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Kyra has grown up in a small polygamist community but has always had rebellious thoughts and never truly embraced their way of life. She loves reading and secretly visits the Mobile Library on Wheels which stops near the borders of the compound and even worse she secretly meets with Joshua, a boy her own age, who she loves and hopes to marry someday. Kyra’s world is shattered, however, when

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I read both of these books within a month of each other, and so it's very hard not to compare them. They were both fantastically good, but if I had to sum each on up in one word, the first book would be "gripping" and the second "compelling."

The Chosen One Carol Lynch Williams

Kyra lives with her family in a polygamist religious compound. The current prophet has isolated the community and banned all reading except for the Bible. Kyra has been chosen, meaning that she, at age 13, will marry her uncle, age 60. She will be his 7th wife.

Kyra knows she has sinned. She has snuck out at night to kiss a boy and hold his hand. Even worse, she sneaks out during the day to visit the book mobile.

I am not a huge fan of books where reading opens a whole new world to a character and the power of books blah blah blah. You tend to be preaching to the choir. At worst, it's just authors talking about how important they are to the world.

This isn't like that. Kyra likes her books, but they serve as her personal, private rebellion. It's also not the main plot line, but the bookmobile (and the fact it's mobile) is a very important device in the plot. If that makes any sense.

When Kyra is promised to her uncle, she is torn--torn between her desire to run, to flee and her family--running means never seeing them again, it means her mothers might be reassigned to other men, men who are not as nice as her father is.

William's language is immediate, Kyra's thoughts are short, concise, almost choppy, which leads the tension and the drama as she decides what to do.

Powerful, amazing stuff.

Sister Wife Shelley Hrdlitschka

Unity is a fundamentalist religious community in British Columbia and the home of three very different girls. Celeste has impure thoughts and has feelings for a boy in her community, but she it is almost time for her to be assigned to a husband. Nanette, her younger sister, is pure and pious and cannot wait to be assigned--she feels she is ready to be a wife and a mother. Taviana is from the outside and was living on the streets until someone from Unity found her and brought her in.

After Taviana is kicked out of Unity, Celeste is assigned to the father of the boy she likes and she wants to leave Unity, but she can't figure out how she would be able to leave her family.

The story is told in alternating chapters from the three girls' points of view. The subject matter is compelling enough, but it's a slightly quieter and slower book than The Chosen One. But, I liked the different points of view presented. Celeste's husband, while quite a bit older, is not a bad guy, but a complex character who tries to be kind and gentle and nice. Nanette sees nothing wrong in her lifestyle and can't understand why Celeste doesn't just pray harder to rid herself of such impure thinking. Taviana knows Unity isn't for her, but is grateful for the safe place it gave her when she needed one the most.

I liked this one better, because it was more nuanced and complex. It wasn't as gripping and terrifying, but it had much more meat.

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I've just completed The Chosen One, a new young adult title by author Carol Lynch Williams and I'm really at odds as to how to review it. I love love loved it. I did. Honestly and completely. However...there's more to it than just love.

On one hand, I thought the writing was great, the plot fantastic, and the intrigue was just SO high. On the other hand, I felt that unnecessary jabs were being taken at a culture in America that we know so very little about. Is it unfair? Is it stereotyping? Is it based on a media sensation?? I just don't know. The book is a very successful writing venture, but the fragile topic handled without care. And I'm NOT saying that to be mean or argumentative, it's honestly how I feel!!

The Chosen One introduces us to a book-loving member of a highly protected, isolated polygamist compound, 13-year-old Kyra. She has grown up in this community and the idea of her father and other elder men having multiple wives and dozens of children is neither foreign, nor upsetting to her. It's the way her family's lifestyle is and she accepts it as such. This is not to say that Kyra agrees with everything she's taught. She has an insatiable desire to read books and secretly visits a bookmobile weekly, checking out a different fiction story each time, carefully hiding them from parents and siblings, and losing herself in worlds other than her own.

When it is decided that Kyra will marry her 60-year-old Uncle, Kyra knows that something about her world is no longer ok. She shouldn't have to marry this elderly man, just because the Prophet says so, however when she fights back, she begins a literal fight for her life. Beaten and broken, Kyra is knows that she has to do what she is told. She cannot marry the boy her age that she is in love with. She cannot read her beloved books. And she cannot escape the violence she has slowly learned to accept. Unless, of course, she does something drastic.

