Hourglass by Myra McEntire

Hourglass by Myra McEntire
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I stopped at page 82, I simply couldn't take it anymore. I was hoping for a cool haunted YA story with supernatural elements but instead I got constant blabber about Michael this and Michael that and how much she hates her ability and NO EXPLANATION. I was waiting forever for SOME ghost interactions or explanations about her ability but there were no answers and plenty of OHMYGOSH MICHAEL *electric touch* Just poorly written.


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My Betsy Was A Junior by Maud Hart Lovelace Book Review on Goodreads

Betsy Was a Junior by Maud Hart Lovelace

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Okay, so it's been a while since I read this, so this review will probably be shorter.



Well, there is this pattern I've been noticing that isn't really a great one. At the end of every year, Betsy resolves to be more serious about her schooling and stop putting her social life before the more important things. However,I think that this book was where she really actually learned her lesson and will stick to her resolution next year. After seeing how much Cab had to grow up when his father died, Betsy thinks about how much her entire Crowd has grown up during the year. Betsy knows that she will never lead such a silly, carefree, frivolous social life anymore because everyone's growing up. She knows that her Crowd will never live in such blissful ignorance ever again, for reality is fast at hand for the Crowd. Betsy thinks about what a terrible thing growing up is and how she just can't stop it. This really spoke to me because I consistently worry about growing up and how I can't stop it from happening. One of the things I most grieve about is the fact that all my friends wil grow up, and there will be no one to be a kid with and, in turn, I'll grow up, too. I really could connect to Betsy in this way.



Well, seeing as that's really what I remember, that concludes the essence of my review. I loved this book so much, just like the others. Each next year of high school is better and more exciting than the last, except I expect that for senior year Betsy's life will be less fun and happy and therefore will stop the climaticness of one book to the next.



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Reading Log for Week of 2/28/12-3/8/12

       Friday 3/2/12 2 hours Pgs: 29-140        






*This is the most popular version for the series, it includes comparisons of characters to the book of people in real life, and shows you pictures of them.
**For some background on the series, here's a YouTube video that a girl did on why she loves the Betsy-Tacy series and what they are about. Betsy-Tacy Series Video
                                                                                                                                                                         
In the past, Betsy has lead a silly, frivolous life where she makes mistakes one year, realizes how terribly she's wronged, and then resolves to do better the next year in some deep and meaningful intellectual time. But she always messes up again. In the present, Betsy is "determined" that in her next year, she will grow up as so many of her other friends did and stop being such a silly fool. In the future, I think that besty will grow up, as this is her senior year in high school and next comes college or even *gulp*- marriage! I can't wait to see Betsy mature as a person, for her frivolity in the past years and nonsensical mistakes have really annoyed me.
                                                                                                                                                                      
"All those resolutions she had made on Babcock's Bay! How they had been smashed to smithereens! She wondered whether life consisted of making resolutions and breaking them, of climbing up and slipping down (Lovelace 282-283)."
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
In this quote, Betsy is having one of her aforementioned "deep and meaningful intellectual time(s)". (Quotin' myself there!) She is talking about how her resolutions that she made in the previous year's "deep and meaningful intellectual time(s)" were completely broken. She is describing her outlook on her high school years and all the things she's done. It perfectly states what I was trying to say earlier, that Betsy's life is full of making resolutions to make no more grievous errors and making them, of getting better but then making her mistakes again (climbing up and slipping down). This has been a repeating pattern in her life, which is why Betsy is wondering if it's always going to be that way.
                                                                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                                   
The big idea in this book is a very large and important one. The big idea is that growing up can be tough, and sometimes you may not even realize you need to be doing it until it's too late, and you've spent all your time being silly and foolish. In this book, Betsy's friend, Cab,'s father dies. Cab becomes a joking high school boy into the man of the family taking over his father's furniture store in a day. This makes Betsy realize, even more than she did before, that not only has she been too silly and frivolous all year like she previously thought, but she also needs to grow up and begin to "stand on her own two feet". Betsy realizes how mcuh she is coddled and is shocked to think that she may not be ready to take over more important responsibilities, as Cab did. She thinks over all the different kinds of growing up in different ways that her friends have done over the past year, and she also realizes how stupid, more than just silly, she's been not just her junior year, but all of her high school career so far! Betsy "resolves" (we'll see if that lasts) that she must be more grown up next year. After all, she will be a glorious senior!
                                                                                                                                                                   
"But all of them were growing up, Betsy thought intensely. They would never be quite so silly again. The foolish crazy things they had done this year they would do less and less frequently until they didn't do them at all (Lovelace 284)."
                                                                                                                                                                    
In this quote, Betsy is deciding that yes, they (her Crowd) are all growing up for sure. She is talking about how her friends will never be the same silly, fun-loving high school chums as they were before. That the things they did in their years together will probably not come around many more times. And somehow, I believe that she means it and that this isn't just a resolution. This is just people changing, as they always do. This big idea is a fine example of a change system in people. Not society, but just in person by person themselves as they grow up.
                                                                                                                                                                     




Keep tabs on the blog for my review of this book, coming soon! I'm using the two quotes I used for my evidence in the review, and I will be describing my personal connections to them, and why I will always remember them forever!