Short Reviews from a Short Summer!

Well, summer is over for me since I head back to school on Monday.  It went by very quickly, but of course, there was time for reading!  So rather than sticking with my regular format for reviews, I'll just leave a few of these right here for ya!

Indiana Jones meets X Men or something like that. Loved the snarky banter between the characters! And the action scenes made me feel like I was watching a movie play out on the pages. Great job for a debut author and I look forward to more by her!

Three different stories of refugees - escaping Germany during WWII, escaping Cuba in 1994, and escaping Syria in 2015.  All three stories don't SEEM to have any connections, but wait for it!  I thought it was going to be typical stories from each part of history, but I was wrong.  Really liked this one!

If you liked We Were Liars and the twisty-turny way that one worked out, you will love this mystery told backwards.  Yes, you read that right.  We start at the end of the story and work our way backwards to how it all began.  Don't worry.  It isn't as confusing as it sounds!

Kind of a Mean Girls meets Sam and Dean from Supernatural.  Her ancestors were responsible for all of the Salem Witch Trial murders, and now she is at a school in Salem with the ancestors of all the girls who were murdered.  And then there's a ghost.  And then there's a curse.  And then there's a race to end the curse before the ghost and the girls all die.... for good!

Of all the books I have read the last couple of months, I would have to say this is the best!  I really liked the idea of the characters leaving letters to each other to get to know each other, but the best part of that whole idea is that both characters felt like they could be their "real" selves through those letters. Kemmerer uses several of her characters to show that sometimes we only show the world what we think they want to see instead of showing who we really are.  And what we really are is pretty great.  Go read this book!  Come talk to me when you're done.

A fun read with a snarky main character (my favorite kind) and two snobby girls you learn to love and a friendship to remember.  Oh, and a murder mystery and curses and zombies and a tragic love story . . . kind of.

Game of Thrones meets the world of the Fae.  Everyone wants to rule the fairy world, but who is the rightful heir?  And what if they're half human? Does that even count? And, of course, if it's by Holly Black, you know it's going to be good!  This summer I wanted to try more fantasy, and after reading this book, I remembered how much I love fantasy!

Nothing Could Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks

GN SHE
Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Summary

Charlie is caught in the middle.  His cheerleader ex-girlfriend needs him to win the election for student body president so that they can get new uniforms with school money.  His best friend needs to win the election so that the money can be spent on the upcoming robotics competition.  Charlie has to bring together this mismatched group of people to unite for one ultimate goal: win the Robot Rumble so that everyone can get what they want . . . in more ways than one!

What I Liked

The artist in this book really found a way to make the reader understand the subtle sarcasm being used to tell this story.  It was funny without trying too hard and interesting enough to make me want to keep reading.  Graphic novels aren't usually my thing, but this one made me smile more than once.

The other thing I liked about this book is that it didn't feel the need to add in a bunch of bad language and sexual material to tell the story.  It just didn't need it.  And there are just too many graphic novels out there that use that kind of material to draw in a reader when there really is no need for it.  The characters and the plot were the stars of this book - as it should be.

What I Didn't Like

Well, it's weird to say, but what I didn't like was the fact that it was a graphic novel.  I just don't enjoy reading them.  This one was an exception because I liked the story so much.

Quintessential Quote

Well, it's kind of hard to quote a graphic novel and really have it stand out as something intelligent, so instead I have inserted a copy of one of the pages.  Charlie was duped into running for student body president and hadn't even had a chance to tell his best friend, Nate, about it.  Nate is also running for president and is not pleased that Charlie is running against him because Charlie is a popular jock who will probably beat him.  I like this page because it shows the lighthearted humor used to tell the story. 

If you want a break from the normal way of reading and have been looking to try a graphic novel, this is the book for you!

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer

FIC WOL
Genre:  Fantasy

"I was sent here because of a boy.  His name was Reeve Maxfield, and I loved him and then he died." -- Jam Gallahue

Summary

Jam has been in a deep depression since she lost her boyfriend, Reeve.  Her parents have decided to send her to The Wooden Barn, a therapeutic boarding school for troubled teens.  She gets enrolled in a class called Special Topics in English and is assigned a special journal to write in about her feelings.  What she doesn't realize is that this isn't just any old journal.  When she writes in it, she is transported to a place where she can be with Reeve again.  And when she discovers that the journal is working the same for the other four people in the class with her, they make a plan to make sure they don't waste this amazing opportunity.  

