New Boy

February was favorite authors

Tracy Chevalier was on my mother's list. While she noted that Tracy does historical romance, I looked at her list of published works and found this gem.

So I am going to be honest, I am not a big fan of Shakespeare. Because of that, I have never read Othello. And that's what this is, a retelling of Othello. Set in an elementary school outside Washington D. C., Chevalier's characters are sixth grade children just a month away from summer vacation and a larger school in the mid-1970s. Osei is the new student that stands out with his rich dark skin in an all white world he finds himself all too frequently in. Dee is fascinated by him and just a little in love as soon as she lays eyes on him. Ian does not like this interloper encroaching on his territory. Mimi is concerned by and for Osei in his newness, Dee as her best friend, and Ian who has so much control over her. 

As someone who doesn't particularly care for Shakespeare's tragedies, I'll also be among the first to admit to his timelessness. Chevalier does a great job of seamlessly retelling the story in this new setting, and it is believable. The prejudice against the unknown and different translates boldly in this playground drama that takes place in a single, tension-charged day.

And I gotta say, I don't like the story of Othello! Shakespeare sure loved to crush you! But I love this retelling. It gives the story a new audience: those who don't read Shakespeare. I love seeing more of this. So please, read this one, recommend it to others, and send me any other retelling you think I should read!

A Silent Voice vol. 7

This is it. This is the final volume in the series. Oh all the feels. Let me try and capture how awesome this series was.

So, if you saw my first review of volume 1 (only posted days ago because I couldn't put these manga down!) then you got the bare bones of how the story starts. Let me give you a little more of a recap. Shoya was the middle school daredevil, the kid that jumped off bridges to prove his worth to the other boys he considered his friends. He hated boredom. So when they get a transfer student who happens to be deaf, Shoya makes it his purpose in life to torment Shoko and pit the other classmates against her. Even though it works, all the other students, even the teacher, bully poor Shoko, it all backfires terribly when Shoko's mother demands recompense for the numerous hearing aides Shoya has destroyed. Suddenly Shoya finds himself on the other end of the stick as the others in his class begin bullying him. Unable to take it, Skoya lashes out at Shoko one final time that causes her to finally leave the school.

The meat of the tale begins when Shoya, having had enough of the loneliness he has had to endure over the years since his actions, decides to take his own life. Getting his affairs in order, Shoya realizes there is one last thing he must do before he ends it all: apologize to Shoko for what he did. But when he goes to confront her she is understandably upset, and when he "speaks" to her (because he actually learned sign language to get his message across) he realizes that he wasn't the only one just done. Deciding to try and right the wrongs he caused this girl, Shoya resolves to push on, resulting in one of the most incredible pictures in manga that I fell in love with.

The rest of the series is about their growing friendship. That's not to say everything is rainbows and unicorns from there on out, oh no! Shoko and Shoya both have a lot of pain that lies just beneath the surface, and sometimes it rises up and people get hurt. They also have a lot of people they have effected over the course of time they have known each other, and not everyone is as forgiving as Shoko or as determined to make amends as Shoya. The ride is bumpy and incredible.

To say I loved this series would be an understatement! The story was so real, from the bullying to the difficulty in making things right; the characters were real, from Shoya's complicated feelings about Shoko to the mothers who are trying to raise difficult children alone; the plot was real, and all of it came together to form a story that will stick with me for some time. This is a series I plan on buying to reread in the future and recommend to everyone who reads manga. This one was just amazing! So if you haven't read it yet, go find it, now! And if you have, tell me what you think. I would love to talk about this one all day!

Confessions of a Middle School Nerd

Ok, so I found this one on the local authors shelf as well, and I picked it up for my 10 yr old son who is now part of the middle school in our small town school system. But he has a long to read list of his own, so I decided to go ahead and read it by myself. A very interesting choice.

Confessions of a Middle School Nerd is a very short read, only 81 pages with the text taking up only a small block of each page. But it was a fun and quick read for that reason. Written in the first person by a narrator who is quirky and funny, this book is almost like a journal for the writer. The narrator starts off by saying that she wrote most of this down to work through a few things, mostly days in her life that she feels should be highlighted to help her come to a conclusion she can only catch glimpses of. So we get little tidbits of this middle schooler's days. The stories are all focused around one main point, the narrator is awkward. But in the end she comes to the realization that not only is she ok with this fact about herself, she can revel in it, because she likes who she is.

