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.

The True Meaning of Smekday

Author: Adam Rex

Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children

Publication Year: 2007

Lexile: 730L (This book is not in the Lexile Book Database. I used the Lexile Analyzer to get this value.)

Most of the readers will be: Late elementary and middle school girls and some boys. (Some high schoolers might even get into it, Gratuity acts much older than her age.)

Reader's Advisory: For a book from the alien's point of view, read Dude, Where's my Spaceship? by Dan Greenburg.

Summary:
Gratuity "Tip" Tucci starts out writing about Smekday for a competition to have her essay included in a time capsule. Smekday is the day the Boov invaded Earth (now named Smekland). Tip has a special take on the events surrounding Smekday and the days that follow. Her mother was abducted before Smekday and the Boov implanted a glowing mole on her back to help them learn English and Italian from her. On Smekday, they take Tip's mother away in a ship and Tip is not sure if she will see her again. On Moving Day (the day the Boov tell all the Americans they have to move to Florida) Tip decides to drive herself instead of taking one of the Boov's pods. In the course of her journey, she meets J.Lo., a Boov hiding from his own people because of a terrible mistake he has made. Tip and J.Lo. arrive in Florida only to find that the humans have been relocated again, this time to Arizona. And the Boov are no longer the only aliens interested in taking over Earth (or Smekland).

My favorite passage:

"Fhf. Boovworld had once five million channels beforeto the Purging."
"The what?"
"The Purging."
"Purging."
"Yes. In the Purging, all channels but one were eliminatited, to prevents death of society."
"Oh. Yeah. People are always going on about how TV is going to ruin Earth, too."
"Is well proven. Let us say, after televisions are invented, that there is only then a few channels. Three or four. We will call them A, G, Semicolon, and Pointy."
"How about we call them A, B, C . . . and ABC."
"Whatevers. Let us now think of these channels as like four cups filled with eggs. Cup A holds inside News eggs, and Sport eggs, and Variety Show eggs. Cup B has News and Animated Story eggs and Situationally Comedic eggs. So on. More big cups are added because peoples want More Choices."
"Uh-huh."
"Soon it is noticed that between the cups there is room for smaller cups.
"These cannot hold much. Maybies there is one with only News eggs all the time. Maybies one with only Funny. But maybies Funny is your favorite sort of egg, so you like this cup.
"Then even smaller cups are made for inbetween the small cups and even smaller between those. The more cups, the more new gaps to fill. Every kind of show is invented. Shows like Pillowbusters! And What Are People Willing to Put in Their Mouths? Or The Week in Balancing, or Watch Out, Baby Animals! Cavalcade, Big Celebrity Poomps, Guy on a Table . . . lots of shows."
"So what was the problem?" I asked.
"It went out of control," said J.Lo. "Shows had to be recorded whilst even more shows were watched. Not enough time for seeing everything a Boov wanted to see, so some had to quit their jobs, or hires someone to watch for them,"
"Um . . ."
"Televisional scientists theorized a point into the future when each and everys Boov has his own show, and this show only shows him watching shows. So HighBoov decree: no more television but what the HighBoov say. And the HighBoov mostly say cooking shows." (pg 243-245)

What I really think:
This is one of those books where the main character (Gratuity) is supposed to be 11, but she acts a lot older most of the time. She drives, she looks out for her mother, she looks out for J.Lo., she saves the world from aliens, etc. I don't see a problem with this. Some 11 year olds do have to take care of their parents. And, most 11 year olds probably think they could drive or save the world from aliens given the chance.

In addition to being really entertaining, this book contains some smart social commentary. The Boov rename Christmas "Smekday," just like Christians renamed the holidays that existed before Christmas. The Boov designate small areas of land for humans and believe they are being generous. Sound like the early Americans and the American Indians?

If you read the book and want more Boov, check out this website: The National Time Capsule Project

Firegirl

This is a review of the audio book.

Author: Tony Abbott

Reader: Sean Kenin

Producer: Listening Library

Production Year: 2007

Lexile: 670L

Most of the listeners will be: Late elementary to early middle school boys and girls.

Listener's Advisory: Laurie Myers's book Surviving Brick Johnson is also about a new kid who seems scarier than he is, and can be found in audio format.

