Reality Check

Reality Check by Peter Abrahams

If you read my last review, you are aware that I don’t like mysteries. Not a bit. Not even. No. In fact, if one of my colleagues wants to share how great the latest mystery they’re reading is… I have a hard time pretending to listen. Shhhhh! Kind of like a sermon that opens with a sports analogy. Alissa has left the building. Hey! I’m not perfect!

But sometimes, I read a book that doesn’t announce that it is a mystery and I get hooked! When I’m all finished, I look back and say, “Hey! You tricked me! Not FAIR!” Technically Black Hearts of Battersea, was a mystery. Apparently, my kind of mystery. And Reality Check is what I would call a mystery thriller. I could see it as a movie for Young Adults that aren’t into vampires and apocalypses. Just need the right celebrities. Say, a Justin Bieber and a Selena Gomez. Add a few catchy tunes sung by the stars and instant success. Why do I know these things?

Reality Check is a 2012 Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee. Now that I’ve read all of the winners from past years, I’m ready to tackle a new year’s. These books are intended for Young Adults, namely high schoolers, but there is some cross-over with junior high on one end of the spectrum as well as some adult fiction on the opposite. In my opinion, this novel is relatively tame. There is some underage drinking and smoking. There is some physical intimacy although never graphic nor detailed. There is a blip of vaguely implied homosexuality. I can comfortably recommend this book to both the boys and the girls. Young men and young women?

Cody Laredo is excited to begin his junior year at his small high school in the small town of Little Bend, Colorado. It’s not that he loves school. No, he hates academics. He’s more than happy to slip by with a D-. But his passion is football and he intends to be the star quarterback. Everyone knows how important your junior year is in regards to the college scouts.

He’s also pretty thrilled that his girlfriend is Clea Weston. She is nothing like him. She is an over-achieving academic dynamo. A “B” has no place on her report card. In fact, a B is cause for alarm where her father is concerned. And her father is an important man. He pretty much owns the town. Clea is not only from the opposite side of the tracks; Clea is as far away from poor Cody’s apartment above the Red Pony as it is possible to be. But that doesn’t seem to bother either of them.

Unfortunately that B on Clea’s report card and her increasing interest in a boy who is simply not good enough for her, leads to her being sent away to boarding school in New England. Cody attempts to protect his heart by breaking up with her, but when Clea disappears from her new school, Cody leaves his life behind him to try to find her.

Obviously, this is the case of no one being exactly what they appear to be. Including Cody. Headed cross country with only Clea’s most recent letter in his hand, Cody joins the search for his ex-girlfriend, but decides not to tell anyone who he is or share the letter. The letter says, “It’s hard to know who to trust sometimes.” Cody is convinced he can help. He is also convinced that revealing himself will only take attention away from the search for Clea. He’s ready to match his deductive powers with that of the local sheriff, but who is smarter and who is quicker?

A quick read, this one. I'd take a big dumb jock with heart anytime. It's hard to watch him, read him? make the choices he does. It's not that he's stupid - which he thinks he is. He just sees things differently than those around him. And he knows the subject, Clea, better than most.

Black Hearts in Battersea

Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken

Some children are so easy to find a book for. There are those for whom any book will do as long as they have a book. Several books really because they devour them so fast. In some cases I worry if they hurry through them too fast. Are they even enjoying them? Can they even remember them?

Some children are so easily encouraged by their peers and sometimes even their siblings. Big sister read Twilight so I need too. All of my friends are reading The Lightning Thief so I must. Wow! That’s the biggest book I’ve ever seen, but looks are deceiving. It is full of pictures! I can handle this and look cool at the same time!

Some children stick to a certain genre. This one likes ghost stories. This one wants fantasy. Another wants only historical fiction in the form of diary entries. I always cringe when a child asks for a mystery. I don’t personally care for mysteries. Good thing that we have stickers on the spine! Already read all of Nancy Drew? Want to try the Hardy Boys? You like sports? Have I got some authors for you!

And then there is my own daughter. She has finally started reading without being coerced. She can finish a sizeable novel within her time constraints without me keeping tabs on her. But boy is she hard to supply. Especially if Accelerated Reader books are required. First she read 1950’s Newbery books. Then she switched to fairy tales. And then there were dragons. Now back to fairies. But I haven’t been successful. She has requirements.