What I Liked

I really enjoyed the stories of all of these kids.  It didn't just pour out on the pages in one long narrative.  I had to wait and find out what happened to the kids along with Jam.  That really made me want to keep reading.  Also, they were such likable kids!  You wouldn't think that a boarding school for troubled teens would have students that have so much to offer, but these kids made me want to cheer for them!  Their teacher was pretty awesome as well.  But maybe I'm a bit biased when it comes to how teachers are portrayed in literature.

Also, the wording of this book and its underlying message of the power of writing were important to me.  Jam realizes that writing about her feelings is the reason why she was able to move on.  And the other kids realize it too.  Sometimes we just have to let our feelings out to a unknown entity that can't answer back and try to solve all of our problems for us.  We just need to pour it out on paper and then leave it behind and never look at it again.  This is the power of writing.  This is the power of Belzhar to the students in this class.  I love that.

Quintessential Quote

There is so much imagery in this book.  Not only does the main character learn about the beauty that words can bring into our lives, but the author invites us into that way of thinking as well.  My favorite example of this is at the end of the book when Jam realizes just how far she has come on her journey. 

"And I also know that pain can seem like an endless ribbon.  You pull it and you pull it.  You keep gathering it toward you and as it collects, you really can't believe that there's something else at the end of it.  Something that isn't just more pain.

But there's always something else at the end; something at least a little different.  You never know what that thing will be, but it's there."  -- p. 253

I like the idea that there is something other than pain waiting for you after you have dealt with so much of it already.  Wolitzer doesn't sugar coat it for us.  She lets us know that it won't be a complete turn around to extreme happiness because we all know that isn't always the case.  She respects the reader enough to tell us the truth:  things will change eventually, but slowly.  We just have to keep pulling at that ribbon until it exposes what's waiting for us on the other side.

Illuminae Files by Aime Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

FIC KAU
Genre:  Science Fiction

Summary

Kady and Ezra have just gone through the worst break up in history.  The day is not promising to be a good one - and then her planet is invaded.  The year is 2575 and Kady and Ezra live on a distant planet at the edge of the universe.  Unfortunately, there are two mega corporations fighting for the resources on that planet and one company has decided to destroy it so that the other one can't have it.  In their escape, Kady and Ezra have ended up on two different rescue ships.  And now they have to figure out how to keep themselves and everyone else from dying from the disease that one of the weapons released upon their planet.

But wait.  There's more!  The artificial intelligence system that runs the ships is trying to kill everyone too.  Oh, and Kady is a hacker who has discovered that there is MUCH more than meets the eye with this invasion.  AND, the whole story is told through IM's, military files, hacked documents, interviews, emails, and the ramblings of a computer gone mad.

What I Liked

Oh.  My.  Goodness.  What DIDN'T I like?  This is simply one of the best books I have read so far this year.  Once you get past all of the introductions to the format of the book, and once you figure out the pacing of it, you will not be able to put it down.  Reading this book was like reading a movie script.  I loved the sheer brilliance of the format.  No narration is needed.  Getting to know Kady and her hacking abilities was one of the best parts.  I also loved Ezra's side of things and the fact that both of them realize that when the end of the world is at their feet, the things they fought over are so meaningless.

It's weird to say this, but I also liked reading the inner thoughts of the artificial intelligence system, AIDEN.  The computer becomes a character all by itself by the end of the book.  It's so simple to understand that all AIDEN wants to do is save the people on board all three of these ships.  So, when we realize that he must kill some of them in order to save the rest of them, we start to see AIDEN as having human characteristics that we know computers can't have.  This is genius writing, folks.

What I Didn't Like

Um, nothing.  There was not one point in the book when I was thinking to myself, "Gee. I wish that had been done differently."  I'm one of the pickiest readers on the planet, but I found nothing that I would consider a flaw in this one.

What Did This Remind Me Of?

Some of you have probably never seen the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.  It's a movie made back in 1968 about a voyage to space on a ship run by an AI system named HAL.  HAL takes over the mission and it's not in a good way.  While AIDEN made me think of this old movie, he doesn't take over the plot of the story.  Kady and Ezra are still the main characters.  But they are totally affected by this computer system.

Go read this whole series!  You won't be disappointed!

Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch

FIC RAA
Genre:  Fantasy

Summary

Meira has been on the run her whole life.  She and seven other refugees are the only surviving members of a race of people known as Winterians that were conquered by the evil king of Spring, Angra.  Lucky for Winter, they have a living heir in their little group.  And if they can find a way to harness the lost magic of Winter, this heir might just be able to lead their people back to their homeland.  Now, if only Meira could get people to listen to her, she might just have all the answers.  Including the ones to questions she didn't even know she needed to ask.

What I Liked

I am a huge Game of Thrones fan.  The whole idea of fighting for control of a kingdom, and all of the betrayals that come with that fight, well it just fascinates me.  I loved The False Prince, The Red Queen, and The Young Elites.  This book fits right in with that collection.  Once again we have a strong female protagonist who does NOT like being told what to do by her male counterparts.  I like this about Meira.  But the parts that really had me totally engrossed were the battle scenes!  Raasch does a fantastic job of writing these scenes with just the right amount of description without going overboard.  I could see the chakra slice through the air (and enemy soldiers' necks), and I could almost feel the blows Meira took when she was taken prisoner.  If you want to get some good examples of "show don't tell" writing, this is the book for you!

What I Didn't Like

Well, you know me.  I'm not one for the romance.  Of course this one had it.  Let's face it.  What YA fantasy or science fiction book doesn't have the obligatory love triangle?  I will say that there wasn't a lot of droning on and on about which guy was best.  Meira realizes pretty quickly who it will be, but it doesn't interfere with the storyline.  With all the magic and intrigue and battles and prison camps and haunting visions - well, the love triangle just becomes a part of the plot.  It never gets too overbearing.

The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart

FIC GEM
Realistic Fiction

Summary

Mark has cancer.  He has had it since he was a little boy, and he and his parents have been fighting it as hard as they possibly can.  There are good years and bad years, and it has been good for a while.  But now the cancer is back.  And he is tired of fighting.  All he wants to do is control SOMETHING in his life for once.  So he sets off on an adventure with his faithful dog, Beau.  They are going to climb Mount Ranier . . . by themselves . . . in a snowstorm . . . even if it kills him before the cancer can.

What I Liked

There are two perspectives in this book.  Most of the time, we are listening to Mark narrate his way through this journey.  We hear his thoughts on the people around him and we learn to understand his fears along the way.  But every other chapter is narrated by his best friend.  She is worried about Mark and is struggling with whether or not to tell his parents where he is.  Throughout the book, we are brought into each character's inner struggle with the truth.

The writing in the book is pretty great, too.  Mark has a notebook that he writes in every now and then.  He writes everything in a haiku.  While this sounds really cheesy, I'm here to tell you that it really works.  Something so simple can say so much.

This book is not so much an adventure novel as much as a novel about how people learn to get through tough times by depending on others.  However, the intensity was the same.  I found myself compelled to read the next chapter even when I really needed to get up and cook dinner for my family or something!

Quintessential Quote

In the middle of the book, Jessie knows where Mark is, but she is trying to honor her best friend's last wish by letting him climb that mountain alone.  Mark's parents have included her in the search for their son, and she has to watch them cry and worry and hope for the safe return of their boy.  She hates this.  At one point, they find blood in a bathroom and know that it belongs to Mark.  Jessie's decision to stay quiet begins to gnaw at her.

"Should she bring him back, and save him?  Or save him, and let him go?

It wasn't fair.  To be so sad and so confused at the same time.  She had too much to decide and too much to feel.  She was lost.

What should a friend do?

How to help, when helping and

hurting are the same?"

I love this quote!  Saying she was lost parallels the fact that Mark is also lost - but in a different way.  This feeling of being lost comes through for the parents as well.  They are lost without their son.  Jessie is lost without her best friend.  Mark is lost without the guarantee that he will live to grow up. The haiku at the end of the quote is a terrific example of how it only takes a few words to make a simple point.  Helping our friends sometimes takes on a different meaning than we ever thought possible.  

The Number 7 by Jessica Lidh

FIC LID
Historical Fiction

This isn't my regular book review.  I just want to put some examples of beautiful writing that I found in this book.  I am very intrigued by the events in this book, and I am currently doing a little research about whether or not it really happened.  I have this book labeled historical fiction, but it reads more like a realistic fiction book for most of the time.

