Wandering Librarians

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Raft by S. A. Bodeen

Robbie lives on the isolated island of Midway. As she returns unexpectedly from Honolulu to Midway on a small cargo plane, the plane hits a storm and goes down over the Pacific Ocean. Now Robbie and Max, the copilot, and floating in the open water in a raft. No one knows Robbie was on the flight. Is anyone looking for her?

So at first I thought this book kind of sucked. It wasn't making any sense. The characters were acting all weird. But then, with a dramatic reveal, it actually turned out quite cool.

Spoilers ahead. There's no way around them.

It's been two years since Miri was sent to the Princess Academy in Mount Eskel. Two years since her best friend Britta was chosen to marry the prince and left for the capital city, Asland, and two years since Miri helped her community to be rightfully paid for the linder stone they mine. Now Miri and the other academy girls have been invited to the capital. Miri is excited for the chance to study at the Queen's Castle university, but while there Miri learns that things are not always black and white, and when revolution begins to brew, Miri struggles to figure out what she believes.

I had not read the first Princess Academy book, which was a Newbery honor book. I know it's always been very popular with the middle school girls at my school, as have almost all of Shannon Hale's books. I didn't find it an issue reading this one without reading the first. Certainly if you've read the first one, you'll have all the background and won't be confused by what "linder speak" is and so on. Everything gets explained, so it isn't a must, but this is definitely a sequel and not a companion.

I really enjoyed it. Miri was a complex and thought provoking character. Her struggles are what most girls are going to go through: trying to figure out who you are exactly apart from your family, and what are the things that are important to you.

Intentions by Deborah Heiligman

Rachel's parents are fighting more and more. Her best friend Alexis is acting like a different person, and the person she admires most, her temple's rabbi, has just let her down in a monumental way. Rachel struggles to make sense of it all, but before she can make it through she has a long way to fall.

I didn't love it. There wasn't anything in particular that turned me off. It was a good story. The characters were fine. It moved along. It was just fine all around I guess. Nothing jumped out at me or pulled me in, but then nothing was a turn off.

Intentions explored how it can be dangerous and destructive to view other people as perfect. It looked at what happens when someone you looked up to lets you down. This was happening in two different ways, which Rachel doesn't realize at first. First is the realization that the rabbi, who Rachel has always greatly admired, cheats on his wife. Rachel is horrified and doesn't know who to talk to about this. She doesn't feel like she can tell her parents, and her Alexis, her one close friend, is acting so strangely. We realize that just as the rabbi let Rachel down, Rachel unknowingly let Alexis down. Alexis always saw Rachel as perfect, but Rachel wasn't there for her when Alexis' parents were going through a divorce. Alexis gets back at Rachel is a series of really awful ways, and Rachel tags along after her like a puppy for far too long, but I understand what was being done.

Rachel's life falls apart, and she blames it all on the rabbi, which is of course not the root of the problem. Rachel is in love with Jake, but ends up cheating on him with someone else, despite her disgust at the rabbi's cheating. She blames it all on the rabbi and what he's done to her, but she eventually realizes she has no one to blame for the way she acts but herself.

I appreciated that not everything got fixed for Rachel. She and Alexis didn't have a big love-fest at the end when all is forgiven (although everything does work out with Jake and her parents).

Intentions comes out August 14, 2012.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Waiting On Wednesday: Valkyrie Rising

"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 Valkyrie Rising by Ingrid Paulson.

Nothing ever happens in Norway. But at least Ellie knows what to expect when she visits her grandmother: a tranquil fishing village and long, slow summer days. And maybe she’ll finally get out from under the shadow of her way-too-perfect big brother, Graham, while she’s there.

What Ellie doesn’t anticipate is Graham’s infuriating best friend, Tuck, tagging along for the trip. Nor did she imagine boys going missing amid rumors of impossible kidnappings. Least of all does she expect something powerful and ancient to awaken in her and that strange whispers would urge Ellie to claim her place among mythological warriors. Instead of peace and quiet, there’s suddenly a lot for a girl from L.A. to handle on a summer sojourn in Norway! And when Graham vanishes, it’s up to Ellie—and the ever-sarcastic, if undeniably alluring Tuck—to uncover the truth about all the disappearances and thwart the nefarious plan behind them.

