Novels for Independent Readers
The Penultimate Peril
by Lemony Snicket, illustrations by Brett Helquist
HarperCollins: 2005
I would like to be able to tell you that in this book, the unfortunate Baudelaire orphans find answers to all of their questions, are happily reunited with the people who have been kind to them along the way, and that they sail off into the sunset at the end. Alas, while much of what I've just relayed is true, this is not a happy book. Mr. Snicket has thoughtfully examined not why bad things happen to good people, but how it is that good people sometimes end up doing bad things.
The book is full of such things as the sly uses of the word sly, backwords (a word here used to mean "words written backwards in the middle of an otherwise forwards-facing book"), and a rather unusual use of lettuce leaves. We learn a bit more about the Quagmire triplets, and about the past activities of the Baudelaire parents, and many of the folks from books 1-11 show up, either in person or through conversation with others. In the end, you wish the Baudelaires had sailed happily into the sunset; instead, you find them in yet another dangerous predicament. You will likely wish that you could immediately read Book the Thirteenth, but it is not due to be released until the fall of 2006.
To sum up, I'll use the words of Pumba from The Lion King: "Slimy, yet satisfying."
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Mary on Horseback
by Rosemary Wells, illustrations by Peter McCarty
Viking Books: 1999
This book is a work of "faction." That means that it relates real stories of actual people, but it does so using made-up conversation. So it doesn't quite count as non-fiction, although it's nonetheless very true. Ms. Wells has written three first-person narratives based on real people helped by Mary Breckinridge, a nurse who founded the Frontier Nursing Service in the Appalachian mountain area of Kentucky in the early 1900s. The Service still exists today, and provides healthcare to the poor families living in the mountains. I suppose it's a sort of pseudo-biography. And at only 53 pages, it's an easy, breezy read.
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Sahara Special
by Esmé Raji Codell
Hyperion Books for Children: 2003
Sahara Jones is starting fifth grade - for the second time. Kids call her "Sahara Special" because she had special education assistance the first time she went to fifth grade. The second time, she ended up with a new teacher, who made school understandable for the very first time. And we find out that Sahara Jones really is special after all.
The book is very powerful, told with an excellent voice. In addition to being a riveting character study of Sahara, this book is a love letter to teachers who care, the ones who make life pleasant for kids and help them along in life. It'd be great to say that that's every teacher, but even the teachers I know would tell you it's not true.
One final word on the author of this book: if you ever get a chance to hear her read from her books, grab it. She doesn't just "read," she lives the book, using voice and attitude and all. And she does it very, very well. She could do a one-woman show, actually. You should check out her website, too.
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Millicent Min, Girl Genius
by Lisa Yee
Arthur A. Levine Books: 2003
This book won the Sid Fleischman Humor Award for the year it came out, and with good reason. Millicent is one funny chick. She's funnier because she doesn't see it. Millicent's problem is that she's too smart for her own good: she's literally a genius, who, at age 11, is already in high school and taking a summer course at the local college for "fun." Her summer plans go seriously awry when her mother signs her up for a volleyball league with girls her own age, then twists her arm into tutoring stupid Stanford Wong, a jock who failed English class.
The story is told in first-person from Millie's point of view, which Yee does masterfully, using big words and the occasional stiff sentence to convey Millie's intelligence. Millie may be smart, but she doesn't really "get" normal kids her age, until she's forced to spend time getting to know a few. While the book is funny, you'll feel sorry for the little smart girl who can't understand how a real social life is supposed to work. And you'll feel smart yourself for being able to figure out much sooner than Millie what's really going on with the people around her, her parents included.
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Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time
by Lisa Yee
Arthur A. Levine Books: 2005
Run, don't walk, to the bookstore to get this one. I don't think you can fairly call this a sequel to Yee's first novel, Millicent Min, Girl Genius. It takes place at exactly the same time period and is told from the perspective of Stanford Wong, Millie's "nemesis." I'm calling it a "conquel" (a word I made up to indicate that it happens at the same time as the other book).
Yee brings her A-game for Stanford. He's very easy to bond with - easier than Millicent, in fact. Stanford's a regular kid with a big problem: he flunked English and will therefore not only lose his trip to the world's best basketball camp, but also have to pass summer school or lose his spot on the school's basketball A-team. Where Millicent was a nerdy sort of character who endeared herself to you over time as you saw so clearly what she couldn't grasp, Stanford is more like kids we actually know, with the issues of regular kids: a demanding, nearly absent, father, a working mother, a grandmother who may or may not be losing it, peer group issues, and, oh yeah, summer school and tutoring. His voice rings true, and he reveals many of the complexities
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and was sorry that it had to end. My favorite "new" characters were Stretch, who channels wisdom throughout the book whether he's speaking or not, and Mr. Glick, the English teacher (who Stanford at first dubs the Torturer). I also adored Yin-Yin, Stanford's grandmother, and her friend Mr. Thistlewaite, with his crooked toupee and booming voice. I nearly guarantee you'll like this one for its authentic, true voice.
