On the 2nd Day of Christmas...How to Say Goodbye in Robot

On the 2nd day of Christmas...well, you know the tune.

My pick for today is How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford. This is one of those obscure books (like Eva Underground) many don't get around to reading. It just can't compete with all those paranormal and fantasy and series books out there. I mean who is Natalie Standiford and why does it have a weird title ...that's not my thinking, but possibly that of typical teen or any other reader.

But the title pretty much tells you this is going to be one of those books without the necessarily pretty ending...but ohhhhh...the ending is satisfying...it kind of makes your heart feel heavy and tight but hopeful.

Here's a little bit to get you going. There is a quiet, loner guy but he's not all James Dean or anything. Classmates call him Ghost Boy though Bea also knows him as Jonah. And Bea is Robot Girl. Ghost? Robot? Obviously, with names like that, they are what some people may judge as being emotionally distant.

How to Say Goodbye in Robot features an unconventional romance based on human connection rather than physicality. Ghost Boy and Robot Girl have a long way to go, but if they can have one truly human relationship with each other, even if it seems impossible, wouldn't it be worth it in the large scheme of things?

Quote...to show you how it's different from other YA.

(This is Bea thinking)

I turned a corner and came to a small church. There was a head-stone near the path leading to the church's wooden doors. I stepped closer to read the headstone. It said FOR THE UNICORN CHILD.

That is so cool, I thought. What a funky town this was. I imagined a neighborhood Legend of the Unicorn Child, about a one-horned little boy who'd died tragically, hit by a car or shot by a mugger or maybe poisoned by lawn pesticides. The story of the Unicorn Child was so real to these people they'd erected a stone in his memory.

Then I read it again. The stone didn't say FOR THE UNICORN CHILD. It said FOR THE UNBORN CHILD.



Summary From Booklist:

The hot pink cover featuring a telephone dangling by the cord fairly screams teen romance! but might give the wrong impression of this quirky novel. Bea, the new girl in a school where most of the kids have known each other since kindergarten, befriends Jonah, an outcast deemed Ghost Boy after a cruel middle-school prank. She finds herself torn between normal highschool activities and spending time with Jonah, listening to the bizarre but engaging Night Light, a radio show haunted by some of Baltimore’s loneliest weirdos. Theirs is not a budding romance, but a tumultuous, hot-and-cold friendship; they love each other, but should never even think about a relationship. Credit is due to Standiford for the delicate portrayal of Jonah’s home life, which could have veered into soap-opera territory, especially with the reappearance of his long-thought-dead, mentally disabled twin brother. The heart of this novel is neither cold and metallic nor full of romance and delusion. Instead, it’s very human. Grades 9-12.

On the first day of Christmas...

On the first day of Christmas, my true love (Reading) gave to me...Eva Underground by Dandi Daley Mackall

If you follow my blog, you know historical fiction...with romance...holds a special place in my heart. And what better than historical YA fiction set in 1970's Communist Poland? Down with medieval, renaissance, 19th century heroines!

I picked up this back about a year ago...of course the book jacket had everything to do with it! A train, old architecture, and a passion filled goodbye kiss...ahhhhh. Just my kind of reading.

But Eva Underground is not the flimsy YA novel of girl meets boy and boy is a dangerous rebel who rides motorcycles. Well, the boy is a rebel of sorts but the politcal sort and he's beyond boyhood. He lives for a greater cause and Eva slowly falls for the cause as she lives, breathes, eats, and sleeps the cause in the tiny, rebel-crowded apartment she shares with her father and members of the underground movement. Cultural shock doesn't even begin to give her experience justice, and at the end, the one place she never considers home is more home than her old high school life in Chicago.

The politcal atmosphere of change, fear, hunger are taken from straight from the author's own experiences as a college graduate in communist Poland, so besides suspense and romance this novel provides realism and a historical lesson without my boring class lectures (I'm a history teacher right now...)

Plus...absolutely love the cover!

Brief Summary from Booklist

Gr. 8-11. In 1978 high-school-senior Eva Lott leaves her comfortable life in the Chicago suburbs for Communist Poland, where her father is teaching in the underground education movement. Coping with the recent death of her mother from cancer, Eva now has to contend with the boredom and loneliness of living in a foreign country. After a botched attempt to run away and make her way back to Chicago, Eva develops a friendship with Tomek, a young underground leader, and a romance blossoms, giving her a desire to stay. This otherwise standard coming-of-age love story is made more unusual by a strong sense of time and place. Mackall effectively conveys the harsh realities of living under a Communist regime and the sense of hope for a better future among Poles that came with the rise of Lech Walesa and the Solidarity Movement and the election of the first Polish pope.

Totally YA Tuesday....Virginia...Falls For an Angel

Virginia by Susan Hughes


A suspenseful, thought-provoking and sometimes shocking novel about faith and family secrets.



I truly enjoyed reading this book for it's unique perspective on angels, love, cult violence, faith, doubt, life, death...and all this through the alternating lens of two teen girls. The summary on the book indicates the main character, Ivy, has a friend named Virginia with a huge secret that many will find hard to believe, and this secret is tied to Virginia's brother, Paul, and the beliefs and actions of his religious cult. Mixed in to all this is Gabriel, yes, the archangel, the one who visited Mary and announed the birth of Jesus to her. And then there is Joe, Virginia's other brother, the sane one, and the one Ivy likes.

