In my review of The Warrior Heir, I said that a sequel was due out soon and that I was looking forward to reading it. Well, the sequel is out now, and it's just as good a read as the first.
Very briefly:
Seph knows he's a wizard, but he doesn't know much else. He knows the story he's been told about his parents is false, but he doesn't know why he's been fed a pack of lies or what, if anything, is the truth about them. More important for the story, however, is that he knows that he has power, but he doesn't know how to control it. He's been kicked out of multiple schools because his uncontrollable bursts of power have created some very uncomfortable and unfortunate situations. But the worst situation of all is what happens one night when he goes to a nightclub to party with some friends and meets Alicia (who we met in the first book). When she spikes his drink, Seph loses any semblance of control. Several people die as a result, and Seph's guardians (a law firm) have to get him out of town fast. He is sent to the Havens, a small school in a remote part of Maine. Unknown to him (but is it unknown to the people who sent him there?), the school is run by a wizard who has set the school up specifically to collect as many wizard around him as possible. His goal isn't to train them, it's to link to and control them. When Seph resists, he is mentally and physically tortured. After months of this, he is finally able to get a call for help out. A significant character from the The Warrior Heir arrives to rescue him, but he's merely jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Many wizards are angry about the changes made at Raven's Ghyll, and they aren't going to accept them without a fight. Little does Seph know how central a role he's playing in that fight.
Jack, Ellen, Linda, Hastings, Niko, and several others from the first book appear in this one as well (though it takes a while). But we also meet several other new characters, notably Seph, Maddie (who has a fascinating power we haven't seen before), Jason, and Gregory Leicester (Jessamine Longbranch and Geoffrey Wylie don't hold a candle to this guy).
Cinda Chima's web site has a bio, a list of books she's read over the past few years (fun to browse), and pages on the two books in this series that include lists of characters, information about places in the books, and a FAQ. Dragon's Heir, the third book in the series, is scheduled to be published in the spring of 2008.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Doing a little updating
For my handful of subscribers out there, if your RSS feed is alerting you to multiple new posts and you look at the posts' dates and wonder why a post from a couple (or more) months ago is being sent as new, it's because I'm doing a little blog post tweaking. (Or is it post-blogging tweaking?)
Basically, over the next few days, I'll be editing some old posts to add links to authors' web sites, blogs, or interviews. (Graham Joyce, I'd link to your web site, but it's not exactly geared to your teen audience.) I'd also like to show the book covers on this blog, but I'm reluctant to single out any one online book seller, and we don't have a local independent in this area. (I hate to say it, but publishers' web sites often don't do their authors justice, so I'm not linking to them unless they're worth your time.)
Basically, over the next few days, I'll be editing some old posts to add links to authors' web sites, blogs, or interviews. (Graham Joyce, I'd link to your web site, but it's not exactly geared to your teen audience.) I'd also like to show the book covers on this blog, but I'm reluctant to single out any one online book seller, and we don't have a local independent in this area. (I hate to say it, but publishers' web sites often don't do their authors justice, so I'm not linking to them unless they're worth your time.)
Monday, July 30, 2007
Too Smart for Anyone's Good
I've got a backlog of books to blog about, so I'm going to do some (hopefully) shorter posts about them to help myself catch up. Here's the first:
Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks
4Q 4P, J
Cadel Piggott is a genius. If you're astute and you've read the title of the book, you rightly assume that he is an evil genius. But it's not completely his fault. After all, what would you expect a kid to be when, after getting arrested for hacking into computers at the age of seven, he is brought to a child psychologist who tells him that his one big mistake was getting caught? As it turns out, the psychologist, Dr. Roth, is a bit of an evil genius himself. Or at least, he's evil, and he's the go-between for Cadel and another evil genius: Cadel's real father. Cadel's father, Dr. Phineas Darkkon, is in jail for various nefarious plans. But his biggest nefarious plan is one the authorities can't stop: he plans to educate and train people with superior abilities (like Cadel) and help them take over the world.
Over the years, Dr. Roth and Dr. Darkkon guide Cadel as he goes through school honing his talent for lying, manipulating, and plotting, as well as developing his computer hacking skills. (He uses all of these skills in developing an online dating service that winds up being significant for many reasons.) Finally, at the age of fourteen, he is ready to enroll in his father's Axis Institute to be trained in the arts necessary for world domination. His courses include Basic Lying, Pure Evil, Embezzlement, Contagion, and Assassination.
Up to this point, Cadel has had no problem with his father's plans for him. But the Axis Institute isn't for the faint of heart. Tortured screams echo the halls, classes are disrupted by deadly explosions, and blood frequently drips from the ceilings, fellow students die (horribly) or mysteriously disappear, and the faculty is deeply suspicious of each other and their students. Even for Cadel, it's all a bit too much and he begins to wonder if being an evil genius is all it's cracked up to be.
