Epic, Somthing Rotten

Epic by Conor Kostick, 2004
Eric’s mother has died in the arena, failing to win her appeal for a new solar panel and must now start over from scratch. Eric has recently died as well on adventures his parents fear are frivolous. On a whim, he recreates himself as a girl swashbuckler and uses all his start-up points on beauty. In this world where the population uses a virtual reality game to solve all conflicts and run the economy, such loses and choices are serious business. When Eric’s father is sent into exile, he and his friends take a path in the game that no one has risked for generations, defeating a dragon, accumulating great wealth, and threatening both the society’s ruling elite and the game’s own nascent intelligence in the process.

This book was written by a fantasy-game writer and is a great read, just as entertaining as Heir Apparent. I liked the plot and the relationships between the friends.


Something Rotten (A Horatio Wilkes Mystery) by Alan Gratz, 2007
There’s something rotten in Denmark, and it stinks bad. Denmark, TN, has a polluting paper mill that is owned by the family of Horatio’s best friend, Hamilton Prince. Now Hamilton’s dad is dead and his uncle has married his mother. Sound familiar? Horatio promises to uncover motives, means, and opportunities to understand what really has been happening in Denmark.

Other tags: Copenhagen River. Pollution. Olivia Mendelsohn, the tree-hugging, cute ex-girlfriend. Trudy Prince, mom. Rex Prince, dead dad who appears from beyond the grave (in a video). Claude Prince, the uncle. Ford N. Branff, the ex-flame of Trudy’s.

A clever take on Hamlet, with humor and suspense. YA mysteries are not my favorite genre and I like this one more in the abstract than I did while reading it.

Dead & the Gone, Red Glass

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer, 2008
A companion book to Life as We Knew It, this book covers the same catastrophic event of the moon being knocked out of orbit but from a different location – this time, New York City. Alex Morales, a senior who has worked hard to be top in his class, must try to take care of his younger sisters when both his parents are caught away from home when the disaster strikes.

Other tags: Puerto Rican American. Survival story. Catholic church.

This story is an interesting imagining of what life might be like should such an event occur, but I didn’t find it as gripping as the first book, maybe because the hardships are very similar. I liked it OK.


Red Glass by Laura Resau, 2007
International Reading Assoc. Award
This book covers the story of 16-year-old Sophie, a hypochondriac whose parents often help immigrants in need as they cross the Arizona border. When 6-year-old Pablo comes to live with them after his parents have perished, Sophie forms a close attachment as she reads him poetry and tries to make his smile. The next summer, she travels with her great aunt Dika, Dika’s boyfriend Mr. Lorenzo, Mr. Lorenzo’s son Angel and Pablo to Pablo’s hometown in Mexico and then on to Angel’s hometown in Guatamala. Along the way, she is able to let go of her phobias as she confronts real life-threatening dangers and inner strength to confront them.

It is a travel story of great growth, love, and friendship. It questions what makes a home, who is family, and how we become confident and complete individuals. I liked it OK.

2007-2008 Reading List

I am concluding my 2007-2008 school year blogging experience with the list of titles I read this year. I know this list isn’t quite complete, but it shows most of what I read. I aimed for 2 titles a week. I have listed 88 titles here. I know I haven’t included some I read at the cottage (Great and Terrible Beauty; I am Messenger; The Ear, Eye, Hands) plus some picture books, but other than that, this list pretty accurately reflects what I read this year. Not quite two books a week but I feel I accomplished much. I am much more familiar with YA literature now than last fall.