I know what you are thinking. You don't feel like reading anything based on faith and the Jesus message, but this novel is nothing what you would expect. It is not a Christian novel, though it has Christian themes and deals with faith and personal convictions and mentions the names of Biblical characters you may have heard of. Afterall, the archangel Gabriel is a main character, but you've never seen him like this, and you will not believe the two missions he has in store for Virginia. Gabriel is all powerful and Godly and yet human, at least to Virginia (and to Mary during Biblical times). She can not imagine how his skin and breath would feel. She cannot fathom what she will promise for him, but she does and she falls. Not once, but twice. And the second one is described beautifully with his whispers on her neck.

Virginia's story is so intriguing and portions of it are just simpy beautiful and lyrical ,and Iwould love to hear more of her and Gabriel. But this is not Virginia's novel...it is Ivy. Ivy is so caught up in everybody else's problems and issues that she doesn't have time to truly grasp the typical high school experience or make sense of her growing feelings for Joe. The only time she really has for herself to escape everything happening around her is when she is out running and racing with her team. From her alcoholic mom, to her sister's unexpected return, and then Virginia's weird family with mysterious and questionable beliefs. Her head is swimming with the irrationality of Virginia's visit by an angel and all the bizarre events happening at the hands of Paul and the church he has built behind the backyard. Ivy could have been an innocent bystander, but she is at the center of this whole story since she is Virginia's only friend and is determined to help her and any help potenitial unknown victim of Paul's fanatical beliefs...with Joe's help.

It all culminates on the evening of her own sister's wedding...her dance with Joe, her near first kiss, the angel wings behind Virginia, the sirens, the truth at the end. Whose end and whose truth? Well, Virgina has her truth, while Paul's version of the truth is shattered, and still Joe and Ivy's truth is what the rest of the specatators saw. But their truth is also different because of what they know and have heard from Virginia. As for Ivy's truth, I think she has grown in faith...faith in that what you seem to understand the most is the most unexplicable and what you know little about or cannot understand is explainable or to some extent believable. It's a matter of perspective. What the world saw happen to Virginia was a tragedy, but to Virginia...well, only she truly knows.

Ivy realizes she is only a piece of the bigger picture and she is "moving toward something good and complete" with the final form undecided. Whatever and wherever her place is, sacrifice is inevitable. That may mean suspending your particual view points, giving up a moment you have been dreaming and waiting for, and putting yourself second in order to be a better friend and be there when the moment counts. Does Ivy get her first kiss? I hope so. And, I hope it feels heaven for her.

By the way...get it? Virginia...Virgin...pretty clever. It's like my character in the play I'm writing...Luke Fir...Lucifer. Well, it's close enough. It's that play I told you about before based on an urban legend.


Summary

I took hold of her hands, their bones tiny and birdlike, squeezed them gently. I felt like shaking them, shaking her into the panic I was feeling." Virginia, I don't understand."


Fourteen-year-old Ivy is flabbergasted when her childhood friend Virginia claims that she has been visited by an angel who has asked her to bear the child of God. As Ivy struggles to understand and help her friend, she uncovers more secrets, including an apocalyptic plot being devised by Virginia's weird brother, Paul. Ivy suspects Paul's activities must connect in some way to Virginia's claim but she's uncertain how. Soon Ivy finds herself caught up in a chain of events she has no control over.

Ch. 1 Excerpt

I had known my neighbor Virginia Donato since she and I were seven. We used to play together a lot when we were kids. But I was stunned to hear her voice. We hadn’t really talked in ages. We’d gone to different elementary schools, but we had been at the same middle school together for two years, and although we’d said hi to each other in the school hallways once in a while, she hadn’t called me in a long time, not for a few years at least.
“Fine,” Virginia replied. “I’m fine.” But she didn’t sound fine. She sounded distracted, as if I’d just interrupted her. As if she’d been in the middle of a conversation with someone else. I waited, uncertainly, slightly uneasy to be hearing from her. There was a silence. I felt a drop of sweat starting to trickle down my back. Still Virginia didn’t speak.
“Virginia? So, what’s up?” I asked lightly.
“Um, Ivy, I wonder if you could come over and talk to me.” Her voice sounded odd, thin and breathy. I didn’t remember it being that way. “It’s important,” she added. I hesitated. This was even more strange, that she’d choose to talk to me about something important. We’d been … well, friends, I guess … but never really the best of friends. But I felt I owed her that much, and anyway, I was sort of curious about what had become of her. I hardly ever saw her on the street anymore. Her older brothers and sisters seemed to drive her everywhere she had to go. She kept to herself at school. And she seemed to have few friends, fewer
even than me, maybe none.
“Well, okay. When?”
“Could you come now?”
“Now?”
“Yes, now would be good,” she said.
It was weird. Hearing her ask for something so directly, it struck me that Virginia had never asked me for anything before. When Virginia and I used to play together, she
had always wanted to do whatever I wanted. She had sort of flitted around the edges of my ideas, my little bits of organizing, my imagination. It wasn’t like her to be
demanding. This must be pretty serious after all.
“Okay,” I agreed. “I’ll come over in a few minutes, Gin.”
“Thanks,” she said.
And so it began. (Ivy's point of view)
***
“What are you doing here?” she asked. She knew she should be afraid, and she was, a little. He was a stranger, after all. A stranger here, in her own bedroom. Part of her knew she should scream and run, that she should call for help. She was alone, and he had come in somehow.
He was here, in her bedroom. (Virginia's point of view)


Favorite Lines:

What was she talking about? "Paul says Jesus will be here soon"? That didn't seem so bad. Unbelievable, but not bad.

