Skip to main content

Brandon Sanderson: Skyward - Skyward 1

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson follows a rebellious girl called Spensa. She has spent her entire life looking up to her father; a man who the military government of their underground settlement has labeled a traitor. Her homeworld, where their ship crash-landed before Spensa was born, has been under attack by strange aliens for her entire life. In order to clear her father's name and bring glory to her family, Spensa gets into Flight School. But even with the honor of being in school, she's not allowed to stay on the base with the other cadets. She stumbles upon a cave where a strange ship has been parked in the cavern for years with stealth technology and a sassy AI. Can Spensa repair the ship? Will she ever be allowed to graduate flight school? Can she clear her father's name?

I loved Skyward. I don't know why it took me so long to pick this one up, but I'm grateful I got around to it. Brandon Sanderson is a master of character rotations (writing in the third person from a different character's point of view), but he doesn't utilize that technique in Skyward. Instead, he wrote it in the first person. For the most part, I enjoyed Spensa's personality, though I have to say, M-Bot was probably my favorite. I loved the characters, the development of the plot. I didn't feel like it was too predictable, though it is a little like Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card if you really think too hard about it. This is just a fun read all the way around!

I rate this PG-13 and 5 Stars

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Markus Zusak: The Book Thief

 This is a book that I read for the first time around four years ago when I first started teaching. This novel is one that I have loved ever since then. The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak takes place in World War II in Nazi Germany. Liesel Meminger is not quite an orphan, but she is placed in foster care because her mother can't provide for her. Liesel goes to live with Rosa and Hans Hubermann, and they completely change Liesel's life. On her way to the Hubermann's, Liesel's younger brother dies on the train. In the graveyard where he was buried is where Liesel steals her first book: The Grave Digger's Handbook. Hans teaches her to read it, and inspires her love of the written word. The Hubermann's will then hide a Jew in their basement for a time. What will become of that hidden Jew? What will become of Liesel? What will become of Himmel Street, her friends, and her family in the wake of a violent and terrible war? This book is probably one of my all-time favorite...

Brene Brown: Daring Greatly

Brene Brown is one of my favorite TED speakers of all time. I have listened to her TED talks numerous times and used them in my classroom each year. I love her message: that we can't have success, innovation, change, and creativity without first having vulnerability. I love that she is seeking to demystify vulnerability and teach what shame is and how it destroys our ability to accept ourselves and others. I am not normally into the self-help kind of books, but of the books I've read this year, this is one of my favorites! Daring Greatly  by Brene Brown discusses the concepts of shame and vulnerability and how we need vulnerability, but not shame. She gives strategies for combating shame and becoming "shame resilient." She gives strategies to use as parents, teachers, friends, and spouses. For one thing, I love Dr. Brown's Texan accent (she narrates the audiobook herself! 💗). Her voice and personality are all throughout this book. She is not afraid to use persona...

Art Spiegelman: The Complete Maus

 This is again another book I intend to use for AP. Something I love about this is the rhetoric is two-fold - you not only have to look at the dialogue but the drawings as well. Art Spiegelman relates the story of his parents' experience as Jews in Poland during World War II and all that they went through in the camps. This book goes through conversations Art had with his father in the present (he lived in New York before his passing) and their World War II story in the 1930s and 1940s. Vladek (Art's father) owned a textile mill in Poland. He was drafted and sent to the border to fight the Germans before the onset of the War. He was captured and sent to a POW camp before being released and sent home. Once the Germans took over Poland, Vladek lost his mill and he moved his family in with his in-laws. Things gradually got worse for them. They lost Anja's (his wife's) grandparents, then Anja's parents, and their young son was sent to live with extended family for his s...