Unlike me, who must finish every book regardless, she can read a few chapters and discard a book easily. Why? Usually because of violence or death. I should be proud. She doesn’t want to read a book where people get hurt. And she doesn’t like villains either. I cannot get her to watch a Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia or Star Wars movie. It is too much on her poor system. Those books that I thrive on and crave? I wouldn’t even go there with her.

Now, when I put a book into her hand, I have to be able to say, “No one dies.” Maybe they think someone has died, but it turns out to be false. And there is a happy ending. There are bad people, but they don’t win. Not even close. There are wolves! And they are meant to be frightening like discovering an alligator in your bathtub, but no one ever gets hurt! Ever. Really and truly. I promise.

So if you need a book for the faint of heart. The older child who somehow remains young and retains her innocence when the others are aging in decades. Perhaps a child who was born into the wrong century. (Like I myself was.) Well, try The Wolves Chronicles. Black Hearts in Battersea is the second in the series. Our young, orphan, homeless, goose boy from the first novel, discovers he is a duke. Doesn’t everyone still believe that they were somehow switched at birth? My daughter must surely believe it!

For girls who know they aren’t into or ready for Twilight, 4^th-6^th grade. And maybe a tenderhearted boy.

Feed

Feed by M. T. Anderson

I believe this is the last book I have to read based upon a recommendation, at least for a little while. And I suppose that means that Summer is really over. This is also my first M. T. Anderson novel. I always thought I would get to Whales on Stilts, but alas, no. For the record, the audio book was recommended. I’m just not a good listener and so I took the old fashioned route – hardback.

Feed is certainly right up my alley. Dystopian Young Adult literature. It reminds me exceedingly of Extras by Scott Westerfeld and only because I read the latter first. More accurately, Extras takes after Feed according to the publication date.

It’s our not too distant future and the corporations have bailed out America. They did such a good job with the schools; they will do a fabulous job with our government. Anyone who is anyone, (read “has money or credit”) has a “feed”. To simplify, now we work from our computers, laptops or more conveniently, our phones. Soon, we will be organically linked up to the Feed. If you don’t have a lot of money, you might purchase an old-fashioned model where you can see the feed on your glasses and you carry your hardware on your back. BUT, if you use the cutting edge of technology, you had your link to the feed attached right onto your brain when you were an infant and it is just as much a part of your bodily functions as breathing or blinking.

Imagine, if you watch television, the number of ads you are inundated with over the course of a program. If you spend more time on your computer than in front of your TV, picture all of the ads that are flashed at you as you click from site to site. What if those commercials and banners were streamed into your conscious thought continually – yes, none stop – while you are driving, eating, shopping, sleeping, playing. For instance, you happen to be a girl that is into the latest hair trends. You receive a message saying that the new trend is a side part rather than a center part. You would seek the first restroom to change it. These cycles are short-lived. Now we have a season’s colors and trends. In the future, the trends change continually!

And what if that feed pays just as much attention to what you think about and where you go and what you “click” on as your internet’s “cookies.” The feed knows the kind of music you like. It knows the kind of pants you’re looking for. And it catalogs your every need or wish so that the corporations can provide it for you – rather you can buy it from them. You don’t interact with people anymore because you are too busy watching your latest soap or playing the newest game on the feed. You can even choose a site and pay for a feed-induced high.

The language is appalling, but more importantly, the characters seem just as bored with themselves as we would be watching them. They fly to the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and find it boring. My favorite part of the book is the opening line, "We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck. A disturbingly funny book that I would recommend to high-schoolers studying 1984, A Brave New World or Slaughterhouse Five. Not as fun as Extras.

A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

I haven’t read adult fiction for a very, very, very long time. That is unless it showed up on a Young Adult or Juvenile reading list… I used to jump off of my children’s diet whenever a new Dune, Wheel of Time, or Clan of the Cave Bear novel was published, until recently. It was just hard to switch between the two. It was a shock to my system. I used to read a lot of Ken Follett and Anne Rice and I am SO ashamed that I haven’t read the sequel to The Pillars of the Earth yet. It might be close to my all-time favorite ever and even my husband managed to beat me to it. He isn’t a reader unless it is Catch 22. Ah yes! I “listened” to Catch 22 in 2007 or 08. That was the very last one!

