Bought this one brand new - plan to read and release.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Thoroughly enjoyed this story. Matilda's voice is clear, strong, and believable. On the surface, it's a tragic tale of how brutal people can be, especially to the powerless. But there is so much more here - conflicts both religious and racial, the different roles we all play - some roles we choose, and some we get forced into playing. And, the power of literature to change lives and help us understand both ourselves and the world. This book works just fine as a standalone story, but readers who are familiar with Dickens' Great Expectations will get another dimension out of it. The only reason I stopped short of giving it 10 stars was an issue I had with the second-to-last chapter. Matilda's conversation there led to conclusions that didn't seem to quite fit in with the development of the characters thus far. But that's a small bone to pick - it's a great book. (Even critics stopped short of calling Great Expectations the perfect novel when
Dickens changed the ending.) Highly recommend this story for any fan of great literature.
Sending to cinnycat as part of a trade - thanks so much!

thanks for trading, PCGator! This one has been on my wishlist. :D I will journal again as soon as I'm done reading.

I happen to love Great Expectations, so I wanted to read this one. I read recently that a few experts don't think Great Expectations is the best Dickens book. I keep thinking about it because I happen to think it's pretty darn good. (Read it here: Dickens Best Novel ) I'm not sure, but the other copy I recently found of Mister Pip at the library book sale and is now buried in my shelves somewhere had a 'young adult' sticker on it. I hope not! This was brutal. Yet another example that all the YA books make me cry and the 'adult' books hardly ever do. I wanted to read this sooner rather than later because I've heard there is a movie being made, and I also know who one of the actors might be. Well, that sometimes ruins a book for me and it kind of did with this one. Matilda is a great character (and the name alone reminded me of Roald Dahl's Matilda, which seems fitting, I guess.) The last white man on an island reads Great Expectations to children as a way to distract them from war. But then it gets brutal fast. Very very brutal. I think what Jones was trying to say was... man, those Victorians had it easy. And it almost made me wish I was re-reading Great Expectations. thanks again for sharing, PCGator!


SPOILERS BELOW
It seems like Matilda was able to start a new life because everyone she loved was removed from her life. Pip was the opposite: because he started a new life, his greatest sin was leaving those he loved behind and casting them off as beneath him. Interesting!
END SPOILERS

Sent to trekwoman in exchange for postage money. Enjoy! Happy Holidays!

War and a schoolhouse. Sounds like the news lately. I may be reading this one after I finish my current book.

Fantastic book. I have to admit I had a vested interest in reading it after I discovered that they've turned it into a film with Hugh Laurie as Mr. Watts. It was the strength of Mr. Watts' relationship as Matilda's educator and friend that kept me reading to the very end. Naturally, I was a bit surprised by the ending, and dismayed by the actions of all the military participants, but it was skirmish, and asserting individuality in the face of cowardice tends to bring about those sorts of results. Cowards hate it when a person of strength challenges their puffery and fake authority.

The author has a very straightforward way of relating events and an authentic voice which is so refreshing to read. Many, many authors cannot lead me to believe I am listening to my own gender's voice along the years. While reading this novel, I felt as though I was on the beach with Gilbert and his father, in the home Matilda shared with her mother, and seated at a desk in the schoolhouse during the lectures given by the students' mothers. The words crackled on the pages.

Part of Trekwoman's "The Last Grey Pip" book box (small box #1).

Very excited to be able to add this to my TBR, thank you! Taken from the Good Things come in Small Packages book box.

Although it is still TBR I am listing it in bookstogive's lit/fic VBB. I've got it in the line up to read this month.

Heartbreaking. This story is fiction, but the place and the war going on are not fictional. The setting is Bougainville Island in the early 1990's after the blockade. The rebels are in the jungle, the red-skins (from Papua New Guinea - as far as I could tell from reading about this conflict on Wikipedia) were fighting the rebels and the villagers were caught between, unable to get off the island and victims of both the rebels and the redskins.
We meet Matilda and her mother living in a small village on the island, and living among them, a white man married to an islander. The white man is a bit of a mystery and a spectacle, but he reaches out and offers to teach the children. He does this in the most extraordinary way; by reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens aloud to them. The children, especially Matilda, are caught up in the story and learn a way to leave their lives temporarily through the words of a book. The white man's name is Mr. Watts but he becomes Mr. Pip for the red-skins who are demanding to know who this Pip is. Pip is the character from Great Expectations but this explanation is not believed leading to terrible consequences. Mr. Watts also invites the parents into the classroom to teach what they know. It is a remarkable classroom.
I was slow in reading this book because I was afraid of the inevitable violence.
Long after everything is over and Matilda lives in Australia she goes to find out more about Mr. Watts. It is surprising to learn what she finds out and the understanding it brings to the whole picture of Mr. Watts. And Matilda, I am glad she makes the decision she does at the end of the book

Not selected, not sure yet what I am going to do with it. I have decided to re-list it in the Lit/Fic VBB as it is a good book.

Selected!

Mailed to the bookcrosser who requested it.

Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to reading this.