15 Books That Should Be the "Next Percy Jackson"

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I recently picked up a book that the publisher/my boss is hailing as the “next Percy Jackson”. It’s not. At least not in my book. Which got me to thinking: what should have been?

The first thing I need to do is figure out what makes Percy Jackson, well, Percy Jackson. I think a strong character/voice is a major thing; all my girls (and me, as well) have fallen for the loveable dork that is Percy. But it’s not just a strong main character, it’s a fantastic ensemble cast. My kids talk about Annabeth, Clarisse, Grover, Leo, Thalia, and Nico as much as Percy. I also think a strong opening: when I asked how The Lightning Thief opened up, the girls immediately responded: “Percy almost got killed!” It’s also pacing; Riordan knows how to intersperse action with a wee bit of romance (not too much!) and give us character development as well. It’s also — mostly — independent story arcs in each book, while keeping an over-arching story to tie the series together. And, at least in Percy’s case, it’s playing with mythology, exposing kids to something they wouldn’t have otherwise been exposed to (all of my girls who love Percy have turned to our D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths to see what’s “real” and what’s not).

So, with that in mind, I came up with the following Percy Jackson read-alikes.

The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud: “This book oozes kid appeal, giving us adventure, suspense, mystery, humor, ghosts, and even swordplay. The Screaming Staircase will engage readers until the very last page.” (from the Cybils description.)

The Great Greene Heist, by Varian Johnson: My review hasn’t gone up for this one yet (it’s out May 27), but it’s a fun book. Good characters, only a hint of romance, and while it’s not fantasy action, Johnson keeps the pacing going. A, who normally only loves fantasy, ate this one up.

Fablehaven, by Brandon Mull: Admittedly, I didn’t like this one. But I’m going off the fact that every kid I know who has started this series absolutely loved it. There must be some appeal in that, right?

Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld: “It was an awesome, wild and weird ride, a fabulous adventure — no one writes nail-biting action like Westerfield — and a grand beginning to a story that has the potential to be absolutely amazing.”

Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer: It’s been a long time since I’ve read this one, and  I gave up after the second book, I think. But I do remember it has a ton of action (as does the first in his more recent series, The Reluctant Assassin) I did write this: “Not very well written, but the world he has created is fantastic. That, and it’s interesting to be rooting for the ‘bad guy’.”

The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander: I think too many people have forgotten this one. Prydian is a fantastic world, and there are some amazing characters to visit with there. ” I think it’s because Alexander is a master storyteller, and he knows how to create characters that we can relate to and root for, ones that are flawed even in a black-and-white world.”

 The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healey: I threw this one in here for the humor; Percy’s quite funny, as is this. “I’m not sure I’d call this book hilarious — no milk was ever snorted through my nose, a good benchmark, I think — but it was definitely amusing. From the chapter titles, all of which begin “Prince Charming…” (my favorite? “Prince Charming Walks into a Bar”. Sounds like a joke waiting to happen), to the silliness of the princes to the fact that it all just kinda sorta works out in the end, it was enough to keep a smile pasted on my face.”

Geeks, Girls and Secret Identities, by Mike Jung: “Yes, this is really over the top. WAY over the top. But, it worked for me. I liked the nod to the kind of superhero geekery that guys (and some girls) get into, knowing every little bit about the superhero they idolize. Jung just took it one step further and made the superhero a real, rather than made-up, person. Which, in my humble opinion, is way cool.”

The False Prince, by Jennifer E. Nelson: I compared it (unfavorable) to Megan Whalen Turner’s The Thief, but in retrospect, this is much more accessible and action-packed than MWT’s book is. ” The detailed world Nielsen creates is full of life, populated with mystery, twists and turns, and engaging and complex characters… Readers can’t help but cheer for [Sage], even as he struggles to come to grips with the ups and downs of a fate he doesn’t desire.”(from the Cybils description.)

The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart: A confession: I’ve never read this one. BUT, I did read the second book, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Not fantasy, but definitely fun.