Well, my dear Miss Marsha, the lovely teacher who supplies me with my Ranger’s Apprentice fix, and whom I convinced would LOVE The Wheel of Time (I was right!), presented this enormous work to me and said I had to read it. I did. It is a guilty dessert for sure and more tame than I remember Anne Rice.

I hate to spend my time reading it and not presenting it here. Forgive me, please, then for this sidebar here.

Diana Bishop is descended from a looooooooooog line of witches and powerful ones at that. Ever since her parents were murdered when she was seven, she has chosen to live without her magic despite the fact that she was a natural as a child. Instead, she has sought a noticeable career as an historian in academia. She is a professor at Yale, currently doing research at Oxford.

She is requesting rare books for her studies in alchemy when she finds one that has been enchanted. Two of her instincts begin a battle. Use her magic to discover the secrets of Ashmole 782 OR treat it as nothing more than a book needed for her research. After enticing it to open, (can that really be called magic?) she chooses to treat it as research and sends it back without further exploration.

Unfortunately, her ability to request and receive a book that has been missing for 150 years draws the attention of every single creature in London – other witches, daemons and vampires. And of course when so many creatures congregate, the humans begin to take notice as well. Among the creatures that become suddenly interested in Diana, is an extremely powerful vampire, Matthew Clairmont. Diana knows she cannot associate with a vampire because it is far too dangerous, but he will not leave her alone.

Is Diana mesmerized by Matthew or is Matthew bewitched by Diana? Neither is certain. But if the creatures were interested in Diana and her connection to Ashmole 782 before, they are even more interested in a witch and a vampire that choose to associate so openly together. Being in the presence of a vampire is dangerous enough, but falling in love with a vampire is grounds for execution.

Yes, it’s a love story and a mystery with a bit of science and history. And yes, I couldn’t find enough time in my day to return to it. And, gasp, there was sex (without intercourse.) I’m blushing red. I told you, a shock to my system and my sensibilities. But definitely not graphic in anyway shape or form. If you like witches and vampires, this is one you’ll need to read. Sequels on the way! (YEA!)

The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

The Emperor of Nihon-Ja by John Flanagan

It’s a sad, sad day. I try not to think too much about it or I will be devastatingly depressed. I have finished Ranger’s Apprentice – all 10 books. My only hope is that someday I will be retired with extra time on my hands and I will have the joy of reading them all a second time.

Once again, my good friend Marsha blessed me with the opportunity to read her personal copy rather than wait, and wait, and wait for DPL to purchase and receive a copy for children’s. She is SO forgiving. I’ve had it for weeks, months? I didn’t want to read it and then be done. I put it off until I could put it off no longer. I’m finally all caught up on my summer reading save two novels.

I didn’t even get to savor the book over the course of a week, stolen hours at night and in the morning while the girls were sleeping. No, I took it with me on vacation and read it straight through two days in the car. I finished the last ten pages at home in my own bed. I finished with a huge sigh. I will admit that I loved reading to my heart’s content. Especially since it was a book that I knew I would love from the beginning with characters that I wish were real.

Horace, the loyal and courageous knight, has been sent to Nihon-Ja to learn the battle techniques of the county’s warrior caste, the senshi. While there, Horace develops a very close relationship with the title character – the Emperor. So when an opposing ruler of a senshi group decides to stage a coup and the Emperor’s life is threatened, Horace chooses to stay and assist in regaining the throne for the Emperor.

The Royal Princess Cassandra of Araluen, better known as Evanlyn, is concerned when word arrives that Horace is missing. She gets support from her father, the King, and immediately sets off on a Skandian ship for Toscana where the Rangers Halt and Will along with the Courier Alyss are in negotiations with the Toscans and Arridi. No sooner stated than done, Alyss, Halt, Will and even our old friend, (and a favorite,) Selethen the Arridi, join Evanlyn on the Skandian ship headed to Nihon-Ja.

Flanagan, the brilliant master, as always, alternates his chapters between Toscana and Nihon-Ja, between Evanlyn’s traveling rescue party and Horace’s escaping refugees. I never can decide which side I prefer. I just know I get excited for each new chapter. Because eventually, when you least expect it, the two sides finally meet in a joyful reunion.