Like I said, the book was short and sweet. I enjoyed taking a little time to read it, especially since I could so relate to some of these moments in the narrator's time in middle school. So I encourage anyone to pick it up. Have a laugh or a knowing nod of the head, and pass it on to a middle schooler that might need a little reinforcement that they are not the only ones out there being awkward, and it's perfectly fine to be so. Let me know if you have read this one!

Wires and Nerve

Another story in the Lunar Chronicles, Meyer tries her hand in a new medium bringing us a story of Iko, Cinder's android best friend, as a graphic novel. This installment takes place after the events in Winter, Iko is hunting down the mutant wolf hybrids left behind on Earth after the war.

So, I actually picked this one up on a whim. Yes I loved the Lunar series, it is now among my top favorites in fact, but I had not planned to read this one for a little while. But as I was browsing the manga section at the library it caught my eye on the shelf and I grabbed it up without thinking. I am so glad I did! First off, as a huge fan of both Meyer and graphic novels I was thrilled to hear about this beauty. Then the story follows Iko, one of my favorite characters in the series! And she is on Earth which means we get updates on everyone else as well! And of course the story Meyer tells is incredible! Ugh, no wonder I finished it in one day and am seriously considering rereading the series because I want back into that world!

If you have read the series but not this book, get on it! It is a must read! If you have read it all, let me know so we can fangirl together because there is too much to contain! If you haven't picked up any of the books yet...what are you waiting for! It is such a great series with a little something for everyone I think. And this book is just another great addition!

Every Last Word

January - Books with a white cover

This is the story of Sam. Sam has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, focusing on the obsessive part. She is sixteen and she was diagnosed years ago, and she is in therapy and trying to cope with it. But no one outside of Sam's family knows. And she likes it like that because she wants the world to think she is completely normal. Only, she is lonely because of this thinking. Until she meets Caroline and her world starts to change. Sam discovers poetry and makes friends and focuses on herself. She starts to be happy. It's a wonderful story!

And it is so darn familiar to me that sometimes I had to take a step back. Sure, the details are a little different because while I do have OCD (or Pure-O as I have discovered is more accurate), I was dealing more with depression and anxiety in high school. And whereas Sam had a group of plastic friends she felt she could never explain things to, I had my family who I was desperate not to disappoint. Sam meets the Poets, friends that understood, had their own faults, but had poetry. I had a few friends that had their own illness and were willing to just let me be. Sam finds AJ. I am now married to my own AJ. It sounds so awesome, finding your way through, figuring out who you are and how to be happy in it. But it's not that easy. At one point, Sam's friend tells her she is changing, and maybe not for the better. I received those same lines from my father. It was hard to explain that I wasn't who everyone had though I was up to that point, especially since my family really liked that girl and I was becoming my own person. It took my a long time to find my own Poets, but I got there and have slowly to become happier in my own life.

So imagine how amazing it was to pick up this book and discover my story within its pages! So maybe I was far more drawn to the story than you would be. But I honestly believe that Stone does such an amazing job of giving us Sam in all her crazy glory and making us fall in love with her. She does an incredible job of capturing the good, the bad, the crazy of Sam's day to day life, from the obsession with her odometer in her car to the panic attacks that nearly cripple her. Stone did a lot of research for this story, and it really shows in how accurately she portrays so much of it. It was wonderful getting to read this one. Even through the sad parts and the bits that gave me second hand embarrassment and the pages that made my heart smile. It was a fantastic book from beginning to end. Please, pick it up, read it, love it with me!

Symptoms of Being Human

January - Books with white covers

When I saw the theme for this month I had to make my way to the library for both books because incidentally I have no books with white covers! I am so glad that I did! Because I found two that I think will be incredible. And the first one really was!

Riley is gender fluid, meaning that instead of waking up with the anatomy of a female and feeling like a girl, Riley has to take a moment to gauge where their gender dial is at the moment. Of course, this doesn't help much because Riley is not out as gender fluid and therefore cannot dress to their preference for the day. So this is the story of Riley switching schools, going through therapy, being the child of a conservative congressman, all while trying to navigate the very confusing path of gender fluidity. And this story is wonderful!

At the end of the book Jeff Garvin writes a note including statistics for trans and gender nonbinary people: how many are sexually harassed, how many commit suicide, how many have no access to helpful resources. This note is necessary because his character, Riley, has it relatively good, with help and support from numerous sources. Most in Riley's situation do not. And yet, even with having it good, Riley in no way has it easy.

