Plain Kate

Plain Kate by Erin Bow

I hate to give a bad review to a book. And it’s not even a bad book. It’s well written and unique. It pulled me right in. It was a book that I chose to read based upon the jacket summary. I can understand why it intrigued me. But it is one of the few books that I felt uncomfortable reading.

On occasion, I have watched horror films. I don’t know why I subjected myself to them. Perhaps I just liked to be “safely” scared. I’ve stopped. One of the last ones I watched was The Grudge. There was this sound that was played whenever something bad was about to happen. Kind of like the Jaws theme. We have radiators in our house and whenever an air bubble is released from the water and it hits the metal, it makes the same sound. Not a cool thing. The movie primed me with a Pavlov’s dog type of response and then my house has carried it on.

Sometimes a book reads in such a way that you can see the movie play in your mind. It’s like the author wrote the movie or intended it to be made into one. There were times when descriptions in this book very vividly recalled to mind the ghosts or monsters from The Grudge or The Ring. That awful image of a girl crawling shakily out of a well and walking towards you all damp and cold and colorless. And evil.

This book spooked me. In some cases, you might argue that the book was too good. I might argue that it belongs more to Young Adult. However, there are some kids that come looking for a scary book and I think I’ve found one. Perhaps I should put a ghost sticker on the spine. And then again, I don’t think I’m going to recommend it at all.

Plain Kate is set in a time when witches are drowned or burned at the stake. Plain Kate is set in a place where witches are real. Women can heal with some herbs and a song. Men can call up the weather. Your shadow can be removed with a braid of your hair, a bit of your blood, and some fire. And magic can only be performed when gifts are exchanged or sacrifices are made.

Plain Kate was born a natural carver to a village carver. She was given a knife to carve before she was given a spoon to eat. Due to her supernatural carving abilities and her unusual eyes, two different colors, she was always set a bit apart from the rest of the village. Her mother died when she was young and her father died when she was not much older. Plain Kate was made an orphan in a place that did not want her.

About the time Plain Kate is forced to leave her village, a strange albino man arrives – a real witch named Linay. He offers to exchange the wish of Plain Kate’s heart for her shadow. Only when the village becomes violent against her does Plain Kate begin to consider his offer. She finally agrees in exchange for the supplies necessary to travel away from her past. The wish of her heart? Her cat begins to talk which doesn’t help her case when she is accused of witchcraft.

I wish I could say that Linay is satisfied with just her shadow, but he needs more and now the two are connected. Linay’s goal is to raise his sister from the dead and take revenge on the city that burned her at the stake for trying to heal people during a fever of epidemic proportions.

If you don’t want your children performing the “Light as a Feather” trick/spell, then you don’t want your children reading this. That’s the kind of uncomfortable I was. And this is why I read books. I didn’t see this one coming, and I’m not sure anyone else would without a careful background check. 

Nation

Nation by Terry Pratchett

I have read but one of this author’s books before. He is quite well-known for his “series” called Discworld. I was not even aware of him until I started working in the Children’s Department and I was a literature major in college. Such a shame. I think there could be a class on Discworld. Why, there probably is… somewhere.

I read The Wee Free Men years ago. It was a new book with an attractive cover and I really enjoyed it. But when its sequels arrived, I was seriously entrenched in reading the Caudills. AND I had discovered just how large and various the Discworld series is and was a bit overwhelmed. When I realized that The Wee Free Men belonged to the series, well, I didn’t want to go any further without catching up. Even though I was assured that it wouldn’t hurt to read just the series within a series.

Introducing… Summer Reading! I have greatly enjoyed reading books that I want to read regardless of their “list” status. I have read an abundance of books that just called to me from the shelf. Mixed in with those books, without even realizing it, I also took on several recommendations from my co-workers. This one comes from Miss Nancy and she says that the audio book of this title is PHENOMENAL!

Mau is a boy on the verge of manhood. He has left behind the island of his youth, his family and his boy’s soul. He has been placed on the Boys’ Island where he must survive on his own and find a way to return home within 30 days. If he can accomplish this, he will be a man and will receive not only the tattoos of men, but also a man’s soul. This is what “should have happened.” But it did not.

Instead, a tsunami of horrific proportions ravages this part of the ocean and attempts to destroy the islands and the life upon them. Mau had been safe, safer on the water in his little canoe. When he arrives home, he finds devastation and death. He is alone. He might have chosen death for himself except that someone needed to send the dead into the ocean so that they might become dolphins according to their beliefs.

Mau thinks he is alone, but he is not. Another, larger, stronger, foreign ship has beached – treed – on his island. There is a lone survivor. A thirteen-year-old girl. A white girl. One who has been raised to be a lady. A girl that is 138 heads away from being the Queen of her land. And her father will come to get her. Someday.

