The Forests of Silence by Emily Rodda ★★★☆☆

A Solid Adventure

Fiction – Juvenile - High Fantasy

Age Level: 8 - 12 

131 pages

Publication Date: 2002

Deltora Quest #1

Literary Awards:  West Australian Young Readers' Book Award (WAYRBA) for Younger Readers (2002)

Only the jeweled Belt of Deltora can stop the plans of the dastardly Shadow Lord, but the gems were stolen long ago and hid around the land.  Who will have the courage to face overwhelming obstacles and make the belt whole once again?

While this book didn’t move me like Rowan of Rin it still was a fun adventure story and opens up the reader to the elaborate world of Deltora.  Ms. Rodda as always is a master world builder, with lovely visuals, interesting characters and a land full of wonder. 

Ms. Rodda’s writing effortless writing and quick pace kept my attention and wanting to know what happens next.  I like that the backstory started far enough back for the reader to really understand what was at stake and how easily woven it was into the first few pages.  The backstory also helps set a dramatic, pivotal point setting the stage for change and conquest.  Also, having the story on the shorter side will help it appeal to younger readers with shorter attention spans.

 Another great thing about this book is that it is a bit older so its’ series is finished along with a couple of others revolving around the same characters.

The Burning Bridge by John Flanagan ★★★☆☆

Fiction – YA/Juvenile – Medieval

262 pages

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

Publication Date:  2005

Ranger's Apprentice #2

Literary Awards:  Children's Book Council of Australia Award, International Success of the Year Award (2007)

Will and Horace are sent on a special mission to their kingdom’s neighboring allies, Celtica, to request help in their fight against Morgarath, but when they arrive the towns are abandoned and frightening new information about Morgarath’s troop movements forces them to rethink their plans.  With the safety of their kingdom hanging in the balance Will and Horace must find a way to thwart Morgarath’s plan.

The orchestration of this novel is leaps and bounds beyond the first.  It has the quality that I had expected in the first and is pretty much an improvement in every way.  The story is more sophisticated and better laid out making the alternating points of view more appropriate. The risk factor is upped and better suited for making this an adventure story.  With a quicker pace and more action it held tightly onto my attention leaving in suspense of what was going to happen next.  The battles were complex and interesting and the ending was exciting and unexpected.  Again I enjoyed the lack of magic and found it unexpectedly refreshing.   Occasionally the writing did trip me up and pushed me out of the story world and I was a little surprised he didn’t draw out the Morgarath storyline, but in comparison to everything else these were minor distractions.  

The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks ★★★★☆

Offbeat and Lovely

Fiction- YA –Urban Fantasy/Mystery

Grade 7 and Up

384 pages

Publication Date:  2009

Literary Awards:  ALA's Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults (2010)

Nina Harrison, wishes being a vampire was glamorous like in the movies instead of the reality of monotonous boredom and support group meetings.  So when a chance to investigate a killing of one of their own presents itself Nina is hot on the case.

After a rather surprising start the story rolls on quickly, breaking down preconceived notions.  This story is not your stereotypical paranormal. I love the typical sexy vampire (Buffy forever), but I have to say the lack of glamorization of vampires in this story was such a breath of fresh air.  The premise was great and well thought out with an engaging plot that kept my guessing – which doesn’t happen very often.  The characters were well crafted with elaborate back stories and eccentricies.  Ms. Jinks has a real talent for turning a phrase and deliciously layers in dramatic details and word pictures into her writing.  It is also incredibly funny, but not belly laugh kind of funny, more of a quirky funny that really appeals to me (see every book Jasper Fforde ever wrote). 

Written as a first person story, Nina tells it as something that already happened.  Nina is a surprising take on vampires compared to either the lone wolf suppressing their evil or the ones who embrace it.  Nina has never really accepted herself as a vampire, somewhat because it doesn’t live up to her ideas of what it should be and because she has never really felt like a vampire.  She desperately wishes she were stronger like the character she created, Zadia Bloodstone, instead of weak and pathetic.  I love how weak and human she is, but still striving to do the right thing even with all of the things against her.  Eventually Nina decides to redefine herself, and her ideas of what a hero is.  Which is the main point of the story, taking control of your circumstances and empowering yourself. 