Garvin does an incredible job of trying to nail down the symptoms and effects of a term that is just as fluid in how it effects individuals as it is for the day to day of those with it. There are many times when Riley described a panic attack that had me feeling in the moment of one of my own attacks, Garvin captures it so perfectly. This is an incredible debut for a man that has no personal experience with the things he describes in his book. It makes me excited to see what he tackles next!

So, this is when I say what point of view this books is written in and dissect how it effected my reading of the book. First person! I know, I know, for someone who hates first person so much I seem to find a lot of novels written in it! But this one, this one could not have been written in any other way! Because Riley is fluid, the reader cannot see Riley in any other way than how Riley sees Riley. Notice how earlier in my post I have to use they/them so that I do not assign a gender to Riley? Garvin avoids the pronoun issue by allowing Riley to tell the story. That coupled with the fact that only Riley can accurately portray everything they go through forces this book to be best done in first person. And it was wonderful that way! Maybe it helped that I could relate to Riley's punk attitude and made me love them from the first lines of the book!

I loved everything about this book! I was so excited to see it on the shelf and get to take a look into the world of a character set that is slowly finding its way into books these days. I love nontraditional characters. And I love that the number of novels are growing that can help those with less traditional problems. The best way for a teenager to feel safe is to show them others that feel the same way. Riley is an example of of trying to give more teenagers this safe space through understanding. It touches my heart to see the genre expanding in such a way! So, if you have more books along these lines, please send them my way! I would love to read more on subjects that I cannot understand first hand but want to understand for others. And if you haven't picked this one up but are willing to branch out of the norm, please do. This one was incredible! Let me know what you think!

Virals

I got so excited when I saw this book sitting on the shelf at the library. As a huge fan of the Bones series, I have been meaning to pick up one of Reichs' books for a while now, but have yet to come across the first in the Bones series at a time when I was able to read it. And here this one was right before the start of the final season of Bones! Serendipity! I even started reading it the day episode one of season 12 premiered.

But it was not what I was hoping for.

Mostly my issues stem around the fact that Reichs chose to write in first person. As my followers are well aware, I am not a big fan of first person, and the fact that Reichs nailed the teenage voice perfectly actually hindered my liking. While Tory is an incredibly smart and gifted young woman, she is not Temperance Brennan, a woman to whom I have always felt a connection. I did not feel as close to Tory. In fact, too often I found myself annoyed with her enough that I put the book down and purposefully found other things to do.

I really hate making it sound like I don't like Reichs, because that is not the case. I simply did not like this particular book. I didn't like the way she was forced to switch her voice to make up for the times when Tory was not present in the story, I felt it pulled me out of it. I was not fond of the way that she chose to alter the DNA of young teenagers because it is just the other side of science fiction that I was not expecting from Reichs.

In short I didn't like the book mainly for the fact that it was not Bones. So I am going to make sure that one of her Temperance Brennan books is next on my list to find so that I can give you a better review of Reichs' writing.

For this post, I will be updating it with how my friend enjoyed the book. She is a teacher of 7th/8th grade kids and will hopefully have better words for this series. Stay tuned for it! And if you have read this book and liked it, please speak up! Let me know what you thought so that I can be put in my place about her young adult series!

The Truth About Alice

Jennifer Mathieu will be at the North Texas Tenn Book Festival in March! Since the festival is so early in the year I decided to start looking at the writers early on and was quick to discover this book I have been meaning to read for so long is on the list. Now I really want to find the book they are spotlighting and read that one because she is fantastic!

The Truth About Alice is about the power of rumor. From the very beginning the reader is told the truth of the situation: Alice is a slut and responsible for the star quarterback's death. This is what everyone in the small Texas town knows because someone told them. In this way the reader hears the details of the situation from the point of view of four different students at Healy High, people who knew Alice and saw parts of what happened. Only, they don't always tell the truth, and rumors spread like wildfire.

Mathieu captures perfectly the harmful impact of a rumor. Someone is a little upset, says something maybe they shouldn't, and suddenly a girl's life is ruined. This book reminded me strongly of Thirteen Reasons Why, so if you liked that one, I am sure you will enjoy this one. Now, things don't get as drastic, there is no suicide in this one, but looking at Alice as she is shunned and starts slipping away from herself, I could see things getting worse if one of the characters had not stepped up. Because this book is also a beautiful reminder of what the power of one person can do if they reach out. It is a great book!

