REVIEW: Darth Paper Strikes Back (YAY!!!!!)

Once again, I must apologize for the lack of posts.  It would seem that as stressful as preparing to move halfway across the country was, actually moving and starting the new job is even *more* stressful.

Lucky for me, there was a happy book delivery to my new home....

I have been waiting for this book to come out for YEARS several months.  I absolutely loved The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and taught it to my undergraduate children's literature classes.  It was one of the few books that the vast majority of my students seemed to enjoy.  (There were, of course, always a few Star Wars-haters or disinterested-ers who couldn't get into it.  There were also people embarrassed to be seen carrying around a book with such a nerdy cover.

Then there's me.  I want a poster of this cover to put up in my office.*  Whatever.)

But more than the fun Star Wars references, Angleberger seems to *get* it.  He seems to truly remember what it is to be a kid; the concerns and the humor.

So, I was very happy about the sequel:  Darth Paper Strikes Back....


[Cue Star Wars music!!!!!!!!!]

Appetizer:  "It is a dark time at McQuarrie Middle School."  Harvey has been causing trouble by making an origami Darth Vader and it's only the first day of seventh grade.  Worst of all, Dwight has been suspended and may have to go to a correctional and remedial education facility.  Before Dwight left the school with his Yoda finger puppet, Yoda managed to give one last bit of wisdom:  To ask Tommy, Kellen and some of the other kids at McQuarrie to build a case file to prove that Dwight isn't a danger to anyone.

What follows are the accounts of many of the seventh graders, speaking about the good deeds Dwight (and Yoda) did over the summer at the skate park and during the fall in science class and at other events.

The fact that Angleberger includes a "multicultural inclusion gone wrong" episode was of particular interest to me.  Caroline, who was a love interest to Dwight in the previous book, but who has now started going to a private school, is having trouble with an "understanding our differences" policy at her school since she is the one who is different.  Caroline has a severe hearing impairment.  She usually reads lips, but since her new classmates try to converse with her by yelling or using sign language (which Caroline does not use) she is having trouble understanding them.

Yoda's advice to Caroline *does* involve telling a lie (which I won't reveal the specifics of).  I wasn't too crazy about the lie.  But the fact that the situation was included and that Yoda/Dwight still provided a fun solution that made me think Angelberger or Yoda needs to start an advice column for middle schoolers.  He does an amazing job of encouraging empathy across different backgrounds and experiences.

As I continued to read Darth Paper Strikes Back, a few concerns did come to mind.  In this book, Harvey is presented as being a villain.  Although I will admit he was my least favorite character during the first book, he still represents a very real characterization.  So, I wanted to see a bit more understanding of his perspective sooner.  Also, this book includes pseudo-swear words (You know, %$#@, etc.).  The reason I mention this is because I know for a fact that second graders read this series.  I could see parents of children that young being upset by such typing.  (There was also use of the word "crap" on page 71, which, when I was little I used to get into debates with other kids over whether that was a swear word or not.  The character who uses the word does get in trouble for his bad attitude after using the word.  But still... *shrugs*  Parents of second-graders be warned.)

This is a series that grows with the students though.  The first book included a lot of different voices in episodic short chapters and had drawings in the margins throughout the entire story.  Darth Paper Strikes Back includes longer chapters, fewer voices, conflicts that build across chapters and, due to some of the plotting, the margin illustrations are not used in the final third of the story.  The book is slowly helping younger readers to transition to novel reading.  Good show.  Good show, I say.

Angleberger also begins to build an argument about the way creative and unusual kids are treated under the "Teach to the Test" mentality that schools have.  Here's an excerpt from Tommy's point-of-view that demonstrates this:

I was almost to my locker when I saw Principal Rabbski up ahead.  She likes to stand in the middle of the hallway so that all the kids have to detour around her. 

I put my hand up and pointed Origami Yoda right at her. 

"If you strike down Dwight, he will grow more powerful than you can possibly imagine!" said Origami Yoda. 

Rabbski sighed. 

"Tommy, I think it's time you and I had a little talk." 

..."Listen, Tommy," she started.  I've heard about your petition or whatever it is that you're going to give the school board tonight.  I can't talk to you about another student's disciplinary problems, but there are a few things you need to understand." 

She had a lot to say.  A lot of it was about the Standards of Learning tests that we have to take and how important they are to the students and to the school.  She said some students were a constant distraction from the Standards of Learning.  Not only were they hurting themselves, they were also hurting other students and the whole school, since school funding was based on test scores. 

"When I see you in the office for screaming at another student one day, and the next day you're walking down the hall with a Yoda puppet, being disrespectful to me, that just proves my point," she said.  "You're a good kid, but another kid has got you confused and distracted.  I need you to put Yoda away.  Put your petition away.  And concentrate on the real reason you're here:  To learn.  To ace the Standards test." 

Well, I was confused and distracted, but there was no way I was buying all that.  It had an Emperor Palpatine sound to it.  (pp. 129-131)

Well put, Tommy.

*Sets timer and begins waiting for the third book.  Also starts taking bets on whether there will be three or six books in this series.*


Dinner Conversation:

"It is a dark time at McQuarrie Middle School...
When did it start?  I can tell you exactly when it started.
The first day of school.  The very first day of seventh grade.  We didn't even get one good day.  We got, like, five minutes" (p. 1).

"Paperwad Yoda?  Sorry, this isn't the year of Paperwad Yoda."
And then he goes, "Bom bom bom bom-ba-bomb bom-ba-bomb."  Vader's theme.
And he sticks out his hand and there it is:  an origami Darth Vader, made out of black paper, with shiny silver eyes and a red paper lightsaber.
There are a lot of things that might have happened next.  I was about to say, "That's awesome," because I did think it was awesome.
But before any of us guys could say anything like that, Rhondella says, "Aww, it's so cute!"
And Sara says, "Yeah, it really is cute, Harvey."
And Amy says, "He's so teeeny!"
Harvey was furious, of course."  (pp. 2-3)

"This case file is to try and save Dwight and Origami Yoda from the school board.  His is it going to save them?  I have no idea.  But Origami Yoda said to do it, so we're doing it.
That was the last piece of advice Origami Yoda was able to give us.  Since then we've been on our own.  Actually, it's worse than that...
Instead of Dwight and Origami Yoda, we're stuck with Harvey and Darth Paper!" (pp. 8-9)

"Dwight looked like a zombie.  He was too freaked out to say anything.
But he held up Yoda, and Yoda said, "Out of school kicked we have been."
"Kicked out?  For what?  For having Yoda?  No way!" said Kellen.
"Way yes," croaked Yoda.  "Save Dwight you must."
"How?"
"The truth for the school board you must write.  Another case file is needed."
I was going to ask him something useful about the case file--like, why we needed to write it or what it should be about--when Kellen butted in.
"Should I doodle on it again?" asked Kellen annoyingly.
"Hurt that could not, I guess," answered Yoda.
The Dwight's mother and Principal Rabbski came out of the office, and I didn't have a chance to ask my useful question" (pp. 16-17).

"Dear School Board,
Having had some time to reflect on the incident with the pre-eaten wiener, I have come to the conclusion that Dwight/Yoda are the good guys while the rest of the kids around here are a pack of wild savages who would think it was really funny if I ended up puking from food poisoning or getting a tapeworm or worse!" (p. 92)


Tasty Rating:  !!!!


*Can somebody make this happen?  I've done multiple searches and an Origami Yoda one doesn't seem to exist.  Who wants to be a hero and find/make me a poster?!

REVIEW: Divergent (If The Giver Bought the Hogwarts Houses a Drink, Nine Months Later This Is the Book a Stork Would Deliver to YA Readers' Doorsteps)

Roth, V.  (2011).  Divergent.  New York:  Katherine Tegen Books.

487 pages.


Appetizer:  In the future and in the remains of Chicago, people choose factions to devote their life to:  Candor for those who privilege honesty, Abnegation for those who value selflessness, Dauntless for the brave, Erudite for those who devote themselves to intelligence and Amity for those who focus on peace.  There are also an unlucky few who are faction-less, who live in poverty.