Summary:
On the first day of seventh grade, Tom's teacher announces that a new girl, Jessica, will be joining their class. She has been badly burned and has moved to the area to get special treatments at the local hospital. Tom is horrified by her appearance, but not as horrified as he is by the behavior of some of his classmates. When his teacher asks him to take Jessica some homework she has missed he gets to know her and her story. Suddenly the things that used to be so important to Tom aren't so important after all: riding in Jeff's uncle's cobra, nominating Courtney for class president so that she will notice him. Now all he can think about is how awful it is for Jessica. She does not stay at St. Catherine's for long, but it is long enough to change Tom's life.

My favorite passage:
When Tom goes to Jessica's house to bring her her homework, he ends up telling her about his theory that small super powers are better than big ones. He thinks it would be good to have one indestructible finger or to be able to whistle really loudly. When you don't ask for too much, you are grateful for that little super power you have, and you can think of really amazing things you can do with it. (Disc 2)

What I really think:
This book was full of surprises. I'll admit it. Since the title is Firegirl I expected the main character to be a girl. (Tom is not a girl.) Then I was surprised by how much I can relate to Tom. That thing he does where he daydreams in class, making up stories in which he has weird super powers? I did that! All this time I thought I was a freak. And isn't that what young adult literature is all about - letting teens know they are not alone? Fortunately for Tom, he learns something from Jessica that I learned from the long, slow process of growing up - you can be happy with what you have.

Sean Kenin did a good job of giving the characters that have the biggest roles distinct voices. Most of the general class members sound the same, but you can always pick out Tom, Jeff, and Jessica. Jeff's voice is my favorite. He really sounds like a middle schooler who just doesn't care about most things.

Red Moon at Sharpsburg

Author: Rosemary Wells

Publisher: Penguin Group

Publication Year: 2007

Lexile: 870L (This book is not in the Lexile Book Database. I used the Lexile Analyzer to get this value.)

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

Reader's Advisory: For a non-fiction book on the Civil War, try You Wouldn't Want to be a Civil War Soldier! A War You'd Rather Not Fight by Thomas M. Ratliff.

Summary: India Moody is a young woman, coming of age in Virginia during the Civil War. Although she comes from a poor family, India is the god-daughter of the well off Geneva Trimble thanks to her father saving the life of Calvin Trimble. When the Civil War starts, India's best friend Julia moves away to Ohio. First the Trimbles's younger sons join the Confederate army, then India's father and India's tutor, Emory Trimble join, too. India witnesses the battlefield at Sharpsburg trying to bring medicine to her father. She sees many other terrible things before the end of the war is in sight, but throughout it all she holds on to her goal of finding her way to Ohio to attend Oberlin College. Juila has written to her that Oberlin accepts women and allows students to work off their tuition. India has heard that the world will be different after the war, and she hopes that means there will be a place for educated women.

My favorite passage:

Then he slaps down a notebook in front of me and takes on a churchy voice. "India, I am a tutor of physical philosophy at the University of Virginia. Until the war ends and school starts I am to be your teacher." he announces to me.
I feel my legs dangling from my chair like a little girl's.
"The following are our subjects." On a slate is written in my mother's hand, Scriptures, household economics, handwriting, declamation.
"We'll start on chapter one of Makey's Moral Behavior for American Girls," Emory says.
On the table next to me is a brass tube with an eyepiece up top, eight inches long. It shines and sits aslant a black basalt stand.
"What's that?" I ask.
"It's called a microscope," says Emory. "I brought it back from the university. Now repeat after me," he says. "'A Godly life is a swift river which runs through the garden of temptation.'"
"A Godly life is a swift river through the garden of temptation," I reel off.
"Which runs through," says Emory.
"What is the microscope for?" I ask.
"You can see tiny bacteria that are invisible to the naked eye," Emory answers. "'A Godly life is a swift river which runs through the garden of temptation."
"Can you show me? Can I look through it?"
"Let's get the prism out. It needs a prism to refract enough light for you to see." He turns the scope around, catches a ray of sunlight in the prism, and inserts a glass slide. "That is hog's blood," he says. (pg 36-37)

What I really think:
This book would be great to accompany a lesson in school about the American Civil War. I have always had a hard time with history myself, yet Wells has certainly drawn me into the story and taught me a great deal throughout her novel. I was especially surprised to read about how poor the medical field was at this time. Fiction books can educate and they can be a great resource for kids who turn their noses up at the text book.