WWRW: Back to Book Reviews

Bo at Ballard Creek by Kirkpatrick Hill illustrated by the amazingly talented LeUyen Pham is the tale of a young orphan girl raised by two miners in Alaska circa 1920.  Bo is a delightful character. Her guardians and her neighbors in this tight-knit community are by and large good people. However Bo was abandoned by her mother, Mean Millie.  Mean Millie, as well as two other, kinder characters are "good-time girls."  Make of that what you will.  Bo's guardians kept her rather than deposit her at the Catholic orphanage as they were charged to do because the nuns "looked as mean as Mean Millie."

Also, as both School Library Journal and an Amazon reviewer point out, there are some instances of strong language.  The Lord's name is misused a few times.

Despite these details, Bo at Ballard Creek is just as the back cover stated, "Like Little House in the Big Woods...but more rambunctious."

With grizzly bears, eskimos, airplanes, and caterpiller tractors, Bo's world is revealed with excitement and charm.  Much of the charm comes from the pictures.  LeUyen Pham's adorable illustrations are what attracted me to this book. It's the perfect story for winter, for as the book points out "everyone in Alaska likes winter best."

Will in Scarlet by Matthew Cody follows in the footsteps of many young-disenfranchised-hero stories that I've loved like The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen and Clyde Robert Bulla's The Sword in the Tree.

Young Will Shackley kills deadly wolves in Chapter One, but his troubles worsen when he finds himself on the run, his guardian murdered, his father kidnapped overseas with King Richard, and traitors taking over his estate.  He flees to Sherwood Forest and is captured by the Merry Men bandits.

Much the Miller's son saves his life. The youngest, smallest, most unlikely bandit has a secret to keep.  Much is a girl in disguise.  With treasure to steal, castles to reclaim, and secret identities to conceal, Will in Scarlet is an adventure story that any boy or girl will enjoy.

Amazon says ages 10 and up for this one, and I find no reason to disagree.

Jinx by Sage Blackwood also an adventure tale about a young boy. However, unlike  Will in Scarlet, Jinx is an poor orphan boy who is rescued from certain death by Simon Magus. Their world is the Urwald, a magical forest filled with dangerous creatures such as trolls, vampires, werebears, and more.  Simon Magus, Jinx's new guardian or employer, is a wizard.  Are wizards good? Or bad? Or both?  Or does it depend on the wizard.

Jinx feels that Simon must be good. After Simon performs a spell on Jinx trapping his life-force and his ability to see people's thoughts in a bottle, Jinx concludes Simon must be evil and sets out to find someone who can reverse the spell.

Jinx learns that not everything is as it seems in the Urwald, as he faces dangers and even death.

Amazon gives this book an 8-12 age range.  Well, I'm in my forties and I enjoyed it and am getting the sequel. Also, 8 may be a little young for Jinx, what with the incredibly evil Bonemaster and his bridge made out of human thigh bones and his cellar full of dead bodies trapped in glass bottles. This scary book is not for the faint of heart. It's definitely darker than Magyk by Angie Sage but not as horror-filled as The Last Apprentice by Joseph Delaney. Proceed with caution.

Whelp. There's the first What We're Reading Wednesday post of the year.  Is anyone interested in doing the WWRW link-up?  I'm thinking it could be a first Wednesday of the month kind of thing.  Let me know if your interested.  And thanks for sticking around through the chaos.

WWRW: Three for the New Year

Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things by Cynthia Voigt

If you liked The Mysterious Benedict Society or Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library or you just like reading about nice boys doing good deeds and solving mysteries, this one's for you.

The sequel, Mister Max: The Book of Secrets is already out so you know I'm headed to the Library Store (as Jill calls it) ASAP.

A Question of Magic by E. D. Baker

Serafina is a happy girl with a good family and a true love etc.  She goes to collect a mysterious inheritance and ends up as the new Baby Yaga.  She receives the power to answer every person's question truthfully, but only the first question.  And there's a catch.  With every answer she gives, she ages.  Can she escape her fate before she dies?  If you enjoy fairy tales, you'll enjoy A Question of Magic.

The Huron Carol by St. Jean de Brebeuf illustrated by Frances Tyrell

While a bringing the Faith to the Huron people, St. Jean de Brebeuf wrote a Christmas carol with beautiful native imagery, "wrapped in a rabbit pelt"  "born in a house of bark"  "three chieftains". (Am I supposed to capitalize Native?) The book is appropriate for all ages.  Frances Tyrrell's illustrations are inspired by various tribes and serve the text well.

You can listen to it here, sung hauntingly in Huron, French, and English.

St. Jean de Brebeuf is one of the North American martyrs and was killed by the Iroquois in the 1600s. You can learn more about him and see where he lived and died in this video.