At the age of sixteen, people are tested and then choose their faction during a ceremony.  Raised by abnegation-ist parents, Beatrice--or Tris--faces a tough choice.  She has never felt like she truly belonged with her selfless parents.  The results of her test complicate matters further.  Beatrice learns she is divergent--she could potentially belong to three of the factions--a fact she is told to keep secret as she faces the choice between betraying her parents' hopes for her and pursuing her own dreams.

Divergent is an interesting concept.  It's a blending of the sorting into Hogwarts houses with the Hunger Games and The Giver.  The execution of this story, however falls short of the blogger and insta-movie deal hype that I heard about this book.  It also falls short of the stories I'm comparing it to.  Although Tris's struggle to make her own choice for herself is engaging--and is a central struggle for any young person who is contemplating making choices that his or her family disagrees with--it falls short when compared to Katniss sacrificing herself for her sister in The Hunger Games.

The deadly challenges Tris faced while being initiated into the Dauntless faction were hard to believe as permissible in the society.  While logically, I knew that Roth was constructing a world different from my own and was critiquing the hostile and horrible environments that the Dauntless characters live in, I just couldn't quite believe the world she was creating.  Wouldn't a brave person speak out against the injustice and suffering they see around them?  I found myself mumbling "lawsuit" repeatedly as the Dauntless initiates were required to jump onto or off a moving train or leap off the side of a building with no support, safety nets, training or proper instruction.  I repeat, lawsuit.

Maybe I'm just not "dauntless" enough to believe in this world or maybe I've been too sheltered all my life/too lucky to ever experience a group dynamic with such a competitive and dangerous mentality.

*Shrugs*

As a reader, I also needed to feel a clearer threat to the society or to Tris.  The Dauntless train hard to protect what remains of human society...from what?  While there are hints that Denmark Broken-Chicago is a kind of stinky place within the first 300ish pages, I needed a real threat sooner.  I also needed to understand why being divergent was dangerous sooner.  Basically, this book could have--and should have--been 150 pages shorter.

But having said that, there were some moments in this book that really captured my attention and engaged me.  Whenever Tris faced injustice at the hands of her fellow initiates or at the hands of the Dauntless leaders, I wanted her to come back and kick a-- *ahem* ...and kick bum-bum.  (And she was a tough character who wanted to do just that.)  I also found some of the subtle tensions and themes very engaging; such as the propaganda the erudite faction was creating against the abnegationists or the way Tris had to accept the idea that some of her friends were also her competition.

Overall, this is another one of those books that doesn't seem to meet the hype, but is still enjoyable.  Recommend it!  Just don't imply that it's the best thing in THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE/SINCE SLICED BREAD/IN THE WORLD OF YA LITERATURE as you do.


Dinner Conversation:

"There is one mirror in my house.  It is behind a sliding panel in the hallway upstairs.  Our faction allows me to stand in front of it on the second day of every third month, the day my mother cuts my hair" (p. 1).

"Today is the day of the aptitude test that will show me which of the five factions I belong in.  And tomorrow, at the Choosing Ceremony, I will decide on a faction; I will decide the rest of my life' I will decide to stay with my family or abandon them" (p. 2).

"People who get this kind of result are..."  She looks over her shoulder like the expects someone to appear behind her.  "...are called...Divergent."  She says the last word so quietly that I almost don't hear it, and her tense, worried look returns.  She walks around the side of the chair and leans in close to me.
"Beatrice," she says, "under no circumstances should you share that information with anyone.  This is very important" (p. 22).

"I realize that the decision might be simple.  It will require a great act of selflessness to choose Abnegation, or a great act of courage to choose Dauntless, and maybe just choosing one over the other will prove that I belong.  Tomorrow, those two qualities will struggle within me, and only one can win" (p. 37).


Tasty Rating:  !!!

REVIEW: Starcrossed

Angelini, J.  (2011).  Starcrossed.  New York:  HarperTeen.

487 pages.  (Those be a lot of pages!  And I read every single one...like a big girl.)


BEAUTIFUL COVER:  Check.

INTERESTING PREMISE:  Helen is attracted to/repelled by a new boy on the island and learns that they are members of waring factions descended from the Greek gods.  Check.

A GOOD ENGAGING STORY:  ....

A GOOD ENGAGING STORY?

...

...

Meh.



Appetizer:  Sixteen-year-old Helen just wants to be normal.  But as a six-foot tall, beautiful, blond that all the Nantucket tourists stare at, it would seem she's doomed to stand out.  (Poor baby.  Don't you just tear-up at the thought of her burden?  It does turn out that Helen is hiding some big secrets though--including super strength and speed--but by the time I realized that she had real secrets, I was already annoyed by Helen's self consciousness.)


When the Delos family moves to town, Helen has a strange reaction to the mere sight of one of the boys in that family, Lucas:  She wants to kill him.  (WTF?  Anger, violence, hate and attempted murder are the new sexy?!  No thank you.)  She also starts to have dreams of a dry land that also hosts the three Greek fates.  To make matters worse the Delos family now know her secrets, but can she trust these potential enemies to keep them?  And what are they and Lucas hiding?  And who else might be searching for Helen?


Let's admit this straight away--I did not enjoy this book.  Normally, I probably wouldn't have finished or written a review on it.  But since Starcrossed was related to my dissertation research, I forced my way through it.

Okay, that disclaimer out of the way, on to the rest of the review...

Nothing about Helen or Lucas really grabbed me.  I found the starting point of I-Hate-and-Want-to-Kill-You to be an upsetting starting point for a romance and the continuing violence against women (with few consequences) was disturbing.

For example, one of the Delos family members, Cassandra, attacks Helen with a sword to test a theory:

"Cassandra swung the sword.  In that millisecond Helen knew she'd had a good life, because she suddenly loved it so much that she could have wept with gratitude.  She'd had amazing friends, the best dad in the world, and a strong, healthy body.  She'd even experienced the joy of flight.  And once, just once, in the middle of the night, she'd almost kissed the only boy she'd ever wanted.... (p. 254-255)

Nice defeatist attitude, Helen.  If your life is so great, why don't you try to keep it as a supposed-friend swings a sword at your neck?  You don't have to fight back, but a nice duck or sidestep would be appropriate.  Let's continue with the scene...

Helen felt a strange, vibrating tickle, like someone had pressed a gigantic kazoo against the side of her throat and blown on it.  She saw Cassandra's eyes widen as she pulled the blade back from the side of Helen's neck and looked at it."   

..."'I was right.'  She dropped the sword and grabbed Helen in a hug.  Then she started jumping up and down, making Helen jump with her.  "You're not dead!  This is...You have no idea how happy I am I didn't just kill you!" she squealed."  (p. 254-255)

What the heck?  Seriously?

Look, I am open to a book exploring violence, victimization and empowerment...but I found Starcrossed's presentation to be thoughtless with almost no consequences of actions and choices included.

Both good characters and bad characters hurt characters who pose no threat to them.  Multiple times throughout the story, Helen is abused by Hector Delos, a supposed friend, under the premise that he is training her.

Helen is also threatened many times and in many ways, but never fights back.  (This, in theory, could be a great message about remaining in control, not rising to the bate or advocating peace, but since Helen learns she's invulnerable to weapons, and so just let's herself get hit, it's not exactly a model impressionable young readers should follow.)

Plus, the way the Delos family is constructed reminded me a little too much of the Cullen family in Twilight.  Then there was the way that the entire family--whether they liked Helen or not--devoted their lives to protect her.  Like in TWILIGHT!  The fact Helen lived alone with her dad.  Also Twilight-ish.  The fact that she starts a relationship with a boy who wishes to protect her but resists her and all of his urges to be with her sexually--STINKS OF TWILIGHT!

Now would be a good time to accuse me of having Twilight on the brain...but honestly, I don't.  I haven't reread the books in year or so.

Also, I was not crazy about the way the book played with point-of-view.  The vast majority of the story is told from Helen's perspective.  That's fine.  Then suddenly, there are small segments from one of the villain's perspectives.  Okay, I guess.  The suddenly we see Lucas's perspective.  Ummm, why?  And within the last 100 pages, while being under the guise of third-person limited with Helen's perspective, the narration still briefly dips into other characters' thoughts.  Sloppy.  I just wanted the narration to be consistent.

