Tuesday Top Ten

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Jennifer Milligan | 3 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. Book bloggers create their own lists based on the chosen topics and post links to our lists. It’s a way of all sharing our thoughts and our love of books. And who doesn’t love lists??

So this week’s challenge was to list the top ten of a particular type of character. I chose to list the top ten geeky characters, be they bookish geeks or tech geeks or just plain geeks, because hey – I’m more than a little geeky myself! 😉

Clay Jannon from Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan – A former web-designer, now working in a strange bookstore, he goes on a quest involving ancient tomes and Google. What could be geekier than that?
Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling – The quintessential geek girl – smart, talented, bookish, and more than a little bossy, she knows that if you’re in doubt you head to the library!
Violet Baudelaire from The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket – Violet can solve almost any problem with her imaginative inventing skills!
Artemis Fowl from the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer – He may be a teenage criminal mastermind, but let’s face it – he’s also a geek…
Colin Singleton from An Abundance of Katherines by John Green – A washed up child prodigy, Colin is on a quest to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability based on data collected the nineteen times he was dumped by a girl named Katherine. Maybe it’ll predict the success of his next relationship before he gets his heart-broken again.
Liesel Meminger from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – Anyone who feels compelled to steal books, and finds solace in them, is definitely a book geek. And that’s a good thing!
Robert Langdon from the series by Dan Brown – He may go on adventures that take him all over the world and have him fleeing from assassins, but at the core of his being he really is just a bookish geek.
Matilda from Matilda by Roald Dahl – Child prodigy, voracious reader, super geek!
Willow Chance from Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan – One of the more recent geeks I discovered and one of my favorites! Completely obsessed with counting by 7s, botany, and researching medical conditions, she is definitely one of a kind!
Eleanor & Park from Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell – Two for the price of one! Two completely endearing misfits who are all “wrong”, yet so perfect together in their geekiness!

February Wrap-up

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Jennifer Milligan | Leave a comment

Counting by 7s

Posted on February 15, 2014 by Jennifer Milligan | 4 Comments

Willow Chance is not an ordinary young girl. Brilliant, obsessed with botany, counting by 7s, and studying medical conditions, Willow doesn’t really fit in anywhere, especially in her new middle school where she has been sent to meet with the inept, disinterested and disorganized counselor, Dell Duke. But she finds acceptance in her adoptive parents who support Willow in all of her endeavors and in her quest to turn their backyard into a jungle.

When Willow’s parents die suddenly in a car accident, it seems certain that she will live the rest of her life a loner. But there’s Mai, a girl she met while at counseling. And Quang-ha, Mai’s surly brother. And Pattie, their quiet and hard-working mother. And Jairo, the taxi-driver. And Dell Duke. Together, somehow, they create a family of their own while Social Services frantically tries to figure out what to do with Willow, and while Willow tries to figure out how to go on.

I read this book aloud with my kids (including my husband!) and we all loved it. For some reason (I’m not saying it’s a reflection on our own oddness or anything), we have a soft spot for quirky characters and this book is full of them. This odd assortment of characters is delightful and it is pure pleasure to watch their personalities evolve. Willow may be the quirkiest one of the bunch, our hearts broke for her and her despair and we cheered for her triumphs. Touching, fun, sad and sweet. A great story to share with anyone in middle school or older.