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
by J.K. Rowling
Scholastic: 2005
I should start off by saying that this book is terribly hard to review, because it's so easy to get swept back into it, or become caught up in speculating as to who will do what in the next book, etc.
This book is the only book of the series so far that really doesn't work for me as a stand-alone volume. While I find it impossible to believe that anyone might want to skip any of the HP books, the first five volumes were written in such a way that a reader could, conceivably, have started with any of them and figured out rather quickly what was going on. Similarly, they all had story arcs that drew to some form of definite conclusion at the end of each book. Not this one - this one ends with an enormous cliffhanger, made all the more agonizing with the knowledge that Rowling hasn't finished writing Book Seven yet.
In Half-Blood Prince, Harry returns to Hogwarts for his sixth year of school after spending some time with Dumbledore and the Weasleys over his summer break. During his return to school, Harry comes to suspect that Draco Malfoy, son of a dark wizard, has become a Death Eater to avenge his father's imprisonment. During the school year, Harry assists Dumbledore in finding information that will allow them to render Voldemort mortal again, thereby enabling him to be killed. He also finds love, which he nobly tries to let go at the end of the book. We'll have to see how that works out. Ron and Hermione continue to stand by Harry, and, increasingly, by one another as well. Through the course of the book, however, it becomes clear that Harry must stand alone.
I can't wait for the next book.
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Once Upon a Marigold
by Jean Ferris
This is a thoroughly delightful book that propels you through it while being funny and clever at the same time. What really sucked me in was Ed, the kindly troll who starts the book off by finding a young boy named Christian wandering in the woods, and decides to let the young boy come live with him. Christian matures and becomes attracted to Marigold, a young princess who lives nearby. Edric was delightful through and through, and it was his ending that I appreciated most, since Christian's seemed pretty obvious to me from the get-go. (Although, being a sucker for a romance and a fairy tale, as I am, I didn't mind that in the slightest.)
Ferris did a great job with the humor throughout, and in creating characters that were a bit more than cookie cutter. Although some of her anachronisms (like Princess Marigold declaring that she wanted to be "boiled in oil -- the kind with the cholesterol in it") temporarily derailed me, I'm sure younger readers didn't give it a second thought.
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Gregor the Overlander
by Suzanne Collins
(Book One in the Underland Chronicles)
Scholastic Press: 2004
Collins writes an excellent adventure story set miles below the surface of the earth, in a land filled with giant bats, roaches, spiders, and rats, as well as very pale people with purple eyes. The Library of Congress has identified its keywords as "brothers and sisters - fiction; animals - fiction; missing persons - fiction; and fantasy." How sad that those are the phrases they chose - it does an injustice to the book, which is so much more.
Yeah, the main character is a boy who takes care of his two-year old sister, Boots, in her own right a compelling, fun character. And it is a fantasy, since they fall through the air vent in their laundry room to the Underland. And yes, there are animals. But somehow that doesn't convey the sense of the 6-foot tall rats, enormous spiders, and gigantic, yes-you-can-ride-them bats. Nor the yes-you-can-ride-them roaches, either. And the Library of Congress classification sure doesn't cue you that Collins is such a persuasive writer that you will end up teary-eyed when one of the larger-than-life animals dies. I'm not saying which one, mind you, I'm just saying I had a hard time explaining the tears to my 12-year old daughter when she walked in on me reading a certain scene.
It's pretty clear from the end of the book (and by it being labelled "Book One") that it's going to have a sequel. But Collins wraps up the plot in this particular book in such a satisying way that you aren't left sitting around with that gnawing, dissatisfied feeling you get from books that are deliberate cliffhangers. Say, the 6th Harry Potter book. Or Book Two of the Abarat series by Clive Barker, which leaves you (and the main character) quite literally adrift.
Run, don't walk, to the nearest library or bookstore and pick up Gregor the Overlander. You'll be glad you did.
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Gregor the Overlander and the Prophecy of Bane
by Suzanne Collins
(Book Two in the Underland Chronicles)
Scholastic Press: 2004
In this book, Gregor and his sister Boots return to the Underland when Boots is kidnapped from Central Park by a gigantic cockroach. New Yorkers reading this may nod and smile knowingly and even believe that this book isn't fantasy, but it is. I'm talking 8-foot roaches, not just "big."
