Soccer & a book.

It is with relief that I can report Spain actually scored a goal in the World Cup final. In extra time. I thought we were going to a penalty shoot out. I hate penalty shoot outs. I think it's an appalling way to decide a game. Eat your heart out Liddy. Spain played beautiful, beautiful football. The Dutch, sad to say, played like Neanderthal thugs for most of the game. As they were bigger & heaver than Spain it was like watching a little car go into the crushers but in the end the better team won. Whew. All done for another 4 years.

More interestingly [yes, I know my interests tend to swing from one extreme to another; sorry about that] I was browsing the YA section of our local library for something for Ditz to take away. I'm rarely enchanted with anything I find in the YA section. Vampires, vampires & more vampires. Ditz isn't allowed vampires. They give me nightmares.

Anyway, I brought home two books, both of which had Ditz rolling her eyes. She's read neither of them. I, one the other hand, read this one: A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd. Firstly, not sure that it's a YA book. If you are fussy about your child's reading matter then it's definitely not suitable reading matter as it includes themes of alcoholism, illicit sex, out of wedlock births & murder by exposure. Sound nasty? Surprisingly it's not. Frankly I didn't find it depressing either though it seems plenty of readers have.

What's to like? Lots for my money. The language is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. A little idiomatic in places but not so as to be obscure. It captures exactly a particular place, a particular mindset [of being Irish Catholic in a very small conservative Irish village] & a particular age. Mind you any girl who goes with a boy who's idea of courting is to make up rude rhymes about the girl is a little peculiar but Shell has her reasons. Her mother has died. Her father has retreated into the bottle & religion & Shell is responsible for her younger siblings. Put like that it does sound depressing but Shell never feels sorry for herself. She just gets on with things, muddling through the best she knows how. Shell doesn't always make the best & brightest decisions [whoever does?] but she is brave & staunch & she makes what she can of the opportunities available to her.

No, not a Ditz book; but I enjoyed it very much indeed. I'll be looking for more of this author's work. What is depressing me is we're back schooling this week. *sigh* Material cut out & ready to go. How green is My Valley on our reading list for this term...now that is something to look forward to whatever Ditz thinks. A social whirl for Ditz while the Irish are in town. We're all good.