Sigh.  I feel like I've had a string of mostly negative reviews over the last couple of months when it comes to these vaguely dissertation related myth books.  While I of course enjoy growing more and more snarky, I am starting to feel bad for the string of authors whose books I've been critical of.  Let us all keep our fingers crossed that the next book in my ol' dissertation mountain will entertain me more.


Dinner Conversation:

"Some of the Labor Day tourists were staring at her, not unusual, so Helen tried to turn her face away as subtly as she could.  When Helen looked in a mirror all she saw were the basics--two eyes, a nose, and a mouth--but strangers from off island tended to stare, which was really annoying" (p. 2).

"'But I really thought you'd be more interested in the Delos family.  You'll be graduating with a few of them.'
Helen stood there as Delos ran around her head.  The name meant nothing to her.  How could it?  But some echoey part of her brain kept repeating "Delos" over and over" (pp. 11-12).

"Secretly, Helen had always felt she was different, but she thought she had done a pretty good job of hiding it her whole life.  Apparently, without realizing it, she'd been sending out hints of that buried freak inside of her.  She had to try to keep her head down, but she wondered how she was going to do that when she kept getting taller and taller every damn day" (p. 23).

"Lucas was standing in front of his locker about twenty feet away, staring back at Helen while the world waited for gravity to switch back on.  He was tall, over six feet at least, and powerfully built, although his muscles were long and lean instead of bulky.  He had short, black hair and a dark end-of-summer tan that brought out his white smile and his swimming-pool blue eyes.
Meeting his eyes was an awakening.  For the first time in Helen's life she knew what pure, heart poisoning hatred was" (pp. 43-44).

"No one of regular human strength could have stopped Helen from strangling him if she set her mind to it.  Lucas was like her.
The thought made her stomach heave.  How could she be anything like someone she hated so desperately" (p. 70).

"Helen suddenly realize dhow many random events and raw impulses had driven her decisions these last few days.  When she thought about it, it was as if she had stopped choosing for herself days ago.
"The Furies won't allow us to avoid each other," he said in a dead voice" (p. 81).


Tasty Rating:  !!

REVIEW: Vordak the Incomprehensible: How to Grow Up and Rule the World

Vordak/Scott Seegert.  (2010).  How to Grow Up and Rule the World.  New York:  Egmont.

196 pages.


Appetizer:  Evil Vordak the Incomprehensible has some advise for all of us "inferior" ones:  How to grow up and rule the world (in case you didn't figure it out by the book's title).  While regularly asserting his superiority, Vordak provides essential information about any potential evil villain's behavior, costume, lair, laugh, plans, etc., as he or she seeks world domination.

This how-to guide includes contracts, quizzes, commandments, scenes that could be acted out, question and answer sections, charts and illustrations that will amuse readers.  (I could particularly see third or fourth-grade boys who have just finished Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Captain Underpants or the Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians series loving this book.)  I think this book's varied structure will keep kids engaged.  (Although, every now and then, I did happen upon a page that confused me a little.  Like this one from page 43...

It took me a minute to realize that the "no" and "yes" weren't a part of the dialogue on the page and were instead noting which was the appropriate response.  I would have preferred if the 'no' answer were crossed out or something.)

I did also have trouble with the way gender (and nerds!) were presented.  Scientists were picked on (I would have preferred if they were championed since mad scientists want to rule the world too!).  But much worse, there really was no possibility presented that a female villain would want to rule the world (We have ambitious goals too!)  I was willing to overlook this problem until I hit page 130.  In this section, Vordak was recommending villain-types to include on a terrifying team.  The last addition is:

Sigh.

Inappropriate.

I know there are some people out there who would say I'm reading too much into this page (I know this for a fact, I occasionally get comment/email spam from such people who not so kindly request that I relax and not take little kids' books so seriously.)  But for real, peeps.  Children's literature is how young people make meaning about the world.  The subtle messages are the ones that can be the most dangerous (as opposed to "promoting evil" which is repeated over and over again throughout the handbook and is easier to consciously critique).  Pairing a supposedly beautiful woman with the suggestion to include her on a team based solely on appearance with the stipulation that she needs no skills is not cool.

I'll stop myself there.

I'd hate to get caught ranting.

For the most part, this is a fun bit of escapist reading for any reader who loves superheroes.  One of the book's greatest strengths is Vordak's awesomely large vocabulary.  While lots of young readers will not get every word, they'll be amused enough to keep reading and (dare I hope?!) look up the meaning of a word or two to add to their vocab to intimidate and prove their superiority to the "imbeciles."

Plus, one of Vordak's commandments involves playing with language:

Having said that though, I could see some parents having a problem with the book.  Early on, Vordak asserts that all people have at least a little evil in them.  Plus, a lot of Vordak's evil advice is on a small scale, like possibly saying, "Wow!  You are one fat cow." to a lunch lady (p. 29).   While I fully believe most young readers will find this hilarious and will simultaneously realize that this is not appropriate to actually say...there is also a small minority I could picture *actually* following through with some of Vordak's suggestions.

I'd still keep How to Grow Up and Rule the World on my classroom bookshelf though.  I would probably mark the offensive "hire the woman because she looks good" page with some explanation points and even a "Not Cool" written in the margin to make my stance clear (and hope my students ask why I marked that page *fingers crossed!*).  I think the book has great potential to get a reluctant reader enjoying reading!  (I'd just also be ready to say, "This book is just for fun!  If you *do* let any of the messages in this book--subtle or obvious--influence your behavior, do the exact opposite of what Vordak suggests!  Mmm, kay?")


Dinner Conversation:

"Greetings, inferior one.  I am Vordak the Incomprehensible.  Who you are doesn't matter.  What does matter is my dastardly decision to add the world of book publishing to my growing list of conquests.  Without even trying very hard, I have created a book of such unbelievable brilliance that it dwarfs all other literature preceding it throughout the course of human history" (p. 1).

"I am tremendously proud of my heartless nature, and if you have any hopes of eventually becoming planetary dictator, you, too, will need to embrace your inner evil.  I'm not talking "break your mother's favorite ceramic egg and blame it on your little brother" evil.  I'm talking "willing to pull the moon into a collision course with the Earth by means of a powerful, nuclear-powered tractor beam in order to get your way" evil.  I'm talking incredibly evil.  Worse than your orthodontist" (p. 2).

Favorite illustration that I will try to find a way to use in one of my classes:

"We Evil Masterminds work long, grueling hours developing our organizations and concocting our brilliantly evil plans, patiently biding our time for the ideal moment in which to strike.  And then, in swoops the Superhero to thwart everything.  No preparation.  No planning.  Nothing.  He simply receives "the call" and off he goes, swooping and thwarting" (p. 73-74).


Tasty Rating:  !!

REVIEW: Beauty Queens by @libbabray (Somehow, even more awesome than Going Bovine! It seemed impossible, right?)

Hi all!

Sorry for the lack of posting over the last few weeks.  I am teaching my first graduate class on multicultural children's literature and all the readings, the new class prep work and the super-awesome-AMAZING level of discourse among the students is keeping on my toes and striving to learn more and more so I don't drop the ball can keep challenging my students.

On top of that, I've also started training to do some part-time online tutoring.
(They actually had me teach a lesson on math!  EEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEE!)
So, I'm still working to adjust to the changes in my schedule.

ON TOP OF THAT on top of stuff, last week I also received a job offer for a year-long position that would require me to move to Louisiana within...oh, about three weeks time and begin teaching two courses (one of which the likes of which I haven't taught before).  So, yeah.  Crazy times for me.

But enough excuses, on to the review...

Bray, L.  (2011).  Beauty Queens.  New York:  Scholastic Press.

390 pages.

(An ARC was sent to my boss...AND I STOLE IT!)


   Hunger Games
   Lost
   Lord of the Flies
   Some Feminist commentary
   The worst/best of reality TV
   Libba Bray
   Satire
   Craziness
+ Fun                                         
Beauty Queens


Appetizer:  There has been a plane crash on a remote island.  The plane had been filled with 50 Miss Teen Dream Pageant contestants, their handlers, costumes and a few camera crews.  But after the crash, only a handful of the beauty queens survive.  They must determine whether they should continue to prepare for the big pageant as they await rescue or focus on survival.

