Where did April go? It seems like I blinked and it was gone. Thankfully, we're having the best weather over here. It's been warm but wonderful to get outside and enjoy the outdoors before it gets too hot.
We're soaking it all in!
I read 3 books in April. One of them took me a long time to get through because it contained lots of charts, data, and research. Those are 3 words that I don't normally associate with but this book was important so I stuck it out. 😂
First up was The Giver.
This one has been on my booklist for a while now. I actually decided to read it out loud to the girls and we sped through it. It was an eerily interesting read. It was about a flawed utopian society where everything was based on rules and sameness, not free will. Human emotions and experiences were absent, as well as pain. The main character is Jonas, a 12 year old boy who is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory. Spending time with The Giver, he begins to understand the dark secrets behind his fragile community.
This book lent to some good discussions with my teens. However, I am not compelled to read the rest of the series any time soon.
I read this one aloud to the girls as well. Fans of Auxier are in for a twist with Sweep.
Unlike Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes or Sophie Quire, Sweep is a story about love and loss.
It's about a sweet friendship between a girl and her monster that will leave a lasting impression.
Set in Victorian times, 11 year old Nan Sparrow is one of London's best "chimney boys", even though she's a girl. The story addresses issues like child labor, death, and anti-Semitism.
The girls really enjoyed it. I thought it was good, not great.
And here's the book that took me all month to read.
Like I said earlier, this book had tons of charts, data and research (generally not my cup of tea) but I thought all of it was important so I didn't want to skip over anything. Because of that, getting through iGen was a bit choppy for me. The reading wasn't fluid like a story but nonetheless, I finally prevailed. I have so many things I want to say about this book! In fact, if you've spent more than 10 minutes with me this past month, I've probably shared an earful about it. Ha! 😄
Basically, if you're a parent, an educator, an employer, or you simply want to get a better understanding of this generation, I highly recommend reading this!
Here's an excerpt by Goodreads:
"IGen'ers are born in the mid 1990's to the mid 2000's and later and they are vastly different from any other generation. They are the first generation to spend their entire adolescence in the age of the smartphone. With social media and texting replacing other activities, iGen spends less time with their friends in person—perhaps why they are experiencing unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
But technology is not the only thing that makes iGen distinct from every generation before them; they are also different in how they spend their time, how they behave, and in their attitudes toward religion, sexuality, and politics. They socialize in completely new ways, reject once sacred social taboos, and want different things from their lives and careers. More than previous generations, they are obsessed with safety, focused on tolerance, and have no patience for inequality. iGen is also growing up more slowly than previous generations: eighteen-year-olds look and act like fifteen-year-olds used to. As this new group of young people grows into adulthood, we all need to understand them: Friends and family need to look out for them; businesses must figure out how to recruit them and sell to them; colleges and universities must know how to educate and guide them. And members of iGen also need to understand themselves as they communicate with their elders and explain their views to their older peers. Because where iGen goes, so goes our nation—and the world."
But technology is not the only thing that makes iGen distinct from every generation before them; they are also different in how they spend their time, how they behave, and in their attitudes toward religion, sexuality, and politics. They socialize in completely new ways, reject once sacred social taboos, and want different things from their lives and careers. More than previous generations, they are obsessed with safety, focused on tolerance, and have no patience for inequality. iGen is also growing up more slowly than previous generations: eighteen-year-olds look and act like fifteen-year-olds used to. As this new group of young people grows into adulthood, we all need to understand them: Friends and family need to look out for them; businesses must figure out how to recruit them and sell to them; colleges and universities must know how to educate and guide them. And members of iGen also need to understand themselves as they communicate with their elders and explain their views to their older peers. Because where iGen goes, so goes our nation—and the world."
That's 16 books down for the year. Whoop!
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