I must point out that Mathieu is writing from the point of view of teenagers, something I have complained about in the past, but she does it wonderfully. Yes, three of the four main characters kind of tick me off, but as a person, not as a reader too annoyed by the voice of the narrators to read it. Mathieu does a great job of writing characters I loved to hate.

My only complaint was that with the way the stories are told it is a little hard to understand the timeline. When I first began I assumed that the events that sparked the rumors all occurred on one night. No. There were two distinct nights that led everyone to telling stories and many small events in between that spawned more. As the characters tell their sides of events all this becomes clear, but in the beginning it was rather confusing.

All in all the book was wonderful and I can't wait to pick up more of Mathieu's work and meet the woman to tell her how great her writing is! I hope you pick up the book as well!

A great way to start off the year of reading!

A Wrinkle In Time

December: Re-Read Favorites

A Wrinkle In Time was the first book that I read in which the main character was so much like myself that I felt a connection immediately. Meg is just an ordinary girl, unassuming, a little better at some subjects, and very protective of her family with a temper that could get out of hand, I loved her instantly.

In this story Meg has to take an incredible journey through space and time to find her father and bring him back. With the help of her little brother and a new friend, Calvin, she finds a strength inside herself that allows her to do incredible things.

And all these years later, I still love this story so much, Even though Meg kind of annoyed me at times as I was reading it, it was fun, because the younger me would no doubt annoy me too, now. What's more, I found this graphic novel version of the book I love so much and it gave me a new way to see the story I have memorized. What better way to close out a year of books than by joining something I love with a new format I am finding myself more and more in love with, with each new story I discover.

If you haven't read this classic, take a minute to pick it up, in what ever form you can, and discover the joy of Madeleine L'Engle. If you have read it before, pick it up again and read it with different eyes. It's always fun to see things from a new angle, and this is a story you can enjoy more than once!

Dead Zone

Note: May contain spoilers if you have not read Blackout, the first novel.

Ok, so here is the sequel to and resolution of Blackout. It took me a little time to sit down and read this one since I got distracted by other books, but once more I was pushed to rush through this book in a little over 24 hours by the incredibly fast paced story line. To give you an idea of how short of time frame this story takes place over, near the end of this book Aubrey, our favorite invisible girl, is thinking about the dance that started the story. It took place two and a half months before. So from start to finish these two books capture about 11 weeks in these kids' lives. And a whole lot of hell happens in those weeks!

So, in this book we get to meet the Russians. In particular we have two Russian lambdas who are leading the charge onto American soil to supposedly shift the populace out of areas they want to inhabit. The Russians claim that they will allow the Americans to go peacefully, however, a whole lot of people end up dying in the process.

Once more, Aubrey, Jack, and their team are thrown onto the front lines to find the two lambdas helping the Russian war effort. And this time, they are considered full fledged soldiers, expected to follow orders and take lives when necessary. Again we see Aubrey's issues with authority, Jack's determination to save her, and the chaos that comes when you rely on teenagers to take on too much weight.

As I said before, I believe Wells does a great job of capturing the real possibilities of using teenagers in such a situation. Sure,t hey are the only ones that can do what they do, but the Army does not like it, the teens don't like it, and things fall apart frequently enough to make everyone doubt what they are doing. I love Wells for pointing out the faults in his own story.

And I loved the ending to this story! It was another action packed, fast paced, chaos filled, wonderfully written book! I look forward to reading more of Wells' works if they are as imaginative and well written as this one! So look for more of his titles among my future posts.

Blackout

So I actually picked this one up at the library for my husband to read, because it sounded perfect for him. But he had picked up another series, which I will no doubt read in the near future and tell you all about. On top of that, the book I picked out was bad. No, I will not mention the name because the writing style got to me instantly so I barely gave the book a chance and so I don't feel that it would be fair for me to say anything about it. Anyway, I ended up picking up this book instead and woah am I glad that I did before turning it in!

Ok, I feel that both the descriptions on the jacket and Goodreads.com are not entirely accurate enough to really portray what this book is about, so I'm going to try and tell you. Look at the three and get the average gist of things, 'k?

Alec, Dan, and Laura are terrorists. This point is clear from the beginning. What is a little less clear is how they have anything to do with Aubrey who is simply trying to live her life and gain a few friends. Well, they are all teenagers for starters. Oh, and they all have superhuman abilities that have somehow turned into a virus and are infecting teens around the world. What's worse, the US government finally figured that part out and are now putting all teenagers in camps to figure out if they are infected or not. Because those with powers would be really useful fighting against the terrorists with powers.