In the book blurb there were hints toward romance so I kind of expected it to rear its ugly head around every corner.  But in the end it was really an appropriately small part.  Also, how great is it to have a priest not vilified?  Thank you Ms. Jinks.  And one of my favorite things of all was having a satisfying conclusion to the story.

Frankly, I heart it!

The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan ★★★☆☆

A few quality issues

Fiction-YA/Juvenile-Medieval

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

249 pages

Publication Date: 2004 

Ranger's Apprentice #1

Literary awards: Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award Nominee (2008)

When 15-year-old Will is picked as a Ranger’s apprentice he is disappointed, but with the menace of the Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night readying for battle he quickly learns that Rangers are the greatest protectors the kingdom can have.

The book world is very authentic, with great multi-dimensional characters and rich detail.  The writing was rhythmic and a have very few complaints other than at times it was a bit amateurish.  The book was easy to get through and kept me wanting to know what would happen next.  The prologue creates a great platform for the rest of the story to be set on.   The focus of this book swings back and forth between Ranger’s apprentice Will and Battle School apprentice Horace, two very different characters.

Okay, now the other side.  I may have been betrayed by my own expectations, but I anticipated a whole lot more suspense and excitement.  The story was fairly slow moving and not big into subtlety.  Also, I have to say Horace not showing up in the climax seemed really weird and I was disappointed not to see him.  My investment of him just didn’t give the payoff that was expected, particularly since he was such a focus in the book.

Now, while I might seem a bit negative I have to say I really do see the potential of this series and have purchased the next two in the series already.  I haven’t given up on it.

13 Treasures by Michelle Harrison ★★★★☆

Awesome debut!

Fiction – Juvenile – Urban Fantasy/Mystery

Grades 5–8

368 pages

Publication Date:  2009

Literary Awards:  Waterstone's Children's Book Prize (2009)

Thirteen Treasures #1

Sent away to live at Elvesden Manor with her Grandmother  by her exasperated mother, Tanya knows even in the country she cannot escape the weird and scary stuff happening to her.  Tanya can see what should not be seen and the fairies do not take kindly to trespassers; they have their own way of dealing with intruders.  Is Tanya doomed to repeat history and disappear like a girl fifty years before under mysterious circumstances or can she finally solve the mystery that has haunted her family for generations.

This book was decidedly darker and more ominous than the typical juvenile book, but I really like the depth it added.  This story uses the older, more visceral form of fairies and their interactions with human, not the Disneyfied version.  The original Grimm fairy tales come to mind.  Something that helped fend off some of the darkness was even though you see the fairies powers over humans, the book never gives the sense that humans are completely powerless.  The writing is clean and the action starts quickly and sweeps you up in it.  This is one of those stories I found so absorbing that I had a hard time tearing myself away from it to deal with actual real life things.  The mythology is effortlessly woven through out with book references, stories and discovery; well-formed plot and great backstories with a variety of character types.  And frankly who doesn’t love the Secret Garden type of story where the main character is sent into a new world of discovery. 

For Ms. Harrison’s debut it is pretty awesome.

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede ★★★★☆

A princess who can rescue herself and her friends.

Fiction – Juvenile – High Fantasy

Age Range: 10 and up Grade Level: 4 - 8

212 pages

Publication Date: 1990

Enchanted Forest Chronicles #1

Literary Awards: Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award Nominee (1993)

Princess Cimorene isn’t your typical fairytale princess despite her family’s attempts to make her one.  Nor does she want to be.  Cimorene wants freedom to choose her own path, so when her parents arrange for her to marry she decides to it’s time to run away.  Told to head to the Enchanted Forest by a frog Cimorene begin the adventure of her life.  And the ending is anything, but typical, just like Cimorene.

