AUTHOR: K.V. Johnasen
AGES: 9th – 12th
REVIEW: Admittedly, this book took some time to get into. The beginning was slow. You can check the plot summary at Barnes and Noble. Once the action gets going in this book, the plot picks up. The focus of the story is on precocious Jordan and Helen, who seem to spend too much time alone entertaining themselves. After Cassandra is born, we find out very little about her/it. So, Cassandra is not really developed as a potential character. There is quite a bit of technical language sprinkled throughout, but particularly at the beginning. I think this significantly contributes to the plodding plot. The story, however, is reminiscent of a Michael Crichton novel. The plot just isn't quite as quick, moving and engaging.
AUTHOR: Meg Cabot
AGES: 10th – 12th grades
REVIEW: This teen thriller is not disappointing. You can find synopses of the plot at Barnes and Noble or The Reading Zone. Cabot nails the teen language, sarcasm and insecurities. You probably know Cabot from The Princess Diaries but she also write under pseudonyms.
The strength of this book is that it is pure entertainment. There really aren't other commentary or underlying themes. It's pretty much Jesse's story and the complications she faces as a result of gaining her new psychic powers. Her oldest brother is fragile after his suicide attempt. She comes to understand that everyone who is being searched for isn't lost. While there aren't additional plots, we get little hints at teen angst and struggle from her overweight best friend to detention to cliques. A great quick read.
AUTHOR: E.L. Konigsburg
AGE: 8th – 12th grade
REVIEW: It is an understatement to say that this novel ended where I thought it was going. Having read other beloved novels by Konigsburg, like From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The View from Saturday, I expected a humor-filled story with an engaging plot and a lot of texture in characters and sub-plots. In Heroic World we get all that, plus a lesson in World War II intolerance, prejudice and decadence. Books for Kids offers a great summary of the story and characters or you can visit Barnes and Noble for a variety of reviews. NPR also has a nice excerpt as well.
This story is for an older group. At some sites I visited, the youngest age suggested dipped to 5th grade. I think that is a little too young for the content of this book. While approximately 80% of the book would be appropriate, the last 20%, where all the coincidences and histories begin to fall into place, brings in some rather mature ideas that might be too much for a young child or may be too much for a teacher/librarian/parent to be prepared to deal with. Themes of homosexuality, arranged marriages and the atrocities are of the mid-century Nazis are prevalent throughout the last section.
I enjoyed this book tremendously. The humor is more sophisticated and cynical than her other works. The children are precocious beyond their years. I did find it interesting, though, that the characters didn't seem to change or grow in the pages of the book. I think, instead, they all seemed to come to an understanding about one another—and the different understandings is really the point of the book. Through the characters' discoveries, we come to understand the deep effects the decisions from the past have played on the characters we see now. The coincidences are almost plausible, but we are asked to accept a little too much. Certianly, Heroic World is a worthwhile read. Just go in knowing where you start isn't anywhere close to where you'll end.
The second installment of The Chronicles of Narnia is set to release May 16, 2008. Here's the first official trailer for C.S. Lewis' classic.
AUTHOR: Tony DiTerlizzi & Holly Black
AGES: 7 – 12 years old
REVIEW: I just finished all five of the original Spiderwick Chronicles, and I have to say that I was pretty impressed for such short books. These novels are quick reads and really targeted at second through fifth graders. So, the plot lines are pretty simple, and the language is very accessible for children. For a review of The Spiderwick Chronicles, see Blais' article for USA Today.
While many movie and books sites, such as Cleveland Free Times and About.com, will give you the synopsis of the storyline about faeries, hobgoblins, boggarts, gryphons, dragons and ogres, the main story of Spidewick as us to suspend our disbelief about the world of Fey. As we follow the children's introduction into the Faerie world, we are also initiated into the new world around us. With each book, we delve deeper into the fantastical world.
However, the most real aspect of this book is the much less obvious subplot about "bad dads." As soon as The Field Guide begins, we meet the Graces, who are recovering from the separation of mom and dad. In later installments, we come to understand that Aurthur Spiderwick became obsessed with his field guide and the world of Fey, which caused his disappearance and broke his family. Finally, in The Wrath of Mulgarath, we understand just how self-absorbed Mr. Grace is and how angry the children are at him for collapsing their family and sending them into this dangerous spiral of events.
