Summary:
History is on repeat, and things didn't go so well the last time.

Alexandria isn’t sure she’s going to make it to her eighteenth birthday--to her Awakening. A long-forgotten, fanatical order is out to kill her, and if the Council ever discovers what she did in the Catskills, she’s a goner... and so is Aiden.

If that’s not freaky enough, whenever Alex and Seth spend time "training"--which really is just Seth's code word for some up-close and personal one-on-one time--she ends up with another mark of the Apollyon, which brings her one step closer to Awakening ahead of schedule. Awesome.

But as her birthday draws near, her entire world shatters with a startling revelation and she’s caught between love and Fate. One will do anything to protect her. One has been lying to her since the beginning. Once the gods have revealed themselves, unleashing their wrath, lives will be irrevocably changed… and destroyed. Those left standing will discover if love is truly greater than Fate...

My thoughts:
It is so hard to review this book and not give anything away (spoiler-wise). Let me just say that I know so many people are Team Aiden, and I get why. But I love Seth. Not that I don't love Aiden, too. I do. But from the very start, I could see why Alex was drawn to Seth. So as we learn more about Seth in this book, well...I'm not sure what to say except I'm afraid of where this series is going. Will I continue to read the books? Of course! I love Jennifer's writing, and this series drew me in from the start. 

On a different note, the gods are in this book! I love that. I'm a big mythology fan, so seeing the gods revealed in this book was just awesome. And Hades! I was excited to see that Jennifer views Hades the same way I do in Touch of Death. :) He is one hot god, hot in appearance and in temper. I'm looking forward to seeing more of these gods.

Just for fun: The last line in the summary is about whether love is greater than fate. What do you think?

Book: Happy Birdday, Tacky!
Author: Helen Lester
Illustrator: Lynn Munsinger
Pages: 32
Age Range: 3-8 

I love Tacky the Penguin. The board book was one of my favorites to read to Baby Bookworm when she was a little bit younger. I've not read all of Helen Lester and Lynn Munsinger's books about Tacky, but I did quite enjoy the latest one, Happy Birdday, Tacky!

Tacky the Penguin is a quirky bird who lives in Nice Icy Land with his companions, Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, and Perfect. The companions are all calm and orderly, but Tacky always keeps things interesting. In Happy Birdday, Tacky!, Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly and Perfect spend weeks planning the perfect birthday party for Tacky. But when the big day arrives, things don't go exactly as planned (they never do, when Tacky is around). But, of course, it all turns out ok in the end. 

I think it helps, in appreciating Happy Birdday, Tacky!, to have read at least the first Tacky book. For example, the other penguins make birthday cards for Tacky, "but since Tacky was an odd bird with an odd way of counting, it only made sense that he had told them odd things about how old he was." This odd way of counting is straight out of the first book, and a nice nod back to the launch of the series. 

I love the vocabulary in this book. Tacky is "quite busy flippiting about". He then pauses in "mid-flapwaddle." And of course "birdday" instead of "birthday". There's enough of this sort of thing to make Happy Birthday, Tacky! fun to read aloud, but not so much as to be confusing. Here are a couple of bits that made me laugh:

""Everything's perfect!" declared Perfect.
(This confused his companions, for as far they knew, Perfect was Perfect. But never mind.) "

Guest dancer Twinklewebs announces:

""I vant to perform for you a denz peez from Swan Frozen-Body-of-Water."

OK, kids might not get that one, but I thought it was funny. And finally:

"They hovered over Twinklewebs, writing their flippers and becoming covered with perspiration icicles. 
What a dreadful end for their Perfect Party.
They were ready to tear their hair, if only they had any."

As you can see, this is not a book that offers a sophisticated humor. But I think it's perfect for three to five year olds. There is perhaps an implied message about going with the flow, but it's otherwise just pure, silly fun. There should be more picture books like that.

Munsinger's illustrations add to the fun. The last quote above is accompanied by a picture of Tacky with a smushed cake on his head (and feet), surrounded by the other penguins. Twinklewebs, a penguin in a pink tutu and feathers, is priceless. There is, as befitting a book set in a nice, icy land, plenty of white space. And step by step vignettes showing Tacky's latest dance will have four year olds everywhere performing on makeshift stages. 

I'm a long-time Tacky fan, and I found Happy Birdday, Tacky! to be an enjoyable addition to the series. A must-purchase for libraries, and a fine choice for anyone who could benefit from taking a less rigid approach to life. Recommended!

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children (@hmhkids)
Publication Date: May 14, 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Glamour in Glass: Glamourist Histories, #2, by Mary Robinette Kowal

I loved Shades of Milk and Honey, the first book in Kowal's Regency era fantasy series, and I mostly loved this one, too. Like, 95% loved it.

Pros:

I continue to adore the magic system: It's quiet and somewhat sedate, but in creative, inventive hands, allows for WICKED COOL USAGE.

I love that in addition to the fantasy, it works very much as historical fiction—Jane and Vincent are in Belgium for their honeymoon, and Napoleon figures in heavily—and as a romance.

More pluses: The language and the writing, the attention to detail and the pure, awesome geekery of the author. In the Author's Note—DO NOT MISS IT—Kowal talks about how she created a dictionary comprised of Jane Austen's books and ran her manuscript of Glamour and Glass against it. She researched the history of every single word that the dictionary didn't contain, and she lists some that surprised her (and some that she kept anyway). She also talks a bit about how her world diverges from our own, and about what anachronisms she knowingly included. (Which is so much cooler than a blanket "IT'S ALT-HISTORY, ANYTHING GOES!" attitude. Ahem. In my opinion, anyway.)

Cons:

You know that storyline where the heroine gets deliriously happily married and everything is awesome and so on BUT THEN she starts thinking OH NOES, MAYBE HE DOESN'T ACTUALLY REALLY LOVE ME? It's one of my least favorite storylines, and that's much of what goes on with the romance thread in Glamour in Glass. To be fair, Vincent is EXTREMELY withdrawn and irritable and distracted—which is especially bad considering they're on their honeymoon—so it's understandable that Jane would have those feelings, but it's not my fave. That is, of course, MY STUFF, and it totally works in terms of characterization—even drawing on the first book, because for various reasons, Jane doesn't have loads of confidence in herself as A Lovable Person—so really, unless you also dislike that storyarc, it's not much of a Con at all.

Also, while I love that the cover art incorporates bubbles (there's a whole important thread about using spheres of glamour), I can't help but feel that the model is WAAAAAY more conventionally attractive than Jane. I loved the cover art on the first book because I felt that it really captured that. Her dress, though, is BEAUTIFUL, and I have no beef whatsoever with it. Except that I don't own one.

Recommended to:

Fans of the first one, fantasy-loving fans of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, anyone who likes fantasy that really delves into the mechanics of magic systems, fans of any of the above who also have an interest in artists and their techniques.

Sapphique: Incarceron, #2, by Catherine Fisher

I finally, finally got around to the sequel to Incarceron! Finn is now outside the prison, but is not really any less of a prisoner: he's suddenly living in a world of strict social protocol and every misstep he makes acts to further convince everyone—including Claudia, who until now has been his strongest supporter—that he's an impostor, rather than a long-lost prince.

Meanwhile, Finn's allies within Incarceron are still searching for a way to escape: they're hunting for Sapphique's magic glove, which might not even exist... but the prison is working against them, and it wants to find a way to escape itself.