You’ve probably noticed, by now, that most of these are all-male main characters. (And mostly all-male authors.) Partially that’s because of the nature of Percy, and partially (for better or worse) it’s what I found when I started thinking about this. I did, however, find a handful of books with girl main characters that are just as fun and just as awesome as Percy Jackson is.

 Magic Marks the Spot, by Caroline Carlson: “I liked this one an awful lot, mostly because of the above reason. But — aside from the unnecessary letters that were written in cursive, which is a real turn-off for kids These Days; the book got much better after I started skipping them — I really enjoyed all of it. There was humor (Miss Greyson, the governess/chaperone, was hilarious), sword fighting, a wee bit of romance (but not overstated; it was between the adults), and most of all Hilary being Awesome.”

The Inventor’s Secret, by Andrea Cremer: I haven’t put a review up on this one yet, as I’m not quite done with it. But I’m having a blast. The romance is probably a bit too pronounced for the lower middle-grade crowd, but it’s got action, snark, great characters, and a fantastic alternate history/steampunk world.

 The Penderwicks, by Jeanne Birdsall: Possibly the “quietest” book on this list, it’s still fun of wonderful elements: spot-on terrific writing, a great cast of characters, and some non-fantasy action and tension. Hubby’s read it out loud a few times to different girls, and I have yet to get tired of hearing it. “

Into the Wild, by Sarah Beth Durst: “This was a fabulous book.  But it’s hard to convey in a review how wonderfully clever it is, how enjoyable it is to read. Durst takes every single fairy tale character and uses them in new and unexpected ways, making the old stories come alive again. I loved the struggle for free will and how the Wild uses character’s choices; I loved how Julie used the Wild against itself, in order to make it through her story; and I loved how endings and beginnings were used.”

Zita the Spacegirl, by Ben Hartke: I think this one’s on here because it’s fresh in my mind, having just read the last one in the trilogy. But, it’s also here because K took them to school, and she got all the kids (except for the one boy who refused to read it because it’s about a girl. Grrrrr.) excited about Zita and her adventures. Still, even though it’s a graphic novel, I think it fits. It’s awesome.

So…. how did I do? What ones did I forget?

All These Things I’ve Done

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by Gabrielle Zevin
First sentence: “The night before my junior year — I was sixteen, barely — Gable Arsley said he wanted to sleep with me.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s talk of sex and a lot of kissing, but nothing graphic. And there’s talk of violence, but again, nothing graphic. It’s in the YA section (grades 6-9) of the bookstore.

This one is a hard one to sum up, partially because the world Zevin created is so complex. It’s futuristic, but not exactly a post-apocalyptic or dystopian. It’s a world where things are strictly rationed, and coffee and chocolate and books are illegal. So, much like alcohol in the 1920s, there is a strong black market for those items. And our main character, Anya Balanchine (her friends call her Annie), is part of the Balanchine mafia family that has a strong presence in the chocolate market. Her father was the head of the family until he was shot and killed (in front of her) when she was 9. Annie and her older brother, Leo (who is slightly mentally disabled due to another hit meant for her father that killed their mother and disabled Leo) and younger sister Natalya have been raised the past 7 years by their grandmother, whose health is slowly failing.

Over the course of the year, things spin out of control for Annie. Her ex-boyfriend, Gable, ends up poisoned by chocolate, and Annie ends up in juvenile prison because of that. She falls for and dates the son of the assistant DA, in spite of the extreme pressure to break it off. She stresses about Leo, especially since he begins working for the family. And her grandmother finally passes away.

All that managed to fill up the book, which I wanted to like very much. But, aside from world creation, there really isn’t much there. Annie is a fascinating character, but I got tired of her waffling. I wanted her to step up and take charge. It’s not good when the most interesting character is the head of the Japanese mafia family who shows up for probably 10 pages. I hoped for more out of this one, and was disappointed.

I might give the second one in the series a try, just to see if it gets any better.

