Book Review: The Path of Names by Ari Goelman

Dahlia is a 13 year old girl who loves all things related to magic.  She enjoys a good slight-of-hand and spends her time trying to master the art of misdirection.  One thing she is not interested in is Camp Arava - the Jewish summer camp that her parents are forcing her to attend.  She is dreading three weeks of outdoor activities, sing-alongs, and announcements in Hebrew.  Worst of all, her older brother happens to be one of the camp counselors, and by the end of the first day has all of the campers calling her "Squirt".  

So when she arrives and sees two young girls walk through the walls of one of the cabins, she thinks she has found someone who shares her affinity for magic.  She soon discovers that Camp Arava has a dark and mysterious past.  Children have disappeared from the area before, and Dahlia is the only one who can stop the disappearances from happening again.

This book is interesting.  I do not know much about the Jewish religion or the Hebrew culture, so I found the information about Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, very interesting.  I did get lost when it came to numbers for letters, different words having the same meaning, and mazes spelling things, but I tried to keep it together. Dahlia's character was likable, but she was a bit too forward thinking for a normal 13 year old.  She thought about consequences, and put two and two together much quicker than your average junior high student.  I also know nothing about summer camp other than what I learned in the movie The Parent Trap, so I had a hard time envisioning some of the situations.  

Overall, I found the story to be decent and the characters, although a bit predictable, enjoyable none the less.  This is a book that I would recommend to my more steady readers (and I already have).

Book Review:  A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix

Imagine that you have always been told that you are far superior than everyone else.  Your entire life you have been led to believe that when you become of age, you will be a full-fledged prince of the empire, held in high esteem and able to get and do whatever you want.  Your body has been enhanced with machinery, telekinetic powers, and all the advanced technology available.  

Then imagine that you become of age, and the first thing that happens is someone tries to kill you.  This is the life of Prince Khemri, a prince of the Empire, who discovers that being a prince is not all it is cracked up to be.  He finds that he is one of millions of princes who constantly backstab, duel, form alliances, double-cross, and kill to get what they want.  They are able to be reborn into a cloned adult version of themselves if they are deemed worthy by the "Imperial Mind", the omniscient and omnipresent being that can see everything in the empire, but in some situations they never come back.

Khemri dreams of being a prince that has adventures all over the universe, but he finds that being a prince is more about doing what you are told by the imperial mind, superiors, and even his Master Of Assassins.  When Khemri is given an offer he cannot refuse, he must shed all of his princely powers and technology, and learn how to survive as a human.  Khemri must learn the value of life and what it means to be human if he ever wants to return to his rightful place as a prince of the empire.

Overall, I liked the book.  The narration was great - Khemri is recounting his life and adds little snipits here and there that show his sarcastic and humorous side.  The storyline is unique - I found it interesting how princes are "created" and not "born" and anyone, male or female can be a prince.  I also liked the transformation Khemri undergoes from cocky prince to helpful human.  I must admit, however, space-y sci-fi is not my forte.  I had a hard time with the names and explanations of various types of star cruisers, solar systems, worm holes, and the like.  But I could see the story underneath all of that, and I liked it.  

So, if you are a space-y sci fi kind of person, try this book out!

Book Review:  The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan

Every once in a while I find a book that I enjoy NOT because it has lots of action or a suspenseful plot, but rather because of the simple truths that the author conveys in a timeless story.  This is one of them.  The Weight of Water is the story of 12 year old Kasienka, a Polish girl who has immigrated to Coventry, England with her mother.  Told in verse, this story illustrates the hardships that she and her mother face from day one.  They have left the familiarity of Poland to try to locate Kasienka's father, a man that abandoned them several months before.  Kasienka feels that perhaps he does not want to be found, but her mother clings to the hope that they will reunite and begin life anew together.  In the meantime, Kasienka begins going to school, and must endure the bullying and awkwardness of "junior high".  She discovers first love as well as cruelness in her classmates as she tries to understand the complexities of friendship and acceptance.  Kasienka's only reprieve from the stress of her home and school life is the community pool.  She is a powerful swimmer and feels most confident while in the water.
This book is simple yet very powerful at the same time.  Many students, no matter what their background, can relate to Kasienka's predicament - she is not in control, and she feels like she is being pulled from all sides by puppet strings.  The prose writing style conveys the emotions perfectly - if this had been a full-fledged novel, I feel like it might have been bogged down.  This is a great novel that I would highly recommend to anyone!

Welcome back!