There are six more days of Christmas so I'm not remiss in wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Here's to more book reviews in 2015!

WWRW: Summer Reading Kick Off

Don't have time to read this summer?  

Have your kids write your posts!  

Summer reading programs are running in libraries all over the US right now.  Research shows again and again that "kids who participate in library summer reading programs significantly improve their reading skills."

Here are a few titles to start them off:

A Diamond in the Desert is the story of a 12-year-old boy, Tetsu, and his time in the Gila River Japanese Internment Camp during World War II.   A Diamond in the Desert is also the story of how baseball not only makes his life better, but improves morale for the whole camp.

There was one little part about this book that I didn't like.  On page 6, Tetsu hears the newlywed neighbors have an argument.  Fitzmaurice writes, "...much later, they went to bed having forgiven each other their harsh words and ... you know."  This scene is very vague and serves to illustrate the lack of privacy in the barracks where the families were housed.  But it occurred so early on in the story, I was unsettled, wondering if that type of scene was going to be a common event in the book.  I am happy to note that it was a one-time occurrence.

One little part about this book that I loved is the Author's Note at the end of the book, Fitzmaurice reveals her research process, which was largely based on interviewing actual detainees who played on the actual Gila River team.

At the end of her Note, she reveals the meaning of the Japanese word, gaman.  In her words, "Simply, it is enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity."

If I had to sum up the theme of A Diamond in the Desert in one word, that word would be gaman.

"Cleverness and bravery are absolutely necessary for good adventures."


Thus opens The Hotel Under the Sand, a beautifully written fantasy by Kage Baker.  Check your sense of reality at the door, because anything can and does happen in this whimsical adventure.

Emma has lost everything and is washed up on a beach during a storm.

It might have been a storm with black winds, with thunder and lightning and rising waves.  It might have been a storm with terrible anger and policemen coming to the door, and strangers, hospitals, courtrooms, and nightmares.  It might have been a storm with soldiers, and fire, and hiding in cellars listening to shooting overhead.  There are different kinds of storms.

See what I mean by "beautifully written?"

She befriends Winston, the ghost of a bellhop who used to work at the Grand Wendlocke Hotel, 100 years ago, before the Grand Wendlocke was buried under the sand.

Another storm comes and uncovers the magnificent hotel, in all of its glory.  Emma and Winston decide to make a go of re-opening for business, along with a cook, a spoiled young heir, and a pirate.  Time is manipulated like play-doh in this lovely, crazy story appropriate for readers of any age.

A few WWRWs ago, I mentioned that Edmund was reading Gary Paulsen's Mr. Tucket (The Francis Tucket Books).  In that post, Edmund gave us his thoughts on Mr. Grimes, the mountain man that rescued 14-year-old Francis Tucket.

Some background info:  Mr. Tucket is the 14-year-old boy that got captured by the Pawnee while his family was on the Oregon Trail.  Mr. Tucket is rescued from the Pawnee by Mr. Grimes.  Mr. Grimes is a mountain man who *SPOILER ALERT* brutally and unnecessarily scalps his enemy at the end of the book. At the end of the book, Mr. Tucket strikes out on his own to find his family in Oregon, rather than stay in the company of a murderer.

Edmund has since written a few sentences about his opinion of the young Mr. Tucket which are below:

Mr. Tucket was a good man and these are some reasons why.  Mr. Tucket was a nice guy because he didn't want to kill.  Also he was a good person because he walked away when Mr. Grimes scalped Braid.  He was a hard worker and he  made good choices.
That's my opinion of why he's a good person.

this is for your blog. FROM THE COOLEST KID IN THE WORLD EDMUND!!!!!!!

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW: Percy Jackson Wannabe Falls Short.

Seven Wonders Book 1: The Colossus Rises by Peter Lerangis looks like a book I would love, and judging from Amazon's blurb and the quote from Percy Jackson creator, Rick Riordan (which you can read if you click on my affiliate link), I should love it.

But I don't.

There's a lot of very good marketing that went into this book, but not very much good writing, plot development, or character development.

Thirteen-year-old Jack passes out at school one day and wakes up in a facility on an uncharted island.  Yes, the plot moves this fast.  Lots of unanswered background questions.

On this island, he is supposedly being kept alive by "treatments" from the Karai Institute people who are supposedly the good guys.  I am not certain of this though, and neither is Jack.  Will we be more certain by the end of Book 1?  No.

Jack needs treatments because he has a special gene, one that he inherited from his mythological ancestors from Atlantis, one that will give him a superpower some day, one that will kill him if he doesn't get the treatments.

Jack and the other lucky kids who have this gene and are also being held at this facility, must find the missing pieces (loculi) of the power source of Atlantis to be permanently cured.  These pieces are hidden in the lost Seven Wonders of the World.  This plot development is not revealed until more than halfway through the book, though based on the title and cover art, it was a given all along.

