Teen Summer Reading Review

Ashes is a wonderful Sci-Fi book filled with dark twists and turns. In it, the main character, Alex, has to brave her way through many challenges she would never have thought she would ever face. Such as controlling a bratty young girl (Ellie) while also trying to keep her safe, and avoiding man eating "monsters" in the woods...

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys survival stories or sci-fi stories or both. However, if you do not like gory-murdery-gross stuff then you may not want to read this. But you could alway start and see if you like it before deeming it not fit to read. (Warning, if you listen to it on book-on-tape Ellie's voice is just as annoying as her character...)

  

I feel like I should wright more but I don't know what to say...

Teen Summer Reading review

I chose to write about the book "Maximum Ride;  The Angel Experiment." By James Patterson. I also thought that this could tie in as my favorite author because James Patterson is indeed one of my favorite writers. I personally really enjoyed this book for it's humor, and good will to stick together when times get tough. James Patterson does a wonderful job connecting bits and pieces throughout the story to make the details thorough and suspenseful. SPOILER ALERT!!!! 

  

My favorite part of the story was when Max's voice told the pack to go through the sewers which led them to the Institute where they found more of their own people, or as some may say, creatures. I would recommend this story to anyone who enjoys fast paced adventure and a side of humor to make the story an enjoyable piece.

Riders of the Apocalypse Series by Jackie Morse Kessler

“Thou art the Black Rider. Go thee out unto the world.”   Lisabeth Lewis has a black steed, a set of scales, and a new job: she’s been appointed Famine. How will an anorexic seventeen-year-old girl from the suburbs fare as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

Traveling the world on her steed gives Lisa freedom from her troubles at home: her constant battle with hunger, and her struggle to hide it from the people who care about her. But being Famine forces her to go places where hunger is a painful part of everyday life, and to face the horrifying effects of her phenomenal power. Can Lisa find a way to harness that power — and the courage to battle her own inner demons?

Missy didn’t mean to cut so deep. But after the party where she was humiliated in front of practically everyone in school, who could blame her for wanting some comfort? Sure, most people don’t find comfort in the touch of a razor blade, but Missy always was . . . different. That’s why she was chosen to become one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: War. Now Missy wields a new kind of blade—a big, brutal sword that can cut down anyone and anything in her path. But it’s with this weapon in her hand that Missy learns something that could help her triumph over her own pain: control. A unique approach to the topic of self-mutilation, Rage is the story of a young woman who discovers her own power and refuses to be defeated by the world. 

Just finished a Jane Austen side trip in the form of  Keeping the castle : a tale of romance, riches, and real estate by Patrice Kindl and For darkness shows the stars by Diana Peterfreund.  Both books give a strong nod to Austin classics.  

Set in 19 century England, Keeping the Castle is Austen's Pride and Prejudice distorted by the strength, humor and sarcasm of 17 year old Althea Crawley.  The story line follows Althea as she attempts to hold on to her impoverished family's crumbling castle by the only means available--marrying a wealth man.  Anyone familiar with Austen's work will recognize Kindl's subtle spoof of the limitations imposed upon women during this time period.  I enjoyed Althea's ingenuity as she continued to find ways of keeping up the appearance of wealth-- serving her neighbors reused tea bags as they sat on furniture that literally crumbed underneath them.  This book was a quick, fun, slightly familiar read.



The setting of For Darkness Shows the Stars is an island cut off from whatever remains of a world destroyed by a genetically engineered DNA experiment gone horrible wrong.  Elliot North is trying desperately to keep her family's farm running despite her father and older sister's selfish acts of cruelty and wastefulness.  Four years ago she refused to leave the farm to travel with her best friend Kai, feeling honor bound to stay to protect the farm workers from her father. Now Kai is back and determined to make Elliot regret her decision. This book is Austen's Persuasion in a post-apocalyptic world that argues the benefits of scientific intervention verses allowing nature to take its course.   

Fall into a fractured fairy tale…..

                               Kill me softly by Sarah Cross

 A girl struggles to escape her fairy-tale fate in this suspenseful fantasy. Mira will turn 16 in a few days. Though she loves her godmothers, she wants to return to the city of her birth and find her parents' graves, one of the many things that her godmothers forbid. She runs away and travels to Beau Rivage, not knowing that the town is magical and that she risks death by returning. She quickly meets a boy she instantly dislikes, Blue, who has blue, spiked hair and seems to enjoy insulting her. But Blue's older brother Felix charms her and gives her a free luxury room in the family's casino hotel. Mira can't understand why everyone warns her not to spend time with Felix, and she quickly falls in love with him. Finally, Mira learns that she, with the other teens in the story, is cursed to live out fairy tales. She finds herself caught in not just one foretold fate that threatens her, but two--and the second could kill her. Cross, who knows her fairy tales, weaves a number of them into her story, giving them interesting twists as she applies them to her vulnerable and rebellious teen characters. Earnest Freddie, cynical Viv and captivating Felix all stand out as the archetypes they're supposed to embody, and as individuals as well. Clever fun. (Fantasy. 14 & up)(Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2012)

               My Fair Godmother and My Unfair Godmother

                                                                     by Janette Rallison

A decidedly non-serious 16-year-old Virginia student wishes herself into fairy-tale land in Rallison's giddy, ornately plotted fantasy. Savannah Delano pays more attention to her hair than her vocabulary, unlike her 18-year-old college-bound sister, Jane. When gorgeous track star Hunter dumps her for her more organized, responsible sibling, Savannah is offered three consolation wishes by a bored, shopoholic fairy godmother, "Chrissy" (short for Chrysanthemum). That Chrissy's just "fair" at her job comes clear when she fouls up Savannah's wish to find a prince who loves her for her true qualities, sending her back into the Middle Ages first as Cinderella, then Snow White, then as a damsel in distress who has to aid a poor warrior bard (fellow high-schooler Tristan Hawkins) in becoming a prince. Tristan proves both an intrepid prince and prom date, allowing Savannah to forget her heartbreak, as Rallison throws in everything but the kitchen sink in this goofy, not terribly convincing departure from her usual more realistic fare (All's Fair in Love, War and High School, 2003, etc.). (Fantasy. 10-14) (Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2008)

