Beastly

Beastly by Alex Flinn

I love fairytale retellings!  Beastly is a Beauty And The Beast from the viewpoint of the Beast.

Kyle is a rich fifteen year old attending a private school in NYC.  His father anchors the news and his mother left them when Kyle was little. 

Kyle is one of the biggest jerks I have ever read about.  He has an entitled outlook on life.  He cares only for appearance.  Kyle decides to play a prank on a new girl at school because he thinks she is ugly and probably not rich.  He asks her to homecoming.  Then he stands her up.  When he returns home after a night of partying and sex (at the age of fifteen) the girl/witch is waiting for him.  The witch tells Kyle that she is going to make his outside match his inside and before he knows it, he is a beast.  He is given two years to find a girl that will fall in love with him and kiss him despite his appearance.

This could have been a great book.  It is based on one of my favorite fairytales.  Instead it was teen smut.  I don't care if anyone thinks that it should be normal for a CHILD in ninth grade to have various sex partners, shack ups, their own limo, alchohol and all name brand clothing.  It isn't normal and shouldn't be portrayed that way.
The book would have been more credible had it contained characters that were at least in their twenties.  What does a child know about true love, having a woman in his bed, etc..........   Uh, nothing.
Each section of the book was prefaced with a chat room session.  It was lame.  I can see that it may have appealed to a very young teen, but it will really date the book in about no time.

And if we are lucky...............they just might make this trash heap into a movie.  I hope the screen writer does a better job than the author.

Rating 2  I will admit that even though this book should not be read by a young teen and therefore is really geared to NOBODY......I was still marginally entertained.
Rating R Teen sex.........young teen.

Crashed

Crashed (Skinned trilogy #2) by Robin Wasserman

In the follow up to Skinned, Lia Kahn has left the home of her former family and is living in a compound/mansion with other mechs. Rights of the mechs' are in question as the Brotherhood become more vocal about how dangerous this new breed of people may be. When Lia's former friend Auden begins speaking out for the Brotherhood against the mechs, Lia is devastated.

Even though she has had no contact with her family in months, when things get tough, they pull through for her.

While living in the compound and trying to figure out or forget what she has become, Lia finally lets someone get close to her. She gets to know Riley.

Although I love the 'idea' of these books, I felt like this one was pretty flat. It took about three hundred pages to feel like I had finally reached the heart of the book. Before that there was too much emotional turmoil........you know the kind.........where you just keep rehashing something you can't seem to get over.

I was glad to see Lia finally have a friend. She felt much more angry in this book and I wasn't going for it.

I did however like learning more about the society after the big wars, and how the caste system had placed people in cities, corp-towns or rich suburbs.

Rating 2.5 I did like the book. It just took a lot of time to cover little ground.

Rating R For language, sex, some homosexuality, drug use (even though it was more like a download, you still understood that it was drug use).

The Girl Who Could Fly

The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester

This sweet little book was recommended by my neighbor and Stephenie Meyer. It brought to mind The Mysterious Benedict Society/X-men/with a dash of Little House.

Piper is born to a straight laced up tight farm family. She is their only child, born late in life. Not long after Piper is born, the McClouds discover that she is not as 'normal' as they are. First Piper can float and hover. By the time she is nine she learns she can fly. Once this discovery is made by the whole farming community, Piper is whisked away to a school for 'special children with special talents' where she can be kept safe.

Once in the new safe place, things don't go how you think they would. Instead of fostering their special abilities, they do the mundane. Why? It takes time but Piper finally makes friends and they help her shee what kind of 'special' place she is really in.

Sweet story that I think my nine year old would love. Also entertaining enough with foreshadowing and acceptance dilemmas that it also held me captive. I love to pick up a good clean book and this surely fit the bill.

Rating 4 Good story, good characters, not super fast paced.

