Series Completed - The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede

Sometimes, when I finish a book or a series, I don't feel happy or accomplished. I don't feel good. I feel. . . aggravated. It's like I have ants under my skin and I have to go do something (usually clean something). It's uncomfortable, to say the least, and it doesn't happen often. I don't know if I could stand reading as much as I do if finishing a book made me feel like this more often.

On the upside, it is also usually a sign that I really enjoyed something. I think it is a response to being wrenched out of a world. Good books do that. The world between the covers becomes more real for a little while than physical surroundings. I call it "the flow." It's that sense of the physical words fading back behind the image conveyed by their meaning to the point where I can almost lose track of the actual process of reading. It's what I try to help my students find.

Needless to say, I really got into the flow with this series. It's a four book series:

1. Dealing with Dragons
2. Searching for Dragons
3. Calling on Dragons
4. Talking to Dragons

I blogged the first in the series last Sunday. As I mentioned in that post, I like the strong snarky female characters, but as the series developed I grew to really like some of the male characters too who are not just backdrops for strong women. (One can go overboard on strong females too) I particularly like the rather biting satire aimed at the fainting violet varieties of females (princesses) that show up and the misogynistic male villains. It's fun.

I will be sure to keep a set of these on hand in my classroom library. They are the kind of books that appeal to intelligent and thoughtful kids, it's a comfortable high school reading level, and, while featuring female characters, should appeal to both genders.