Book Reviews

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

| Tasha

cinder

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder is the best mechanic in New Beijing, so it is natural that the prince would bring his broken android to her for repair.  What he doesn’t know is that Cinder herself is also an android.  She is owned by her cruel stepmother, who uses Cinder to bring in the income for the entire household.  As a plague ravages Earth, the world is also under threat from above as the Lunar queen arrives to pressure the prince into marriage.  As the plague reaches her own family, Cinder is given away to become a test subject.  This brings her into direct contact again with the prince and also gives her new information about her unknown past.  It’s a past that may just be the key to the entire planet’s safety.

This is a glorious melding of science fiction and fairy tale where androids and Cinderella mash up.  It is the strength of the story itself that works well here.  The blend makes the book compulsively readable with the science fiction giving a grittiness to the expected fairy tale story.  At the same time, one looks for the fairy tale components and how they are reinterpreted.  The entire concept works brilliantly.

The middle of the novel does have some pacing issues.  While the reader knows Cinder’s secret past before Cinder does, that knowledge contributes to the slowing of the novel.  There is also a pivotal plot point that is set aside what seems to be a very long time, further slowing the pace. 

Cinder is a dynamic heroine who is notably human and caring.  She is strong, but beyond that is also reassuringly sometimes clumsy and confused.  The reworking of some of the characters of the fairy tale, including one of the step sisters works well.  While the book follows the arc of the Cinderella story, Meyer also inserts new facets that fill the tale with surprises for the reader.

A riveting book that features a strong heroine and a brilliant storyline, this book will be enjoyed by dystopian and romance fans alike.  Appropriate for ages 13-17.

Reviewed from copy received from Feiwel & Friends.

Also reviewed by:

Review: Marshall Armstrong Is New to Our School by David Mackintosh

| Tasha

marshall armstrong

Marshall Armstrong Is New to Our School by David Mackintosh

Marshall Armstrong is the new kid at school and he is very different from everyone else.  His things are different.  He looks different with his birdseed freckles and ears like shells.  His arms are white with red bumps that he says are mosquito bites.  He even eats “space food” for lunch!  He can’t play during recess.  He stays out of the sun.  He doesn’t watch any TV.  So when Marshall Armstrong has a birthday party, everyone is sure that it is going to be awful.  But guess what, Marshall Armstrong’s house is different too!  Different in some great ways!

Mackintosh has created a picture book that speaks to what makes someone different from the rest of the class.  I really enjoyed the fact that while Marshall is different, so are all of the other kids in the class.  This is not a homogenous student body, but even in a diverse group Marshall is certainly unique.  Mackintosh reveals much in his illustrations which are quirky and modern, a striking mix of playful lines and bright colors. 

The story is straight forward but also filled with humor.  There are signals throughout that Marshall is a geeky kid (and I mean that in the best possible way, as mother to two geeks, married to another) and very modern.  He may be in a class of more normal kids, but some of us more geeky parents will also see ourselves in Marshall, our stuff, our obsessions.  It’s a lovely inside joke for those of us who were perpetually different like Marshall.

This picture book about being different takes the discussion beyond diversity and into a place where we are all different, just like Marshall.  A great pick for sharing at the start of a new school year. Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Promise the Night by Michaela MacColl

| Tasha

promise the night

Promise the Night by Michaela MacColl

Beryl Markham was the first person to fly solo from England to North America.  She also had a remarkable childhood, growing up in British East Africa.  Here the story of her childhood is interwoven with her perilous journey across the ocean to set the record.  Her younger years reveal the birth of her independent, rebellious spirit.  She could ride the fieriest stallion on her father’s horse farm in Africa, match wits with the boys of the local tribe, unsettle the most stern governess, and even survive attacks by lions.  This is a book about a girl who refused to become a lady and instead became a heroine.

MacColl’s work of historical fiction reads as such an adventure story, that readers will spend the entire book wondering what is true.  Happily after reading the author’s note at the end, all of the best parts of the story are real.  The astounding parts of the story are true!  The book is a result of detailed historical research and reveals much about this celebrated pilot who set her own pace. 

Beryl is a wonderful protagonist.  She could have been portrayed as a very harsh young girl, but instead we see her doubts, her resolve, and finally her ability to overcome any adversity.  It is a story of bravery but also one with lots of heart.  MacColl’s writing never gets in the way of the story she is telling.  Instead she writes evocatively of the African setting and this amazing girl.

If you are looking for an inspiring real-life heroine for children, look no further.  But best of all, it’s a rip-roaring tale too.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from copy received from Chronicle Books.