2007-2008 READING LIST
1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving. 394.264 (reviewed Nov 21)
Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big in This? (reviewed Feb 8)
Alexie, Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (reviewed Mar 13)
Austin, Pride and Prejudice (reviewed Mar 5)
Averett, Rhyming Season (reviewed Jan 30)
Balliett. Chasing Vermeer (reviewed May 12)
Bauer, Don’t Call Me Ishmael (reviewed Nov 14)
Bodies from the Ash: Life and Death in Ancient Pompeii (reviewed Nov 21)
Boniface, Hero Revealed (reviewed Nov 21)
Bryant. Pieces of Georgia (reviewed Oct)
Buckley-Archer. Gideon: The Cutpurse (reviewed Sep)
Children of the Great Depression. 305.23 (reviewed Nov 21)
Chima. Warrior Heir (reviewed Sep)
Clements. Things Not Seen (reviewed Mar 5)
Cooney. Friend at Midnight (reviewed Apr 16)
Cooney. Hit the Road (reviewed Oct)
Crane. Red Badge of Courage (reviewed Apr 16)
Crocker. Billie Standish Was Here (reviewed Jun 30)
DeMari. Last Dragon (reviewed Jan 3)
DeTerlizzi. Field Guild (reviewed Jan 14)
DeTerlizzi. Lucinda’s Secret (reviewed Feb 8)
DeTerlizzi. Seeing Stone (reviewed Feb 8)
DeTerlizzi. Ironwood Tree (reviewed Mar 5)
DeTerlizzi. Wrath of Mulgarath (reviewed Mar 5)
Do Unto Otters (reviewed Mar 26)
Dokey. Golden (reviewed Sep)
Down the Colorado: John Wesley Powell, the One-Armed Explorer. 917.91 RAY (reviewed May 13)
Durst. Into the Wild (reviewed Feb 12)
Farmer. House of Scorpion (reviewed Sep)
Fitch. If I Had a Million Onions (poems) (reviewed Nov 11)
Flanagan. Ruins of Gorlan (reviewed Nov 11)
Fletcher. Alphabet of Dreams (reviewed Dec 5)
Flinn. Beastly (reviewed Mar 5)
Frederick. Mother-Daughter Book Club (reviewed Mar 13)
Funke. Inkheart (reviewed Jan 29)
Girl’s Like Spaghetti: Why You Can’t Manage Without Apostrophes! 428.2 TRU (reviewed May 12)
Guinea Pig Scientists. 616.027 (reviewed Nov 21)
Haddix. Uprising (reviewed Jun 30)
Hanley. Light of the Oracle (reviewed Jan 14)
Horowitz. Stormbreaker (reviewed Nov 14)
Hulme. Glitch in Sleep (reviewed Mar 26)
If the World Were a Village: A Book About the World’s People. 304.6 SMI (reviewed May 12)
Jaffe. Bad Kitty (reviewed Nov 14)
Johnson. 13 Little Blue Envelopes (reviewed Sep)
Kerley. Greetings from Planet Earth (reviewed Dec 11)
Levine. Fairest (reviewed Dec 14)
Lubar. Hidden Talents (reviewed Mar 5)
MacHale. Merchant of Death (reviewed May 7)
MacKall. Crazy in Love (reviewed Dec 18)
Marillier. Wildwood Dancing (reviewed May 7)
McCaughrean. White Darkness (reviewed Apr 16)
Meyer. Host, The (reviewed Jun 30)
Mull. Fablehaven (reviewed Sep)
New York Subways. 624.1 (reviewed Nov 21)
O’Connor. How to Steal a Dog (reviewed Apr 16)
Oh, Rats! The Story of Rats and People. 599.35 MAR (reviewed May 12)
Oppel. Airborn (reviewed Mar 5)
Patterson. Angel Experiment (reviewed Jan 14)
Peck. Teacher’s Funeral (reviewed Mar 13)
Pfeffer. Life As We Knew It (reviewed Jan 3)
Rallison. It’s a Mall World After All (reviewed May 27)
Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys. 371.823 (reviewed Jun 30)
Ruby. Chaos King (reviewed Apr 16)
Schmidt. Wednesday Wars (reviewed Dec 11)
Selznick. Invention of Hugo Cabret (reviewed Mar 5)
Shusterman. Everlost (reviewed Mar 13)
Shusterman. Unwind (reviewed Jun 30)
Skelton. Endymion Spring (reviewed Jan 14)
Skyscraper. 720 CUR (reviewed May 12)
Sonnenblick. Notes from the Midnight Driver (reviewed Apr 25)
Spinelli. Eggs (reviewed Sep)
Springer. Case of the Missing Marquess (reviewed May 19)
Taylor. Shadowmancer (reviewed Mar 5)
Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving. 394.264 (reviewed Nov 21)
Turner. King of Attolia (reviewed May 27)
Turner. Queen of Attolia (reviewed May 19)
Van Draanen. Flipped (reviewed Nov 14)
Vande Velde. Heir Apparent (reviewed Dec 5)
Vande Velde. Remembering Raquel (reviewed Mar 5)
Vrettos. Sight (reviewed Jun 30)
Wells. Red Moon at Sharpsburg (reviewed Mar 26)
Westerfeld. Blue Noon (reviewed Apr 16)
Westerfeld. Secret Hour (reviewed Mar 26)
Westerfeld. Touching Darkness (reviewed Mar 26)
Whelan. Listening for Lions (reviewed Jan 3)
Who Was First? Discovering the Americas. 970.01 FRE
Wooding. Storm Thief (reviewed May 19)
Zuzak. Book Thief (reviewed Jun 30)