Rating G Clean

Ready or Not

Ready or Not by Meg Cabot

This is the follow up novel to American Girl. Sam is still dating the First Son and being a teen ambassador. This time Sam's conundrum is whether or not to have sex with boyfriend David. She is also publicly supporting the Presidents new Family agenda. The agenda includes ratting out young girls to their parents if they are seeking contraception. Sam mistakenly announces that she has said yes to sex during a televised town meeting held at her high school. Although Sam has not agreed to be sexual with David, everyone including their families think she has.

Sam is called a slut at school. The popular girls try to ostracize her. Sam's popular sister Lucy stands up for her. Many others in the school join in and Sam finds that she has more friends than she thought.

Sam has been invited to Camp David with the First Family for Thanksgiving. She thinks that David has invited her in order to have sex with her for the first time. She decides that she is not ready. She then finds that David truly invited her just to invite her and had no other plans. Let down and a bit angry she then decides she is ready for sex and 'jumps his bones'. She feels that she has come to the realization that sex did not change their relationship. She also learns that her popular sister, although having had a steady boyfriend for a long time......has not had sex.

I was a bit surprised to have this book revolving so much around the choice to be sexually active as a teen. While I am semi glad that someone as broached this subject, I was not thrilled with the outcome. Sorry Sam, but sex changes everything. Also as a book geared toward young teens I was not at all happy about other sexual tips garnered in this read.

Rating 2 I did have fun reading it, but I didn't like the message to the target audience. I know that is a totally personal opinion.......... but that's the whole point of posting.

Rating PG 13 contraception, sex, sexual acts, language

The Introvert Advantage How to Thrive in an Extrovert World

The Intorvert Advantage By Marti Olsen Laney Psy.D.

Well I'm here to establish myself as an innie in a world of outies. Yes my belly button is inverted but that's not so much what I mean. I have an introverted personality. This is not news to me but it may be t0 you. I have never felt weird or different or like there is something wrong with me although I have been called stuck up, distant, quiet, shy, rude, conceited, indifferent, the list goes on.

I just picked up this book that has been recommended to me various times. It's about introverted personalities and their difference from extroversion. Extroversion is the most common personality 3 to 1. Most of the world is geared towards extroversion.Jason always says that I hate people. In fact I have probably said the same thing. What is really hate is groups of people. I can tolerate a few very close friends (like 2) and still feel comfortable. After the group spills over about three people I get anxious and quiet and stop talking. Apparently this doesn't sit well with the extroverts.

Introversion versus extroversion has more to do with how each of us regains our energy. Extroverts like to socialize and do exciting things, go out with lots of friends, be with people most of their down time. They expend energy. Introverts need to recharge with alone time, quiet time or time spent with a select few. They conserve energy.

I laughed my way through the book because even though I feel normal and I like my personality trait, I didn't realize that there were many others that felt the same way. I took the quiz, along with Bob, Superman and Princess Mimsy. I am an extreme introvert. The only extrovert tendencies that I scored were testing well, and I don't blank out too often when speaking. Bob is an extreme introvert. Superman is an extreme extrovert (he gets all of his people time teaching, traveling the state, playing ball, and at work). Princess Mimsy is also an extreme extrovert. She would love to have groups of people at our house all of the time. She is unfazed by social conversation and chit chat.

Besides introversion I am also left brained, shy, and sensitive. I know many people think shy and introvert mean the same thing but they don't. There are shy extroverts (too bad for them!). Shyness has more to do with you thinking about other people thinking negatively about you. Sensitivity runs a large gamut.....sound, light, noise, movement, smell, intuition, emotion, weather, temperature.Also sometimes my short term memory is blitzed if I am nervous when hearing something but I have great long term memory and can remember being as young as 1 year old. My testing is not too bad such as multiple choice or essay (many introverts have short term memory issues because of being overwhelmed and have problems with multiple choice testing) because I can usually recall things that I see.....somewhat photographic memory.

