The Society of S

Author: Susan Hubbard

Publisher (In Great Britain): Walker Books Ltd

Publication Year (In Great Britain): 2008

Most of the readers will be: Middle school and early high school girls.

Reader's Advisory: If you like vampires, you should probably read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. It's so hot right now. Or, you could read my favorite vampire book, Sisters of the Night, edited by Barbara Hambly and Martin Harry Greenberg (this is a collection of short stories).

Summary:
Ariella has grown up with her father in a large Victorian house in Sarasota Springs, New York. She is home schooled and very sheltered. The housekeeper, Mrs. McGarritt, convinces Ari's father to let her spend time with her children. Ari becomes close with Mrs. McG's daughter, Kathleen, and her son, Michael.
Once Ari sees how other people live she realizes how strange her own life is. She has many new questions for her father during their afternoon classes. Most of them are questions he doesn't want to answer.
After Kathleen is murdered, Ari's father begins to tell her the truth about who they both are and what has happened to Ari's mother. In a deep depression, Ari hitchhikes south in search of her mother and the missing pieces she needs to complete the puzzle.

My favorite passage:

I forced myself to read a collection of poetry by Edgar Allan Poe, and it was tough going. I'd suffered through The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, which seemed to me painfully overwritten. But the poetry was even worse. In an hour my father would be upstairs, expecting me to have insights into meter and rhyme, and all I could think about was that Michael (and Kathleen) were out shopping, and that I wouldn't see them at all that day.
Mrs. McG had made me an omelet for lunch, so watery and tasteless that I couldn't make myself eat more than a few bites of it. I wondered why her cooking tasted so much better at her house.
When I met my father in the library at one, I said, "You know, I don't think much of Poe's poetry."
He was sitting at the desk, and one of his eyebrows lifted. "And how much of it have you read, Ariella?"
"Enough to know that I don't like it." I talked quickly, to hide the truth: I'd read the first and last stanzas and skimmed the rest. I tried to explain. "The words are just ... words on the page."
"Which one were you reading?" How like him, to know I'd read only one.
I opened the book and handed it to him. "'Annabel Lee,'" he said, his voice caressing the name. "Oh, Ari. I don't think you've read it at all."
And he read the poem aloud to me, barely glancing at the book, never pausing between the lines or stanzas, and the words were like music, the saddest song in the world. When he read the final lines ("And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side / Of my darling–my darling–my life and my bride / In her sepulchre there by the sea– / In her tomb by the sounding sea."), I was crying. And when he looked up from the book, I saw tears in his eyes.
He recovered quickly. "I'm sorry," he said. "Poe was a bad choice."
But I couldn't stop crying. Embarrassed, I left him and went upstairs, lines of the poem still sounding in my head: "For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams / Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE; / And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes / Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE."
I fell onto my bed and cried as I'd never cried before–for my mother and father and me, and all that we'd been and might have been, and all that had been lost. (pg 54-55)

What I really think:
After reading a book which so heavily features Whitman (not my favorite poet) you can imagine what a pleasant surprise it was to find that this book features Poe (quite possibly my favorite poet).
I like Ari's voice. She sounds like a very intelligent child. Not too intelligent to be believable. It's just right. The way she sometimes talks directly to the reader reminds me of Jane Eyre.
So, Poe references and a strong voice, what's not to love? Um, I wasn't crazy about the vampire business. It's not that I don't like vampires, it's just that I like to see an individual author's "world that contains vampires" be really unique. Tell me something I don't already know. Make me feel something about vampires I don't already feel. Yeah, Hubbard's rules for vampires are a little different from the traditional, but I wasn't totally sold. It felt kind of like a regualr coming of age story with vampirism thrown in to get teens to read it. (Because vampires are so hot right now.)
I remained interested throughout the book, but was well and truly disappointed by the Epilogue. It reminds me of the ending of Stacy (this movie is the reason I'm no longer allowed to pick movies when hanging out with friends). Ari hopes for a future in which humans and vampires openly share the world with one another. Gag.

Paper Towns

Author: John Green

Publisher: Dutton Books

Publication Year: 2008

Most of the readers will be: High school boys and girls.

Reader's Advisory: If you like looking for missing girls, help Adam find his sister in Graham Marks's novel Missing in Tokyo.

