March 12, 2012

Review: Sunrise Over Disney - by Bert

Hello readers!

I entered a giveaway for this book on Goodreads, and I ended up getting a copy for review, which I thank the author very much.
Technically, this book isn't by Bert, but by L.N. Smith (which is also a pen name, it seems). And yet, it IS Bert who writes it.

This is a complicated book. It's not properly fiction, but it is fiction. If you've read Sophie's World or anything by Jostein Gaarden you probably know what I mean - it is meant to teach people, but also fascinate and entertain.

The book tells the story of awakening, of learning and of the world today and tomorrow.
You only understand that if you went all the way through, it's impossible to understand before then. It has something to do with Disney, but not really. It is about Walt Disney, Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln and so many others, but what it is most about it us. Human beings. Normal and ordinary humans.

We start by meeting Bert and Mary, their two children Michael and MJ and the rest of the family, specially "Mom" and "Dad", Bert's parents, and Uncle Albert. We also hear about Mom and Dad's proposal to take the whole family to a Disney World trip, which they reluctantly accept - by Bert's incentive.

We get to know Disney World and it's history, as well as Walt Disney's history.
We discuss, along with the author, how can someone very prejudiced also be a good person and when or how cna we judge people without forgetting that we must consider their environment and time on history.
We end up keeping company to Bert while he learns and tries to decide what to do with his life - it's a difficult thing, for some people, I understand. On one hand, you want to keep on learning and learning and on the other, you must "grow up" and get a job, take up responsabilities... But, specially on the job department, you usually end up doing several of the same things over and over again, which kills the learning for you, and for some people, learning is much more important and much more interesting...

Bert says that there is so much that people should learn and they don't know even how to start. Things that may challenge their beliefs so he proposes that it's made into a Disney ride, where people have fun while learning and  if it so happens to be way too much in the way of their beliefs, they may dismiss it, as the entertaining experience it is - and it still might make its way into their subconscious mind.

I found it to be a very entertaining book, while teaching, which is something I love. It is a "not so easy" book, while it's not hard, it's just definitely not a summer afternoon reading.

You can buy the book here.