I am protective of my quality and quantity time with loved ones. I prefer to be with just one or two friends having meaningful time or conversation. I am Nazi about my alone time with Superman. I do not like it interrupted or sacrificed to other things. I love time spent with just my family. By the end of the day or when I feel incredibly taxed by external events I need to be alone or with just one person. I usually find myself taking a lot of baths and ripping through books when I am highly anxious. It is the way I zone out.

I think many people could probably recognize that I may have introverted tendencies. Lots of people don't believe me when I say that I am shy. And I don't think that I am seen as sensitive. I have learned fairly well in the last 13 years to live in an extrovert world. I can act like an extrovert if I have to, I just don't FEEL like one. I can teach a group, run a convention, be the boss, talk on the phone, go to large gathering. I may get grouchy after a prolonged time though because feeling anxious will eventually lead to that. I keep my sensitivity to myself because as an introvert I do not like being emotional or sharing intuition with many.

So if you find me curled up with a book, not making idle chit chat, or curled up with a book.....I still like you, but you might have to approach first.

My Innie tendencies!.........................
*When I need rest I like time alone or with one or two people. No groups!
* People think I am quiet, aloof, stuck up .......etc .
* I like to share special occasions with one person or a few close friends. No big parties!
* I notice detail.
* I can feel tension between others easily.
* If I say I will do something I will do it. (I thought more people were like this! I was surprised to find out that they aren't.)
* I feel anxious about deadlines or upcoming events. I lose sleep easily.
* I want to go away and zone out when I am overwhelmed.
* I like to watch activities before I join. I have to scope everything out and will generally stand back unless invited. I will almost NEVER invite myself or join without recognition from the group.
* I form lasting relationships.......but with only a few people. I have an easy time letting go of friends or acquaintances that don't take time to understand or like my personality. Because I am sensitive I take it pretty hard but I don 't chase down interaction......probably appears that I am aloof and don't care. In fact I've had that mentioned to me, but I just read a book and it gets all better :)
* I don't like interrupting. This has a lot to do with why I will not make idle social calls (drop by) and why I hate calling people on the telephone.
* I do not like overstimulating environments. I don't like going out on holidays where many others are out. I do not like crowded theaters where you have to sit next to others you don't know. I do not like large parties or dances. Do I go to these things? Yes. I don't like anticipating them but once I am there I'm okay for awhile....especially if I have someone to hang on to.*I have strong reactions to smell, taste, weather, light, movement.......
* I feel drained after social situations even when I really enjoyed them.
* I prefer to be introduced instead of introducing (one of my rude behaviors.....I will almost never introduce.)
* I am grouchy in anticipation of a social event, even ones I want to attend. It drives my family......Superman, crazy.
* I like people in my home but am overwhelmed by numbers and extensive time.
* I HATE making telephone calls.......still do it, getting better, still HATE it.
* I will not show my work or ideas until fully formulated much of the time. Uber perfectionism is a huge downfall of mine.......and I expect the same thing from others.......bad, bad, bad.

I have really enjoyed the book though. I wasn't surprised about what I learned.......I was surprised other people felt the same way. So do yourself if you are introvert, or someone else who is, a favor.....read it! If I were an extrovert parent with an introvert child I would definitely read this before another day passed........you'll be doing them a great service if you understand they can't be like you and they are not unhappy because of their introversion.

Awesome innies.......Einstein, Lincoln, Julia Roberts, Hitchcock, Edison, Piglet.

Are you an innie or an outie?

