Shop Indie BookstoresThe Apothecary by Maile Meloy. GP Putnam and Sons. 16.99. 9780399256271.
With a mix of realistic fiction and fantasy, known as magical realism, we are drawn into Janie Scott's memories as she looks back almost 60 years ago when, at the age of 14, she had the best year of her life. She lived in London with her parents but that wasn't the great part as it was 1952 and London still hadn't put itself back together after World War II. The great part was meeting Benjamin and his father, the apothecary. Benjamin and Janie were caught up in the apothecary's plan to save humanity by isolating, and hopefully reversing, the atomic bomb.
I was sucked into the story from the "note to the reader" all the way to the end. Even though the story was told from Janie's memories, it felt more immediate. Though, I admit, it was little jarring to go from being 7 on one page to 14 on the other. Other than that, I found The Apothecary fascinating. I will need to go back and read it again to see if stands up to Newbery scrutiny, but even if it doesn't, I can't wait to see what the students think of this one!
Update:
Title of book(s) read since last update:
The Apothecary by Maile Meloy
Number of books read since you started:
2Pages read since last update:
353p.
Running total of pages read since you started:
715p. plus 30 min audio
Amount of time spent reading since last update:
3h 50 minRunning total of time spent reading since you started:
8 hours
Tweet
That's fantastic that you enjoyed it so much!
ReplyDeleteHere's a little cheer to help keep you going!
(To the tune of "Rawhide")
Readin’ Readin’ Readin’
Keep those pages turnin’
Your page count it’s a growin’
It’s all about the Readin’
Read-a-thon!
So glad you could join us today!
Shaunie from team CocoaPuffs