Dorothy Must Die

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by Danielle Page
First sentence: “I first discovered I was trash three days before my ninth birthday — one year after my father lost his job and moved to Secaucus to live with a woman named Crystal and four years before my mother had the car accident, started taking pills, and begin exclusively wearing bedroom slippers instead of normal shoes.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy handed to me by my manager who said “Get on this.”
Content: A pregnant teenager, a moderate amount of swearing including a few f-bombs, and some violence. The book belongs in the store’s teen section (grades 9+).

At first glance, the idea of this book is awesome: Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, didn’t want to be in Kansas after she went home, and found a way back to Oz, where she has taken over and is not only a tyrant, but she’s a bully. And she’s draining Oz of its magic. It is going to take another girl from Kansas — Amy, of the trailer park — who finds her way to this new and drained Oz, to kill the tyrant and save Oz from certain ruin.

See? Sounds pretty cool, right?

Well, not so much.

It’s not that this one was Horrible, per se. There were a lot of things to like about it, starting from the cool idea. I liked the way that Page developed the magic in the world, and made the Wicked Witches if not the good guys, at least the better ones. I liked Amy, and her willingness to try even though the odds were against her.

But that was about it. I won’t delineate my entire complaints (which include having Amy say “I was used to cornfields back in Kansas..” UM, where??), but rather my main one, this: why is this book not a stand-alone? There really was nothing in this book that either 1) warranted that it be 460 pages or 2) meant for it to go longer than one book. I think with some better plotting and editing (and less of the pregnant bully in the beginning) this could have been a tight, fun, cool romp in a unique version of Oz.

I guess I’m a bit miffed that it’s not, and that’s effecting how I see the book. Others (who don’t mind the whole drawn-out-ed-ness of this one) may find it more enjoyable. Part of me hopes she finds success with this, because it’s a really cool idea.

I just wish the execution was better.

So Long a Letter

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by Mariama Ba
First sentence: “Dear Aissatou, I have received your letter.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: It’s pretty serious and deals with issues of infidelity and polygamy and out-of-wedlock pregnancy. But there’s no swearing, sex, or violence. It’d be in the adult section of the bookstore.

Recently widowed, Ramatoulaye sits down to write a long letter to her best friend about all the events that led up to Ramatoulaye’s husband’s death. It was a happy story:  for 25 years, they were happily married. Ramatoulaye spent her life in devotion to her husband, bearing 12 children. Then one of his daughter’s friends caught his eye, and he woos her, and takes her as a second wife (as is permitted in Islam). That simple act wrecks Ramatoulaye, but she manages to survive as a single mother.

It’s a slim novel, and an interesting one. I didn’t particularly like the format –why, if she’s writing to her best friend, would Ramatoulaye need to recount her friends’ history (which was much like her own; her husband took a second wife. The difference is that Aissatou left her husband)? It didn’t make sense to me, logically, some of the things Ramatoulaye included in her letter. That said, if when I was able to get past that, I found the story was simultaneously enlightening and disheartening.

Enlightening, because that’s an area of the world I know very little about. And through Ramatoulaye, Ba brings to life the ordinary lives of Senegalese women. And disheartening because they have so few rights, as we have come to think of them. I read this book in the middle of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign, and this is a prime example why I need to read more books like this. In my privileged home in my privileged country, it’s easy for me not to think about Senegalese women and their lives. But books like these help me. It helps that Ba is a good writer (aside from the format, of course), and was able to draw me into Rmatoulaye’s life.

And that’s what makes this book worthwhile.

State of the TBR Pile: May 2014

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Happy Mother’s Day! Perhaps you’re like me, and for whatever reason you really dislike this holiday. Or perhaps you love all the attention and enjoy spending time. Either way, I hope you (and your mother) have a happy day.

Business #2: Pam at Mother Reader has announced the Ninth (!) Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge. Head over for the details and to sign up. The basics are this: it’s the first weekend of June and it’s in support of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. Which is a more-than-worthy cause. I’ll definitely be participating.

