Beastly

Double kudos and an Atta Boy! to Alex Flinn for writing a modern fairy tale that is still exciting even though we probably all know how the story will pan out.

Kyle Kingsbury is picture perfect - wealthy, popular, and most importantly gorgeous.  Kyle scorns and mocks those he thinks are not attractive.  When he plays a joke on an "ugly" girl at his school by pretending he will be her date to a dance, he discovers that appearances aren't all they seem.  The girl is really a witch and she sees how ugly Kyle's heart is.  The witch puts a spell on him that transforms him into a terrifying beast, claws and all.  Kyle is afforded a second chance because of one small act of kindness he showed the night of the dance - giving a rose, rejected by his real date, to a girl taking tickets.  He has two years to find someone to love him despite his appearance, and receive true love's kiss to break the spell.

This was a delightful read!  While the bones of the story follow the Disney version of this classic fairy tale somewhat, the modern setting, language, and characters blend remarkably well.  This book was on the 2009-2010 YARP list so chances are that many SD libraries will already have purchased it (I know...took me long enough, to read it, huh?).  I now own my own copy and was very excited to learn that it's being made into a movie.  As with many movie adaptations of books, liberties were taken with how things are portrayed on screen.  And while I'm very partial to The Girl in the book rather than the actress picked to play her in the movie, I will be in line to see this movie the weekend that it opens!  

Matched

"Do not go gentle into that good night...Rage, rage against the dying of the light." -- Dylan Thomas

Those words remind me of a dear friend and how I feel about her battle to live.  They are also the words that inspire Cassia to fight against the Society that has always dictated how she will live.  The Society tells you how much you will eat, who you will marry, what job you will have, what songs you will listen to, what poems you will read, what history you will know, and even when you will die.  Varying from their rules results in punishments.

The day after her Match Banquet she inserts the data card that holds the information about her future husband, who turned out to be her best friend Xander, into her data port. But a different face momentarily comes up on her screen - Ky Markham.  Cassia feels that there must be some mistake, but the Society doesn't make mistakes.  This sets into motion a series of events for Cassia that she would have never imagined possible because Cassia starts doing something most people in the Society never do: she starts making her own choices. Set in a time when humans attempt to create a world free of hatred, starvation, and disease, Cassia's world is happy on the surface, but just underneath lurks the truth that humans are still human.  Some human or humans are always in control and therefore, nothing is truly perfect.  When Cassia discovers the words to Dylan Thomas' famous poem she decides to fight for her own life.

Recently the NY Times had a little discussion about why dystopian fiction is so hot with teens right now.  Several different YA authors and others offered their opinions about why this is....this reflects how teens feel about their own lives....teens see more clearly how our world is on this big precipice and how easily we could end up like these stories...blah, blah, blah.  My theory: people, including teenagers, like stories about good vs. evil and dystopian fiction deliciously blurs the lines between the two making it more fun to read.  While dystopian fiction certainly isn't a new concept (Bradbury, Lowry, etc.) recent authors threw in the clincher for females: swoon! 

So Ali Condie, you best be writing at this very moment both of the next two books in this series because I need to read them pronto!

p.s. I wonder if this series will spawn a whole new series of debates along the lines of Team Peeta vs. Team Gale?  I'd like to think so :)

Impossible

I'm not sure why but every time I think of the word "impossible" or read it I can only hear it in my head as the character of Susan in the most recent movie adaptation of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe says it the first time she enters Narnia.

But this is definitely not Narnia...this is a Nancy Werlin book!  So here is the summary as I remember my mother telling it to me in the bookstore (which convinced me to purchase it*) with a few more details thrown in for good measure.

Lucy Scarborough comes from a line of women cursed to bear daughters and go crazy.  Her ancestress, Fenella, scorned the love of the Elfin Knight making him so angry he cursed her: she will be his lover and bear a daughter, unless she completes 3 impossible tasks: to make a shirt with no seams, to find an acre of land between the sea and the sea strand, and to plow it with a goat's horn and plant it with one seed of corn.  If she fails, the curse extends to her daughter and if she fails, to her daughter....  Generations of Scarborough women could not defeat the curse and nearing her 18th birthday the Elfin Knight comes for Lucy.  However, she has advantages that none one else in her family ever has: the internet and foster parents who will stand with her through anything.  As my mom said, that sounds kind of hokey but it works - and she was right.