As the days pass, the girls realize that there is something odd about the island and that they may have to work together and save themselves.

So, based on my love for the Printz Award winning Going Bovine and any interview that I've seen of Libba Bray, I fully expected that Beauty Queens would amuse me.

It did not disappoint.  (And actually, I think I like it even more than Going Bovine since it explores so many wonderful questions surrounding femininity and feminism. )  And by 'many,' I mean TONS OF ISSUES!  There is explorations of racial and gender stereotypes, transgendered and disability experiences, female desire for sex, many version of what femininity is.  There is also a lot of social and cultural commentary and criticisms about boy bands, beauty products, T-shirt designs, and ON AND ON.  I would love to teach this book in a feminist YA lit course!  (*Hint*  Somebody--hire me to teach a feminist YA lit course.)

In terms of classroom uses though, I would probably only do read alouds of select portions that could work as a stand-alone or short story.  (I actually used one chapter with my current students to discuss princess culture.)

Plus, both Miss Ohio and Miss Michigan survive the initial crash.  Since those are the two states I've lived in for most of my life, I was happy to follow my representatives, excited that the midwest was ON THE ISLAND!  (Of course, post-Louisiana job offer, I can't help but notice that a Miss Louisiana is missing in action.)

I did initially have some trouble with the omniscient narrator.  I wanted to stay with Adena, the first character the reader meets.  I also had trouble keeping track of who was who.  (It is worth noting that keeping track of or remembering names is a reoccurring problem in my life.  But it is also admittedly made more difficult when all thirteen-ish of a book's main characters are interchangeably referred to as Miss STATE-Name and So-and-so-first-name.)

But the more I read, the more I enjoyed the story, liking how the quirky aspects all came together.  I loved the critiques provided in the footnotes.  I also loved the way the author dove below the surface of each of the girl's characterization to break down stereotypes.  There are certain beauty queens on the island that it would have been easy for me to hate if they were presented as mere stereotypes (I'm looking  in direction of Miss Texas), but I wound up engaging with them all.  (On that note, I especially liked that the story didn't turn into a girls vs. girls massacre, which had seemed like a possibility in the early chapters.)

YAY, beauty queens!


Dinner Conversation:

"This book begins with a plane crash.  We do not want you to worry about this.  According to the U.S. Department of Unnecessary Statistics, your chances of dying in a plane crash are one in half a million.  Whereas your chances of losing your bathing suit bottoms to a strong tide are two to one.  So, all in all, it's safer to fly than to go to the beach.  As we said, this book begins with a plane crash.  But there are survivors.  You see?  Already it's a happy tale.  They are all beauty queen contestants" (p. 1).

"Okay, Miss Teen Dreamers, I know we're all real flustered and everything.  But we're alive.  And I think before anything else we need to pray to the one we love."
A girl raised her hand.  "J.T. Wooodland?"
"I'm talkin' about my personal copilot, Jesus Christ."
"Someone should tell her personal copilot that His landings suck," Miss Michigan muttered.  She was a lithe redhead with the panther-like carriage of a professional athlete.
"Dear Jesus," Taylor started.  The girls bowed their heads, except for Adina.
"Don't you want to pray?" Mary Lou whispered.
"I'm Jewish.  Not big on Jesus."
"Oh.  I didn't know they had any Jewish people in New Hampshire.  You should make that one of your Fun Facts about Me!"
Adina opened her mouth but couldn't think of anything to say."  (p. 7).

"Reality check:  We're stuck on a freaking island with only a few bags of pretzels to each and God only knows what kinds of dangerous animals or mega-zombie-insects out there, and you want us to keep working on our pageant skills?"
Taylor glossed her lips again and smacked them together.  "Correct."
"Don't be so negative," Miss Ohio said.  "I'll bet the coast guard is on its way to rescue us right now."
Adina shook her head.  "What we need is a team leader."
"I accept," Taylor said.
"Um, not to be rude or anything, but usually you put it to a vote.  It's a democracy, right?" Adina laughed uncomfortably" (p. 20).

"'I think you're missing the salient point here,' Shanti said.  "Miss Teen Dream is a girls' pageant.  You are not a girl.  Ergo, you are disqualified."
"Who says I'm not a girl?"
"You have a wang-dang-doodle!" Tiara squeaked.
"Is that all that makes a guy a guy?  What makes a girl a girl?"
And the girls found they could not answer.  For they'd never been asked that question in the pageant prep" (p. 99).

"The baton passed from girl to girl as ideas were discussed:  Huts.  Fishing lines.  Rain-catching tarp.  Zip lines.  Tanning booth.  By the time the baton came to Taylor again, the girls had a renewed sense of hope.  After all, they were the best of the best.  They had lived through the pageant circuit, which was no place for wimps.
"When they come to rescue us, they will find us with clean, jungle-forward, fashionable huts and a self-sustaining ecosystem.  We will be the Miss Teen Dreamers they write about in history books," Taylor said.
"Nobody writes about Miss Teen Dreamers in history books," Adina scoffed.
"They will now, Miss New Hampshire.  We will be the best ever.  This is my new goal.  And I am very goal-oriented" (p. 104).

"Mary Lou and Sosie gathered rocks and pebbles from the beach and spelled out the word HELP along the shore so that it might be seen from a passing plane.  At the end of the word, Sosie made an exclamation mark with a smiley face at the bottom.
"That way, they'll know we're friendly," she reasoned."  (p. 120).


Tasty Rating:  !!!!!

REVIEW: Sirenz (These girls didn't tempt me...there are more enticing sirens out there)

Bennardo, C., & Zaman, N.  (2011).  Sirenz.  Woodbury, MN:  Flux.

275 pages.


Appetizer:  Seventeen-year-old roommates Shar and Meg do not get along.  It's just not working out.  One night, after a failed attempt to try to develop a friendship, a fight over a beautiful pair of red high heels and a very attractive boy results in the guy dying in a subway accident.  To make matters worse, the nearby witnesses think Char and Meg pushed him.

In steps the god of the Underworld, Hades.  He makes Char and Meg an offer they can't refuse (at least, not without suffering through a long prison sentence).  The two girls are tasked to become sirens, like the monsters from Greek mythology.  They have a short period of time to lure a person who has made a deal with Hades to one of several underworld portals throughout New York City.

While the task seems simple enough, they realize too late that the more they use their new bewitching powers, the more bird-like their appearances become.  And if they fail, Shar and Meg will become Hades's dog walkers...for all of eternity.

The story alternates between Shar and Meg's perspectives.  At first I was amused by their differing characterizations.  But, as I kept reading, it seemed that any differences between the two were only at the surface level, and I couldn't really distinguish between their voices except for the fact that one was more fond of the color pink than the other.

I also initially liked the way aspects of mythology were alluded to early on in the text (a hot guy was referred to as a god, etc.) and the way Persephone was portrayed.

But the more I read, the more aspects of the story began to engage me less and less and leeeeeeesssssssssss.  At times, the way action was described in the story was a little too brief for my taste.  Stuff would happen, and I would be like, wait, what?    The way gender and feminine beauty are treated are also just begging to be analyzed.  (But in terms of Sirenz being a bubble gum, light, New York City is the center of the universe, fashionista, chick lit, it's nothing out of the ordinary.)  The focus on superficiality did start to grate on me as I kept reading.  It's statements like, "War it would be.  And may the better-looking, better-dressed, nicer girl--namely, me--win" (p. 65) that make me right "ugh" in the book's margins.  And what about the smarter girl?  I'm personally all for the smarter girl winning.  (Although, at no point in the story did Meg or Shar strike me as being particularly smart.  Call me a workaholic, but after making a deal with the god Hades that could cost my soul, I'd spend my next morning trying to plan how to complete my half of the bargain instead of going shopping.  But that's just me....)

Also, despite the fact that Meg and Shar are seniors in high school, they may as well be twenty-somethings.  In fact, I wish they would have been...because then I probably wouldn't have bothered to read it.

Overall, I liked the premise of this story.  But the characterizations and lack of intelligence in the plot and protagonists left me wishing the book was 100 pages shorter.