He was leaving, and she didn't know how she would breathe, how her heart would continue to beat, how heer bones would support her, for she had fallen.

She shivered. It had not been simple or pure or dull. It was extraordinary. No one realized. No one knew how it had been. No one could imagine

The air felt delicious aginst my bare skin, like the brush of thousands of feather tips.

I was hardly breathing, stunned. Joe was panting, sitting behind me, his one arm still tight around my waist, gathering me in, still saving me.

I saw it, high above us, a black figure with wide wings against the star-lit sky, poised for a moment, like sorrow itself.

Manic Monday Mini-Review...Daughter of the Flames

I'm currently reading Daughter of the Flames by Zoe Marriott (well, whenever I have the chance). So far, Zira has kicked butt with a weapon, considered why she looks the way she looks, and bumped into a strong, manly figure in the enemy territory. And so far, I like it and so will anybody else who likes warrior/ancient rites/weapon wielding fantasy worlds that seem like historical fiction. But, it's not historical fiction since this is Marriott's own made up world. Calling all Lord of the Rings movie fans like me who don't actually want to read Lord of the Rings unless it was under 300 pages and more accessible. Ok, now don't expect some larger than life epic, but Daughter of the Flames includes a rivalry set in anciet times, a warrior priestess/princess, and insurmountable tasks without a 1500 page trilogy.

SUMMARY

Inside an ancient temple in the mountains, fifteen-year-old Zira trains in the martial arts to become a warrior priestess who can defend the faith of the Ruan people. Bearing a scar on her face from the fire that killed her parents, the orphaned Zira is taught to distrust the occupying Sedornes. Terror strikes when the forces of the tyrannical Sedorne king destroy the only home she knows. To survive, Zira must unravel the secrets of her identity, decide her people’s fate — and accept her growing feelings for a man who should be her enemy.

CHAPTER ONE EXCERPT

I never knew my mother's name. I knew she was a hero. The first story Surya ever told me was of my mother and her death. How, gravely injured herself, she dragged me from the fire that consumed our home and carried me all the way from Aroha to the House of God in the mountains. How she refused any treatment for herself and died of her injuries, peacefully, only when she knew that I would live. But she never told anyone her name. Only mine. Zira. The story was all I had of my family. Surya said that after the Sedorne came, slaughtering and burning their way across Ruan, so many families were scattered, so many homes destroyed, so many people murdered and abandoned to rot by the roadside, there was no way to trace my identity. I was alone in the world from that day - the day my mother died to save me. I was lucky. Incredibly lucky. I always knew that. I could have been one of the poor orphan children dying of starvation or disease on the streets of Aroha. I could have been dead myself. Or I could have been living as a slave - in all but name - under some bloated Sedorne lord.

ANOTHER QUOTE

"How did you get that scar?" he asked quietly. I was surprised--especially after the stares I had been forced to endure this morning--to find taht I didn't resent the blunt question. There was no pity in it. I answered evenly, "In the fire that killed my family." "The Great Fire?" "If you mean the Invasion Fire, then yes, it was.
"I'm sorry."
"Are you?" I met his eyes, expecting them to fall. He looked back steadily, and it was I who had to look away.

Thursday Trailer...Perfect Chemistry

So, here is a very fun book trailer for one of the many books I've been reading lately--Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles. I haven't gotten very far yet, but so far I enjoy the alternating points of view in the chapters and I like the Spanish phrases and lingo. It's about time Mexican-American culture is part of a mainstream book.

I especially love the book cover...don't you?

Summary:

Get ready for a whole new take onstar-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, bad boy meets good girl...

At Fairfield High, everyone knows that south siders and north siders aren’t exactly compatible elements. So when cheerleader Brittany Ellis and gang member Alex Fuentes are forced to be lab partners, the results are bound to be explosive.
Neither teen is prepared for the most surprising chemical reaction of all – love. Can they break through the stereotypes and misconceptions that threaten to keep them apart?

YA Wire...The Body Finder

YA Wire...March 16 is a big release date! Mark your calendar! One of the most engaging story-lines being released next week is The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting.

A serial killer on the loose.

A girl with a morbid ability.

And the boy who would never let anything happen to her.

Wow...that should be enough to get you to some bookstore on March 16--Spring Break for most of us!

Summary

Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the
world . . .and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer . . . and becoming his prey herself.

Excerpt

Multihued light seemed to be radiating up from beneath the water, centered among the reeds, and then diffusing outward as it reached the surface. Violet had never seen anything like it and she knew that the spectrum of light was defying its very nature by behaving in that way. It could only be one thing. There was something dead down there....The vibrant light continued to play off the waves from below, fading into a fine, colorful mist as it broke through the surface of the water and vanished into the air.

Seems a little like that movie, The Sixth Sense, but with a more romantic element wrapped around it. Can't wait to read it.

Thursday Trailer...13 Reasons Why

I read this book a while back (about a year ago). Since then, I've recommended it to many of m high school students. A very interesting premise...a girl leaves suicide for 13 people. But what I think is exceptional in the novel is the alternating narratives of the two main character.

SYNOPSIS

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker--his classmate and crush--who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list. Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.