The cover of the book reads, “When much is taken, something is returned.” Can Daphne replace the hundreds of the lost? Not alone, but she is very resourceful. And, like Mau, she steps into her new responsibilities and roles. She is a “woman of power.” The two become the new leaders as little by little, other survivors find the island of Nation. When the adults are weak, the children move forward.

This is quite a powerful book. Kids will read it and appreciate the adventure and the comic relief. Adults will read it and read it again. It could almost be required reading for a class on philosophy or religion. I would recommend it for Junior High and up, both boys and girls. The question is, “How will you respond to God, when everything has been taken from you?”

In Mau’s case, it would be the gods. The voice of Locaha – Death – speaks to him. He also hears the voices of the Grandfathers in his head. Daphne will hear voices as well. But they won’t be the voices of the religion in which she was raised which is definitely Christianity. An author’s note states that the book is not set in our world, but an alternative one. And the story indicates that Britain is in its conquering mode. Missionaries are out to win the savages. It is a “questioning” book. So parents should be prepared.

The Water Seeker

The Water Seeker by Kimberly Willis Holt

Here’s a case of mistaken identity. Something about this book’s title; something about this book’s cover; something about this book’s summary; something about this book’s reviews drew me in. I remember ordering it and thinking, “That’s a book I want to read!” I remember holding it for the first time and something clicking in my mind, “I wanted this book.” And I put my name on it. And it became a part of my summer reading list. The books I wanted to read and not the books I needed to read.

I read the first few chapters and wondered, “Huh, this is not the book I thought it was or would be.” There was a part of me that started to think, I don’t have to read this book, but by then, I couldn’t help myself. I suppose, I thought it would be more fantastical or magical and get a sticker. While it won’t get a fantasy sticker, it was definitely fantastical and magical on a different scale. (But it should probably get a historical fiction sticker instead.)

Don’t get me wrong. Growing up, I was the princess of historical fiction. As a matter of fact, I read oodles of books about the Oregon Trail and at one time could probably have been a scout for the Trail based upon my book learning. (And I’ve never been closer than New Mexico, HA.) But I’ve grown up and prefer… well… more. Unique. Unusual. DIFFERENT.

This is the story of Amos Kincaid. His father, Jake Kincaid, is a dowser. His grandfather was a dowser. His great grandfather was a dowser. Their family was a line of dowsers going all the way back to when God made creation. Water wasn’t just in their blood – water was their blood. Dowsing was a blessing – an occupation that could put food on the table. Dowsing was a curse – you had to follow the need. OR, in Jake Kincaid’s case, do it when you’d rather be doing something else.

Amos got dowsing from his father. Amos got drawing from his mother. Delilah was the wild, red-headed, earthy mother that preferred solitude with a charcoal pencil and a pad of paper. Amos never knew his mother – she died during childbirth – but she never left his side as a child.

Amos’ life was full of change and he had no control over it. Because his mother died and his father was a trapper, he was passed from home to home. Just as soon as he would get comfortable with his lot in life, tragedy would strike or his father would show up and it was time to move. This novel is a story about Amos’ Coming of Age. That moment when he stops following and begins to lead.

The language is gorgeous. The characters are tangible. The story is comfy and yet uniquely told. I would say that the author told the story that she wanted to tell and not the story that a publisher wanted to sell. She earned the right. I foresee multiple adults trekking upstairs to check this title out for their book discussion group. I’d recommend this book to kids with old souls.

The Throne of Fire

The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan

I have a child to thank for having my copy of the second book in The Kane Chronicles in my hands so quickly. This child, a boy, has come to the library weekly to check on the availability of this title. Long before it was even published, he was asking. In fact, if I had to put a finger on the date that his queries began, I would say it was the day after he finished The Red Pyramid.

Rick Riordan is the guy who wrote the Percy Jackson series and now the Heroes of Olympus series. The first is well known by now and has a movie franchise and it is based on the premise that Greek mythology is real, present and modern – and resides in Manhattan. The second series is most certainly a companion series but Roman mythology enters the picture. And then there is that 39 Clues series. Riordan must be a workaholic.

The Kane Chronicles are similar to the first two series and yet they are different. Here we rely on Egyptian mythology, but the Egyptian gods are not alive and well. They have been conquered, retired, imprisoned. It is the House of Life, run by magicians, that controls the fate of the world. There are no demigods. Instead, there is the royal bloodline. Strong in magic, they strive to maintain the balance between Order and Chaos without involving the gods or succumbing to them.