So, I'll start this time with the problems with this books since it is kind of right there in my description. Because that description is half the book. Maybe even more than half. At first Wells moves at a normal pace, or at least normal enough, with events happening, the reactions, the capture of all these kids. And you get the sense that maybe everything feels like it is taking way longer because they are teens and they exaggerated time. Because in reality from the start of the book to the end is maybe 3 weeks and a hell of a lot happens in that time. It all moves way too fast! Kids are being turned into weapons and they are barely given time to adjust! I get it, America is at war, but really, we are going to just toss a 15 year old girl in the mix and hope she doesn't collapse under the strain!

And that's about my only real problem. The fast paced and therefore unpreparedness of this plot. Because at the same time it is kind of realistic. America is being attacked from forces unknown at a very rapid pace and the government is simply trying to keep up. And with this half baked plan of theirs comes the consequences. Things fall apart, people slip through the system, more people die and places are attacked. So I think that fast paced world worked out in the end for this book. It had me reading quickly to find out what was going to happen next. And after only 2 days (during which I was also busy so only had a few hours to read between loads of laundry) I am already picking up the next one.

So yes, I encourage you to pick it up! This is a unique take on the superhuman powers plot. These kids are not ready for what they have been given and they are being used by everyone! The world is in peril and we are trusting teenagers to help fix it. And everyone is power has a big problem with this but they are running out of options! It is really interesting! (Done with the !'s for now, I promise.)

Oh, and if you would like to start a little sooner in the story, Wells did write a prequel in the form of a novella. However, it is only in ebook format, for the Kindle, so it may take me a minute to find it and actually get to read it. But if you read Going Dark first, let me know how it effected the others. I am going to move on to the next book, Dead Zone, for the time being. I'll let you know what I think.

This Dark Endeavor

August: Texas Teen Book Festival

Held in Austin, TX, TTBF highlights YA authors and their audience by bringing the two together for a weekend to talk about the stories we are falling in love with.

Kenneth Oppel is one of the authors that will be at the Texas Teen Book Festival this year. Focus will be on his book Every Hidden Thing, but I couldn't find that when I went to the library. Instead I was intrigued by this previous book of his. This Dark Endeavor follows the story of a young Victor Frankenstein as he undertakes an adventurous quest into the world of alchemy to find a cure for his ailing brother. Full of action, intrigue, and passion, most of which is embodied by young Victor, Oppel's story gives us a look into Victor's past leading to hid dark curiosity into the world of the dead and the driving force behind his later experiments.

I really did enjoy this one. Oppel did a good job of creating not only a dire situation for Victor that would push him so urgently forward, but he gave an overwhelming amount of chaos behind the endeavor. Add a love triangle that leads to an internal war Victor wages as he tried to help his brother, and it makes for an amazing tale. And Oppel is a gifted writer!

My only draw back was that I was expecting Mary Shelley. This was my own fault and I should have seperated my love of the classic with my curiosity for this new tale. When Oppel's voice, a great one in its own right, was all I read it made the beginning of the novel a little slow going. hat being said I look forward to reading the next book in this little series as well as the book being highlighted at the festival this year. As I said, Oppel is a fantastic writer.

I highly encourage fans of the classic Frankenstein give this one a chance.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Demigod Files

So this book was fun, a little addition to the original Percy Jackson series written by Riordan that so many love. It contains three short stories about the demigod's adventures along with some short, funny interviews with the other characters, and to go with it all a few pictures like a map of Camp Half-Blood and character pictures. So it was a short fun read that took me back to the series I love so much for a quick visit.

But it was a little less than I was expecting. The stories were right on par, letting us see a little more into what Percy got up to in between books. But the last one was interrupted with the character pictures and that was a little distracting. The interviews were also humorous but shorter than I was expecting. And when they said they would be showing the contents of campers' trunks so any other demigods would know what to pack, they didn't say it would only be one, which was kind of a let down.

Like I said, I enjoyed it, it was fun. But if you are looking to really get a dose of Percy Jackson, maybe pick this one up along with another one of the books, because this little side trip back into the world of the demigods will not be enough. Still, I hope fans of the series do pick this one up, it's a nice read!

Thirteen Reasons Why

May - Books with numbers in the title.