Also reviewed by:

Review: Irises by Francisco X. Stork

| Tasha

irises

Irises by Francisco X. Stork

Stork explores the complicated relationship of sisters and family in his latest book for teens. Teenage sisters Mary and Kate are very different, though they have been raised in the same sheltered way.  Kate is planning to be a doctor and attend Stanford.  Mary is an artist, a painter, who has already received acclaim for her work.  But their plans are thrown into disarray when their father dies, leaving them only their mother who has been in a vegetative state for years.  While their father was loving, he was also very strict.  The girls are now free of his repressive ways, and they each respond to the new freedom in differently.  The freedom though comes with a cost of new worries, new relationships, and new pressures.  There are many decisions that have to be made, including one that is particularly heart wrenching. 

This is a complicated novel that does not summarize easily.  The characters are well developed and complex themselves, though I summarized each in a sentence, they are much more than that.  These girls are different from one another but far from opposites.  They are linked, closely and forever, together in sisterhood, a tie that strangles, binds and frees. 

Stork also looks closely at family in this book.  The cost of letting a family member go, the ways people deal with loss, and the process of recovery and reinvention are exposed here.  He weaves the lives of the girls with unexpected characters, including a gang-member who is also an artist and a young minister who has no shortage of ambition.  These characters too are complex and intriguing.

The minister is one of the pivotal characters in the book.  His ambition mirrors Kate’s and the two find themselves drawn to one another.  His logic about ambition and watching out for yourself rings true for a long time, until it changes and becomes hollow and crass.  The writing to take a character’s message and transform the way it sounds over the course of a novel without changing the tone or message itself is beautifully done, masterful.

This compelling novel is quiet, desperate, and riveting.  Appropriate for ages 15-17.

Reviewed from ARC received from Arthur A. Levine Books.

Also reviewed by:

Review: Coral Reefs by Jason Chin

| Tasha

coral reefs

Coral Reefs by Jason Chin

Chin follows up the success of Redwoods with this equally fine read.  The nonfiction magical realism continues, this time exploring coral reefs.  A girl enters the New York Public Library and selects this same book from the shelves.  As she turns the pages, coral begins to grow around her on the tables and floor.  She learns new facts about coral reefs when suddenly the room is flooded.  She continues to read, happily floating with the fish and sea turtle of the reef.  The food chain is explored and sharks appear in the water.  Soon she is floating in the city, entirely flooded with the reef growing upon it, almost unrecognizable through the coral, blue water and the creatures.  The book ends with another group of children seeing the girl dripping outside the library, taking the book and reading it with her.  They all swim together into the coral reefs.

As a librarian, I always love books that are set in libraries and that speak, as this one does so clearly, to the power of shared reading and libraries in children’s lives.  Chin mixes nonfiction facts with his magical settings in ways that astonish and engage. 

The facts on each page work with the illustrations, which demonstrate the facts in picture form.  Chin’s art is lovely from the floating delight of the girl to the menacing sharks to the light that plays in the water. 

This is a book that invites you in and teaches you facts and information while you too are happily floating along.  Appropriate for ages 5-8.

Reviewed from copy received from Roaring Brook Press.

Also reviewed by:

Review: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

| Tasha

girl of fire and thorns

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

This one has been on my to-read list for awhile, after several blogging pals reviewed it very positively.  Then it was named a nominee for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award and I knew I had to get my hands on it. 

Elisa is a princess, but a rather reluctant one.  Her older sister is the one with the beauty and poise, and luckily also the one destined to be queen.  But Elisa has a destiny of her own, she is the bearer of the Godstone in her navel, a gem that appeared during her naming ceremony as an infant.  She is destined to be a hero, but she can’t see past her own weight and laziness to even glimpse a future where that would be possible.  On Elisa’s sixteenth birthday, she is given in marriage to the king of a nation at war.  Moving away from her family, Elisa discovers that her new husband is going to keep their marriage secret.  Elisa is caught up in the politics and cunning of the kingdom, something she has always avoided.  Now she has to figure out what her future holds.  One thing is sure, it will be a different destiny than she ever expected!

Carson’s debut novel is a stunner.  She writes with a confidence and skill, weaving together what could have been jarring combinations into a harmonious tale.  This is a story that reads as a medieval fantasy, but is set in a desert nation with camels and dunes.  It is a fantasy that is steeped in religion, something you rarely see in fantasy for teens. 

