Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely combines realistic fiction with fantasy, much like Stephanie's Meyer's Twilight and its sequels, but substituting faeries for vampires. Aislinn, the main character of Marr's book, shares many characteristics with Bella, who is Meyer's heroine. They both struggle with, and at times feel overwhelmed by, a relationship with a man who is not mortal. The big difference in Wicked Lovely is that Aislinn does not love the non-mortal guy. She wants to stay with her mortal life and her mortal friends. Keenan, the "Summer King," has his own reasons, though, for wanting to convince Aislinn to commit to him and his faery world.
This story took a while to hook me, maybe because I was comparing it to Meyer's books and having to adjust to a different style. Also, the faeries in Marr's book are portrayed, in the beginning, as dangerous and even evil. Aislinn was not drawn to them, as Bella was to the Cullens family. In the end, though, I found this to be an enjoyable read. Marr manages to gracefully blend the two distinct worlds. Her evil Winter Queen is a really frightening villain, and it's nice to see that Keenan is a pretty complex character (I think he's actually better drawn in the book than is Aislinn). This is a YA book for the 16 and over crowd.
There are some seriously negative reviews for David Lee Stone's Ratastrophe Catastrophe posted to amazon.com, but I wanted to check the book out myself. My city's library has books 2 and 3 of the series (The Illmoor Chronicles) but not this one. Unfortunately, I didn't like the book. The characters were not well-developed and the plot was silly and confusing. I felt as though I were reading the transcript of a Dungeons and Dragons game -- not my cup of tea at all. There are some laughs here, though, and I think that there will be an audience for Stone's type of humor.I think I'll ask my boys what they think of the book.
Also see my May 5 update to this post.
Elizabeth Bird, writing in School Library Journal, has predicted that Frances O'Roark Dowell's Shooting the Moon will be "the one to beat" this year for the Newbery Medal. After reading this, I decided to read the book, and I'm very glad I did. This is a beautiful story, told in in the simple yet oh-so-powerful language of twelve-year-old Jamie Dexter, whose father is a U.S. Army colonel and whose 17-year-old brother, TJ, enlists and is sent to Vietnam. TJ's correspondence with the family consists of short letters to his mother and father and many rolls of undeveloped film sent to Jamie. Jamie learns a great deal about the realities of war when she develops these pictures. Jamie is a very likable character -- so sure, at the beginning of the novel, that she knows good from bad, right from wrong.
The anti-war bias of this book is clear, but I feel that the author is not at all anti-military. The book jacket informs us that she grew up as a U.S. Army brat herself, and the story conveys a strong sense of the positive side of army life for Jamie and her family. ("hooah! combat ready, sir!"). I really loved this book!
Ballet Shoes, by Noel Streatfeild, is one of a series that includes Dancing Shoes and Theater Shoes. I've wanted to read these books ever since I heard Meg Ryan's character in "You've Got Mail", Kathleen Kennedy, mention them fondly. The "shoe books," as these books are known, were written in the 1930's, so the language and social customs depicted are quite dated. In Ballet Shoes, the main characters are three orphan girls who are adopted by an absent minded professor type of benefactor known as "Gum," which stands for "Great Uncle Matthew." He disappears on a mysterious ocean voyage for the bulk of the book, carelessly leaving the care of the orphans to the women-folk. Very strange.
The story was slow to start and I almost didn't finish Ballet Shoes, but once I got used to the author's style, I did enjoy it. The three orphans, Pauline, Petrovoa, and Posy, are all sent to the "Academy of Dancing and Stage Training" to learn to act, sing, and dance. Later, when they turn twelve, they are allowed to have a license to perform and earn money.
It's interesting that I finally found copies of these books now, so soon after reading The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry (see my April 4 post), which is a parody of just this type of story. I'm afraid that while reading Ballet Shoes I was prone to laughing at inappropriate moments, just because I was reminded of Lowry's humor. Nevertheless, I found Ballet Shoes charming in its own, old-fashioned way, and I think many 4th - 5th-grade girls would enjoy reading it and the other "shoe books" as well.