Summary:
Quentin thinks his dreams are coming true when his neighbor and long-time crush, Margo Roth Spiegelman not only notices him but invites him on a night of adventure. Together they drive around Orlando "bringing the rain" down on people who have wronged Margo (and even one person who has wronged Quentin). Q can't help but wonder what the next day will bring. And what it brings isn't Margo. She has disappeared.
Soon Q starts finding clues that are just for him. For the second time she has chosen him. He is the only one who can find her (maybe with the help of some friends and the Omnictionary), and he isn't going to let her down.

My favorite passage:

I kept going through the A's and then the B's - making my way through the Beatles and the Blind Boys of Alabama and Blondie - and I started to rifle through them more quickly, so quickly that I didn't even see the back cover of Billy Bragg's Mermaid Avenue until I was looking at the Buzzcocks. I stopped, went back, and pulled out the Billy Bragg record. The front was a photograph of urban row houses. But on the back, Woody Guthrie was staring at me, a cigarette hanging out of his lips, holding a guitar that said THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS.
"Hey," I said. Ben looked over.
"Holy shitstickers" he said. "Nice find." Radar spun around the chair and said, "Impressive. Wonder what's inside."
Unfortunately, only a record was inside. The record looked exactly like a record. I put it on Margo's record player and eventually figured out how to turn it on and put down the needle. It was some guy singing Woody Guthrie songs. He sang better than Woody Guthrie.
"What is it, just a crazy coincidence?"
Ben was holding the album cover. "Look," he said. He was pointing at the song list. In thin black pen, the song title "Walt Whitman's Niece" had been circled.
"Interesting," I said. Margo's mom had said that Margo's clues never led anywhere, but I knew now that Margo had created a chain of clues - and she had seemingly made them for me. I immediately thought of her in the SunTrust Building, telling me I was better when I showed confidence. (pg 113)

What I really think:
Once Margo went missing I found myself thinking "Please don't let this be another Looking for Alaska." Don't get me wrong, I love Looking for Alaska, but Green did that already, and since he seems to be pretty much amazing, he ought to have more stories in him.
There are some similarities: Boy obsesses over unatainable girl who is made even more unatainable by the fact that she disappears. He strives to understand her and ultimately understands more about life and himself.
By the end I decided it was different enough from Alaska to make me happy.
The mystery aspect is fun, but there are enough serious moments to remind you how important it is to Q that he solve the mystery. I actually like the meditations on "Song of Myself." As a teenager I often looked for answers in poetry and literature, and sometimes you can find answers there.
Green may be the only person who could make me enjoy Whitman, but I still don't like "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer." Do you hear me, Green? I like knowing the science behind stars!

The Roar

Author: Emma Clayton

Publisher: Chicken House

Publication Year: 2008

Most of the readers will be: Middle school and early high school girls and boys.

Reader's Advisory: Readers who are ready for a more advanced book might enjoy reading about Aldous Huxley's view of the future in Brave New World.

Summary:
Mika and Ellie are twins living in the London of the future. The animal plague that took place a generation ago has forced all of humanity to live behind The Wall. Families are crammed into dark, damp flats. Only the rich live in the shining upper layer.
Ellie has been kidnapped. She has been missing for two years and her family has been told that she is dead. But Mika knows she isn't. He has been looking for a way to get to Ellie, and the Youth Development Foundation may have given him the opportunity he needs.
The YDF is making all the children drink Fit Mix so that they'll grow big and strong. They have built arcades with a fun Pod Fighter game. And, they are having a Pod Fighter competition. Although Mika does not trust the Youth Development Foundation, he believes that winning the competition will somehow reunite him with Ellie. The problem is that the prizes are so irresistable, all the children are desperate to win.
He is playing a very dangerous game.

My favorite passage:

Mika took the lead and pushed forward with Audrey holding on to his coat. They hit solid knots in the crowd and had to work their way round them, and by the time they reached the edge of the platform, the overcrowding was so dangerous, Mika had to hang on to Audrey to stop her being pushed on to the track. A Silver Bullet hissed to a halt on the platform like a glass-eyed snake and the crowd surged forward, crushing them against the train. The doors opened and everyone pushed at once. Mika felt someone grab him from behind and yank him back and suddenly his grip on Audrey was gone and he was drowning in a sea of fists and elbows.
The others managed to force their way on to the train.
'Where's Mika?' Audrey shouted, looking back for him. 'Oh no! Look! He can't get on!'
Tom leaned out of the train and grabbed Mika's hand. He was hit hard in the face by someone's bag and the doors were trying to close on his arms. Mika heard a ripping sound as the sleeve on his coat tore, but still Tom didn't let go of his hand and with brute force he dragged Mika on board the train.
'Thanks,' Mika said, so grateful that the word sounded pathetically inadequate. 'That must have hurt.'
'Doesn't matter,' Tom replied. 'You almost got left behind.'
'I wish I'd stayed in bed,' Kobi said, inspecting a new rip in his black coat.
'That was scary,' Audrey said. 'I thought we'd lost you, and they almost pushed me off the platform.'
Mika put his arm behind her to stop a group of boys pushing into her, then he closed his eyes and sighed with relief.
'I hope the competition is easier than getting there,' Tom said, looking worried. 'That was awful.' (pg 156-157)