I'm going to recommend this one to kids who like the Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books, with a few caveats. This one is a lot longer than those books, and it doesn't have as humorous a tone. But it does have a kid-as-criminal-mastermind theme, and the kid is every bit as interesting as Artemis is. I think it's more complex than the Artemis Fowl books, and it's certainly darker in tone and theme. I know elementary school kids like the Artemis Fowl books as much as middle school readers do, but I think Evil Genius is better suited to Artemis's older readers, as well as readers who don't mind a book where the action moves a little more slowly. I think I might also suggest this book to teens who have enjoyed Muchamore's C.H.E.R.U.B. books and Butcher's Spy Highseries. I've just read a few reviews that compare this book to Harry Potter, too, primarily because it involves a young boy who gets sent to a school to get trained to use his talents. I think this one has a different feel from Harry Potter, though I'm sure there will be some overlap in readers.
Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks
4Q 4P, J
Cadel Piggott is a genius. If you're astute and you've read the title of the book, you rightly assume that he is an evil genius. But it's not completely his fault. After all, what would you expect a kid to be when, after getting arrested for hacking into computers at the age of seven, he is brought to a child psychologist who tells him that his one big mistake was getting caught? As it turns out, the psychologist, Dr. Roth, is a bit of an evil genius himself. Or at least, he's evil, and he's the go-between for Cadel and another evil genius: Cadel's real father. Cadel's father, Dr. Phineas Darkkon, is in jail for various nefarious plans. But his biggest nefarious plan is one the authorities can't stop: he plans to educate and train people with superior abilities (like Cadel) and help them take over the world.
Over the years, Dr. Roth and Dr. Darkkon guide Cadel as he goes through school honing his talent for lying, manipulating, and plotting, as well as developing his computer hacking skills. (He uses all of these skills in developing an online dating service that winds up being significant for many reasons.) Finally, at the age of fourteen, he is ready to enroll in his father's Axis Institute to be trained in the arts necessary for world domination. His courses include Basic Lying, Pure Evil, Embezzlement, Contagion, and Assassination.
Up to this point, Cadel has had no problem with his father's plans for him. But the Axis Institute isn't for the faint of heart. Tortured screams echo the halls, classes are disrupted by deadly explosions, and blood frequently drips from the ceilings, fellow students die (horribly) or mysteriously disappear, and the faculty is deeply suspicious of each other and their students. Even for Cadel, it's all a bit too much and he begins to wonder if being an evil genius is all it's cracked up to be.
I'm going to recommend this one to kids who like the Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books, with a few caveats. This one is a lot longer than those books, and it doesn't have as humorous a tone. But it does have a kid-as-criminal-mastermind theme, and the kid is every bit as interesting as Artemis is. I think it's more complex than the Artemis Fowl books, and it's certainly darker in tone and theme. I know elementary school kids like the Artemis Fowl books as much as middle school readers do, but I think Evil Genius is better suited to Artemis's older readers, as well as readers who don't mind a book where the action moves a little more slowly. I think I might also suggest this book to teens who have enjoyed Muchamore's C.H.E.R.U.B. books and Butcher's Spy Highseries. I've just read a few reviews that compare this book to Harry Potter, too, primarily because it involves a young boy who gets sent to a school to get trained to use his talents. I think this one has a different feel from Harry Potter, though I'm sure there will be some overlap in readers.
Friday, July 27, 2007
When the Shark Bites, It Bites
Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham
4Q 4P, M/J/S
I admit it. This book had me near tears more than once, even though I was trying hard not to get emotional. (I feel like such a sap when I cry over something I'm reading.)
I also admit that I came to this book thinking it smacked of ripping off Bethany Hamilton's story (Soul Surfer, and that annoyed (even offended) me a bit. But the reviews were good, and I know it's the kind of story that a lot of people like to read, so I bought it for our teen collection. I wasn't going to read it, but I needed a book I could read quickly at lunch. Since this is written in free verse, letters, and phone calls, it looked like a very fast read. So I took it, a little bit grudgingly. Six pages into the book, I was hooked and having trouble swallowing my food over the lump in my throat.
The last thing that Jane expects when she, her mother, and her brother go to the beach one June day is that she'll wake up from a coma ten days later to discover that her right arm has been amputated just above the elbow after a harrowing shark attack leaves her arm so badly mutilated it can't be saved. The cards and letters that flood into the hospital can't begin to ease her pain, anger, and depression. Why her? Why couldn't it have happened to someone else? She loves to cook. She's an award-winning artist. She needs her arm! These people who are writing to her can't begin to comprehend what she is feeling. Why can't they leave her alone to mourn the person she'll never be again?