After reading this book, and Jack's adventures with his three genetically similar friends, eluding the other organization that wants control of the loculi, the Massa, I'm not convinced that the Karai people are good and the Massa are bad or vice versa.  I can't tell who has a good motive.  The only motive I'm clear about is that everyone wants the lost powers of Atlantis, but I'm not sure why.

There is so much about The Colussus Rises that is just bizarre.  One of the teens dies, but is miraculously brought back to life by mist from a waterfall?  Huge mythic creatures are let through a gap in (I guess I would call it) a space-time continuum and no one can stop them?  The kids at the Karai Institute are not allowed any contact with their parents.  Why?   Jack's only superpower thus far seems to be a telepathic connection with people and events from the fall of Atlantis, so there are some disjointed dream sequences where Jack takes on the personas of different characters in the past.

There is nothing objectionable in The Colussus Rises.  I'd let my middle-school age kids read it if they wanted to.  I just don't get how all of the pieces of the plot fit together.

I blame poor craftsmanship.

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW: Five Fast Books for Boys

Candy Bomber by Michael O. Tunnell is the non-fiction account of how one American pilot began delivering candy to post-WWII German children in both East and West Germany, and how his little kindness developed into a huge undertaking with many, many pilots helping and warehouses full of candy donations.

Stay Where You Are And Then Leave is written by John Boyne, who also wrote The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which I have not read, nor have I seen the movie.

Stay Where You Are And Then Leave is a WWI account of Alfie, a young boy in London.  His father volunteered to serve his country as soon as the war began, but his letters have stopped.  Alfie's mother insists that his father cannot write because he is on a secret mission.  Alfie fears his father is dead.

The truth is somewhere in between and Alfie makes his own secret mission to discover it.

John Boyne has a gift for story-telling, that's for sure.

The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson is steampunk fantasy for middle schoolers.  The main characters are actually two girls, but there is enough machinery, magic, and mutant creatures to satisfy any boy.

My only complaint about this book is that its really the prequel to an entire series.  It's difficult to get immersed in a new world, learning the rules, "is there magic?"  "who has it?"  "what kind of world is this?", but then to not reach any sort of conclusion after investing all those brain cells is a little disappointing.  Guess I'm going to have to read the next one.

Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri is the only book in this post that I have not actually finished yet, but that's not stopping me from reviewing it.

Did you know there is such a thing as urban cowboys?  In inner city Philadelphia, no less?  In this book, based on the actual Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club, there are a group of black cowboys who buy and race retired thoroughbreds, as well as providing riding lessons to the wayward youths in the area.

In Ghetto Cowboy, Coltrane has been skipping school and is dangerously close to being held back a year.  His mother, having reached the end of her rope, packs all of his stuff and drives him from Detroit to Philly, where he meets his father for the first time.  His mother then leaves him in this strange city with this strange man in a cowboy hat.

His father is a "ghetto cowboy," working with horses, living near the stables, and occasionally racing in a nearby park to earn funds to keep the horses.  This new lifestyle has a huge impact on Coltrane, and though I'm not quite finished yet, I can see that his time in Philly with the horses and the other cowboys is going to turn his life around.

Edmund is reading Mr. Tucket (The Francis Tucket Books)  by Gary Paulsen.  Peter read these, and I read this first one way back when, now it's Edmund's turn.  Here is a little something he wrote about Mr. Tucket by Gary Paulsen:

WHY I WOULD STAY WITH THIS WILD MAN!

This wild, bizarre mountain man, Mr. Grimes, rescued me from a Pawnee tribe.  He gave me a choice to stay with him or go with the farmers to the Oregon Trail.  I would choose  to stay with him these are the reasons.

The most important reason to stay is that I would be in good hands if any trouble came to me.  He came to my rescue, as you know, when I was in captivity by the Pawnee tribe. 

Another  reason I would  be in good hands is because he is good with a gun and he's WILD!  So he will teach me his ways to survive and his ways of life.

He would not baby me and he would let me make my own decisions.  For example, he would let me decide whether to go with the farmers or not.

These are some of the main reasons I would stay with Mr. Grimes.

An InLinkz Link-up

A Tale of Two Trilogies and a Winner!

First off,

We Have a Winner!  Congratulations to Jill L!  She has won the Driscoll's berry coupon giveaway!

Secondly,  I hope each and every one of you is having a wonderful Easter Week!

Public Service Announcement:  Don't forget - This Friday is Meat Friday! 

Now for some book reviews:

The third installment of Jennifer Niesen's The Ascendance Trilogy is out!  And it's awesome!

Young King Jaron and his landlocked country of Carthya are being attacked on all sides, by all of his enemies who have banded together against him.