On a similar note, I’ve gotten involved in the #GreatGreeneChallenge at work. It’s actually kind of exciting. And fun. We’ve been challenged by Blue Willow Bookshop to a sell-off for the first month, starting on the release date. I don’t know if I’m going to aim to win — I probably should, but they have the advantage of being in Texas, where Varian is — but mostly I want to support Varian’s book, and support diverse books. I’m also going to try and be better; as you’ll see, my pile is still too white, and (interestingly enough) very female. I need to branch out.

And my nightstand looks like this:

The Great Greene Heist, by Varian Johnson (because of aforementioned #GreatGreeneChallenge)
Road Rash, by Mark Huntley Parsons (because he was at the store last week and it seemed pretty cool)
Deep Blue, by Jennifer Donnelly (because it’s the “next Percy Jackson” and I’m supposed to “get behind it”)
Rebel Belle, by Rachel Hawkins (because C liked it)
This Song Will Save Your Life, by Leila Sales (because it looked interesting)
Boys of Blur, by N. D. Wilson (I’m intrigued by this)
Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan (because diversity. Though I might wait until the 48hr challenge to read this.)
The Riverman, by Aaron Starmer (If I remember right, Charlotte liked it)
The Geography of you and Me, by Jennifer E. Smith (because fluffy romance)
The Forbidden Library, by Django Wexler (it looks fun)
The Inventor’s Secret, by Andrea Cremer (caught my eye at work)
Confessions of a Jane Austin Addict, by Laurie Viera Rigler (I ought to get around to reading this)
Mouseheart, by Lisa Fiedler (Another one I need to read for work)
Sekret, by Lindsey Smith (the blurb quote by Elizabeth Wein piqued my interest)
The Short Seller, by Elissa Brent Weisserman

What’s on your pile?

Primates

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The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birutė Galdikas
by Jim Ottaviana & Maris Wicks
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s nothing objectionable, content wise. There is, however, some text in cursive, which may make it difficult for younger readers to read. Also, A found the format confusing, since it bleeds from one story into the next. It’s in the middle grade (grades 3-5) graphic novel section at the bookstore.

This one caught my eye when it came into the store, because honestly? A graphic novel about women scientists: how rare is that. Granted, it’s the same famous women scientists (we ALL know Jane Goodall, right?), but still. Women, animals, science: I’m there.

It’s a loose (read: slightly fictionalized) retelling of how Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birutė Galdikas became the sort of scientists they did. It was full of information on how they all met Louis Leakey and how he sent them out to observe and study chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans in the wild. Their styles were vastly different: Dian was the most emotionally involved in her study, I think, and the most passionate about her work. That said, Birutė went the most native; her husband left because she devoted too much of her time to the orangutans purely for the sake of studying them.

I think that’s what fascinated me most about these women. They weren’t in it for recognition or even for purely the sake of science.They were in it because they loved the animals, they wanted to understand them,  and ultimately protect them from ignorance through educating the world. I admire that.

As for the format, I mentioned that A found it difficult to follow. I didn’t, but then I’m an adult. It made me a little sad, though, that she did, because if the kids find the book hard to follow, they won’t be inspired by these women’s stories. And that makes me sad. Perhaps it would have been better to do this in three books, but I enjoyed seeing the connections between these women. I don’t know if I was inspired, but I was at least interested. And that counts for a lot, I think.

The World’s Strongest Librarian

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by Josh Hanagarne
First sentence: “Today the library was hot, humid, and smelly.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s some mild swearing, including a half-dozen (or so) f-bombs. I think older teenagers — especially ones that are struggling with education — would really like this one. It’s in the biography section at the bookstore.

As soon as this came out, I knew I wanted to read it. It’s about a Mormon, a librarian, and a man who has Tourette Syndrome. Granted, it’s been out for a while and it took my book group to get me to read it (too many other things to read; no excuse!), but I’m very (very!) glad I did.

