Posts Tagged ‘book response’

Things Hoped For by Andrew Clements

Andrew Clements writes a compelling follow up novel to the thought-provoking Things Not Seen.  In Things Hoped For, Gwen is living with her grandfather in New York City as she studies violin.  The week before her auditions to the top music schools in Manhattan, her grandfather disappears, leaving only a mysterious message on the answering machine.  He instructs Gwen not to worry and not to let anyone know he’s gone.  Gwen does not need more stress as she prepares for auditions, but she cannot keep the outside world from pressing in.  She meets Robert, another student in town for auditions.  Her great-uncle Hank keeps coming around, demanding to speak with her grandfather.  There is a mysterious shopper, William, follows Gwen and Robert.  Finally, Gwen discovers something in the basement freezer that brings the NYPD crashing into the once quiet house. 

This is a remarkable story about the importance of things that cannot be seen–music, family, friendship, and faith.  Through it all, Gwen learns that her story is not as simple as she would like to think and that she is stronger and braver than she ever realized. 

Now I’m waiting for the book order to come in to find out what happens in Things that Are.

Revelations by Melissa de la Cruz

Melissa de la Cruz continues the saga of the Blue Blood vampires in Revelations.  The wealthiest families of New York City are hiding many secrets.  The biggest?  They are not human, but are vampires.  Not only are these vampires wealthy and powerful, they are also fallen angels given a chance for redemption.  But not all the vampires want redemption.  Some have turned to the dangerous Silver Bloods in hopes of overthrowing heaven.  

In this third book in the Blue Bloods series, Schuyler van Allen is caught in the middle.  After the death of her grandmother, she is forced to live in the Force household where Mimi will stop at nothing to make Schuyler’s life miserable and Jack remains a forbidden love.  Schuyler is torn between her love for Jack and her love for Oliver, her human conduit.  Looming over all is the threat of a breach by the Silver Bloods.  In the final battle, a shocking revelation uncovers the true identity of the Silver Bloods at last. 

If you are looking for a good vampire story after Twilight, these are good books to start with.  They have been very popular among readers for the past several years.  What are your favorite vampire stories?

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

You guys have got to overcome your resistance to historical fiction.  Reading good historical fiction is nothing like reading a history textbook.  Instead, these books bring history to life before your eyes and draw you into the story of a character who may not be too different from you.  Some of my favorite writers have explored historical fiction along with their other stories:  Laurie Halse Anderson, Walter Dean Meyers, Gary Paulsen, Avi.  If you avoid this genre, you are missing out–like in this first book by Jacqueline Kelly, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.

Calpurnia, known as Callie V. to her family and friends, is stuck smack dab in the middle of six brothers.  During the summer of 1899 in Fentress, Texas, she is also stuck smack dab in the middle of life, too.  Her mother wants her to grow into a proper young lady, skilled in the arts of running a home as wife and mother.  Callie would much rather spend time down at the river with her grandfather. Together they collect specimens for the study of Science, and Callie records their observations in her notebook.  Callie is amazed that her Grandfather not only has a copy of Darwin’s The Origin of Species, but also corresponds with both Charles Darwin and Alexander Graham Bell.  Even though the rest of her brothers are afraid of Grandfather, Callie spends more and more time with him–until Mother inteferes with cooking and knitting lessons. 

As one century ends, and a new one looms, Callie learns just what it means to be a girl and works to do it her way.   The close of the old century brings many new inventions to Texas–a wind machine to try to beat the Texas heat, a fizzy new drink called Coca-Cola, the first telephone in town, and even a new automobile at the county fair.  Discover the wonders of the natural world along with Callie as she explores the life teeming around her and navigates her place among her six brothers. 

Kelly captures the life of a young girl growing up in Texas, caught between the way things have been done and the changes that new discoveries bring.   Callie tells her story with honesty and wit.  She  begins each chapter with a quote from Darwin’s controversial work. Now I am inspired to go and read it for myself.

What stories transport you to another time and place?

Diamonds in the Shadow by Caroline B. Cooney

I wasn’t sure what to think about this book when I first picked it up.  Neither the front cover or the blurb on the back sounded like Cooney books I had read before.  In many ways, though, this book is classic Cooney.  From page one, there is an underlying sense of fear, that something is not quite right.  That unease quickly swells to fear and even terror as Jared pieces together the parts of the story that no one is saying outloud.