With a few friends at his back, and lots of witty comments along the way, Jaron must face incredible odds while injured and grieving a devastating loss.

As usual, Nielsen combines great dialogue with action-packed adventure.  I was particularly impressed with Jaron's invocation of "the saints" as he leads his people into battle and his concept of an afterlife for those who've lived virtuously.

I'd say these books are appropriate for ten and up?  In The Shadow Throne, you will find battlefield violence, some tortuous beatings, death, blood, and the occasional kiss (maybe twice?).  You will also find sacrifice, true love, loss, and responsibility, not to mention an epic surprise ending.

I reviewed Part One:  The False Prince here and Part Two:  The Runaway King here.  You should definitely begin at the beginning.

Technically speaking, The Lunar Chronicles is a series, not a trilogy, with Part 4:  Winter yet to be released.

I greatly enjoyed Cinder, had some issues with Scarlet, and was delighted to find Cress not only resolves one of my qualms, but is a better book (than Scarlet) with better characters overall.

Cress is Marissa Meyer's sci-fi re-telling of Rapunzel, complete with a blind "prince."

Cress is a shell, which is like the Lunar version of a "squib."  Lunars, the race of people that populates the moon, generally have the ability to control the minds of Earthens.  But Cress doesn't.

She does have a gift for technology and hacking, which is why she has spent the last seven years of her life alone, in a satellite, monitoring all of Earth's secrets for the evil queen and cloaking the Lunar ships that are set to invade Earth.

Scarlet is only in this book briefly as she is captured by the Lunars and imprisoned on the moon.  In those brief moments, she mentally re-hashes her one night of passion with Wolf and makes it seem as though perhaps it was just some passionate kisses.

In my opinion, the best scene in Cress, is when she and Captain Thorne (again, the likeness to Captain Jack Harkness was striking) crash land on Earth.  Thorne has been blinded in a fight, and Cress has never been to the surface.  He must ascertain their location and manage their survival through the eyes of someone who has never seen an animal in real life, or the sky, or the sun.

Her total naivete and innocence is the perfect foil for his brash womanizing attitude and their romance is one of the greatest things about this series.

Unlike the previous two volumes, Cress is very clean.  Focused on fighting the evil Queen Levana and stopping her marriage to Cinder's heartthrob Emperor Kai, Cinder, Wolf, Cress, Thorne, and the lovable droid Iko face the impossible.

This series is definitely "young adult."  I'll let my high school kids read it, I'd probably let an 8th grader read it, but with the joking sex change reference in Cinder, and the love scene and references to porn (which is frowned upon) in Scarlet, I'd definitely reserve this series for teens.

An InLinkz Link-up

It's What We're Reading Wednesday! Ranger's Apprentice!

I first reviewed John Flanagan's epic Ranger's Apprentice series here, back in 2008, when my high school senior was nine years old.  At least four of us have kept up with every new installment over the last five years.

Number 12, The Royal Ranger was recently published.  As my library has an incredibly long wait time for that volume, I re-visited Number 11, The Lost Stories.

The premise of The Lost Stories is a little hokey, but forgiveable.  Modern day archaeologists digging near the ruins of Castle Redmont find the remains of a cabin in the woods.  In that cabin, they discover a locked box with the Lost Stories of the Royal Rangers.

Flanagan uses this device to answer readers' specific questions about such topics as what really happened to Will's father, how did Halt go from being in line for the the throne of Clonmel to employment as a Ranger of Araluen, what happened to Gilan after Halt left for Skandia?

These and other stories are all told with the same warm-yet-wry writing style that Flanagan uses to spin all of his tales.

If you haven't read the first ten Ranger's Apprentice books, you aren't going "to get" this one.  But if like me, you happen to be a devoted fan of John Flanagan, you may get choked up at some of the scenes.

If you haven't read the first ten Ranger's Apprentice books, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? They are pure adventure tales, like Robin Hood meets King Arthur meets the Lord of the Rings, with touches of fantasy, and a strong dose of medieval history.

This is where you should begin.

A little back story...Will, Jenny, Alyss, Horace and someone else...I forget who...were all orphans raised as wards of Castle Redmont in bonny old Araluen.  Young Will has always dreamed of becoming an apprentice warrior, but his size, specifically his height, or lack thereof  hinders his abilities in that regard.  Enter Halt.  The mysterious crusty old Ranger, who takes Will as an apprentice to one of the noblest occupations in the kingdom.

Rangers are trained in archery, silent movement, small arms combat, and other things helpful in the field of  espionage.  The Ranger's job is to keep the kingdom (and it's people) safe from invaders, traitors, thieves, and tyrants.  It's an incredible and eventful career, just not one that Will had imagined for himself.

