family. The Emperor or Mr. King and his greed. Gayle and her song. The Cutlins - Gayle's foster family. Ernest and his sister, Isabelle. Such great characters and everyone plays a role in this story.
My favorite lines:
"You can't....really fix all the hurt things in the world. That's not your job, Gayle."
She sighed, that broken sound again. "I know it's not.".......But I heard Gayle's voice as I left, five words that stayed with me the rest of that week.
"It's not your job either."
Hurt, loss, forgiveness, healing, and all the decisions and consequences that build on one another. Just powerful!
Little John and his grieving family. The Emperor or Mr. King and his greed. Gayle and her song. The Cutlins - Gayle's foster family. Ernest and his sister, Isabelle. Such great characters and everyone plays a role in this story.
My favorite lines:
"You can't....really fix all the hurt things in the world. That's not your job, Gayle."
She sighed, that broken sound again. "I know it's not.".......But I heard Gayle's voice as I left, five words that stayed with me the rest of that week.
"It's not your job either."
Hurt, loss, forgiveness, healing, and all the decisions and consequences that build on one another. Just powerful!
Based on a story from Hans Christian Andersen, this book takes “The Nightingale” and turns it into magical realism. Little John’s family is in turmoil. His little sister died jumping out of a tree, his mother can’t deal with the loss and often forgets that her daughter died, and his father is struggling to make enough money to keep them from being evicted. So Little John has to help his father take down trees to make money. It is at Mr. King’s home that Little John first meets Gayle, a young foster child whose singing voice seems to heal people and who has built a nest high in one of the trees. Then Mr. King decides that he has to record Gayle’s voice and hires Little John to bring her to him within a week. Little John doesn’t want to, so Mr. King resorts to blackmail and money to get him to do it. This story explores responsibility, betrayal, and loss in a poignant and beautiful way.
Loftin’s writing is exquisite and simple. She has taken an old tale and breathed freshness and vibrancy into it. Her setting is tightly woven, just the scope of Little John’s own summer days. It makes the focus very close, intensifying the choices that Little John is forced to make. More than most books for tweens, this one truly asks a character to face an impossible decision and then shows what happens afterwards and how that decision has repercussions for many people.
Little John is a great male protagonist. He is pure boy, resentful of the situation his family is in but also bound to them by love and blood. At the same time, he is a gentle soul, worried about Gayle and the circumstances she is living in. The only character who stretches believability is Mr. King who reads like a stereotypical villain, but he is the only character without nuance.
Magical and beautiful, this is perfect for discussion in a classroom, this book begs to be talked about thanks to its complexity. Appropriate for ages 10-13.
Loftin’s writing is exquisite and simple. She has taken an old tale and breathed freshness and vibrancy into it. Her setting is tightly woven, just the scope of Little John’s own summer days. It makes the focus very close, intensifying the choices that Little John is forced to make. More than most books for tweens, this one truly asks a character to face an impossible decision and then shows what happens afterwards and how that decision has repercussions for many people.
Little John is a great male protagonist. He is pure boy, resentful of the situation his family is in but also bound to them by love and blood. At the same time, he is a gentle soul, worried about Gayle and the circumstances she is living in. The only character who stretches believability is Mr. King who reads like a stereotypical villain, but he is the only character without nuance.
Magical and beautiful, this is perfect for discussion in a classroom, this book begs to be talked about thanks to its complexity. Appropriate for ages 10-13.
I gave that fifth star to the book precisely because I had a hard time reading it. Little John's guilt and anguish are so strong I had to keep putting the book down to come back to later because it was so painful to read.
I am willfully going to read Gayle's lost voice as being part of the magic, because that is the way my child self would have understood it, rather than the ugly connections that my adult mind wanted to make. I like that it can be read two ways, because every child is in a different place and needs something different from a book.
Gah, so much negative emotion from this one. Clearly it impacted me strongly, which is good, but I think I will need to think carefully about who I try to recommend it to.
I am willfully going to read Gayle's lost voice as being part of the magic, because that is the way my child self would have understood it, rather than the ugly connections that my adult mind wanted to make. I like that it can be read two ways, because every child is in a different place and needs something different from a book.
Gah, so much negative emotion from this one. Clearly it impacted me strongly, which is good, but I think I will need to think carefully about who I try to recommend it to.