Dinner Conversation:

"God, you're wearing those clunky things again?  How stupid, wearing five-inch wedge heels on cracked and frozen New York City sidewalks.  What if you break an ankle?
"Great shoes," I said, faking a beauty queen smile at Meg" (p. 1).

"It was an accident!" whispered Shar.
"My dear Sharisse and Margaret, this poor soul is dead.  You both had a hand in killing him.  Do you think that will matter to his family and friends?  To the courts?"
"How do you know our names?" My voice, steady until now, trembled slightly.  I glanced over at Shar, who stared back, looking as pale as I felt.
"What should we do?" she whimpered." (p. 20).

"But let's get back on topic.  You killed an innocent man." He grinned sardonically.  "And if I heard you correctly, you both said that you would do anything to make this situation go away.  I'm here to oblige you.  I've never seen such natural talent!"
"Talent for what?" I asked.
"Think about what happened.  You met that young man tonight, and you made quite an impression.  He was going to take both of you to a music venue, yes?  You saw what you wanted and wasted no time in engaging him.  And then Sharisse"--he turned a lascivious grin on Shar--"not to be outdone, moved in, and all she had to do was smile.  How could he stay away from either of you?  He was completely enchanted.  You lured him to his doom, and he happily followed!"  (pp. 23-24).

"Our agreement requires you tow to lure Mr. Romanov to one of the many portals to my realm.  To help you achieve this task, your natural talents will be enhanced."  He looked from me to Meg and back again before continuing.
"As Margaret has so accurately described, the Sirens called to the sailors, who couldn't resist them.  A word or a look drew their victims to them."  He licked his full lips and gazed at me.  "One look from you, Sharisse, is already captivating.  From this moment forward, no mortal will be able to look away when you engage him.  And you," he continued, turning to Meg, "so glib, Margaret.  They'll hear you, and they'll obey."
"That's it?" I asked.
"I doubt it," Meg replied.  (pp. 30-31).


Tasty Rating:  !!

REVIEW: Reaching for Sun

Zimmer, T.V.  (2007).  Reaching for Sun.  New York:  Bloomsbury.

181 pages.


Appetizer:  Josie Wyatt is in the seventh grade.  She lives with her mom (who is almost never around since she's trying to complete her college degree) and her grandmother.  She hates school.  She's never met her father.  Her family has had to sell most of their farm land and must watch subdivisions for the rich be built around their house.  She is bullied by most of the kids at school.  And she has cerebral palsy.

Reaching for the Sun is set over (just about) a year as Josie makes her first friend, deals with her grandmother's deteriorating health and struggles to find the words to get her mom to let her not participate in a summer clinic designed to help her with her cerebral palsy.

This novel in verse is written by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, a local author who I have heard speak a couple of time, and who (full-disclosure!) made contact with the literary agency that would eventually represent me.  So far, this is my favorite book by her.  Josie's voice is honest and poignant.  The moment that really drew me in was when she thinks about what type of man her absentee-father must be:

"I wonder
if he ditched me and Mom
when he found out about my disability,
or if it gave him the excuse he needed--
typed letter left behind in the mailbox,
no stamp.
I wonder if I got my straight
blond hair, blue eyes,
and cowardice from him,
and whether he's real smart,
rich, and now got himself
a picture-perfect family" (p. 15)

Ouch!

Throughout the book, there are also illustrations of a flower growing in the bottom right margin of each page.  As you go through the story, Josie grows and blossoms as a character and the flower grows and blossoms too.  I thought this was a wonderful touch that complimented the content and name of the story beautifully.

Overall, I found Reaching for Sun to be a very touching and realistic story of a girl coming into her own.


Dinner Conversation:

"The last bell rings,
but
I'm hiding
in the last stall
of the girls' bathroom
until I hear
voices
disappear behind closing
classroom doors.

Only then
do I slip out
into the deserted hallway
and rush to room 204,
a door
no one
wants to be seen opening.

Not even
me."  (p. 3).

"With my odd walk
and slow speech
everyone knows
I've got special ed,
but if I wait
until the hall clears,

taunts like tomatoes
don't splatter
the back of my head" (p. 4).

"Mom wants me
to love school like she does,
follow her lead to college,
make my mark:
the first astronaut with
cerebral palsy,
or at least
a doctor or lawyer,
something with a title or abbreviations, I guess.
But Mom's dreams for me
are a heavy wool coat I
wear, even in summer."  (p.46).


Tasty Rating:  !!!!

Interesting Twitter Trend #YAsaves

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal posted an article that accuses YA literature of being too violent, dark, etc.


Whether you agree with the author, Meghan Cox Gurdon, is up to you.


In response, however, YA author Maureen Johnson started a tweeting trend on twitter that included people describing the ways YA literature has influenced them.  You can find some of the comments at http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23yasaves (or searching #YAsaves on twitter.com).


Many of the comments are moving.  I highly recommend giving them a glance.

REVIEW: Genesis (Moving "Forward Toward the Past")

Beckett, B.  (2006).  Genesis.  Boston:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

150 pages.

A few weeks ago one of my reader friends came into my office and talked about how Genesis was the best book she'd read in a looooooooong time, how I needed to read it NOW, etc.

While this friend didn't *exactly* say we couldn't be friends anymore if I failed to read it, it was implied that to be a *good* friend I would read the short dystopian novel.  And read it soon!

And so I did.

And, let me tell you, Genesis is not a book that a doctoral student should read around the oral defense of her dissertation.  I kept getting flashbacks to my general exams.  *cringes*

Appetizer:  Anax is being tested.  Set during an examination and shared predominantly as a transcript, Genesis is told almost in in real time for a period of four-ish hours as Anax, a student of The Academy who has specialized in history and in analyzing the life of a man named Adam Forde, describes the end of the world as the reader knows it, the history of The Republic and how Forde helped change everything.

I absolutely loved the way that both the world of the story and the structure of the narrative refer back to the works of Plato and other classical thought.  Genesis is kind of like a post-apocalyptic Republic, in that it takes on issues of education, class, individuality and artificial intelligence.   It's an interesting and very intelligent narrative.

Early on, I did feel like the dialogue provided a little too much convenient backstory, but overall this is a well-plotted book...that is kind of difficult to explain beyond what I've already said.

About 3/5ths of the way through the book, Anax presents her interpretation of a series of exchanges of how the focus of her work, Adam, engaged with a being of artificial intelligence named Art.  About that point, I started to pick up a major Battlestar Galactica vibe.  For reals.  I could practically hear the stacatto music in the background as Adam and Art debated humanity vs. AI much like the conversations between Gaius Baltar and Six...except less sexual...and without the skimpy red dress.

I definitely recommend checking it out (it is, after all, a pretty quick read).  As for whether it was the best book I've read in the last couple of years...it may be my friend's, but I wouldn't say it was mine.

But then, I feel like it's been a while since a book really grabbed me.

You read that, authors and books?  That's an invitation.  Impress me!


Dinner Conversation:

"Anax moved down the long corridor.  The only sound was the gentle hiss of the air filter overhead.  The lights were down low, as demanded by the new regulations.  She remembered brighter days, but never spoke of them.  It was one of the Great Mistakes, thinking of brightness as a quality of the past.
Anax reached the end of the corridor and turned left.  She checked the time.  They would be watching her approach, or so it was rumored.  The door slid open, quiet and smooth, like everything in The Academy zone." (p. 3).

"EXAMINER:  Four hours have been allotted for your examination.  You may seek clarification, should you have trouble understanding any of our questions, but the need to do so will be taken into consideration when the final judgement is made.  Do you understand this?
ANAXIMANDER:  Yes.
EXAMINER:  Is there anything you would like to ask, before we begin?
ANAXIMANDER:  I would like to ask you what the answers are.
EXAMINER:  I'm sorry.  I don't quite understand...
ANAXIMANDER:  I was joking.
EXAMINER:  Oh.  I see. (p. 4).

"The founders of The Republic sought to deny the individual, and in doing so they ignored a simple truth.
The only thing binding individuals together is ideas.  Ideas mutate, and spread; they change their hosts as much as their hosts change them" (p. 50).


Tasty Rating:  !!!!

REVIEW: The Throne of Fire (The Kane Chronicles Book Two)

Riordan, R.  (2011).  The Throne of Fire.  New York:  Disney-Hyperion Books.