So it is fairly obvious that while this book takes place in a typical fairytale book world, Cimorene, as a nonconformist, couldn’t have a typical story.  This story has no rescue, no knight, no happily-ever-after, because Cimorene actually volunteers to be a dragon’s princess.  Cimorene as a heroine is strong, independent and most importantly bored with normal princess life, and she has the gumption and courage to take chances.  Now the thing I really valued about her is even though she wanted to choose a different path from the norm she gives others to follow the normal one without scorn.  She gives them the freedom to be who they are.  Also it was nice to see that her princess upbringing did help her out in her new role.  So her upbringing did have value even if she didn’t like it at the time.

Charming, whimsical and fun this book is nice light read, with interesting characters set in a familiar world that keeps turning custom on its ear.  This is a book I can confidently that all ages will enjoy

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis ★★★★☆

A real life hero’s tale.

Non Fiction –Biography/Sports

352 pages

Publication Date: September 17th 2006

Literary Awards: ALA Alex Award (2007), Iowa High School Book Award Nominee (2011)

This is the story of Michael Oher, a man who went from a homeless teen to a football phenom.  Taken in by a wealthy family while in high school he benefited from their financial resources, but mostly their love.  With their help Michael a new support system and his God given talent Michael was propelled into a beyond everyone’s hopes and expectations for his life.

This well done account, which is mostly told from people’s perspective of Michael, was a story with a lot of heart.  Mr. Lewis is very talented and a wonderful story teller with great material.  His pacing was perfect while the writing was crisp and clear. This fascinating and true story just carries you along without over loading you right from the beginning of the well done intro.  There is of course a lot of football history which I got lost in a bit.  I mean, I did find the football part interesting but Michael was the real draw.  If you are into football however I think that it would definitely add to the enjoyment, but I didn’t find myself at a real disadvantage for not being a fan.  I found the conclusion a little sad, but frankly I don’t truly believe that it is the conclusion of the story.  Life keeps moving and each forward step we take in loving others has ripple effects even if we can’t see them clearly.  A great story about how people can positively affect others when they care.

Terrier by Tamora Pierce ★★★★☆

Tamora Pierce at her best!

Fiction – YA – High Fantasy/Mystery

Age Range: 12 and up Grade Level: 7 and up

582 pages

Publication Date:  October 24th 2006

Beka Cooper #1

Literary Awards:  Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Nominee for Children's Literature (2012), West Australian Young Readers' Book Award (WAYRBA) for Older Readers (2009), ALA's Top Ten Best Books Nominee for Young Adults (2007)

The lower city of Corus is rookie, Beka Cooper’s, new beat with the Provost’s Guard.  Even with her magical powers of hearing the voices of the dead she will have to rely on her friends and her own tenacity to “dog” after the Shadow Snake, a villain who steals and sometimes kills children for what they want,  and investigate who is killing for fire opals.

I have reread this book many times and still never tire of it.  The diary format really works well for this engrossing double crime mystery.  And I have to say I admire Ms. Pierce for branching out. The introduction written by other characters creates a great back story and links it to the other Tortall books.  And as a story about underbelly of Tortall as opposed to the nobles, the place and characters come alive through Beka’s eyes with a gritty honesty.  Beka Cooper is a realistic heroine even with her magical abilities.  She is strong, has integrity, observant of her surroundings and above all compassionate.  The secondary charaters like; Clary Goodwin, Mattes Tunstall, Pounce, and Rosto the Piper are all in themselves well rounded out and life like.

This is Tamora Pierce at her best.  A well-constructed story, fantastically balanced between plot, characters and action with a polished writing style I truly envy. It is exciting without losing the characters and well layered.  Each scene adds some aspect of the story, whether it be character or plot.  This story while nicely woven into Tortall’s history, by itself is rich and textured with a mythology somewhat branching out from the other books.  It could definitely be read as a stand-alone.  The glossary extras at the end plus the map at the beginning really helps ( I know I’ve said it before , but I will say it again, I wished more sci-Fi and fantasy books had them).  Frankly, I can’t think of anything that could improve it.

The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman ★★★☆☆

I always knew libraries were magical!

