Shelly's Book Blog

Since I liked Unwind, Hunger Games, and Little Brother so much, I was intrigued when Booklist created a list of Dystopian Fiction for Youth. Neptune's Children, by Bonnie Dobkin, is not on this list but it could be. The story: a terrorist group plans and carries out an act of biological terrorism which kills all the adults on earth, leaving only those younger than about 14 alive. The children who were enjoying a day at Isles of Wonder, a fabulous theme park, get organized and manage to create a decent life for themselves. However, trouble soon surfaces when the main character, Josh, begins to suspect that the leaders of this new society can no longer be trusted. The premise seems simple enough, but Dobkin digs a little deeper to explore how these children deal with the inevitable conflicts that arise in a society with no authority figures. I've put this on my list to recommend to YA reluctant readers.

The Last Olympian is the final book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. My boys and I have enjoyed this series tremendously, and this last action-packed installment did not disappoint. In fact, reading it left me a little breathless, because there is so little down time. It's one battle after another in an all-out war between the titan Kronos, god of time, and the Olymians. Riordan provides closure to the many storylines of the series, as well. I think it's time for a Percy Jackson party at the library!

Odo, the talking raven in Avi's The Book Without Words: a Fable of Medieval Magic, often preaches to the other characters in the book by quoting proverbs such as "Live long enough, and all become orphans." These pithy sayings give the characters in the book -- and Avi's readers -- something to think about which usually serves to expand their vision of their situation and see it from a new perspective. The main character is Sybil, whom the alchemist Thorston took in off the streets. Sybil is at first just grateful to have a roof over her head and something to eat, but when Thorston dies, she and Odo find that they must discover Thorston's secrets if they are to escape the ire of the town's reeve (or Sheriff), Bashcroft, who has his own favorite saying: "The law is hard, but it is the law."

The book's epigraph, "A life unlived is like a book without words," provides the principal theme, and Avi's gothic setting and fast-moving, fantastical plot develop this idea. Readers must ponder issues such as the value and even the definition of life, loyalty, and friendship. I think this would make a great read-aloud.

A few months ago I read Shannon Hale's Book of a Thousand Days, so when I saw another of her books, Princess Academy, I decided to try it. Princess Academy was a Newbery Honor book in 2006, and I definitely agree with the committee's choice here. The smart and spunky heroine, Miri, feels left out because she is not allowed to work, as most of her village does, in the quarry mining a special stone called linder. Then her life, and the lives of many of the other girls in her village, changes drastically when she is sent to a special academy for potential princesses. Although she goes reluctantly, she soon discovers the joy of learning and even starts to hope that she will become a princess. The interplay among all the girls attending the academy explores themes of friendship, ambition, jealousy, love, and family. The story moves along nicely, while still delving deep enough into the characters' lives to make readers care about what happens to them. I enjoyed this imaginative fairy tale very much.

Lock and Key, by Sarah Dessen, was very similar to her other novels. The main character is high school senior Ruby, whose mother abandons her. Ruby tries living by herself, working her mother's delivery job and taking care of herself. This works for a while, but she is eventually found out and sent to live with her estranged sister, Cora. This is awkward at first not only for Ruby, but also for Cora and her husband, Jaime. However, Jaime and Cora turn out to be loving, caring people, and Ruby soon learns to trust and love them both. I just wish that every troubled teen's problems could be solved as neatly as Ruby's!

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was one of those classics I had never read, so when our library received a Big Read grant for this novel, I decided to finally see for myself why it is so beloved. As I read, I laughed out loud many times. Mark Twain is such a skilled writer and humorist, I guess I was bound to enjoy this book. It was kind of strange to read in the book about adventures I had known about seemingly all my life, such as Tom's island (think Disneyland) and the scene where Tom is supposed to whitewash the fence but manages not only to get other kids to do it but to have them pay him for the "privledge".

One cannot help but become a bit nostalgic for "the good old days" when reading a classic like Tom Sawyer. I put that phrase in quotation marks for good reason, though. There was a lot of bad to the "good old days" in which this book was written. Slavery, of course, rears its ugly head even in this book of innocoent childhood adventure. I noticed that the characters seemed to be much more superstitious, too (which I think Twain was gently satirizing). Still, the focus is on Tom and Huck Finn and their rascally ways and I thoroughly enjoyed Twain's witty prose.

In The Remarkable & Very True Story of Lucy and Snowcap, by H. M. Bouwman, Lucy is a native islander and Snowcap is English, and at first they don't like each other very much. However, circumstances force them to work together to rid their magical island home of an evil that threatens them both. The story is set in 1787 on fictional islands northeast of America, but it is also based on history because the English who live on the islands arrived as shipwrecked convicts who were being transported to America to be indentured servants. The cover flap copy compares the story to The Princess Bride, and it is true that the two stories have much in common -- adventure, murder plots, etc. However, I would not have made the same comparison because Lucy and Snowcap lacks the whimsical, tongue-in-cheek humor of The Princess Bride. Lucy and Snowcap is more mystical and serious in tone. For example, the idea of men turning into stone, and the power of the "gypsy-um," or lifestone, seems to come more from a Lord of the Rings-type of mythology. In Lucy and Snowcap there is even a character known as the Gray Lady whose wisdom (and name, of course) are reminiscent of Gandalf.

I enjoyed Lucy and Snowcap in part because the two heroines are complex, imperfect young women who did the best they could in the difficult circumstances in which they found themselves. The plot moves along swiftly, yet the author makes sure that readers have a chance to get to know the characters and care about what happens to them, even if they are not all very likeable. This book is a comfortable blend of historical fiction and fantasy and I recommend it highly.