Publishers Weekly gave The Fox Inheritance (The Jenna Fox Chronicles)
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marypearson a star!
"Pearson delivers another spellbinding thriller with this sequel to The Adoration of Jenna Fox (2008), which takes place 260 years after the first. Medical advances have finally enabled the disembodied minds of Kara and Locke--who were critically injured in the same car accident as Jenna--to be restored in new, look-alike bodies. Locke narrates, as he and Kara wonder why they have been recreated, what the world holds for them, and if they really qualify as human. "What I think is all I have left," he admits. "My mind is the only thing that makes me different from a fancy toaster." When they learn Jenna has been alive for centuries while their minds existed only in some computer netherworld, they are angry but desperate to find her. The world they re-enter is unfamiliar: civil war has divided the United States, and Mars has been colonized for 150 years. A dazzling blend of science fiction, mystery, and teen friendship drama, Inheritance stands alone, but reading Adoration first will ground readers in the surreal and philosophically challenging terrain on which Pearson is working."
I can't wait to read this!
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By: April Henry,
on 6/13/2011
Blog: So many books, so little time (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: mary pearson, Add a tag
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By: Read Now Sleep Later,
on 5/7/2011
Blog: Read Now Sleep Later (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Henry Holt and Co, Fox Chronicles, futuristic, science fiction, drama, dystopian, Adoration of Jenna Fox, Mary Pearson, Add a tag
Keywords: Futuristic, Memory, Healing
Kimberly's review: Who is Jenna Fox?
The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a beautiful multi-layered story of a girl and her search for herself. After waking from a year long coma, Jenna Fox's memory is almost wiped clean. She must relearn how to live, who she once was, and who she is now.
As the novel slowly unfolds, its depth is revealed in waves of prose with scattered poetry. At only 265 pages, it took me a couple of days to read. This book is small but dense and thick, and should be read slowly, savoring every word. Don't miss anything, or you'll be sorry! It's more than a simple identity story, more than a sci-fi YA story, more than a coming of age story. It's a life story, relearning and falling back into who you were and who you choose to be. And who others expect you to be and how you break that mold, or not.Well written and vivid, I felt a real sense of the characters. Jenna's narration is a teenager struggling, helpless, sorrowful and yet strong and resourceful. She fights. She stands her ground. And she becomes who she was meant to be. Her cast of friends include the sweet Ethan, and the complicated Allys. Her parents are three dimensional, showing all the signs of love, wear and tear. Lily, her grandmother, is a beautiful character, the center of the family. I felt like she had such presence in the story, her voice always ringing with truth.
Alethea's review: I just loved this story! It brims with
Blog: MacKids Home (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Teens, Futuristic, teen, Mary Pearson, Escape, Year of the Book, Add a tag
There's a character in The Fox Inheritance, Dot, who dreams of Escape. Dot has good reasons for wanting to escape, but I can't share her reasons here because I don't want to ruin the story for you. She knows that escape is probably not a likely possibility for her but she relishes the idea of helping others realize freedom. She uses the word Escapee to describe the people she helps like she is describing royalty.
I think we all dream of escape at various times and often accomplish it, even if it's just to bolt the bathroom door for one of those proverbial Calgon baths, or maybe our method of escape is a walk around the block, blasting our music, or even a full-blown vacation, or maybe it's something as simple as reading a book. In fact, reading a book is probably one of my favorite ways to Escape. And it's not all just about getting away to another world, but sometimes "escaping" some of my pre-conceived notions by seeing something through something else's eyes.
In The Fox Inheritance, Locke Jenkins is the Escapee, and his escape is much more a matter of life and death, but I think on a daily basis, he and all of us find our small ways to escape. If you've ever turned up the volume, if you've ever hit the road, if you've ever danced until you couldn't breathe, or, if you've fell into the pages of a book, you're an Escapee. Nice to know you. And Dot would be especially delighted to know you.
