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.

Restoring Harmony by Joëlle Anthony

I loved Restoring Harmony! Restoring Harmony had great characters, all strong and with their own quirks. Even the bad guys had good qualities that made you like some of them, though you didn't want to admit it. The story was very believable, and a good study of what could be. Molly, the main character goes from Canada to the United States in an attempt to bring her Grandfather home.

The year is 2041, and there is almost no oil. Molly is strong but naive, which is to be expected from a farm girl going to a big city alone. Some of the plot was predictable but there were several twists I didn't see coming, especially at the end. All the characters grew a substantial amount in the story and it was a lot of fun reading about that growth. Molly's music was especially unique to the story. I don't remember another dystopian type book with music, or at least not any with the main character so musically inclined. It really enhanced the story, and made it more real. Ms. Anthony created a historical feel for a futuristic novel, including the music and the market for whiskey, the farming, cobbling, and open markets. This one is a 4 star book!

Life As We Knew It, book review

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Life As We Knew It is a cold hard look at what could happen in our future. It’s the story of one family’s struggle for survival after a meteorite hits the moon and knocks it out of it’s orbit and much closer to the Earth. Life as we Knew It is a study in cause and effect: because of the moon’s effect on the Earth, our world is turned upside down in a matter of days. The gravitational pull has changed since the moon is closer and causes massive tidal waves, earthquakes, and volcanoes which in turn causes millions to die immediately, and more to die later from famine, sickness, and starvation.

At first the main character, Miranda, seemed whiney to me, but I could also understand her feelings. The author used journal entries written by Miranda to tell the story through Miranda's eyes. The journal entries did a good job at showing the emotion of what it would feel like if something so apocalyptic happened. Ms. Pfeffer did a good job of showing the growth and strength of Miranda as the story progresses. It shows the types of sacrifices someone might make in that situation, but also the hardships of making those sacrifices. This was a very grim book, but it ended with hope. This one is a 3.5 star book because it made me cry so much, but the story is a good one to read and contemplate.