Firegirl

Abbott, T. (2006). Firegirl. Scholastic. 160 pages. ISBN 9780545243902

Primary genre: realistic fiction

Other elements: family, friendship, loss, coming of age

Intended reader age: 8 and up

Synopsis:

Tom Bender expects 7^th grade to be like every other year so far at school but a new student brings unexpected changes. Jessica Feeney was involved in a horrible accident that burned almost of all her body. Tom, like his classmates has trouble seeing past those disfigurements. But, he is also curious, not just about how she got the burns but who she was before, who she is now. When his teachers asks him to bring her the homework one day, Tom gets a glimpse of the girl no one else is trying to see. But these interactions put a strain on Tom’s current friendships leaving him with the choice of doing what he feels is right or what he has always done before.

Review:

Overall I felt this was a pretty spot on representation of how a class would react to a situation like this. If kids have never been exposed to anything like this then there would be that initial adjustment. The book did make it seem like her stay was longer than 3 weeks, so I felt there should have been more kids who tried to engage Jessica, but 3 weeks isn’t really that long of a time. I thought it was strange that the author made the teacher so unsure when she was discussing the new student. I feel there would have been more preparation when it came to getting her into the school, considering it is a private school. That scene just read as too much of a surprise for the teacher so that is why she gave that odd speech.

I thought it was great that Abbott included the ending where Jessica gets to talk to Tom about her feelings on the whole situation. How she is aware of the impact she has but to her after everything she went through and is still going through, how none of that matters. That was a very nice moment because the author kept it fairly real. Jessica gets her moments of saying that it does make her angry, how everyone reacts, but she has come to terms with it. I was trying to think of how different this book would have been if written from her perspective. But, that was another nice thing about it. This is not really the story of Jessica, it is Tom’s and how he learned to be a better person after meeting her. There were never any big moments between the two of them so it did not become overly preachy or didactic. 

Strange Happenings

Avi. (2006). Strange happenings. Magic Carpet Books. 160 Pages. ISBN 9780152064617

Primary genre: fantasy

Other elements: family, friendship, adventure, mystery, loss

Intended reader age: 8 and up

Synopsis:

This is a collection of 5 short stories. There is a boy so bored with life he accepts his cat’s idea of switching bodies, mother so obsessed with the idea of a flawless daughter that she is given exactly what she asked for, the boy who is set on figuring out who the person inside the mascot costume is, a shoemaker who makes a deal with the devil, and a man who will do anything to make everyone take notice of him.

Review:

Can I first say, I found it really hard to write that synopsis. I don't think I have ever written a synopsis for a story collection and it was hard to give each story their own blurb without overpowering the others. 

I found this to be a great, short collection. Each story had the ability to stand on their own, I enjoyed all five of them, and the stories came together very well. One thing I try to look the look at when reading story collections is the flow of the stories as well as the underlying themes that are present. This collection presented a very unified look at the consequences that come with magic. There was a very prominent message of, “Be careful what you wish for” in each of the stories.

I think my favorite story was the first one, “Bored Tom.” This was a story that could really develop into a full-fledged story. It’s not that there were a great number of unanswered questions, it’s just that the backstory and characters were presented in such a way that I want to know more.

When I was reading this I kept thinking of The Chronicle of Harris Burdick because that is the most recent story collection I have read. There were also a couple of cautionary tales in that collection as well. It also brought back to mind M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman, another collection of fantasy based stories. 

Crandalls' Castle

Wright, B. R. (2003). Crandalls’ castle. Holiday House. 184 pages. ISBN 9780823417261

Primary genre: horror

Other elements: family, friendship, mystery, suspense

Intended reader age:

Synopsis:

Charli Beland is not too certain about how excited she should be when her mother remarries. Then her Aunt Lilly and Uncle Will take in a distant cousin, Sophia, and her life is thrown even farther from what it once was. Sohpia is not too sure about the changes in her life either. Ever since her mother passed when she was a baby she has been shuttled from home to home, always wary that someone will figure out her secret. Then Uncle Will buys a long abandoned house a couple of blocks over, planning to reopen it as a bed and breakfast, Charli finally finds something to be excited about and Sophia finds something else to worry about. Charli has heard the rumors that a ghost haunts the place and she hopes to be the one to prove it. But, the truth is more frightening that Charlie had ever thought.

Review:

I definitely liked that this story was told from the two girls’ perspectives. It lent a great deal to keeping me interested. It was also interesting because it took the story from two totally different perspectives; Charli was the one willing to believe in the ghost and Sophia was less inclined. This tactic also kept the story from becoming too biased, especially when it came to Charli and her view about her new stepfather. But the interactions and views with Sophia balanced all that out.

I was kind of hoping for the whole ghost aspect to be a bit more fleshed out. There were definitely moments of creepiness in the story. But, the focus seemed to be more on developing the characters and making them relatable and I was invested in the characters. There was great build up to the final ghost scene, but it just fell a little flat for me. I get it, in order to appeal to a fairly large range of young readers the author has to keep it mild.

