Month: June 2012

Spy School

1 Comment

by Stuart Gibbs
ages:10+
First sentence: “‘Hello, Ben,’ said the man in my living room.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Ben is basically your average kid. He goes to a regular school, is a regular loser, and aside from being a math whiz, there’s really nothing special about him.

So, it’s to his surprise when Alexander Hamilton, of the CIA, shows up at his house, inviting Ben to join this super-secret, super-exclusive spy-in-training school.

Well, who wouldn’t jump at the chance?

 Except, once he gets to spy school, Ben realizes that things aren’t exactly what they seem. Sure, he makes some friends, develops a crush on a super-hot 3rd year girl (who also happens to be a great spy), but it turns out that he’s well, a fall-guy. And there’s a mole in the school. And people are out to kill Ben.

The question is: will he survive long enough to find out who?

I hoped this one would be all the fun of Belly Up and maybe more. I mean: espionage, a cool cover, a spy school, and a mystery? What could go wrong?

Well…. it’s not that it went wrong, it’s more that it just didn’t go right enough. Ben was a bit of a wash as a main character; it’s not that I never connected with him, it’s just that Erica — his crush, and the one who makes the plot move — so outshines Ben that it’s hard to really connect with him. I felt like he was the loser sidekick for most of the book (sure, he comes through in the end), which is okay, but not what I was expecting. On the other hand, Gibbs never really quite got the fish-out-of-water thing quite right either.

Still, the mystery is solid, and while the Big Reveal comes a little out of left field, there are enough clues that perhaps someone who was paying better attention than I could figure it out.

It was a decent second effort; I just wish is was more.

The Phantom Tollbooth

2 Comments

by Norton Juster
ages: 10+
First sentence: “There was once a boy named Milo who didn’t know what to do with himself — not just sometimes, but always.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I missed this one as a kid. I don’t know how; it seems like it would have been the perfect one for a pretentious reader like myself. But, for whatever reason, I didn’t first encounter the Tollbooth until I was married, and Hubby (who loved the book as a kid) introduced it to me. I bought it early on in our marriage for him (we own the 35th anniversary edition), read it, loved it, and didn’t pick it up again.

So, when I was asked by a friend to review it for her website (she’s working me through a bunch of Middle Grade classics), I was excited to pick it up again, especially since I didn’t remember it well enough to write a lengthy review.

The story, if you haven’t read this yet, is about a boy named Milo, who is constantly and persistently bored. One day, he comes home from school to find a tollbooth with instructions: “Easily assembled at home, and for use by those who have never traveled in the lands beyond.” Curious, he assembles it, gets in his little car, and heads off to have Adventures. He visits lands, meets an actual “watchdog”, rescues princesses, and makes it home in time for dinner.  (And it was still hot?)

This book is has clever coming out of it in spades. So much so, that I think, even though it’s geared towards middle grade kids, the older you are, the more you get out of it. While it can work as a adventure book, if you know about “jumping to conclusions”, if you have a grasp of idioms, if you get the whole double meanings of our language, you’ll get just how wonderfully clever this book is.

It’s also surprised me just how didactic it is. Juster has a Moral Hammer (“Knowledge is good. Boredom is bad. Get out there and Observe the World with all its Wonders.”) and he pounds. it. over. your. head. But, honestly? You don’t mind. Because it’s fun. It’s clever. It’s interesting. It’s amusing. And yeah, maybe you’ll even get the moral in the end (it’s pretty dang hard to miss), and Do Something About It.

Even if you don’t, it’s a ingenious middle grade book. And definitely worth reading.

48 Hour Book Challenge Finish Line

6 Comments

I need to do this quickly: it’s breakfast time, and I’m off to church soon…

Starting time: 7 a.m. Friday
Finish time: 7 a.m. Sunday

Total time read: 18.25 hours. I read less this time, though I think I had more time to read. I think, this year, I took more breaks. (I know I did: I ended up watching a couple episodes of Castle, season 1 with C on Friday night — because how could I resist? And a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory, season 1 with both C and A on Saturday night. Yes, I gave up precious reading hours for TV this year.)

Books read: 7

There was also a 45 minute period — which I counted — where I went through about 5 books, abandoning them after about 35 pages because I wasn’t in the mood to read them. (I started The Downside of Being Up, which really is about a kid who gets unwanted erections — after about 25 pages, mostly because in the those 25 pages, there were more euphemisms for penis and erection that I could count. Well, actually, I was counting, and after more than 2 dozen, I decided that it wasn’t my type of book.) 

Favorite reads: Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, Stickman Odyssey

Total time blogged: 3.2 hours

Total time:  21.5 hours

Not my best year; I really was aiming for 24 hours or more. But, I still had a grand time. And since my $1 an hour is less than $25, I’m going to donate the $25 to RIF.

And as a little bonus, my favorite geek being bookish:

As always, thanks Pam, for this! I had a blast.

Stickman Odyssey: The Wrath of Zozimos

2 Comments

by Christopher Ford
ages: 11+

Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher

First off: this is the second in a series. I have no idea how I ended up on a list to have this one sent to me — I didn’t request it! — but I’m sure glad I did. I’m definitely going to find the first one now.