In one of their first quests, Will and his sometimes-rival, Horace (who is definitely warrior material) find the missing Princess Cassandra.  Will faces Morgarath, is kidnapped with the princess by Skandians, escapes the Skandians, and goes on to defeat brutes and evil-doers all over the known world.  Every adventure is better than the last, with the original wards from Book One, appearing and re-appearing throughout.

The weaponry and military maneuvers appear accurate to my novice eye, and told in a manner that is easily grasped by my non-militaristic mind.  Yet, Flanagan never bores me!

The Ranger's Apprentice books use very little magic.  The first few volumes do have magically created monsters, used by the evil Morgarath, but the "good guys" apparently have no magical abilities, and they STILL manage to defeat evil.

Like all great stories, Flangan originally wrote these tales for his grandson, Michael who was a 10 year old reluctant reader at the time.  Go to http://www.rangersapprentice.com/ and register as a ranger to read that and more in an interview with author and grandparent, John Flanagan.

There is another series by Flanagan that has some cross-over with the Ranger's Apprentice settings and characters:  The Brotherband Chronicles.  I have not read it myself, but I fully intend to read and enjoy it soon.

An InLinkz Link-up

It's What We're Reading Wednesday!

I read Legend by Marie Lu, partly because Marie Lu penned the quote that left me so disappointed, and partly because Madeline at A Dash of Snark hated Legend but liked the sequel, Prodigy.  The Empire Strikes Back is the exception that proves Madeline's rule, "second novels in trilogies historically have been the weakest."  But Madeline sites Prodigy as another outlier.

Safe for teens.

Madeline does a great job summing up Legend.  Yes, about the kiss.  Yes, it does seem that if you are going to write a Young Adult novel about anything at all, there must be some kissing.  But that's all there is, just kissing.

Legend is also violent.  Deaths, stabbings, girl fights, executions, tortured interrogations, lots of violence.  Just like Hunger Games et al.

Day, the underdog boy hero, and June, the darling of the Republic and No. 1 Day-hater-future-Day-lover are great characters!  I love the flip-flop narration.  You really get a great look each character's point of view.

June.   She's a complex girl.  Orphaned and raised by her brother.  An intellectual genius with great physical skill as well.  She's a dyed in the wool Republic girl, but when Day tells her everything she believes in might be wrong, she accepts that she might actually be wrong!  And then when she finds irrefutable evidence that she IS wrong, rather than cover it up and switch to denial mode, she ADMITS that she was in fact wrong.  That is a feat that I am rarely able to do in real life.

As far as the writing goes, it has to be pretty awful for me to notice, and Legend didn't bother me one bit.  I also like fried bologna sandwiches and prefer my beer in cans.  I'm that kind of girl.

Regarding the other dystopian trilogies Madeline mentions, Hunger Games, Matched, and Divergent, Matched was probably my favorite of the three and also the least dark (at least the first book was).  I think that might be part of what I like about Legend.  Despite all the violence, the people are rebelling, the Patriots are sabotaging the Republic, and smart-but-poor kids like Day are just out there trying to help their neighbors.

I'm definitely getting Prodigy, and even though the third installment, Champion is coming out very soon, Pope Awesome will definitely take precedence.

All Y'all should read Legend so you can dish with me and Madeline.

There is so much to like about The Selection by Kiera Cass.  It's like a dystopian version of Shannon Hale's Princess Academy. There are great characters and real drama.

In this version of America's future, everyone one is divided into castes.  The castes are numeric.  Royalty are ones, celebs are twos, teachers are threes (I think), artists are fives, housekeepers and administrative assistants are sixes, homeless, indigent, or abandoned people are eights.

Thirty-five girls, one from each province without regard to caste, are selected to live at the palace in hopes of fostering a relationship with Prince Maxon that will end with a marriage and a crown.  Unfortunately, the palace is often under siege from various groups that appear to be searching the building and grounds for something.  But nobody, not the royal family, knows what they want.  Sometimes, the attackers even kill people to get in.  If you're sensing that this was an awkward and underdeveloped plot point, good.

 America Singer, a Five (and you guessed it, a singer/musician), is one of the selected, but her heart lies home with her forbidden love, Aspen, a Six.  Aspen dumps her shortly before the selection takes place.  He realizes that she tries to spend money on him out of pity and how much she will give up if she marries him.

After several weeks at the palace, America is just beginning to think that maybe she could have a thing for Prince Maxon after all, when BAM!  Aspen has been drafted to the army, and assigned to be a guard right at the royal palace.  Where else?  End scene.  End book.  The end.  Yes.  That's right.  If you want to know who America chooses, or who Prince Maxon chooses, you have to read The Elite and The One to find out.

There is so much to dislike about The Selection too.  Before the selection, Aspen and America have many secret trysts in the treehouse, treasonously breaking curfew, and fooling around.  A lot.  They are always coming very close but not quite fornicating, because that's against the law and can get you in jail, and only the upper class castes can get birth control.  Lower class castes have big families because they have to.