NOTE: If you would like an Escapee bracelet, leave a reply here saying you want one, and then send an email to [email protected] with your mailing address. (DO NOT post your address here!) and we will send you three bracelets--one for you and two for you to give to friends. Limited to first FIFTEEN posters only.
Blog: MacKids Home (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: YA, Teens, Futuristic, Technology, Mary Pearson, Year of the Book, Add a tag
We've come a long way, no? Just a few short years ago could you imagine that nearly everyone in America would have a small sleek phone that they could carry in their pocket? The freedom it gave us! The problems it solved!I think this one's my favorite. An objet d'art. Kind of the opposite of those old frilly French phones they used to have. Modern minimalist.
So I came up with the iScroll (Apple are you listening? You'll still be around three centuries from now and I want one of these!) Anyway, the iScroll is a thin tattoo that is applied to the palm. And of course it will come in the designer colors of your choice.
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By: Lizzy Burns,
on 10/8/2009
Blog: A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Jeannie Stith, family, friends, coming of age, road trip, Henry Holt, Brilliance Audio, Mary Pearson, Add a tag
by Mary Pearson. Henry Holt & Co. 2009. Audiobook Brilliance Audio 2009. Narrated by Jeannie Stith. Reviewed from audiobook provided by Brilliance Audio.The Plot: Destiny Farraday is subject to her parents whims. Since age 7, she has been shipped from boarding school to boarding school. Just as she settles in one, they decide to send her someplace new. Ten years later, she's learned her lessons. Don't trust anyone. Don't make friends. Whatever you do, don't love anyone. Any day now, she may have to leave Hedgebrook Academy. When the one person she can count on, Aunt Edie, doesn't show up for a scheduled visit. Des wishes that for just once, life would be fair; that she would get one fair day.
When Des sees the car -- the pink convertible -- it looks so, well, inviting. Literally. Door open, engine running. She doesn't think twice; she decides to just go. Problem? She cannot drive. So she asks Seth. And Mira sees them and comes along; and then Aidan; and now these four have escaped school for one day, one fair day.
Is there such a thing as a fair day?
The Good: This isn't a book about a boarding school; it's about a road trip, as Des decides to visit her home town and confront the parents who abandoned her. Along the way, Des learns about Mira, Seth, and Aidan, finding out that they are more than the faces and quirks she observes over breakfast or in class. Des has done such a good job at keeping the world at arm's length that she has created barriers and, well, she just isn't good with people. But today, Des's fair day, that will change.
Des hasn't just created barriers between herself and those at school. There are also barriers between Des and the reader; protections in place. Things being half told. Destiny has been sent to boarding school at age seven? Do they even still have boarding schools for children that young, I wondered, isn't that something out of old English films? What's going on? What's happened? What did Destiny do, to get sent away? What has she done that they pull her from one school to another? Des cannot help herself; she slips, now and then, with details about her past.
The miles between. The miles between Des and her parents are disappearing, as the car she has kind of stolen gets closer and closer to her home town. Of course, she hasn't told Seth and the others the car isn't hers; she hasn't told them that the town they are approaching is the one she lived in for her first seven years. The miles between Des and other people are also disappearing; you cannot spend all that time in a car with people and remain casual acquaintances.
Des has a few quirks; some from being alone so much, moving around so much. She examines things; as she explains, "I pay attention to dates, numbers, and circumstance. Obsessively, some say. I prefer to think of it as careful observation, finding the pattern to coincidence. Can there really be such a thing as a pattern to coincidence? It would seem to defy the very definition. But many things are not what they seem to be."
So much in Des's life has not made sense, that she tries to gain control over disorder, chaos, and disappointment by viewing things as logical. Seeing patterns, discovering the same numbers again and again, finding stories about other coincidences that seem to defy logic -- yet happened. Des's viewpoint infuses the whole story, to the point where it almost seems like The Miles Between is magical realism. But the magic comes not from magic, but from Des's belief in a pattern. And that bleeds over from Des's own life to those of Seth, Aidan, Mira, as she finds out what each needs to have a "fair" day. And somehow, that fair thing happens.