What I really think:
In my opinion, what makes a great anit-utopian novel is a believable demonstration of how a few people could control everyone else. In 1984, people are controlled by force; in Brave New World, they are controled by over-indulgance. And in The Roar, the masses are controled through the television. The people in charge create a lie and make everyone believe it by putting it on the news. I am satisfied that The Roar passes this test.
Clayton's book is fast paced and difficult to put down. She includes detailed descriptions of each stage of the Pod Fighter competition and leaves you wondering until the very end what the big secret is.

The Pocket and the Pendant

This is a review of the podiobook.

Author: Mark Jeffrey

Reader: Mark Jeffrey

Producers: Mark Jeffrey and Dragon Page

Production Year: 2005

Most of the listeners will be: Middle and high school boys and girls.

Listener's Advisory: In Pullman's His Dark Materials series tween age children also act older than their age and save the world.

Summary:
Max Quick, who has to punch himself in the face every morning in order to ride the bus, is an unlikely hero. But when he finds himself, and a few other children, alone in a time-frozen world, he has to step up to the challenge. First he rescues Casey who has fallen into a mirror. Then the two of them run super-fast (a power they have developed because of time being frozen) to a nearby city, only to be captured by a gang of children calling themselves the "Serpents and Mermaids." One of the "Serp" VPs, Ian, has had enough and helps them escape into a magical book. Into and out of books and across the country the children travel until they arrive in New York. An alien queen, Jadeth, and her followers, have landed there and stopped time so they can look for something called "The Pendant." Using yet another book, Max, Casey, Ian, and Sasha (a former "Serp" gone alien slave gone run-away slave) find the much talked about Mr. E who explains to them exactly what is going on, and gives them the tools (if not all the instructions) on how to stop it. Can the four children keep Jadeth from acquiring The Pendant, or will they fall victim to "the tyrrany of the page"?

My favorite passage:
When Ian comes to bust Max and Casey out of Serpant and Mermaid prison he explains to them how he has come by the magical book he intends to use to escape. The story he tells is rather gruesom as it invovles an overweight kid becoming so addicted to magical food from the book that he withers away and dies. But the reason I like this passage is because the overweight kid is named "Sweet Lid." The first time the leader of the Serpants and Mermaids meets him he is wearing a cool hat and the leader says, "sweet lid." That becomes the kid's name.

What I really think:
The author himself compares this book to the Narnia series and to His Dark Materials. Both of these series are fantasy/sci-fi and put forth a specific religious (albeit one of the religions is atheism) view of the world. The Pocket and the Pendant does give an explanation of how our world came to be (i.e. how humans became intelligent), but I don't think Jeffrey is trying to defend an "aliens are gods" religion. This is more of an exercise in "what if" than "this is what I think happened."
Being a classics junky I loved all the talk of ancient civilizations and how the aliens influenced them. But, being a classics junky I was also too smart for Jeffrey. The aliens use magical stones which Jeffrey calls "omphalos." The problem is that "omphalos" is a real word from ancient Greek that is still used in English as a medical term. The singular form is "omphalos" but the plural is "omphali." Jeffry uses "omphalos" for the singular and plural, and it kind of bothered me. He also uses the word "chthonic" a few times and pronounces it with a "ch" sound like in "choo choo" instead of a "ch" sound that is more like an aspiration before the "th" sound. Also slightly bothersome.
Jeffrey has included music in the backround of most of the podiobook. I think it adds to the feel of the story. Sometimes it is ironic (cheerful and serene while we hear about Max having to punch himself), other times exactly what the listener is feeling (intense when bad guys show up).
Aside from my nitpicky language complaints, this is a smart and well researched combination of history, legend, fantasy, and science fiction. The characters are unique (and uniquely voiced). They are complex, most neither all good nor all bad. I was pleased to learn, upon looking up the website, that this is the first of a series.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that the podiobook is free!

