Monday, August 29, 2011

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday: Plain Kate


And I'm back. The summer is over, school is in session (I've got three in school this year), and I'm ready write, blog and tweet. Although I did take a break, I was reading and writing. At one point I was reading 3 different books at the same time. Today, I picked Plain Kate by Erin Bow. I won Plain Kate this summer and started reading it the first day I got it (I had to put down The Graveyard Book till I finished). This is a great story and, can I just say, I love this cover.

Plain Kate by Erin Bow
Published in September 2010

Other books by this author:
Sorrow's Knot (coming in Fall 2012)

The Hook: When young Kate loses her woodcarving father to a disease that spreads through her village, she must survive on her own. To surive, she trades her shadow to a stranger for supplies to escape her town but soon discovers not having a shadow could be more dangerous.

Why I liked this book: Great adventure and characters. The story moves fairly quickly and you find yourself caring about Kate and what happens to her. The talking cat, Taggle, is also quite a character. There are some dark moments in the story that might be too scary for younger middle graders and the death of Kate's dad may be troubling to younger middle graders. This is a girl book but boys who enjoy a bit of magic and adventure may like it (although the beginning may be a bit slow for them).

Want More? Erin Bow has an excellent website.

Other Fabulous MMGMers:

10 comments:

  1. I so need to read this one. The cover and the premise are awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've been intrigued by the cover. I do need to read this.

    I just finished Darkfall by Janice Hardy. I really enjoyed this last book in her series.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yay! I haven't seen this one before. Great review, Brooke! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ooh, I did read this one and liked it, especially that cat.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This sounds so interesting and refreshingly original - and I didn't know about it!

    I've been reading more YA than MG this summer, but I did read Un Lun Dun, The Search for WandLa, When You Reach Me, the first Percy Jackson book, and Wise Child. Wise Child is lovely and not as well known as the others.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh, AND I ate my weight in cheese.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I read this one this summer too. The dark parts creeped me out as an adult....

    I read too many MGs to mention but many of them will be featured in future MMGMs!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love your format for reviewing books. I'll keep an eye out for this one.

    Kathi

    ReplyDelete
  9. Brooke, welcome back! I love PLAIN KATE. I read it a year ago, I think. Couldn't you totally see Johnny Depp as Linay in a movie version?

    I wasn't able to get online until today because Irene knocked out our power.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This book sounds fabulous! Thanks for sharing it. Great to have you back. I, too, took most of the summer off from blogging. Had rewrites to do and tons of reading. lol

    ReplyDelete