Pros:

Like the first book, the world-building is HUGE and RICH and DARK and COMPLEX. The cultures on the inside and the outside of Incarceron are distinctly different, but it's always clear that regardless of what side of the wall each character resides on, every single one of them is a prisoner in some way. Including Incarceron itself, which is a mindbleep and a half.

In addition to the world-building, the storyline is exciting, and the characters are worth caring about, the pacing is, like, BREAKNECK, and the whole thing is BANANAS in the best kind of way. Incarceron was super, but Sapphique was even better.

Cons:

Erm. None for me, though it's not going to be an across-the-board crowdpleaser: see above about the DARK and BANANAS.

Recommended to:

Fans of the first one. I wouldn't recommend it as a stand-alone.

_________________________________________

G&G: Amazon, Publisher.

S: Amazon, Publisher.

_________________________________________

Book source:

G&G: ILLed through my library.

S: ARC provided by the publisher a looooong time ago.

Book: 15 Days Without a Head
Author: Dave Cousins (@DaveCousins9000)
Pages: 312
Age Range: 12 and up 

15 Days Without a Head was published in 2012 in the UK, and was just released in a new paperback edition in the US. It's a gritty novel set in an urban working class neighborhood, but with elements of the ridiculous lightening the tone. It is already (from the UK edition) showing up on some award longlists. 

15-year-old Lawrence Roach lives in a cockroach infested apartment with his six-year-old half-brother, Jay, and their alcoholic mother. When their mother disappears, Lawrence fears that social services will get involved and separate him from Jay (as happened once previously). He goes to great lengths to conceal their situation from well-meaning (and not-so-well-meaning) adults. Meanwhile, he is on the phone every night participating in a quiz show, in an attempt to win a vacation for his family. And somehow, in the middle of all of his troubles, he meets a girl who just might be interested in him. 

Lawrence and Jay's situation is pretty bleak - even when their mother is there she is unstable and borderline abusive, leaving Lawrence with most of the responsibility of caring for Jay. When she vanishes, the boys have scarcely any money for food. And when Jay gets sick, Lawrence is ill-equipped to handle the situation. Still, Cousins keeps the book from feeling bleak overall, by adding humor. The radio host of the quiz show is a bit of a buffoon. And Lawrence's attempts to dress up as his mother, in order to fool people into thinking she is still around, are both sad and comical. 

One aspect of the book that I thought was a particularly brave choice on Cousins' part is that Lawrence himself isn't completely stable. He considers, for a moment, pushing a noxious neighbor down the stairs. He destroys the kitchen in a fit of anger that he doesn't even remember, scaring his brother. It's not clear whether there's an innate (and hereditary) mental problem, or whether the pressure of Lawrence's situation is destroying his ability to cope.

Lawrence is a strong protagonist because of his imperfections. He often doesn't know what to do. He makes mistakes. He feels despair. But he is deeply committed to his brother, and that keeps him on the right track. Jay is less developed as a character, but is pleasingly quirky. He think he's Scooby Doo, and insists that Lawrence's love interest, Mina, be called Velma. Mina is perhaps a tiny bit too good to be true, as she leaps in to help the brothers, but I liked her very much.

Here are a couple of quotes, to give you a sense of Cousins' writing:

"That sound is one of the few things that will penetrate the Cloud. The Cloud is what follows Happy Hour, and it lasts a lot longer. A force-field of cigarette smoke and booze, with our mum inside. It reminds me of that old TV program Stars in Their Eyes--when the contestant goes through the door as one person, then emerges from the smoke looking completely different. Except in Mum's case, she comes out looking exactly the same--it's her personality that's changed. I don't suppose that would make much of a TV show, though." (Page 6)

"...Much better that nobody notices me. I couldn't care less if I'm invisible to most of them. Invisibility is fine; it's the superpower I'd pick every time. Most people want strength, X-ray vision, or the ability to fly. Not me. Just to be able to fade away--how good would that be?" (Chapter 28) 

Although the British details aren't overwhelming, there's definitely a UK feel to the book. The boys eat "chips" a lot (french fries). Their mother is "Mum". Money is in pounds. I don't think that anything will be difficult for US readers to understand, but it's enough to give the book a slightly exotic feel. 

Teens who enjoy realistic fiction of the dysfunctional parent variety will not want to miss 15 Days Without a Head. The suspense over what happened to their mother, and what's going to happen to Lawrence and Jay, will keep readers of all stripes turning the pages. There is a relatively hopeful ending, which the kids bring about in large part through their own efforts, making this a book that librarians serving high schoolers will want to take a look at, too. 

Publisher: Flux (@FluxBooks)
Publication Date: May 8, 2013 (US edition)
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Book: Nighty-Night, Sleep Tight
Author: Jennifer Berne
Illustrator: David Walker
Pages: 24
Age Range: 2-5 

Nighty-Night, Sleep Tight, written by Jennifer Berne and illustrated by David Walker, is, as you might expect from the title, a bedtime picture book. Written in the vein of Somewhere So Sleepy (and doubtless many others), Nighty-Night, Sleep Tight follows a child as she visits, in her imagination, a variety of animals from around the world sleeping. Like this:

"As a whispering wind
stirs a misty Maine fog,
a moose family sleeps
by the edge of a bog.

Dreaming dreams under blankets of stars.
Sweet dreams under blankets of stars."

That last couplet, about blankets of stars, is repeated after every second or third type of animal. This bothered me a bit. It seems like it would have been more soothing to have it included every time. Or at least to have used the regular spacing of every other time. Including it at irregular intervals seemed odd to me, particularly in a bedtime book. 

Still, I did like the variety of animal examples that Berne included, and the seamless way she incorporates tidbits of information. Like this:

"Beneath deserts of Utah,
in underground towns,
little prairie dogs snooze
in beds fourteen feet down."

Walker's pencil and acrylic illustrations lend a cozy feel to the book. The little girl, in pink footie pajamas, is shown interacting with the animals on each page. A page depicting Galapagos turtles, for example, has the girl drawling along, with a beach bucket on her back like a shell. She curls up with the tigers, and joins a Bahama iguana by perching on a palm frond. Both girl and animals are depicted without excessive detail, and with a mix of cheerful and sleepy expressions. 

For those looking for a soothing bedtime book, one that includes a bit of information about animals from around the world, Nighty-Night, Sleep Tight is well worth a look. While not groundbreaking, it's a comforting read, with gentle illustrations that will make young listeners smile. 

Publisher: Sterling Children's Books (@SterlingKids)
Publication Date: March 5, 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

After all of the descriptions of Emily's 'red ropey hair' in the first book, the model on the cover doesn't really jive with the image of her in my mind. Ah, well. Anyway.

It could be argued that I was hard on the first two books in Kady Cross' Steampunk Chronicles. So in the interest of being all fair-minded and whatnot, I will say that they do have some attractive qualities:

• They're fast-paced and often quite exciting.
• While the characters haven't moved beyond their basic trope-types (see my column about the first one for more on that), they are mostly quite likable and enjoyable to be around. (I could do without Finley and Griffin, but I suspect that that's more due to a personality conflict on my part than on anything objective.)
• Cross' use of similes are generally entertainingly in keeping with the world and the genre: A sound like breaking ice followed as pressure from the outside pushed against the glass, demanding to get inside like a rowdy drunkard at a tavern door. (That one's a bit long for my tastes, but you get the drift.)
• There are rapid and regular switches in perspective, which speak to some amount of confidence in the reader's ability to keep up.
• Automatons are always cool, and there's a thread about What It Means To Be Human that will appeal to anyone who's spent far too much time combing through Data fanfic. (I ADMIT NOTHING.)