Hooked yet?  This is one seriously fabulous story if I do say so myself, and I can because it's my blog after all.  Oh and if I didn't have you at generational craziness or Elfin Knight, I'll play the trump card - sizzling romance between Lucy and her childhood friend, Zach.  Inspired by the lyrics of Simon & Garfunkle's song "Scarborough Fair" Werlin weaves a story so old yet completely modern.   

I have posted here the cover of the paperback because that is the copy that I read.  Also, I think it's a better cover than the hardback version. 

*I went in with the intention of buying one book....I left with 4.

Everything You Want

What would you do with $17 million?  Would it change you?  Would you change what you do?  Or would you be the exact same person just with more stuff and no bills?

College freshman at Indiana University (go Hoosiers!), Emma is stuck.  She can't get herself out of this place where everything that happens loops back to the fact that her best friend, Josh, dumped her and decked her during their senior year of high school.  Emma remembers being happy as a child but can't figure out how to get there as an adult.  When her parents show up at her dorm room one day telling her they've won LOTTO CASH, it seems like happiness should be easily obtained because they can do anything they want to.  Cars, clothes, vacations...you name it, they can pay for it immediately.

Emma tries everything she can think of to make her happy again.  She visits all the places she loved as a child, places she remembers being happy.  She throws out all her old clothes and tries to simplify her life by only wearing black and white.  However, none of this makes her happy because she has always compared her happiness to what makes her family happy.  Emma must figure out what makes her happy.

Soooooo, I liked the book just fine.  It's set in my birth state and it prominently features a goose in the beginning (I have a weakness for geese - it's a long story).  It's also fun to think about how I would spend that much money!  But (you knew it was coming, didn't you?).....Emma feels less like a 18 year old trying to figure out where she fits in the world and more like someone going through a mid-life crisis.  The randomness of emotions may be very similar between the two types of freak-outs, but the outward results are typically very different.  Or maybe Emma's just an old soul and I'm too critical.  Either way, that's my opinion and at least I'm honest.

Oh and it really bugs the living daylights out of me that the covers picture a domesticated duck and not a goose!!!!!!  

And there's a lot of language.  Don't say you weren't warned.

Note: This book was read for possible inclusion on the 2011/2012 YARP list.    

The Blending Time

The world has changed.  Wars and climate changes have ravaged the planet.  In the year 2069 anyone turning 17 will be assigned to a job that will best benefit the world.  Jaym, Reya, and D'Shay are all assigned to be SUN blenders in Africa, which was hit particularly hard by a solar flare several years back.  They think they will be re-building infrastructure.  (cue the ominous music here)  But in reality they are going to help preserve the African people by "blending" in a very different way...the solar flare exposed those people to radiation and they cannot have children with anyone else exposed.  They also think they are wanted in Africa.  (cue some sort of dramatic drum roll)

The three unlikely friends form a bond during their SUN blender training but are split up once they are "in-country."  Facing angry and armed rebels, brutally hot weather, and unfamiliar customs they must find a way to survive.

Oh, Michael Kinch - you wrote a good book, but darn it all if it doesn't live up to the thrill of The Hunger Games.  Suzanne Collins may have ruined me for life with her dystopian trilogy.  The plot, settings, storylines, and character development are good.  But those names - GAH!  Seriously...Jaym?  I have yet to figure out to say this name out loud.  Is it like "jam" or "Jay-um?"  And don't get me started on how stereotypical the name "D'Shay" feels.

However, with two male lead characters and lots of action this should be a great recommendation for guys.  Plus, it's only available in paperback, so it's cheap!   

Note: This book was read for possible inclusion on the 2011/2012 YARP list.

I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want To Be Your Class President

Anyone remember middle school? Remember the politics of popularity that dominated your every waking moment? Remember how you could never peg your jeans as good as Sarah Brown could and you couldn't get your bangs to curl like Libby could? (Okay, maybe that was just me.)

