Modern Technology: Double Feature

Sorry for the delay in posting.  I have been off having adventures.  Most notably watching my little brother become a Marine Corps pilot and get his wings! This will be a nice looonng post to make up for my absence.

Not so little anymore

What does this have to do with books you ask?  Well the ceremony was in Pensacola so with 4 plane rides and 4 different airports I had plenty of time to read on my journey south.

The first book I read was Eve Bunting's SOS Titanic.   Side note-it is probably not a good idea to read

 a book where the supposedly safe vehicle sinks and hundreds of people die right before you get on a plane.  The book was a wonderful story and very well told.  Barry O'Neill must leave his home in Ireland, where he has been living with his grandparents, to join his parents in New York City.  Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, Barry gets a first class ticket and a gentleman to watch over him on the journey while everyone else he knows from Ireland travels in steerage.

The Titanic is a very popular subject in both literature and movies, but Bunting's book provides a fresh perspective.  Barry is a smart, perceptive, and driven young man who meets host on interesting characters on his journey.  Overall an excellent read...just not before you take a trip.  It made me thankful that I could take  plane (but I will admit I was more nervous than usual during take off).

Next up was Richard Peck's The Teacher's Funeral.  It was very strange to be reading a book set in 1904 where the characters are awed by the appearance of a car in their small town (first time they had ever seen one) as I was 10,000 ft in the air, enjoying a modern technology Russell Culver and his friends probably never even dreamed of.

Some books you need to read the whole thing to understand the title.  Not so with The Teacher's Funeral.  You find out in the very first sentence that Russell's teacher has died.  Like many young scholars he is excited at the possibility that they may not find a new teacher for their rural one room school house (8 students in total) and the school year may be delayed or even cancelled!   All of that hope quickly turns to dismay when he finds out that the classes will be taught by none other than his older sister.  Anyone with a sibling can guess how that went.

The Teacher's Funeral really is a comedy in three parts.  Not a laugh out loud comedy modern readers are used to, but a comedy in the classic sense of the world meaning things turn out well for the main characters.  But don't worry, you will get some good laughs along the way too.

Traveling to new worlds (literally and figuratively)...that's kids stuff.