Elisa is a marvel of a character.  She is fat, something unexpected in a princess.  She is lazy, but then displays a quick mind, clever responses, and a knowledge of war and tactics.  She is dark skinned, something that she alone dwells on as it contrasts with her sister.  Yet, and this is important, the men around her are attracted to her despite her size.  Just as with most of the book, the answers are not simple.  It’s a complex world that Carson has built here.

And the world building is exceptional.  She has created a world that is similar enough to our own, but filled with magic.  It is also home to a religion that is fully realized and complicated.  It even has disparate sects that disagree. 

This book was subject to some cover controversy with an original cover that featured a very light-skinned and thin girl.  While the new cover avoids the color of skin entirely, I would have appreciated a cover that embraces a protagonist of color and of size.

Highly recommended, this book deserves its spot in the William Morris Award nominees.  It is one of the best written and most intriguing fantasies for teens this year.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by:

Review: Shhh! by Valeri Gorbachev

| Tasha

shhh

Shhh! by Valeri Gorbachev

When his baby brother is sleeping, the older brother is very quiet.  He walks on his tippy-toes and doesn’t make any noise.  Of course, this involves getting even the toys to be quiet.  So he has to tell the clown to stop laughing, the knights to stop battling, the tiger to stop growling, the pilot to stop flying, the train to stop rolling, and the pirates to stop firing their cannons.  Happily, when his baby brother wakes up, he can run around, play with his toys, and make plenty of noise.  Until… baby goes to sleep again.

There is no resentment in this book from the older sibling to his baby brother.  Instead the book embraces the differences between awake and nap time in a playful way.  The older brother sees being kind to his little brother as a way to demonstrate how much he loves him.  While parents are present in the book, this is much more about the self-control of a child and his own willingness to help by being quiet.  There are no lectures from parents or even reminders to be quiet.

Gorbachev’s art is colorful and fine-lined.  He sets a playful tone in the book that works well.  When readers are first shown the toys that have to be quiet, they are presented as if they are fully alive and life-sized.  Once the baby is awake, they are shown in their true forms, as toys. 

A positive book about being an older sibling and having to be quiet.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from copy received from Philomel Books.

Also reviewed by A Picture Book a Day.

Review: Anton Can Do Magic by Ole Konnecke

| Tasha

anton can do magic

Anton Can Do Magic by Ole Konnecke

Anton has a real magic hat that he wears to do real magic.  He tries to make a tree disappear, but it doesn’t work.  So he decides that a tree is too big for the magic to work on it.  He tries to make the bird in the tree disappear.  His hat falls forward over his eyes, and when he lifts it again the bird is gone!  He believes he has made it disappear, but the reader knows that it flew away instead.  Anton tells Luke that he can make things disappear, but Luke does not believe him.  So Anton does magic to make Luke disappear.  The hat falls forward, Luke walks away, and Anton thinks he has done magic again.  But this time he regrets making Luke disappear.  He tries and tries to bring him back, but instead the bird reappears.  In the end though, Anton just might prove he is magical after all.

Originally from Germany, this picture book does have a feel of a European tale.  There is a great simplicity to the story and the illustrations.  Being in on the joke of what is really happening when Anton thinks he is doing magic, makes this book very enjoyable.   The story is told in a straight-forward way, the words never revealing the truth that the illustrations are showing.  The illustrations too are simple and they are responsible for conveying the reality of the magic.  Done in a limited palette of yellows and oranges, the illustrations have a 60s vibe to them.

A funny, playful picture book that will get audiences giggling and is a great pick for a magical story time.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Gecko Press.

Review: Sea of Dreams by Dennis Nolan

| Tasha

sea of dreams

Sea of Dreams by Dennis Nolan

This wordless book begins with a normal scene of a girl building a sand castle on a beach.  When the sun sets, she reluctantly leaves the castle with its turrets behind.  As the tide comes in and the waves batter the ramparts, a light turns on in one of the sandcastle windows.  Then faces appear as the waves surge again.  A boat heads out to sea, rescuing the stranded people.  It heads into the waves and one of the small people is lost in the sea, tempting large fish to eat him.  Happily, the boy is discovered underwater by some mermaids who rescue him and return him to the boat.  They make it safely to a beach where there’s a cave.  The scene changes to the girl returning to the beach to build a second castle.   Once again, she leaves it behind on the beach at sunset, the waves roll in, and a light turns on.

Nolan has created a captivating story line here that blends real life and magic together seamlessly.  When one starts the book, there is no sense that it will suddenly change into something utterly different.  Part of this is the success of the realistic paintings that illustrate the book.  It seems grounded in reality until that amazing light turns on. 

A wondrous book that entrances and delights, this is a great read to share on a trip to the beach or in any quiet time where there is room to dream.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.