Thank goodness, America always kept her pants on, because you have to be a virgin to be one of the selected....unless she lied about that.   To America's credit, she confesses to Prince Maxon that she would like to have a lot of children and we hear that his own mother suffered from many miscarriages.

Anyway, I think The Selection is too steamy and has too many other issues to recommend it to anyone who is not an adult or at least a very well-grounded young adult.

You Look Different in Real Life by Jennifer Castle is a modern mash-up of The Breakfast Club and The Truman Show.  Five kids were stars of a documentary called "Five at Six."  These same five kids star in a documentary every five years, "Five at Eleven" aired five years ago, so now it's time to film "Five at Sixteen."

Our main character is Justine, who was the knockout hilarious and precocious star of the first two movies, but after having ruined a friendship, been dumped by her one and only boyfriend, and "chunking out" these last five years, she is not looking forward to this.  But she goes along with it anyway.

There is all kinds of weirdness.

Justine's parents split up shortly after "Five at Eleven." Dad is still welcome at the dining room table and in the mom's bed every Thursday as long as they aren't dating anyone else.  Justine's comment, "I chose not to be confused by this."

Another reality star, Kiera, was told that she was abandoned by her mother by her father on screen, for all the world to see.

Nate, who was bullied and called a "fag" for his deep tenderness for his pet rabbits in "Five at Eleven," has turned into a super-mega-hottie star of the swim team.

Felix, the funny, fame-obsessed, Puerto Rican kid is trying to keep himself in the closet.  His traditionalist parents will obviously never accept him, if he can accept himself.

Rory is the autistic spectrum former best friend of Justine.

Their mission, to break away from the film crew and find Kiera's mom.  Justine brings a video camera and ends up co-directing the final film.  Good thing she was there to catch Kiera and her mom reuniting, and Felix looking longingly at two guys dancing, and Rory finally dancing with a boy.

Frankly, the way the story unfolds with the backstory slowly trickling out, I couldn't keep them all straight.  I still don't know why Kiera hated Justine, or why Nate hated everyone except Kiera, or why any of them would do another film when it hurts so badly.  I didn't like any of the characters. They each had their one angst and it defined them.

Cue Simple Minds.

Currently, I have Anne's God's Hotel and Charlotte's Keeping the Castle in my library bag.

This is my favorite part.  The link up.  It's like a wish-list delivery every week!

An InLinkz Link-up

WWRW: Scarlet

Scarlet is the sequel to Cinder and the second of The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer.  You can tell from the cover art that this is going to a re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood.  Scarlet has a missing grandmother, and runs into some unsavory types, coincidentally named Wolf and Hunter.

Scarlet isn't half the heroine Cinder is.  She falls in love with Wolf, and while they are on the run to escape the Pack and to find her Grandmother, there is one kissing scene that cuts off.  I totally did not think they slept together, but at the end of the book, it becomes clear that I was wrong.  

Aside from the fact that fornication is wrong, Wolf has done nothing but lie to Scarlet and betray her.  Why would she sleep with this guy?  By the end, his bizarre genetic hybrid make-up (part-wolf/part-lunar) is revealed.  His bad ways can be somewhat forgiven as he is subjected to mind-control by an evil authority.  But Wolf still kills another member of the Pack, who attacks Scarlet, by ripping his victim's neck apart with his fangs.  So not all of his bad behavior can be blamed on mind-control.

For what it's worth, Scarlet and Wolf discuss their relationship and Scarlet points out that wolves are monogamous.  

Wolf declares, "...you're the only one, Scarlet.  You'll always be the only one."  

To which Scarlet replies, "Wolf, are you asking me to be your alpha female?"  

*gag*

Fortunately, Cinder and her story are continued in this volume.  She escapes from prison, picks up a Captain-Jack-Harkness-like sidekick (who unnecessarily has a problem with porn),  gets a ship and heads to Europe to try to uncover her past.  

By the book's end, a few more people have figured out Cinder's real identity and they encourage Cinder to fight back against Queen Levana.  

So ends episode 2 of The Lunar Chronicles.

Why are sequels so often disappointments?  

I will be reading Cress and Winter when they come out because I am really digging Cinder and her story.  I would  probably let my high school kids read this book.  The porn is referenced as "porn" (no descriptions of images) and Cinder is completely disgusted with it.  The kissing scene was so vague I truly had no idea how far it went.  

As it is, my girls are tired of sci-fi/fantasy and have not asked to read this one or Cinder. They are still ripping through the rest of the Betsy-Tacy books.  Again.  

An InLinkz Link-up

It's WWRW!

I just finished Cinder by Marissa Meyer.  

classic fairytale retold  + cyborg + alien race of Lunars = awesome.