Kelly Bingham does a terrific job making it clear how such a tragic event doesn't just alter the life of the person it happens to. It is almost as hard to read about Jane's mother and brother's attempts to deal with the aftermath as it is to read about Jane's anger and despair. Where do you draw the line between being sympathetic and supportive and and TOO sympathetic and supportive? When is it time to force someone to move forward? When Jane's brother lashes out at her for expecting everyone to wait on her, it's both a shocking and liberating moment, for them and for the reader. The ways that Michael encourages (and forces) her to learn to do things for herself were touching and empowering. And I positively ached for Jane's mother as she tried to encourage Jane to go out in public, to draw again, to get back to as much of her old life and self as possible. There's a poem called "Constant" that is painful to read no matter whose perspective you read it from. It's equally moving to read about Jane's frustrations with her friends. Are they insensitive, or is Jane too sensitive? All of these poems and conversations, as well as Jane's tender moments with a little boy from the hospital, make for a very emotional read.
A few favorite moments:
(from "Leaving", p. 84, as Jane prepares to leave the hospital)
The problem is
life outside the window
is life outside.
Not here.
People out there
are out there.
Too many.
The eyes of the doctors
are familiar.
The kind of seeing I can almost live with.
It's their job, taking care of people like me.
I was welcome here.
I fit in.
Out there,
I won't.
Whew! If that doesn't communicate how scary it is to know you have to face people who are used to seeing you a different way, I don't know what would.
Then there's the poem called "The Web". Jane's discovering the world of Internet support groups, and she's not at all receptive:
Motivational speakers.
Forums.
Chat rooms.
And overwhelmingly:
Most of the time, we become
a better person than we were.
I was fine
with who I was.
I will never
become one of these heroic
icons, spreading hope
from the other side,
one hand waving.
I could feel Jane's resistance pushing out at me from the pages of the book.
"Moat, Overlooking" is a powerful poem depicting an artist's despair at knowing she'll never again be the artist she used to be. She's realizing that the things she used to draw aren't the subjects she would draw now:
These pictures
are from someone else's world,
someone else's memories,
not mine.
What, then, is now?
If I can't return to
Horse, Grazing,
am I doomed to be a
van Gogh imitation?
Tortured, wrecked, surviving
pain through the art of my darkest attic,
creations spun from the haunted memories
of the Shark Girl
trying to accommodate with her left hand?
Will the subject matter
be endless grays and white-capped
waves, gaunt faces, thin children,
rain?
I have no legs
to cross the bridge
toward Sunflower, Blooming,
and return home.
Eventually, Jane does start showing signs that she might be able to move forward. I liked this particular poem in part because it shows Jane now able to think about people other than herself and to recognize their sincere desire to help, when before she was too angry about too much to be able to do so.
(from "Tools", p. 223)
Fingering my new tools
I think about the people
who devote their lives
to inventing stuff like this.
Things that make life
a bit easier.
I wonder who they are
and why they invent things like this
and if they ever hear the words
"thank you".
Seeing Jane develop new interests and discovering that she doesn't have to leave her old ones behind makes this a moving, inspiring, and empowering story. I can't speak for Bethany Hamilton or anyone else who has ever lost a limb, but I can say that this book really helped me understand what they and their families might be going through and gave me some things to think about. I'm glad I ordered it and I'm glad that I wanted that quick read at lunch. I'm sure that I'll find myself recommending this book to a lot of readers in the future.
Post edited to include some links, including a very interesting interview of Kelly Bingham by Cynthia Leitich Smith (one of these days I'm going to finish my blog post on Smith's Tantalize, which I'm having a really hard time writing) and Bingham's web site. (In the interview, Kelly Bingham talks about how she got the idea to write this book, and Bethany Hamilton's name does come up. I was happy to see that she actually finished the book a few days before Bethany Hamilton was injured.)
4Q 4P, M/J/S
I admit it. This book had me near tears more than once, even though I was trying hard not to get emotional. (I feel like such a sap when I cry over something I'm reading.)
I also admit that I came to this book thinking it smacked of ripping off Bethany Hamilton's story (Soul Surfer, and that annoyed (even offended) me a bit. But the reviews were good, and I know it's the kind of story that a lot of people like to read, so I bought it for our teen collection. I wasn't going to read it, but I needed a book I could read quickly at lunch. Since this is written in free verse, letters, and phone calls, it looked like a very fast read. So I took it, a little bit grudgingly. Six pages into the book, I was hooked and having trouble swallowing my food over the lump in my throat.
The last thing that Jane expects when she, her mother, and her brother go to the beach one June day is that she'll wake up from a coma ten days later to discover that her right arm has been amputated just above the elbow after a harrowing shark attack leaves her arm so badly mutilated it can't be saved. The cards and letters that flood into the hospital can't begin to ease her pain, anger, and depression. Why her? Why couldn't it have happened to someone else? She loves to cook. She's an award-winning artist. She needs her arm! These people who are writing to her can't begin to comprehend what she is feeling. Why can't they leave her alone to mourn the person she'll never be again?
