The Select Are Surprised

I finished January with my fifth book of the year, Lost in Babylon, the second book in the Seven Wonders series by Peter Lerangis. The series follows the Select, four 13-year-olds who have the G7W gene that means they are descendants of the royalty of the lost city of Atlantis, but that also means that they will die when they turn 14, unless they find the seven Loculi, orbs that hold the power of Atlantis, that were hidden in the Seven Wonders of the World right before the city of Atlantis sank into the sea. What makes their search even more difficult is that six of the seven Wonders have long since been destroyed.

Lost in Babylon begins with Selects Jack, Aly, and Cass searching for Marco who disappeared with the first Loculus shortly after they recovered it from the Colossus at Rhodes. Each of the Select have an implanted tracking device, but the signal from Marco's device has disappeared, which could mean that he is dead, but when his signal returns and shows that he is somewhere in Iraq, the kids, as well as Professor Beghed, Torquin, and some others from the KI Institute, head to Iraq to find Marco and the Loculus. When they find Marco, they discover that he has found the location of another Loculus, the one that was hidden in the Hanging Gardens in ancient Babylon. The kids travel through a portal at the bottom of the Euphrates river and end up in Ancient Babylon, but they discover that this Babylon is caught in a time rift where time travels 90 times slower than time in the modern world. As the kids work to find and retrieve the Loculus, they meet Daria, a Babylonian slave who has a unique ability to learn languages. They also save the King's son, hunt an ancient sacred beast, the mushushu, join a rebel group, and set off an earthquake that could destroy them all. On top of all this, loyalties are called into question and sacrifices are made.

I started this series because it was billed as part Percy Jackson, part 39 clues. The characters are typical teens (despite their extraordinary abilities): the tech wiz, the nerd, the sports star, and the kid who really doesn't know who he is or what is special about him. Lerangis is very good at keeping the reader pulled into the action and wanting to find out what is going to happen next. This book definitely had some unexpected twists and turns, especially in the final pages, that have me anxiously awaiting the release of book three (Tomb of Shadows set to be released in May of 2014). You can find out more about the books and access lots of extras on the series website http://www.sevenwondersbooks.com/.

Never trust a fairy, especially if you dumped her.

I first met Jacob Reckless in the Mirrorworld created by German author Cornelia Funke's novel, Reckless. In the first novel of the Mirrorworld series, Jacob, a treasure hunter, was desperately seeking a cure for his brother Will who was being turned into a Goyl, a stone-skinned creature. Jacob seeks assistance from the Red Fairy which is probably not the best idea since she had loved him and he had dumped her. She does help, but the "cure" she gives comes with a great price, Jacob's life.

Fearless opens with Jacob desperately seeking a magical object that will cure him, or at least postpone his death. After trying everything he can think of, Jacob and his constant companion, Fox, set out in search of a legend that may not even exist, Guismond the Witch Slayer's crossbow. The crossbow is said to have the power to kill entire armies when used on the army's leader, but there is also a rumor that says that the crossbow can heal when shot through a person's heart by one who loves that person best. To make the search even more difficult a treasure hunting Goyl is also seeking the crossbow and is willing to do whatever necessary to beat Jacob to the treasure. Will Jacob find the crossbow before the Fairy's revenge takes his life? Will the crossbow be his salvation, or will it just kill him faster than the curse?

I was introduced to Cornelia Funke when I discovered her Inkheart series (one of my favorites), so I was super excited a few years ago when I found Reckless. I quickly devoured it and excitedly recommended it to teachers and students who were fantasy fans. Then, while working on a book order, I found a blurb for the follow-up, Fearless. I was thrilled when it came in, so, naturally, it was one of the first titles I took home to read. I will admit that it took me a while to get into it because it had been so long since I had read Reckless. In fact, I finally got online to read a summary of Reckless so that I could refresh my memory about what had happened in Reckless. The refresher helped, and it wasn't long until I had become completely absorbed in the story. 

One of the things that I love about the fantasy genre is that it is unpredictable. You can never "know" what is going to happen because the writer creates his/her own world and anything is possible in that world. I kept telling myself, "She (Funke) can't let Jacob die, can she?" knowing the whole time that main characters die all the time (have you read the Divergent series?). The story was full of twists and turns that kept me hooked until the satisfying end of the story. Several of the plot twists remain unresolved (Who is Earlking and what is his price for helping Jacob? Where is Jacob's dad? Will Jacob tell Fox how he feels?), but the final chapter convinces us that we have not seen the end of the Mirrorworld, and  can't wait to see it again. (For more on the Mirrorworld you can check out http://mirrorworldnovels.com/).

