Saturday's Book Corner, est. 9.25.10

I've decided that I would be remiss if I didn't include book recommendations.  Any good English teacher's blog should have as many as possible.  So, without further adieu and for your reading pleasure, I give you my first "Saturday's Book Corner" blog post!  Hit it

Yesterday, I got home after a long day's work, excited to run around with my dear hubby of hubs and create (or at least participate in) what he excitedly refers to as "shenanigans."  We don't go out and cause mayhem or get into tons of trouble; in fact, we could be doing a whole lot of nothing.  "Shenanigans" simply refers to the fact that whatever we do, we have fun and laugh and are silly...together.  So, looking forward to these "shenanigans," I rushed home after work and found the hubs sitting on the couch, waiting patiently for me to return home.  And, twenty minutes later, after spending some quality lounge time on the love seat, he proceeded to make his way to the couch, recline there, and FALL ASLEEP!

I made my own way upstairs, intent on letting him snooze for a bit, rifled around on the Internet for a little while (looking for used book sales to add to my classroom library), and I myself fell into a relaxing slumber.  I slept from 5p.m. until 10 o'clock in the evening!   

So much for shenanigans!
(Yes, there's a book review in here, somewhere).

With all that sleep under my figurative belt, of course I couldn't fall asleep last night; I had a snoring Jeffy next to me though, so I snuck out of the room, fully devoted to vegging in front of our Internet-based television stations for a while; until, that is, I realized that I'd brought several books I've been looking forward to reading home in my gigantic school bag!

I don't know what time I got out of bed...but I know that when I arrived home, I was on page 112, and I finished the rest of the book last night.  What an amazing piece of YA (young adult) fiction!

(For those of you paying attention, here comes the book review).

 This book really caught my attention because I love old keys.  I'm not really sure I thought it would reveal the meaning of life, but those keys, hanging from the top of the book cover, really intrigued me! 

The beginning of the story is nothing all that special, to be honest.  It's just a fun, quirky story about a boy named Jeremy Fink who receives a box kept from him until his thirteenth birthday by his mother.  It's from his father, who passed away when he was nine.  The box is engraved, saying that Jeremy should open it on his thirteenth birthday.  Oh, and that it contains the meaning of life.  Heavy stuff for a thirteen-year-old boy. 

The main issue?  The box is locked and needs four separate keys to open it, and Jeremy is 0/4.  He and his best friend Lizzy spend the better part of the book looking for these keys, getting into trouble (and causing their own real shenanigans) along the way.

It is through these shenanigans that Jeremy and Lizzy gain some true life experience and the philosophical aspect of the book is revealed.  In their quest to find the keys and open the box, Lizzy and Jeremy meet a variety of people causing their own shenanigans, and they ask each person the same basic question: "What is the meaning of life?"  Each character has a unique and wise response to this question. 

Some respond with questions such as "What is the purpose of life?" "Why are we here?" or "How did we come to be here?"  (These are large questions for me, let alone a teenager, to contemplate and truly wrap the mind around.)

Others have explanations, such as "The meaning of life is helping each other," or "The meaning of life is love," or my favorite, "The purpose of life is life." 

I have to say that this book made me cry through the last half; I picked it up for a fun, easy, no-brainer read, thinking "YA meaning of life...yah, I can handle that." But, boy, was I wrong.  My mind is still reeling from the revelations it brought forth:  What do I think about life?  What is my purpose on this Earth?  I'm still trying to figure that out (and will probably post more about my own revelations that this book sparked in the future when I do), but for now I will say....

If you need inspiration...
If you have been searching for your purpose...
If you have recently lost someone you love...
If you love fiction that can teach you something...
If you are interested in philosophy...
If you are beginning a new life adventure...
If life itself and all that can happen during the course of it are even remotely daunting...
If you are in search of something...anything...

This is a book you should read.