Fast paced and bursting with surprises, Cinder is about the part human, part robot, orphan mechanical genius of New Beijing.  She belongs to her legal guardian (stepmother) and has two step sisters (but one is nice).

Prince Kai, the future emperor of the Commonwealth shows up, undercover, at her grungy booth one day with an android to be repaired.  That same day, her youngest step-sister, Peony (the nice one) comes down with the dreaded plague, never to be seen again as she is quarantined and expected to die in a matter of days.

There is a ball, a pumpkin coach, a wicked queen who is much worse than the stepmother, and a cyborg foot that is too small.

Meyer's first book is a rip-roaring adventure that ends with a huge cliffhanger, to be continued.  I will definitely be reading the next three books in The Lunar Chronicles:  Scarlet, Cress, and Winter.

This novel is for older teens.  There is a joking reference to a sex change operation, some mention made of Cinder's perfect still human reproductive parts, and maybe two passionate kisses.  

I love that Cinder is described as thin, not womanly, mousy thin brown hair, but with a compassionate heart and brilliant mind.  Her relationship with Kai is based on factors other than appearance.  

Cinder is like The Goose Girl on sci-fi steroids.

An InLinkz Link-up

What We're Reading Wednesday: A Mixed Bag

I have been seeking books and movies about or set in Spain, seeing as how I have a vested interest there.  I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino was a wonderful find.  A fictional autobiography of the slave owned by master Baroque portrait painter, Diego Velazquez, I, Juan de Pareja succeeds as the narrative of a slave, an historical account of Seville, Madrid, and Italy in the 1600s, and as a study of the art of Velazquez.

Not only is I, Juan de Pareja interesting and well written, having won the Newbery medal in 1966, it is also a beautiful story of our Catholic faith.  Juan is a Catholic and finds solace in prayer, Mass, and confession.

The name Elizabeth Borton de Trevino was familiar to me, as I recalled several years ago, I was in a book club that read her autobiography.   an American woman marrying a Mexican man and emigrating to Mexico.  A lovely romantic comedy by the name of My Heart Lies South, is the story of an American woman marrying a Mexican man and emigrating to Monterrery, Mexico.  For reasons unbeknownst to me, there is the regular edition and the "Young People's Edition."  My library only carried the Young People's Edition, which I think is fine for all ages.

The search of my library's catalog for fiction about Spain also led me to a total waste of time and paper called Spain or Shine.  I read maybe a hundred pages before giving up on the shy heroine studying play writing in San Sebastian, Spain.  I could not detect a plot, but there were lots of descriptions of boys and bikinis.

Just because it's listed, doesn't mean I liked it.

Another title I picked up was Blood Secret by Kathryn Lasky.  Blood Secret is about Jerry, a young girl in New Mexico.  We first meet Jerry when she is five years old.  She is camping with her mother at a concert.  Her mother earns her living selling jewelry at concerts.  Jerry awakes to discover her mother is not there.  Assuming that her mother has gone to the bathroom, Jerry peeks out of the tent only to see the bare bottom of her mother disappearing into the tent of the man who sells her weed.

Jerry's mother is not in the story anymore as we fast forward to other episodes in Jerry's life.  Her mother abandons her at age eight, which is also the age Jerry stops speaking.  Jerry ends up getting dropped off at the home of great-aunt Constanza at the age of fourteen after being raised by Catholic charitable organizations.

In the basement of Constanza's house, she finds an ancient wooden chest.  When Jerry opens the chest and touches an object, she is transported to the time of the object.  She sees and hears what happened long ago, as a memory.  The objects in the chest take Jerry back to various times of her ancestors during the Spanish Inquistion.

Jerry's and Constanza's ancestors were Jews in Spain.  Jerry's trips to the past begin in the 1300s, where some of her relatives were forced to convert to Catholicism.   Through subsequent "memory trips"  we learn of torture, killings by breaking necks or burning at the stake, forced entry in convents, disfigurement by boiling oil, among others.  Her ancestors were forced to flee from town to town in Spain, eventually moving to Portugal, and then New Leon or Mexico.

Even after escaping to the New World, their troubles are not over.  Jerry's ancestors inter-married with local Indians who were also forced to have their children baptized if they wanted to do business with the mission friars.

On and on goes the tale of tragedy, interspersed with episodes in the present day.  Jerry slowly recovers the power of speech.  She notices the little "superstitious" things that her aunt does, candles at sunset on Friday, never sweeping dirt out the front door, and throwing a piece of bread in the oven, are remnants of their Jewish heritage.

Jerry stops going to Church, even though the contemporary Padre and Sister Evangelina seem like perfectly decent folks.  Jerry shares what she has learned of their past with Constanza and by the end of the book, Constanza stops going to Mass as well.