For this reason alone: it is one of the more clever interpretations of mythology that I’ve seen in a long, long time.

It’s been forever and a day since I’ve read the Odyssey, and I don’t remember squat from it. The good news: you don’t really need to have read it to enjoy this one. In fact, you don’t really need to have read the first one in the series, either. I’m sure it helps if you have, but it’s not truly necessary.

What I really liked was the combination of Greek mythology, a really cool adventure story, and base humor. Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading a for a long(ish) time this weekend, but I found lines like “I am Artemis, the Huntress Goddess of this forest and all wild things including bears!” and “I’m so hungry, all I’m pooping are farts!”  and “Did you dim, little mortals EAT my beloved sheepies?” to be really funny. (They are in context, promise.)  This graphic novel has Boy written all over it. Not that I minded.

As for the art: the stick figures (because it’s the Stickman Odyssey) work. Honest. It’s not great art, but it’s a gimmick, and in this situation, it’s a good one. It’s silly, it’s fun, it’s interesting, and maybe it’d even get someone to look up who the heck Nyx is.

Here’s to more Stickman adventures!

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

3 Comments

by Wendy Mass
ages: 10+
First sentence: “My sweat smells like peanut butter.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy won in a contest sponsored by the publisher (I think.)

Things you need to know:
1. Jeremy Fink is nearly 13 years old and Lizzie is his best friend, NOT girlfriend. (It’s hard to be romantic about someone whose diapers your mother changed.)

2. His father died five years ago, at the age of 39. A fortune teller in Atlantic City told him he wouldn’t live past 40.

3. He has received a box, from his dad, that has “The Meaning of Life” on it. Only problem: it needs four keys to open, and all are missing. He’s supposed to open this box on his 13th birthday.

4. Which means that Jeremy and Lizzie have exactly a month to find the keys. In New York City.

Sounds impossible, or at least improbable, and it is. But what comes out of their searching is a sweet, funny, touching story about a boy learning about what life Really Means. The most wonderful thing about this book is that it’s insightful and not preachy, yet full of good Lessons. I adore Wendy Mass for exactly this reason. It’s a gem.

Crossed

3 Comments

by Ally Condie
ages: 12+
First sentence: “I’m standing in a river.” 
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Matched

I’m not quite sure how to do this without giving too much of Matched away, so if you’re one of the people in the world who haven’t read it, you might want to skip this.

Cassia and her True Love, Ky, have been separated, but Cassia’s not going to let that stop her. She gets herself reassigned to the Outer Provinces, in hopes of tracking him down; he was sent there as a result of a sort she had done earlier. In the meantime, Ky is doing his best to survive, and when he finally lands in the village he was from, he sees his chance, and with a couple others, takes it.

Eventually, Cassia and Ky meet up (was there any question that they would, really?), and find their way — with their hangers on — through the caverns of the Carving to something resembling safety: the Rising, or rebellion.

In some ways, this was less pedantic than Matched: instead of treading the same old dystopian line, Condie is expanding her world, showing bits and scraps of the Society, its founding and what it’s capable of. It’s also interesting to get things from Ky’s perspective; in many, many ways he’s a more interesting and complex character than Cassia is. I appreciated knowing his history and motivations, things we weren’t given in Matched.

But there’s still so many unanswered questions, so many loose threads at the end of the book. It makes you curious, but at the same time impatient for answers. And even with all the loose ends, this one is less gripping than Matched.  Too many moments of Ky and Cassie either pining for one another, or staring into each others’ eyes once they do meet back up. Gag. There has to be more to a plot than Romance, right?

So. I don’t know if I’ll scramble for the next one, waiting for it to come out with baited breath. But it wasn’t a complete waste of my time. 

Postcards from Pismo

Leave a comment

by Michael Scotto
ages: 8-10
First sentence: “Dear Soldier, I’ll bet you weren’t expecting a letter from me, were you?” 
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the author.

It started out as a school assignment. Felix, in fourth grade, was supposed to write to a soldier in Afghanistan. What he never expected was for the soldier — Lieutenant Marcus Greene — to write back. Thus begins a 7-month correspondence in which we, as readers, learn a lot about Felix — about his life in Pismo Beach, California, his family, and his concerns — and a little about life as an active duty military member.

The thing I liked best about this book was that it really, truly was written for a beginning chapter book crowd. It’s simple, easy to read, but it’s not simplistic. Felix deals with a lot of issues in a way a 10-year-old would: he has kids who pick on him, but instead of confronting them, he avoids them. He idolizes his older brother, Quin, and when Quin decides to join the Army National Guard to earn money for college, Felix takes his concerns to Lt. Greene. He is a curious kid, and Scotto finds a way for us to learn a bit about Marcus and his life without having Marcus be a direct character: we never see the letters and emails from Marcus to Felix. And when Marcus goes missing, not answering his emails, Felix freaks out in a way only 10-year-olds can.

It’s a good, non-depressing way to give kids a glimpse into the military and to address concerns of leaving and fighting and standing up for oneself.