Fans of the first two books are likely to like this third installment which, as you've probably gathered by the cover art and the title, focuses mostly on Emily, the Girl Genius Who Can Control Automatons With Her Mind. She gets kidnapped by a Bad Robot (<--heh) who wants her to use her Mechanical Prowess to move the Machinist's brain out of his mostly-dead body and into a fancy new automaton-human hybrid.

It's an undertaking that, not-so-surprisingly, she has issues with beyond the whole abduction thing: bringing the Machinist back would be bad enough, but worse for soft-hearted Emily is the fact that the automaton-human hybrid is a sentient being whose mind, personality, and soul will be destroyed when her body is co-opted by the Machinist. (All of which also serves to allow Emily to come to terms with the sexual assault she survived back in Ireland.)

Yet again, for me, the major issue—beyond the lack of character development—is the repetitive language. Emily continues to 'wee' this and 'wee' that, which is grating, but once again, it was the eyebrows that killed me. I read The Girl with the Iron Touch in review copy form, so I double-checked the following quotes against the Google Books preview and the Amazon preview, and it looks to me that they all made it into the finished copy:

Jack arched a brow at her bad manners. (p. 37)

Mr. Isley arched a brow but wisely remained silent. (p. 51)

She arched a brow, and didn't care that he saw it. (p. 149)

Jack raised a brow at Sam. (p. 157)

Jack raised one brow ever so slightly as his gaze locked with hers. (p. 161)

Emily's heart skipped a beat even as her brow gave a dubious lift. (p. 170)

She arched a brow. (p. 180)

Emily arched a brow. (p. 206)

He arched a brow. (p. 247)

She arched a brow. (p. 256)

Finley arched a brow. (p. 299)

He arched a brow. (p. 321)

Now she was the one whose brow rose. (p. 321)

Griffin swore—the kind of language that made Finley arch a brow. (p. 326)

And, of course, keep in mind that I didn't count any of the 'lowering' or 'pulling together' or 'shooting up'. All in all, these characters expend more energy waggling their eyebrows around than you or I would while working out to a Jillian Michaels DVD.

So, there you have it: if that sort of thing drives you bananas, I'd say give the series a miss and wait for the (hopefully inevitable) CW show.

____________________________

Author page.

____________________________

Amazon.

Publisher.

____________________________

Book source: Review copy via Netgalley.

Book: Hands Off My Honey!
Author: Jane Chapman
Illustrator: Tim Warnes
Pages: 32
Age Range: 3-6

I'm not sure why it is that preschoolers have an insatiable appetite for picture books about bears, but it does seem to be true. Hands Off My Honey!, by Jane Chapman and her husband Tim Warnes, is a fun addition to the genre. 

The book begins as Bear stomps, stamps, and bellows his way to a hollow, honey jar in hand, shouting out things like:

"Don't even try to take a pawful! I am the scariest bear in the forest and I won't share a single drop."

As Bear settles in to enjoy his honey, Mouse, the Rabbit Brothers, and Mole decide that they love honey, too, and are going to try to sneak some out of Bear's jar. A mostly stealthy adventure follows (Mole has a bit of difficulty keeping quiet), with a surprise at the end. 

Hands Off My Honey! is read-aloud friendly, with lots of exclamations and sound effects ("Ooops!", "Flump!", etc.). It uses bold text and varied font sizes to encourage dramatic reading. I especially like Chapman's use of strong verbs ("rumbled", "trembled", "bellowed", "whizzed", etc.). Not fancy verbs necessarily, but strong, descriptive verbs. Like this:

"Mouse zipped to the left and right,
keeping to the shadows. The rabbits
raced behind, shivering excitedly.

Mouse waved to Mole, but as
he dodged a stinging nettle,
he tripped over a root,
"Oooops!"
he squeaked."

OK, there's a vague antecedent in that last example (the picture makes it clear that Mole tripped). But still, it's a book that I look forward to reading aloud to my daughter, for sheer enjoyment of the language. 

Warnes' illustrations are kid-friendly. Bear is shown larger than life, scowling as he yells, but smiling as he licks his honey. The smaller animals are cute, with expressive faces (usually smiling). The later illustrations, with honey everywhere are particularly funny. The fonts are sometimes large enough to factor in as part of the illustrations, too. In general, like the text, the pictures are full of action.  

Hands Off My Honey! is a fun read-aloud with a surprise twist at the end. And it features a bear. I expect this one to become a family favorite. It's probably optimal for three to five year olds. Recommended!

Publisher: Tiger Tales Books (@TigerTalesBooks)
Publication Date: March 1, 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

...I wrote about Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin's A Really Awesome Mess:

Trish Cook and Brendan Halpin’s A Really Awesome Mess is a he-said, she-said story about finding your way through pain, anger, loneliness and grief...through love, forgiveness and friendship. And just in case it’s starting to sound a bit too mushy for your tastes, keep in mind that there are also plenty of hijinks, including lots of illegally obtained porn and a purloined piglet.

Etiquette and Espionage, by Gail Carriger:

After one unladylike incident too many, fourteen-year-old Sophronia Angelina Temminnick gets packed off to Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. But the phrase "Finishing School" has more than one meaning, and while Sophronia's family assumes that she'll be off learning the Art of the Perfect Curtsy, Sophronia is delighted to discover that in addition to the expected lessons in How to Pour the Perfect Cup of Tea, Mademoiselle Geraldine's storied institution offers training in combat, espionage, poisons, and assassination.

Pros: Clever and funny and fast-paced, with chapter headings like The Teaching Habits of Werewolves and How Not to Flirt, and character names like Mrs. Barnaclegoose and Pillover Plumleigh-Teignmott. In addition to the General Air of Fun, there are threads that deal with social and economic class. While it deals with issues surrounding differences of all sorts, Sophronia herself has a nicely blase attitude of inclusiveness in re: characters who are different from her in terms of ethnicity, social class, species, etc.

Cons: There's so much going on that A) there's not much depth of character and B) the storyline occasionally feels like a confused snarl. A consistantly entertaining confused snarl, to be sure, but it DOES get quite muddy at times.

Recommended to: Fans of Carriger's Parasol Protectorate books (obviously), as well as fans of Y.S. Lee's The Agency books (though it should be noted that this book is far less serious than the Lee books).

Kill Switch, by Chris Lynch:

I actually really like both covers, though I suspect that the one on the left will be more attractive to teen readers.

Incoming college freshman Daniel adores his Da:

Because he is a cool grandfather, always was. Retired early from some government job that was something like systems analyst for the Department of Agriculture. Never, ever talked about his work. Might have been because who in his right mind would ever have bothered to ask about a job as boring as that? Might have been.

The thing is, though, as Da slips further and further into dementia, he starts talking more and more about his career... and it quickly becomes clear to Daniel that Da's former profession wasn't boring AT ALL. Soon, men come looking for Da, wanting to shut him up by any means necessary. So Daniel takes him on the run... and it's a decision that will change his life forever.

Pros: Crackling, believable dialogue, and a storyline that features moments of such tension that my skin is crawling just thinking about them. Despite the brevity of Daniel's voice, the complexity of the familial relationships is top-notch.

Cons: None for me, though this is very much going to be one of those Love-It-Or-Hate-It books. If watching a seemingly-well-adjusted kid morph into a sociopath is an unattractive prospect, I'd give it a miss.