It’s a straight-up memoir of Hanagarne’s experiences growing up. He was raised LDS (I loved his family; he’s got great parents), and struggled with tics as a result of Tourette’s throughout growing up. He wasn’t officially diagnosed until he was a teenager, but it was a part of his life. He found books though (yay, books!) and that helped give him a sense of purpose and direction. Though his life wasn’t easy: it took him 10 years to graduate from college; he kept dropping out because his Tourette’s made it difficult for him to focus.

It was a fascinating tale, not only of his faith journey — he has had some good leaders in his life — but of his personal journey trying to figure out how to handle his increasingly worsening Tourette’s. And it’s a very hopeful book: Hanagarne has managed to create a life for himself that works, in spite of (maybe because of) the obstacles in his way. He did an incredible job helping me picture what life with Tourette’s is like (not fun).

In addition — and perhaps this was my favorite part — Haragarne splices his personal story with ones from working at the Salt Lake City library, which helped break up the stories from the past and were highly interesting and entertaining.

It’s an odd book, probably not for everyone. But I found it be thought-provoking and fascinating.

Lifesaving Lessons

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by Linda Greenlaw
First sentence: “Confrontation was imminent.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s some swearing, including a number of f-bombs. Plus some discussion of sexual abuse of an adult and a minor.

I read a few of Linda Greenlaw’s books way back when and although I didn’t keep up with what she was doing, when I found that she was coming to the store for the paperback version of her latest memoir, I snagged at the chance to both see her and read the book.

This one is a memoir of how she became a mother, of sorts. It’s the story of a girl who came to the island from an abusive family, with an uncle who was seen as a savior. That is, until she escaped one night, and the truth came out: her uncle was sexually and emotionally abusing her. It’s not a pleasant story to read; Greenlaw pulls no punches when talking about the abuse. She’s not graphic either, but rather giving us the full emotional heartache that her daughter — and the island — went through because of this. And how she ended up the legal guardian — and eventually feeling like a mother figure — of the girl.

It’s a hopeful book in the end, though. It’s not an easy road, with a lot of ups and downs, but Greenlaw takes us along for the ride in her frank, yet engaging way. I was drawn into her island way of life again, and worked through her problems with her. I wanted things to work out the best for Greenlaw and her ward, and it was that desire that kept me plugging through what usually would be considered Other People’s Problems.

I’m not sure it’s a book for everyone. But I did find the journey interesting.

First Sunday Daughter Reviews: May 2014

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It’s been an author-heavy week at Chez Fox: we managed to get out to not one, but two back-to-back author events at my bookstore. The first was Kristopher Jansma, who was charming, intelligent, and very, very nervous. He read for 40 minutes (nearly a whole chapter!), which was okay but went on too long. When we finally did get to the Q&A, he was highly embarrassed at all the praise, but handled it gracefully.
My friend, Karen, was smitten.

Clare Vanderpool took this picture. How cool is that?!?

The next night, I dragged M to see Gabrielle Zevin, who was fantastic. She spoke rather than read (though she did read a couple of short passages). She talked about her idea of publishing (referencing that one scene in the Little Women movie), and about writing, and was funny, and smart, and charming. We had a grand time. I talked with one of our regular customers afterwards, who had been the evening before, and we both commented about how Zevin handled the event thing so much better. Perhaps it was a woman/man thing, but I’m chalking it up to experience: she’s been doing this for 10 years, and has figured out how to do it well.

As for the daughters, M discovered this:

I like this cover better than the one we have.

And plowed through the whole series on her days off. She loved it. Seriously. I was just jealous that she didn’t have to wait in between books. And it kind of made me want to revisit the series.

C finished this one:

Which she enjoyed because, duh, RACHEL HAWKINS. Also, she said it was a cross between Legally Blonde and Terminator. How she knows this is beyond me, since she’s never seen either movie.