Kelly Bingham does a terrific job making it clear how such a tragic event doesn't just alter the life of the person it happens to. It is almost as hard to read about Jane's mother and brother's attempts to deal with the aftermath as it is to read about Jane's anger and despair. Where do you draw the line between being sympathetic and supportive and and TOO sympathetic and supportive? When is it time to force someone to move forward? When Jane's brother lashes out at her for expecting everyone to wait on her, it's both a shocking and liberating moment, for them and for the reader. The ways that Michael encourages (and forces) her to learn to do things for herself were touching and empowering. And I positively ached for Jane's mother as she tried to encourage Jane to go out in public, to draw again, to get back to as much of her old life and self as possible. There's a poem called "Constant" that is painful to read no matter whose perspective you read it from. It's equally moving to read about Jane's frustrations with her friends. Are they insensitive, or is Jane too sensitive? All of these poems and conversations, as well as Jane's tender moments with a little boy from the hospital, make for a very emotional read.
A few favorite moments:
(from "Leaving", p. 84, as Jane prepares to leave the hospital)
The problem is
life outside the window
is life outside.
Not here.
People out there
are out there.
Too many.
The eyes of the doctors
are familiar.
The kind of seeing I can almost live with.
It's their job, taking care of people like me.
I was welcome here.
I fit in.
Out there,
I won't.
Whew! If that doesn't communicate how scary it is to know you have to face people who are used to seeing you a different way, I don't know what would.
Then there's the poem called "The Web". Jane's discovering the world of Internet support groups, and she's not at all receptive:
Motivational speakers.
Forums.
Chat rooms.
And overwhelmingly:
Most of the time, we become
a better person than we were.
I was fine
with who I was.
I will never
become one of these heroic
icons, spreading hope
from the other side,
one hand waving.
I could feel Jane's resistance pushing out at me from the pages of the book.
"Moat, Overlooking" is a powerful poem depicting an artist's despair at knowing she'll never again be the artist she used to be. She's realizing that the things she used to draw aren't the subjects she would draw now:
These pictures
are from someone else's world,
someone else's memories,
not mine.
What, then, is now?
If I can't return to
Horse, Grazing,
am I doomed to be a
van Gogh imitation?
Tortured, wrecked, surviving
pain through the art of my darkest attic,
creations spun from the haunted memories
of the Shark Girl
trying to accommodate with her left hand?
Will the subject matter
be endless grays and white-capped
waves, gaunt faces, thin children,
rain?
I have no legs
to cross the bridge
toward Sunflower, Blooming,
and return home.
Eventually, Jane does start showing signs that she might be able to move forward. I liked this particular poem in part because it shows Jane now able to think about people other than herself and to recognize their sincere desire to help, when before she was too angry about too much to be able to do so.
(from "Tools", p. 223)
Fingering my new tools
I think about the people
who devote their lives
to inventing stuff like this.
Things that make life
a bit easier.
I wonder who they are
and why they invent things like this
and if they ever hear the words
"thank you".
Seeing Jane develop new interests and discovering that she doesn't have to leave her old ones behind makes this a moving, inspiring, and empowering story. I can't speak for Bethany Hamilton or anyone else who has ever lost a limb, but I can say that this book really helped me understand what they and their families might be going through and gave me some things to think about. I'm glad I ordered it and I'm glad that I wanted that quick read at lunch. I'm sure that I'll find myself recommending this book to a lot of readers in the future.
Post edited to include some links, including a very interesting interview of Kelly Bingham by Cynthia Leitich Smith (one of these days I'm going to finish my blog post on Smith's Tantalize, which I'm having a really hard time writing) and Bingham's web site. (In the interview, Kelly Bingham talks about how she got the idea to write this book, and Bethany Hamilton's name does come up. I was happy to see that she actually finished the book a few days before Bethany Hamilton was injured.)
Friday, July 13, 2007
A Peak Experience
Peak by Roland Smith
4Q 5P M/J
Peak lives in New York City, which isn't exactly the ideal place to live if your sport is mountain climbing. On the other hand, NYC does have really tall things to climb, as long as you don't get caught climbing them. Unfortunately, Peak does get caught, just as he finishes tagging the Woolworth Building (his tag is little blue mountains) and hauls himself onto the roof of the skyscraper. He's under arrest, facing several years in juvenile detention. Fortunately, his father shows up just in time and makes a bargain with the judge and prosecutors: he'll take Peak out of the country and make the story go away if they will drop the charges. Little do they, or Peak, realize that Peak's father has big plans for Peak: He's going to be the youngest climber to summit Mount Everest.
Musings as I read this book:
I loved the first couple of chapters. "The Hook" really is a great hook. I love the way Smith makes you think one thing is going on and then switches it up just enough to make you realize he was thinking "Gotcha!" as he reached the end of the chapter.
I don't much like Peak's father. Talk about an "it's all about me" guy! When Peak asks him if he'd have come to New York (to bail him out of serious trouble) if he had already been fifteen and his father says no, I wanted to kick the guy.