Oliver Watson sure has the middle school hierarchy figured out, but oddly he has no desire to be the most popular boy in school.  It doesn't matter because he's actually the third richest person on earth (he made a good investment early on...really, really early on).  So even though everyone thinks he's a total moron he really has a network of body guards and operatives to wreak havoc upon anyone who dares insult him or to secretly record anyone he wants dirt on.  Oliver even has a full-time public face to run all of his businesses (a recovering alcoholic no less).

Oliver is content to keep up his façade until the elections for class president come up.  When someone nominates him as a joke and he relates the story to his parents at dinner that evening, he realizes this is the way to win his father's approval...er, I mean, prove to his father that he isn't a pathetic loser.  So Oliver goes about trying to win the election in any way possible.

Author Josh Lieb, who is also a writer for Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, writes exactly as I expected him to: with biting humor and a dash of crass.  Just what every middle schooler would salivate over, right?  The book is billed as YA, but only the wittiest teenagers will be able to laugh at this.  Yes, it is an incredibly accurate portrayal of how middle school feels but most high schoolers aren't much better.  It's possible I should have read the book with a willing suspension of disbelief but I think Lieb actually wanted the story to be so far-fetched that it's obvious that Oliver has created this little dream world where he is a billionaire and not a loser, which is actually a better gimmick.

Is it a "must-read?"  Eh.  Will you regret reading it?  Probably not.  Hands down though, the best quote from the book: "BUREAUCRAT (n): Someone who sits behind a desk and tells you that you can't do something."  (p.86)

Note: This book was read for possible inclusion on the 2011/2012 YARP list.
And I don't know why the font is smaller...blogger seems to be having some issues.  Maybe it needs a tissue.

Remembering and Forgetting - a ramblesome musing about favorites

Just to shake things up a bit, I thought I would post something reading-related but not a book review.  I hope the thoughts in my head make sense once typed out.

There are a few books, in the scope of the many I have read over the years, that I love to read again and again.  You would think that because I have read them so many times I would remember some of the details that are my favorites.  Yet I find myself re-reading a book because I am excited to get to a part that I'm remembering and then all of a sudden I come across a part that I had forgotten about but love just as much.  I also find myself tensing up in the scary parts or thinking "Oh my gosh - I hope everything turns out okay" even though I know good and well how the story turns out.  Does this happen to anyone else? 

And in case anyone was wondering what books I tend to re-read the list includes the following (mostly series books): the Harry Potter series - usually the 3rd through 7th, the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix, the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer - but mostly just the first two, Airman also by Eoin Colfer, and Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen.  I have some new favorites that I think I will be re-reading in the near future: the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins (but maybe not Mockingjay) and the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld.

Behemoth

"Barking spiders!"

Borrowing the most-used phrase of one of the two main protagonists seems to be the most appropriate thing to do here.  Book two of Scott Westerfeld's steampunk adventure picks up right where Leviathan left off.  Midshipman Dylan Sharp's true identity, as the female Deryn, is still a secret to the British military, and possibly more importantly still a secret to Alek.  His true identity - Prince Aleksander of Austro-Hungary - is about to be revealed to more people than he had originally hoped. 

The war between the Clankers and the Darwinists is growing and at the heart of it is the Ottoman Empire.  Strong Clanker influence in Istanbul threatens to cut off the supplies to Darwinist Russia.  Set mostly in and around this exotic city, the continuing story of Alek and Deryn unfolds.  There are battles, new Darwinist "beasties" and Clanker machines, secret missions, and new characters. 

Barking spiders, I loved this book!  Westerfeld writes such a convincing story and Keith Thompson's illustrations are so beautiful, I feel like I've totally done a Mary Poppins and jumped right through the pages into the story.  Even with all the stuff that Westerfeld makes up, it feels that real. 

