The Peculiars by Maureen doyle McQuerry

The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry

The Peculiars is a story that is mostly historical fiction, with a bit of steampunk, fantasy and sci-fi mixed in for good measure. It is the story of Lena, who has a birth defect. Her hands and feet are much longer than normal and because of this her grandmother says she is a goblin. Lena isn't sure, but after hearing her grandmother tell her this throughout her entire life, Lena wonders herself if it's true. Goblins are one of the 'peculiar' races, which are seen as inferior and have no rights. Lena's father, also a goblin according to her grandmother, deserted his family when she was five years old. Lena is afraid that the bad traits goblins have will cause her problems, and she sees some of these traits in herself. These traits and a hidden letter from her father, encourages Lena, on her 18th birthday to look for her missing father. Her mother assures her that he wasn't a goblin, but that he was just not made to be a family man. She leaves the comfort of her city and travels by train to a border-town called Knob Knoster.

After making a friend and having a bit of an adventure on the train to Knob Knoster, Lena arrives mostly safe and sound. Once she gets to town things really get interesting. She is hired to spy on a doctor who may or may not be breaking the law, and ends up learning a lot more than she bargained. I really liked Lena because she is a strong character who doesn’t want to conform in the way that society expects her to conform. Lena is adventurous, smart, and naive. She makes mistakes and learns from them, and she cares about her friends. Most of the 'goblin' traits are the traits of a smart, motivated young woman who wants more from her life than sitting in a parlor sewing and waiting suitors to come visit her. Most of the main characters were pretty well developed, but there were a few things that I would have liked to have cleared up; perhaps that will happen in a sequel. Although parts of the plot were predictable, there were quite a few things I didn't see coming. I will be purchasing this one for my library when it comes out. Ms. McQuerry did a very good job of describing what it feels like to be different and to want to hide the parts of our bodies that we don't see as 'beautiful'.

Thank You to Netgalley.com and Abrams for letting me read this one!

The Thin Executioner by Darren Shan

The Thin Executioner is the story of 12 year old Jebel’s journey from spoiled, arrogant, closed minded child to someone much different. We meet Jebel at a public execution which is normal for his town. The executioner is revered above all others, and Jebel happens to be the executioner’s son. Jebel has two brothers who are much larger, and older than Jebel, and his father shows obvious favor to the older boys. Jebel’s society is a very harsh society with slaves and harsh punishments (execution) for even the slightest offense. At one of these executions, Jebel’s father stands up in front of the crowd and publicly humiliates Jebel without even realizing it.

Jebel vows to go on a quest to the great fire god so that he can be made invincible by him. To accomplish this he travels hundreds of miles on foot with no one but a slave taken to sacrifice to the god once he reaches his mountain. Shan got his motivation from Huckleberry Finn and as you read The Thin Executioner the similarities are easy to see. While the idea is not new, the book is excellent. Shan builds complete societies from scratch, including languages, customs, and religions. The people that Jebel meets along the way teach him much about both himself and the world he inhabits.

When I first began reading The Thin Executioner, I wasn’t sure I would be able to finish it; Jebel’s society is extremely violent, and Jebel himself is a product of that society so he also is violent. Even with the violence and Jebel going back to his roots over and over, it was hard to put this one down once I got into the book. His thoughts and actions at the beginning of the book made me want to execute him myself. As he makes his journey, he grows, and the ending of the book was one of the best I’ve ever read. This book has a very solid 5 stars from me. The writing is excellent, and the story is better than excellent.

Teen Summer Reading, another year!

Today was the finale for the teen summer reading party. It's always exhausting but worth the work. It went really well, I think everyone had a good time. We had about 100 people there. I'm lucky to have great people to work with, without them I couldn't do half as much as I do, so thanks to all of you, you know who you are. Goodbye summer reading, see you next year. BTW, if anyone has any ideas let me know!

