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Goodman, Alison. 2008. Eon Dragoneye Reborn. Viking. 531 pages.

I let the tips of both my swords dig into the sandy arena floor. It was the wrong move, but the dragging pain in my gut was pulling me into a crouch.

Perhaps it doesn't get off to the best start, what with menstrual cramps and all, but if you can just get past that, I think you'll be swept along into Eon's world. Eon isn't really really Eon. "He" is a she. Eona. But since girls can't be warriors (or Dragoneyes), a false life is a small price to pay for this determined-but-crippled young woman. Trained for most of her life for this test, to reveal her secret identity would be to forfeit not only her training, her dreams, her gifts, but her life as well. Only a few know who she really is. And they've got reasons to keep her secret. This is a compelling story set in a fascinating world. A power-hungry world in a way. A world with plenty of corruption. But an intriguing place all the same. Secrets. Mysteries. Ambition. Greed. Betrayal. The universal struggle of good versus evil. Good stuff.

Every year, twelve young boys are tested to see which will become a Dragoneye apprentice for the ascending dragon of that year (ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon (mirror dragon), snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig, and rat). If the dragon chooses him, he'll become an apprentice and eventually a master dragoneye. When the book opens, Eon is preparing for such a test.


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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Emma by Jane Austen. 1815.

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.

I have a love-hate relationship with Emma. You see, I don't like Emma, the character. On the other hand, Emma is a fun treat because she's so very clueless. She is unaware of herself. She's unaware of the world around her. She just doesn't get it. Once the reader is aware of this, knows that Emma is the joke of the book--an inside joke shared between the reader and the author, then it's a fun book. The reader has a clue while the heroine is helplessly stuck on herself and her misconceptions about reality. Emma may think she's wise in matters of the world, of the heart, of the home. But the reader knows better!

The plot of this one is relatively simple: Emma thinks she's good at matchmaking. Pairing up single men and women. But the fact that she misreads signs of affection and devotion left and right mean that the unfortunate soul she's trying to do good by is in for a messy few months. Emma is the last person who should be giving out advice. In a way, the relationship between Emma and Harriet reminds me of that of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Emma is promising Harriet a fine match with a good man, a man of some means, a true gentleman, and handsome too. Just like Don Quixote keeps promising Sancho that he'll reward his service by making him a governor of some province (or the like). But in reality, the faith that their loyal friends place in them is hopelessly misguided.

Of course, the book is more than just about Emma and Harriet. It also features the much-praised Jane Fairfax and the mysterious Frank Churchill. I don't have an opinion of Jane Fairfax really. She's much more patient than I would expect any girl to be under the circumstances. But since we only see her through Emma's eyes, it's hard to know what she's really like. Frank Churchill, I definitely have an opinion of...I think he was awful...and I really have no sympathy at all for him. I think both Emma and Jane have reason to be ticked. And he wouldn't have gotten off that easy if I'd been Austen. Then there is the true hero of Emma, Mr. Knightley. If there is redemption in Emma it is found in the character of Mr. Knightley. He kept me reading.


© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Shoup, Barbara. 2008. Everything You Want.

Everything You Want is a coming-of-age story where it's okay to not be okay. On the surface, our narrator, Emma, has everything she 'needs' to be happy. She's got a loving and supporting family. It's her freshman year of college. She has a more-than-decent roommate to share her dorm. But everything feels wrong, feels off to Emma. And this 'offness' is only magnified when her family wins the lottery and becomes millionaires. Money can't buy happiness for Emma, or for her parents who begin to drift apart, or for her older sister. Money isn't the answer it seems on how to make her life feel right. Emma is clueless as to just what to do to "fix" her life. She's unsure of what she wants, uncertain of what she needs. She's uncomfortable in her own skin, but doesn't know how to 'fix' that. No matter where she goes, who she's with, she can't run away from herself, from her struggle to just be...to be content.

I liked this one. Loved it in a few places even. But as a whole, I can't say that I loved it. Emma's problems are all-too-real no matter your age. There are times in life when you're just not feeling it, where no matter what you do you can't seem to be the person you think you want to be or need to be. So I could relate to Emma. But I wasn't so in love with the lottery elements of the plot. Still, I'd feed comfortable recommending this one.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Barshaw, Ruth McNally. 2008. Ellie McDoodle: New Kid In School.

I enjoyed this one. I think I enjoyed it even more than the first Ellie McDoodle adventure. In the second book, our little heroine, Ellie, is getting ready to move. And she is not happy one little bit. New home. New neighborhood. New school. Here's how the book begins,

The End.
Seriously. This is the end. I'm doing this new journal to keep track of my family's move to a new house (new city, new schools, new everything.) There won't be much to keep track of, though, because this is the END of everything good.

But of course this is just the beginning. The transition may not be completely smooth--nor painless for that matter--but Ellie does eventually come around to the move.

Ellie is as lovable as ever. And I definitely recommend this to fans of the first. But I hope as well that this one brings new readers. Ellie McDoodle relies heavily on drawings or sketches. Ellie is an artist you see. And these sketches make the novel fun--they're a charming asset to the whole. It's a quick read with a lot of heart.

One of my favorite parts? Soon after the move--I think the very day of the move unless time has clouded things up--Ellie goes off on her own exploring the neighborhood. She's not liking anything she sees...until she spots the library. "Finally! Signs of life. It's a library. This place is humongous! The kids' books are upstairs. So far, so good...I find the books I like and get cozy. It's not too quiet, not too noisy. Lots to look at. And MILLIONS of books. Icould live here." (19-20). She even makes her first friend, the librarian Miss Claire.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Cooney, Caroline. 2007. Enter Three Witches.

Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Act IV, Scene I

Caroline B. Cooney's latest novel, Enter Three Witches, is rich with Shakespeare. Told from the point of view of a young girl, Mary, the reader gets a new perspective of the ever-required play MacBeth.

Back to Enter Three Witches. Mary is a young girl, a daughter of one of the characters who is accused of treason and executed. She had been "adopted" for a time by the Macbeth family and had been staying with them for quite a while when the book (and play) opens. We first meet her visiting and chatting with the servant girls/kitchen staff. Although Mary has not revealed it to another soul, she's been experiencing weird tingles in her thumbs. She's almost convinced it's a sign. A sign that only the three weird sisters could interpret. But everyone is scared of the witches, right? Yet her curiousity leads Mary to be in just the right place to overhear a prophecy--a deadly prophecy given to Macbeth. (The reader will notice that this happens to Mary a lot. She always happens to be in the background, the shadows, listening and watching as all the big drama happens.)

What can I say about Enter Three Witches? It blends original characters with classic Shakespeare characters. It quotes a bit of Shakespeare now and then. While it is told mainly through Mary's point of view, it also includes a bit of the young prince's point of view--Fleance. It is very dramatic. Of course it has its dark moments. Lots of blood. Lots of schemes. Lots of villains.

Looking for another Macbethian novel to read? Try Something Wicked by Alan Gratz.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Howell, Simmone. 2008. (November release). Everything Beautiful.

First sentence: I am the maniac behind the wheel of a stolen dune buggy. Dylan Luck is at my side. We are tearing up the desert, searching for proof of God. My driving experience amounts to a few stuttering laps of the Safeway parking lot. That was supervised--Dad blanching and clutching his seatbelt. This is something else; something beginning with Freedom.

The above is quoted from an ARC, so it's possible that it might be different from the final version which will be released in November of 2008.

Riley Rose is a wild child. Perhaps she hasn't always been a wild child, but the death of her mother--cancer--and the remarriage of her father--to someone named Norma!--and the appearance of her new best friend, Chloe Benson, have all led up to one conclusion. Riley Rose is a bit too wild for her own good, her own safety. The "help" that Riley is about to receive is to be sent for one week to Spirit Ranch, a Christian camp for teenagers. It shouldn't really surprise anyone that Riley is an atheist. An angry atheist who uses her mother's death as proof that God doesn't exist. Do I blame her for being angry that her mother died when she was fourteen? No. Do I blame her for not wanting her father to have moved on and fallen in love with someone else? Not really. No doubt about it, Riley is a hurt soul who uses anger and bitterness as a shield. Oh. I should also mention this. She also uses food. She's 180 pounds and climbing. She does use food to hide herself and numb her feelings.

The camp is a bit much. It has its ridiculous moments. Some stereotypical. Some not. Would I want to be sent to Spirit Ranch? No. So I can't blame her there. If she at first has difficulty liking her roommates, it's understandable. Especially in the case of Fleur. And her camp group, the Honeyeaters, there really aren't many there I'd seek out to make friends with either. There are more than a few that make fun of her. And only a few that don't. And those that don't, well, they're different themselves. There's Dylan. This is his first time back at camp since an accident has left him in a wheel chair. And then there's Bird. A sixteen year old with definite social problems. It's not that he's dumb. He's very intelligent. And he's kind. It's just that he doesn't have much social grace or social skills. Then there's Sarita, her other roommate, who becomes almost her closest friend at camp.

It was interesting to see a few of these friendship develop. And the budding romance between Dylan and Riley was nice. It was nice to see how they could sort-of-melt each other's hardened shields. Neither wanted to be vulnerable. Both were resistant to "authority" and afraid to make friends. It was easier for both to be angry and alone. So it was nice to see them bringing out the best in each other. And in the process, both got to know themselves a bit better than before.

Can a week change a person's life? Maybe or maybe not. But the Riley that leaves camp is a slightly wiser Riley. So it may have been the beginning for a change, a transformation.

Don't read Everything Beautiful expecting a clean read. Language. Sex. Underage drinking. Smoking. Drug use. Some occur with the week at Christian camp, others are just referred to in talking about their pasts, their lives before camp. But the book has its strengths.

Note on the cover. I REALLY REALLY hope that the cover is not supposed to represent fat-girl-Riley, because the cover model is so not fat.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Pattou, Edith. 2003. East.

This one is really really really good. A true must-read in the fairy tales novelization genre. Told through many narrators, it retells the fairy tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" in a way that just works. I couldn't imagine when I picked it up that I would like it so much. That it would take the place of Beauty by Robin McKinley or Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. But this one is just oh-so-magical. It's rich in detail and it's just wonderful. If I don't sound quite myself, it's because I'm sick. And I hate being sick. It clouds the mind and makes reviewing difficult. But the book is due back tomorrow...so there was no waiting.

First sentence of prologue: I found the box in the attic of an old farmhouse in Norway. It was large, the size of a footlocker, and there were markings on it; runes, I learned later.

First sentence of chapter one: Ebba Rose was the name of our last-born child. Except it was a lie. Her name should have been Nyamh Rose. But everyone called her Rose rather than Ebba, so the lie didn't matter. At least, that is what I told myself.

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© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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oil on illustration board, 10" x 15".

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some sketch-paintings i did on lunch breaks:

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