I Risked It This Week

This series grabbed me several years ago when I added the first title in the series, Found, to my library's collection, so I was super excited when I saw that the sixth installment in The Missing series by Margaret Peterson Haddix was out. I quickly added it to a book order, and, of course, it was the first title from the order I grabbed to read.

Risked begins with Jonah Skidmore and his sister Katherine doing some computer research trying to figure out which of history's missing children Jonah may be (If this doesn't make sense to you, stop reading this blog immediately and go read the first five books of the series). As they are learning about the Anastasia and Alexei Romonov, children of the last Tsar of Russia, Chip, Jonah's friend and Katherine's kind-of boyfriend, shows up with Daniella, the only one of the missing that was not present in the time cave when Jonah, Chip, and the other 33 Missing learned that they were actually famous children from history who had been kidnapped by Gary and Hodge, two rouge time agents wishing to make a fortune from families in future wishing to adopt these famous children. Unbeknownst to Jonah, Katherine, and Chip (and actually unbeknownst to herself as well) Daniella is working with Gavin, a surly Missing child who has plotted with Gary and Hodge to kidnap the group and take them to the future, but as bad guys often do, they mislead Gavin into actually taking the group back to the very day in 1918 when the whole Romonov family, Daniella's and Gavin's real historical family, were executed. How are Jonah, Katherine, and Chip going to rescue Daniella and Gavin with a dumbed down Elucidator that can only take them to 1918 or make them invisible. To make matters even more difficult, after being rejoined with her tracer and getting all of Anastasia's memories and feelings, Daniella refuses to be rescued without rescuing the rest of the Romonov family.

As with all the books in The Missing Series, Haddix skillfully blends the fictional story of the time travelers with the historical events of the time and family described using the real names of people and places as much as possible. This story kept me guessing the whole time. Being only slightly familiar with the true story of the Romonovs, I knew that most of the Romonov family were killed, so how was Haddix going to complete the story she had woven and still stay true to the historical facts that she always details in the Author's Note at the end of each book. In the end, I was not disappointed. While Haddix did take a bit of poetic license with some of the surviving characters, her fictional account still fit in with the beliefs about the fates of the Romonovs at the time she began writing the story. As always, I loved the story of the books, and I learned a few things about history that I didn't know.

The worst thing about reading a book series that has not been completed is that you have to wait for what seems like an eternity for the next volume to be published (Redeemed is not due out until September 2015), but the good thing about the proliferation of electronic reading devices is the current trend of these series authors releasing electronic short stories to accompany their series. Haddix has thankfully joined this trend with the publication of Sought, a short story that delves more fully into the character Daniella (at least according to the description on Amazon ). I only learned about Sought when looking for the Amazon listing of Risked for this blog. Now I think I'll go download a short story to read.

Not your average kittypet!

Rusty is living the good life. He's a young house cat with a bowl full of food and owners who let him snuggle down in their bed at night. So why is he having recurring dreams of hunting mice, and why do these dreams leave him so restless? One day his curiosity drives him into the woods near his home where he is attacked by a young wild cat. this young cat and two others who join him are part of the ThunderClan. The Clan's leader, Bluestar, invites Rusty to leave his life of comfort and join the clan, so Rusty, who is renamed Firepaw, joins the ThunderClan to train to be a warrior, but will he live to regret that decision? ShadowClan is trying to take over the territory of the other three clans, and ThunderClan is weaker than ever following the deaths of some of their fiercest warriors. Is there a traitor in the ThunderClan? Will Firepaw survive his apprenticeship and become a ThunderClan warrior proving to Tigerclaw that he isn't just a kittypet? And what of Spottedleaf's message from the StarClan that fire will save ThunderClan?

This is the first book in Erin Hunter's Warriors series. I purchased it for my library several years ago, and then ended up getting a free Kindle download of the title about a year ago, still it just sat there unread.  I finally decided to read it this weekend because I figured it would at least be a quick read (290 pages), and I didn't want to be in the middle of a longer book when school started back after the holidays since I have a bunch of new books being delivered and wanted to be able to start reading them. Well, I was not disappointed. The story is well written (if you can get your mind wrapped around the clan lingo, twolegs = humans, kittypet = house cat, dirt = poop, etc.), and is definitely action packed. The immediate story of the book reaches a conclusion, but the overall story of the warrior cats is far from over. It won't take me nearly as long to read others in this series as it did for me to read the first. If you want to know more about the series, checkout the Warrior Cats website http://www.warriorcats.com/ or visit our library and check out the book.

