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Monday, October 25, 2010
ISBN 9780061433016
A tsunami devastates the island Nation and leaves the shipwrecked Sweet Judy washed far ashore. Mau, who had been away from the island performing the ritual to become a man, is now the only survivor of his tribe, and he is stuck in the limbo between boyhood and manhood. Daphne, the only survivor of the Sweet Judy, is unaware that she is also one of the last of her family, as the hundred or so people who needed to die in order for her father to inherit the crown have all in fact died in a plague that swept England. Together, these two must bind together and learn how to start over when everything has been taken away. Taking care of the strangers that appear periodically on the island and fighting off raiders, together everyone forms a new Nation.
This novel contains every conflict that can exist in a novel. Man versus man, man versus nature, man versus self, man versus maker, man versus society. Pratchett really makes us question what one should do when simply everything one knows is stripped away. Instead of turning the Nation into an island of boys gone mad like Golding, Pratchett gives us Mau, who gives rights to the dead, focuses on the things he needs to survive, and who defies the gods that demand he act in ways that he sees no reason in. He also gives us Daphne, who while also trying to find her way also, amusingly at times, tries to cling to the standards of British society. Readers will smile at the absurdity of having a dead man as a chaperone.
Readers of Pratchett's Discworld series will recognize the wit and humor that must pervade all of his novels. Particularly funny are the regurgitating Grandfather birds and the Monty Python-esque Gentlemen of Last Resort. But more than witty, readers will be challenged to think on the relationship between God and Man, on science, on what really constitutes a civilized society, and on who you really are when all things are stripped away. As one reviewer for VOYA put it in 2008, "There is a lot going on in the novel-this reviewer could not help feeling as if she were missing something-but there is something to be said for Pratchett's respect for the young reader whom he imagines can keep up with and find pleasure in the difficult worlds he creates." Recommended for 9th grade and up.
Image taken from: http://guyslitwire.blogspot.com/2008/09/book-review-nation-by-terry-pratchett.html
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter
0 comments Posted by Samantha S. at 8:37 PM
ISBN 9781423100042
Cammie Morgan attends a very prestigious private school. But she's not just learning the basic geometry and biology. She's also learning how to run undercover operations, how to speak most of the languages on the planet, and how to hack into fire walled computer systems. This school is churning out the next generation of great spies. One night while out on a graded track and observe mission, Cammie the Chameleon, known for being great at being invisible, is noticed by a local boy. She and her friends spend the rest of the semester on a mission to find out if this boy is a secret agent sent to find a crack in the academy's armor, or Cammie's soul mate.
No longer does the damsel have to wait for James Bond to rescue her from the villain. This novel features many strong female characters who know how to take care of themselves. Carter takes the typical high school crush to an adventurous level, making each date a mission, and making the conflict of choosing what path a girl must follow a life or death matter. The conflict Cammie faces of choosing to lead a normal life and have a boyfriend or to continue this dangerous path in spy school and train for deep cover assignments is really brought home by a few dark tones in the novel such as: Cammie's own father never returning from a mission, Cammie's teacher pretending that the friends she left behind on a mission are being tortured, and the unknown status of the father of one of Cammie's friends.
The story is easy to read and the relationships between the characters give this story that little bit extra to make it more than an adventure story (especially since there is no real villain). To quote School Library Journal 2006 though, "the cutesy dialogue quickly becomes grating." Still, action packed with a good climax, this book is sure to capture a teens attention and hook her into reading the rest of the series. Recommended for girls 6th grade and up.
Image taken from: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/ally-carter/id-tell-you-i-love-you-but-then-id-have-to-kill-yo.htm
ISBN 0590228544
Laura Williams' brother Billy was always friendly. He was an active eleven year old boy who collected everything and who had learned to make a profit selling American snacks to the other American kids at their school in London. Everyone knew and liked him. As he was leaving the tube station for school one morning, a stranger handed him a package. As Billy came to realize that he held a bomb in his hands, his last action in life was to shield the bomb with his body to save the woman in front of him with a baby from dying. Laura Williams wants answers. She is determined that someone picked Billy to hand the package to and that his death was not meaningless and random. And she thinks that someone goes to her school.
