Wandering Librarians

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Waiting on Wednesday: The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight an upcoming release that we're excited about. This week I'm waiting on The Here and Now by Ann Brashares.

Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

Thrilling, exhilarating, haunting, and heartbreaking, The Here and Now is a twenty-first-century take on an impossible romance. Ann Brashares’ first novel for teens since The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is about a girl from the future who might be able to save the world . . . if she lets go of the one thing she’s found to hold on to.

Meet seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.

Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth. But everything changes when she falls for Ethan Jarves.

The Here and Now comes out April 8, 2014.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Twins Cather and Wren have been Simon Snow fans since the very first book came out. More than fans, they both used to write fanfiction, and Cath still does. In fact, her fanfic is some of the most popular in the entire world. But now the girls are going to college, and Wren wants everything to be different (starting with not being roommates), and Cath wants everything to stay the same. But things won't stay the same; things keep changing, and Cath isn't sure if she can make it.

Simon Snow seemed to me a mixture of Harry Potter and Twilight. It's got the intense, crazy fandom and the massive fanfic network they both have, Harry Potter's magical wizarding world, but with the writing full of descriptions of clenched square jaws and tousled golden hair which is pure Twilight.

I didn't find Cath, our main character, especially likable. She grew on me, but until I better understood what was going on I just found her sullen and a pain. She was way past someone who's shy, or a little antisocial, or who's nervous about starting college. Cath went to extremes to not talk to or interact with people. Even when they were being nice to her. Cath was pretty unpleasant to anyone who tried to talk to her. She had no interest in making new friends, having new experiences or doing anything she hadn't always done before. She hid in her online world, where she was safe and secure and didn't have to look at or talk to anyone.

Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead

12 year-old Georges moves into a new apartment building and meets a strange boy his own age, Safer. Safer claims to be a spy and an expert at observation. He recruits Georges to help him spy on a possible murder who lives in the apartment above Georges. Georges is happy to have found Safer. He has not friends at school, and home has been stressful lately, with his mom working late and his father losing his job. But there's something odd about Safer, and Georges isn't sure he's comfortable doing the things Safer asks him to do.

I'd been wanting to read this since it first came out, since I loved Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me SO MUCH! I mean, along with everyone else. It did win the Newbery and all. It's the only book I've ever read where I finished, sat there, said "Whoa," and immediately started reading it again from the beginning. I was cautiously optimistic about this one. Of course, it couldn't possibly be as fabulous, but probably still good.

It was good. I enjoyed it certainly. It did not blow me away, but it was a good read. There was a dramatic twist at the end. Not quite as dramatic, it didn't involve time travel. I saw this one coming, unlike with When You Reach Me.

Mara by Brian Wood, illustrated by Ming Doyle

We're in a world that holds soldiers and athletes in the highest esteem. Mara is the best of them all, an incredibly talented volleyball player, she is known the world over. Everyone loves her, no matter what side of the war they are fighting on. When Mara begins showing signs of superpowers, her fans turn on her. Now Mara isn't sure the world has a place for her any more.

Lots of spoilers.

This collects Mara #1-6. I didn't love it. I was kind of interested in the world, except there wasn't enough information to understand the world very well. It seems to be a world that's constantly at war but we don't know why. We don't know who's fighting who. There are special schools to groom athletes. Everyone is expected to do their duty to the country. But why? And how does it all work? No hints.

Mara is the perfect specimen. Physically, intellectually. She is perfect. She would be a perfect solider or athlete. Everyone loves her.

Mara essentially turns into superman. She can do everything. She can fly. She can move things with her mind. Bullets cannot harm her. She seems to know no weakness, which isn't very interesting. While she's been groomed for a secrete branch of the military, her brother is captured (by her own country) and tortured to see if he will manifest superpowers too. Mara goes rogue and easily breaks out of the training facility. When she discovers her brother has been tortured to death, Mara is done with humanity.

I'm not really sure where it's going. Mara has rejected the human race and now she's floating around in space. So what's next for her? There weren't really any clues. And is this series continuing? Or was that the end? If that was the end, it was a pretty weak ending.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Waiting on Wednesday: Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight an upcoming release that we're excited about. This week I'm waiting on Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira.

It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more; though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was; lovely and amazing and deeply flawed; can she begin to discover her own path.

Love Letters to the Dead comes out April 1, 2013.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

The War Within These Walls by Aline Sax, illustrated by Caryl Strzelecki

A young boy and his family are forced into the Warsaw ghetto, along with all the Jews of Poland. After years, the Nazis prepare to liquidate the ghetto, and some of the Jews prepare to fight back.

It's not a graphic novel, exactly. Although I think I'd shelve it with graphic novels, because I think that's where someone would look for it. It's more an illustrated novels. It's a beautifully put together book. The words and illustrations are kept separate. I found this allowed me to focus deeply on both words and images without getting distracted by one or the others. Sometimes words appeared on black pages, all alone. Sometimes the text was very short, other times it would be a whole page.

The illustrations were powerful. They were done in black and white and were made up of hundreds of individual line strokes. The illustrations were so full of emotion. You could feel the pain and despair, the hopelessness and darkness these people were feeling.

In the story we follow the young boy and his family, first as the Nazis move into Poland and restrictions are put on Jews, and then to the entire Jewish population being moved into the ghetto. The ghetto was so crowded, and there was so little food coming in, everyone was slowing starving to death, or being wiped out by disease. People actually volunteered to get on the Nazi trucks (which took them to concentration camps) in the hopes they were being taken somewhere better.

The boy uses the sewers to sneak out of the ghetto and bring food to his family, until the Nazis begin using flame throwers to kill the smugglers in the sewers. Then he is afraid to do anything, until he meets Mordechai Anielewicz, who is organizing Jews to fight back. They know they cannot win, but they decided they will not quietly submit to death any longer.

Very powerful and beautifully done.