JULY 17, 2012
TEENS/ADULTS: The House of the Scorpion
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer is covered with award stickers, including the National Book Award, Newbery Honor, and Michael Printz award. After reading this very excellent and suspenseful cautionary tale, I'm not surprised.
Detailing a future where cloning is commonplace, The House of the Scorpion takes place in North America, which has been splintered into territories ruled by powerful drug lords, including the country called Opium.
The main character, Matt, is a clone of the tyrannical patriarch of the Alacrán empire, El Patrón. Unlike the clones that are made "eejits" at birth, Matt's mental faculties are left intact, and he grows up being cared for by Celia, who loves him like a son, and knowing that he is has a special role to play in the Alacrán family. When he meets other children in the Alacrán world, he learns that most people react to clones with fear and disgust. Yet, the little girl Maria, always treats him like the person he feels he is.
An exciting survival story begins to unfold, as Matt fights for his life, in more ways than one, and builds unlikely alliances, from Maria, to Tam Lin, a bodyguard with a dark secret, to the "Lost Boys" orphans that he meets later on.
Highly recommended.
Categories: Survival/Adventure,
Joa Recommends,
Fantasy
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FEBRUARY 16, 2012
TEENS/ADULT: Casting of Hunger Game's Katniss
I don't usually post on this blog about movies, but I recently watched
Winter's Bone (Rated R)
starring Jennifer Lawrence, and I feel pretty good about her being cast as Katniss in the soon to be released Hunger Games movie. Her
Winter's Bone character was the oldest daughter of a family with an absent father, a mentally absent mother (catanonic-like), who has developed a no-nonsense toughness, purely as a survival skill. She also has a great tenderness for her younger siblings.....and is the kind of character you really root for. Sound familar? I could really see her in the scenes in my mind from
The Hunger Games, and look forward to watching her interpretation of this great character.
FYI: The library will host a Hunger Games: Book into Movie discussion the week after the movie comes out (released on Friday, March 23)....dates and time to be announced, but watch for details.
Categories: Movie Tie-ins,
Events,
Survival/Adventure
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FEBRUARY 8, 2012
Diamond Willow is one of a kind
I have been busy reading and writing questions for Battle of the Books titles, both for the Lenihan/MACS list and the MHS list...and I recently re-read
Diamond Willow by Helen Frost, which I liked just as much the second time reading it.
Diamond Willow is a fast read with much of it written in a very unique two-layered free verse poetry style. The story is told in alternating voices by Willow (a middle school girl who with native Alaskan heritage), and by her and other characters' ancestors (who are watching over them in their current animal forms.) Willow wants to be allowed to drive her family's sled dogs solo to her grandparents house, and when she finally is allowed to, there is an accident that blinds Roxy, a sled dog who Willow considers her best friend. The storyline culminates in Willow taking off to protect Roxy and getting caught in a blizzard.
This story is exciting and suspenseful, but overall very poignant when it unfolds with a surprising twist. Highly recommended for all ages, including adults.
Categories: Survival/Adventure,
Other Cultures,
Animal Stories
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NOVEMBER 8, 2010
OLDER TEENS/ADULTS: City of Thieves by David Benioff
I am almost done reading
City of Thieves by David Benioff for my high school book club group, LOL @ MHS meeting tomorrow. Here is my "six word book review":
"Funny moments, in between the horrors."
This is an interesting--although graphic and mature-- account of two young men on a strange "military mission" in Russia during World War II (after Germans have invaded.) The characters are very likeable as they alternatively banter about girls and life, and experience harrowing, deeply disturbing things that, unfortunately, are likely realistic facts of war.
Categories: Historical Reads,
Other Cultures,
Survival/Adventure
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OCTOBER 5, 2010
TEEN READ: Girl in the Arena
I'd recommend the newer book,
Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines, to people who like the Hunger Games, Graceling, Tamora Pierce, the Uglies series, Maximum Ride, and other action books featuring strong heroines.