After reading Wait Till Helen Comes I was expecting the Sophie/ Charli dynamic to play out as it did in that one especially after reading Sophie’s introduction of  “I should have given you a name a long time ago.” So, I was fairly surprised, in a good way, that it did not. 

Museum of Thieves

Tanner, L. (2010). Museum of thieves. Delacorte Press. 320 pages. ISBN 9780375859786

Primary genre: fantasy

Other elements: friendship, family, coming of age, politics, survival

Intended reader age: 8 and up

Synopsis:

Goldie Roth’s dreams are dashed when her Separation Day is put off because a bombing in the city. The city of Jewel determined long ago that their one precious commodity, their children, must be protected at all costs. They way they now do this is by using silver gaurdchains with their children until they come of age. These gaurdchains keep the children safe, they keep them from wandering from the eyes of adults, and keep them from being taken by kidnappers. So when Goldie is denied her chance at Separation she takes it into her own hands. Now Goldie is a runaway, being chased down by the Blessed Guardians. The only place she can find refuge is the in the Museum of Dunt, but this museum has secrets of its own. When the city put away the terrible things that can happen to keep their children safe, those things had to go somewhere and now they want out.

Review:

This is a book that took me a while to get into. The rules of the world were not very clear from the beginning so that made it slightly difficult to understand everything that was going on. After learning some of the rules though, it became easier to read and I fairly flew through the story. The concept of finding a place for thing as we create new order was one that I encountered first in the Fablehaven series. This idea that as our world changes and we push out old ways of doing things and things we once believed in, that they need somewhere to go, is an interesting one. These things don’t just disappear, someone always remembers.

I thought it was amazing the way that Tanner related the issue of independence after codependence for so long. This is a world where people are always attached to another person for almost their entire day. And at night, they are usually chained to their bed. So when our heroine is faced for the first time with something new and unexpected she does exactly what any normal person under those circumstances does, she freezes. She has never had to handle a dangerous situation because her society has removed all danger. I also like that this girl, Goldie, was not the first to break away from the rules of this society.  Too often it is the main characters in the story who get these brilliant ideas, even though people have been living under these conditions for hundreds of years. I always feel there must have been at least one other person to come to the same conclusions as this character did. But, Tanner does not ignore that possibility, she admits that this has happened but the fears are so ingrained in everyone else that those other people were not able to make a difference.

There are now two other book sin the series and I am greatly looking forward to checking them out. The second book is City of Lies and the third is Path of Beasts. This book definitely left it open for the characters to continue and I am interested to see where they go.

I think I like this one more than the one on top.

Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King

Joyce, W. & Geringer, L. (2011).  Nicholas St. North and the battle of the Nightmare King. (Joyce, W. illus.). Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

240 pages. ISBN 9781442430488

Primary genre: fantasy

Other elements: adventure, friendship, coming of age, folklore

Intended reader age: 7 and up

Synopsis:

The Nightmare King has awoken from his imposed slumber and is set on righting the wrongs that were done to him all those years ago. North, Nicholas St. North, has no idea of the problems he is being dragged into when a dream leads him to untold riches. He has lived a life of adventure and thrills, and fighting is what he knows best. But, after saving the small village of Santoff Claussen, he decides to stay and learn all that he can from the infamous Ombric. It is these skills and his finely honed fighting ability that give him the strength to take to face the nightmare King. But, can he stop him on his own?

Review:

William Joyce is an author/ illustrator that I did not realize that I knew, and loved, until the Meet the Robinsons movie. It was this movie, and the book it is based on, that put him on my radar. Then came the oh-so-amazing short The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and I was a goner. I was able to use him as a subject for a paper I had to write last semester for my Books for Young Readers course. I did a paper comparing and contrasting the illustrative styles of his works with Tony DiTerlizzi’s (another amazing author/ illustrator).

I am always curious with books that are co-authored about the distribution of writing that occurs and this book is no different. My interactions with Joyce’s writings have all been through children’s picture books and it is difficult to learn style through those. I read a great deal of James Paterson when I was young (okay, my teens) and now I have a hard time getting into his new co-authored books because I can read the differences in style. These new books don’t hold that same appeal because it was the writing that drew me into his books. So, back to the Joyce/ Geringer writing. In their case I am just curious about how they broke up the work, since he was also the creator of the illustrations in the story.

This is part of a series, which is based off the picture book: The Man in the Moon (which I own and was able to get signed by Mr. Joyce himself). The picture book gives the back-story, the battle that is referred to in this book. Otherwise the chapter books have two other books: E. Aster Bunny and the Warrior Eggs at the Earth’s Core and Toothiana, Queen of the Tooth Armies. And it was these books that inspired the movie: Rise of the Guardians. It was interesting to see the movie then read the books because the book focuses more on the creation of St. Nick while the movie already had them established as the legend he is.