 

The sequel to My Fair Godmother (2009) pits the distracted, wayward Chrysanthemum Everstar, moonlighting as a tooth fairy while maneuvering to enter Fairy Godmother University, against a confused 17-year-old girl who acts out angrily in response to the divorce of her parents. Tansy Miller's idyllic childhood was ruptured when her parents move to separate states; eventually she is sent to live with her librarian father—formerly her beloved reading buddy, now remarried in Rock Canyon, Ariz.—and mistakenly believes that a handsome, motorcycle-riding boyfriend named Bo will offer her the love she needs. Tansy's unhappiness attracts the attention of the fairy godmother apparatus: Chrissy tenders the requisite three wishes, which Tansy, in true teenage fashion, duly botches, and a really madcap scenario involving Robin Hood and his mangy Merry Men ensues. Moreover, Tansy's desire to have "something like the Midas touch, but more controllable," hurls her back into the Middle Ages to spin gold out of straw before Rumpelstiltskin snatches her firstborn. Rallison's pull-out-all-the-stops latest strains reader credulity (again!), but it's so determined to be likable and warmhearted and press all the right buttons that readers will surely be rooting for Chrissy and Tansy anyway. (Fantasy. 12 & up) (Kirkus Reviews, 

Dust City by Robert Paul Weston

In a noir caper with racial overtones, the Big Bad Wolf's son escapes from juvie and uncovers an ugly corporate plot to corner the fairy-dust market. With all the fairies suddenly gone from the floating city of Eden, the only magic left to the evolved wolves, dwarves, goblins, cats, elves and foxes in the earthbound city below comes in adulterated form from the dust mines of human-owned Nimbus Thaumaturgical ("Better Living Through Enchantment") or illegally through the nixie mob. Determined to find out what really happened to the fairies, Henry Whelp becomes a nixiedust runner and discovers horrors both below ground and in the aerial realm—capped by the revelation of a genocidal scheme to develop a bad dust that will cause all of the "animalia" species to revert to their bestial originals. There's only a glimmer of hope that some fairies survive, but with plenty of help from an attractive lupine photojournalist and a sack of very special beans passed on by a human thief named Jack, Henry takes on the foes of multispecies amity. Weston deftly tucks his fairy-tale tropes into this thought-provoking mystery. (Fantasy/mystery. 11-13)(Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2010)  

Cloaked and Beastly by Alex Flinn

Flinn reimagines a fairy-tale world in her latest novel. Teenaged Johnny works as a cobbler in his mother's shoe repair shop in a posh hotel in South Beach. He spends his days with his friend Meg and designs his own line of shoes while dreaming of wealth to free his family from the confines of poverty. Unexpectedly, the striking Princess Victoriana of Aloria comes to the swanky Miami hotel for a royal visit. The super-hot partying princess pleads for Johnny's help in finding her missing brother, and offers of money and a royal marriage convince him to take her seriously—even when she explains that the prince has been turned into a frog. With the aid of a magical cloak and some headphones that allow him to hear animals speak, Johnny embarks on a journey wherein he encounters talking swans, a fox named Todd, and two angry giants. When he lands in hot water with an evil witch bent on destroying him, Meg comes to his rescue. The pair journey from South Beach to Key West, to Europe, and to Manhattan; and in the end, Johnny finds wealth, fame, and true love. Flinn cleverly plays on some lesser-known fairy tales to make this book a fun, romantic adventure with likable characters. Rapid action and amusing situations make it a quick read that will easily entice even reluctant readers.—Tara Kehoe, Plainsboro Public Library, NJ --Tara Kehoe (Reviewed February 1, 2011) (School Library Journal, vol 57, issue 2, p107)

Cavalier and cruel, Kyle Kingsbury rules as prince of an upper-crust school until he angers the wrong Goth girl, who casts a spell that makes him look as ugly as his inner self. When claws, fur and fangs appear, Kyle is confined to a Brooklyn brownstone, where he grows roses, paws through The Hunchback of Notre Dame and IMs other transformed kids. Flinn's contemporary adaptation of Beauty and the Beast pulls fairy tales and classics like Phantom of the Opera into the context of modern teen life. Kyle's hilarious chat-room sessions most effectively exploit clever convergences of old and new. Chris Anderson moderates (sans Hans), while BeastNYC (Kyle), Froggie (a webbed prince) and SilentMaid (a little mermaid) offer support using the virtual vernacular. Teens will LOL. They will also find their preoccupations with looks, status and pride explored thoroughly. When Lindy, Kyle's Beauty, moves in, much of the interesting adaptive play recedes, but teens will still race to see if the beast gets his kiss, lifts the curse and lives happily ever after. (Fiction. YA) (Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2007)

Also look for books by the following authors:  Robin McKinnley, Jessica Day George, Cameron Dokey, Wendy Delsol or Zoe Marriott

Join us at the Topsham Public Library on Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 5PM to discuss the incredibly moving book “A Monster Calls” by Patrick Ness.  Anyone who has read this book-regardless of age is welcome to share their thoughts regarding this one of a kind reading experience.  No registration required.  FMI contact cyndi@topshamlibrary.org