I do offer my apologies for the extremely short summary, but I didn't want to give anything away!  (I'm not kidding - I had three paragraphs of summary typed out and deleted them all.)  The size (485 pages, hardback) may seem daunting but the story moves at break-neck speed...I read it in about 8 hours total (spread out over three days, but still).  Seriously, if you have not read either of these books yet set yourself a goal for your Christmas break, or at the very least make it your New Year's resolution.  Seriously, I'm not kidding.  Do it!

My Life As a Rhombus

Rhonda is a math wiz and knows that in order to get into the college of her dreams and out of her hometown she has to concentrate on her grades.  Rhonda is focused: she's got her eyes on the prize and nothing will derail her...until she's asked to tutor a Sarah Gamble.  Sarah and Rhonda may go to the same school but Rhonda believes their lives are completely different.  Sarah is rich, beautiful, and popular.  Rhonda keeps her head down and away from the popular people.  But at their second tutoring session, Rhonda realizes Sarah is pregnant and confronts her about it.  Afraid to tell anyone she's close to, Sarah swears Rhonda to secrecy.  Rhonda agrees because she's been in the same situation. 

A somewhat unlikely friendship develops between Sarah and Rhonda.  In a way, they both need each other: Sarah needs a real friend who will support her and Rhonda needs someone to show her that she's more than a math tutor.  What Rhonda doesn't count on is being shown by Sarah's brother David just how beautiful and special she is.

As Sarah struggles to decide if she will keep the baby or not, Rhonda must come to terms with her own past and the "A" word: abortion.  While Rhonda feels like she didn't have much of a choice, Sarah must decide what she loves more - her reputation or her baby. 

I applaud Varian Johnson for writing this book.  I felt it tackled a seriously touchy issue without being preachy one way or the other.  The only thing I felt was missing from the options Sarah had to choose from was another "A" word: adoption.  And here I will end any soap box speeches.

That being said, the book seemed to be lacking something that I can't quite put my finger on.  Many writers of realistic fiction seem to write stories based on what they know or their own experiences.  I think this makes it sometimes hard to write a book that has universal appeal.  At times I felt like I was watching a Tyler Perry movie in book form.  (For those of you who don't know who Tyler Perry is, you'll just have to find out for yourself - this is a book blog, not a entertainment magazine.)  So to sum up my rambling review: decent book, but not necessary for all YA collections.

Note: This book was read for possible inclusion on the 2011/2012 YARP list.

The Half-Life of Planets

"Love hurts, love scars, love wounds, and Mars."*

Hank has Asperger's syndrome and his fixation is on music.  His social skills are less than stellar and figures he will never get to kiss a girl.  Liana is fixated on astronomy and until recently, kissing.  On the last day of school Liana found a note in her locker with one word, "slut."  Her relationships have never gone past kissing but she is determined to prove to herself that she doesn't have to kiss to be in a relationship.  That summer their paths collide.  Hank realizes that Liana understands him as much as anyone possibly can and thinks he might be in love with her.  Liana realizes that she might just love Hank too, for his quirks not in spite of them.

Told in alternating first-person chapters, Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin write a sweet, funny love story.  Halpin's writing is definitely stronger than Franklin's and I enjoyed Hank's view of things much more than Liana's.  Hank has a razor-sharp sense of humor (although his character probably doesn't realize it), but honestly sometimes Liana just comes off as whiny and shallow. So extra brownie points to Brendan!  

* Lyrics from "Love Hurts" by Nazareth, capitalization by me.
Note: This book was read for possible inclusion on the 2011/2012 YARP list.

Jane

Remakes of a classic are hard to do and not be totally predictable.  Unless you are throwing in something completely different - like with Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies, because let's face it: zombies don't tend to follow the rules.  But I [seriously] digress.

If you haven't figured it out by now Jane by April Linder is a re-make/update of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.  And if you haven't read Jane Eyre and you're reading this blog, well you darn well should get right on that.  I'm also not going to summarize the story for you because it pretty much goes just like the original, with the updates mostly being in the details.  For example, no one travels by horse-powered contraptions in the new book, unless you count sports cars.  Although it's been quite a while since I read Bronte's book, I distinctly remember liking it a lot, but with Linder's book....I finished because there's that weird part of me that needs to know how something wraps up even if I don't really like the book.  Oh I suppose it would be interesting to compare the two Janes in a paper of some sort, but I felt a distinct lack of creativity in Linder's work.  Characters had only slightly different names if there was any change in their names at all and the majority of the plot points were exactly the same. 

