nerd teacher [books] reviewed The Last Council by Kazu Kibuishi (Amulet, #4)
Beautiful, Engaging, but Missing Something
3 stars
I've been reading this series with one of my students, so it's taking us time to get through them. We read it together as part of her English lessons (they're learning English, and they love actually reading books). For that purpose, it's great because my student is absolutely engaged by the story; while there are some more uncommon phrases (regional or generational slang) or 'higher level' language, it's mostly put within contexts where they are able to figure out what things mean by the context around it.
Overall, I really recommend it for anyone working with English learners who aren't yet confident enough to read novels that are fully text.
That said, I do feel like there are parts where it's hard to engage with certain characters. Sometimes I find myself forgetting the names of people (such as the Old Man Stonekeeper teacher guy, and it took me until the …
I've been reading this series with one of my students, so it's taking us time to get through them. We read it together as part of her English lessons (they're learning English, and they love actually reading books). For that purpose, it's great because my student is absolutely engaged by the story; while there are some more uncommon phrases (regional or generational slang) or 'higher level' language, it's mostly put within contexts where they are able to figure out what things mean by the context around it.
Overall, I really recommend it for anyone working with English learners who aren't yet confident enough to read novels that are fully text.
That said, I do feel like there are parts where it's hard to engage with certain characters. Sometimes I find myself forgetting the names of people (such as the Old Man Stonekeeper teacher guy, and it took me until the very end to remember the name of his female student because she wasn't as prominent). I think this kind of comes down to how the characters are presented and then engaged with, and I sort of wish that the characters were more present in their own story.
That isn't to say it's not enjoyable; I do like reading it with my student, and they look forward to reading it. From our conversations, they say that they absolutely adore Emily because she's so determined, and they really like her relationship with her mother because her mother actually apologises when she's wrong... which is not a common familial dynamic that is shown towards children. Personally, I have to agree with them, especially on the latter point.