With a few futuristic touches, this dystopian novel has a pretty contemporary feel, with the exception of the inclusion of a reality-tv-like Gladiator subculture, where gladiators fight (often to the death) for mass entertainment. The Gladiator lifestyle is simultaneously revered and scorned by the overall society.
Lyn is the daughter of seven gladiators. As is common in Glad culture, Lyn's mother remarries a new Gladiator each time she is widowed. The book opens as her current and favorite father, Tommy, prepares to go into the arena. When the winning gladiator claims Lyn's dowry bracelet (worn by Tommy for good luck), the Gladiator Sports Association (GSA) tries to force her to marry the victor.
Lyn is a fiesty and likable character who is determined not to let the powerful GSA control her life. She is equally determined to protect her younger brother, Thad, whose special needs make him especially vulnerable. If you can get past the author's confusing use of dashes, instead of quotation marks to denote dialogue, this is a pretty exciting and suspenseful read.
Categories: Survival/Adventure,
Fantasy,
Joa Recommends
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NOVEMBER 23, 2009
Powerful book discussion
At LOL last week, the high school students who read A Long Way Gone: memoirs of a boy solider by Ishamel Beah had the opportunity to discuss this book with visitor Karen Jennings-Boland, who has traveled several times to Sierra Leone.
Students expressed having to pace themselves in reading this painful, yet very engrossing account of Beah growing up at the height of a time of extremely violent conflict between rebels and the standing government in his country, with both sides showing utter disregard for civilian life.
Beah leads you down the rapid path where he, in his words "lost his humanity," then the much slower road of re-gaining it, in a story that ultimately speaks to the power of forgiveness, and triumph of the human spirit.
This is not an easy book to read, nor does it provide easy answers to the issues of war, responsibility, or healing...rather it gives a genuine voice to children and youth affected by war and violence that deserves to be heard.
Categories: Other Cultures,
Survival/Adventure,
Joa Recommends
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OCTOBER 6, 2009
Recommend The Hunger Games
I just finished reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins...it was very hard to put it down. This is suspenseful survival story about Catniss, a teenage girl who volunteers to take her younger sister's place in the brutal and sadistic Hunger Game tradition, that pits young citizens from the 12 districts of the dystopic world of Panem, in a fight to the death.
Like Gregor in Collins' Gregor the Overlander series, Catniss is a loyal and self-sacrificing person. She has been taking care of her family after her father's death left her mother unable to cope, and ends up using a lot of her survival skills, including an unparalleled gift for archery, to survive in "The Games."
There are shades of reality-based shows like Survivor that are distorted to horrific proportions, making this fast-moving cautionary tale a sometimes brutal read. Yet, the humanity of the characters in spite of the situation is what keeps you reading.
Copies of this book can be found in the Teen and Adult Science Fiction/Fantasy collections, and the sequel, Catching Fire, was recently released in this expected trilogy.
Categories: Fantasy,
Joa Recommends,
Survival/Adventure
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AUGUST 19, 2009
Finally read Touching Spirit Bear
After so many people, adults and students, recommended this title, I finally read Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen. The story of angry and violent Cole, the book begins right after he has beaten a fellow student unconscious, leaving his victim hospitalized with permanent damage. As an alternative to jail time, Cole's probation officer proposes "Circle Justice," which results in Cole's banishment to a remote Alaskan island.
This story is a suspenseful survival tale that fans of Hatchet would enjoy. While the portrayal of Peter, the victim, was a little two-dimensional, this book held my attention, as well as contained valuable messages about the cycle of violence, the power of forgivemess, and the meaning of justice.
For those who have already read this book, a fairly new sequel is available, Ghost of Spirit Bear. And thanks to the students in the 2008-09 reading class of Leah Mattox at Lenihan who chose a book to collect donation money for, the library has an extra copy of this title.
Categories: Joa Recommends,
Realistic Reads,
Survival/Adventure
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