The adventures in this were every bit as good as in the first, with constant page-turning and a resulting inability to go to bed before finding out what happens. There are amazing surprises, literal and figurative twists and turns, and another mystical prophecy that proves, in hindsight, "as clear as water." I'm quoting Vikus or perhaps Nerissa here. Be sure to read Gregor the Overlander first. Heck, be sure to read it, period: the Underland Chronicles are excellent adventure-fantasies that deserve a wide readership. You heard it here.
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Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods
by Suzanne Collins
(Book Three in the Underland Chronicles)
Scholastic Press: 2005
The flap copy on this book promises "more suspense and action than ever," and it delivers. Collins really hits her stride in this one, where Gregor has to challenge his mother in order to return to the Underland, which desperately needs him in order to beat a plague of sorts that is affecting all the warmbloods -- humans, rats, bats, and mice alike. This is on top of the lingering questions from Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane -- what will happen to Gregor's bat, Ares? Are Luxa and Aurora okay? What about Twitchtip, the rat who could smell so keenly that she could detect color? Or heroic Temp, the cockroach that cares so deeply for Gregor's sister, Boots?
We meet new characters in this book, including a large lizard named Frill, and we get to see a lot more of Gregor's mother. For anyone interested in an exciting book, this one's for you. Like the Underland, this story will suck you in and sweep you along whether you want it to or not.
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Whales on Stilts
by M.T. Anderson, illustrations by Kurt Cyrus
First book in M.T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales series
Harcourt Children's Books: 2005
Once upon a time, there was a series of books starring a child main character who rescued the planet from death and destruction. Whales on Stilts is the first book in such a series, which conveys its own story about our heroine, Lily, who saves the planet from death and destruction, while at the same time skewering the entertainment industry for providing such stories in the first place, and making fun of adults in the process. Lily is assisted by her two friends, both of whom are allegedly the stars of their own series of books - Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut, who is the hero of an antiquated set of science fiction stories, and Katie Mulligan, blond heroine of the Horror Hollow series, who is known for fighting all manner of monsters.
And lucky for Lily that she has such friends, since she ends up having to fight off a half-human, half-cephalopod (whale) bad-guy who wants to take over the world using brainwashed whales wearing laser weapons on high-tech stilts. As you might expect, the adults in the book tend to brush off Lily and her friend, dismissing them as overly imaginative or possibly even as troublemakers. Meanwhile, the writers from Katie's series keep rushing in, trying to give her credit for Lily's acts of bravery.
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The Game of Sunken Places
by M.T. Anderson
Scholastic, Inc.: 2004
Gregory and his friend Brian are invited to stay with a distant relative for a while. When they arrive, they practically step back in time, or so it seems, by about a hundred years. Lacking television, video games or other modern diversions, they find themselves playing a game - the Game of Sunken Places. Only like Jumanji, this game isn't limited to the gameboard: it's for real. They find themselves dealing with a lot of creepy characters and what turns out to be a very friendly troll, playing a game with serious consequences not just for them, but for an entire society.
I enjoyed this book, as did my 12-year old daughter. It was a little hard to get into, but impossible to get out of. Even when you finish reading this one, it'll keep knocking around in your head for quite a while. I particularly loved Kalgrash, the troll. I'd love to be able to say more about it because, really, I could go on and on. But I'd hate to give anything away. If you like mystery and adventure and sci-fi with a little bit of horror, you're going to love this one. And if you think you don't like all those things, give this one a try - it's complex and a wee bit confusing at times, but so worth your time and effort.
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Coraline
by Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins: 2002
Do you like to be scared? Because this book is downright creepy, in a highly satisfying sort of way. When Coraline finds the key to the empty apartment next door to her, she opens not only the door to a hallway, but to a parallel dimension governed by the Other Mother. And the Other Mother is a scary, scary being.
I loved this book. While satisfyingly ghoulish, it features a clever, determined heroine who manages to save herself and her parents from the Other Mother's clutches, in the process freeing the souls of children long held captive in the Other Mother's world. Check it out - but only if you like to be scared!
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The Wedding Planner's Daughter
by Colleen Murtagh Paratore
Paratore's main character, Willa (actual, unfortunate name "Willafred"), is the sort of spunky, funny character that I suspect most readers would love. She's twelve, going on thirteen, worried about being flat-chested, whether she has a best friend, and what her mother's up to. All of those things ring true.
The story is told in first-person by Willa, who cleverly weaves her own thoughts and opinions into every scene. Willa's key self-realization near the end of the book comes naturally will likely ring true with readers everywhere, since what Willa finds she truly wants is a universal desire of daughters everywhere (at least, as far as I can tell!)
