Fiona's finished The Wild Swans

[pegkerr]

She says:

"It was good."


*taps foot*

"No, really."


*taps foot some more*

All right, we really need to work on her critical vocabulary.

Comments

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

I'd think the fact that she'd finished already would be indication enough. :)

I'm a fast reader myself, and while occasionally some books I liked took a while for me to read, usually if I don't like it, I either won't finish it at all, or I'll take my time doing it.

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Heh.

At least she didn't say "Sorry, Mom, but I hated it."

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

Or find out what her foot is saying ...

[naomikritzer]

Well, what was she supposed to say? It WAS good. *grin*

What I want to know is whether she figured out all the connections like the one between the midwife and the transgendered AIDS charity volunteer (if I'm remembering that one correctly) and so on.

[redbird]

She stayed up late to read it.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Yes! She finished it at 11:15 p.m.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Wow, fast reader!

(And yes, if she stayed up late and finished it that quickly, I bet she did like it!)

[only-sound.livejournal.com]

Let it marinate for a while, I bet more will come. Also? I think I will do a reread in her honor this evening.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Actually I recently started a re-read, but had to put it down 'cuz I started feeling just increadably sad. It's a hard book to love, but I do.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

It's a fairly mind-blowing story, and I bet it would be more so at 13 than it was at 38. I agree with the marination idea; she may just be a little incoherent right now.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I should have said, I mean literally incoherent. You can squee over happy eerful books right away, but *that* book breaks readers, it does - rips people apart so they have to put themselves together again, wiser but with scar tissue (stronger than the original, and so forth. But definitely the relic of a wound). And it might take a while.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool, thanks!

[blackholly.livejournal.com]

Ha! I was thinking about what she was going to say when you posted that she was reading it. I HATE when my family reads something of mine and won't talk about it.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's probably worth working on--but with someone else's book. Speaking as an old, experienced parent (emphasis on the "old"--and tired, very very tired--at the moment), I'd say that, regarding a work by you, the parent, maybe you should quit while you're ahead!

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I agree 100%.

Pay attention to all the non-verbals, and let that be enough.

B

[aome.livejournal.com]

Maybe she could use it for a book report, and then you could see whatever she tells her teachers about it?

And hey, she has good taste - TWS is amazing. As the others said, if she stayed up and inhaled it so fast, she must've really liked it.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

You need to work on her taste in literature! When she gets a little older, she'll realize how great it is.

[piccolo-pirate.livejournal.com]

I don't think she didn't like it... I think it's taking time to sink in. Also - it's a bit intimidating to discuss literature with its author, even when the author isn't your mother. :)

[kijjohnson.livejournal.com]

I join the throng -- give her time, and she'll have questions and comments.

I've not read the book

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

and I don't write but sketch..but just to mention.. Ben is nineteen and just getting comfortable with saying he likes. And he doesn't say that unless he does.

I appreciate.

A lot.

[morganmalfoy.livejournal.com]

I find this lack of feedback incredibly irritating as well. It doesn't matter if it's something I made or not (usually essays and mix CDs are the only creations I share with people) it drives me nuts when I want to go over the nuances and no one else does.

But on the criticism thing, I don't know if you guys ever discuss the books you read outside of the plot, but maybe you should start pulling them into thinking of why the author chose the style they did and whether or not they think it could've been done better. I do think you have to be taught that sort of thing to a certain degree. One of my friends who home schools stopped letting her kids use the word 'good' for a week to teach them about adjectives and specific word choice, and I thought it was a great idea.

[fictualities.livejournal.com]

I second piccolo_pirate: you're both the author and her mom, and thus doubly hard to talk to.

Also, she's just seen a side of you she's heard about but never seen before; words from a person she thinks she knows, but now outside of any familiar context. It's one thing for her to know you write, another thing for her to experience the world through your words, for hours. It would be . . . disorienting, maybe?