[LM_NET] SEC:How I Live Now/incest

[Olive Woodward <woodwardo@DOVERSHERBORN.ORG>]

Just a comment about incest: incest is defined as:
"Sexual relations between persons who are so closely related that their
marriage is illegal or forbidden by custom."

Marriage between first cousins is legal in many of the states in the US,
and in fact is also legal in England, where the book is set.
The relationship in the book does not actually qualify as incest.  Perhaps
that is why so few reviewers mentioned it, although I think
they should have mentioned it as I  have just done, framed with its
definition, since it will be perceived to be incest by many readers
who are not familiar with the definition and local laws.

Just an opinion. I liked the book and have given it to mature 8th grade
readers (girls) who also liked it. They were more disturbed by the
graphic details of the violence than they were about the romance.

Olive Woodward
Library/Media Specialist
Dover-Sherborn Middle School
155 Farm Street
Dover, MA  02030

woodwardo@doversherborn.org
(508) 785-0635 x7117


< Frederick Muller writes:

  This is a powerful book and I am not sure how I feel about it. 
Fifteen-year-old 
Daisy travels to England to visit her cousins.  Right after she arrives,
the Aunt 
leaves to give a lecture in Oslo, leaving the children along.  While she
is gone 
war (some fictional war) breaks out and they children are left to survive
and live 
in their own morality.  Daisy's interest in her cousin, Edmond breaks into
true 
love.  While nothing is descriptive about this incestial affair, it is
VERY 
evident.  They children are separated during the war and see the gruesome 
atrocities which happen in such a situation.  After a period of time Daisy
gets 
back to the US and after several years, returns to see Edmond.  The style
of 
writing draws the reading right into the story but there are long run-on
sentences 
and there are no quotation marks when people speak within a sentence.  It
is a 
difficult read.  This 194 page book is only for your mature and good
readers.  
Because of the incest, I have
 decided to send it to our HS.  I find it interesting that very few of the
reviews 
mention the incest at all.  I think that is irresponsible.  Even if you
don't 
purchase book, you should read it.  
   
--------
Frederick Muller, Librarian
Halsted Middle School (Grades 6-8)
59 Halsted Street
Newton, NJ  07860

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