The Host; Billie Standish Was Here; Unwind; Reading Don't Fix No Chevys; Uprising; Sight; The Book Thief;

The Host by Stephenie Meyer, 2008

Our world has been invaded by a parasitic life form and most humans are extinct, though you wouldn’t know it by just looking. The souls, as the alien life-forms are called, take over the human body and adapt the human lifestyle. At first, such deception was necessary so the humans would be unaware of their invasion, but by the time of this story, most humans are already hosts and such behavior is unnecessary and yet still practiced. On a mission to Chicago to find her cousin she believes is still human, Melanie is captured by the souls and becomes host to Wanderer, a soul that has lived on seven other planets in seven other forms of beings. But Mel refuses to be silent. From a small corner of consciousness, she thwarts Wanderer’s attempts to read her memory to find the rest of her human companions. Wanderer also inherits another unexpected obstacle from her host – the extremely strong emotion of love for her brother Jamie and boyfriend Jared that eventually leads her to be willing to sacrifice her own life to find them and then to save them.

Some additional memory-jogging tags: Survival. Resistance. Raids. Trust. Ian, loving the enemy. Uncle Jeb. Ian’s brother Kyle. Arizona desert. Underground caves and springs. Physical response to emotions.

At 619 pages, this book seemed short for how fast the story moved and how gripping the ideas were. I was haunted by its themes for a long while afterwards. What makes us who we are? Can love conquer all? What makes friends into enemies and enemies friends?

Billie Standish Was Here by Nancy Crocker, 2007

In the 1960s, in rural Missouri, Billie Standish is the 11-year-old daughter in one of only two families that don’t abandon the town when the river threatens to overflow the levees. In the absence of anyone else, she forms a friendship with her 80-something-year-old neighbor, Lydia Jenkins. When Miss Lydia’s son Curtis rapes Billie (in a scene that is emotionally powerful but graphically minimal), Miss Lydia promises her that she will not be hurt again. The next night she shots and kills Curtis as he is returning from the bar, claiming she thought he was an intruder rummaging through the town’s deserted homes.

Since the rape and murder take place in the first third of the book, they are the catalyst for what follows instead of the climax, contrary to what is often the case with such violent scenes. The rest of the book is about Billie and Lydia drawing ever closer together as they help each other through the pain and grief to the other side to a place where healthy relationships of love and trust are possible. The action takes place in first-person from Billie’s perspective from her 6^th-grade year to graduation. She learns about menstruation and how a woman gets pregnant, worries about being pregnant, forms a friendship with the boy Harlan from her class which eventually grows into a romance, learns a lot from Lydia about how to interact with her parents without being made to feel invisible, and loves Lydia through companionship and service until the end of her days.

Some of the growth and lessons feel tender, but the main catalyst feels contrived. Rape, incest, and murder seem too heavy for upper-elementary students, and yet the main character may be too young to attract the interest of older readers. And I could never really understand why it was set in the 60’s except to make it seem OK that Billie and Lydia keep such a violent act a secret.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman, 2007

In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives “unwound” and their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to uphold their beliefs – and, perhaps, save their own lives. Connor finds out his parents have signed his unwind orders and, after making them feel as guilty as possible for a few weeks, runs away. Risa has grown up in an Ohio State Home for orphans and though she plays piano well, she doesn’t play well enough and the authorities sign her unwind papers to make room for new arrivals. Lev is the tenth child and has been raised as a tithe, knowing that after his thirteenth birthday, he will be unwound as a holy offering. Connor’s escape flight takes him to freeway where he causes Risa’s bus to crash, allowing Risa to escape as well, and Lev’s family car to stop long enough to pull Lev away, too.

Other memory-jogging tags: Fugitives from justice. Survival. Revolutionaries. Science fiction. Arizona. Civil war and compromise about abortion. Airplane graveyard. Terrorists. Pastor Dan, crisis of faith. Trust. Secrets. Roland, shark tattoe, bullies. Sonia, underground escape network. Abandoned babies, “storked”. Cyrus Finch, CyFi, pickpocket, harvested brain. Humphrey Dunfee. Admiral. Reputation. Rumors and exaggerated stories. Mobs and riots.