Thirteen Reasons Why is a unique book. The majority of the book is told from one boy's point of view, Clay Jensen as he listens to a series of cassette tapes that were sent to him in the mail. What is he listening to: Hannah Baker's story of her thirteen reasons why she killed herself.

I found this book in a Half Price Books last year after the Texas Teen Book Festival, but I didn't have the money to get it at the time so I made a point of taking down the title and author so that I could get it as soon as possible. Then my sister said she was listening to the audio book for this month's book club read and I thought that would be perfect, it gave me the chance to talk to someone else who had read the book. So I bought my copy and waited anxiously for it to get to me in the mail. And read it in one day.

This book hits close to home for me. There was a point in my life when I thought that suicide might be the answer to my problems. Lucky for me I am kind of a wuss and couldn't go through with it. It doesn't keep me from stopping every so often to think about it, from considering what it would take and what it would affect. I am also lucky enough to have a best friend who had also been at that point in her life and knew how to talk me down. I now have more people to turn to, including that first friend. But to this day I can still name the people and events that led to that first real consideration. Much like Hannah picked out her list of reasons, I could still do it thirteen years after I was in that same place. Wow, thirteen years ago. Is that serendipity? Ok, this got pretty heavy for a book review.

So, this book. It was incredible, I really think so. There were a few times when maybe I wasn't thrilled with a sentence, or maybe something seemed just slightly less than amazingly written. But those times were very few, far between, and not worth note. What is important was how well Jay Asher brings to life this story. Not only does he give the reader this unique format of having parts of the chapters told from a cassette tape, but he does a wonderful story of interjecting Clay's world into it. Not just his thoughts about what is being said, but what he is does as he listens to the tapes, as if the reader is also hearing Hannah in the background as Clay lives. What's better, you can hear parts of the cassette tapes on YouTube, as posted by a "friend".

And as Clay listens to the tapes, as he anxiously waits at the start of each new story to find out if this one is for him, I waited anxiously. I am pretty sure that I felt every thing that Clay felt, including the heartbreak for his story and the start and stop of tears as he listened. Asher does an amazing job of turning the reader into Clay. Part of me really hates that I read the book instead of listening to it on tape because I hear the way it alternates between narrators is fantastic. I'll ask my sister's opinion on that matter when she gets done with listening to it. Maybe I'll listen to it some time in the future.

Which leads me to what I plan on doing with this book. I am going to put it on my shelf. I am going to loan it out to anyone that even looks in its general direction. I am going to hold on to it until my son is getting ready to start high school and I am going to make him read it before he starts. I will do the same for my daughter (who I am really worried has the potential to be a bully) and have a good long talk when she is done with it. Because I think everyone needs to read it. No one ever realizes the impact their little thoughtless acts have on others. People don't think about the possibility that others are fighting their own battles and that one wrong push can really tip their scales. I need at least my children to think before they act. This is a lesson this book paints so vividly as it tells stories that may seem so simple and innocuous individually but add up to be just too much for Hannah. So I will pass this book on. Frequently.

If you have your own take on this book, on this story, let me know. Or check out ThirteenReasonsWhy to share you story or see others.

I also want to leave you with a few things. Like the number for a hotline: 1-800-SUICIDE. A website: www.hopeline.com . An organization: To Write Love On Her Arms. A campaign: The Semicolon Project. Even a name: Jared Padelecki. Please, if you think that you are at a place in your life where nothing else can help, try just once more. And remember, you can always reach out to me, through a comment of email. And always keep in mind that others may be struggling, so try to always be kind to each other.

Panic

I'll be completely honest with you on how I picked this book to read. My husband was rushing me out of the library, I wanted a new book to get me through the end of April until I could pick up my book club read for May, and I reached over and grabbed the first book at hand. I had already read the jacket, so I had a vague idea of what the book would be about, but I was unsure if it was really something I wanted to read. Wow am I glad that I took the chance.

Panic is the story of a game played in a small town by recent high school graduates. During the school year everyone in the high school gives up a dollar for every school day. At the end the money is divided between two secret judges, and a winning pot. Then seniors decide if they are going to compete or not by jumping off a rock wall into a lake. The game thus begins. Over the course of the summer that follows the contestants are put through more and more insane challenges to determine who is brave (crazy) enough to make it out the other end and claim the money. This year the story follows two contestants, Heather, who had not intended to compete at all, and Dodge, who  had been planing on joining the game for two years.