EXCERPT

A shoebox-sized package is propped against the front door at an angle. Our front door has a tiny slot to shove mail through, but anything thicker than a bar of soap gets left outside. A hurried scribble on the wrapping addresses the package to Clay Jensen, so I pick it up and head inside. I take the package into the kitchen and set it on the counter. I slide open the junk drawer and pull out a pair of scissors. Then I run a scissor blade around the package and lift off its top. Inside the shoebox is a rolled-up tube of bubble-wrap. I unroll that and discover seven loose audiotapes. Each tape has a dark blue number painted in the upper right-hand corner, possibly with nail polish. Each side has its own number. One and two on the first tape, three and four on the next, five and six, and so on. The last tape has a thirteen on one side, but nothing on the back. Who would send me a shoebox full of audiotapes? No one listens to tapes anymore. Do I even have a way to play them? The garage! The stereo on the workbench. My dad bought it at a yard sale for almost nothing. It's old, so he doesn't care if it gets coated with sawdust or splattered with paint. And best of all, it plays tapes. I drag a stool in front of the workbench, drop my backpack to the floor, then sit down. I press Eject on the player. A plastic door eases open and I slide in the first tape.
(All of the above from Jay Asher's awesome website)


BOOK TRAILER...THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST I FOUND

Thursday Trailer...I Heart You, You Haunt Me

I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder

Another Lisa Schroeder book...the first I read sometime last year. And the first verse novel I had ever read! But I could have used about another 200 pages of it because I absolutely thought it was great. How do you let go of someone you loved when that someone is a ghost that haunts you?

Isn't the book cover lovely?

Totally YA Tuesday: Pucker...Up to a Great Book!

Sometimes science fiction hurts my head. So does fantasy, for that matter. Many of them become more plot stories than anything else and fill up pages with other realms and mythologies and a bunch of other stuff that can get way too involved. For instance, I'm reading Betwixt right now, and I found myself scanning through the whole Ring of Fire section in the middle book when the main characters start realizing they are part of the fairy world. Too much, too fast. I think I knew less than the characters. I really did try to read it with understanding, but then my brain gave up and figured I wouldn't get it either way. I'd rather see it than read it, so that's why I love movies like I Am Legend, Terminator, Avatar (which I have yet to see, but really want to!)

If I ever write a sci-fi/fantasy book, my model will be Pucker by Melanie Gideon. Like I metioned on Sunday's post, the entire story is packed into about 270 pages with a neat beginning, middle, and end. There is no need for a sequel or trilogy. Like other books of the genre, the main character, nicknamed Pucker because of his burnt face, is involved in another realm beyond Earth. In this case, it is a parallel universe hidden like bumps within Earth. There are portals to this parallel world and though the author describes Puckers's descent into Isaura and ascent back to Earth, it is through his voice--the voice of a seventeen year old boy who has about as much expertise and technical know-how as the average Joe living anywhere in the world. When you don't have the jargon, all you can do is describe the event in the familiar world of sight and touch. She includes a mere a paragraph for his trip into Isaura, and I can completely picture it:

Within seconds an invisible undertow sucks me under and away...I travel into the matter that separates the worlds. I float down through shafts of amber light. The current imprints itself like a thousand hands on my body.

I love that last line...he is transformed by the energy, but it is subtle. The current propels him forward like human hands all over his body.

As for his mission in Isaura, Pucker must retrieve his mother's seer skin to keep her from dying. His mother is tormented by prophecies and visison, and in a way, the seers kin will buffer the impact of her gift on her body and mind. The seer skin is like a second skin of a million tiny stars nearly sewn into those gifted with the skin. She no longer has it because it was removed from her body in Isaura before she left for Earth. Isaura is like Earth but without all the modern technologies and luxuries. In Isaura people still travel by horse and cart and live without electricity. But they can do other things. They can heal people, restore limbs, remove scars, restore sight. They can fortell eveyone's future on a daily basis. They allow humans to enter and work in their world as The Changed, or those who are in perfect physical form in the excahnge for service occupations. But physical change comes at a price to individual identity.

As you would guess, Pucker is torn between returning to Earth and remaining in Isaura. On Earth he is Pucker, nearly friendless, and without any hope of ever holding a girl. In Isaura he is Thomas, unimaginably handsome with many girls throwing themselves at him. And then there is Phaidra, one of the beautiful Changed. How can he return to the scars, to the pain of his isolation and mental anguish, to the strained relationship between mother and son? As a reader, you want Pucker to win. You want him to get his cake and eat it too, but I won't tell you whether he does or not.

All I have left to say is that Pucker is a very imaginative narrative that captivates from the start. There are so many beautiful, literary passages that read more like prose poetry:

She's a trafficker in possibility. It's a seam she's after, for every moment can go one of two ways, and now she must convince the moment to rethink itself, to move in a different direction. She massages the seam. She steams it open with her intention. Ans d as she does this, slowly my pain begins to dissipate.

WOW! She steams it open with her intention!

And my favorite:

For the first time in my life I forget I'm burned, and I'm just a boy and there is this girl and some invisible cord connects us.

But there's also another boy and it isn't me, and it's he who gets to touch her, he who gets to make her gasp.

One last thing...love the allusion to The Great War. I do teach history, after all.

Saved by the Music

As a high school teacher, I think I've pretty much seen it all when it comes to teenage behavior. From reading their journals or speaking to them one on one, I've gotten clues about the types of things they deal with on a daily basis, be it from parents, friends, or any other person or thing that are an immediate part of their lives. Most kids are really good, and all you really need to do is connect to them on their level.

Amazingly, about the worst things I've ever experienced are the parent conferences from hell--the kind that come out of the blue when some student stretches the truth to fit their low grades or believes their teacher is utterly unfair. Other than that? A security guard once a yanked a kid out of my classroom for being high. But, thankfully, I haven't had to deal with many teenagers whose home environments or other situational factors have taken the best of them. Of course, I know of some the big issues going on--suicide, depression, abuse and neglect, drug use, eating disorders, cutting. And, the list goes on. Some kids can really hide it well, and it is a shame we can't help all of them.