Rating 5 Super enlightening! Fun to find out the truth.
Rating G

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline

First off, fabulous illustrations!
Edward is a china rabbit that stands nearly three feet tall. He belongs to a child named Abilene Tulane. He has a wonderful wardrobe of expensive clothing. Abilene loves Edward. Edward however loves himself. His favorite time of year is winter, when the dark comes early. Edward likes to look at the window and instead of seeing outside, when it becomes dark he can see his own reflection. He thinks he is quite a sensational rabbit.
Abilene's grandmother Pellagrina sees through Edward. She knows he doesn't pay attention to anything except himself and his clothing. She knows he does not love Abilene back. One night just before Abilene is to set off on a ship with her parents, Pelligrina tells Edward and Abilene a warning fairytale.
Aboard ship Edward is accidentally thrown overboard. He sinks to the bottom of the sea. Nearly a year later he is washed to the surface and caught in a fishing net. Thus begins Edward's journey through the hands of many that will love him. As Edward is stripped of his fine clothing and comfort he comes to find that love is all he has left, and it is all that matters.
He lives with the fisherman and his old wife. He becomes a hobo and travels the country for years. Edward does brief time as a scarecrow. He is owned and loved by a sweet and dying four year old. Edward travels to a city with a small boy and becomes his puppet, helping him earn money for food. Edward is beaten and broken. He is given new life by a doll restorer and sits in a doll shop for many years. Finally the circle of life curves to meet itself and Edward is reunited with Abilene.
Edward witnesses love, loss, child abuse, death, evil hearts, heartless people, lost souls and comes to find he can feel love.
Rating 5 Heart wrenching! I cried just like I did the first time I read the Velveteen Rabbit when I was 8.
Rating G I say this is a clean read although there is an instance of child abuse (hitting). I still read this to my own children because I wanted them to understand the important message of the book.

So B. It

So B. It by Sarah Weeks

Heidi is found as a newborn by her neighbor Bernadette. Heidi and her mother are in the hall outside of Bernie's apartment. Heidi's mom is mentally handicapped. She has only 23 words in her vocabulary. She says her own name is So B. It. Heidi and Bernie have no idea where the mother and daughter came from. Bernie becomes the mother figure for both Heidi and her mother.
When Heidi is thirteen she decides she has to know more about where she came from. Her mother has a word that she uses all of the time, 'soof'. Neither Heidi nor Bernie know what it means. Heidi finds an old camera in a draw in her apartment. She develops the film and finds pictures of her younger mother, possibly pregnant in what looks like a home for the disabled. She finds out that the pictures were taken clear across the country (Heidi is in Reno.) in Liberty New York. Bernie calls the home and after months of phoning, can get no answers.
Bernie has agoraphobia and is unable to leave her apartment. Luckily there is a door between Heidi's and Bernie's apartments so that Bernie never has to enter the hallway in order to help care for Precious (what Bernie calls So B. It.). Because of her disability, Bernie is not able to travel with Heidi. Heidi has been doing the shopping and running errands for Bernie since she was small. Before that Bernie had anything she could, be delivered. Bernie home schools Heidi.
Heidi is a lucky girl. She is able to guess numbers and win slots. She makes enough money to purchase a bus ticket to New York. She sets off, breaking Bernie's heart and leaving her ailing mother to find out the answer to questions that haunt her. Heidi makes friends with people on the bus so that she appears to be traveling with someone. She reaches New York.
When she is delivered to Hilltop Home, she finds that Thurman Hill, the proprietor, unwilling to give her any information. He thinks that she has come to blackmail money out of him. Heidi meets Elliot. As soon as he sees her he utters, 'soof'. Heidi knows now that her mother has been here. Ruby works at Hilltop Home and her husband Roy is the sheriff. They take her home until they can figure out how to get the information that Heidi has come for.
Heidi calls home to tell Bernie that she knows that her mother has been at Hilltop Home and that she met Elliot. Bernie seems uninterested and tells Heidi to come home.
Finally Thurman Hill meets with Heidi and tells her the story she has come looking for. Her mother's name is Sophia DeMuth. She calls herself So B. It because that is all she was able to say. She was born to a single woman. The woman asked Thurman to take Sophia in. He agreed and Sophia lived there for a year. During the year, she and Elliot fell in love. Despite both parents believing that their love wasn't deep enough, and their bodies not willing, Sophia becomes pregnant with Elliot's baby. Thurman feels this could ruin his establishment and everything he has worked towards for Elliot (Thurman is Elliot's father.). He sends Sophia and her mother away and pays for them NOT to give him any information about the baby or their lives. Just as Heidi is born, her grandmother is killed by a bus. This is when Bernie finds Sophia and Heidi standing outside of her apartment.
Heidi calls home to tell Bernie everything she has found out. Bernie greets her call with devastating news, Sophia has died in her sleep from headaches that have been ravaging her for some time. Heidi is crushed. She has been spending so much time trying to find out secrets that she missed out on her mother.
Heidi buries her mother in New York. She returns to Reno and begins school for the first time in her life. She still visits Liberty and sees Roy and Ruby. She hopes to get to know her father and grandfather.
Rating 4 Loved the mystery and Heidi's courage in finding out the truth!
Rating G Clean read