Quintessential Quotes:

"This is what I've learned:  family secrets are never buried with their dead.  They can't fit in the coffins; they don't ignite in the crematoriums.  They linger and drift like the smoke of an abandoned cigarette."   -- page 7

I love this quote!  What an interesting image it brings to mind.  We sometimes like to think that a secret will die with the person who is keeping it, but this quote leads me to think otherwise.  Especially with those big secrets.  Somebody always finds out.  Saying that the secrets can't fit in the coffin makes the secret, in this case, sound even more ominous.  I really wanted to keep reading after I read that.

Another quote I love is when Louisa was describing her family.

"The truth is, we'd all become hermit crabs.  Our shells were made of the same substance: vivid memories of Mom, lost memories of Mom, fleeting memories of Mom.  We shed our shells just enough in the mornings, sloughing them off and hiding them under the covers of our beds or in between the tiles and the grout in the shower, but when returned in the evenings, we'd find them - and desperately retreat back into them."  -- p. 23

Wow!  I feel so bad for this family who lost their mother to cancer about five years before the book began.  Louisa goes on to say that her shell is thin.  She is desperate for someone to break through and help her with her grief.  But her sister's shell is thick - she is so deep into her grief that Louisa is worried about how her sister will handle it.  This quote is a good example of foreshadowing because we can assume that those shells will crack at some point in the book.

The last quote is from the end of the book.  This quote brings the book full circle with another personification of secrets.

"The problem with hiding secrets is they run a lot faster than we do.  They're bound to catch up with us sometime or another."  -- p. 271

I can relate to this quote even more than the other one.  I feel like secrets really do have a life of their own.  They just beg to released from my head.  The running faster than we do part is exactly how I feel sometimes when I know something that others do not and I am trying desperately NOT to spill!

All in all, this book was pretty good.  It gets a little slow in the middle (like most books), and there is a romance involved, but I enjoyed the secret aspect.  It kept me reading until the end.

FIC PEA
Realistic Fiction

Summary

Arthur Owens had a reason for picking up a brick and throwing it at the old Junk Man on the street.  He really did.  However, no one knew what that reason was until he had his day in court and the judge made him say it.  When the Junk Man, Mr. Hampton, heard the reason, he offered to let Arthur serve all of his community service hours with him.  Now Arthur has to pick up junk out of people's trash cans.  Except, it really isn't junk.  It's important things.  And when Arthur finally discovers the reasons behind the seven important things he must collect every day, he discovers there are plenty of other important things in his life that he never dreamed would matter.

What I Liked

I loved the simplicity of this book.  Arthur is so troubled by the death of his father, but no one really knows just how much.  The author chose to let us discover Arthur's grief along with the other characters in the book.  I liked this.  It didn't come across preachy and weird - just really sweet.

The other thing that really hit home how much I liked this book was the ending.  I had no idea until the end of the book that this whole thing was based on a true story!  READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE!  (Seriously.  You should ALWAYS read the author's notes at the end of the book.  Lots of cool stuff to be discovered in those things!)  The whole story about saving (or not saving) what Mr. Hampton created is true.  In fact, it's in the Smithsonian!  I spent about 30 minutes just going to the website mentioned in the Author's Note so that I could see the real stuff.

I'll just leave you with this image.  It's the real piece of art from the book.  Pretty cool story.  Go read it!   It's a nice break from all the dystopian, science fiction madness that is so popular right now.

I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest

FIC PRI
Realistic Fiction

Summary

May and Libby were best friends.  As young girls, they created a comic story of Princess X - May did the writing and Libby did the artwork.  The girls were inseparable and lived for creating their stories.  Until one day when Libby didn't come home.  She and her mother were in a terrible car accident and both died.  Or did they?  It's three years later and May is seeing Princess X stickers all over town.  Who is doing this?  And why does it seem like the online version of the whole thing is telling the story of how her friend might not have really died in the accident so long ago?

What I Liked

I felt like I was reading a book version of something like National Treasure or something!  May sets out on a quest to figure out what really happened to her best friend.  The comics that she found online seem to include real events from the past, but they are mixed with strange clues that only May understands.  Of course, along the way, there is also a bad guy trying to keep May from finding out the truth.  It's dangerous, exciting, mysterious, sad, and just really, really good!  Take a few days off from all the science fiction you have been reading or that historical fiction book your English teacher is making you read and READ THIS BOOK!  I promise you won't be disappointed.

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken (NOW A MOVIE!)