Americans don't like to think that they are so naive about the world, but the truth is that while most American kids could find countries like Israel and Afganistan on a map, they couldn't tell you much else about them. One of the things that struck me about Laura's character is that she's just like every other American teen. She's more concerned with having a date to the next dance than with current world politics. Laura however attends the London International Academy, where many of the students ride to school in bulletproof limos and would be arrested and executed if they ever set foot in their home country. Students at this school have to learn to not ask about backgrounds if they want to make friends or risk starting a mini culture war. Reading about Laura trying to navigate this environment, especially once she begins looking for her brother's murderer among her friends, makes one want to cringe. I felt both embarrassed that an American girl didn't know the political world and yet I related to her because I can't honestly say I know it myself.
The mystery of this story is of course, who planned for Billy to be killed and was it a random act of violence. The reader begins to wonder if Laura is simply mad with grief when she begins to interrogate all of her friends and seems to see terrorists everywhere she looks. Ironically, in keeping her eyes peeled for suspects, she dismisses an important one off hand and only comes to realize later who Billy's killer is. I think the mystery of Billy's killer is easily solved by the reader once the killer begins to move with her plan, but Cooney does a great job of keeping the action fast paced and interesting to carry the reader to the end of the book.
Lastly, the ending is a true ending where not everything ends happily or the way we'd like. Billy's killer is judged as a minor and placed in a foster home, where she runs away from not long after. There is no real justice for Billy. And in the real world, people sometimes have to accept that. Life is not always fair.
1997 School Library Journal, "Gripping from the very start, the narrative becomes nearly impossible to put down as it races to its nail-biting though slightly far-fetched climax."
Image taken from: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/caroline-b-cooney/terrorist.htm
Monday, October 4, 2010
Angus Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
0 comments Posted by Samantha S. at 9:38 PM
Georgia has met the Sex God of her dreams! Big problem though, he's dating a girl named Lindsay, who wears thongs. On top of that, her Dad has to move to New Zealand to find a job, her cat Angus eats everything in sight, and it's possible that her three year old sister has peed somewhere in her room. Filled with delightful British-isms that keep us Americans flipping to the glossary in the back, teens will enjoy this light laugh out loud funny novel.
Novels written in the diary format depend entirely on the observations of the diarist for the details of events and other characters in the novel. Georgia's character is quite self involved, and her diary reflects that. Georgia longs to be older and more beautiful, but is still young enough to love the antics of her little sister and unruly cat Angus. The innocence she has when it comes to sexuality reminds the reader just how young she really is. For instance she identifies her crush, Robbie as Sex God through much of her diary, but is confused when a boy dumps her because some other girl "lets him do stuff." What stuff? is what she wonders.
I found it a bit disturbing that she seemed more troubled by the loss of her cat (don't worry, Angus reappears) than by the absence of her father, who's gone to New Zealand to find work, or than by the possibility that her mother could be having an affair in his absence. Perhaps Georgia simply chose not to express her loss or concern on paper? Why would Rennison leave this out?
This book is funny, in a Bridget Jones, look what humiliating situation I've gotten myself into this time kinda way. The crowning moment of funny for me is when Georgia, in an attempt to look older, tries to bleach a streak of hair blond. She leaves the bleach in for too long and her hair actually stiffens and breaks off in front of Sex God. Teens will either absolutely love or hate the British slang words and intermittent french vocabulary thrown around, especially since the french is not defined in the glossary. A 2000 review in VOYA agrees, saying "The only element that might keep this book from flying off the shelf is the preponderance of British slang in Georgia's journal entries and in the conversations among the main characters." If most parents knew what merde meant, they may protest its frequent use by Georgia.
Overall, a light read that I would give to my reluctant teenage girl readers, ages 7th grade and up.
Image taken from: http://childrensbookshop.netstep.co.nz/books/Angus_Thongs_and_FullFrontal_Snogging__Confessions_of_Georgia_Nicolson_1/0007218672.html?option=results&search_by=isbn&search_text=0007218672&Fnew_search=1&pagestyle=single&nsBookshop_Session=b8a501ec82a9ac348da16768342e9751
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Melinda is an outcast. Over the summer she called the cops during a party and got a lot of kids busted for drinking. She spends the rest of the summer doing nothing at home. When school starts, no one, not even her best friend, will speak to her. Not that Melinda has much to say anyway. She rarely speaks to anyone anymore. Her grades take a nose dive as things like homework and class seem less and less important. She spends a lot of her time in an abandoned janitor closet at school. Her parents barely notice that something is wrong, and are more concerned with the symptoms, such as her failing grades, than getting to the root of the problem. Her one bright spot is Art class. As the year goes by, we learn through flashbacks that the reason Melinda called the cops was because she was raped. She spends the year trying to come to terms with what happened. When her ex-best friend begins dating the very boy who raped her though, Melinda must decide whether to remain silent, or to finally speak.