All American Girl

All American Girl by Meg Cabot

Samantha Madison is a fifteen year old girl, attending a prep school in D.C. She is an all black wearing, art loving, one friended, Gwen Stefani obsessing, popularity hater. Despite all of that she is quite likable. When her German grades drop and her parents find out it is because she spends her time drawing pictures of famous guys and selling them to popular girls, they enroll her in art classes. They feel like she needs a creative outlet, but Sam feels like it is a punishment.
Sam's sister Lucy is a cheerleader at the same prep school. Her boyfriend Jack is a trench coat wearing artsy guy. Sam is secretly in love with Jack. Jack cautions Sam not to let the art classes strip her of her creativity.

Sam attends her first art class. She meets David. David seems oddly familiar, but Sam can't place him. She draws her first picture, which she is sure is better than everyon else in the class. When the instructor critiques at the end of class, Sam is upset to learn that she did not follow the directions given, which were to draw what she saw. Sam drew what she knew instead and she can't figure out the difference. Taking Jack's advice and feeling angry and embarrassed, Sam decides to further buck the system and skip the next class. She ends up in a music store for the entire time. As she leaves to catch her ride home, Sam notices a weird man from the music store. Just then, a presidential motorcade arrives. The president steps out and heads for a nearby bakery. The weird guy from the music store whips out a gun and fires. Sam jumps on his back and takes him down. He breaks her arm in the fall. Sam has saved the president's life.

As Samantha recovers from her injury, she meets the president and his family. David from art class is the president's son. Lucy takes the opportunity she has been waiting for and gives Sam a makeover for her press conference. Sam instantly becomes popular. She and her sole friend Catherine are invited to a party given by Sam's former friend and recent enemy. Catherine is desperate to go and invite a 'boy'. She has been seriously sheltered by her parents and teased for the clothes they make her wear. Catherine begs Sam to give her the chance to fit in. Sam agrees purely for Catherine's sake. Sam decides to invite David to the party. She wants to be friends, but she is also using David to wake Jack up to what he is missing.

David and Jack get in a fight about art. It becomes clear to David that Sam likes Jack. Despite Sam being a teen ambassador to the U.N. and attending a dinner with the president's family, Sam and David can't overcome their opposite feelings.

Sam is put in charge of an art competition for the U.N. The pictures are to depict what the artist sees out of their window. Jack feels like he is a shoe in with Sam as the judge. Sam finds another picture that she loves, but the president and press secretary feel is controversial. Sam begins to understand what her art instructor meant when she said draw what you see and not what you know.

Sam attends more art lessons in hopes of befriending David again. While there her art improves greatly and she learns to really 'see'. She finds that Jack might not know what he is talking about.

Finally Sam realizes that she loves David, not Jack. She gives a news interview about the art contest and her feelings about whom the real winner should be. At the end she professes her feelings for David. Soon they are together. Sam begins to realize there are more important ways to make a statement about life than by dying all of your clothes black.