FIC BRA
Science Fiction

This book is a good example of "What was I thinking for not having read this one before?" I had it in my hands about a year ago and started it, but I never finished it. There is a group of girls at my school that swore that this was the best book they have ever read, and they encouraged me to buy the entire series so that they could read them all. I loved their passion for the books and finally picked it up to take home for our Christmas break. Wow!

There was so much going on in the book. At times, I felt like it was trying too hard, but then I would get sucked into the newest part of the plot and realize that it was NOT trying too hard. It just needed to go there to make the story even better. This will definitely be one that I will recommend to all the kids coming into the library asking for more of the dystopian/scifi stuff they seem to be craving right now.

House Arrest by K.A. Holt

FIC HOL
Reaslistic Fiction

Absolutely loved this beautiful little book. Very quick read about brotherly love, regret, survival, and redemption. Although I wanted a different ending, I can see why the author chose what she did at the end. Sometimes endings have to be real and not just realistic. 

Who might like this?  Well, it has a boy as a main character and it is a novel done in verse.  You don't have to be a poetry person to get into this kind of book, people!  Come see me if you want to know more about these kinds of books.  They read like a regular book, but with fewer words on the page it means there is a bigger punch when the chapter is over.  It's a quick read, and it is very well done.  Guys AND girls would like it.  You just have to be ready for a nice family story about a family like no other.

Don't forget to read the Acknowledgments at the end of the book!  You find out that the author actually has a son who suffers from the same disease as the little brother, Levi.  After I found that out, it just made the whole book mean something a little different.  When you know an author is writing from a heart that knows the pain and struggle of the main character because it is a part of his/her everyday life, it just makes the writing seem that much more . . .

Here is a snippet of one of the poems from the beginning of the book.  It gives you an idea of the writing style and the plot.  Give it a try!

"Stealing is bad.

Yeah.

I know.

But my brother Levi is always so sick, and his medicine is always so expensive.

I didn’t think anyone would notice,

if I took that credit card,

if, in one stolen second,

I bought Levi’s medicine.

But someone did notice.

Now I have to prove I’m not a delinquent, I’m not a total bonehead.

That one quick second turned into

juvie

a judge

a year of house arrest,

a year of this court-ordered journal,

a year to avoid messing up

and being sent back to juvie

so fast my head will spin.

It’s only 1 year.

Only 52 weeks.

Only 365 days.

Only 8,760 hours.

Only 525,600 minutes.

What could go wrong?"

Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham

Dreamland Burning is a fascinating story about the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921. This was a precarious time in our past when the KKK was starting to rear its ugly head.  It is paired with a modern day story of what racism looks like in our world today.  We learn of Will, in 1921, who is the son of an Osage Indian woman and a white man who likely married her because of her wealth from the oil discovered in Indian lands in which she had part ownership.  We also get to know Rowan, who lives today, who is the daughter of a black woman and a white man.  Both characters have to make tough decisions about how to do the right thing in the face of a world that doesn't always agree with who they are.

I loved the mystery in this book.  As the details of the skeleton found under the floor in part of Rowan's house are discovered, we are constantly flipped back into 1921 to try and piece out all of the details.  The clues that we are given in Rowan's time are just enough for us to think we know what is going to happen to Will in 1921.  But Latham does a fanstastic job of keeping us guessing until the very end when we discover exactly who that skeleton belongs to and how that person really died.    

I love learning about American history.  I especially love learning about parts of our country's history that are not commonly known or understood.  For instance, when I ask students what they know about Japanese internment camps during WWII, most of them just stare right through me.  It always floors me that in 5th and 8th grade, when students are supposed to learn American history, the parts of WWII that are taught the most are Pearl Harbor and all of the atrocities that took place in Europe.  American racism isn't something that textbooks and teachers like to talk about.  But there is a quote in this book that really made me think.  

"I understand now that history only moves forward in a straight line when we learn from it.  Otherwise it loops past the same mistakes over and over again." -- Rowan, Dreamland Burning

I feel like we have been looping past the same mistakes for some time now.  And it only seems to be getting worse.  That's the reason I work to find fiction that I can put in the hands of my students.  Reading a textbook and listening to a lecture isn't going to teach teenagers about some of these buried parts of our past.  But, hopefully, getting to know characters who have lived through it will somehow make a dent in the amount of history that is not being taught.  Maybe then we can straighten out that line and move forward.