Girls and Girls

One of my ex students, Amanda, didn't like fantasy and would always ask, "Don't you have anything real?" So I used to go looking for good "real" books just for her and the others like her.... those who didn't share my love of fantasy. I did pick up two this week, both "realish" and very different from each other.

The book I finished late last night is "Close to Famous" by Joan Bauer. This book had me simply drooling over all the glorious cupcakes described and I have learned so much about cupcakes that I am inspired to go and make some and I hate to bake!

I really enjoyed this book as I have enjoyed so many of this author's in the past. In this book Foster is a 12 year old girl, fleeing with her mom in the night to get away from an ugly incident, and finally ending up in West Virginia in a small hiccup of a town. Foster is one of those girls that I admire so much. Not a whiner or complainer or a poor me, well maybe just a little when her pillowcase full of mementos gets lost, but instead she epitomizes the saying "when the going gets tough.... the tough get going".

No job? need money? Not a problem! Foster prepares some of her scrumptious cupcakes and heads over the the town's diner to share her treats. She comes away with orders for the next day and the next... Foster's goal is to be the youngest chef on tv and she is an amazing baker.

But Foster does have a problem or two of her own and the biggest is - she can't read. She is one of those kids who are so good at getting others to read for her but because Foster is that type of kid who is likeable, honest and is a straight shooter she soon has quite a few of the town folks helping her over come this particular obstacle.






The second is "Encore Edie" by Annabel Lyon. Set in Metro Vancouver, Edie is a 13 year old girl who is just having trouble with life; trouble with her sister Dexter, trouble with her cousin who has Down syndrome and has come to live near her, trouble with her new school, trouble with the school play she has involved herself in and even trouble with a boy who likes her.

Life seems very overwhelming for Edie and I think for a lot of young girls today who just get so wrapped up in themselves and forget to look at the big picture. Things do eventually resolve with Edie feeling and acting better but I can just hear the tone and voice throughout..... whatever!

What are you reading today?

The Youngest Templar - Orphan of Destiny

I have been waiting for this book, the last in the "The Youngest Templar" trilogy, for eons.

"Keeper of the Grail" the first book by Michael Spradlin was a book I very much enjoyed a while ago. Set in the Holy Lands at the time of the Crusades, the Holy Grail is placed into young Tristan's hands for safe keeping and he must deliver this most sacred of relics back to England. However, Tristan seem to be the target of another Knight Templar other than his master, one who knows who Tristan really is and also knows of his importance of his mission.

A second book, "Trail of Fate" followed where Tristan and his two friends, Robard Hode and Maryam, have managed to make it to France but the evil Sir Hugh still manages to find him and threatens once again to end his mission.

In this final book, "Orphan of Destiny", Tristan along with his two friends have made it safely back to his home in England where his beloved abbey, his home where he had been placed as a baby, has been burned to the ground. The trio makes plans to head to the safety of Sherwood Forest, an area well known to Robard, but once again Sir Hugh interferes and places everyone and everything in jeopardy.

Adventure and intrigue, suspense and secrets make this book one difficult to put down.

Dreamdark - Blackbringer

Just look at the cover of "Blackbringer", the first book of "Dreamdark" by Laini Taylor and you know this is going to be an unusual book. There is a picture of a very small fairy with tiny pointed ears, her wings aloft, holding a tiny dagger and sitting high on the back of a crow.

In fact she is scruffy, headstrong and determined. Magpie Windwitch is her name. She is not only a fairy but a very special one who, up till now, flies around the world with her band of crows, defeating devils and imprisoning them once more into bottles. But she stumbles upon evidence of a very powerful being and hurries home to Dreamdark to find out all she can in order to defeat this horror who devours all in his way.

This story is complicated at the beginning as you maneuver among the dialogue and characters who are djinns, the creators of the world and a multitude of faeries and imps, both good and bad. One particular endearing soul to both the reader and to Magpie is the warrior Talon, a Prince of Dreamdark, who is a fairy who cannot fly because of stunted wings. His determination is evident when he finds his own way of overcoming his disability.

But we finally discover who Magpie really is and why it is her birthright to overcome the Blackbringer, that creature who is about to rip open the fabric of the world.

I am amazed at the complexity of this world that the author has created where events and explanations unfold in an unexpected and detailed manner. It took me a while but I loved it. Good readers - try it.

Moon Over Manifest

This book, Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool, is the Newberry Award winner of 2011. I always know a Newberry Award winner is going to be good but will it appeal? Do judges look for things that readers may not? I picked this one up, I read, I could not put down and I loved.