446 pages.


Appetizer:  It's been several months since the events of The Red Pyramid took place.  Sadie and Carter Kane are still living in Brooklyn, they have found other descendants of the pharaohs and are training them.

Things are about to get intense and complicated though (much to Sadie's dismay.  It's her birthday and she just wants one day off).  After the siblings learn that the Apophis, a snake of chaos that will cause the end of the world, is going to be released in five days they and some of their new recruits must find and raise the god Ra in the hopes of maintaining the balance between chaos and order.  Adventures that take the Kane siblings to Russia and Alexandria ensue.

So, it could be the fact that I finished my dissertation, edited it, defended it before a committee and am a few weeks away from graduation, but somehow this book seemed *funnier* to me than Riordan's previous books.  Sure, I know that his other books have humor in them, but The Throne of Fire actually made me giggle from time to time.  Especially the scene involving the magic camels, Katrina and Hindenburg (who was filled with gas like the zeppelin).  And I quote:

"Our camels plodded along.  Katrina tried to kiss, or possibly spit on Hindenburg, and Hindenburg farted in response.  I found this a depressing commentary on boy-girl relationships."  (p. 253)

Hahaha.

My biggest criticism of The Throne of Fire is the emphasis on romantic relationships.  Carter is still set on finding Zia, who he is certain will still feel their special connection.  Sadie is torn between the god Anubis and one of the new recruits, sixteen-year-old Walt, who has a dark secret he is trying to hide from Sadie.  These romances are subtle and raise some great tensions in the story, but I felt like I would have preferred it if Sadie and Carter were a couple years older.  (Sadie is thirteen...a little young to be torn between a sixteen-year-old and an immortal god.  A one-sided crush, I would have been fine with--I had a crush on a sixteen-year-old named Sam who I went to Campy Henry with when I was Sadie's age.  I was totally crazy about him.  But here's the thing.  To him, I was still a little kid.  The romances in The Throne of Fire just felt a little too complicated and YA.)

One thing I did notice (and appreciate) was that during Carter and Sadie's many journeys from here...to there...and back there again...was that Riordan tended to summarize a lot of their adventures with brief descriptions of the complicated travel struggles, but without immersing me in yet another lengthy conflict.  If he had included the details of a lot of these trips, the book could have been a couple hundred pages longer.  And I might not have made it through that.


Dinner Conversation:

"Carter here.
Look, we don't have time for long introductions.  I need to tell this story quickly, or we're all going to die.
If you didn't listen to our first recording, well...pleased to meet you:  the Egyptian gods are running around loose in the modern world; a bunch of magicians called the House of Life is trying to stop them; everyone hates Sadie and me; and a big snake is about to swallow the sun and destroy the world."  (p. 1)

"We're going to wake the god Ra," Carter said, as if it was as easy as getting a snack from the fridge.
The trainees glanced at one another.  Carter wasn't known for his sense of humor, but they must've wondered if he was joking.
"You mean the sun god," Felix said.  "The old king of the gods."  (pp. 52-53)

"I looked down at my street clothes.  A sour taste filled my mouth.  Carter and I had a quest to undertake, and it was unlikely we would come back alive.  Another responsibility on my shoulders, another unreasonable demand for me to sacrifice my life for the greater good.  Happy birthday to me."  (p. 59).

"So let me get this straight," Sadie said.  "We break into a heavily guarded Russian national museum, find the magicians' secret headquarters, find a dangerous scroll, and escape.  Meanwhile, we will be eating chocolate."
Bes nodded solemnly.  "It's a good plan.  It might work." (p. 156)


Tasty Rating:  !!!

REVIEW: Dork Diaries (Book One)

Russell, R.R.  (2009).  Dork Diaries:  Tales from a not-so-fabulous life.  New York:  Aladdin.

282 pages.


Appetizer:  Nikki has just started attending Westchester Country Day on scholarship and she wants nothing more than to fit in with the popular mean girl MacKenzie and her friends.  But how?  Would an iPhone or winning an art prize get her invited to MacKenzie's birthday party?  Nikki struggles through middle school, hoping to find the key to popularity and happiness.

As I was reading Dork Diaries, it was hard not to compare it to The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.  Both are focused on the experiences of middle school, one from a boy's perspective (DoaWK) and one from a girl's (DD), both use illustrations (although DoaWK's are more central to the story), both feature superficially-minded selfish characters, but while I can't help but occasionally chuckle at the content of The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Dork Diaries left me silent, not very amused, and from time to time wondering wtf.  One of my "WTF?" moments was this passage:

"The most important lesson I learned last year was that having a CRUDDY phone--or NONE at all--can totally RUIN your social life.  While hordes of celebrity party girls regularly FORGET to wear undies, not a single one would be caught dead without her cell phone.  Which was why I was nagging my mom about buying me an iPhone" (p. 4).

WTF?  What am I supposed to think about that?   I get that this is meant in jest...but I just don't find it funny.  There were a few other attempted jokes like that throughout the book.

I did appreciate the tension over Nikki's desire to belong and to find true friends.  I also appreciated Nikki's embarrassment by her father's van.  That also felt very real to the age.

Overall, I wasn't that impressed with Dork Diaries.  Nikki's conflicts with MacKenzie and her attraction to Brandon felt pretty typical of middle grade/tween/young-young adult romance books.  The story did end on a positive note...which is also typical of this type of book.

Since the illustrations didn't add to much to the story over all, I was just left feeling like Louise Rennison's Angus Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging was a much more entertaining diary series (although for a potentially slightly older age group).


Dinner Conversation:

"Sometimes I wonder if my mom is BRAIN DEAD.  Then there are days when I know she is.
Like today.
The drama started this morning when I casually asked if she would buy me one of those cool new iPhones that do almost everything.  I considered it a necessity of life, second only to maybe oxygen.
What better way to clinch a spot in the CCP (Cute, Cool & Popular) group at my new private school, Westchester Country Day, than by dazzling them with a wicked new cell" (p. 1).

"Absolutely no one writes their most intimate feelings and deep, dark secrets in a diary anymore!  WHY?!
Because just one or two people knowing all your BIZ could completely ruin your reputation.
You're supposed to post this kind of juicy stuff online in you BLOG so MILLIONS can read it!!!
Only a TOTAL DORK would be caught WRITING in a DIARY!!" (pp. 7-8).

"This morning the halls were plastered with colorful posters for Random Acts of Avant-Garde Art, our annual school art show.
I'm SUPERexcited because the first prize for each class is $500, cash!  SWEET!
That would be enough for me to buy a cell phone, a new outfit from the mall, AND art supplies.
But most important, winning that award could transform me from a "socially challenged ART DORK" to a "socially charmed ART DIVA" practically overnight!" (p. 46).

"When the office assistant asked if I was there to pick up an entry form for the avant-garde art show, I just froze and started clucking like a hen:
Buk, buk, buk-ka-a-ah!
Then, MacKenzie laughed, like ME entering the competition was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard.
That's when I spotted the yellow sign-up sheet for library shelving assistants, also known as LSAs.  Every day during study hall, a few kids get excused to go to the school library to shelve books.  An LSA's life is about as exciting as watching paint dry.
So, instead of trying to achieve my dream of winning a major art competition, I very STUPIDLY signed up to shelve DUSTY and BORING LIBRARY BOOKS!" (p. 48-49).


Tasty Rating:  !!

REVIEW: The Emerald Atlas (Book One of The Books of Beginning Series)

Stephens, J.  (2011).  The Emerald Atlas.  New York:  Alfred A. Knopf.

417 pages.


Appetizer:  When Kate was four-years-old, her mother woke her to inform her that she had to watch over her baby brother and sister, Michael and Emma.  That night her parents disappeared with a stranger and have never returned.

Ten years later, Kate and her siblings (now eleven and twelve-years-old) are shuffled from orphanage to worse orphanage, asserting that their parents are still out there, somewhere.  When one last adoptive parent is deemed unacceptable by the siblings, they are sent to one final orphanage in upstate New York, in a town called Cambridge Falls.  It doesn't take them long to realize there's something strange about their new home.  First, they're not only the only children at the orphanage, but they're the only children in the town.