I hate to say it Mrs. Linder, but I think your audience is going to be limited in scope and you're going to have some whiners on your hands.  Some zombies might not have been a bad idea.  Cool cover though.

Heist Society

Kat's family isn't the kind that makes offers you can't refuse.  Her family liberates things for the sake of the thrill.  And they're really good at it.  The thing about Kat is that she's walked away from "the life"... mostly.  The last con Kat pulled was to get herself into an exclusive prep school because she wanted to have a normal life.  But just because Kat walked away from her family doesn't mean they don't still need her.  When Kat gets an offer that she can't refuse from a wealthy (ahem, evil) Italian man, she must put on the biggest con to pull the biggest job to save her father. 

I'm a little torn.  Part of me wants to rave about this book and part of me wants to not.
Pros: Intrigue; lots of fun settings - Europe, London, upstate New York, Las Vegas; witty characters; high class art heists.
Cons: Plot points and dialogue practically the same as Ocean's 11, Ocean's 12, and Ocean's 13 movies; cast of characters is too young for the plot to really work.  My willing suspension of disbelief never quite kicked in.
Several times I found myself having to read entire sections again because I really didn't understand what was going on.  So either I'm not so bright or that is the point of all the mystery and misdirection that thieves employ.  


Note: This book was read for possible inclusion on the 2011/2012 YARP list. 

The Lonely Hearts Club

Penny Lane Bloom is tired of boys.  More specifically she's tired of when girls lose their identity over a boy.  Not only has she had a friend ditch her for a boy, Penny tried to be someone she really wasn't to land the boy she thought was her one and only.  Being a child of Beatle-maniacs (hence the her first and middle name), she decides to form the "Lonely Hearts Club" to help girls like her realize that they don't need to date to find their identity.  In a very short time the club goes from having a very small membership (just Penny) to 30 girls from her high school.  Since the most crucial part of club membership is not dating, lots of people are noticing changes in the female portion of the student body.  Neither the male population of the high school or the principal are particularly happy with Penny.  On top of everything, Penny is fighting a losing battle with herself over Ryan Bauer.  Not only is Ryan extremely good-looking, he's genuinely nice (not something Penny has experienced much with guys).  So what's a girl to when she thinks she wants to violate rule number one of the club she founded?  Time to change the rules...but only a little.

Elizabeth Eulberg's novel is cute and fast, but a little too gimmicky for me.   I don't know if the average teen reader will find all the Beatles' reference interesting or annoying.  The storyline also becomes a little predictable.  However, there are some thoroughly wonderful girl power speeches sprinkled throughout the story.  Since it's a quick read, it's worth the time.

Note: This book was read for possible inclusion on the 2011/2012 YARP list. 

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder

You know you're enjoying a book when strangers come up to you in McDonald's and tell you that they've been watching you smile as you've been reading....

Jessie's sophomore year could not be weirder.  Her two best friends, Bizza and Char, have transformed themselves into faux punks.  Her true punk older brother is not only going to be leaving for college soon, he quit his punk band, shaved his mohawk, and is falling for the prom queen!  And people who she has always pegged as complete nerds are suddenly becoming appealing as possible social consorts.  Even though Jessie considers herself a mathelete, she doesn't know if leaving her old friends behind for new ones is something she's ready to do.  But when Bizza has a fling with Jessie's long-time crush, she realizes the only thing her "friends" have ever really done is used her.  Not knowing where she fits in, she cautiously reaches out to different cliques at school, including the band geeks and the Dungeons & Dragons crowd.  And why, oh why does she keep having dreams about Henry, the cute but short-pantsed and white gym-shoed friend-of-a-friend? 

So author Julie Halpern, I will employ a Stephen Colbert method - Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger.  As stated above, I very much enjoyed reading this book.  My only complaint: the cover.  It's a good visual representation of the content, but I think some bolder colors and something that looks a little less like a doodle will be more appealing to the intended readership.