Once again this is a story that entwines so many things so beautifully. Abilene is a spunky 12 year old girl who has come to live in the dusty small town of Manifest in the year 1936 when her father Gideon is supposedly off to work where she can cannot go. After a life of running the rails and not having a home Abilene is determined to find out about her father's past in this town that he has sent her to and told her about through his stories.

Abilene is staying with Shady, a preacher/bartender in his church/bar, she meets Miss Sadie, a diviner, who seems to be able to read Abilene's thoughts and wishes and who tells her stories about a time years before that are connected to a box of mementos that Abliene finds under the floorboards of her room; things like a fishing lure, a cork and a skeleton key.

And she meets a whole host of townsfolk, both in real life and through these stories that ulitimately show her what she is looking for.

I think you will love Abilene and this book.

Do You Believe in Magic?

Two down and one to go.... books which involve magic that is. This one is titled "The Grimm Legacy" by Polly Shulman. Grimm refers to The Brothers Grimm, authors of a multitude of fairy tales which always have an element of magic; dancing slippers or seven league boots, artifacts which help or sometimes hinder the hero of a story.

In this book magical artifacts are a part of a very special lending Library in New York. Yes, you can actually take out and use something magical. At the beginning we meet Elizabeth, a teenage girl living with her father and stepmother and has two stepsisters. She has always loved fairy tales as they connect her to her mother. After doing a school assignment on The Brothers Grimm, Elizabeth is asked by her teacher if she would like a job at this special Library. Not fitting in at school she is anxious for the opportunity and, after a very unusual interview, she gets the job. There it is her responsibility to find old and unusual objects that people would like to borrow, like a 19th century doublet, and send them down to the main circulating area through a system of pneums.

There are 3 other pages (a term to describe the students who work there) who show her the ropes and fill her in on the mystery of some disappearing magical objects from the Grimm Collection, a very special collection that only a few people are able to access and use. They also tell her of the mysterious disappearance of two young workers. Weird things happen, magic is used and Elizabeth is torn in who to believe.

I quite liked this book with its interesting characters, of things that are not as they seem, of the very real danger of using things that could have disastrous results. Many parts kept me on the edge of my seat and I think you will like the adventure as well as the romance.

Lots of Reading..

"The Girl Who Could Fly" by Victoria Forester... loved it because of a wonderful imaginative plot and a battle of good and evil...



"The Thirteen Treasures" by Michelle Harrison... good because of the evil fairies who play havoc with Tanya.
"Neil Flambe and the Aztec Abduction" by Kevin Sylvester. Not as good as the "Marco Polo Murders" as it jumps around quite a bit and you have to concentrate a bit more but still
very entertaining character. Neil is competing in a cooking contest in Mexico when his friend is kidnapped and he tries to find her before it is too late.

"We the Children" by Andrew Clement whom I love.. but this book feels very unfinished... like they wanted to do a series so just stopped in the middle but not even at a critical point.

Benjamin 's school is going to be demolished but on this particular morning the janitor presses an old coin into Benjamin's hand along with the instruction to save the school. And then the janitor dies. More of a mystery occurs as the assistant janitor is not whom he seems and is watching Benjamin and his friend Jill as they try to figure out how to stop the wrecking ball..

The Scorch Trials

I have learned that I best write when I have just finished reading as the impact of the book is still fresh in my mind. My other recent reads over the holidays have faded and I will have to revisit them to regain their full effect.

So here it is New Years Day and I have just finished "The Scorch Trials" by James Dashner. This is the sequel to "The Maze Runner" and I will let you know now that this is not the end.

This book is for the very mature reader, ones who like "The Hunger Games" I think will like this one. But this is even darker and more evil in its theme. The characters are watched and manipulated however not for the entertainment of a country but for the survival of the world and nothing is sacred, certainly not life.

At the beginning of this book Thomas and his Gladers think they are finally safe from Wicked, the organization responsible for the Maze. Quickly they find out this is not so. There is another trial they are forced into where these few remaining boys are given the seemingly impossible task of making it across one hundred miles of vast wasteland to a safe haven while hindered by Cranks, deteriorating humans infected with a disease, and science fuelled monsters as well as horrific weather conditions; unbearable heat and severe lightning strikes.

Thrown into this equation is the fact that Thomas's friend Teresa has been taken, replaced by a boy who describes the exact same experience Thomas and his friends have gone through with one exception, the players were girls with him being the only boy.

Memories surface that describe patterns and variables being used in this trial and Thomas knows the stakes to survive have been raised.

This is such a thriller but certainly not for the faint of heart.

What are you reading today?