Reminiscent of one of Tolkien’s last stands, Horace’s party heads for the mountains and a legendary fortress capable of protecting the Emperor and his followers through the winter months. They need help locating the fortress first and upon finding it, they need help rebuilding and fortifying its walls. Thankfully, the Emperor has the support and loyalty of the common people, particularly the Kikori mountain people skilled in timber-felling and woodworking.

There is only one obstacle left. The enemy senshi are skilled warriors trained in battle since the age of ten and they are confident in their birthright. They also have the advantage of numbers. The Emperor’s supporting senshi number under fifty. What the Emperor has in the thousands are the peaceful, hardworking, commoners of the mountains – loyal to a fault, but untrained. That is all right. One of the Rangers still has an idea… if he can just wrap his fingers around it!

Half Brother

Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel

Since I have been working as a children’s librarian, there have been two new authors who have impressed (even) me. Kenneth Oppel is one. (Shannon Hale is the other.) They are both close to my age which you can translate into up-and-coming as opposed to established. And they are incredibly gifted in language.

Oppel is known for two series. One started with Silverwing and the other, Airborn. The former is about bats. Wow. Seriously. The latter is steampunk-alternate-universe-air-pirates-as-opposed-to-sea-pirates. His first picture book, The King’s Taster, earned applause in my home as a bedtime story.

I was utterly startled to find Half Brother. Why I was startled is beyond me. I try not to keep track of what is coming. I like to be surprised. I suppose I would have been prepared to see another bat book. They really are that good – especially the prehistoric prequel. I would have been delighted to see another space pirate novel. I was left gaping when I started Half Brother and realized that it was set in the early 1970s!!!!!

I’ll go back right now and recommend the bat books to kids as young as ten and perhaps even voracious younger readers. They’re a hit with the boys. The Airborn series is more complex and the characters are bordering on young adulthood and I would definitely say they are a crossover between junior high and high school. They also attract both genders. Half Brother is the same.

Ben is thirteen and the son of scientists. While he and his father travel cross-country, Canada, to move into their new house located close to his father’s new university where he will embark upon his new research project, Ben’s mother travels to the United States to pick up Ben’s new baby brother. And new research subject. A chimpanzee.

Ben’s father wants to prove that mankind’s closest relative can learn language. He also wants to establish his career and reputation as a preeminent scientist. Ben’s mother needs to complete her thesis for her doctorate and is fully onboard with her husband’s research project. Ben wants to stay in Toronto, but since that is a long-gone wish, he is happy to establish himself as a “dominant male” in his new school as opposed to the geeky loner he has been.

The research project requires that the chimpanzee, named Zan, be brought up in their household as a member of their family. Ben is unhappy, perhaps jealous at first. Zan gets ALL of the attention. But quickly, Ben becomes emotionally attached to his new and unusual brother. And Zan favors him too. Together, Zan makes most of his amazing leaps and bounds in American Sign Language.

Unfortunately, chimpanzees do grow bigger and become stronger than human men. A playful bite can seriously injure a human handler. It doesn’t help that groups for the ethical treatment of animals take an interest in Zan’s welfare and unusual upbringing. In addition, the research project is determined to be flawed to begin with and is not receiving the big grant money Ben’s father and his university had hoped for. None of this matter’s to Ben – Zan is his brother.

To what lengths will Ben go to protect his brother AND keep the family together?

And excellent book to suggest to kids returning from the new Planet of the Apes movie!

The Magician's Elephant

The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

There was a time when I thought I would read everything by Kate DiCamillo. But I am among the last of my compatriots to read this one. I really loved The Tale ofDespereaux. I led a book discussion of TheMiraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. And I found that the adult’s loved it and the children tolerated it. So when this one came out, I wasn’t in a rush to read it.

We ordered FIVE copies of this book and that is a tremendous indication of how revered this author is in the children’s department. We want you to read her books and we stand behind the quality of her writing. This book was recommended to me by a co-worker and “liked” by another co-worker. And I was ready to be dazzled. But I think the children and I are wishing for Ms. DiCamillo to return to her roots. We miss the style of Because of Winn-Dixie.