Recommended to: Did you like the movie Drive? Then this book might really work for you.

____________________________

Author page: Carriger.
Author page: Lynch.

____________________________

E&E: Amazon, Publisher.

KS: Amazon, Publisher.

____________________________

Book source (both): ILLed through my library.

Book: The Last Academy
Author: Anne Applegate (@AnneApplegate)
Pages: 320
Age Range: 12 and up 

Those who enjoy a creepy, Gothic read will not want to miss Anne Applegate's The Last Academy. The book begins with a confrontation between Camden and her best friend Lia at a summer party, but quickly shifts gears as Camden heads off to boarding school. On the plane, Camden encounters a strange man who seems to threaten her. At her new school, Lethe, she learns that this man owns the land on which the school is located. She also learns that another girl who was on her flight decided not to enroll after all. Weirder events follow, including odd visions by Camden, and the complete hushing up of middle-of-the-night the disappearance of another girl. Only gradually does Camden, and the reader, figure out what's really going on at Lethe. 

Without giving anything away, this is one of those books where I didn't figure out exactly what was going on until about 2/3 of the way through, and yet I felt on looking back as though it should have been obvious from the start. And I mean this in a good way. Applegate doles out information at just the right pace, and draws all of the clues neatly together at the end. The Last Academy is a book that I thought about between reading sessions, and have continued to think about since. 

The book does have one YA trope that I'm a bit tired of - the instant connection between teen boy and girl (Camden and love interest Mark). Immediate attraction on both parts, even though they barely know each other. That sort of thing. But at least Applegate keeps their relationship appropriate for middle school readers. And really, that's my only complaint. 

I enjoyed Applegate's descriptive writing. Like this:

"The guy stared at me and I stared at him. I know sometimes people say, "skin that looks like leather," and they mean somebody's skin is wrinkled and thick and ugly like the hide of a dead cow. But the guy's skin looked like an expensive briefcase -- supple and soft and not what you see on most men in real life. Anywhere beyond the realism of Hollywood or the European yacht set, anyway." (Page 14)

She also hits certain aspects of boarding school right on the head. Like this:

"When Tamara (Camden's roommate) came back to our room right before ten o'clock check-in, I was already in bed. We both pretended I was asleep." (Page 82)

There's also a great description of how to cry in the shower so that no one can hear you. 

The characters is The Last Academy are complex and damaged. The sunny California boarding school setting sets off the creepy, inexplicable events perfectly. And the plotting is complex enough to keep readers guessing down to the wire. All of which makes The Last Academy a wonderful summer read for those who enjoy mysteries, Gothic romance, or boarding school books (and who doesn't like one of those three categories?). Recommended for readers age 12 and up. 

Publisher: Point (@Scholastic) 
Publication Date: April 30, 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

...I wrote about Coert Voorhees' upcoming In Too Deep, which—considering the premise, which involves a girl scuba diver finding LURRRRVE and LONG-LOST TREASURE—was sadly bland and forgettable:

In Too Deep ticks all of the boxes of your run-of-the-mill romantic adventure—there is danger, there are laughs, there are smoochies—but none of those factors ever fully integrate into a cohesive whole and, even separately, those aspects never venture outside of the purely generic. The characters end the book as exactly the same people they are on the first page, so there is little-to-no character development; the villains are purely, boringly, one-dimensionally villainous; and neither the romance nor the danger is all that thrilling, since, despite Annie’s constant stream of genuinely funny lines, there’s just not really all that much to care about.

Ah, well: there's always next time.

If you were a fan of Cinder, then you've probably already read Scarlet. I, of course, am getting to it monstrously late.

Anyway, it's pretty safe to say that if you liked Cinder, that you'll really like Scarlet! It has all of the first book's strengths—plucky heroine, really cool worldbuilding INCLUDING a setting centered OUTSIDE of the United States (WOO!), political intrigue and threads about cultural and economic and physical differences and YES, ROMANCE—and, like Cinder, in Scarlet, Meyer takes a familiar story and makes it fresh and new and compelling and surprising.

I especially love that it works not just as a sequel to Cinder, but as a companion to it, too: it's set in the same world, and it continues Cinder's story, but it also introduces a completely new heroine and all of her trials and tribulations. So even though the overarching Big Picture Story is about Cinder, Scarlet is about, well, SCARLET. 

Who is, in case the cover art didn't make it abundantly clear, Little Red Riding Hood.

If you HAVEN'T read Cinder, then you probably don't know what I'm talking about. So if the phrases FUTURISTIC FAIRY TALE or CYBORG CINDERELLA or MECHANIC AND SECRET PRINCESS make your ears perk up, hop on back to my post about it.

BONUS POINTS: Iko the android continues to be hilariously shallow and adorable. 

BONUS BONUS POINTS: Wolf. I love him. Not just because I have a soft spot for the Street Fighter Who May Or May Not Have A Heart Of Gold type, but because I loved the descriptions of his mannerisms: they're very... wolf-y, which was a nice touch. (As well was making sense within the context of his history, etc., but I'd picked up on them well before THE BIG REVEAL, and it was just all-around well done.)

TRIPLE BONUS (I just typoed that as 'BONES' and almost left it, because wolf/dog/bone and that would have been HILARIOUS) POINTS: The Queen of the Moon continues to be A COMPLETE MONSTER. And hugely enjoyable. I vote for Charlize Theron to play her, so that she can play an Evil Queen in a movie that doesn't, you know, stink.

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Author page.

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Amazon.

Publisher.

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Book source: ILLed through my library.

Book: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
Author: Chris Grabenstein (@CGrabenstein) 
Pages: 304
Age Range: 9-12 

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library is a humorous, puzzle-filled novel aimed at middle grade readers. More madcap than Trenton Lee Stewart's Mysterious Benedict Society books, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library reads like a cross between the Pseudonymous Bosch books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (original movie version). It's a fun ride. 

The big event in Kyle Keeley's town is the grand opening of the new town public library. Alexandriaville, a small Ohio city, has been without a public library for 12 years (since the decision was made to level the old one to put in a parking garage). Eccentric millionaire Mr. Luigi L. Lemoncello has decided to put things right by building the town a fabulous, quirky, state-of-the-art library. Kyle and his classmates enter an essay contest for 12 year olds (who have grown up never having a town library). The 12 winners will have a sleepover in the library the night before it opens. And, in fact, that sleepover becomes extended when the 12 students are offered a chance to engage in a 24-hour contest to escape from the library. 

Despite not being much of a student, Kyle is a determined game player (obsessed with beating his two talented older brothers in something). He and his best friend Akimi (just how common are male-female best friends among real 12-year-olds, I wonder, though I understand why they make sense in books) are protagonists who are easy to root for. The bad guy, the spoiled, hypercompetitive Charles Chiltington, is easy to root against. In truth, the characterization in Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library is a bit thin. But this is not a book to read for introspective character analysis. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library is a book to read for:

• Puzzles, riddles, and word games (including rebuses);
• Cool technology (animatronics, interactive holograms, and sophisticated computer screens);
• Fast-paced adventure; and
• The love of children's books.