The 1st Book is The 5th Wave

My first book of the new year was The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy. I had seen a pretty amazing book trailer for the book on the Penguin Young Readers channel on YouTube (check out the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKkEAIs4pJc), and thought it would be an interesting read. If I had paid closer attention to the trailer, I probably wouldn't have wanted to read it. My dad was a big Sci-Fi fan, so I grew up with Star Trek, Star Wars, Lost In Space (the original series), and all those kinds of movies and shows. My dad even said he was once abducted by aliens once and had a scar on his neck to prove it. My dad was a big kidder, but he told the story with such a serious tone that I was never sure if he was playing around with me or if he actually believed it. Despite all of this, I am not a huge Sci-Fi fan, at least no in my reading, so when the aliens first showed up in the story (the first sentence of chapter one), I almost put it down, but the story quickly drew me in and I had to finish.

The book is narrated by several of the book's characters beginning with Cassie ("Not Cassie for Cassandra. Or Cassie for Cassidy. Cassie for Cassiopeia the constellation..."). Earth has come under attack by the Others. Cassie is on her own after surviving the first four waves. Her mother died during the 3rd wave ("We had different names for it. The Red Death or the Blood Plague. The Pestilence. The Red Tsunami. The Fourth Horseman. Whatever you wanted to call it, after three months, ninety-seven out of every hundred people were dead.") Her brother Sammy was taken away by some soldiers shortly before her father was killed by those same soldiers. Now Cassie's one mission in life is to survive and find Sammy, but that mission is put in jeopardy when she is shot by a Silencer (Cassie's new name for the Others). Cassie is found and nursed back to health by Evan Walker, but can she trust him? Is he human, or is he other?

Other sections of the book are narrated by Zombie, formerly know as Ben Parrish, Cassie's former crush who has been rescued by soldiers, taken to Camp Haven, and been trained as a soldier to fight in the war to hunt down and kill the Teds, those whose brains have been infested by the aliens. Ben, who ran when his little sister was attacked and killed, is determined to never run away again but to hunt down and rid the Earth of as many Teds as possible; however, an incident on his very first mission as a real soldier makes him question who he's really hunting. How do you know who the bad guy is when the bad guy looks and acts just like you?

The changing narrators allow the book to have several different plot lines going on at all at once, but all the plot lines converge as the book draws towards its conclusion. Characters' beliefs are challenged, bonds are formed, and sacrifices are made, but the book ends long before the story does. I was reading away on my Kindle and flipped the page after a crucial point in the story only to find that it was actually the last page, and I said out loud to my Kindle, "Seriously?!?" I (and other readers like me) will have to wait until September 2014 to find out what happens to Cassie, Sammy, Ben and Evan.

This book is definitely a YA title written for high school aged reader. There is a good bit of profanity, including some of the heavyweight curse words, and a lot of violence. As I said at the beginning, I'm not a Sci-Fi reader, but this is a very intriguing story about trust and bravery and survival and, ultimately, what it means to be human. I will definitely be downloading the sequel, The Infinite Sea, when it is released in the fall.

Repentance and Resolutions

First of all, let's just accept the fact that I am a HORRIBLE blogger. It has been almost three years since my last post to this blog. I am also pitiful at keeping in touch through correspondence (snail mail and email), and we won't even begin to mention keeping up with household chores. About the only thing I seem to be able to keep up with is reading (which should lend itself well with maintaining a blog about reading). Okay, that is it for the repentance part of this post. Now on to the resolutions.

At our school, the teachers work with their students to set reading goals for each grading period, and I work with our students to help them choose books that they will enjoy that will also help them meet their goals. While awaiting the arrival of the new year, I decided to practice what I preach at school and set a reading goal for myself. I always tell my teachers to encourage their students to set goals that they know they will be able to obtain, but that will require effort to meet. With that in mind, I set for myself a goal of reading 50 books which is a little less than a book a week. I am a dedicated reader, but I'm not the fastest reader, so I thought 50 is a manageable number that can be raised if I reach it. So, my New Year's Resolution was to set a reading goal and meet that goal. Then I said to myself, "I have a reading blog, so why not up the resolution to include the blog." So, my new New Year's Resolution is to read and blog about 50 books. Most of them will be from my school's library, but I'll throw some YA and Adult fiction in along the way. Hopefully there will be at least a post a week, and posts will mostly be short summaries with my review of the books with the thought that some of my students (or other readers) will find reading inspiration from my posts.

Okay, now that I have my resolution established, I best get off this computer and get back to reading so I will have something to write about.