Fun, clean story! I liked watching Sam evolve. She also really changes her relationship with her sister. Lucy sticks up for her by breaking up with Jack when Sam and Jack fight over the winner of the art contest. I loved seeing the importance of family relationships brought out. I also really liked that even though there were differing backgrounds and social groups, they were played down and we were able to see that they don't matter as much as we give them credit for.

Rating. 3.75. Fun book, entertaining.
Rating PG attempted murder, injury, clean romance.

Fairest

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

This book is by the same author as Ella Enchanted. It is a distant retelling of Snow White.
Aza and her family run an inn, the Featherbed. She was abandoned there as a newborn and the innkeepers raised her as their own. She doesn't look like the rest of her family. She is larger with dark hair. I think we are supposed to think of her as unattractive because she surely does.

Aza is asked by one of the guests of the Featherbed to accompany her to the wedding of the king. While there Aza meets the Prince Ijori and his dog. She also is asked by the new queen Ivi, to be her lady in waiting. Soon after the wedding, the king is injured and lies in a coma.

When Aza still lived with her parents, she taught herself to illuse. She can throw her voice and mimic any other sound. One day the Ivi overhears Aza illusing. This kingdom loves to sing. They use singing the same way that we would use prayer, or the way other kingdoms would have a ball. Ivi comes from another kingdom and is not gifted with a lovely voice, the way that most of the others around her are. Ivi asks Aza to illuse for her whenever she must sing in public.

Ivi is ruining the kingdom while the king is in his sickbed. Aza and Ijori are falling in love.

Aza tries to find a way to become beautiful. She finds a spell but it doesn't work. She looks in Ivi's mirror and sees what she would look like if she were beautiful.

Soon the secret is out. Ivi and Aza are found illusing. Ivi blames Aza. Just as the guards are to put Aza in jail, she drinks the potion that Ivi has. She becomes stunningly beautiful. She is imprisoned. She breaks free and finds one of Ivi's men ready to take her into the forest to save her. Aza realizes that the man is really sent to kill her. Aza is able to save his life when confronted by ogres. He takes her to some gnome caverns and leaves her. He returns to Ivi to tell her that Aza is dead.

Aza lives with the gnomes and finds out that she may have gnome blood in her. While in the caverns she learns to appreciate herself more. Ivi finds out Aza is alive and makes herself into a gnome. She tricks Aza into eating poisoned food. Aza is trapped between life and death and is transported and then trapped in Ivi's mirror. She also returns to her former unattractive self. Eventually she is able to break free and destroy the being in the mirror that has trapped her there.

The king recovers. He still loves Ivi despite what she has done to the kingdom and to Aza. He decides after three years he will turn the kingdom over to Ijori. The king and Ivi go into exile. Ijori and Aza marry and have children. Happy, happy, happy.

This was a fun book to read. Levine made up a lot of songs since these were singing people. Sometimes I felt like the story didn't flow very well, but overall I liked that Aza was able to come to see how valuable she was despite how she looked. She is able to have a full life and because she becomes the queen she is then thought of as stately instead of ugly. I found this to ring true as I thought about people I know that think themselves unattractive. I rarely think about what people look like. I pay more attention to the way they act and the way they treat others. If they are good people I always tend to think of them as attractive.

Rating 3.5 I really liked this and may read it again.........I just couldn't go any higher. I don't sing so the songs really threw me off and sometimes I felt like Aza's voice was confusing.
Rating G