In Saved by the Music by Selene Castrovilla, readers get an in-depth look at how two teenagers deal with neglect and abuse. At times, it reads like a worst case scenario of what happens to young people when the adults in their lives are detached or overwhelmed with their own problems. Fifteen year old, Willow Moon is looking for a connection. Willow wants to reveal her "insecurities, phobias, and all--and let them all know the truth" because everyone sees her, but doesn't really see her.

Until she meets Axel--a reincarnated version of Jim Morrison from The Doors, not only in looks, but with all the moody, mysterious, philosophical, quiet magnetism of a nineteen year old boy. From the moment they touch hands, the connection is there.

Both Willow and Axel have a lot of psychological issues stemming from their lack of relationship to their parents. Ever heard the phrase misery breeds company? That's what Act 2 is all about. I don't want to tell you everything they suffer together, but just know some very serious issues (like the ones I listed earlier) are surfaced and that they both long to help one another, though they lack the capacity to help themeselves. They are both in need of professional help, yet only one of them is willing to take this approach.

The relationship between Willow and Axel is very tender, and actually, they are close friends more than anything else. They hold one another up in the midst of horrifying experiences:

After a lot of tossing around, I leaned against him, reaching over to take his hand. I circled his wrist and then slid my fingers down to his hand, feeling somehting rough and raised along the way. It was thin line, like a healed cut.

What if my dream was right?

Sick with worry, I finally fell asleep, clinging tight to Axel.

And, the music part? This has to to do with Aunt Agatha. She is the one adult in Willow's and Axel's lives who actually cares and is able to help them in some way. She also has a dream--of refurbishing an old barge as a floating concert hall. Because of this Willow is spending her summer at a Brooklyn marina where she meets Axel, living alone on a small boat named Perchance to Dream. He also happens to be a cellist who plays haunting yet beautiful music.

And, where have you heard Perchance to Dream? From Hamlet by Shakespeare...To sleep, perchance to dream.

There are just so many great things woven in throughout the novel...music ranging from classical Vivaldi to rock legend Jim Morrisson, Shakespeare, and of course New York City. One of my favorite parts of the books is the evening Willow and Axel spend at Starry Nights, an artsy cafe in Greewich Village.

But,what I really love the most is the ending...I think we need a new re-working of misery breeds company. Something more like good company brings salvation. Willow's voice is honest, and although at times I was overwhelmed by everything she and Axel had gone through, I must say everything they speak and think is teenage realism.

Bullyville...Be a Bully or be Bullied

A few weeks ago, I heard of a bullying incident at my son’s school. I don’t know what became of it, but just know I am very thankful none of my children have ever been a victim of bullying. Most kids and teens will face some sort of ridicule at one time or another because, let’s face it, some people don’t understand or truly consider or want to consider the harm of making someone feel ashamed. I know I faced a lot of that growing up. But, bullying is a whole other level because it includes ridicule and intimidation, and in some instances turns physical. How do you deal with that as a kid? How do you deal with it as an adult?

This week I am reviewing Bullyville by Francine Prose. I guess you can tell one of the major themes of the book. Normally this is not the type of book I choose to read because it deals with a younger protagonist and is missing a romantic love story. But, I completely love Prose’s style of writing, and something else in the book jacket caught my interest—9/ll. Yes, that 9/ll, and it’s like an underlying current running through the novel. I wanted to see how she merged it into the storyline, since I’m also tying in 9/11 to a novel I am writing. What a way to study it…through the writing of a great YA author!

So, what does 9/l11 have to do with bullying? Well, it is the reason why Bart is able to enroll at Baileywell Preparatory Academy on a fully paid scholarship. And, everybody knows Baileywell is really Bullyville Prep or Bullywell. Bart and his friends have grown up hearing horrid stories of students who attend Bullyville, but Bart doesn’t really know the full extent of it or even how much truth is behind those rumors.

Quote: I’d heard all those stories—and scarier ones—before I started at Bullywell. But what happened to me there seemed even worse, I guess because it happened to me.

Quote: I had only been at Bullywell for less than five minutes and already I was learning to laugh hysterically at unfunny jokes—jokes on me!

Back to 9/11—what does it have to do with his enrollment? Bart was a hero, a Miracle Boy, and a compassion case all wrapped up in one. Both of his parents worked at the World Trade Center. His father was one of the thousands that was killed, but his mother’s life was salvaged due to the fact that she had to stay home with Bart who had the flu.

Listen to what Bart has to say about all this: Boy, the lucky orphan. The kid who lost his dad, but saved his mother’s life. I had everything, grief and hope, tragedy and consolation, wrapped in one neat package.

Bullyville was a gift, a reward for an outstanding young man, yet it was also a charity case.

Well, my review is getting pretty long, but it’s because I love this book. I won’t give you any more details other than this was the worst years of Bart’s life and that Bart deals with public and private tragedies and losses—the Big Event that shook America, his father’s abandonment for a younger women, the deaths of his father and a close friend, the bullying. And, I’ll tell you the ending is very powerful and hopeful.

I’ll end with this:

Each time I hit him, it was like there was something behind it, aiming my fist, a force that was making me pound…I hit him once for Nola, and for how unfair it was that she’d died. One punch for every time he’d made me miserable since I came to Bullywell, one for the ketchup, one each for the names, the kids, the locker, the text message supposedly from my dad. And then I was hitting him for my dad….for the towers and the planes flying into them…

Playing With Matches...Will Burn

For Teen Read Week, I have read Playing with Matches by Brian Katcher and I am Legend by Richard Matheson...I highly recommend both books.