I also like that Smith wrote a really good adventure/survival story, but doesn't sacrifice humor to do it. Talking about a reporter who has insinuated herself onto the climb but who is clearly neither mentally nor physically prepared for it, Peak writes:
You've got to laugh at that!
If you want to know more about Roland Smith, check out his web site. You can find his Cryptid Hunter in the children's department (I'm waiting for a sequel!) and Jake's Run and its sequel Zach's Lie in the Teen Room.
Update: I will shortly be posting a booktalk for this book. I'll use "booktalk" as a tag because it's not one of the ones I did for the Connecticut Library Association.
4Q 5P M/J
Peak lives in New York City, which isn't exactly the ideal place to live if your sport is mountain climbing. On the other hand, NYC does have really tall things to climb, as long as you don't get caught climbing them. Unfortunately, Peak does get caught, just as he finishes tagging the Woolworth Building (his tag is little blue mountains) and hauls himself onto the roof of the skyscraper. He's under arrest, facing several years in juvenile detention. Fortunately, his father shows up just in time and makes a bargain with the judge and prosecutors: he'll take Peak out of the country and make the story go away if they will drop the charges. Little do they, or Peak, realize that Peak's father has big plans for Peak: He's going to be the youngest climber to summit Mount Everest.
Musings as I read this book:
I loved the first couple of chapters. "The Hook" really is a great hook. I love the way Smith makes you think one thing is going on and then switches it up just enough to make you realize he was thinking "Gotcha!" as he reached the end of the chapter.
I don't much like Peak's father. Talk about an "it's all about me" guy! When Peak asks him if he'd have come to New York (to bail him out of serious trouble) if he had already been fifteen and his father says no, I wanted to kick the guy.
I also like that Smith wrote a really good adventure/survival story, but doesn't sacrifice humor to do it. Talking about a reporter who has insinuated herself onto the climb but who is clearly neither mentally nor physically prepared for it, Peak writes:
- "Inside a tent her voice was shrill enough to sour yak butter. She was no longer gasping, which I missed because the pauses gave my ears a chance to rest."
You've got to laugh at that!
If you want to know more about Roland Smith, check out his web site. You can find his Cryptid Hunter in the children's department (I'm waiting for a sequel!) and Jake's Run and its sequel Zach's Lie in the Teen Room.
Update: I will shortly be posting a booktalk for this book. I'll use "booktalk" as a tag because it's not one of the ones I did for the Connecticut Library Association.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Yes, They Really Are Out to Get You
True Talents by David Lubar
4Q 4P, M J
The gorilla who clung to the ceiling was wearing a Princeton t-shirt.
I don't know about you, but that's the kind of first line that hooks me right into a book! As it turns out, there is no gorilla on the ceiling. And the walls aren't rippling, either. But when you've been drugged and you're just coming out of it, you see some mighty strange things.
The man who wakes Eddie (aka Trash) up wants to play a game with him. But this is no ordinary game. It has something to do with marbles, making those marbles float in the air or roll across a table. This man knows what Eddie has been trying to hide: his hidden talent, his ability to move things with his mind. How could he possibly know that? What is Eddie doing in this horrible place?
You may have met Trash before, in Lubar's Hidden Talents. Eddie was one of the delinquents sent to Edgewood School to straighten them up (or take them off their parent's hands). As far as most of the world is concerned, the kids at Edgewood are beyond hope. But Eddie's group weren't delinquents. They were misunderstood, even by themselves. Until Martin arrived, none of them knew they had hidden talents. Eddie can move things with his mind. Cheater can read minds. Flinch sees things a split second before they happen. When Torchie gets excited, things around him go up in flames. Lucky has a knack for finding things. And Martin somehow knows the thing a person is most proud of and what they are most ashamed of. They already know how much trouble these talents can get them into. How much trouble can they get them out of?
The boys have all left Edgewood now, but they've all tried to keep in touch. But they really miss Eddie. It's hard to accept that he died in that accident last year.
Wait a minute. Eddie is dead? Didn't we just see him drugged and locked up in that lab? We sure did. There's a good reason that the boys decided to keep their talents a secret. They were afraid that if anyone ever found out what they can do, they'd be studied, probed, and tested, and they'd have nothing to say about it. They were right. Months ago, Eddie made a possibly-fatal mistake. All he'd wanted was a little money to buy some art supplies. If he used his talent to help him get it, and he was really careful about it, nobody would ever find out. Right? Wrong. Two weeks later, he was attacked by two goons with a gun. If they hadn't already known what he could do, his efforts to get away would have blown his cover. He'd killed one of the men, using just the power of his mind. No matter how badly he's drugged, Eddie will never be able to forget the image of the blood pouring out of the man's mouth as he gasped for his last breath. Now he's paying for that in spades, locked up, drugged, and playing these games for the man he comes to know as Major Bowdler.