The supporting cast, which includes Nana, Mr. Tweed, a cute English teacher/neighbor named Sam, a minister named Sulamina Mum, Willa's friend Tina, Ruby "Snivler" Sivler, and a cute boy named Joseph Kennelly, are entertaining and most excellent company throughout the book. The many references to classic books will be fun for the literate reader to come across, but knowledge of the plot of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens isn't necessary to understand this book.
I particularly enjoyed the quotes found at the start of each chapter, many of which are from other writers. My favorite is by Paratore herself, in a quote attributed to Willa's mother:
I'm eating the cherries and tossing the pits,
Just hope all this chocolate won't turn into zits.
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Saffy's Angel
by Hilary McKay
The MC was a thirteen-year old girl named Saffron, who finds out rather early in the book that she is, in fact, her siblings' cousin. Each of the other children in the family are named after a paint color. In addition to their colorful names, Caddy (Cadmium), Indigo and Rose have colorful personalities. Saffron? Not so much. I believe that to be on purpose, however, to mirror Saffron's struggle to figure out how she "fits" in the family.
I enjoyed the way McKay characterized people so that you ended up with very distinct opinions about them, even if you didn't always have distinct impressions of them, if that makes any sense. I really didn't care for the father, for instance, because it was so clear that he was unable to appreciate his children or his wife and her artwork. I have no real impression of what he looks like or how he moves, but that doesn't matter: McKay has a gift for conveying the true sense of a person, which is a rare gift among writers.
The story was touching, the ending was satisfying, and the characters were loveable and memorable. And there are sequels: Indigo's Star and Permanent Rose.
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Jimmy Coates: Assassin?
by Joe Craig
Joe Craig has written a page-turner. An oh-my-goodness-what-happens-next-I'm-having-trouble-breathing page-turner. Young Jimmy Coates, aged eleven, is spending a quiet evening at home when strangers wearing dark suits (think Men in Black garb, but with a mysterious green mark on them) show up to take him away. Things are immediately odd when Jimmy's father seems okay with it; his mother, however, urges him to "RUN!" Discoveries of superpowers and a high-speed chase ensue. This is one action/adventure sci-fi fantasy that'll have you racing through it.
Let's just say that Jimmy turns out to be more than meets the eye. His best friend, Felix, is a highly believable 11-year old, who wants to catalog all of Jimmy's emerging super-powers. Felix provides a welcome foil to Jimmy's serious situation. The story is tight and suspenseful, packed with lots and lots of action. If you've been looking for an interesting sci-fi adventure, this is it. I couldn't put this one down!
Now I must keep an eye out for Jimmy Coates: Target, which is due out in the U.K. and, I believe, in the U.S. as well, in 2006. Next time, I'll know better than to let the book shanghai me. Maybe.
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The Voice That Challenged A Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights
by Russell Freedman
This book was well-researched and factually accurate. Best of all, it was very engaging. For today's generation, which doesn't have any conscious recollection of segregation in this country, or Jim Crowe laws, this book gives a real sense of the separation and tension that existed and provides a profile of one of the people who helped bring about change.
As the book's title intimates, this book is really about the early civil rights movement and Marian Anderson's involvement in it. It is not a detailed biography of Anderson, although it does provide the basic story of her life. It doesn't delve too far into her personal thoughts and feelings, although they are occasionally mentioned when it advances the actual purpose of the book, which is to use Anderson as a teaching tool about segregation and how people were treated. The genius of Freedman is that he never becomes heavy-handed or pedantic. No wonder this book won several awards.
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Young Adult Novels
Prom
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Ashley, the main character in this one, turned out to be awesome, once I got into this book. I had my concerns at the start, because she was just so different from me, but Anderson writes with such poise and with such an excellent voice throughout that I managed to connect with her anyway.
I quite enjoyed reading about Ashley and her journey through the last few weeks of high school. She was a totally believable character, and Anderson definitely captured the realities of today's high school situation. I don't want to spoil the ending for anyone, but let me say that I'm so glad that the pink dress got ruined. I didn't want Ashley to wear it, and I can't imagine that it looked good with her red hair.
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The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things
by Carolyn Mackler
Candelwick: 2003
Virginia Shreves has a bunch of problems. Her mother is famous for being a psychologist who specializes in counseling teens, but never wants to have real conversations with her own family. Her older brother, who she worships, does something VERY BAD that has huge consequences for the entire family. Oh, and did I mention that Virginia is overweight, underconfident, and short on friends?
I loved this book. It was thoughtful and witty and wise. Most of all, it was funny. Not always laugh-aloud funny, but still, the humor was there throughout the book, making it easy to love Virginia, the main character, even when she was moping. And that is a very hard thing to pull off successfully. No wonder the book won lots of awards and honors!
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