February '09 discussion thread: The Little Giant of Aberdeen County

[Caryl]

Here is our discussion thread for The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, our Februrary group read. As always, be cautious of reading the posts below if you haven't finished, as they may contain spoilers.

[Caryl]

Has anyone else read this one? I enjoyed it. It was different from what I expected; for some reason, I thought it would be a bit funny, or maybe quirky is a better word. The characters are a little quirky in that they are all quite unique, but Baker doesn't take advantage of their quirkiness, and that's a great thing.

There is a sort of mystery that you learn more about as you read. Actually, there are several mysteries, but this isn't written as a mystery novel. I thought Baker did a great job with the plot, showing us glimpses of the full story, just a bit at a time. The story is told by Truly (the "Little Giant" of the title), but sometimes Baker lets us in on something Truly doesn't know yet, and she was quite skillful in working the point of view in order to do this.

I loved the themes Baker explored, and the little places where the themes showed up surprised and delighted me. Even the packaging of the book (the cover, chapter headings, and page breaks, etc.) had fun with the themes.

I thought this was a very good first novel. There was one event that I didn't quite believe, but maybe it's just that I didn't see it coming. I don't want to say much more about this, just in case people are reading here to see if the book is worth picking up. If any of you read it, I'd love to discuss it with you!