The last point is probably my personal favorite aspect of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library. Mr. Lemoncello spouts children's literature references and book titles the way that Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka spouts quotations (casually, insightfully, and incessantly). Like this:

"Sorry. The correct answer is--and not just because of Winn-Dixie--D) all of the above." (Chapter 8)

"As Dr. Zinchenko informed you, I'd like to say a few brief words. Here they are: short, memorandum, and underpants. And, let us pause to remember the immortal words of Dr. Seuss: 'The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the places you'll go.'" (Chapter 10)

(After being asked if he had something available) "Did Joey Pigza lose control? Was Ella enchanted." (Chapter 25)

You get the idea. I like that Grabenstein's children's literature references range from the classic (Seuss, L.M. Montgomery) to the modern (Rebecca Stead and Jack Gantos). Without being at all pedantic, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library is a cover to cover celebration of books. The fact that Kyle himself isn't "big on books" keeps this pro-book sentiment from being off-putting to more dormant readers. 

But I think that the combination of quirky puzzles, cutting-edge technology, and adventure sequences (racing around the library building, climbing things, getting stuck, etc.) is what will make Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library a must-purchase title for libraries serving middle grade readers. As Mr. Lemoncello tells the kids' parents, "It'll be like The Hunger Games but with lots of food and no bows or arrows." What 10-year-old could resist that? Recommended. 

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (@RandomHouseKids)
Publication Date: June 25, 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from Raab Associates (@sraab18)

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

...I wrote about Christian Schoon's Zenn Scarlett:

Zenn Scarlett has a great sense of place, both physical and political; wonderfully described alien species that aren’t at all anthropomorphized; a likable heroine, tight pacing with lots of chapters ending on exciting old-timey serial cliffhangers, and a good amount of humor. I enjoyed it hugely...with a few minor caveats. (You totally knew that was coming, didn’t you?)

Book: Otis Dooda: Strange but True
Author: Ellen Potter (@EllenPotter)
Illustrator: David Heatley (@heatley)
Pages: 240
Age Range: 6-10

Otis Dooda: Strange but True is, as the author told me herself, a bit of a departure from Ellen Potter's usual middle grade fare (see my reviews of Olivia Kidney and The Kneebone Boy, and also, though I have not read it, Slob). Otis Dooda is a aimed squarely at six to ten year old boys (and even more specifically at Potter's eight-year-old son and his friends). It's a heavily, cartoonishly (in a good way) illustrated chapter book, with plenty of dialog, and (if the ARC is any indication) nice big print. 

Otis Dooda is chock full of things that boys are likely to find humorous and/or cool. There is a horse disguised as a dog, with a propensity for really awful farts. There is a boy who lives in a potted plant, and casts curses on his neighbors. There is a catapult into a vat of marshmallow fluff. How does anyone think of such things? 

But let me back up a bit. Otis Dooda is an elementary school-age boy who moves with his parents and older brother (and his brother's pet rat, Smoochie) from "a dinky little town called Hog's Head" to New York City. There, Otis finds himself living on the 35th (top) floor of an apartment building populated with unusual characters. He makes friends with some kids approximately his own age, learns to ride to subway, and worries about the curse that Potted Plant Guy has called down on his head. 

There's a hint of a Diary of a Wimpy Kid feel to Otis Dooda, but Otis is aimed more directly at younger kids (younger kids read the Wimpy Kid books, but Greg Heffley is a middle schooler). Otis Dooda also has a much tighter narrative arc than the Wimpy Kid books, too, told in linear fashion over a five day period. 

Let me give you a feel for Potter's writing in Otis Dooda.

""That's it, little man," Julius said to me. "Just put it out of your mind."

He gave my shoulder a quick squeeze. 

I've seen that shoulder squeeze in movies. It's the shoulder squeeze people give to the guy who is about to walk into the Cave of Doom to fight the giant spider with the T. rex head and the mucus-dripping fangs. I'm sure you know which shoulder squeeze I mean." (The Curse of the Potted Plant Guy)

What I like about the previous quote is that you have the boy-friendly trappings, dinosaurs and mucus-dripping fangs and so on. But you also have something universally insightful. Can't you picture that shoulder-squeeze?This is what you get when you take an author who has written more traditional novels, but also has an actual 8 year old son, and a sense of humor. 

Or take this:

"The subway zombies really freaked me out. Plus, I started thinking about how there were only four more days until the next full moon, and then I got even more freaked out. So when I came home I started working on my Lego inventions. That always calms me down. I think it's the way everything fits together so perfectly. I wish my life was more like that." (Psycho Weiner Blaster).

Ah, Otis, who doesn't wish that? Then he builds a Psycho Weiner Blaster and shoots soy weiners at a new (fortunately nimble) friend. I think you get the idea. While not all of the humor in Otis Dooda quite resonates with me as an adult female reader, I suspect that the target audience is going to love it. 

Otis is a protagonist (I really can't call him a hero, exactly) who kids will be able to relate to. He declares himself "sort of average." He doesn't get along with his older brother. He gets made fun of, but not mercilessly. He learns from his mistakes (and they are over-the-top, hilarious mistakes, not at all "sort of average"). 

I have some slight concern that, as drawn by David Heatley, Otis might be a little too cute. Can you see him on the cover? Blond hair and big eyes and a little smirk on his face? I think he's adorable. Which may or may not resonate with your average 8 year old boy. Not to worry, though. His mom and brother are unattractive enough to create balance.

In all seriousness, though, the illustrations are perfect for the book, and perfect for an audience that might not be quite ready for non-illustrated novels. My favorite picture is a scene in which Otis has trouble sleeping (spooked by the Potted Plant Guy's curse). Four panels show Otis lying in bed, then dumping out a cardboard box, cutting eye holes in it, and then sitting in it on his bed, worried eyes visible. He's saying: "I hope there are no illustrations of this." Snort!

Setting out to make 8 year old boys laugh, as Ellen Potter has done here, is a great goal, I think. And I think that Otis Dooda: Strange but True succeeds in that goal (though I have no young boys on which to test that theory directly). I would say that Otis Dooda is a must-purchase for elementary school libraries. It's also well worth a look for parents trying to find the right book to hook their young boys on reading. I hope that it will be the first of a series. Highly recommended for the target audience (though perhaps not so appealing, for, say, 10 year old girls who like realistic fiction). I'll be keeping it on my list of gift books for boys.

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (@MacKidsBooks)
Publication Date: June 4, 2013
Source of Book: Advance review copy from the author

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Book: A Matter of Days
Author: Amber Kizer
Pages: 288
Age Range: 12 and up 

I am a long-time fan of post-apocalyptic survival stories. I particularly enjoy those that are straight-up survival stories, with no zombies, magic, etc. And I'm happy to say that Amber Kizer's upcoming A Matter of Days delivers. It has the attributes that I love most about Stephen King's The Stand (which I re-read every few years), without all the weird stuff. I was not surprised to learn, in an end note, that The Stand was a formative book for Kizer. The homage is there, in a way that's not derivative. 

A Matter of Days is narrated by 16-year-old Nadia. Nadia's mother dies on day 56 of a virulent global pandemic. Nadia then sets out from Seattle with her 11-year-old brother, Rabbit, to find their uncle and grandfather in West Virginia. (I couldn't help but be reminded by Rabbit's name of one of the very first post-apocalypse stories that I read, H.M. Hoover's The Children of Morrow, though that's a very different book.) A Matter of Days recounts Nadia and Rabbit's journey, as they struggle to find necessary supplies, and encounter dangerous people along the way. 