This sad, sad story strikes me as very one-sided.  In every instance of oppression throughout history, there are always heroes defending the helpless, but this book does not tell of any.  Rather Blood Secret shows Catholicism and thus all Catholics as terrible and cruel.

I am ashamed to admit that I know little to nothing about the Spanish Inquisition.  I was amazed to learn from  the author's note at the end of the book, that the Spanish Inquisition lasted 500 years with the last death in 1826.  I had no idea that all Jews were kicked out of Spain in 1492.

But I think the author used a very broad brush painting all Spanish Catholics of that time as murderous.  That last link, from the Jewish Virtual Library states, "In the final analysis, all of these events took place because of the relentless will of one man, Tomas de Torquemada."  I've read enough post WWII literature to know terms like "collective guilt" would apply to Spaniards in the time of the Inquisition. Just as I don't believe that every German is responsible for the Holocaust, I think the story of the Spanish Inquisition is a little more nuanced than Lasky allows.  

I fail to see why the main characters, who've never been shown anything except friendship and generosity from Catholics in their own lifetimes, decide to turn their back on the faith they've practiced their entire lives.  

And now for something completely different...

Across the Universe by Beth Revis is a post-apocalyptic tale of a society contained in a spaceship.  Wall-E anyone?  This ship also contain one hundred cyrogenically frozen people, field specialists in things like genetics, weapons, finance, etc. who will help re-build society once the ship reaches it's destination.

Seventeen-year-old Amy was allowed the chance to be frozen and taken onboard, only because both of her parents were "necessaries."  She believes she will be frozen for three hundred years.

She gets woken up fifty years too soon by an unknown homicidal maniac who is killing off the "frozens."  The society she wakes up in is completely controlled by one man known as Eldest.

From the hormones in the water controlling a mating season, to genetically engineering the fetuses to have specific traits, to editing history to show "difference" to be the downfall of society, Eldest is manipulating everything.

His replacement, Elder, also seventeen, takes a liking to Amy and unlike the rest of society who has been told that Amy is crazy, he listens to her.  (Everyone else in the Society is either 21 or 42 or in their 60s.  The generations are controlled.)

There is sex in this book. During the Season, the drugged out people of the ship copulate like animals, anywhere, everywhere, with anyone.  The book uses terms like "rutting" to describe this behavior, which is not sensual or lascivious at all.  Amy is attacked by two men during this time and is nearly raped.

I would let my high school kids read this book, not just because the sex is portrayed as something less than human.  Part science fiction, part murder mystery, very small part romance, Across the Universe is the well-told, thought-provoking tale of a sick society and the two youths who want to fix it.

I thought I'd hate Across the Universe, but I didn't, and I'm fairly certain that Isabel and Angela will like it too.

In contrast, I thought I'd like The Incredible Charlotte Sycamore by Kate Maddison, but it was just "meh."  There's nothing bad in it, well I take that back.  More on that later.  It's a steam punk Victorian adventure story in which our heroine sneaks out at night (little bit of bad right there) to practice sword fighting (with her steam-punky spinning blade sword) with friends.  They all get attacked by rabid mechanical dogs and her two friends are seriously injured.

The rest of the story involves Charlotte trying to uncover the evil genius behind the mechanical dogs and get her friends out of quarantine.  Queen Victoria is in the story too.  She has a magical chess set.  Lots of details like that, make the story clunky.  Why the spinning blade?  Why the magical chess set?  You see these things in action, but they don't really add to the story.

Charlotte, while repeatedly risking the life and livelihood of her maid, saves the day and even at the very end of the story, the part when you think she's going to come clean to her father about the sneaking out, the rabies-infected bite she got on her foot, her desire to choose her own spouse, her interest in the field of medicine, etc. she doesn't.

Everybody LOVES Each Peach, Pear, Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg.  My older kids loved it, and Jill loves it and I love it because it's short and interesting and rhymes, but not in an annoying way.  I have memorized the text, that's how many times I have read it.

Books with hidden pictures are the best, and someone is hiding on every page in Each Peach Pear Plum.  Not just anybody, but characters from fairy tales and nursery rhymes are all together in this tale.

This page is "Mother Hubbard in the cellar, I spy Cinderella."  

I know there's a sort of sequel out there called The Jolly Postman, however I am well aware that in The Jolly Postman the letters COME OUT OF THE ENVELOPES!  That sort of book would be very short lived in Jill's hands.  Maybe come Christmas-time, she'll be ready for it.

Well, that should give you some things to look for at the library in between praying for Dwija and the Supreme Court and this country.  It's raining here, so we'll do what we always do on a rainy day:  Make cookies and watch TV!  Probably Dr. Who and Angelina Ballerina on the TV and oatmeal raisin in the oven.  

It feels like an oatmeal raisin day.