Playing with Matches is one those books with gut-wrenching scenes. You can't help but to feel that knot in your stomach when the main character is about to do something he regrets to his sort-of-girlfriend. Leon Sanders is not handsome, nor is he a charmer. Some would consider him to be geeky and nerdy and he only has about 3 or 4 friends in the entire school. He is the kind of guy who watches horrible B level horror films and still has his collection Magic Treehouse books from elementary school. Although he is a 17 year old high school junior, he has not had a girlfriend. But, he is in complete lust with a beautiful, popular girl who smokes cigarettes like there is no tomorrow. This is his dream girl, but what he really desires is for some girl, any girl, to like him for what he has to offer...which is basically himself as he is. For some girl to see him as someone special and someone they enjoy being with.



Well, be careful what you wish for. When a real girl finally says this to him, Leon has some difficulty accepting it. Why? Well, it turns out the girl who is falling for him and the girl he can't help but to begin liking is none other than Melody Hennon, a girl who many consider hideous--a girl whose entire face is a shriveled raisin of burned skin. From the neck down she is absolutely normal, but as Leon admits, he cannot get over her face. Nonetheless, he falls for her too, and just when he finally snags a girlfriend, here come the girl of his dreams with her long blond hair, perfect face, and cigarette breath. This is when you start disliking Leon. You just want to reach into the page and slap him around a bit. All of sudden he feels like he is merely settling for Melody and that his dream girl deserves a bit of Leon. Basically, he acts like a Jerk. He plays with fire, bringing grief to Melody and himself, and hardening Melody against any future with Leon. How low does Leon stoop? Will he come to his senses? Can he accept and love Melody beyond her physical appearance? Would you be able to look beyond extreme physical imperfections into the core of a person's beauty? Just read it...Leon holds nothing back. You will get a full glimpse of his views on girls, dating, and love. You'll hate him, but you'll root for him.





EXCERPT

When I was in junior high, I was a nerd. The kind of guy everyone picked on. The last one chosen for teams in gym class. Now, after years of struggle, I'd succeeded in becoming an unknown. And when no girl knew you existed, odds were they wouldn't be receptive when you tried to get them horizontal.

Of course, my looks didn't exactly make girls turn their heads and drop their pants. At only five foot six, I had to look up at many of the girls at school. Puberty had come and gone without leaving me so much as a chest hair or a whisker. And my face . . . Some guys are just born handsome. I had a mug that looked like it should be hanging in a post office somewhere, with the title wanted for shoplifting and credit card fraud.

Instead of wavy brown hair, I had stringy locks the color of old hay. When I wore a hat, I looked like a scarecrow. I'd inherited my father's generous ears but not his noble nose. I was stuck with my mother's petite button nose.

And then there were my eyes. Some guys had steely blue orbs that, despite any physical shortcoming, could just freeze a woman in her tracks and hypnotize her with their raw power. I had two beady brown eyes that, no matter how hard I tried to look mysterious and cool, always seemed to say "It wasn't me who just farted."

I kicked my locker shut. Three billion women in the world, and the universe couldn't spare one for Leon Sanders.

"Excuse me?"

Female voice! I swirled, waiting to see whatever gorgeous teenage queen wanted my attention.

Disappointed wasn't the word. I was . . .


Sneek Peek of his new book--Almost Perfect

A teen boy falls for a new student and forms a close connection that culminates in a kiss. But, then he finds out something about this girl that sends a shock to his core. His world is turned upside down.

The Indigo Notebook Book Tour Oct 15 & 16

Congratulations to my friend and author, Laura Resau, whose novel, The Indigo Notebook will be released on October 13! I just finished reading it this past week, and I love it. I knew it'd be great, especially since I only had wonderful things to say about her previous novel, Red Glass. If you haven't read that review, make sure you check my archives.

Laura will be visiting with us here at Athena's on October 15 and 16 with an interview and guest author post. Of course, I'll be posting a review pretty soon. But, I have to wait unitl I buy the book again because, sadly, I lost the advanced reader's copy she had sent to me! I am still so upset about it--about losing it at pee-wee football pictures for my son! Basically, I took the book out to use for a check I was writing. I must have put the book down when I paid...and didn't realize it until like 5 hours later when I noticed my "Save Planet Earth" tote was so light!



But, here is a book trailer made by the author, Laura Resau. Enjoy!

The Decoding of Lana Morris...Comes With a Wish

The Decoding of Lana Morris by Laura & Tom McNeal

Don’t you just love the title? It makes me think of a girl becoming unraveled to the core of what is real.

I picked up this book not knowing anything about it—the copy I got is hard-cover and there is no inside cover synopsis. I had already read Zipped (not one of my favorites) and Crushed (one of my favorites!) by the same authors, so I knew it could go either way. Not that Zipped does not have its merits—it’s just that it’s not on my personal favorites list.

It turns out The Decoding of Lana Morris is a nice surprise. It’s the first book I read from a stack of about 15 YA novels stacked along the back countertop of my classroom. Reading it first and being quite pleased with it, is a pretty good omen for the rest of them.