A fair day. Not a good day; not a happy day. Not a day where you get what you want. Rather -- a fair day. What would your fair day be?
The Miles Between is not like The Adoration of Jenna Fox
or A Room on Lorelei Street
; I love how plot-wise, these books vary so much; how character wise, Jenna, Zoe, and Des are so unlike each other. But there are similarities, other than the obvious -- that Pearson is a talented writer that delights you with each story she tells and creates vibrant, real settings. It's also that each story is about a character finding out truths about herself, figuring out how to connect with the greater world.© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
By: Karen Strong,
on 9/11/2009
Blog: Musings of a Novelista (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: YA, Books, Authors, Writing, Mary Pearson, Add a tag
I was reading the wonderful blog, A Chair, A Fireplace and A Tea Cozy and found this link to an essay by Mary Pearson. She’s the author of the sci-fi YA novel, The Adoration of Jenna Fox. A book that I read last year and really enjoyed.
Her essay, What YA Lit Is and Isn’t, talks about the misconceptions of young adult literature, why she writes YA, and who should read it and the responsibilities of the genre.
Two excerpts stood out for me:
“I am not writing it as “practice” so I can one day write an adult book (I am asked that a lot.) Young adult books are not a lesser, watered-down version of adult books. They are not any easier or harder to read than adult books and they are certainly not any easier to write. They are just different.”
“The bottom line is that YA books are not meant to raise children. They are everything any adult book is. They are entertainment. They are a place to see ourselves. They are a place to get lost for a few hours. They are a place to make us think and wonder and imagine. They are a place to evoke anger, disagreement, discussion, and maybe tears. Books have no other responsibility than not to make the reader hate reading.”
I get this a lot when I tell people I’m a writer (probably why I don’t volunteer this information any more). When I tell them I write for kids and teens, I see their eyes glaze over and then lose interest in the conversation. Then of course, the follow-up question will come up: “When will you write something that I can read?”
I have always found this period in a person’s life to be the most fascinating. It’s where personalities and life outlooks can be formed. More than that, this type of literature can help a teen understand the vast landscape of emotions, situations, circumstances, and consequences.
Do we have a responsibility to “protect” kids and teens? As parents, absolutely. For me, as a writer, the only responsibility that I have to a reader is to tell the most truthful story that I can. It is in the truth where most lessons can be learned. Not through preaching and thin-veiled morals. We should give the YA reader more credit than that.
You should definitely go and check out the essay and also read the comments as well.
By: Sarah Darer Littman,
on 5/28/2008
Blog: It's My Life and I'll Blog if I Want To! (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: neal shusterman, jenna fox, unwind, mary pearson, Add a tag
But I finished Mary Pearson's amazing book The Adoration of Jenna Fox (which my daughter has now started, although I'm wondering if it's a little too mature for her but we'll see - having been a bit of a precocious reader myself, I tend to err on the side of leniency when it comes to letting her read books) and then after reading THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU-BANKS (which I LOVED) I started the book I'd picked up at the library before Jenna Fox and Frankie arrived by mail - Neal Shusterman's UNWIND.
Without wanting to give too much away about either JENNA FOX or UNWIND book, they are interesting books to read in tandem. I'm on a bit of a Neal Shusterman kick at the moment. He's really masterful at plot, which is something I can only dream about. I'm hoping maybe if I read enough of his books some insight on how to be a better plotter will subconsciously work its way into my brain.
Or not. But either way, his books are excellent!
By: Julie Fortenberry,
on 12/12/2007
Blog: Children's Illustration (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Jim Houser, Add a tag
Oooo, Ahhhh, this looks goodddd! I actually have the book sitting on my bookshely, patiently waiting to be read. Thanks for the coolio review :]
Nora, The Bookery
Oh wow,
I chanced upon this book a while ago, but didn't pay it much attention - but now I am reading your review, and realizing what a mistake that was. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us.
~Hira~
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