As they explore their new home, the siblings find a strange room, and in it a strange book.  A photo album that, when a photo is placed upon it, sends the children to the time and place the photo was taken. The siblings learn that Cambridge Falls has a dark past, an evil Countess/witch who is holding the town hostage as she searches for something.  Realizing the danger, the siblings try to escape to their own time, but accidentally leave Michael behind.  Kate, who had promised to keep him and Emma safe, knows that she must rescue her brother and find a way to save the town.

Some reviewers have compared The Emerald Atlas to Harry Potter.  From the first few pages, I definitely picked up on an HP vibe.  But instead of Harry being left on a stoop of his family members, Kate's parents are the one leaving her and her siblings.  Instead of McGonagall and Dumbledore having a conversation about how extraordinary he is over a sleeping baby Harry, a seemingly wise, old shadowy man and her parents have a conversation about the the children's destiny outside of Kate's bedroom.  And instead of pronouncing Tomato as tomato, I will now be pronouncing it toMAto.

Also, the Dr. Pym character feeeeeels eerily similar to Dumbledore, knowing impossible things and being ridiculously wise.  (What is it about having god-like old people in children's literature?  Sure, I get that it's an archetype and I'm all for respecting elders, but sometimes Granny Relda from the Grimm Sisters series, Dumbledore and this Dr. Pym seem more than human.)

Focus brain.

There's also a friendly giant in The Emerald Atlas who lives in a cabin.  Although, he's nothing compared to Hagrid.

But that's enough of comparison talk.  The Emerald Atlas does hold its own as being an engaging story.  There were a lot of great suspenseful moment, like when the siblings were fleeing from starved wolves.  I really loved Emma.  She was tough and made a lot of humorous comments.  Here's one from when the siblings learn about some of the Countess's henchmen, the Screechers:

"Morum cadi, the deathless warriors,"  the Countess said.  "Though I admit Screecher is a fitting name.  They were men, hundreds of years ago.  But they traded their souls for power and eternal life.  Which they were granted, of a sort."   

"They're not so bad," Emma said.  "Mostly smell is all." (p. 104)

And as far as villains go, the Countess is pretty awesome as well.  She's twisted and funny.  Kind of like Sue Sylvester from Glee, but less vicious.  One of my favorite quotations from her was:

"When I married the Count, everyone said he had no more than six months to live.  I don't need to tell you I didn't plan on allowing him even that long.  But wasn't it just like the old mule to creak on for nearly a year?  Honestly, he must have survived a half dozen attempts to poison him.  Never marry a finicky eater, my dears.  Nothing but trouble." (p. 100)

I'm not certain The Emerald Atlas deserves all of the hype it is receiving.  But it is definitely an entertaining fantasy to keep in mind as a book recommendation.


Dinner Conversation:

"The girl was shaken awake.  Her mother was leaning over her.
"Kate"--her voice was low and urgent--"listen very closely.  I need you to do something for me.  I need you to keep your brother and sister safe.  Do you understand?  I need you to keep Michael and Emma safe."  (p. 1)

"The girl's heart was hammering in her chest, and she had opened her mouth to ask what was happening when a man appeared in the doorway.  The light was behind him, so Kate couldn't see his face, but he was tall and thin and waring a long overcoat and what looked like a very rumpled hat.
"It's time," he said.
His voice and that image--the tall man silhouetted in the doorway--would haunt Kate for years, as it was the last time she saw her mother, the last time her family was together.  Then the man said something Kate couldn't hear, and it was as if a heavy curtain was drawn around her mind, obliterating the man in the doorway, the light, her mother, everything."  (pp. 2-3)

"What...happened?" Emma asked.  "Where are we?""
"I can answer that."  Michael's face was flushed with excitement, his words tumbling all over themselves.  "We're in Abraham's picture!  Well, not in the actual picture itself; that would be ridiculous"--he allowed himself a quick chuckle--"we've been transported to the time and place the photo was taken."
Emma stared at him.  "Huh?"
Don't you see?  It's magic!  It has to be!"
"There's no such thing!"
"Really?  Then how'd we get here?"
Emma looked about and, seeing no clear way to argue, wisely changed the subject.  "So where are we then?" (p. 48)

"I do not enjoy playing the grump!  But I must cure you of your excessive love of me!"  The Countess picked up the doll that Annie had dropped and smoothed his patchy hair.  "So, the word has already been sent to your men.  They'll find me what I'm looking for, or beginning this Sunday--I do hate Sundays, they're so dull--beginning this Sunday, your town will lose a child each week I have to wait."  (pp. 60-61)

""But I would like to give you a word of warning."  He leaned forward in his chair.  "There are places in this world that are different from all others.  Almost like separate countries.  A forest here, an island there, part of a city--"
"A mountain range," Kate said.
"Yes," Dr. Pym said.  "Sometimes a whole mountain range.  Cambridge Falls and all that surrounds it is such a place.  Now, the town itself is quite safe.  But do not go deeper into the mountains.  There are dangers there you cannot possibly imagine."  (pp 73-74)


Tasty Rating:  !!!

REVIEW: Abandon (Book One of The Abandon Trilogy)

Cabot, M.  2011.  Abandon.  New York:  Point.

304 pages.


On the outset, The Goddess Test and Abandon have a lot in common.  Released within weeks of one another, both new series play with the myth of Persephone.  Both involve teenage girls moving to new towns with their moms, coming to terms with the possibility of someone's death, and dealing with the romantic entanglements of the Lord of the Underworld, Hades.  Excuse me, Henry.  Or John.  Both are series.  And both have left me feeling "meh."



Appetizer:  Pierce died.  Or had a near death experience a couple of years ago.  Since then, she hasn't been the same.

She remembers what it was like to die, where she went.  And she is haunted by the boy she met there, John.  She would question the reality of her experiences, but she knows John is real.  He left her a necklace to protect her.  It changes colors depending on who she is with (a mood-necklace?  Srsly?  Please try harder, Meg Cabot.  I think you are capable of better.).  Despite the fact that Pierce and her mother have moved to Isla Huesos, she is still haunted by John and the fact that he wants to take her back to the underworld.

While Cabot's writing is easy to engage with and Pierce is an interesting character, I had some trouble with the beginning of the book.  It felt like Cabot was trying to create such an air of mystery about Peierce's past and kept alluding to an accident, an incident, a near death experience and to a Him who was haunting her, I had trouble keeping all of these occurrences straight, especially as the narration jumped through time to share about several of them.  Now, the experience of trying to piece together Pierce's past wasn't so frustrating that I felt like putting the book down, but it was more confusing than I think Cabot intended it to be.  Around page 40 or 50, the plot evened out and it become easier for me to figure out when Pierce was narrating about.

At that point I was all ready to enjoy the story, but then some other aspects of the plot didn't ring true to me.  Pierce is driven to protect her friends.  I'm fine with that.  But since she's the new girl to Isla Huesos, her decision to hatch a plot to investigate a bunch of popular kids--or A Wingers--to help her cousin and a girl she'd known for only a couple of hours and hadn't even had an extensive or deep conversation with felt very forced.  Plus, none of these tensions (or many others) were in any way resolved by the cliff-hanger-y ending of the book.  I was left feeling very "meh" towards the book.  And like Cabot should have done another round of revision before publishing the book.

John is meant to be the tempting bad boy.  Cabot does a good job of presenting that, but I was still more than a little skeeved out by his relationship with Pierce.  With Pierce's first experience with being dead and talking with him, it becomes clear that he is expecting Pierce to make choices without having all the information about what she is agreeing to or without knowing the consequences of those choices.  It was one more small step above manipulation.

I liked the idea of this retelling.  I like the way Cabot explores the question of death.  But over all, I felt like the actual story fell short of what it could have been.

I repeat, "meh."

The second book in the series is called Underworld.  I'll probably read it.  Not because I expect it will redeem Abandon's weaker plot-points, but because it's related to my dissertation topic and I feel obligated.