The premise of this book wonderfully captivating and thought-provoking. The plot pulled me right along, though the language is a bit stilted and even preachy at times. It really makes you think about what makes each of us who we are.

Reading Don’t Fix No Chevys: Literacy in the Lives of Young Men (371.8235) by Michael Smith and Jeffrey Wilhelm, 2002

I read this in preparation for the Literacy class I’m attending in Park City this month. The authors extensively evaluated literacy habits and attitudes of 50 boys who span secondary education grades, national regions, and socioeconomic levels. Their conclusions about implications for teachers resonate with my values of inquiry-based projects and learning through fun.

Uprising by Margaret Haddix, 2007

Three immigrant young women become friends in turn-of-the-century New York (1911), becoming united in their pursuit of justice and rights for women. Betta comes from rural Italy and stays with his cousin (second cousin?) Pietro and the cheating Lucianos. Yetta’s family are Russian Jews and lives with her sister Rahel. Both girls work in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory on the lower East side. Jane enjoys a privileged upbringing, but her mom is dead and she feels as forced into a way of life as her soon-to-be-friends. The Triangle workers’ strike got the attention of many wealthy women at the time, but not much change and it took a fire that killed 127 workers to finally see some real improvements in safety laws and work conditions.

Some additional memory-jogging tags: Historical fiction. Friendship. Labor disputes. Economic disparity.

The chapters alternate between the three main characters, all framed within an opening and closing chapter where a grown-up Harriett asks Mrs. Livingston about what happened during the factory fire when she was only five. The narrative moves quickly and each chapter end left me wanting some more.

Sight by Adrienne Maria Vrettos, 2007

16-year-old Dylan wants to be normal, but when a vision comes, she must tell the cops where to find the body. So she hides her gift from even her closest friends. Then a new girl arrives, the first new student their same age to move to this isolated mountain town in several years and Dylan finds herself confiding what she hasn’t told anyone but her mom and the cops.

Some additional memory-jogging tags: Ghosts. Psychic visions. Inherited abilities. High school. Best friends. Missing children. Murder. Locals vs. weekenders. Quaintly rural vs. tourist trap. Secrets. Criminal investigation. New development. Suspense. Aunt Ruby and Peg. Pilar, best friend. Ben, closest neighbor. Thea and MayBe, next best friends. Teen pregnancy and child birth. Vandalism.

This was a pretty fast read (3-4 reading sessions), but the creepy factor is fairly high. The violence and swearing are about PG-13.

The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak, 2005

Printz Honor Book. This book has many characters, all of whom have a connection to Liesel Meminger. Death narrates the story as he looks over humanity in Germany during World War II. Death’s main fascination is with Liesel, the book thief. Death first sees her as he takes her brother as they are traveling with their mom to a foster family on Himmel Street, a poor district in Molching, Germany. In the church yard where they bury her brother, Liesel finds a book half hidden in the snow, The Gravedigger’s Handbook. Her foster mother is a harsh woman who swears all the time, but she grows to really love her foster father who plays the accordion, winks and smiles at her, and teaches her to read with her found book. Her best friend is Rudy Steiner, a boy next door as poor and passionate as she is. Death is busy, but whenever his path crosses Liesel’s, he is fascinated with her passion for words and life, despite her poverty, the war, her home life. One other significant relationship is with Max Vanderburg, a son of papa’s comrade from World War I who is Jewish and hides in their basement for a while. He paints over Mein Kampf and writes his own stories over the words of Hitler’s that bleed through in spots.

Some additional memory-jogging tags: World War II. Holocaust. Prejudice. War fervor. Stealing. Friendship. Mayor’s wife and library. Grief. Books and reading. Storytelling. Bomb shelters. Basement. Bombs. Jesse Owens. Painter. Washer woman. Hitler’s youth. Running races. Most of the swearing is in German, though there are scattered swear words, and several “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph”-s throughout.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was detailed, complex, rich in character and personalities. It is a readers’ book, one of the most complicated and rich YA stories I’ve read. Death declares at the end: I am haunted by humans. I know I’ll need to reread it (and probably more than once more) to get all the allusions and connections and meaning, and I know I’ll enjoy it each time I do.