Review: Sent

Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This one came out of one of the boxes of books I  picked up at the Scholastic Warehouse Sale in May. It's the second book in a series of mystery stories by Margaret Peterson Haddix called "The Missing." The first book is called Found. If you haven't read Found, start there. If you have and are ready for Sent, there's a book talk below that makes sure you're up to speed.



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Review: Rot & Ruin

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This one I picked up because I heard about it on the podcast Text Messages. Dr. Buehler hasn't steered me wrong yet.

No one knows what caused First Night--the night when the dead awoke and started killing off the living. And what Benny remembers about First Night is his mother in a dress with red sleeves, and that his brother took him and ran away. Now Benny is 15 and has to find himself a job or he risks losing half of his food rations. He wants something simple, something he doesn't have too work hard at, and something that isn't joining the family business and becoming a zombie hunter like his brother.

I didn't think I'd enjoy a zombie novel near as much as I did. Rot & Ruin is well written with complex characters and enough action to keep the pages turning.

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Review: Rebel Angels

Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I quite love the type of book that keeps me guessing until the end. The girls, Gemma, Felicity and Ann are on the search for Circe, who wants to harness the power of the realms for herself. As I read, I told myself, it can't be (this person) but I know it is. But it could also be this other person. I'm not sure.

I like being unsure of who the antagonist is and how they fit into the story. If I can guess too easily, there is little incentive to finish.

Rebel Angels kept me engaged, from trying to figure out who Circe was to watching Pippa become corrupted by the realm, to wondering, along with Gemma, who she could trust and what he implications for trusting the wrong people are.

Because it's a trilogy, I knew going in that Gemma wasn't going to die, but their discovery of Circe's identity and the events that ensue, left me wondering what Libba Bray had in store for the third novel.

Hopefully my copy will come in the mail soon; I can't wait to read the last book in this series.

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Review: Everfound

Everfound by Neal Shusterman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In Everfound, the final battle between Mary Hightower and her followers, and The Chocolate Oger, Mikey McGill and Allie the Outcast. While Mary is asleep, her second in command continues to follow her orders to bring more and more children into Everlost.

As someone who likes to read books in a series, I was a little wary going into this one when I found out that a new character had been added. Jix, another skinjacker with a fancy for jaguars, fits seamlessly into the plot as it was set up in Everwild. His introduction does not solely serve to move the plot forward, but also to round out another character, and to lead us back to other characters that we haven't seen in a while.

Everfound is a character driven story. Each character has his/her agenda that they, for whatever reason, are working toward. And none of the characters are flat. That there, for me, is the mark of a well written story, especially when one has as many characters as the Skinjacker Trilogy does. To be able to trace a character's agenda from the first book to the last, and watch how the decisions made further that agenda while staying true to each character...Awesome.

I don't want to give anything away, so I'm going to stop there. Everfound, the third book in the Skinjacker Trilogy, will be released on May 3. As always, I'm excited to read anything Neal writes. Keep an eye on his Facebook page and his twitter feed for more information about projects he's working on.

If you get a chance, check out my video blog (links in the sidebar)
Happy reading, and don't forget to be awesome.



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Review: The Beasties

The Beasties by William Sleator

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book has been on my TBR list since the summer of 2006. I found it at the Scholastic Warehouse sale a few weeks ago, so I picked it up. I remember sitting in a discussion at an Advanced Placement seminar talking with language arts teachers from across New Mexico about this book. Specifically the activity that the teacher did with her sixth grade class--creating a new cover. I wondered about the cover of this novel, and it really doesn't make sense unless you read it all the way through. I can't help but wonder, having finished it, if Sleator had an environmental agenda, and if this agenda is promoted in any of his other titles.



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Review: The Roar

The Roar by Emma Clayton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this one up at the Scholastic Book Fairs warehouse sale because I thought the cover looked both familiar and interesting. I thought, after reading the back, that it would be similar to the Hunger Games, except that the children involved were competing for prizes, not their lives and food for their districts. In that respect, the two stories are similar, however, the intensity of the Hunger Games is not replicated in The Roar.