The nice thing about this book is that it is not only short, but it is a quick read. I read it in the car in one day traveling to our vacation destination. I am trying to figure out why I’m not thrilled with it. I am not against fantasy. I am not against books about the impossible like some co-workers I know. (luv u!) The best I can come up with is that I would prefer this style of book in a picture book format. Less words – more pictures. That might make it a graphic novel… and I still don’t care for those… But I’m definitely leaning towards all pictures and no words.

The story is about an orphan boy who lives with one of his father’s brother soldiers. The soldier drills him every day to be a good soldier like his father was. But the boy’s heart is not in it. He dreams about a sister that was born and taken from him. The soldier says she is dead, but the fortune teller says otherwise. The fortune teller tells the boy that an elephant will come to him and lead him to his sister. The boy must decide who to believe, for one must be lying.

On the other side of town, an orphan girl dreams of an elephant who will come and take her to where she belongs.

And in a theater, a magician intends to conjure up lilies for a lady in the audience, but a part of him is thinking grander thoughts. Instead, he conjures up an elephant that falls through the ceiling and onto the lap of the lady causing her great bodily injury.

And this is my favorite part of the book. Every day the lady visits the magician in prison to tell him that she is hurt. The magician always replies that he intended lilies. She cannot forgive him and he cannot convince her. The valet who brings the lady wishes for them to speak the truth and be done with it. I agree.

What I really relish these days are DiCamillo’s beginning readers. The Mercy Watson series and Bink and Gollie co-authored with Alison McGhee which I hope becomes a series. Perhaps I prefer her comedy to her philosophical dramas.

Recommended to adults with child-like imaginations.

Scumble

Scumble by Ingrid Law

I love that I can go back and read a review of a prequel. Sometimes it gets my juices flowing. I hate that I was able to read four novels while on vacation, but was too busy to write and had no wi-fi to post anyway. Enforced vacation? I love to read. Writing is something I’m still wondering about.

Scumble is a companion novel to Savvy . I call it a companion novel rather than a sequel because they can stand alone. This book occurs quite a few years after the first and while several of the first book’s characters appear in this one, it is not their story. Mibs, the heroine of Savvy is an adult and is only in the background while her younger siblings, Samson and Gypsy, play minor supporting characters.

Savvy was a coming of age novel about a girl and Scumble is a coming of age novel about a boy. I would expect more girls read the first, but I think we might be able to pick up some boys with the second… I wonder if boys would go back to read the original… Either way, I see 5^th through 8^th graders reading this. I’m going to call it contemporary realistic fantasy. This could easily be any child trying to fit in in today’s world. The only difference is a little uncontrollable superpower.

A Savvy is an extraordinary talent inherited on your thirteenth birthday. To Scumble your Savvy is to control it in such a way that it doesn’t draw attention from the savvy-less locals. Or, in Ledger Kale’s case, doesn’t destroy every working machine in his vicinity. His first goal was to drive with his family from Indiana to Wyoming without their car falling apart into little bitty pieces.

The family is taking their chances with a savvy-newbie in the vehicle because they are going to a family wedding at Ledge’s Uncle Autry’s Ranch. It will be a “savvy” family reunion with all the cousins. Uncle Autry’s savvy draws insects, hence a “bug” ranch. His twin daughters, Marisol and Mesquite, inherited their savvys when they were only five and so they have already perfected their skills. One can levitate objects up and down and the other can levitate objects side to side. Working together, they can distribute wedding cake to all of the guests!

There is another guest actually living on the ranch. Mib’s older brother, Rocket, whose savvy can generate enormous amounts of electricity, has banned himself to the ranch because it is safer than home where he accidently hurt a close friend with his powers. After Ledge accidently brings down one of Uncle Autry’s barns, the Kale family decides that perhaps Ledge should stay at the ranch for the summer until he can learn to scumble his savvy better as well.

It’s one thing to hide at a ranch while you attempt to control your overwhelming super talents. It’s another thing entirely to have a super sleuth reporter sticking her nose where it isn’t wanted. Sarah Jane runs her own little newspaper in the town of Sundance and she knows there’s something special about the ranch and the people living on it. She knows just enough to be able to bribe Ledge into telling and showing her everything. She’s a VERY persuasive girl and her father seems to own or control everything in town. And he has eyes on Uncle Autry’s ranch…

I enjoyed Savvy, but Scumble is even better!