I read A Matter of Days in less than a day. I couldn't put it down. I felt constant tension, wondering what would happen to Nadia and Rabbit. A Matter of Days has some wish fulfillment details of what it would be like to be kids more or less alone in the world (cooking food in an abandoned hotel, visiting an empty mall, another teen who takes over a small town for himself). But there are also lots of details regarding survival. These are set against the near-constant worry about whether people the kids encounter will be good or evil.

Kizer does a fine job of refraining from moralizing about what led to the end of the world (something that I find a common flaw in post-apocalyptic novels, particularly those of the environmental collapse variety). She just focuses on telling the story. Flashbacks throughout the book fill in the details of how Nadia and Rabbit survived the pandemic, and why their mother didn't. I found these details plausible, which added to my appreciation for this book. There is a reason that these particular kids survived - nothing magical about it.

A Matter of Days reminds me a bit of Mike Mullin's Ashfall, but it's a bit less grim, particularly in the treatment of women. It's about a global pandemic that kills nearly everyone, so there are the obligatory bad smells and bodies encountered everywhere you go. But Kizer doesn't wallow in those details - she gives the kids a mother who was a nurse, and explained basic processes to them, and she allows enough time to have elapsed for the worst to be over. I think that A Matter of Days strikes the right balance in this regard. Like this:

"When I was little, I used to leave my Strawberry Shortcake dolls in the car in the sun with the windows rolled up. I didn't do it on purpose, but I took those dolls everywhere. Mom threw up once because the sweet chemical perfume of fake fruit in the hot car was overpowering. I'll take fake fruit, Mattel style, over decomposing human any day.

The blast of putrid air doubled me over and I puked into the wilted potted pansies. No one was alive in there. No way.

I shut the front door and jogged back to the vehicle. Sweat dripped down my forehead as my stomach continued to spasm. Rabbit handed me an open bottle of water to swish out my mouth.

We didn't speak. There weren't words."

Kizer's writing is tight, suspenseful without being overly melodramatic. Nadia's relationship with her brother is realistically distant at first - the reader gets to know these siblings as they are getting to know each other. There's no sappiness between them. 

For me, A Matter of Days is as good as it gets for post-apocalypse survival stories. Realistic and suspenseful, with characters that the reader wants to see succeed. And although I loved it, I'm still happy to report that A Matter of Days appears to be a standalone novel, a rare thing these days. A Matter of Days has my highest recommendation. Fans of the genre will not want to miss it. 

Publisher: Delacorte Press (@RandomHouseKids) 
Publication Date: June 11, 2013
Source of Book: Advanced review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

borrowed from PW on-line…. this an announcement of our artist Priscilla Burris and her work on THE RULES BOOK~ for Little Simon,  fast and furious and oh so adorable.  Great story all around…and the PERFECT illustrator!

Just about done so watch for it in late FALL????  kudos Little Simon and Priscilla!

Home > Children’s > Book News

Lost and Bound: A Misplaced Notebook Finds a Publisher

By Sue Corbett |

May 23, 2013

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 () –>

Cousins Isabella Thorsden (l.), and Isabelle Busath.

 

Earlier this year, Lisa Rao, an editor at Simon & Schuster, saw a segment on Good Morning America moments before she walked into an editorial meeting.

 

“I had my iPad and pulled up the clip and told them, ‘You have to watch this,’ ” Rao recalled about a story that involved a Walmart employee in suburban Sacramento, Calif., who found a spiral-bound notebook that contained 157 rules handwritten in a childlike scrawl. The book had nothing in it to identify the owner; Raymond Flores, a Walmart associate charged with corralling shopping carts, had found it in the parking lot. But he flipped through it and decided it could not have been discarded intentionally after reading rule no. 154: “Protect this rule book.”

So Flores, 20, posted a photo of the book on his Facebook page, hoping to reunite book and author. No luck. Then he contacted the local Fox TV affiliate. That story got picked up nationally.

Article continues below.

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By the time Rao and the rest of the S&S editorial team watched the GMA report, one thing was abundantly clear. “Our publisher, Valerie [Garfield], said immediately: ‘We must find the owner!’ ” And when Rao did, she offered the – co-authors, it turns out – a contract. And this October Simon & Schuster will publish Isabelle and Isabella’s Book of Rules, a jacketed hardcover in a “gifty” trim size, written by Isabelle Busath, age 10, and Isabella Thordsen, age 8, with illustrations by Priscilla Burris.

 

“The minute I saw the handwriting and heard all the hysterical and the sweet rules these two had written, I knew I wanted to publish it,” Rao said. “ ‘Don’t bite the dentist?’ How could you not want to publish that?”

Isabelle and Isabella created the rule book last Christmas break as an attempt to teach their younger siblings the ropes. “They had been coloring with crayons and one of the younger kids wrote on Isabelle, so one of the rules became ‘Don’t color on PEOPLE,’ ” Rao noted. “They had the sweetest of intentions.”

 

The text will be recreated pages from the girls’ journal in their own handwriting and original spelling. “We felt like it made it even more sincere if we kept their misspellings,” Rao said. “One of the rules is something like, ‘If you want something, don’t wine.’ Who would want to take that out?” Rao did edit out a few duplicates. The girls had taken turns making entries and both thought “Don’t waste paper” was a good rule to live by.

 

Once reunited with their book, the cousins immediately added rules they had thought of since they’d lost it. Rao says the published book will contain about 200 rules. Will one of the new ones be, “Let your mom check Facebook whenever she wants?” (Stories about Flores’s quest to find the book’s owner eventually appeared in Isabelle’s mother’s Facebook feed, which is how the book finally found its way back to its authors.) Or “Don’t trust the rule book with just anybody?” (After her pen exploded, Isabelle gave the book to a friend to hold while she went to wash her hands. The friend accidentally dropped it getting into the car in the Walmart parking lot.)

Maybe it will even include the one rule the girls let somebody else write in their book – their new hero, Raymond Flores. His rule was simple: “Stay in school.”

Book: The Wig in the Window
Author: Kristen Kittscher (@KKittscher)
Pages: 288
Age Range: 9-12 

The Wig in the Window is a middle grade mystery featuring a pair of 12-year-old sleuths and best friends. Sophie and Grace are next door neighbors in the small town of Luna Vista, CA. The girls' FBI-obsessed efforts to spy on their neighbors go awry after they observe bizarre behavior by Ms. Agford, the counselor at Sophie's middle school. (Grace is home-schooled.) 

The Wig in the Window is ever so slightly over the top, which keeps it middle grade reader friendly despite some dark elements. There's a clique of do-gooder girls that virtually amounts to a cult. Sophie has an obsession with Chinese culture, The Art of War, and feng shui. She becomes ostracized at school after a single incident. And, as the narrator, she displays a dry sense of humor. Like this:

"My grandpa spent his days playing canasta with other veterans down at the VFW, a club for Veterans of Foreign Wars. (Besides the Civil War, were there any non-foreign wars?)" (Chapter 3) 

"Students bearing unwieldy instrument cases and mangled lunch bags poured forth. Marissa and her friends arrived as a set, looking like displaced flight attendants as they strode along the sidewalk, their matching rolling backpacks in tow." (Chapter 15)

The friendship between Sophie and Grace, which we see filtered through Sophie's perceptions and mis-perceptions, is complex and conflict-filled, lending another layer of drama to The Wig in the Window. I actually preferred Sophie's new friend, Trista, over Grace. Trista is an outcast who doesn't seem to mind her lack of social position, who befriends Sophie when others cast her aside. Sophie's hint of a developing relationship with a book in her class didn't quite work for me for some reason, but is a very minor part of the book, and may add interest for middle school readers. 