Note: This book was read for possible inclusion on the 2011/2012 YARP list. 

Carter Finally Gets It

Will Carter has some odds stacked against him: he's a freshman, he has ADD, he has a stuttering problem (which gets worse when he's faced with belly button's and other girl parts), and he has a crazy older sister named Lynn.  As terrible as this all seems, there's actually a pretty hot chick that likes him.  Now if he could only nail that gainer off the local pool high dive.  Author Brent Crawford's first novel follows Carter though his freshman year of high school.  Carter learns a lot about how to FOCUS, football, girls, and the theater.  

Not having been a teenage boy but having dated several (once-upon-a-time), this seems to be an excellent look into how their minds function (or sometimes don't).  Don't believe me?  The back cover has this warning: "This book contains lewd humor, underage drinking, illicit fantasizing, and very bad decision-making."  While that statement is entirely accurate, it doesn't warn you about the strange looks you'll get from random people as you shake with silent laughter.

I've been trying to decide whether or not I think boys will read it.  I think I've decided that they would, if it weren't for the hardback cover.  For guys, I recommend the paperback.  I've included both with the paperback linked the book information.

Note: This book was read for possible inclusion on the 2011/2012 YARP list.

The Mockingbirds

First of all I need to make sure we are all clear that this book has nothing to do with the Hunger Games series finale book.

Themis Academy faculty and teachers are brilliant academically-speaking, but are completely blind to what their students really are: teenagers.  For students at Themis, if something goes wrong, seriously wrong they don't turn to the adults, they turn to the Mockingbirds.  Masquerading as a singing group, the Mockingbirds are a student-only group whose mission is to right the wrongs of the student body.  We're not talking about bad study habits or crank calls, we're talking about blackmail and date rape.  Alexandra Patrick is a victim of the latter, and seeks out the assistance of the Mockingbirds to help her stand up to the guy who did it.  After having her sense of self shattered, she must learn who she is all over again.  She must also learn how to speak up for what she wants and to not just stay silent because "The only thing that means yes is yes.  A lack of yes is a no."

While it's not terribly fair to author Daisy Whitney to compare her book to Anderson's Speak, it's unavoidable.  The main characters are very different and so are the story settings, but the emotional grief and confusion that both girls go through are both very realistically portrayed.  Sub-characters are sometimes underdeveloped or left out for what feels like long stretches, but on the whole the book is still one that I think will help many people, not just rape victims, understand what kind of agony this situation is.  So as with all books of a very serious nature, it's hard to say that I liked it (it seems both petty and creepy at the same time).  However, it's an important topic to be addressed and I'm glad there are young adult authors who have the presence and guts to write these books.

Hate List

Wow.  What an incredible book.  I would use exclamation points at the end of every sentence for this review, but because the book deals with such a serious subject it doesn't seem appropriate...exclamation points seem too perky.  But maybe I'll underline something...

Valerie Leftman's life is upside down, sideways, and in pieces.  It is her senior year of high school, but what should be a year living it up with friends, filling out college applications, and lording it over the underclassmen, is actually going to be the toughest year of Valerie's life.  Just over three months before, on May 2nd, Valerie's boyfriend Nick opened fire in the school commons, killing several students and a teacher, and wounding several others before turning the gun on himself.  Valerie herself was shot in the leg trying to stop Nick.  Even though it was Nick who pulled the trigger, many blame Valerie just as much.  Unhappy with her home life and the way she was treated at school, she started a "hate list" of people and concepts that annoyed her.  For Valerie this was just a way to express her feelings, but for Nick it was a starting place for shooting.

After a summer of hiding in her room and therapy, Valerie must face going back to school.  Most of her fellow students despise her, blame her, or at least want to ignore her.  However, she has an unlikely ally - Jessica Brown, student body president and queen bee of the school - whose life she saved trying to stop Nick.  As Valerie confronts her past choices and is confronted by people whose lives were forever changed on May 2nd, she realizes what it means to really see people for who they are.