Deadly legends, hidden identities, and tentative romance swirl together in one girl’s unexpectedly-epic coming of age. (Summary by Goodreads)

When I was about twelve years old I really got into mythology. Greek, Roman, Korea, or Norwegian, it didn't matter. I'm pretty excited about this spin on the Valkyries, which I think is a trend along the lines of angels, but regardless I think this looks pretty freaking awesome.

Valkyrie Rising comes out Oct. 9th.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Kizzy Ann Stamps by Jeri Watts

Kizzy Ann Stamps in nervous about school starting. For the first time, school will be integrated and Kizzy Ann will be going to what once was the all-white school. Fitting in would be hard enough anyway, but Kizzy Ann was in an accident that left a long scar on her face. Luckily she has her loyal border collie, Shag, who always knows how to comfort her.

The story is told through what start out as letters Kizzy Ann writes to her new teacher, and then turn into journal entries once she gets to school and her teacher gives her a journal. Kizzy Ann is a smart, sharp girl who sees the injustices and unfairness around her, but doesn't know how things will ever get better.

This is a middle grade book that doesn't get too deep into issues of race and segregation. There are no screaming white people outside of Kizzy Ann's school, although she does mention that a bunch of the white teachers quit rather than teach a black student. Kizzy Ann and her Black classmates don't need government protection to attend school. All the white kids do not get pulled out of the class by their parents. It's clear there are race issues, but it never gets too violent or dark.

Kizzy Ann has a changing relationship with a white boy, Frank Charles, who is also the boy who gave her her scar, although it was an accident. Frank Charles lives near Kizzy Ann and they are in the same class. He loves Shag, and is always trying to play with her. Kizzy Ann doesn't know what to make of Frank Charles, who seems nice enough, but his father is actively mean. Mr. Feagans once had Kizzy Ann publicly whipped for talking back to Frank Charles. Mr. Feagans, however, has a dramatic change of heart after seeing Kizzy Ann help his wife while having a seizure. Then he goes from yelling terrible things at her to helping her and Shag compete in a sheep herding competition. I found that very unlikely and unrealistic, but I understood why it was done. This was not a book that delved too deeply into why people acted the way they did. It was a book about how you should always try and good things can happen, even when it seems hard.

What was more realistic was the other white children in Kizzy Anna's classes growing more and more use to her and the other Black kids over time and by the end of the year, she was even sort of friends with a few of them. That seemed real, the changing natures of the younger generations, and the determined holdouts of the older generations.

This is also a book for dog-lovers. Oh how Kizzy Ann loves her dog, which never left her side when she was injured. Shag, to Kizzy Ann, is the smartest, best dog there possibly could be, and she talks about Shag a lot. Shag helps Kizzy Ann to move ahead when she gets stuck, and it's through training Shag that Kizzy Ann is able to make new friends and take steps for change.

Kizzy Ann Stamps comes out August 14, 2012.

Monday, July 23, 2012

In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Hatner

Raami is seven in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge forces everyone to leave the cities of Cambodia. Raami, along with the hundreds of thousands forced from the cities, are put into work camps in peasant villages all over Cambodia. With people dying all around her from starvation or from be suspected of being against the Organization, Raami struggles to survive and stay with what is left of her family.

This was pretty amazing. It was hard to read, but beautifully done. Vaddey Hatner chose to write a novel rather than a memoir because she was 5 years old in 1975. She wanted to have the freedom to tell the story, but everything that happened to Raami happened to Vaddey.

My knowledge of the Khmer Rouge and what happened in Cambodia was very limited. I knew about Pol Pot, and that millions of Cambodians died, and that was about it. The problem with history in high school is that no one every gets past the 60s and the Vietnam War. As we get further and further away from the 60s, we're missing out on learning about a growing chunk of history. After I'd read the first chapter of In the Shadow of the Banyan I had to stop and go do a bit of background research so I would have a little foundation for understanding.