Fiction – Juvenile – Urban Fantasy/Mystery

Age Range: 10 and up  Grade Level: 5 and up

325 pages

Publication Date:  2010

The Grimm Legacy #1

Literary Awards:  Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Nominee for Children’s Literature (2011), Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Nominee (2012), Texas Lone Star List (2011), YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults (2011)

I was so ridiculously excited about this premise when I found it available at my local library (I now own it thanks to a book fair) that it place jumped to the front of my books to read.  I freely admit, I was completely captivated with the idea of the repository my mind kept wandering as I imagined the possibilities making it hard to pay attention my usual intensity.  It was like a dream come true.  Organizing and sorting interesting objects with amazing stories attached.  How great would this place be?

 I wished it would have been available when I was child, because it would have been an instant favorite and I wouldn’t have noticed the flaws as much.  But sadly as an adult some things did stand out to me.

The first couple of chapters felt rushed, more like someone was blurting out the backstory than setting the scene, but by chapter three the pacing became more comfortable. The cast of characters were just the right side of bland, but this is not really a character based story like I usually enjoy.  Elizabeth’s rushed backstory gave her a bit of dimension, but they were all far from fleshed out.  The mystery was somewhat subpar, with a few glaring story holes.  Also I kind of felt like was jumping in during the middle of the story instead of the beginning.  This isn’t a quality story like Harry Potter or   Maniac Magee, but taken for what it is, a fun little mystery story with a mild romantic element set in an amazing place, it’s nice.  Keeping your expectations minimal in regard to the characters will greatly help in reading with novel. 

The next book is about a whole new cast of main characters and the science fiction wind of the library, which I plan on reading.  It will be pretty awesome I just know it!

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time by Dava Sobel ★★★☆☆

I heart microhistories!

 Non Fiction – Microhistory – Chronometer

Publication Date:  1995

Pages:  192

Literary Awards:  Royal Society Prize Nominee for General Prize (1997)

In a time when the seas represented the chance for growth, but the perils and very real possibility of being lost at a sea hampered efforts, John Harrison created the chronometer.  This clock was his answer to the longitude problem.  While others wanted to depend on the night skies John Harrison chose to depend on technology.  Entering his idea into the English contest with unheard of winnings, Harrison and his son spent decades fighting for what they believed was their due and to prove the worth of their machine.

First, I just want to say, I adore microhistories.  They are delightful little nuggets of stories that usually hold more importance in the grand scheme of things than we could have imagined.  I also appreciate how they usually lead me to other semi related topics.  My gushing over, I can now move onto the actual review

I personally have never really considered before how half hazard ship navigation was.  Most of my history lessons involved how the ships found places, not how they were basically just guesstimating their proximity to the desired destination, with very real and horrible consequences.  Ms. Sobel really laid out the issue in such a way for me, as a modern reader, to understand the dangers each voyage faced.  Once explained it was incredibly easy to appreciate how this clock could change things and why it was so incredibly important.

Ms. Sobel’s popular account of this monumental time in history is more suited to the everyday reader than an academic.  Her writing style leaned toward the elegant and the flow of the interesting and easy to follow narrative was engaging (let’s be honest, even a history lover like myself knows that it takes talent to keep the information from going dry).  Her story telling was well-constructed and had some really great anecdotes woven seamlessly in (the whole bit about how sauerkraut warded off scurvy was really fascinating).  Her assessment of the issues appears to be fair and free of hero worship.   She gives off the impression of some well able apt to understand the subject (okay, so I know that sounds kind like a “well duh” statement, but trust me, not all writer’s ambition is well matched to their ability).  It is short enough to be a one sit read, but in the fight for my attention it did tend to lose out, so it took me a few days.  It would have been nice to have a directory of characters at the back to help keep track of the players.  And I would have really liked to see a schematic and picture with working explanation of the chronometer (though I did find out after I finished writing the review that the 10^th anniversary addition apparently addresses this issue).  Overall I am impressed with Ms. Sobel and in pursuit of her other books.

ISBN  0802714625 (ISBN13: 9780802714626)