First Jared is horrified that his parents have volunteered to take an African refugee family into their home.  After all, no one else (besides his younger sister Mopsy, who is excited about it), is being asked to share a room or give more than old clothes to help this family.  The family is not what anyone expected:  Andre had both his hands cut off in the war.  Alake does not speak at all, and the rest of the family doesn’t even look at her.  Celestine is eager to learn but is scared of the dark and the doorbell. Mattu carries the ashes of his grandparents in flimsy cardboard boxes. 

Unknown to Jared’s family and the church, the Amabos were followed into America by a ruthless fifth refugee.  He is seperated from them in the airport, but he will stop at nothing to get what belongs to him.  Jared finds himself learning that “there  are now good guys” from a civil war and must make decisions that thrust himself and Mopsy into the middle of an international conflict.  Flashbacks from Alake’s past drive home the fact that no one is innocent.

Cooney explores a lot in this book–themes of family, war, faith and trust–but the action and characters drive the story without it getting bogged down or preachy.

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

Last month I told you about my outrage over unfair accusations against one of the most powerful YA books I’ve ever read, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.  Anderson’s book was not the only book unfairly accused; it was just the only book I had read.  Yesterday, I received a copy of one of the other books under fire, Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler.

Oh my, once I started, I could not put it down.  Ockler has written a beautiful book that plumbs the depths of grief and reemerges into life lived full again.  This book will speak to anyone who has loved and lost, who has stood by a friend, who has yearned to seize the day.  Ockler’s words sparkle like the pieces of brightly colored sea glass that appear and reappear throughout the story. 

On her fifteenth birthday, Anna’s wish finally comes true.  Her best guy friend Matt kisses her.  For one month they keep their changing relationship a secret from their families, including Matt’s sister and Anna’s best friend Frankie.  Matt makes Anna promise not to tell Frankie until he can talk with her first.  He plans to tell Frankie during their annual family vacation to Zanzibar Beach, but he dies of an unknown heart defect just before they leave.  Now Anna wonders how long she must keep her promise to keep their secret and how long she must remain faithful to a ghost. 

Through the past year, Anna has bit her tongue while standing faithfully by Frankie through her grief.  She has seen Frankie withdraw into silence and the emerge with a new personality–one that is ready to party on the outside but locked up on the inside.  Now Anna is going to Zanzibar Beach with Frankie and her family for the Absolutely Best Summer Ever (A.B.S.E.) .  Frankie is determined that they will meet twenty boys, one for each day they are on vacation.  Anna reluctantly agrees, knowing she can never tell Frankie why she only wants the guy who is already dead.  Once Anna meets Sam, she is torn between her memory of Matt and her attraction for Sam. 

If you want to read a book that will break your heart and inspire to live life to its fullest, all in the same breath, pick up copy of Twenty Boy Summer today.  What books have touched your life and heart?  If you want to have those books that speak to your life and heart, SpeakLoudly.

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Learn the secret history of the United States and the truth behind the Civil War in Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith.  Just as he did in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Grahame-Smith combines classic style (in this case, grand biography) with creatures from your worst nightmares.  The result is an absolute delight to read.  The story is fully documented with footnotes (well worth reading) and support by photographs.  (It’s amazing what digital editing can do to historical photographs.)

Young Abe Lincoln’s first encounter with vampires happened when his mother died from a vampire’s poisoned blood even though he didn’t know it at the time.  When he learned the truth about his mother’s death, he vowed to drive every last vampire out of America.  He sharpens his ax and sets out to learn all he can about vampires and how to kill them.  Little did he know that he would give his life to this cause. 

He gets lucky and kills his first vampire, but his second vampire nearly kills him.  Much to Lincoln’s horror, he is rescued by another vampire, Henry.  Henry warns Lincoln, “Judge us not equally” and slowly earns Lincoln’s trust.  Henry recruits  Lincoln to the cause of the Union, a group of vampires who valuess humanity and want to live peacefully with humans, feeding only when necessary.  Other vampires, though, want to enslave the human race and raise them much as we do cattle.  These vampires find willing allies in Southern plantation owners, who are more than willing to sell old or injured slaves to feed their appetites. 