So. Fantastic story with a huge amount of advanced praise. With my advanced review copy I received over four pages of positive comments from wonderful people, such as Kathi Appelt (author of The Underneath), Gregory Maguire (author of Wicked), Cynthia Kadohata (Newbery Medal winner), and so many others including columnists, librarians, professors, etc. The quote that I think really struck what I was feeling was by An Na, Printz Award winning author of A Step From Heaven. It was said by this wonderful author: "Truly thought provoking, heartfelt, and just a plain old good read about a culture and religion that we know very little about these days, except through the media."

An Na of course meant this in a very positive way, but I almost take the other side of the quote. We only know what we read in the newspapers or listen to on the news at night about polygamist compounds. Though I felt Kyra's character just bleeding through the pages (a very rare and wonderful quality of a book), I almost felt that it was an unfair portrayal. Do the girls in the compounds really have to marry their 60-year-old uncles if they don't want to? Are they beaten into submission? Are there deaths that are often covered up? Maybe. But I don't know that.

I think, for me, a "disclaimer" of sorts might have made me feel a bit better. When I read Sister Wife last fall, written by Shelley Hrdlitschka, I felt it was a completely unbiased take on the polygamist compound issue, some of the characters fully supported their lifestyle, others did not. The Chosen One was very much an "anti" book....in my opinion. Which is, of course, perfectly fine, however I think I really would have a felt better with a note from the author or something along those lines.

With all that being said, I truly did enjoy this story. I think that Carol Lynch Williams is one heck of a writer and able to channel her characters in a way that not many authors seem to have the ability to do. The writing had me turning pages quicker than I may have ever before and I lay awake after finishing the novel, wanting a sequel immediately. Tell me more about Kyra, give me more about the siblings, I want MORE! And because of that, this novel was incredibly successful in my eyes. I would most definitely recommend it for libraries and for those older teens that can handle really difficult, emotional books.

Oh and a quick note on the cover....LOVED it! Simple and beautiful, just like Kyra.

I suppose I could have just said that, without including my thoughts on bias and possible stereotyping, however, I wouldn't be Amanda @ A Patchwork of Books if I didn't stir something up! I would love to know what others think of this title once you read it, and though it's not published until May, I think some other ARCs are making their way around.

To learn more or to purchase, click on the book cover above to link to Amazon.

The Chosen One
Carol Lynch Williams
224 pages
Young Adult fiction
St. Martin's Press
0312555113
May 2009

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Peachtree Publishing really puts out some quality books. I've seen YA, Middle grade, Picture books, and Non-fiction from them and I don't think I've disliked a single one. Carol Lynch Williams latest title is certainly no exception, it's written beautifully and with pure, childlike innocence.

Beauty McElwrath has never been the most popular girl in her class. To be honest, she's been picked on forever and definitely feels she doesn't live up to the gigantic name her mother graced her with. At the start of 6th grade, she really wants things to be different, to make friends, but as soon as she sees her teacher is also her mother's boyfriend, she's pretty sure it's going to be another bad year.

When a new girl comes to school, a girl that is very much different from her classmates, living with Progeria, an age-progression disease, Beauty finally finds a way to fit in. She spreads gossip about the new girl, quickly catapulting her to the top of everyone's radar, but not in the way that Beauty wants. She doesn't like being the mean girl and actually likes Alane, wanting to be her friend.

When Beauty finally gives in to her true self, befriending the incredibly positive-minded and likable Alane, she finds a best friend. Unfortunately, that new best friend has life-shortening disease, which opens up a whole new thought process for the wonderfully contemplative Beauty.

The innocence truly stands out in Pretty Like Us. Beauty is written as perfectly, as if she were a real child, only wanting to have friends and doing just about anything to get them. And Alane is the girl that we all wanted to be when we were growing up. She may not have looks on her side, but she has an incredibly positive attitude and a wonderful life-outlook. If only all 6th graders could be like Alane.

If you know a middle grade girl that reads (or even if she doesn't like to read), buy her this book. Two of my nieces will be getting this...it's got a great message and an entertaining plot. Loved it!

I read this one for the TBR Challenge.

To learn more or to purchase, click on the book cover above to link to Amazon.

Pretty Like Us
Carol Lynch Williams
183pages
Middle grade fiction
Peachtree
9781561454440
October 2008

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