Dinner Conversation:

"Anything can happen in the blink of an eye.  Anything at all.
One.
Two.
Three.
Blink.
A girl is laughing with her friends.
Suddenly, a crater splits apart the earth.  Through it bursts a man in an ink black chariot forged in the deepest pits of hell, drawn by stallions with hooves of steel and eyes of flame.
Before anyone can shout a warning, before the girl can turn and run, those thundering hooves are upon her.
The girl isn't laughing anymore.  Instead, she's screaming."  (p. 1)

"So who cares what happened to Persephone?  Compared to what happened to me, that's nothing.
Persephone was lucky, actually.  Because her mom showed up to bail her out.
No one's coming to rescue me."  (p. 2)

"Do you want to go someplace else?" he asked.  "Someplace away from here?  Someplace warm?"
"Oh," I said, feeling a rush of relief.  He'd realized there'd been a mistake.  HE was going to fix it.  I was going home.  "Yes, please."
And then I blinked.  Because that's what human beings do, especially when they've been crying.
But when I opened my eyes again, I wasn't home.  I wasn't standing on the shore of the lake anymore, either.
And what I'd been hoping was the end of the nightmare I'd been going through turned out to be just the beginning.  (p. 53).

"He pulled out one of the thronelike chairs.  "You must be tired.  Won't you sit down?  And I'm sure you must be hungry."
It wasn't until he said it that I realized I was.  Just looking at the mounds of ripe peaches, crisp apples, and glistening grapes in those gleaming silver bowls--not to mention the cool clear water in those crystal goblets, so cold I could see the condensation dripping from the sides--well, it wasn't easy to stay where I was, especially feeling as wobbly on my feet as I did.
But my dad had warned me about situations like this.  Maybe not this exactly.  But not to accept food--or drinks--from strangers.
Especially young male strangers.  (p. 57).


Tasty Rating:  !!!

REVIEW: The Goddess Test

Carter, A.  (2011).  The Goddess Test.  Don Mills, Ontario:  Harlequin Teen.

293 pages.

Appetizer:  Kate Winters's mother is dying.  They move to Eden, a town in the upper peninsula of Michigan where her mother had lived when she was younger.  While Kate wants nothing more than to spend every possible minute with her deteriorating mother, several of her new classmates insist on drawing her out, including the head cheerleader, named Ava.

When Ava is killed in a trick she attempted to play on her, Kate finds herself making a deal with a mysterious boy named Henry to save Ava's life that is reminiscent of the deal Persephone experienced with the Greek god Hades.

As part of the deal, Kate must spend six months of each year with a seemingly early twenty-something man, named Henry.  She soon learns that she will face tests to see if she is worthy of being Henry's wife and gaining immortality.  Thus, the goddess test.

So, out there in the internetz world, there are a lot of mixed reviews of The Goddess Test.  Some are saying it's a wonderful engrossing spin on bringing Greek mythology into the present world.  Others are outraged, saying Carter completely ignores traditional mythology and attempts to infuse it with Christian values.

The question is really about how much can an author can play with the figures of myth.  Some like to maintain traditional versions (Rick Riordan and his Percy Jackson series) others completely ignore a lot of the history (Ross Collins and his Medusa Jones).

I felt like Carter was somewhere in the middle.  *A kind-of spoiler that could lead to a major spoiler for the book (if that makes any sense)* Kate meets a lot of the Greek gods as soon as she arrives in Eden, Michigan, but doesn't realize their true identities.  They all have fake names (which, as someone who is terrible with names, didn't confuse me at all.  Nope.)  I found the list explaining who was who that is at the back of the book before I even began reading.  This meant that as I read about various characters acting in different ways that didn't fit with their true Greek identities.  (Artemis in charge of the dresses?!  Frak, no!)  *End the kind-of spoiler for the end of the book*  I felt like Carter was creating a monomyth, combining Christian themes and beliefs with traditional myth to explain the world.  I think this is becoming more and more popular in YA and children's lit.

When I first started reading the book, Monica had posted a comment to my Goodreads account asking why I wanted to read it.  We had the following phone conversation, re-constructed to the best of my failing memory.

Shel:  So, The Goddess Test?
Monica:  Don't read it!
Shel:  Why not?  I'm enjoying it so far.
Monica:  They make Hades a virgin!  A VIRGIN!!!!!!
Shel:  ...I don't think I've gotten to that part yet.

(In retrospect, Monica may not have freaked out so much about the Greek god of the Underworld being a virgin quite that much.)

Monica and I then had a very intelligent conversation about gender roles in relation to how modern heroes like Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and Kate are being presented and how Percy gets to go off and have adventures to save the world and fight a war (funsies!) while Kate is not the toughest of ladies (boo!).  (Seriously, I felt like she was an emotionally strong character, but physically she rivals Bella Swan in terms of being a distressed damsel.  Kate's legs can barely support her more often than a baby hasn't learned to crawl or walk yet.  Get it together, girl.)

Plus, Riordan is more conservative in the way he presents the Greek gods, etc.  We are geniuses (not at all focused on how a several thousand-year-old attractive young man may still be a virgin).

Maybe we should have used this book as a literary feast...that is if I could have convinced Monica to give it a second chance.

I really loved the eerie tone of the story that Carter set up.  I felt it matched Kate's mood perfectly.  And since the book I'd read before this one was poorly written, The Goddess Test felt like a breath of fresh air.  That is, until I hit about page 40ish, when Ava was very randomly killed.  That was a moment where I had to literally exclaim "WTF," while I read in Thompson Library's lovely silent reading room.  I got glared at.  I got glared at reeeeeeeal good.

This would become a cyclical experience as I kept reading.  I'd be enjoying the tensions and internal landscape of Kate's characterization that then something completely random would happen plot-wise that would make me mumble "WTF?"

There were also quite a few moments throughout out the book were I was left feeling like it was a little ridiculous...or just not that clever.  Throughout the story, Kate is supposedly in danger, but she doesn't seem all that concerned.  And when there are threats to her life, they aren't that clever.  Given the way that the story presents the supposed assassin (as someone who has killed countless girls previously, no matter the ways Henry attempts to protect her), I would have expected something more impressive than what is in the story.

Overall, I'm declaring that I enjoyed the book.  Some of the plot developments seemed forced or not foreshadowed or explored enough.  I definitely liked the tensions over death and the fact that the story was set in Michigan.

Michiganders forever!!!!!!

When does the second book Goddess Interrupted come on?  (And is it an intentional play on the title Girl, Interrupted?  Will Kate be committed to an insane asylum where she befriends some of the other patients and comes to terms with the way society has treated her while exploring the nature of reality with a beautiful Greek god running around in the background?  I could probably get into that.  Just saying.)


Dinner Conversation:

"I spent my eighteenth birthday driving from New York City to Eden, Michigan, so my mother could die in the town where she was born.  Nine hundred and fifty-four miles of asphalt, knowing every sign we passed brought me closer to what would undoubtedly be the worst day of my life.
As far as birthdays go, I wouldn't recommend it" (p. 12).

"What would you do to have her back?"
I struggled to understand what he was saying.  "Back?"
"Back in the condition she was in before she jumped in the water.  Alive."
In my panic, I already knew my answer.  What would I do to have Ava back?  What would I do to stop death from tightening its chokehold over the remaining shreds of my life that it hadn't already stolen?  It had marked my mother and was waiting in the wings to take her from me, inching closer every day.  She might've been ready to give up, but I would never stop fighting for her.  And like hell I was going to let it claim another victim right in front of me, especially when it was my fault Ava was here in the first place.  "Anything."  (p. 45)

"Wandering listlessly through the halls, I ran my hand across each surface I passed, staring blankly ahead into the darkness.  Tonight marked the end of the only chapter in my life I'd ever known, and I didn't know how to live in the emptiness ahead" (p. 63).

"Think--you know the myth, do you not?  Who was Persephone?  What was she?"
Fear stabbed at me, cutting me from the inside.  If what he claimed was true, then he'd kidnapped Persephone and forced her to marry him, and no matter what he said, I couldn't help but wonder if he would try to do the same to me.  But the rational part of me couldn't look past the obvious.  "You really think you're a god?  You know that sounds crazy, right?" (p. 101).

"Why the tests?" I said.  "Why are they necessary?"
"Because," he said.  "The prize is not something we give out lightly, and we need to make sure it is something you can handle."
"What's that?"
"Immortality."  (p. 106).


Tasty Rating:  !!!