The core of the story? A new, modern retelling of the classic question If you had 3 wishes…But there’s no genie or magic or eyelash or wishing star. There’s beautiful blush pink sketching paper with a life of its own when put into the hands of the right person and a sort of wishing well. In the hands of Lana, the sketching paper brings things to people she knows—two of which cause nearly irreparable damage (to a person she dislikes and another whom she has come to love). But in the end, the innocent mind of a "special needs" friend sketches an image bringing Lana and all those she now loves to a place they can love back and that will love them back.

See, Lana and her friends are foster kids and out of the whole bunch of them, Lana is the oldest and the one whose mind works like that of all average, capable teens. When she first arrives to the foster home, Lana has hopes of being adopted by the young couple serving as foster parents and is dismayed by the fact that all the other foster kids in the home are SNK’s (Special Needs Kids as called by Veronica, the icy house mother). Before long, Lana begins to see Whit (Veronica’s boyish husband and the foster parent good guy) in a different way. She has feelings for him beyond that of a father and becomes pretty close to him. The only thing is he is a man she knows little about. She sees only part of him—the part that does care for the children and who makes the house a much nicer and enjoyable place. As for Veronica, let’s just say Lana draws a very fetching picture of her as the evil ice queen.

But, anything good that happens in the foster home comes by the younger residents who are indeed special needs. However, they have so much personality and humanity to share that Lana cannot help but to feel a sense of empathy and love for them. She is in many ways a mother figure to them. One of the most heart wrenching portrayals of a foster child comes through the character of Garth who is a 12 year old boy who loves super heroes and his Popeye action figure, but not more than the mother who abandoned him as a child. He waits everyday by the door for his mother to show up.

As for Lana, she’s 16 and slender with “watchful dark eyes.” She doesn’t know what to do with Whit’s advances and the new warmth she is feeling for her late night radio host neighbor, Chet. Something connecting Lana and Chet is how both of their mother’s abandoned them. Chet still has his father and now he has Lana as a friend and new possible love interest. It turns out Chet has a spot for the SNK’s Lana cares for.

I won’t tell you how the book of drawing paper is connected to the plot, but I will tell you it is essential to the plot and keeps readers engaged and interested up to the end. Do wishes comes true? Can you wish for more wishes? Do wishes end in grief or happiness? Drop your wish down the well. Better yet, gently grab a fallen eyelash off of someone you care for. Let the pieces fall where they may because sometimes our wishes are not those things laid out in our well-planned, thought out lives. Instead, think of them as prayers with a little bit of pixie dust.

Lana's last wish may come true...

Cleopatra's Daughter... Alive and Well

So, you guys know I love teaching world history and that I am a new fan of historical fiction. Well, it's no surprise I am anxious to get my hands on Cleopatra's Daughter, a soon to be released novel by Michelle Moran. Read the summary I posted below from the author's website and tell me you don't just want to read it! I believe you won't be able to!

The marriage of Marc Antony and Cleopatra is one of the greatest love stories of all time, a tale of unbridled passion with earth-shaking political consequences. Feared and hunted by the powers in Rome, the lovers choose to die by their own hands as the triumphant armies of Antony’s vengeful rival, Octavian, sweep into Egypt. Their three orphaned children are taken in chains to Rome, but only two—the ten-year-old twins Selene and Alexander—survive the journey. Delivered to the household of Octavian’s sister, the siblings cling to each other and to the hope that they will return one day to their rightful place on the throne of Egypt. As they come of age, they are buffeted by the personal ambitions of Octavian’s family and court, by the ever-present threat of slave rebellion, and by the longings and desires deep within their own hearts.

The fateful tale of Selene and Alexander is brought brilliantly to life in Cleopatra’s Daughter. Recounted in Selene’s youthful and engaging voice, it introduces a compelling cast of historical characters:

Octavia: the emperor Octavian’s kind and compassionate sister, abandoned by Marc Antony for Cleopatra
Livia: Octavian’s bitter and jealous wife
Marcellus: Octavian’s handsome, flirtatious nephew and heir-apparent
Tiberius: Livia’s sardonic son and Marcellus’s great rival for power
Juba: Octavian’s ever-watchful aide, whose honored position at court has far-reaching effects on the lives of the young Egyptian royals

Selene’s narrative is animated by the concerns of a young girl in any time and place —the possibility of finding love, the pull of friendship and family, and the pursuit of her unique interests and talents. While coping with the loss of both her family and her ancestral kingdom, Selene must find a path around the dangers of a foreign land. Her accounts of life in Rome are filled with historical details that vividly capture both the glories and horrors of the time. She dines with the empire’s most illustrious poets and politicians, witnesses the creation of the Pantheon, and navigates the colorful, crowded marketplaces of the city where Roman-style justice is meted out with merciless authority.

Based on meticulous research, Cleopatra’s Daughter is a fascinating portrait of Imperial Rome and of the people and events of this glorious and tumultuous period in human history. Emerging from the shadows of history, Selene, a young woman of irresistible charm and preternatural intelligence, will capture your heart.

I'll be promoting this novel the rest of the week...the author has several contests, an awesome book trailer, and a Q & A. Plus, she is providing a guest post for Athena's YA Book Reviews!

COMING SEPTEMBER 15!

CONTEST! FOR TEENS ONLY A chance to win a $250 gift certificate for Hollister. See details here - http://michellemoran.com/teencontest.htm STARTS SEPT 15

CONTEST! FOR ALL Win a box of Cleopatra's goodies (signed novel, earrings, fun stuff) by participating in a literary treasure hunt hosted by the author and independent book stores across the nation. See details here - http://michellemoran.com/treasurehunt.htm STARTS SEPT 15

MONTHLY CONTESTS! Win a signed copy of the novel and an authentic Roman coin by answering a question based on Roman history.

