The Sisters 8 by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
Okay, so I’m going to be reading some of Lauren Baratz-Logsted’s young adult books in the next couple of months, so she encouraged me to check out her “Sisters 8″ series and perhaps mention them if I liked them. So this is the first free weekday I’ve had to post since I finished them, and I had to mention them right away!
Here’s the basic premise: the 8 Huit sisters (octuplets) will turn 8 on August 8, 2008. Each is one minute younger and one inch shorter than the one before her. Unfortunately, the New Years before their eighth birthday, their parents go missing (or maybe dead). Each month afterwards one of the girls receives both a special gift and a special power that will eventually help them find out what happened to their parents.
So I actually started with book 3 in this series, because my library only had books 3 and 4 in at the time. I ended up reading both book 3 and book 4 in the same day and immediately reserving books 1 and 2 – and lamenting the fact that book 5 won’t be out until May. These books just cracked me up. They are written to that perfect place where kids will like them, but there are some jokes for grownups to enjoy as well. Sort of like a Pixar film. Not that the jokes are of an adult nature, but they are just things that adults would find funny and kids wouldn’t really pick up on, like at the beginning of the third book when the narrator decides to stop telling you what has happened and get on with the story so she can ‘show, not tell.’
These books are probably somewhere around a 3rd grade reading level, if I had to guess, but I think any elementary kids would be likely to enjoy them, at least 1st – 5th grades – not to mention their parents. Perhaps not all boys would pick these up on their own, since the characters who are children are almost exclusively female, but the books are enough fun and the girls have enough fun that I think boys would certainly enjoy them as part of a read aloud.
I’m a huge fan of the Sisters 8 series too! I read the first one in a children’s literature class, but I’ve kept up with the series. I am eagerly awaiting the next books in the series!
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I’m not sure if I could convince my almost 12-year-old to read these or not…she is pretty sensitive to anything that would be considered juvenile (
God forbid!) But I might pick them up. It sounds very clever!
She might be a little on the old side if she’s one of those kids (not meant in a derogatory manner, I was totally one of those kids, told my mom that Sesame Street was for babies and I was too old for it when I went to Kindergarten), mostly because the girls are 7 and in 3rd grade, so she might think they are too young to be cool. Might as well see if the library has them and try the first one, though, because they were fantastic.
I’ll have to remember these for when my twin cousins (almost two!) are ready to read them.
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These sound like a lot of fun! I’ll have to remember the series if I need a gift for an elementary schooler.
This series sounds perfect for my second grader – thanks!
I hope you both love it, I think you will!
Thanks for the recommendation!