Kiki Strike Inside the Shadow City

Author: Kirsten Miller

Publisher (In Great Britain): Bloomsbury

Publication Year (In Great Britain): 2008

Most of the readers will be: Middle school girls.

Reader's Advisory: For another book with a strong female protagonist try The Secret Scroll by Lynne Ewing.

Summary:
Ananka Fishbein wakes up one morning to see a giant sink hole in the park across the street. Being chronically curious, she jumps in the hole to investigate. She sees a troll, a room, and a book. Ananka escapes with the book before the authorities come to fix the hole, and from it learns that there is a secret collection of tunnels and rooms beneath New York called the Shadow City. She would love to explore the Shadow City, but how will she get in?
Then Ananka meets Kiki Strike, the girl who wants to grow up to be "dangerous." Kiki recruits Ananka and a collection of delinquent girl scouts to join her on a journey into the Shadow City. What's more, she has found a way in through a crypt in a private cemetary. The girls call themselves the "Irregulars" and with their combined talents, almost nothing can stop them.
Ananka knows why she wants to explore the Shadow City, but she isn't so sure about Kiki's intentions. Then an accident floods Shadow City (and some of the streets of New York) and Kiki disappears. When the Irregulars find her again, should they trust her? Is she a villian they need to stop, or does she need their help to stop someone else?

My favorite passage:

"Did you hear about the rats?" I heard the woman ask. My stomach flip-flopped.
"What rats?" replied the man in a bored voice.
"It was on the news this morning. They said that a ship in the middle of the Hudson River was attacked by thousands of rats last night."
"Rats can swim?"
"Apparently," said the woman.
I had to bite my tongue to avoide offering the bit of trivia that sprang to mind. According to The Devil's Army rats are champion swimmers. During the plagues that laid waste to old New York, the dead were often buried in mass gravs on islands in the East RIver. Whenever the graves were left unfilled, the city's rat population would swim across to picnic on the exposed corpses.
"But what were a bunch of rats doing in the Hudson River?" asked the man.
"Nobody knows," the woman answered. "The reporter said they might have been swimming to New Jersey."
"That makes sense. New Jersey's a good place for them."
"They said the boat just got in the way."
"What happened to it?"
"Well from what I could gather, the crew abandoned the ship and escaped in life boats."
"That bad?" At last he was intrigued.
"I guess. The reporter said they ate the crew's dog."
"Rats eat dogs?"
"They eat anything, don't they?" said the woman.
The light changed, and the happy couple strolled off, arm in arm. I reached in my pocket for my Reverse Pied Piper. I had never imagined it could be quite so powerful, and I suddenly felt a little guilty. I wondered how my grandfather would have felt about what we had done. He probably would have packed up his bags and followed the rats to New Jersey. (pg 134-135)

What I really think:
The theory goes that girls will read books that have a male or female protagonist but boys will only read books with a male protagonist. But even if girls will read about boy heroes, why shouldn't they sink their teeth into a novel filled with girl power once in a while?
What makes this book even more empowering is that the Irregulars don't have super powers, they just have things they are really good at, like chemistry and forging documents. Most of the chapters end with advice, like the kind you would find in a guide book. So the reader can try her hand at spying and crime solving, too!
I found the passage of two years in the middle of the book to be a little weird. I'm not sure why Kiki couldn't have turned up again a month or two after she disappeared. But I suppose growing the girls up helped the storyline in some ways.
Over all, I love Kiki Strike and I love that there are books like this for girls.

Just Henry

Author: Michelle Magorian

Publisher: Egmont

Publication Year: 2008

Most of the readers will be: Late middle school to early high school boys and girls.

Reader's Advisory: This year's unusual Caldecott winner, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, is also a historical fiction novel that talks about old movies.

Summary:
Henry's neighborhood and family were torn apart by World War II. His father died a hero and Henry walks by piles of rubble on his way to the cinema every week. His mother has remarried and had a daughter, Molly. And his father's mother has moved in with them. Henry knows a few things at the beginning of the novel: His stepfather (Uncle Bill) is stuck up for wanting to go back to school and be something other than a railway man. The Jeffries family is no good because Mr. Jeffries is a deserter. He hasn't been seen since the war and Henry's father died saving Mr. Jeffries's life. Being divorced or having a child out of wedlock is scandalous, and Herny should not associate with people like that.
But there is a new teacher at Henry's school this year, and he sees people a little differently. He has the class work on group projects all year and he puts Henry in a group with the young Jeffries, and Pip, who was born on the "wrong side of the sheets." After weeks of desperately trying to avoid his groupmates, Henry finally gives in to his teacher's wishes and discovers he likes Jeffries and Pip! What else in his life had Henry been wrong about?

