Rolling Stone

I mentioned a few months ago this year’s block-of-the-month class has become a book club. In September we read Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White. In October it was Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Last month’s book was The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. This month we read The Messenger by Markus Zusak. I managed to finish it, but I can’t begin to tell you how much I hated this novel. If it was a movie, it would be rated R for violence, language, substance abuse and sexual content. But somehow this awful book has earned critical acclaim as children’s literature. Those who praise it call it “inspirational.” I can’t imagine what they’re comparing it to - certainly not the works of Lois Lowry (who actually wrote a book called Messenger), Ursula K. Le Guin, Rick Riordan, Cornelia Funke, Richard Peck, J. R. R. Tolkein, Kate DiCamillo, Brandon Mull, J. K. Rowling, or next month’s author, C. S. Lewis.