Batman Graphic Novels

1 Comment

The Dark Knight Returns, Dark Knight Triumphant, Hunt the Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Falls
by Frank Miller/Klaus Janson/Lynn Varley
and
Batman: The Killing Joke
by Alan Moore/Brian Bolland/John Higgins
ages: adult
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

My husband picked up these comics, first run, back in the mid-1980s and has kept them in pristine condition (yes, in plastic sleeves) ever since then. He has been after me to read them since the first Dark Knight movie came out in 2005, and since my only frame of reference for Batman was the movies (yes, I did see the ones with Michael Keaton, though I’d bailed by the time George Clooney took a turn), I agreed. And then stuck the comics on my shelf for years.

So. Since the last of the three movies is coming out this year, I told Hubby that I’d finally get around to reading them. And as I was hunting around for something to read, he reminded me of my promise.

I’m not really going to give a plot summary, since I’m not sure I really comprehend fully what went on, but how about some thoughts:

1. The Killing Joke is totally the 1989 movie. Tim Burton totally ripped if off. That said, it was a pretty intense stand-alone comic. I liked the interplay between Batman and the Joker, the ways in which they were connected. And, honestly: the Joker scared the heck outta me.

2. The other four were fascinating. I liked the idea of Batman being older — in his 50s — and coming back to the… gig… after a long time away. I liked the use of the old villains — Harvey Dent and the Joker — mixed in with newer ones. I liked the interplay between Batman and his third Robin (first one left, second one died), a 13-year-old girl named Carrie Kelley. That made for some interesting dialogue, especially since he kept trying to fire her.

3. I liked the constant discussion going on in the background about whether or not Batman was “good” or “bad.” As Hubby pointed out when we were talking about this, he’s both. And that’s what makes him interesting.

4. What really surprised me was the role that Superman played. I guess it’s common knowledge in the comic book world, but obviously people showed up in others comics. And the interactions between the two superheroes are quite fascinating.

And from all this, I saw just how much Christopher Nolan respects and uses the Frank Miller comics as his inspirations for the movies. Which leads me to two conclusions: 1) the movie will be pretty awesome, and 2) don’t expect it to have a happy ending.

The List

4 Comments

by Siobhan Vivian
ages: 14+
First sentence: “For as long as anyone can remember, the students of Mount Washington High have arrived at school on the last Monday in September to find a list naming the prettiest and the ugliest girl in each grade.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by my place of employment.

As the title and first sentence suggest, the story centers around The List. The List being an “impartial” judgement of who the prettiest and ugliest (one girl each) of each grade is, along with a short comment about why. We follow the eight girls who were chosen, four “pretty” and four “ugly”, for the week after the post was put up, from Monday morning, when the list was put up until the homecoming dance on Saturday night.

It’s not pretty.

The book is basically an exploration of labels and perceptions of beauty: from the freshman girl, Danielle, who was labeled “ugly” and her desperation to keep her boyfriend who is increasingly uncomfortable being around her; to Bridget, the junior girl labeled “pretty” and her discomfort at that, because she’s always been a bit overweight, and her spiraling into anorexia; to the desperation of Jennifer Biggs, labeled “ugly” all four years of high school, and how that has completely wrecked her psyche, it’s all heartbreaking and disheartening that this would happen.

However, since it’s such an extreme situation, a laboratory if you will, it’s easy to sit back and be clinical, watching it all fall out. While I think Vivian wrote very believable characters, I never really felt like I was given a chance to connect with them, even though I understood motivations behind the actions. As a reader, I felt distanced from the action, even as I was curious to know how it will all play out. I think this one would be a good one to hand to teen girls, along with Uglies and Wintergirls, as a way to spearhead perceptions of beauty and the harshness that labeling and judging others has on our selves, as well as the pressures of society on women.

And for that, it’s worth the read.

Matched

2 Comments

by Ally Condie
ages: 12+
First sentence: “Now that I’ve found the way to fly, which direction should I go into the night?”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I’m probably the last person on earth to read this, which is part of the reason why I’ve avoided it for so long. (You know me and my hesitance to read popular books…) I figure something that popular couldn’t be that good. Right?

Well, in some ways yes: perhaps it’s because I’m immensely tired of dystopian books, but it seems as if this one doesn’t really cover anything new. A perfect society, headed by a controlling government? Check. A person who, after years, realizes that the society and perfection isn’t all it’s cracked up to be? Check. A love triangle? Check. Lots and lots of set-up for the next in the series (because none of these can be stand alones)?  Check. It was all very run-of-the mill.

And yet, I enjoyed the world that Condie had built: while she never explained the demise of the society, she did manage to convey the loss of history, of tradition that is so important in a diverse culture. I liked Cassia and Ky and even Xander as characters, and liked that Condie didn’t make anyone out to be truly malicious. In a sense, everyone in the book was just a cog in the system, which in itself is unique.

It’s enough to make me curious about the second book, and I’ve got it sitting in my pile for the weekend. That said, I don’t think it’s the best, or even most original, dystopian tale out there.