Soul Stealer, by Martin Booth, is the sequel to Doctor Illuminatus (see my March 28 post). I had high hopes that this novel would provide needed depth to the characterizations that felt so lightweight and unfinished in the last novel. Alas, I was disappointed. The story is interesting and the characters likeable; the book just left me dissatisfied, I suppose because it was simply too short. The author does a good job of setting up the conflict in the story, and I was intrigued by the historical information regarding alchemy, but then everything just gets worked out too easily, too quickly for my taste. The end of Soul Stealer leaves open the possibility of a third book, but it's been five years since its publication so I wonder if there will be another. I would not miss it if it never comes, I'm afraid.
Jean Ferris, primarily known as a young adult author, has also written four funny, lighthearted novels that are great for any age: Love Among the Walnuts, Much Ado About Grubstake, Once Upon a Marigold, and, this year, Twice Upon a Marigold. I just finished Twice Upon a Marigold and found it to be just as much fun as the other three books.
In Once Upon a Marigold, Ed the troll finds Christian lost in the forest, brings him home, and raises him on his own, the two of them living in Ed’s cave with two dogs named Bub and Cate. When Christian becomes a man, however, he decides to go out into the world to experience more of life – but also to try to meet in person Princess Marigold, with whom he has been communicating by carrier pigeon (“p-mail”) for about a year. Christian gets a job at the castle and soon learns of Queen Olympia’s evil plan to kill Marigold and King Swithbert so that she can be the sole ruler of the kingdom. In the end, it appears that Olympia has been taken care of and everyone can live happily ever after, but in Twice Upon a Marigold we learn that this is not necessarily so. I was delighted to be able to read more about these characters. Lots of fun! I definitely recommend all four of these wise and funny books.
The characters of The Traitors' Gate, by Avi, live in Charles Dickens' 19th century London. I love the detail Avi includes in his descriptions of the city -- the murky glow of the gas lamps, the awful smell of the river, and the horror of the poverty in which one of the characters, Sary, lives. One of the characters is even reading the serialized David Copperfield.
There is a mystery to solve, though, and 14-year-old John Huffam must figure out which of the many people in his life he can trust. John and his family are thrown out of their home when his father is put in debtors' prison. It seems that Mr. Huffam owes £300 (a huge sum in those days), and he may be shipped off to Australia if he cannot pay. John, by necessity, becomes an amateur detective and the plot takes off from there. I believe this book is historical fiction at its best because it offers a suspenseful plot, well-drawn characters, and great period detail.
The Willoughbys, by Lois Lowry and just published this year, is a wonderful parody of many old-time conventions of children's literature, such as the pitiful but industrious orphan, the villainous uncle/aunt/other guardian, and the rich, benevolent benefactor who makes everything come out OK in the end. The Willoughbys are a family of six: Mom, Dad, Tim, twins Barnaby A and Barnaby B (yes, the twins have the same name), and little Jane. The parents take off on an exotic vacation, leaving the children with "the odious nanny," who turns out to be not so odious after all (Mary Poppins of the Julie Andrews variety, rather than Travers' original, not-so-sunny character).
This is a short book (I read it in about 2 hours), but it is full of laughs and would make a great read-aloud.
If you liked Series of Unfortunate Events, you will likely enjoy The Willoughbys as well. Appropriately, Lemony Snicket wrote a review of the book for Publishers Weekly, which is available on
amazon.com.
The Trespassers, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, seems similar to The Headless Cupid, (see below) in that there is an old (possibly haunted) house, a 12-ish child who has a younger, somewhat "different" sibling, and plenty of gothic-themed mystery and intrigue. In this story, Cornelia (Neely) and Gregory (Grub) Bradford find a way to sneak into the old, abandoned house up the hill and enjoy playing with the old-fashioned toys they find there. However, things get interesting when the owners return and the Bradfords befriend the owners' son, Curtis.
This one was a real page-turner for me. I found the pacing to be just right -- just enough description and detail about the characters to make them seem fleshed-out and real without slowing the plot. The end is quite suspensful and ultimately very satisfying. A good read for the middle-school set.