Hunter's Heart

Hunter's Heart by Julia Green

Fourteen year old Simon is new to a small coastal British town. He has moved there with his mother and sister. Simon's father died in a motorcycle accident when Simon was younger. He is pubescent and angry. Simon is very interested in survival literature, living off of the land, hunting, sling shot and air rifles.
Simon and his mother don't communicate well. He is angry at her for being protective. She is protective yet spends little time with him. She begins dating Simon's art teacher from school. This makes Simon even more angry if possible.
Leah is Simon's sixteen year old neighbor. Her mother is an alcoholic and her father seems to be having an affair. She spends a lot of time laying out in the sun. She and Simon strike up a friendship. They swim and walk around together. They find an old burial mound/cave. Leah brings gin. She gets drunk. They have super quick sex.......no joke, he's fourteen.
Simon thinks that he is being followed by a war vet named Mad Ed. Mad Ed is mysterious and seems quite psychologically scarred by Desert Storm.
Leah likes Simon's art teacher.......the one his mother is dating. Matt, the art teacher, hires Leah to clean his house and studio. He has been doing drawing of Simon's mother in the buff. Then he begins drawing Leah this way also. Simon visits the studio and sees the drawings. He becomes jealous. He finally gets the air rifle that he has wanted. He follows Matt and Leah to the art studio. When he sees Leah without her shirt on and Matt drawing her, Simon snaps. He first begins shooting at the art. Then he hits Leah in the leg. Just then Mad Ed shows up.........he always seems to be around. Matt and Leah see Mad Ed, not Simon. Simon dashes home and hopes that no one will be the wiser. He feels awful. Mad Ed drowns himself. Simon's secret is safe.
Weird book. It seems the British drink a lot. Alcohol seemed the norm even for the youngsters.......wine and beer anyway. The book felt mysterious and I can't say it ever cleared up for me. I am disturbed that it is aimed at young teens. The book wasn't so bad, I just didn't like the sex with no consequence.
Rating 3 Not the best......not the worst. Entertaining.
Rating PG 13 Teen sex, drinking, violence.

River Secrets

River Secrets ( 3rd Book of Bayern) by Shannon Hale

This is the third book in the Bayern series, the first two being Goose Girl and Enna Burning. This book focuses on Razo, the forest born turned soldier. The land of Tira wants to wage war against Bayern. King Geric and Queen Isi send their best friends......Finn, Enna and Razo as ambassadors and soldiers to quell the blood thirst of Tira.
Razo is small and not a great soldier. He can't understand why he was chosen by the army leader to be one of the select of Bayern's Own to travel to the southern city. Not long after the arrival of the Bayern newcomers, Razo begins finding charred bodies. He realizes his talent for detail and begins a search to find the murderer before Bayern is blamed for harboring a fire-witch and a bloody war begins. Meanwhile Razo meets Dasha. Dasha is the daughter of an ambassador sent to Bayern from Tira. She acts as a liason between Bayern's Own and Thousand Years, the center of the city.
Finally we find out that Dasha is a water speaker, just as Enna is a fire speaker and Isi speaks with the wind. Dasha needs help from another element before the power of the water alone overtakes her. Enna could help but doesn't trust Dasha because she is from Tira.
Enna and Finn are falling in love but Enna will not accept the proposals that Finn throws out all of the time. She finds him good at everything and always in control. She wants Finn to put himself out there in order to show his true feelings for her.
The three friends; Razo, Enna and Finn are able to come together with Dasha and find out where the burned bodies are coming from. Just in the nick of time they are able to thwart the war.
The beginning of the book was terribly slow at times..........if I remember correctly the other two were also. But then you find things picking up and by the end you forget that you didn't love the beginning. This is a great clean read..........even for the very young good readers that you are struggling to find appropriate reading material for. I found myself really enjoying the balance between the elements.....fire, wind, water, although not as pronounced as in Enna Burning. Also the mystery was intriguing.
Rating 4........I have to take some off for the slow start.
Rating G