"Anderson expresses the emotions and the struggles of teenagers perfectly. Melinda's pain is palpable, and readers will totally empathize with her." I agree with this quote from a 1999 School Library Journal article. Anderson's tale of a teen dealing with rape is heart rending, but not so heavy that the reader cannot get through a page without crying. Though Melinda does not speak much, her witty internal monologue makes the reader smile at her descriptions of the various cliques and the quirks of teachers. The most successful element of the story however is symbolism. Throughout the story trees are woven to symbolize where Melinda is on her journey to coming to terms with what has happened to her. Her art project for the year is to draw, sculpt, paint or use whatever medium she wishes to create a tree. She spends the year toiling over the tree, tossing out draft after draft and trying all sorts of mediums and styles, trying to get it perfect. In the end, she realizes that her tree "isn't perfect, and that's what makes it right."
Almost a second character in this story are the very defined cliques that exist at this school. Where Melinda didn't make any effort to fit in, Heather, the new girl, is perhaps an echo of the person Melinda might have been had she not been raped. Heather spends her time trying to figure out which cliques will get her farther in her social standing and proceeds to do everything she can to befriend those people. Ultimately shallow, the reader is glad when Melinda stops accepting Heather's fair-weather friendship, and perhaps in doing so saying goodbye to a piece of her old life that she knows will never come back.
Perhaps the best thing about this book is the expression of hope given by the last lines: "Words float up. 'Let me tell you about it.'" Melinda is changed, but eventually she's going to be ok. That is something that readers can take away from this story. Knowing that bad things happen but that one can recover. Recommended for 8th grade and up.
Image taken from: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/a/laurie-halse-anderson/speak.htm
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl by Barry Lyga
0 comments Posted by Samantha S. at 9:05 PM
Fanboy wants three things out of life. To own a mint condition Giant-Size X-Men #1, a new computer so that he can complete the work on his own graphic novel Schemata, and the third, well he's not telling. The rest of his life sucks. His best friend is a jock who secretly likes comics too. His mother and stepfather are expecting a new baby and expect him to be happy about it. And to top it all off, some jerk in his gym class repeatedly punches him in the shoulder every day. Then one day he receives an IM (Instant Message) from someone he doesn't know that asks: "Why do you let him hit you?" This begins a strange friendship that pulls Fanboy out of his comfort zone as well changes his view of the world.
Violence is a key theme of this story. Pervading the entire length of this book is the fear that Fanboy is going to be pushed to far by his tormentors and bring a gun to school to finally fulfill his fantasy of offing everyone on The List. Thankfully, the reader is treated to a nonviolent ending. But what Lyga has done is put the knowledge there that any young adult, no matter the GPA or seeming normality, has the capacity to be pushed that one step too far and do something violent. The contrast to Fanboy's fantasy about killing his tormentors is Goth Girl's (Kyra) attempts to commit suicide. Lyga shows the reader that teens in pain are not only liable to do violence to others but themselves as well.
Particularly well done in this story is the way the character slowly comes to really look at the world and the people surrounding him. Early in the story we see that Fanboy is writing a graphic novel, and that Goth Girl sees something of value in it. Under the guise of studying character and situation for later stories, Fanboy begins observing the people around him and thus seeing the truth of how things really are. His step-father is not quite the monster he makes him out to be, that the jocks mock each other just like they mock him, that the girl of his dreams doesn't have quite the perfect life he thinks, and finally that Kyra is suicidal and needs help.
A real selling point for this novel is the knowledge of comics and graphic novels displayed by Lyga. Teen fans of those media will enjoy the references to Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and other popular graphic novel series as well as the seriousness with which Lyga treats the media as a valid body of literature. A 2007 School Library Journal article agrees saying, "Here's a prose novel that includes lots of descriptive detail about graphic novels, an essentially visual medium, rendered into an aural performance with huge success."
Recommended for grades 9 and up.
Image taken from: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/barry-lyga/astonishing-adventures-of-fanboy-amp-goth-girl.htm
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