Sea by Hiedi R. Kling

Sea is a novel of loss, recovery, and healing. Sienna is fifteen and recovering from the death of her mother three years before. She has recurring nightmares about the accident in which her mother died. Her mother’s plane went down during a storm over the Indian Ocean. Before the accident, Sienna loved the ocean; after, she’s terrified of it. Her father decides to help Sienna get over her mother’s death, her fear of the ocean, and her nightmares by inviting her to accompany him and his staff to Indonesia. It is 2004 and her father and his team are psychologists going to help the children deal with the Tsunami disaster. Sienna is adamantly opposed to going, but eventually she decides to face her fears after watching a short video about the survivors of the Tsunami.

After a long and harrowing flight, she and the team arrive in Yogikarta. Sienna finds many surprises, including romance, religious and cultural shock, and closure. She has fun, but at the same time, helps others. I enjoyed reading Sea; It’s a great book. Ms. Kling does a good job of describing what it must have been like for those who were the survivors of the Tsunami. The ending was somewhat sad and a bit surprising, but it leaves you with hope. There were a few discrepancies, but on the whole, it was great. The imagery was wonderful; you really felt like you were there with Sienna. I’ll give this one a 4.

Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines

Girl in the Arena is an interesting take on where today’s violence-ridden society could lead. It is about a young lady, Lyn, 16, who is the daughter of a “neo-gladiator.” In this society fighting to the death in arenas is a common sport; in fact it’s a way of life for a lot of people. There are specific rules for the competitions, their competitors, and the families of the competitors. One of the rules forces Lyn to grow up very quickly when she ends up engaged to be married to her father’s killer.

There is plenty of fighting and blood in the book, but the plot is more than just that. Ms. Haines doesn’t focus too much on the fighting, but instead focuses on how that fighting affects the different characters of the book. There are places that the reader is left open mouthed at the gall of the GSA (Gladiator Sports Association). They run the lives of all those involved in the Gladiator lifestyle. They make promises they don’t keep and enjoy the pain of their gladiators. For example, in one fight, the gladiator’s parents come out into the arena armed to fight their own son, all set up by the GSA.

I really liked Lyn, because she’s extremely strong. I also liked that by the end of the book you are rooting for both Lyn, and Uber (the gladiator who killed Lyn’s father). Ms. Haines doesn’t make him out to be a bad guy, but more a guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’s very sweet and understanding to Lyn and quite a gentleman. The ending turns out semi-well, but I won’t tell you more than that. This one is worth the read, I’ll give it 3.5 stars, because it made me cry in places, and it was a little hard to get into the story.

The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Imagine it’s your first waking moment, total blackness, strange sounds, almost no memory, hoping you’re in a nightmare, but unable to wake up. The Maze Runner is the story of Thomas who wakes up in a metal box being lowered into a strange community of teenage boys. This community is called “The Glade.” What is it? Well the boys don’t really know, all they know is they’ve been there for a long time, they don’t remember anything about their previous lives except their first names and snatches that they can’t make sense of, and they are in the middle of a maze that seems unsolvable. Each boy has his own job in The Glade, supplies are sent weekly through the metal box. The maze is full of gruesome beasts called reavers that are half animal, half machine and more terrifying than any nightmare any of the boys could conjure.

The Maze Runner is a gruesome book, filled with fighting, and trying to survive. It’s a great boy book and is the first in a planned trilogy. It took me a little while to get into it but it did finally grab my attention. I think my problem was that I couldn’t imagine anyone being so cruel and doing this on purpose to the boys. This one has lots of death, blood and gore, and a cliffhanger end. It will leave fans chomping at the bit for the next in the series. I give this one a 3.5.

Kind words

It's great when people say thank you for the little things you do. It's even better when people realize how important your job is and publicize it. One of my favorite authors did this recently in her blog. Her name is Libba Bray and she's an award winning young adult author. You can read her article here: Libraries are the Torch of the World I think I like her even more now. So thank you for the praise to libraries and librarians Libba.