Tom Spanbauer

Author of the year ( Chloe's year )

           
            The owner of the hands that wrote Now is the Hour is quite the guy. He is a teacher that lives in Portland, Oregon and is definately something else. He is the author of many other great novels like Faraway Places, The Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon, In The City Of Shy Hunters, and his most recent, I Loved You More. Luckily, he has a website all about him and his great novels.  Go ahead! Click it! It'll tell you some great things about him. He is one that has a lot of interesting things to say. If you go to the section tabbed as "blog" he has some friggen great quotes in there. (sorry for saying friggen.)
But mostly, check out his great novels. At least one. I really am enjoying mine. I think he is an all around great writer. From the looks of it, he is a great teacher too.

The Early Days

          I am making steady progress in my beloved novel Now is the Hour and I am wrapping up the section titled "The Early Days". In this section you get to peer into the early childhood of Rigby John Klusner, while it was still golden. At the end of this section it explains why his early childhood lost its gold touch a little later on. Rigby's life losing its polish, is the work of a sibling. His little brother, Russell Klusner.
         Russell was no evil villan though. His life just threw a bit of a curve ball that the family couldn't quite prepare themselves for. No no Russell's life wasn't a mistake. A perfectly planned baby, born a cripple.The stress of not only letting him grow up happy, but struggling to see him grow up at all was too much. "Mom was never the same. The music stopped, and she locked herself inside her room with Dad, and me and Sis were outside her room, and her eyes were never the same. I couldn't find her anywhere in them."
          There was lots of tension when his little brother was born. Luckily, this section of the book shows lots and lots of times before Russell was even alive. It shows every flicker of gold there could possibly be in the little boy's life. I think to watch those times slowly become less and less frequent helped this book really get a hold of your emotions. Still highly recommend this book! Please pick it up if you ever get the chance.

Starting off "Now is the Hour"

    Yesterday, I started a book called Now is the Hour by Tom Spanbauer. I am currently on page 23 of 459 however, there is already a lot to say about this book. For this post, I would like to focus in on the setting of the novel. The year this tale takes place in is 1967. The seventeen year old Rigby John Klusener is finally getting away from his deeply religious farm family in Pocatello, Idaho, and is headed for the dream spot named San Fransisco. From what I understand, the deep morals of the Klusener family and the still life style that is a farm family in the 1960s is enough to drive Rigby insane. He seems to be one that can't hold still. I love the writing style of this book and I am really intrigued to find out what is going to happen.

Kendra

               I am currently reading a really great book by Ellen Hopkins called Perfect. Overall, it is about a group of kids with their own stories who are striving to be "perfect". However, there is one character that I am really interested in finding out more about. Her names is Kendra. On the surface, other characters see her as a snobby and dumb cheerleader. However, when the reader is given the opportunity to see the world through her eyes, it is very easy to understand that what other characters see on the surface isn't all true. She is a pageant girl. (eek) Also, she knows that she is "pretty" in others eyes. But in poor Kendra's eyes, she isn't very pretty at all. In fact, throughout the story, she unfortunately becomes anorexic. She is also very obsessed with working out. No matter how much weight she loses she always tells herself "15 pounds to go." And when her hunger becomes unbearable she still doesn't turn to food. Instead she picks up pill bottles. In her story the reader is given the chance to see the horrifying roller coaster that is an eating disorder. Even though this novel clearly contains heavier topics, I highly reccomend it.