Major Bowdler is a piece of work. He's the kind of guy who likes to teach people lessons. Does a little kid run into his house, leaving his toy soldiers behind? Careless boy. If he's going to leave his toys out, should he get to keep them? Of course not. Does one of his men fail to do his job properly? Get rid of him. Permanently. As Eddie discovers, Major Bowdler is very, very interested in people like the boys, people who have special talents. As he sees it, these people should be happy to use their talents in service to their country (and make Bowdler very rich in the process). Whether or not the boys want to use their talents in this way is immaterial. What Bowdler wants, Bowdler gets.
Except...Eddie isn't about to roll over and play dead for Bowdler. When he gets the chance to escape, he grabs it. But what then? Where can he go? He has no money, and no way to contact anyone. And then, of course, there's the little matter of discovering that everyone thinks that he's dead. Who can he trust? There's only one answer for that. It's time to get the boys all together. And when these boys come together, they are a force that even a guy like Major Bowdler may not want to reckon with. Their hidden talents give them a boost in the first place, but when they are coupled with their true talents, watch out!
This is not my favorite of Lubar's books, but I think his fans will be glad he wrote it. I'm afraid this is a long, rambling review for a book that's just the opposite. The book reads very quickly most of the time, with more focus on action and suspense than in the first book. I found it a little confusing to follow the specifics of what Bowdler was up to, but I decided not to worry about it and just go with the flow. One of the things I enjoyed about the book was its mix of tension, action, and humor. Lubar has a great sense of humor, and that's what I always look forward to in his writing. In this book, I kept wanting to share the parts about Torchie serenading his neighbors with his accordion and his delight when they take up a collection to send him to music camp. (Anything to get him out of earshot!) And when a smart, cute older girl enters the mix and a little manly romantic rivalry results, well, that's fun too. This book will please younger teens who like to laugh as well as those who like action.
4Q 4P, M J
The gorilla who clung to the ceiling was wearing a Princeton t-shirt.
I don't know about you, but that's the kind of first line that hooks me right into a book! As it turns out, there is no gorilla on the ceiling. And the walls aren't rippling, either. But when you've been drugged and you're just coming out of it, you see some mighty strange things.
The man who wakes Eddie (aka Trash) up wants to play a game with him. But this is no ordinary game. It has something to do with marbles, making those marbles float in the air or roll across a table. This man knows what Eddie has been trying to hide: his hidden talent, his ability to move things with his mind. How could he possibly know that? What is Eddie doing in this horrible place?
You may have met Trash before, in Lubar's Hidden Talents. Eddie was one of the delinquents sent to Edgewood School to straighten them up (or take them off their parent's hands). As far as most of the world is concerned, the kids at Edgewood are beyond hope. But Eddie's group weren't delinquents. They were misunderstood, even by themselves. Until Martin arrived, none of them knew they had hidden talents. Eddie can move things with his mind. Cheater can read minds. Flinch sees things a split second before they happen. When Torchie gets excited, things around him go up in flames. Lucky has a knack for finding things. And Martin somehow knows the thing a person is most proud of and what they are most ashamed of. They already know how much trouble these talents can get them into. How much trouble can they get them out of?
The boys have all left Edgewood now, but they've all tried to keep in touch. But they really miss Eddie. It's hard to accept that he died in that accident last year.
Wait a minute. Eddie is dead? Didn't we just see him drugged and locked up in that lab? We sure did. There's a good reason that the boys decided to keep their talents a secret. They were afraid that if anyone ever found out what they can do, they'd be studied, probed, and tested, and they'd have nothing to say about it. They were right. Months ago, Eddie made a possibly-fatal mistake. All he'd wanted was a little money to buy some art supplies. If he used his talent to help him get it, and he was really careful about it, nobody would ever find out. Right? Wrong. Two weeks later, he was attacked by two goons with a gun. If they hadn't already known what he could do, his efforts to get away would have blown his cover. He'd killed one of the men, using just the power of his mind. No matter how badly he's drugged, Eddie will never be able to forget the image of the blood pouring out of the man's mouth as he gasped for his last breath. Now he's paying for that in spades, locked up, drugged, and playing these games for the man he comes to know as Major Bowdler.
Major Bowdler is a piece of work. He's the kind of guy who likes to teach people lessons. Does a little kid run into his house, leaving his toy soldiers behind? Careless boy. If he's going to leave his toys out, should he get to keep them? Of course not. Does one of his men fail to do his job properly? Get rid of him. Permanently. As Eddie discovers, Major Bowdler is very, very interested in people like the boys, people who have special talents. As he sees it, these people should be happy to use their talents in service to their country (and make Bowdler very rich in the process). Whether or not the boys want to use their talents in this way is immaterial. What Bowdler wants, Bowdler gets.
Except...Eddie isn't about to roll over and play dead for Bowdler. When he gets the chance to escape, he grabs it. But what then? Where can he go? He has no money, and no way to contact anyone. And then, of course, there's the little matter of discovering that everyone thinks that he's dead. Who can he trust? There's only one answer for that. It's time to get the boys all together. And when these boys come together, they are a force that even a guy like Major Bowdler may not want to reckon with. Their hidden talents give them a boost in the first place, but when they are coupled with their true talents, watch out!