I believe the books improve over the series. Mulgarath to me is the bes of the five. The action, setting descriptions and emotions are all best portrayed in this book. I would certainly recommend The Spiderwick Chronicles to anyone. They are certainly appropriate for the 7th through 5th grader, but I would encourage a teen to pick through them as well.
AUTHOR: Eoin Colfer
AGES: 9th – 12th grades
REVIEW: While the vocabulary and plot in this novel is easy enough for younger children to read and understand, possibly as young as 6th grade, there is some mild profanity that would prohibit it from being recommended for these children.
Barnes and Noble offer a great synopsis of the book. (I actually prefer their site to Amazon, because of the different reviews and their use of media, such as interview. with the author.) Like the Spiderwick Chronicles, Artemis Fowl delves into the world of Faerie with wildly different perspectives.
What I find interesting about this story is that with many plots where the central protagonist (or antagonist?) is a villain—and in this case, a 12-year-old evil genius—the author entreats us to like the character. We somehow understand his plight; we somehow understand that the decisions he is making are somewhat out of his control and the only viable resolution to his plight. I don't think this is necessarily the case at all with Artemis Fowl. I think we are not supposed to like him at all. I believe he, his genius and gadgets all come off with easy grace and bright arrogance. I think what we overwhelmingly see in him time and time again is an irreverence for those around him. Both Butler, his sidekick-caretaker-bodyguard, and Butler's daughter have an intense loyalty to Artemis, but the feeling is not mutual and only subservient.
What I did find most interesting was that while we intensely dislike Artemis Fowl, we are still somehow rooting for him. We somehow want to see him outfox the rules and legends of Faerie. This indeed harkens back to the traditional hero-villain. I think the other element that engenders sympathy for Artemis is the plight for his parents and his mother in particular. We can really feel how he wants his mother back from the edge of insanity. I believe few authors have make us feel both emotions about the protagonist.
Along this rollercoaster of emotion, we are treated in bits to the legend and lore of Faerie, alternating points of view like a Mary Higgins Clark novel or a Law and Order: Criminal Intent episode. Colfer also does a superb job of mixing the most modern technology with Faerie myth so that instead of the book feeling entirely mystical or vintage, it comes across current. In contrast, Harry Potter always seems set in the mid to late twentieth century. I think this is because Rowling decided to exclude modern technologies from the storylines—even those scenes in Little Whinging and those plots with Hermione that would most certainly be a computer nerd.
I'm looking forward to breaking the code (and I haven't cheated), and I'm looking forward to starting the next book The Artic Incident. For more on Eoin Colfer, see Writing Athena's post from a seminar and see the movie I embedded below from Barnes and Noble, too.
AUTHOR: Carl Hiaasen
AGES: 5th – 10 grades
REVIEW: I just finished Flush, and I thought what Hoot did for owl's, Flush will do for dumping...no pun intended. For a summary of the book, Hiaasen's own site gives a pretty good short synopsis (and don't forget to try the game while you're there). I've also embedded a video clip below of Hiaasen talking about Flush. All of the characters in Flush are quite eccentric: from the larger-than-life pirate grandfather to Shelly the bartender with barbed wire tattoo to Abbey, Noah's little sister, that hasn't quite given up on biting. It felt a little like Steel Magnolias for kids. But being from the South myself, I kind of like a little drippy storytelling.
From many of the reviews about Flush, like those listed at Barnes and Nobles' site, you can see the emphasis of this book is on the development of Noah—how he sees the world from a tween's eyes to the everyday life of kid that's been bullied. Noah is an earnest character. Hiaassen has portrayed Noah true to the south and the coasts of Florida. At the Bookworm Burrow blog, Julie says one of the strongest elements in the book is how Noah uses hit wits to infiltrate and expose the waste dumping from the Coral Queen. I would have to agree that seeing Noah's disappointment for his father's untiring morality in unbounded, malicious ways only emphasizes the risky but lawful method Noah uses to bring justice.
But I would also add that possibly the strongest theme in the novel is the use of humor by Hiaasen's characters. This story had the potential to get very morose for a child, given the potential for divorce from Noah's parents and the questionable deaths of Shelly's boyfriend and Noah's Grandfather . But Hiaasen plays it light and lets the characters see the humor in themselves and all of their situations. While he doesn't make light of these serious topics, he allows the characters to recognize their flaws and laugh, which always makes it easier for us as outsiders to laugh as well.