Enter the Kane siblings. Carter and Sadie represent the joining of two very strong royal Egyptian bloodlines. They were raised unaware of their importance and potential in order to keep them safe from both gods and magicians. When their mother died, the two were separated. Carter who more closely resembles his African American father stayed with his father. They traveled extensively for his father’s scholarly research. Sadie, who takes after her blond-haired, blue-eyed mother, went to live with her grandparents in London, only seeing her father and brother on holidays.

In the first book, Carter and Sadie were finally thrown together again when their father attempted to stave off Chaos for a while longer. They learned that their mother sacrificed herself in order to keep Apophis, the god of Chaos, imprisoned. Then their father became the god Osiris and went to live in the Seventh House and rule the Egyptian Afterlife. This left the siblings parentless as well as clueless.

The Throne of Fire finds Carter and Sadie way ahead of the game. They are teachers in their own Brooklyn House. They have their own initiates who have made their way to Brooklyn to learn to use their magic to continue in the struggle against Chaos. And Apophis is rising. In five days.

The siblings receive visions and discover a way to prevent the end of the world as we know it. They must raise the sun god Ra to defeat Apophis. In order to summon him from places unknown, they must retrieve the three scrolls of the Book of Ra, each heavily protected. They must travel the god’s original path through the Houses and survive each challenge. And speak the spell within the scrolls pages. And hope that Apophis doesn’t swallow Ra whole anyway.

This would be easy enough, except that the Kane’s are considered traitors to the House of Life and the two strongest magicians are against them. So instead of receiving their help, they must fight them every step of the way. The Kane’s have become godlings. They shared their thoughts and bodies with Horus and Isis and the penalty is death. But the Kane’s know that the only way to restore Order and defeat Chaos is to bring the gods out of retirement and rediscover the “old ways” of the glorious ancient Egypt.

I still prefer this series to the Greek and Roman ones that are so familiar to me. It is fun too learn more about Egyptian mythology in this way. I'd recommend this to the Percy Jackson followers, as well as to kids who enjoy mythology. The 5th to 8th graders will get it first, but the adults, both young and old will follow.

City of Fallen Angels

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

Here is an unexpected (to me) Book Four in The Mortal Instruments series. Clare’s last book began a new planned trilogy that was a prequel to this one and called The Infernal Devices. I rather enjoyed the new trilogy’s setting, Victorian England, and was a bit put off to return to modern-day New York. But, as immortal characters cross both realms and mortal characters make choices that affect the present, I might just be okay with that.

We return, six months later, to the Shadowhunter / Downworlder love triangles that keep the teens coming back. The evil Valentine is dead. His REAL son, Sebastian/Jonathan, is presumed dead. The newly arisen Circle is dismantled. A new Accords has been written. All thanks to Clary Fray and her off again, on again, is he her brother or her boyfriend, Jace Wayland … Lightwood … Morgenstern … Herondale?

Clary’s mother, Jocelyn, once a Shadowhunter, (always a Shadowhunter?) is engaged to be married to the love of her life, Luke, who happens to be a Shadowhunter turned Werewolf / Downworlder. And everyone is busy with the wedding planning, dress altering, and party attending.

Jocelyn had raised Clary to be a normal human child despite her Shadowhunter blood, but now Clary is busy playing catch-up. She is in training to learn everything that she should have learned in order to protect herself while protecting the world from Demons.

Clary is being trained in part by her boyfriend Jace, but he is preoccupied as always. This time he is having nightmares. In his nightmares, he always ends up wounding Clary and watching her die in his arms. Jace is afraid that even though he isn’t Valentine’s son by blood, he was still raised by the man and therefore harbors a trace of his evil. This translates into Jace avoiding Clary. Clary misunderstands, as always. He must not love her anymore.

In the meantime, Clary’s best friend Simon, once a normal human teenager, now a special vampire with extraordinary powers, is dealing with his own troubles. Forget that he is a Daylighter – a vampire who can be in the presence of the sun. Forget that Clary put the Mark of Cain on his forehead – anyone who chooses to harm him is dealt the punishment sevenfold by the Hand of Heaven. Forget that the ancient vampire Camille wants him on her side; the head of the New York vampires wants him dead, and a league of gray-track-suited humans? are trying to mug him.

Simon’s primary problem is that he’s been dating Isabelle the Shadowhunter and Maia the werewolf simulataneously and unbeknownst to each other. And they’re bound to find out before the wedding. A woman’s scorn is much more painful than a demon’s attack.

She sure knows how to write them. She certainly understands tension. And there is definitely another in the works.

This is high school reading. There is still no sex, just making out in underwear – once. But there is the promiscuous Warlock, Magnus Bane. He is caught off guard when an old flame, Camille, messes with the mind of his new flame Alec. Poor guy doesn’t stand a chance.