See details here - http://michellemoran.com/contests.htm Come on all you history buffs... this contest is for you!

Red Glass...A Slice of Hispanic Culture

Exciting news! Laura Resau, author of Red Glass, will be a visiting author at South Texas ISD during the month of March. I am completely thrilled! Like I told you a couple days ago, I picked up Red Glass right before a live chat with Laura over at the Readergirlz website. I absolutely loved the book and raved about it to our librarians. So, thank you, Lucy, for contacting Laura and making this happen. She'll be presenting to teens and teachers from Med High and Sci Tech over here in Mercedes, Texas and also at the Edinburg and San Benito campuses...to an audience of readers who will recognize and appreciate the references to Hispanic culture in Red Glass. Can't wait to get more details on her school visit!

Check out this excerpt: I held Pablo's hand, and when no one was looking Angel would slip his hand into mine for a moment, or I would let my arm graze his, or he would touch me with the excuse of pointing out something and let his hand linger a few beats. The crowd was pushing us into each other and we let it happen. I loved the shade created just for a moment between his arm and mine, his face and my neck, my hair and his hand. And in this space, I could almost forget that he was leaving for good.

And this one too: And then suddenly, Angel's hand was on my hip and he was turning me around and pressing me to him and whispering, out of breath, "Lime-girl." I felt my breasts against his chest, and I breathed in his soap, the detergent of his T-shirt, next to the destroyed Virgen on the sliver of moon, with only a few tiny stars left on her cape, I could see why someone would want a mnoment of complete happiness, even if it wouldn't last.

In Red Glass, Sophie is a teenage girl who has always been afraid of everything--of the sheer number of possible illnesses and tragedies that may come hurling towards her. She is especially afraid of losing life to death and losing those whom she has come to love, including Pablo, a six year old illegal immigrant whose parents died crossing the border into Arizona, and Angel, a young man who many might judge as Sophie's complete opposite with his gold chains and low-slung jeans. Sophie's fears are put to the test when she agrees to travel into Mexico with her aunt Dika, Angel, and Mr. Lorenzo (Dika's boyfriend and Angel's father) to reunite Pablo with his family. Together they create their own little world made up of car, heat, Mexico, and Neruda (Hispanic poet Pablo Neruda) as they travel several days to the state of Oaxaca, a place where some still speak a more indigenous form of Spanish called Mixteco.

Sophie is aware that Pablo might break her heart if he agrees to stay with his family, but what she does not expect is that Angel, someone she has only barely met, may do further damage by going south into Guatemala to find his own mother. Angel knows of death, having nearly lost his own while picking coffee beans during his youth. And, with the hope of finding his mother alive, Angel feels his home is his mother. He sees nothing wrong with making his life in Guatemala rather than the US. He had never wanted to leave his tierra (his land) in the first place. Sophie finds it difficult to understand how anybody, including Pablo and Angel, would be willing to leave the safety and luxury of the U.S. for a world that is more uncertain. Or, rather, a world uncertain to Sophie only.

But, throught the example of strong women, Sophie is able to see she is not the first to endure obstacles and pain. First there is her aunt Dika, a Bosnian refugee whose home was destroyed and who once had a great love in her life. Then there is Nola, who lhas always loved one man, a gitano (gypsy), her entire life even though circumstances have kept her from being with him. There's also her mother who is willing to provide midnight meals to illegal immigrants who are living near life and death situations. And then, there are the women of Pablo's village who show Sophie how to manage the hard work of village life--stirpping kernels off dried corncobs, carrying heavy buckets down dirt roads, making tortillas over a fire and turning them over with her own fingers. (Hey, I barely pick them up with my nails and sometimes resort to a fork or spatula.) And the men? Well, the men do the men work in the fields. That's how my parents, grandparents, and long line of ancestores made their lives.

With their example, Sophie discovers she has more strength than she thinks possible. The gringuita (slang word meaning white girl) from the ends up risking her life through possible bus hijackings and gang abductions in order to rescue the life of a man she has grown to love--Angel Reyes. Now, does he find his mother? Does he come back with Sophie? I won't tell you, but I will say he finds the guavas sustaining life and the red glass once worn by his mother and now draped around Sophie's neck.

But, what I really enjoyed the most was all the cultural flavor...the description of boys selling tiny packs of chicles, the sounds of the cumbia, and the assembly line of tamale making. Now, for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about...chicles refer to gum, the cumbia is a rythmic style of music, and tamales....mmmmm...you've got to eat them! Tamale making is a Mexican tradition still alive here in South Texas. Of course, many of us buy them by the dozen, but even I know exactly what the tamale assembly line is all about. Basically, a bunch of women (the grandmas, aunts, etc.) get together, especially during the holidays, and make loads of tamales for all to share and take home. It's quite an elaborite process of kneading, spreading, and boiling, but it does provide a pleasant time of sisterhood, laughter, and fellowship with all the comadres (close, female friends and relatives). Ok. l'll admit a little gossip probably takes place, too, but it's all in good fun. And, Laura describes it right on. It's been a while since I've done the whole tamale thing...I have to plan better this Christmas and get over to my Mom's whenever she gets the tamale making bug!

Read it! It'll get you in the mood for some awesome, home-made Mexican food. A road trip, yummy food, romance, true-to-life descriptions, and Laura's beautiful imagery...can't go wrong with it. You'll love it! Hmmm...I think I'll make some real tortillas sometime this week.