Overall, I thought this book was a little slower than Hoot. It took me a little longer to read it. But I thought the plot was just as poignant and just as enjoyable. I appreciate that Hiaasen has purpose in his writing to children. While he's probably best known for his adult novels, his commitment to bring awareness to children of important causes is admirable and one I'm willing to commit my money and time to as well.
AUTHOR: Ryder Windham
AGES: 7th - 10 Grades
REVIEW: As other reviews have noted (see Amazon's site and The Comlink), the storyline for this juvenile novel tracts along all six movies very closely. It was evident from the editing that decisions were made about what to include with details and what to exclude. It seems as though page count dictated the plot. In many cases, I would like to have seen more details and space given to more of the action portions of the story. For example, after Count Dooku is beheaded, we are told in just a few sentences that Anakin flew Palpatine, Obi-Wan Kenobi and R2-D2 back to Coruscant, because Anakin can fly anything. There were too many instances of this throughout the book for it to be engaging and powerful. I understand that this short novel had to span 6 book and over two decades of characters and events, and the pace had to meet characteristics of young readers. Too much was abridged, though.
The best parts of the book, however, were those small shards that gave us insight into Anakin's broken psyche. In a number of instances, we learned about Vader's motivations and his feelings that he attempted to ignore. We were also treated to some references to stories that took place outside of the six novels, bringing in some of the expanded Star Wars universe beyond the Lucas vision. These jewels, I thought, were the book's greatest strength. We saw some connections between what happened after Empire and before Jedi. We saw allusions to Vader's first inclinations of Luke and Leia. We heard of Vader's retreat. These extended the story we all could recite. These make the book worth reading. But there were too few of these to make it worth buying.
The Comlink makes the suggestion for taking this novel and rewriting for adults. I would second that. This is the atypical direction, though. Most novels get the juvenile adaptation. We'd like to see the mature adaptation and don't disappoint us.
AUTHOR: Gregory Maguire
AGES: This is not a Young Adult/Juvenile book. At the earliest this book is appropriate for 16- or 17-year olds. This novel has strong sexual, political, violent and cynical elements.
REVIEW: Maguire is well known for creating alternate viewpoints for familiar tales. This tale was also translated into the very popular and award winning musical. The story is excellent and engaging, but it plods along in the beginning and slows at the end. Jay at FantasyBookSpot.com offers another critical stance on this novel. I find three themes woven throughout the text: interconnectedness, power and good v. evil.
Interconnectedness. The characters and story arcs are tightly related. Specifically, Elphaba's (the Wicked Witch of the West) uncertain conception and physical birth defects are intimately connected to the events leading to her death. Mother Yackle, a passing character, pops up over and over.
Power. Both perceived power and real power are toyed with in the novel. The roles and respect for sentient Animals degrade over the course of pages. The theocratic Nessarose (Wicked Witch of the East) receives the title "witch" from her subjects while Elphaba is so labeled from her seemingly mystical actions, frightening appearance and reclusive nature. Similarly, Glinda (Good Witch of the North) prefers the title "sorceress" but accepts the base "witch" from the ignorant commoners. Glinda in fact is the only true witch in the bunch.
Good v. evil. Finally, we as readers are continually asked to question our definitions of good and evil. How individual make seemingly benign decisions and the consequences of their actions — and how they should be interpreted. In the final pages, various viewpoints on the source of evil are considered at a dinner party, ending with Elphaba focusing on the unknowable elements of evil and its secretive nature.
While some instances of this theme are covert, the relationship of good and evil within religion and politics is obvious. Characters continue to credit (blame) religious icons for events. Elphaba, an agnostic, at the very end begins to question her soul, and the Wizard rules the empire of Oz with bureaucratic distance, military threat and a mystical veil.
Like the movie Titanic and the demise of Anakin Skywalker (a.k.a. Darth Vader), we begin this story knowing full well we are heading toward the iceberg and the dark side. The only question is how it happens, and this is what Maguire proffers so well. The empathy we feel for the Wicked Witch of the West is unexpected; her evolution is credible and moving for an iconic villain. When we reach her death (with the pail of water), there are no bells ringing "Ding, dong, the witch is dead!". Instead, we realize the Kansas twister is the smallest tragedy in the whole book, and Elphaba's life is the true disaster.
RSS Feed