Somebody given an award to author Jennifer Brown for treating such a tough and touchy subject with so much delicacy and depth.  I admit I had avoided reading this book for a while because I thought it would be so depressing, too dark, and riddled more angst than I can normally handle...boy was I wrong.  It didn't even take long to read and it's over 400 pages - yeah, it's that good.  When this book was reviewed in VOYA magazine they said "This novel ought to be the last written about a fictional high school shooting because it is difficult to imagine any capable of handling it better...."  I concur 100%.  Everyone, not just teachers, librarians, and teens, needs to read this book - grandparents should read this, football players should read this, pop stars should read this because this is a book that makes a difference in people's lives even if they have never been through this kind of situation.

Conspiracy 365: February

A fantastic vendor at the recent South Dakota Library Association Annual Conference in Sioux Falls took pity on me when I said I'd read the first in Gabrielle Lord's Conspiracy 365 series but hadn't gotten to read any of the others, and she gave me a copy of February to read.  She rocks, and now I am addicted.

This may be a bold statement, but I'm going to say it anyway: I think this is the best high/low action/thriller series of books for boys available right now.  As with January, this next book in the series delivers a fast-paced narrative that ends with our main character, Cal, looking death straight in the eye.  Obviously, since there are 10 more books in the series we know he survives, but how will he escape?  Can his best friend Boges stay away from danger and continue to help Cal?  Who is this new girl Winter Frey and has she betrayed Cal?

You and I will both have to read March to find out!

A favorite from grad school

Though it has been over 5 years since I read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, I will never forget it.  Ever.  My mind tends to gloss over the "less desirable" parts of movies or books and usually remembers only the "happy things" clearly. However, since the topic of this book is about a high school girl, Melinda, who almost completely stops functioning as a human being after being raped by a school mate at an end-of-the-summer party and is taunted daily at school by the upperclassman who did it, the plot is stuck fast in my brain.  The healing that Melinda must go through to be able to speak up about what happened to her is beyond immense (and it doesn't even start until the end of the book) and the reader can't help but go through each emotion with her.  One of the most painful lasting physical effects that I always think about is what Melinda does to her lips (rather than speak) - she chews on them until the skin becomes broken and bloody.  I cannot imagine having words to say, those words being on my lips, but out of fear not being able to say them and instead biting my lips and holding the words in.  But I've never been though a situation like that.

Anderson's book has recently been attacked in Missouri as being, well, a phrase that I probably shouldn't use on a blog associated with my job.  To get an idea of what's going on see Anderson's blog. 

These kinds of things always seem more noticeable around Banned Books Week (September 25-October 2), but this is what some people call "a hill I would die on."  Speak is one of those titles that goes beyond the debate about whether or not its approach to the subject matter outweighs the subject matter itself.  This book is the kind that lets people who have gone through what Melinda does know that they are not alone, and it also lets the rest of us know how awful this problem (rape) is so that [hopefully] we can help make a difference.

Leviathan

For the last 6 months, almost every time I would talk to my mom on the phone (which is a few times a week) she would ask me if I'd read Scott Westerfeld's steampunk adventure yet.  My answer was always no...until last week.  With the coming of my YARP list reading season looming, I've been furiously trying to read everything I can that I want to read, and Leviathan was one of those titles.

Loved it.  Westerfeld has created one of those societies that is based in historical fact and tweaks it to make it more interesting for young people.  Westerfeld's world is dominated by the Clankers - those who create super-machines and Darwinists - those who weave the DNA of living creatures together to create new ones.  Set during the first weeks of what would become World War I, the Clankers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire) become the aggressors toward the Darwinists (Britain, France, Italy, and Russia)

Alek must flee for his life to Switzerland and hide until the end of the war.  Deryn Sharp also has something to hide - she's disguised as a boy to make it into the British Royal Air Force.  These two, Clanker and Darwinist, are thrown together in an unlikely alliance on the great Darwinist "fabricated" airship Leviathan, and while fighting to stay alive, must keep their secrets. 

The book has been out since 2009, but the sequel Behemoth is due out next month, so I think I read it at the right time because now I don't have to wait very long for the next one!