Fantasies

I do like a good fantasy and have read a few new series these past few weeks. While I am anxiously awaiting the final book in The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini and the third book of The Beka Cooper series called Mastiff this fall, I have found one or two good ones that I think you will like.

The Seven Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima begins with "The Demon King". A good choice for the mature readers this book introduces you to characters you immediately connect to and are intrigued by who they really are and what will happen to them.

For instance Han is a reformed street thief but wears silver cuffs that cannot come off and even magically seem to grow as he grows. He travels between the mountains, where the clans live and where he feels free and accepted, and the town of Fellcastle where he is targeted by bullies and guardsmen alike. Thrown into this mix are wizards, the Princess heir named Raisa who is turning 16, her childhood friend Amon who is now a part of her Guard and Han's very good friend named Fire Dancer who has a secret of his own.

It is on a hunting trip that Han and his friend Fire Dancer come upon 3 young wizards who are up to mischief on the mountain where they are forbidden. Han takes a prized and magical amulet from one not knowing this is a dangerous artifact and will bring danger to not only Han and his family but to many of the street gangs that carve out an existence in the city. Princess Raisa also is at risk as her mother the Queen seems to be under the spell of The High Wizard and has plans for Raisa that she cannot accept.

This is a page turner, full of exciting adventures that lead right into the next installment.


The Relic Master series by Catherine Fisher, who wrote "Incarceron", begins with "The Dark City" followed by "The Lost Heiress" and "The Hidden Coronet" and finishes with"The Margrave". These books draw you in to a world where ancient relics emit a modern technology, where Keepers of these once cherished relics are now hunted by The Watch and the relics destroyed.

Galen is one of the few remaining Keepers of The Order and he and his 16 year old apprentice Raffi head to a dangerous city full of a million streets and crumbling skyscrapers where it is rumored to have a most powerful relic hidden.

These books will appeal to those students who love fantasy. It had all the elements that I look for and love; characters who exhibit bravery in the face of danger and loyalty to what they believe in and to their companions. The relationship between master and apprentice is reminiscent of Halt and Will.

Cupakes Anyone?

A new series about friends by Coco Simon is the Cupcake Diaries beginning with "Katie and the Cupcake Cure". It actually is a familiar theme where two best friends head back to school after a summer apart and one has been accepted by the popular group and deserts her geeky pal.

Katie is the one left out but as she bites into the scrumptious cupcake her mother has put into her lunch to aid in the jitters of a new school she notices 3 other girls who look like they are feeling just like her. A fast friendship begins with the new friends forming their own club that discovers the delight of delicious and decadent cupcakes.

These girls are refreshing in that they make the best out of bad ingredients.

Finally

I have read some good books by Wendy Mass and was keen to read "Finally"! Well - laugh out loud....

In this story Rory is finally turning 12 , a very exciting day as her parents have always told her she can do this and have that when she is 12. So you can imagine how she is feeling - ready to get going with being able to do so many grown-up things.

Like getting her ears pierced and shaving her legs and getting her own cell phone. Except everything she tries doesn't quite turn out the way she thinks it is going to.
ears pierced = infection
legs shaved = bloody legs
cell phone = yep its hers only to find her number was previously that of a pizza place. She gets lots and lots of phone calls for pepperoni pizzas, sometimes right in the middle of class!


Rory finds out very quickly that life really is a lot more complicated and embarrassing once you turn 12.

I think girls will really like this book a lot as Rory is a very fun and endearing character who has the ability to laugh at herself as well as be honest with herself too.

The Penderwicks

"The Penderwicks" by Jeanne Birdsall is an old fashioned yet charming story of 4 young sisters, Rosalind, 12, Skye, 11, Jane, 10 and Batty 4, who have come to stay at a cottage on a beautiful estate with their slightly forgetful and very loveable father for their summer holiday. The girls are all very different; Rosalind is the eldest and very responsible, most of the time, and has taken on her mother's role, Skye is adventurous and impetuous, Jane is imaginative and Batty is... well... 4.

Eager to explore they soon discover all sorts of wonderful things, but most of all Jeffrey, the owner's son. They certainly don't try to but they do manage to get themselves into a little trouble here and a little trouble there.... things that could happen to anyone!

An enticing book that makes you remember simpler times.

Lots of Reading

Yes, lots of reading always but just no blogging. I think after reading "Okay for Now" I was searching for a book its equal and that just didn't happen. But I kept reading and looking and hoping and here are some I enjoyed.

"Belly Up" by Stuart Gibbs was a mystery filled with fun. Henry the Hippopotamus has died at Funjungle theme park. Sad... but mysterious? Not until Teddy, who just happens to live at Funjungle with his researcher mom and wildlife photographer dad, sneaks in to view the autopsy and overhears Doc saying it was murder.

Now who would murder a hippo? Teddy has all sorts of ideas who as Henry really was a piece of work and lots of staff were quite fed up with him. So with the help of Summer McCracken, daughter of the owner, Teddy puts his own life on the line as he continues trying to find all the connections between the staff and other animals who have also died either at the zoo or enroute to it.

Teddy is a very likeable character, down to earth yet into mischief and you cannot help laughing at the descriptions of poor Henry and others.

I thoroughly enjoyed this very entertaining book.

Okay For Now

Wow....

.... this book kept me up till the wee hours of the night reading..... this book had me hooked, this book had me in tears...... this book.....

This book "Okay for Now" by Gary Schmidt is the companion book to the "The Wednesday Wars", a title I thoroughly enjoyed.

But this one is so much more.

Doug Swieteck has just moved to a small New York town where his dad has a new job. Doug is such an unlikely main character; a skinny thug who seems to hate the world, his family (with the exception of his mother who has a beautiful smile) and himself. And one would think rightly so. His father is abusive, his brother a bully and he is constantly being picked on then held responsible for things he didn't do.

He has built up walls and keeps the world out until he stumbles upon two things; amazing pictures of birds by James Audubon and a girl named Lil. Both offer Doug a view into a new world, one where their beauty is reflected back and absorbed.

Little by little Doug tiptoes into his new community; delivering groceries to a myriad of neighbours who give him the chance to prove himself, discovering his innate ability to draw and understand art with the help of a mentor, coming to grips with his disfiguring secret, seeing past the anger of the cruel high school coach, finding true friendship with the girl of his dreams.

There is such strength, such resilience and even though the ending is so not what you think it might be it just adds to the emotion this book draws from its reader.

12 Dancing Princesses X 2

Is there something in the air? I have just read not one but two stories based on the same fairy tale, "The Twelve Dancing Princesses".

The first was next years YRCA choice for Grades 7-9, "Princess of the Midnight Ball" by Jessica George where you are introduced to the story of 12 beautiful princesses who are dancing their nights away in an underworld location. It is up to a handsome and kind soldier, Galen, who has been given an invisible cloak as a reward for his thoughtfulness to an old woman and who has fallen in love with the eldest daughter Rose, to save them. Because of his infatuation he is determined to follow and free the princesses from the curse bestowed upon them as result of the wish of their mother to bear her husband a child.

But because the beauty of a fairy tale is that everyone can make it their own, Diane Zahler has also created a story around this same fairy tale called "The Thirteenth Princess".

In this retelling the twelve princesses are also forced to dance their nights away because of magical interference. But in this version they have another 13th sister, Zita, forced to live as a servant as their father believes her to be the cause of his beloved wife's death. But it is Zita who does not fall under the curse and who, with the help of the stable boy, his handsome elder brother and a mysterious old woman living in the woods, is determined to save the sisters she has grown to know and love.

I think the girls will love both.