Rules

Rules by Cynthia Lord

Catherine is a 12 year old girl with an eight year old autistic brother named David. Catherine has lots of rules for David to follow.............always knock, no toys in the fish tank, you can hug mom but not the guy at the video store, chew with your mouth closed, sometimes people laugh when they like you but sometimes they laugh to hurt you.
Catherine is struggling with wanting to protect and teach David and wanting David to be normal. Her parents' time revolves solely around David and his needs. Catherine is feeling left out and misunderstood.
As Catherine is in the waiting room of David's OT, she meets Jason. Jason is in a wheelchair and unable to speak. He uses word cards to have a conversation. Jason and Catherine become friends as she makes new word cards that are more applicable and useful to a teenage boy. Catherine loves art and hopes to become a breath taking artist one day. Her art and compassion help bridge the gap between Jason and the rest of the world.
By the end Jason is crushing on Catherine and she shows her human and immature side when she worries what others will think of her for being friends with him outside of the the OT waiting room.
I totally loved this quick read. By the end I was desperate for a sequel so I could find out more about Jason and David as they grew up. I like Catherine and felt like she was appropriate for her age.........although I wish she were a little older for the dancing/dating parts.
Rating 4.5
Rating G

Breathe a Ghost Story

Breathe a Ghost Story by Cliff McNish

Jack (what an awesome name!) is a severely asthmatic boy living with his mum in an old haunted farm house. Jack is able to sense things from objects and has been touching things to gather the stories of the farm house he just moved into. Soon he realizes that he is not only able to sense things he can actually see things. He begins to see the Ghost Mother. A woman that had lived in the house long ago. She and her daughter lived there. The Ghost Mother did not go to the great beyond but has stayed in the house. There are also ghost children. The children have come into the house at different times and are different ages. The haunting gets pretty creepy. The Ghost Mother has evil intentions. The descriptions of the Nightmare Passage, where you go if you don't go to heaven, are frightening. The Ghost Mother steals the energy of the ghost children and this leaves you feeling semi violated. She also possess Jack's real mother at one point.
Rating 4 I did like the book quite a bit. I wasn't really scared, but I can see that it would be scary for the age group it is aimed at.....4-8 grade.
Rating PG Clean language but scary and the scenes of stealing energy seemed creepy and violating but not really violent

Private Peaceful

Private Peaceful by Michael Maorpurgo

This novel is a juvenile historical fiction account of a young British soldier in WWI. The first half of the book deals with Thomas Peaceful and his brother Charlie growing up in the English country side during the turn of the 20th century. Quickly we learn of the harsh realities of Thomas' life. His father is killed in a logging accident when Tommo is very young. He struggles with bullying, classism, adolescent love, and an older brother Big Joe that is 'special' (as his mother puts it) because of a bout with childhood disease. Largely though, Tommo seems quite happy, especially because he always has his big brother Charlie with him.

In their teens, World War I breaks out. The home they live in is owned by the rich man in town. Most of the people work for this man (The Colonel). Tommo's mother, father, and sister-in-law have or do work for him. The Colonel tells Tommo's mother that in order for her to stay in the cottage that he so willingly provides for her, she must send her boys off to war.

Thomas and Charlie sign up even though Thomas is too young. During this time that was a common occurrence. They are shipped off to the front lines.

A running theme through this book is the struggle with authority. Not really in the way we think of it most of the time where youth don't like to be told what to do by anyone. It is the struggle to go against authority when the authority figure is bigger and more powerful, yet they don't have your best interest at heart.

A quote from the book that I want to remember, "Charlie was swiping at the wasp, and the wasp wasn't just stinging him, he was stinging all of us. Charlie was was beginning to be thought of as a bit of a liability in the company, a bit of a Jonah." I really enjoyed this quote because it drew a very clear picture. Charlie is the protector and the one that stands up for himself and Tommo. But as we all know, standing up for yourself many times brings greater struggle.

I really liked this book. It was descriptive and captivating. I read it in about 2 hours. I wasn't necessarily hanging on every word and biting my nails, but it seemed like nearly every chapter ended in a way that I just had to read the next to find out what happened.

Rating.........4
Rating.........G It does take place during war time, but it is geared toward a younger audience so it isn't overly graphic.