Title: Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins
Summary: Katniss Everdeen, symbol of the rebellion in Panem and victor of the Hunger Games, is caught between two powerful forces: the Capitol and District 13. The President of the Capitol, Snow, has Peeta and several other former victors in his grasp. The President of District 13 is Coin, and Prim, Katniss' mother, Gale, and several other District 12 refugees are in her power. Peeta returns to Katniss, but he's a "hijacked" (essentially brainwashed) person, and he believes Katniss is a murderer and a mutt. Katniss reaches the Capitol along with the rebels. When they take over, President Coin allows Katniss to shoot President Snow with an arrow, but Katniss' arrow finds its mark instead in President Coin. Snow, who had already been ailing, dies. Gale gets a job in 2. Katniss' mother gets a job in 4. Katniss and Peeta go back to 12, marry, and have two kids.
Stars: 7
Violence: 8. There was a lot of fighting and pain.
Romance: 5. There was a bit of Katniss/Gale and a lot of Katniss/Peeta. Essentially, Katniss was torn between Gale and Peeta, but she picked Peeta in the end. ". . . I know this would have happened anyway. That what I need to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellowthat means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that."
Language: 0
Appropriate for: 10-14
Other: If this were a movie, I think it would be rated a PG-13 for all the violence and romance, but it is pretty harmless as a book. I might not want to watch the movie, but I really liked the book.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Pretend You Don't See Her
Title: Pretend You Don't See Her
Author: Mary Higgins Clark
Summary: Lacey, a real estate agent, is in charge of the apartment of a young woman named Heather who was killed in a car crash. When the mother of Heather, Isabelle, is murdered while looking through Heather's diary, Lacey is just coming in. The murderer ran away, but as Isabelle dies, she tells Lacey to take the diary to Heather's father, Jimmy. When it is evident that Lacey's life was in danger, she must go into a Witness Protection Program and move to Minnesota under another name. She joins an exercise club, meets a young man, and gets a job. On one of her phone calls with her mother, Mona, Lacey tells her where she is. Mona buys a newspaper from Minnesota, just to feel close to Lacey, and takes it to a restaurant on her date. Someone in the restaurant sees the newspaper and tells the murderer. The murderer is back on her tail. She evades him, goes to the airport, and flies to New York. The murderer trails her, but the police are also trailing her. The murderer comes down to shoot her, but she throws a glass paperweight and his bullet goes astray. The police come in and catch him.
Stars: 5 for a great plot, but this is not a genre I like.
Violence: 6, because there were some shootouts and Isabelle is shot.
Romance: 4 for a kiss on the cheek, and some romantic worries and references to "a man in her life."
Language: 3 for exclamations including the name of God or Jesus.
Appropriate for: Older young adults/younger adults, if that makes any sense. Okay, there's the young adult category. So the older end of that category. Then there's the adult category. The younger end of that category, see?
Other: This book kept my attention. I was so caught up in Lacey's troubles that I had to keep reading.
Author: Mary Higgins Clark
Summary: Lacey, a real estate agent, is in charge of the apartment of a young woman named Heather who was killed in a car crash. When the mother of Heather, Isabelle, is murdered while looking through Heather's diary, Lacey is just coming in. The murderer ran away, but as Isabelle dies, she tells Lacey to take the diary to Heather's father, Jimmy. When it is evident that Lacey's life was in danger, she must go into a Witness Protection Program and move to Minnesota under another name. She joins an exercise club, meets a young man, and gets a job. On one of her phone calls with her mother, Mona, Lacey tells her where she is. Mona buys a newspaper from Minnesota, just to feel close to Lacey, and takes it to a restaurant on her date. Someone in the restaurant sees the newspaper and tells the murderer. The murderer is back on her tail. She evades him, goes to the airport, and flies to New York. The murderer trails her, but the police are also trailing her. The murderer comes down to shoot her, but she throws a glass paperweight and his bullet goes astray. The police come in and catch him.
Stars: 5 for a great plot, but this is not a genre I like.
Violence: 6, because there were some shootouts and Isabelle is shot.
Romance: 4 for a kiss on the cheek, and some romantic worries and references to "a man in her life."
Language: 3 for exclamations including the name of God or Jesus.
Appropriate for: Older young adults/younger adults, if that makes any sense. Okay, there's the young adult category. So the older end of that category. Then there's the adult category. The younger end of that category, see?
Other: This book kept my attention. I was so caught up in Lacey's troubles that I had to keep reading.
Nobody's Princess
Title: Nobody's Princess
Author: Esther Friesner
Summary: Helen of Sparta learns to fight with her older brothers, Castor and Polydeuces. She goes to Calydon and meets Atalanta and helps her fight the giant boar. Then, on their journey home, her brothers stop by Delphi to learn their destiny. Helen meets the Pythia. Castor and Polydeuces set off to Iolkos to find the Golden Fleece with Prince Jason. They send Helen back to Sparta, but Helen wants to go look for the Golden Fleece. The Pythia helps Helen by saying that she has been told that Helen should not leave Delphi on the day Castor and Polydeuces had decreed. The soldiers would go back without her and they would receive news from Delphi. The Pythia had not had any word from the god Apollo, only from Helen. A fisherman's daughter masqueraded as Helen, since she was supposed to be in Delphi, and Helen dressed as a boy to follow her brothers and Prince Jason.
Stars: 8
Violence: 4 because there were some fights, such as the scene with the boar.
