Skip to main content

DYING TO KNOW YOU by Aidan Chambers


copyright date: April 2012
primarily marketed for: young adults (14 and up)

Dying to Know You by Aidan Chambers was a book I couldn’t wait to read because of what I’d read about it.  Negative reviews said things about it being narrated by the voice of an older man, an eccentric author.  They said teens wouldn’t be able to relate to his voice.  I was sure that wouldn’t be true.  Positive reviews said things about what a powerful story the book told. 

Having read the book, I have determined that it is definitely not the kind of story everyone would enjoy.  It is a very philosophical story.  If you are not an intellectual sort of reader, this would not be the book for you.  However, if you are the kind of person who wonders about his place in the world, about why people act the way they do, about his purpose in life, then the is most definitely the book for you.  You will be as charmed by Karl as I was. 

Karl’s story is largely told through the voice of an author who his girlfriend admires.  Karl seeks out the author in an effort to convince the author to help him write his thoughts and feelings in a manner that would impress his girlfriend, who has no idea about his dyslexia. 

The eccentric, aged author narrating the story does not move the focus from Karl’s story to his own story, but rather provides a wisdom in looking at Karl’s situation that we wouldn’t get as readers if the story were told in Karl’s voice, from his point of view.

As the author helps Karl find ways to express his thoughts and feelings for his girlfriend, he ultimately helps Karl deal with loss and find his purpose in life. 

This is not a light read by any means, but it is the kind of story that will stick to your ribs and fill you up. 

Reading Threads:
Notes from the Dog by Gary Paulsen
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Although this is not a reading thread, I have to mention that this book reminds of the movie Finding Forrester (one of my favorites)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I HUNT KILLERS by Barry Lyga

copyright date: April 2012 primarily marketed for: young adults (high school) I’m just going to put this out there:  I like books about death.  I didn’t know this about myself as a reader until my students this year pointed out how many of the books I booktalk (basically all of them) involve someone who died or someone who is dying. I am not sure if that is just a me thing, or if that is a common thread in books since it is such a major part of life and conflict.  I’d like to think it is the latter. At any rate, I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga , is obviously my kind of book—it is quality literature with sophisticated vocabulary, and it is about death.  Jasper Dent, known as Jazz, is a teenager who is struggling to overcome the odds, to say the least.  His father, Billy Cornelius Dent, is the most infamous serial killer, with victims totaling triple digits.  Since his father’s arrest, Jazz has had to care for his grandmother ...

JAKE AND LILY by Jerry Spinelli

copyright date: May 2012 primarily marketed for: intermediate readers (8 and up) This is another book for younger readers.   So, although the time you spend actually reading Jake and Lily by Jerry Spinelli won’t be long, the time this story spends traveling around in your heart will be immeasurable. Spinelli is a master at getting straight to the heart of what keeps people from accepting one another: differences.   Through the story of young twins Jake and Lily, he tells a story of tolerance, acceptance, and ultimately friendship.   Jake and Lily have a very special relationship.   They are able to connect with one another through dreams and across distances.   In fact, as they write their stories for us in alternating chapters, they don’t even need to read to know what they other has written.   Conflict settles into their lives when growing up threatens to come between them.   As Jake begins to spend more time with a g...

DR. BIRD’S ADVICE FOR SAD POETS by Evan Roskos

copyright date: March 2013 primarily marketed for: young adults (high school) Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos begins “I yawp…” and ends, “Yawp!”   And if that isn’t enough to love, the middle is filled with quotes from Walt Whitman scattered amongst wise words from a pigeon therapist, and a story that is both genuinely funny and heartachingly real.   It is one of those stories that seems as if it was written simply for my own delight, but perhaps you, too, will fall in love with it. James is a teenager who suffers from anxiety attacks and a depression that is possibly part of bipolar disorder, though no official diagnosis is named in the book.   His older sister was recently kicked out of the house by his emotionally detached parents after she is expelled from school for an outburst that resulted in a fight.   As a means of coping with his mental state and the instability in his home life, James invents a pigeon ...