This is not my favorite of Lubar's books, but I think his fans will be glad he wrote it. I'm afraid this is a long, rambling review for a book that's just the opposite. The book reads very quickly most of the time, with more focus on action and suspense than in the first book. I found it a little confusing to follow the specifics of what Bowdler was up to, but I decided not to worry about it and just go with the flow. One of the things I enjoyed about the book was its mix of tension, action, and humor. Lubar has a great sense of humor, and that's what I always look forward to in his writing. In this book, I kept wanting to share the parts about Torchie serenading his neighbors with his accordion and his delight when they take up a collection to send him to music camp. (Anything to get him out of earshot!) And when a smart, cute older girl enters the mix and a little manly romantic rivalry results, well, that's fun too. This book will please younger teens who like to laugh as well as those who like action.
Monday, June 18, 2007
I'm With Murphy and Stein
What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
5Q 4P, J/S
Just to catch you up on things, in the prequel (What My Mother Doesn't Know) to this book, Sophie finds her true love...several times. The magic dies with Dylan, the first guy. Chaz, her chat room friend, turns out to be the kind of guy you're warned about when people start talking about the hazards of Internet romances. And then there's Murphy. Murphy...the guy who is such a nerd that when someone does something stupid, the kids say, "You're such a Murphy!" Not the kind of a guy most teens want to be seen with, including Sophie. But there's more to Murphy than meets the eye, which Sophie discovers when she goes to the museum to see her favorite painting and finds Murphy there, too. Now this is true love.
What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know takes up where the first leaves off. Winter break is over, which means that Sophie and Murphy have to go back to school. What will Sophie do when she gets to school? Will she sit with her friends and pretend she doesn't know Murphy, or will she put her social life in jeopardy by joining Murphy at his lunch table? Murphy is sure he knows the answer. Any girl in her right mind would never be seen with him. So he is shocked when Sophie does it - she sits down with him! In front of the entire cafeteria! The room gets dead silent. All eyes focus on them. And then they turn away, as though the sight is too disgusting to tolerate. Even Sophie's best friends turn away. They refuse to be seen with her. Sophie and Murphy are determined to stay strong and stay together. But is their love strong enough to survive being ostracized, teased, and harassed?
There's another wrinkle, too, and Sophie doesn't know anything about this one. Well, she knows that Murphy has been invited to participate in an art class at Harvard. But she doesn't know the details. This is a mind-blowing experience for him. Not only is he Robin* here, not Murphy, but nobody thinks he's a Murphy, either. Here, everybody thinks he's just another kid. In fact, they seem to think he's another college-aged kid. And here, girls call him "babe" and invite him to join them for a snack after class. Would that be cool with Sophie? Maybe she'd think it was fine. After all, some of the guys are in the group, too. But would she be fine with the nude models? Would she be fine with the way Murphy thinks about those nude models? Sophie always says that "sometimes (she) just knows things", but maybe this is the kind of thing she'd be better off not knowing.
I love Sonya Sones's writing. With most verse novels, I read them and wonder why the author didn't just write it in prose instead. But when Sonya Sones writes a free verse novel (as all of her books are so far), I never find myself thinking that. It's very difficult to make characters in a free verse novel as three-dimensional as they are in well-written prose novels, but if anyone can do it, Sones can. She also develops the story arc well, so each poem builds on the one before. But the beauty of her writing is that she uses the form so naturally. She uses similes and metaphors (not all verse novels do that very well), and the cadence of the lines fit the character and situation. There's nothing artificial or forced about it, and the stories are deeply involving. This one is no exception.
*Robin is Murphy's first name.
Musings: Some lines I especially liked
I don't know about Murphy's girlfriend, but I know I loved this book.
Edited to add a link to Sonya Sones's web site. Not only does she provide a biography (she's worked with some very famous people) and information about her books and writing, she's also generous enough to provide a list of other author's books she thinks you'll enjoy. (She suggests the books for readers twelve and up. I'll add that they cover a range of ages, from books for younger teens to YA books for older teens and adults.)
5Q 4P, J/S
Just to catch you up on things, in the prequel (What My Mother Doesn't Know) to this book, Sophie finds her true love...several times. The magic dies with Dylan, the first guy. Chaz, her chat room friend, turns out to be the kind of guy you're warned about when people start talking about the hazards of Internet romances. And then there's Murphy. Murphy...the guy who is such a nerd that when someone does something stupid, the kids say, "You're such a Murphy!" Not the kind of a guy most teens want to be seen with, including Sophie. But there's more to Murphy than meets the eye, which Sophie discovers when she goes to the museum to see her favorite painting and finds Murphy there, too. Now this is true love.