A finished book reports and book projects, reading this on her teacher’s suggestion:

She cried. (Who doesn’t when reading this one?) And as a reward for finishing all her assignments, she decided to re-read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series before the end of the school year. (She also told me, “I just really like magic, mom.”)

K has been struggling with reading, and when we took her to the eye doctor, we found out why: the muscles in her eyes don’t track side to side very well for very long. She can read, but she gets headaches and her eyes go blurry if she reads for very long. Which is probably why she really likes graphic novels. We’re encouraging her to read in short bouts, and trying to get her to focus longer, and we’ll go back in a year to see what the doctor says. Still, it’s good to know that her disinterest in reading is not disinterest, but rather discomfort.

She and Hubby are about halfway through this (on C’s recommendation):

And she’s enjoying it very much.

As for my book group, we had three girls show up last month (no one had read the book, which makes it kind of hard to discuss), and that made me very happy. I don’t know how much bleed-over we’ll have this month for this one:

I read it and enjoyed it thoroughly, but I can see how it’d be challenging for kids to “get”. Maybe if people show up on Saturday, we’ll actually have a good discussion. I’m hoping that more kids come during the summer, but I’m not sure they will. We’re also planning a John Green summer for the teen crowd, especially since The Fault in Our Stars is coming out in June. (I know: not diverse. I did think of that. I have excuses, but they’re just that: excuses. Perhaps I can use this as a launching pad to get other people interested in other — more diverse books.)

And Blue Willow Bookshop has challenged our store to The Great Greene Heist Challenge,which I begged my bosses to accept. I want to do this partially because I really like Varian and his writing and I want to support him, but also because I think Wichita, especially, gets into a white/male rut. I want to prove — to myself at the very least — that we, an independent store in the middle of Kansas, can sell a bunch of copies of a diverse middle grade book. It’s kind of intimidating, but I believe we can do it. (If you want to help, pre-order the book here. We ship!)

Whew! That was a long post.  What have you (or your kids) been reading?

The Secret Hum of a Daisy

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by Tracy Holczer
First sentence: “All I had to do was walk up to the coffin.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy downloaded from Edelweiss.
Content: The subject matter — death and forgiveness — is a bit mature, but not so much that I don’t think a fourth-grader could handle it. There is some talk of crushes and bras, but even that is pretty tame.

It has always been just Grace and her mother. For 12 years, they’ve been wandering from city to city, finding work and a place to live here and there, never really settling down. When they finally make it to Sacramento, moving in with another single mom and her daughter, Grace finds she’s had enough of moving. She and her mother argue, and later that night, her mother dies in a tragic accident.

Suddenly, Grace is faced with moving in with her grandmother, whom she’s never met (and has a terrible opinion of, since she kicked Grace’s mom out when she got pregnant). To say it’s not something she wants to do is an understatement. At first, she tries to resist moving in with her grandma; she takes to sleeping in the shed, and tries to pull pranks to get her grandma to send her back to her friends’ house, where she was living. But, slowly, as she gets accustomed to the town, she learns that clues to her mother’s past, and therefore hers, are there, and slowly builds a home for herself.

I’ve read a lot of books with dead parents, so it takes something special to make one stand out of the pack. And I think, in many ways, this one had that something special. First: it was death-by-accident, and Grace was the first one to find her mom. It was realistic in that they argued, it was sudden, and Grace has to live with that. There’s also the non-shiny way everything fit together. Grandma was curt and doesn’t deal with loss well. Grace was petulant and stubborn and doesn’t deal with loss well. People are selfish, and unhappy, and yet…. it all works to make it feel more real than grating (it sounds grating. It isn’t. Well, maybe a little. But that helps give Grace her growth arc.). I also enjoyed the artistic thread that weaved its way through the book; Grace’s mother was an artist, her grandmother a landscape designer, and she’s a writer. The words of Robert Frost also tie this book together, giving it a poetic feel. It’s also a very hopeful book, one that looks past grief and loss to find a new beginning.

And one I found that, in spite of being about death and loss, I thoroughly enjoyed.