Welcome back to school!
I hope everyone had a fantastic summer!  I cannot wait to share more books with you this year!
Over the summer I began thinking about "old" media (books and movies).  So, in an effort to cross things off of my bucket list, I began watching old films and reading old books that I have heard of but never actually seen or read.
As far as books go, I would like to highlight Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers.  I picked it up because of the movie coming out this fall, Saving Mr. Banks.  I wanted to see how the "Mary Poppins" we all know and love is different from the original "Mary Poppins" written by Travers.  Let me tell you, they are as different as they come!  In the book, Mary Poppins comes to 17 Cherry Tree Lane after a nanny has quit.  She does not get a letter penned by Jane and Michael, and no other nannies are turned away by the wind.  She is strict, and a bit cross with the children - almost mean - which is something I was not expecting.  She endears herself to the children by showing them a world unlike any they have ever experienced.  She tells them of a cow that cannot stop dancing, takes them to meet her Uncle that floats on his birthday (this one was in the movie), shows them what goes on in the zoo at night, takes them on a trip around the world, that sort of thing.  With each adventure, the children wonder if what they have experienced actually happened or if it was just a dream.  She is still strict with the little ones (by the way, there are FOUR Banks children - Jane and Michael have twin siblings, John and Barbara), but she does seem to care about them.  The wind changes at the end of the book and she just up and leaves without saying goodbye.
Now, I may make P.L. Travers roll over in her grave when I write this, and it is against all I believe as a librarian, but I liked the movie version much better.  In the book, Mary Poppins is mean.  She snaps at the little ones, she is sarcastic, and she fusses at them quite a bit.  Now, this could be a generational thing - maybe that was how nannies treated children in early turn of the century London, I do not really know.  It must be that I need to read more installments of the Mary Poppins series in order to see how she changes the lives of the Banks family members.  I might try the next book, but I am in no rush to continue the series.  I do love the movie, though!

Book Review:  Ripper by Stefan Petrucha

This suspenseful novel, set in 1890's New York City, tells the story of Carver Young, an orphaned boy with a penchant for detective stories and a quick mind.  Carver is "adopted" by a former Pinkerton Detective, Albert Hawking, who sees promise in the young boy.  Carver is on a quest to locate his birth father, yet at the same time Jack the Ripper has turned up in New York and is wreaking havoc in the city.  Carver learns a terrible secret about his father and must save the city before Jack kills again.
Overall I found the pacing to be good, and the action was fast-paced. Some of the historical inaccuracies can be explained away when reminded that this is a work of fiction - the author never declares otherwise.  I enjoyed the book, in all of its dark and suspenseful glory.  The characters were engaging, but I do have to admit that there was not enough distrust for me.  I felt like the "secret" agents were a bit too forthcoming with their "top secret" information, and Carver readily believed anything that anyone told him - he did not have a distrustful bone in his body.  And the fact that everyone listened to a bunch of teenagers is a bit surprising - it almost made the book Scooby Doo-esque.  With all that in mind, the author does pull it together well, and his storytelling is top notch.  I feel like he wants to continue the storyline, but it is a very good stand alone novel as well.  Either way, if you are a fan of thrillers and Jack the Ripper stories, you should try it out!

Book Review:  Splendors and glooms by L.A. Schlitz

Have you ever read a book, and at the end you felt like you needed to process for a bit?  That was this book for me.  I honestly cannot say whether I liked it or not.  The premise is interesting - two orphans (Parsefall and Lizzie Rose), working for an evil magician-puppeteer (Grisini), are called on by his nemesis (Cassandra) to break a curse that is slowly killing her.  At the same time a privileged young girl (Clara) disappears, and only the magic of Grisini or his Cassandra can free her.  Parts of the story are quite intriguing - what deep dark secret is Clara hiding, how did Parsefall lose his finger, and how can Clara be freed?  I also enjoyed the characters - they are not one dimensional.  All, except for Grisini, have good and bad characteristics.  Clara acts the role of the proper British child, but she secretly resents her home life.  Parsefall loves Lizzie Rose like a sister, but, because of his upbringing, shows his love in abusive ways.  Lizzie Rose is a kind and gentle soul, but she explodes with emotion when cornered like a feral cat.  This makes them much more realistic.  The issue I have is with the story line.  When Grisini disappears, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall must fend for themselves.  As they try to survive without a guardian, they receive a letter in the post from a mysterious dowager who wants to leave her fortune to them.  Believing they will be inundated with riches, they leave their life in London to go to Strachan's Ghyll, the woman's home.  However, the old woman has an evil ulterior motive - the curse that has been plaguing her for her life can only be broken by a child, and she can use one of Grisini's foolish orphans to break her dreaded curse.  The story takes a long time to "rev up", but once it gets going it is quite good.  The ending, however, is lacking.  Too neat and tidy.  The dreariness of the entire book was erased with an ending as cliched as "and they all lived happily ever after".  Overall, the book had great characterization and description, but I feel the story line could have been much better.  It's a "meh" for me.

Ungifted: by Gordon Korman

Sometimes I feel like authors try too hard to speak to junior high level kiddos. It is akin to someone's mother saying things like "get jiggy with it!" or "word up!" - these sayings have their place (the years 1999 and 1987, respectively), but not in a junior high in 2013. This is why I like Gordon Korman so much. He writes novels for young readers that do not hide behind flashy literary trends or what’s the latest fashion – he writes timeless good fiction.  Take Ungifted, for example.  In this book we meet Donovan, a screw up with a good heart.  Because of an administrative error, he is sent to a magnet school for gifted students instead of being expelled for a prank that got way out of hand.  Donovan must convince the students and teachers that he is a genius, but instead teaches the others about friendship, heart, and loyalty.  Each chapter is told from a different point of view – either Donovan, his sister, the students at the magnet school, teachers, or the superintendent give us their perspective on the events and situations that transpire throughout the novel. 

Korman does a great job making each character believable and helps the reader to understand that sometimes one person’s rash decision can cause an entire community to change their perception on life; and sometimes the strangest people can become your closest friends.

Kudos to Korman for creating characters that show that junior high students still have heart!