Currently Reading

Fiction (Middle Grades)

• Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers. Can’t seem to get back into it. I poke at a few pages and then get distracted by other books. As always, it’s the danger of seeing a movie (and an excellent one, at that) before reading the book.

Recently Completed

Plays

• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two by John Tiffany & Jack Thorne, based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling. While I was avoiding Mary Poppins, I dove into this script and finished it in two days. Although complex to a degree with its details both old and new related to the Potter universe, the story structure felt too simple. I had to remind myself that the presentation of a play (like a film) prevents it from going into the depth of a novel, and so I should approach it with different expectations. But I’m not sure that’s the sole reason why I was underwhelmed. Although I still loved the familiar (now grown-up) characters and the new kid characters (and certainly cried in the end), I found the story more predictable and less exciting than I’d hoped.

Number of picture books read toward 2019 goal of 500: 59.