I am always on the lookout for middle grade mysteries that feature real stakes and active investigation on the part of the protagonists, and The Wig in the Window fits the bill. The mystery in The Wig in the Window is not watered down for young audiences, though Kristen Kittscher uses middle-school-appropriate humor to keep things accessible. The balance between having kids running around investigating on their own and having them get in trouble with concerned parents is a tricky one, but I think that Kittscher nails it. You also have to love an author who can use the word "recapacitate" in a sentence (Chapter 22). Recommended for mystery fans, ages 9 and up, particularly girls. 

Publisher: HarperCollins (@HarperChildrens)
Publication Date: June 18, 2013
Source of Book: Advance review copy from the publisher

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This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Oh.

OH.

OH MY GOD, I LOVE THIS BOOK.

And I have no idea how to write about it.

Ten pages in, I was all, "HEY, COOL! THIS IS SO WICKER MAN-Y! I LIKE."

Then, I came to the end of the first part. And my eyes got all big and round and I was all (much more subdued, but no less blown away), "Oh, hey, this is VERY Wicker Man-y."

And then, partway through the second segment, I thought, "Wow. Hello, Cloud Atlas."

After that, I stopped thinking about anything except the story—stories—in front of me, and I read and read and read until there were no more pages to read. And I was crying.

I still feel dazed.

It's not going to be for everyone. I GUARANTEE that some readers are going to want to throw it at the wall. (Perhaps you have already done so?) But something about it resonated with me. It's not just that I'm impressed by the structure—I am—or that I love Sedgwick's writing and skillful atmosphere creation—I do—or that I was blown away by how each segment was so different, but how (even discounting the physical details: the names, the flowers, the hare) each one was also so clearly part of a larger whole.

All of those things are a part of why I loved it, but there was something... BIGGER, yet less tangible beyond that. I think it was that even though the premise doesn't jive with my own personal, in real life worldview—I'm one of those who can't wrap my mind around anything beyond conceived/born/live/die/dead*—that the idea of these two people finding each other over and over again was genuinely, heart-wrenchingly beautiful.

Even though [SPOILER] it was a tragedy almost every time.

But, compared to the love that began—and ultimately ended—their story, the tragedy that followed them felt inconsequential. [/SPOILER]

Or something.

As the footnote below explains, I have a hard time with the metaphysical.

It's just a gorgeous, gorgeous book.

So good that it has apparently made my brain implode.

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*Which reminds me of a conversation I had years ago:

Family Friend Who Is Way Into Astrology: And so since you have so much Libra in your chart, that means that etc., etc....

Me: I dunno. I just have a hard time buying the idea that I am who I am because of where the planets were when I was born.

FFWIWIA: Oh, that's just because you're a Gemini. You're all about the intellectually concrete.

Me: So I don't believe in astrology because... I'm a Gemini?

FFWIWIA: Yes.

Me: But...

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Author page.

____________________________

Amazon.

Publisher.

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Book source: ILLed through my library.

...I wrote about Aaron Hartzler's Rapture Practice:

Capital-b Belief is something that I have immense respect for, but I’ve never felt like I’ve succeeded in completely wrapping my mind around it. Maybe it’s one of those You Know It If You Feel It things? But this book, despite the vastly different life experience that it depicts—...when I say we believe that Jesus is coming back, I don’t mean metaphorically, like someday in the distant future when the lion lies down with the lamb and there is peace on earth. I mean literally, like glance out the car window and, “Oh, hey, there’s Jesus in the sky.” There will be a trumpet blast, an archangel will shout, and Jesus Christ will appear in the clouds.— has come the closest to helping me understand something that I’ve spent years trying to grasp.

Loved it.

Book: Mousenet
Author: Prudence Breitrose
Illustrator: Stephanie Yue
Pages: 416
Age Range: 8 and up 

Mousenet is a middle grade novel written by Prudence Breitrose and lightly illustrated by Stephanie Yue. The premise has oodles of kid-appeal. Mice have learned to read, and to use human computers (though it takes a whole team of mice to accomplish anything using a full-size PC). When a quirky inventor in Cleveland invents a teeny, tiny laptop (dubbed the Thumbtop), mice spring into action. They enlist the inventor's niece, Megan, in their quest to put "a Thumbtop in every mousehole" so that they can stand beside humans as the next intelligent species.  

The mouse society and hierarchy in Mousenet is fully fleshed out, and quite entertaining. The mice have figured out a way to travel by Greyhound bus (though this remains rare). They use sign language to communicate. Because they have eyes everywhere, they are able to intervene with humans in surprising ways. They have their own, hidden internet (Mousenet). They are based in Silicon Valley, for a completely logical reason. This whole shadow society of secretly smart rodents calls to mind books like Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (which I now want to re-read) and Malcolm at Midnight. 

The early part of the book is told from a third person (er, mouse) mouse perspective, which I particularly enjoyed. In fact, I found it a bit jarring when, in the middle of chapter two, things shifted to Megan's perspective. After that, things shift back and forth between mouse and human viewpoints. Here's an example of the mouse point of view:

"The mice felt more hopeful about picking up clues to the megging's wildness later that afternoon, after the big female had spent some time doing things to food that they'd never seen happen in this kitchen--slicing, steaming, chopping, mixing. When the girl and her uncle came in to eat, the mice looked anxiously at their inventor to see how he'd react, because the dishes that the big female had put on the table didn't look at all like his usual dinner, which tended to be either delivered or thawed." (Chapter 2)

I understand that it wouldn't have been possible to tell the entire story from the perspective of the mice (or certainly it would have been quite difficult), but I personally enjoyed the mouse point of view more than Megan's. Megan is a perfectly nice character, with passions and quirks of her own, but the mouse viewpoint is more unique. 

Anyway, the plot in Mousenet moves along quickly. There isn't really a bad guy in the book, but Breitrose finds other sources of conflict (like the need to keep the existence of the mouse society hidden). I particularly liked the way the author developed the relationship between Megan and her step-cousin Joey, slowly and with friction along the way. 

My one complaint, story-wise, is that I felt that the author's anti-global warming message came on a bit too strong at times. Not that there's anything wrong with the message itself, but towards the end of the book it comes perilously close to dominating the story. By making environmentalism a central trait of Megan's character, the author keeps things in hand, but only just barely. But I have admittedly very finely honed radar when it comes to messages inserted into fiction. Most young readers delving into Mousenet today will probably be fine with this aspect of the book. 

Yue's black and white pencil illustrations are generally small in size, and are found about once per chapter. I found them helpful in visualizing Megan (who has unusual hair that's hard to describe), and of course in picturing the intrepid mice. There are also mouse silhouettes included atop the large-format first letter of each chapter. Emails integrated in with the text also add visual variety. Together, these visual elements of the book help make it non-intimidating to younger middle grade readers. 

Mousenet has a premise that kids will find hard to resist, coupled with strong characters, and a "working together to save the world" ethos. There is humor as well as high tech. Oh, and there's a sequel, Mousemobile, coming this fall. Kids who enjoy stories about secretly intelligent animals, and/or who find the idea of a mouse using a computer delightful, will definitely want to give this one a look. Suitable for ages 8 and up (or younger, especially if read aloud).  

Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children (@DisneyHyperion)
Publication Date: November 8, 2011 (picture book edition released February of 2013)
Source of Book: Review copy from the author

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

Book: Boy Nobody
Author: Allen Zadoff
Pages: 352
Age Range: 12 and up

Boy Nobody is a tense thriller about a 16-year-old boy who has been trained as an assassin. The first person narrator (we don't learn his real name until late in the book, but let's call him Benjamin) was kidnapped by a shadowy organization, apparently part of the government, after a boy named Mike killed Benjamin's parents. Benjamin was trained to execute meticulously planned missions. For each mission, he is inserted into a school, where he befriends some key student. His target is someone close to that student, such as a parent. His job is to kill the target. 

Benjamin has a distinct voice. Not knowing much about the premise of the book, I thought at first that he was supposed to be some sort of alien. He calculates his every move and reaction. Like the scene below, in which a bunch of kids are hanging around after a baseball game.

""Your best kicks ass and takes names," Jack says, and he punches my shoulder again.

This time the big man doesn't move. But the other players are looking at us. 

Two punches on the arm. A way of asserting dominance.

Dominance is a threat. It must be dealt with.

I run a checklist in my mind:

I can let him punch me. Choose a lower status.

I can retaliate in equal measure, with equal force.

I can escalate. Assert my dominance.

Which should I choose?" (Chapter: I Pick Up a Baseball Bat)

He's like a human computer, the ultimate, unquestioning tool for killing people. But when the next student that Benjamin is supposed to befriend turns out to be the smart, extremely attractive daughter of the mayor of New York City, things become a bit more complicated than usual. Like this:

"Because my mind is thinking the wrong things. I should be thinking about finishing my assignment, but I'm thinking about the curve of Sam's neck, the corner of her lip, the way her breasts swell against the fabric of her dress." (Chapter: I Slip into the Bathroom down the Hall)

There is certainly violence in Boy Nobody, though I didn't find it gratuitous. (I mean, the book is about an assassin. The fact that he kills a few people should not be surprising.) There's a hint of a James Bond feel to the violence, and to the couple of sexual incidents (which are not described in detail). 

The teen assassin is an interesting premise for a young adult novel. Kind of takes teen alienation to a new and toxic level. Imagine having to go into school after school, reinventing yourself each time, figuring out the social dynamics on the fly? Now imagine doing that with no parents behind you (just two controllers who communicate via technology), and no one to confide in. Even if he didn't have to kill people, Benjamin would still be about as alienated as it gets. 

Boy Nobody is fast-paced, with lots of short paragraphs leaving white space in the text, and plenty of action to move the plot forward. Benjamin is a unique character, his damaged mind revealed through is first person narration (and his actions). Sam is also surprising and intriguing. And a nerdy computer geek comes into Benjamin's sphere, adding a bit of humor and humanity. 

While the main plot in Boy Nobody wraps up neatly, quite a few details are left unexplained. I don't know whether or not Zadoff intends to write other books about Benjamin, but he has certainly put the elements of a bigger picture in place. Personally, I hope that there are more books - I'm interested to see where this story goes. In the meantime, I recommend Boy Nobody for teen and adult readers who enjoy thrillers, and aren't put off by the idea of reading one told from the assassin's perspective. Boy Nobody is well worth a look!

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (@LBKids)
Publication Date: June 11, 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

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This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. 

...I got a little ranty about Phoenix, the sequel to Elizabeth Richards' Black City:

I have eight simple words that would have saved Ash and Natalie, like, 350 pages of angst-filled idiocy: JUST FREAKING TALK TO EACH OTHER, YOU MORONS.

Waiting Fate by W.B. Kinnette

Book Description

Archer has been in love with the same girl since seventh grade. When Ivy comes back into his life—bruised, broken, and haunted by secrets—he knows he can’t lose her again.

But Ivy made a promise to her daughter. No one would hurt them again. She’s afraid to trust, afraid to be wrong again, and afraid that the one man she’s loved forever will break her heart.

Fate might take it’s time, but it won’t wait forever.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book! It pulled me right in from the beginning. The author has amazing story telling skills and I quickly came to care for Ivy and her daughter, and of course the darling German Shepherd, Sadi.
Be warned,this is a tear-jerker. More than once I needed multiple tissues. The author has a knack for making you FEEL. You’ll cheer Ivy on and be amazed by her inner strength. Be prepared to fall in love with Archer and the boys (and Gigi, too!) and hate Vick. Oh my, I really, really…ya. It’s fine though, he’s the bad guy. I won’t give away the ending, but it’s well wrapped up and will leave you very satisfied!
Do I recommend? YES

Get your copy on Amazon–> CLICK!

View all my reviews

Book: When No One Is Watching
Author: Eileen Spinelli
Illustrator: David A. Johnson
Pages: 26
Age Range: 4-8 

When No One Is Watching is pretty much exactly what the title promises. It's a picture book about a girl who can only be brave and boisterous (dancing, cheering, scoring baskets, etc.) when she's by herself. When other people are there, she tends to hide, or lean against the wall, or pass the ball instead of shooting.

I was a bit worried as I was reading this book that it would be one of those issue books with a facile or heavy-handed solution to the problem. But I should have trusted Eileen Spinelli. The unnamed girl doesn't change overnight, or have some elaborate intervention. Instead, she finds one friend. Her friend, Loretta, is also shy, and the two girls are able to do things (reading, going to the zoo, "splashing in the summer", together). So, there's a solution, yes. But it's a small, quiet, plausible solution, one that suits the tenor of the book. I was pleased with it.  

I still don't think that I would go out of my way to introduce this book to my daughter, unless I thought that she was having problems with shyness (right now she's not old enough to understand it anyway). No point in raising as an issue something that might not be an issue. I don't need her wondering "Should I be hiding when people come over?" or whatever. But I do think that this would be an excellent book for libraries to have on hand for those families struggling with this issue. 

When No One Is Watching does work as a bouncy read-aloud. Like this:

"When no one is watching,
I cheer.

I cheer for myself
as I race near the hoop.

I soar and I score
with a dunk and a whoop!

When no one is watching,
I cheer.

But...

When everyone's watching,
I pass.

I pass the b-ball
to my classmate Tamar.
Tamar makes the basket --
she's always the star.

When everyone's watching,
I pass.  

There's a poetry to the repetition, and I like the double-meaning of "pass" in this example (a literal pass of the ball, and a pass on being actively engaged). A lot of thought has gone into this book.

David A. Johnson's digitally manipulated ink and watercolor illustrations suit the tone of the book. On the pages where the girl is not being watched, he includes a series of slightly grayed out images of her doing things, together with one brightly colored image. On the pages where she is being watched, she only appears once, still brightly colored, while the others in the picture are shown grayed out. So, even when she's trying not to be watched, to the reader, she's still at the heart of the image. It's a nice, relatively subtle technique. She wears the same outfit in all of the pictures, with bright red and white squares, which also makes it easier to always really see her. She also has delightfully out of control curly black hair. 

When No One Is Watching is a picture book that addresses the things that are easier to do "when no one is watching" (dancing, playing sport, etc.). For kids who are shy, or have experienced stage fright of one form or another, it's a nice, accepting sort of book. It's one that I plan to keep at hand, just in case... Recommended, particularly for elementary school libraries. 

Publisher: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers (@EerdmansBooks)
Publication Date: February 7, 2013
Source of Book: Review copy from the publisher

FTC Required Disclosure:

This site is an Amazon affiliate, and purchases made through Amazon links (including linked book covers) may result in my receiving a small commission (at no additional cost to you).

© 2013 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.