This book was a roller coaster from beginning to end as I followed the story of these brash, crazy new adults as they fought to not only win the game but get their lives under control. Lauren Oliver does an incredible job of bringing each challenge to life, making each character something special, and making sure the reader is too immersed to do anything but keep turning pages. I found myself not only eagerly pushing on to the next chapter, but also recounting the challenges and outcomes to my friends, who at the age of 30 were calling these kids insane for what they did. But we were all interested to see how it would end with bated breath.

If you like The Hunger Games I am sure you will love this story about these kids trying tot fight for a way to improve their lives and willingly risking their lives to do it. However, this is a much tamer version as everyone else isn't watching, but those that know about Panic are actually trying to stop these kids from continuing. But sometimes, the reward is just too good.

EDIT :: So give this book a shot! If you want to take a look at the world of Panic, this is where you can find the Origin of Panic. It is in two parts, each only six pages long, but it is a teaser to see what kind of insanity is behind the game these kids play, and how it started. Check it out!

Scream Street : Blood Of The Witch

The second book in the Scream Street series, this book continues the story of young Luke's adventure to find the relics of the town's founding fathers so he can open a portal back to the real world so his parents can get out of the crazy town! Accompanied by his two friends, Resus and Cleo, he is on the hunt for the second relic. But it's not just the supernatural scavenger hunt they have to face as the conniving Sir Otto Sneer has created yet another problem for the residents of Scream Street to try and get his hands on the book helping Luke.

This book was a bit sillier than the first since Sir Otto's plan causes first the creation of vampire rats which only spreads to the occupants of the small town. But hey, what do you expect when reading a kid's book about monsters if not a little silliness to help keep the audience entertained. It was still full of funny moments, actions scenes, and even a light-hearted drama as Luke's parents try to fit in.

Again this was a cute book in the series, and I like where things are going for the character's and story. I enjoyed it and can't wait for my son to bring home the next one for me to read! I will let you know what he thinks about it as soon as he gets the chance to read it, too!

Scream Street : Fang Of The Vampire

Jareth found this book at the school library and brought it home to read. Of course I saw it and thought, "well that looks interesting" and knew I had to read it. The reading level listed on the inside is 4.8, so of course it was a fairly easy read for me, which is good because I am pretty sure it is overdue.

It turned out to be a cute little story following three kids as they start a scavenger hunt for objects to help them get out of the town in which they live because one of them is worried for his parents. Oh, the kids just happen to be a warewolf, vampire, and mummy and they are getting the clues for the relics needed from a talking book!

As the first book in the series it followed their journey to finding the book and the first object needed. It is a delightful twist on the monster story with this young man worried for his parents who happen to be completely normal. The book is complete with daring moments, witty speech, and a few shenanigans. What do you expect when one of the characters is a zombie of what I am sure was once a hippie stoner!

Jareth didn't get the chance to read the book since they were accidentally hidden in my room among other books, but he is going to be checking them out once more from the library so that he can give them a chance as well. I'll add his opinion to this post when he does. In the meantime I have to say I enjoyed it and am quickly picking up the next book! I think it's a great pick for any young readers looking for something different in their main characters!

The Carpet People

April - Books with RED covers.

This was actually the only book I had to fill this month's theme and now I am really glad it was. I love Terry Pratchett, his Discworld novels were this perfect fantasy counterpart to Douglas Adams, whom I had discovered at a young age. But while I love getting my hands on his books, I had only intended to hand this one to my kids for them to read when they were ready. After all, this book started out as a series of serials in a newspaper's Children's Circle column. Terry was then inspired to write a book based off the little civilization he had dreamed up in the world of a Carpet, and this is the product.

The Carpet People is exactly what it sounds like. It is a story that follows mainly a man named Snibril as his people leave their home for somewhere better once the destructive, and highly mysterious, Fray destroys everything. What follows is a tale of chaos, adventure, creatures, curiosity, battle, and heroics. Snibril is just one among a cast of highly entertaining people, among which are his brother Glurk, an ex-soldier Bane, a philosopher Pismire, and a King Brocando. The reader joins them as they cross the Carpet trying to find a safe place or the center of their troubles, depending on how you look at it.

This story was meant for young adults, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters were great. The story complex. And the storytelling very entertaining! If you like Pratchett you have to give this one a try, especially if you have the chance to read it to your child. As the back blurb says, it is "An epic saga of miniature proportions."