The basic premise of the story is that Mika, one of the protagonists, is searching for his lost twin. Everyone, his parents included, think she is dead but Mika is holding out hope. His therapist-of-sorts tells him he must compete in an arcade tournament and that will help him find his sister. So he does. And eventually he finds her. I'm not going to give too much more of the plot away than that.

What I will say is this book is like Matilda by Roald Dahl meets the X-Men (some of the characters are mutants) meets The Last Star Fighter (check out this link to Wikipedia after you read the book. There are plenty of parallels.)

To my students: If you're a fan of dystopian fiction (click here for an explanation) and/or science fiction this might be a good read for you.

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The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After having listened to the commentary at the end of the Primary Phase recording of The Hitchhiker's Guide (where I found out some neat info about production of the series as well), reading the print version made so much more sense. Two things helped: One, I was able to compare the text with the audio version I've heard many times; and two, understanding where Douglas Adams came up with some of the material he brought to the story. In the commentary of the Primary Phase, the narrator (who also does the voice of the book) talk about how the producers of the radio program never knew where Adams was going to take the story. I knew it was a satire, but didn't realize that Adams was satirizing everyday regular life. I should have, and now feel quite silly for not having thought of this when, at the beginning of the series, the book commented on green pieces of paper making everyone unhappy. From this particular installment of the "increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy" I pulled out one bit that stuck with me. Before Zarniwoop, Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trillian meet the guy who runs the Universe, the book tells us that "it is a well known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job" (197). And that about wraps it up.

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The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm not sure what I expected when I started The Adoration of Jenna Fox. Probably a love story. Definitely not a near-future story about a girl involved in a tragic accident who has been re-bioengineered by her parents. But the story is one many readers can identify with. Jenna struggles to remember something that happened in her past -- I'm sure many probably envy her the ability not to remember as we all probably have things we'd rather forget.  Jenna is struggling to figure out who she is -- we all went through/are going through figuring out who we are in terms of trying out different clothing styles, hobbies, hair, etc. What does it take to be your own person?

The novel raises questions about medical and scientific ethics that could turn out to be a real problem for the world in years to come. What if scientists bioengineer plants resistant to specific bugs, which lends other bugs useless because they don't need to defend the plants. One small change like that could be disastrous to an ecosystem.

I was surprised most of all by the ending. I expected Jenna to go to the mat for what her friend wanted, but that didn't happen. At least scientists made changes to the biogel so bioengineered people live a "normal" length of time?

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If you liked this title, you might also like:

• Unwind by Neal Shusterman
• House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Amulet, Book 2: The Stone Keeper's Curse

Today, I stumbled upon some code that will allow me to embed my Goodreads review in my blog. I thought to myself, "Self, this might not be a bad idea. Then you don't have to use space in Picassa with book covers, and you only have to write the review once." My self made sense, so here's my first short attempt just to see what it looks like.

Amulet, Book 2: The Stonekeeper's Curse by Kazu Kibuishi


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Another cliffhanger, this was a quick read with beautiful graphics. Reminds me a little of Lord of the Rings--The Amulet's attempt to gain power over Emily is similar to Frodo's struggle with the ring.

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Last Dragon Chronicles

Screenshot from Chris D'Lacy's website.

I have to get this one off my chest, only because it's been bugging me like crazy all day.  The American editors for Chris D'Lacy's Last Dragon Chronicles didn't do a fantastic job at making a seamless transition between the British version of the book and the American edition. Little things, like travelling from Scrubbley, Massachusetts to Scotland by train. Oh, and if you look at how much that ticket cost, I don't think we Americans have a p. as an abbreviation for money, at least not an amount of money that will afford us train fare.

What I can't figure out is why the setting had to be changed to begin with. This came up when I read the first novel in the series, The Fire Within. As I was reading, I pictured a small town in England. Then David, the main character, makes reference to the White House and I became thoroughly confused. If the publishers trusted readers with the Harry Potter series--the setting didn't change in those seven novels--why didn't they trust the readers with this series?

And if you like dragons, here are some cute clay dragons.