What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know takes up where the first leaves off. Winter break is over, which means that Sophie and Murphy have to go back to school. What will Sophie do when she gets to school? Will she sit with her friends and pretend she doesn't know Murphy, or will she put her social life in jeopardy by joining Murphy at his lunch table? Murphy is sure he knows the answer. Any girl in her right mind would never be seen with him. So he is shocked when Sophie does it - she sits down with him! In front of the entire cafeteria! The room gets dead silent. All eyes focus on them. And then they turn away, as though the sight is too disgusting to tolerate. Even Sophie's best friends turn away. They refuse to be seen with her. Sophie and Murphy are determined to stay strong and stay together. But is their love strong enough to survive being ostracized, teased, and harassed?
There's another wrinkle, too, and Sophie doesn't know anything about this one. Well, she knows that Murphy has been invited to participate in an art class at Harvard. But she doesn't know the details. This is a mind-blowing experience for him. Not only is he Robin* here, not Murphy, but nobody thinks he's a Murphy, either. Here, everybody thinks he's just another kid. In fact, they seem to think he's another college-aged kid. And here, girls call him "babe" and invite him to join them for a snack after class. Would that be cool with Sophie? Maybe she'd think it was fine. After all, some of the guys are in the group, too. But would she be fine with the nude models? Would she be fine with the way Murphy thinks about those nude models? Sophie always says that "sometimes (she) just knows things", but maybe this is the kind of thing she'd be better off not knowing.
I love Sonya Sones's writing. With most verse novels, I read them and wonder why the author didn't just write it in prose instead. But when Sonya Sones writes a free verse novel (as all of her books are so far), I never find myself thinking that. It's very difficult to make characters in a free verse novel as three-dimensional as they are in well-written prose novels, but if anyone can do it, Sones can. She also develops the story arc well, so each poem builds on the one before. But the beauty of her writing is that she uses the form so naturally. She uses similes and metaphors (not all verse novels do that very well), and the cadence of the lines fit the character and situation. There's nothing artificial or forced about it, and the stories are deeply involving. This one is no exception.
*Robin is Murphy's first name.
Musings: Some lines I especially liked
Murphy describes himself:
Let's face it
I'm the type of guy
who doesn't even have any buddies
on my buddy list
When We Finally Come Up for Air
Sophie's eyes/are smiling into mine.
And it's amazing, really,/because all she has to do is look at me
and my lump of a nose/straightens out
the muscles on my arms/start to sprout
the circles fade/under my eyes,
my ears shrink down/to a normal person's size...
If only everyone else/could see
what Sophie sees/when she looks at me
From I Crack Open the Front Door
My parents are great listeners./Which is why I never tell them/anything.
From Tuesday Morning
"Why didn't you pick up?" Rachel says.
"We were way worried about you."
"And we still are," Grace says.
"Friends don't let friends commit social suicide."
And when I hear these words,
my heart detonates in my chest.
From I'm Just About to Leap on Their Offer
(note: Students from Murphy's college art class have invited him to join them in an after-class outing.)
And a second later, I'm racing down the stairs,
my feet in a Road-Runnery blur,
when this real bizarre feeling comes over me --
like I'm the male equivalent of Cinderella,
and if I don't make it to Mom's Volvo
before the clock strikes twelve,
it's gonna turn back into a pumpkin.
And *I'm*
gonna turn back
into Murphy.
From Saturday Afternoon
I've been lying on my bed for hours,
feeling as demolished as Van Gogh must have felt
right before he slashed his own ear off
My Heart Catapults Up Into My Throat
Then boomerangs
right back down
into my feet.
I never knew a person could feel
like jumping for joy
and jumping off a bridge
at the exact
same
moment.
There's a section in the book where Murphy feels that he has to break up with Sophie for her own sake. It's killing him to think about it, so he tries to put it off by avoiding her. Sophie lets that go for just so long before she forces a confrontation. I love what happens next: the two of them sit side by side on Murphy's bed, but instead of talking, they write their own little graphic novel, drawing the story out and using a few words here and there when necessary. Sometimes a picture is worth 1000 words, and picturing this scene in my head was worth 2000.A couple of lines from this scene:
From So I Start Working on the Second Frame
Even though
just *thinking* about doing that
makes him feel like
he's having open-heart surgery --
with*out* an anesthetic.
From When I Finish the Girl's Face
And I draw the boy,
standing at the window,
watching the girl walk away --
a small figure hunched against an icicled world.
And finally:
from I Try to Tell Myself
And *I'm* happy *for* her.
I really am.
It's just that, until now,
I never realized
how sad
being happy
could make a guy
feel.
I don't know about Murphy's girlfriend, but I know I loved this book.
Edited to add a link to Sonya Sones's web site. Not only does she provide a biography (she's worked with some very famous people) and information about her books and writing, she's also generous enough to provide a list of other author's books she thinks you'll enjoy. (She suggests the books for readers twelve and up. I'll add that they cover a range of ages, from books for younger teens to YA books for older teens and adults.)
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