Lincoln’s life is continued to be haunted by vampires.  A vampire kills his first love and one of his sons.  He gives the best years of his life to hunting down and killing vampires.  He nearly loses the second love of his life when he learns that her father is in league with the Southern vampires.  He enters politics and runs for President at Henry’s urging.  He alone knows the true stakes behind the Civil War.  At last, the vampires are defeated and driven out, but not before one last vampire, John Wilkes Boothe, strikes a fatal blow to Lincoln, but not the Union.

What mash-up would you like to see next?

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Both inside and outside Incarceron–a living, thinking prison–nothing is what it seems.  The ancient Sapients designed Incarceron to be a perfect paradise to hold all the undesirables of the world–the poor, the criminal, the dissident.  Inside, Finn and his friends desperately seek a way out from the brutal life they experience.  Outside, Claudia is just as trapped by the life laid out for her by her father, the Warden of Incarceron.  She is to marry the Prince of the land and become Queen of a land trapped in the trappings of the past.  Through equally desperate measures, both Finn and Claudia find keys to Incarceron that allow them to talk with each other.  Will they find each other–and a way out of their respective prisons–before it is too late?

Catherine Fisher has created a deeply layered world in Incarceron that raises questions that still echo through my mind.  What does it mean to be imprisoned or free?  What are the walls of the prisons that trap each of us?  Do we worry too much about where we are rather than who we are? 

I am more than ready for the second installment, Sapphique, which comes out December 28.  I know what I’m spending my Christmas money on.  How about you?

A Dickens of a Cat and Other Stories of the Cats We Love

I miss my cat now.  Callie Smith Grant gathered stories of cats who have wriggled and purred their ways into our lives and hearts.  Some snuggle up close while others keep their distance, but either way these cats changed their humans for the better.  Some even saved lives–nothing as dramatic as pulling someone out of a burning house, but saved lives none-the-less. 

This collection of stories is a must-read for any cat-lovers.  For those of you who are not cat people, these stories might change your mind.

Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson & Greg Call

I went back and listened to the second book in Dave Barry’s Star Catcher series, which gives the story before the story of Peter Pan.  Peter and his Lost Boys are enjoying life on Mollusk Island.  Peter loves nothing more than taunting the fierce pirate captain, Black Stash (known for his bushy mustache) with his new nickname, Captain Hook.  Captain Hook is determined to have his revenge on the flying boy, but both their plans are interrupted with the arrival of a ship with a mysterious passenger.  This cloaked shadow holds the Mollusk princess hostage to learn where the shipment of star stuff is hidden on the island.  When Lord Umbra learns that the Star Catchers took it away from the island, he threatens to kidnap Molly and hold her in exchange for it.  Peter cannot sit by while his friend Molly is in danger, so he and Tinkerbell stow away on the ship for its journey to London.  Peter is desperate to find and warn Molly before it is too late,  but he is hopelessly lost around London.  With the help of Tinkerbell and Molly’s friend George, Peter and Molly set off to rescue her mother from Lord Umbra and warn her father of the danger the star stuff is in.

Just like the other books in the series, this one is a rip-roaring adventure that explains many of the things that came to be in the story of Peter Pan.  My favorite scene?  A cameo appearance by James Barrie himself, who rescues Peter from one of the more frightening creatures of London’s street life.  Oh yes, Barrie is helped by a large St. Bernard.

Adam Canfield, Watch Your Back! by Michael Winerap

I want student writers like Adam Canfield and his coeditor of the school paper, Jennifer.  These two reporters and editors won’t rest until they get the truth and publish it in The Slash, their elementary/middle school newspaper.  In their previous adventure, their investigative reporting led to the firing of their principal for misuse of school funds.  Now Adam is determined to reveal the truth behind the school science fair:  the parents of the winning students do most of the work.  Pushed by Adam, Jennifer is working to uncover the real story behind the renaming of a street in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., the powerful people who want to “clean up” their town by forcing those they don’t like to move out.  To top it all off, Adam must now cope with being the news story after he is mugged for $40 of snow-shoveling earnings. 

Adam and Jennifer are way to good to be true, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading about their adventures.  If you have a nose for news, or at least a good mystery, this is the book for you.  In the course of their reporting, Adam and Jennifer find The Slash is threatened on all sides.  Will they get the story without getting expelled?  Will the truth win out in the end?  You can get the rest of the story with Michael Canfield of the Slash and Michael Canfield: The Last Reporter.

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