My favorite passage:

'You look browned off,' said his mother. 'The films weren't that bad, were they?'
Henry had just returned from the cinema. One of the films he had seen had left him feeling a bit low.
'There was this James Mason film called Caught and it was supposed to have a happy ending. And it sort of did.' And he paused. 'And it didn't.'
'What do you mean?'
'It was about a woman who was married to a man who didn't love her, only she didn't find out till after she'd married him. And he treaterd her like he owned her. Then she found out that she was goin' to have a baby, so she was sort of trapped, 'cos he said that if she divorced him, he'd pay people to say terrible things about her so he could take the baby away from her and then she'd never see it again. And he was really nasty to her. He wouldn't let her sleep when she wanted. And he made her cook meals for him and his friends in the middle of the night. He was a bully.'
She sat down quickly and flung a hand across her face.
'What a horrible story,' she said shakily. 'Why do thy want to make films like that?' and she burst into tears.
'Mum!' He was shocked. 'It was all right, Mum. She lost the baby and ended up with this nice doctor.'
'So if she hadn't lost the baby, she would have had to stay with the nasty one?'
'Yeah. He was a very powerful man. That's what I meant about the ending. It was good because she ended up with the nice doctor, but it was bad because she lost the baby.' (pg 106-107)

What I really think:
It is worth mentioning that this book is over 700 pages long and is divided into four parts. When I reached the end of part one I thought to myself, "This could be a book all on it's own." But after reading the whole thing I do think all the parts work together to make one unified story.
My only complaint is that it is a little too perfect that Henry is forced to walk in the shoes of the people he used to look down on towards the end of the book, especially since he has already learned his lesson by then.
Other than that, I really enjoyed Just Henry. I learned about cinema from 1900 to 1950, about post World War II Briton, and some things about British culture in general.

Twisted

This is a review of the audio book.

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson

Reader: Mike Chamberlain

Producer: Listening Library

Production Year: 2007

Lexile: 680L

Most of the listeners will be: High school boys.

Listener's Advisory: If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period by Gennifer Choldenko is another audio book in which the characters face family problems.

Summary:
Tyler's punishment for the "foul deed" (spray painting graffiti on the school building) is to work for the school janitors over the summer. He has been the scrawny nerd all his life, but all of the sudden, Tyler is a little bit cooler because of the "foul deed," and not so scrawny on account of all the manual labor. The girl of his dreams, Bethany, is actually flirting with him, much to the annoyance of her twin brother, Chip. But after a crazy post-football game party Tyler isn't so cool anymore. Everyone thinks he is the one who took the pictures of Bethany passed out and naked, including his father. Tyler doesn't want to live like this, ostracized at school and at home. He has to decide whether he should kill himself, or find a way to turn his life around.

My favorite passage:
Early on in the novel, Tyler and his family attend a cookout at the home of his father's boss, who also happens to be the father of Bethany and Chip. Chip's father notes how muscular Tyler has become over the summer and compares him to Chip. This leads to Tyler and Chip arm wrestling as their fathers observe. Tyler plays with Chip for a while but knows he can take him. When he is just about to claim his victory, Tyler looks over at his dad and sees him shake his head. His father doesn't want him to win. Tyler obliges and lets Chip win. He takes some pleasure in knowing he could have beat Chip, but gets none of the public glory. (Disc 1)

What I really think:
I almost cried during parts of this book. (The only reason I didn't was because I usually listen to audio books while running.) Parents can really hurt their kids in ways that aren't obvious like physical abuse or neglect. Anderson demonstrates how devastating verbal and emotional abuse (even if it is not always intentional) can be. I love that Tyler pulls himself out of a bad situation and finally tells his father how his behavior affects him. Ultimately, Tyler's dad doesn't promise to be different, only to try. I would caution that in real life, there are some parents who wouldn't even do that. But that doesn't mean their kids shouldn't say anything to them.

I mostly liked Chamberlain's reading. Although, I found his female voices to be a little frantic sounding at times, when the characters weren't necessarily supposed to be frantic.