Romance: 2 for some talking about "women's matters" at the "time each month when -"
Language: 0
Appropriate for: 12 to 14
Other: I liked this because it was from Helen's viewpoint. It said what happened before Troy.
Author: Esther Friesner
Summary: Helen of Sparta learns to fight with her older brothers, Castor and Polydeuces. She goes to Calydon and meets Atalanta and helps her fight the giant boar. Then, on their journey home, her brothers stop by Delphi to learn their destiny. Helen meets the Pythia. Castor and Polydeuces set off to Iolkos to find the Golden Fleece with Prince Jason. They send Helen back to Sparta, but Helen wants to go look for the Golden Fleece. The Pythia helps Helen by saying that she has been told that Helen should not leave Delphi on the day Castor and Polydeuces had decreed. The soldiers would go back without her and they would receive news from Delphi. The Pythia had not had any word from the god Apollo, only from Helen. A fisherman's daughter masqueraded as Helen, since she was supposed to be in Delphi, and Helen dressed as a boy to follow her brothers and Prince Jason.
Stars: 8
Violence: 4 because there were some fights, such as the scene with the boar.
Romance: 2 for some talking about "women's matters" at the "time each month when -"
Language: 0
Appropriate for: 12 to 14
Other: I liked this because it was from Helen's viewpoint. It said what happened before Troy.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Book of a Thousand Days
Title: Book of a Thousand Days
Author: Shannon Hale
Summary: Dashti is a mucker who lives on the Asian steppes. When she is orphaned, she goes to be lady's maid to one of the "gentry," Lady Saren. Saren will not marry Lord Khasar, because she wants to marry Khan Tegus. Lord Khasar is favored by her father, but Saren doesn't want to marry him. So her father shuts her in a three-story brick tower with Dashti and a seven-year supply of food. The only openings to the outside are tiny ventilation holes and a refuse flap. Through this refuse flap Dashti has a conversation with Khan Tegus, pretending to be Saren. Ordinarily this would be a crime, but Saren commanded Dashti. Then Lord Khasar comes and speaks through the hole after Tegus leaves. He kills all the guards. Finally, Dashti finds an escape hole. Saren's city, Titor's Garden, was destroyed by Khasar. She manages to reach Tegus' city, Song for Evela, with Saren. She gets work with Saren in the kitchens as a scrubber. She is summoned to Tegus to sing for his leg and a friend to be healed. She pretends to be Saren (again on Saren's orders). Saren shares that Khasar is a wolf shape-changer. Then she sneaks out and tries to make the sieging lord Khasar become his wolf form by singing the wolf-song. It works, and Khasar dies. But then Tegus wants to marry her, thinking she is Saren. Dashti can't so she runs away and leaves her journal behind. She is found out and about to be killed for pretending to be Saren when Tegus defends her (with words) in front of the council. Saren doesn't want to marry Tegus so Dashti marries Tegus.
Stars: 9 for a very developed plot.
Violence: 6 for arrows shooting at a wolf, "gentry" slapping each other and some muckers, and mention of war.
Romance: 5, because it was not very descriptive, it just described the smells of people. But it still mentioned kissing.
Language: 0 (yes, I KNOW that I've said this before, but there were no bad words).
Appropriate for: Older children to young adults.
Other: I liked the format, how it was laid out as Dashti's journal. I also admired how the plot was intricate and developed. I liked the small ink drawings periodically in the text. They looked as if they really were drawn with a brush. They almost look like watercolor painted only in black.
Author: Shannon Hale
Summary: Dashti is a mucker who lives on the Asian steppes. When she is orphaned, she goes to be lady's maid to one of the "gentry," Lady Saren. Saren will not marry Lord Khasar, because she wants to marry Khan Tegus. Lord Khasar is favored by her father, but Saren doesn't want to marry him. So her father shuts her in a three-story brick tower with Dashti and a seven-year supply of food. The only openings to the outside are tiny ventilation holes and a refuse flap. Through this refuse flap Dashti has a conversation with Khan Tegus, pretending to be Saren. Ordinarily this would be a crime, but Saren commanded Dashti. Then Lord Khasar comes and speaks through the hole after Tegus leaves. He kills all the guards. Finally, Dashti finds an escape hole. Saren's city, Titor's Garden, was destroyed by Khasar. She manages to reach Tegus' city, Song for Evela, with Saren. She gets work with Saren in the kitchens as a scrubber. She is summoned to Tegus to sing for his leg and a friend to be healed. She pretends to be Saren (again on Saren's orders). Saren shares that Khasar is a wolf shape-changer. Then she sneaks out and tries to make the sieging lord Khasar become his wolf form by singing the wolf-song. It works, and Khasar dies. But then Tegus wants to marry her, thinking she is Saren. Dashti can't so she runs away and leaves her journal behind. She is found out and about to be killed for pretending to be Saren when Tegus defends her (with words) in front of the council. Saren doesn't want to marry Tegus so Dashti marries Tegus.
Stars: 9 for a very developed plot.
Violence: 6 for arrows shooting at a wolf, "gentry" slapping each other and some muckers, and mention of war.
Romance: 5, because it was not very descriptive, it just described the smells of people. But it still mentioned kissing.
Language: 0 (yes, I KNOW that I've said this before, but there were no bad words).
Appropriate for: Older children to young adults.
Other: I liked the format, how it was laid out as Dashti's journal. I also admired how the plot was intricate and developed. I liked the small ink drawings periodically in the text. They looked as if they really were drawn with a brush. They almost look like watercolor painted only in black.
Aphrodite's Blessings
Title: Aphrodite's Blessings
Subtitle: Love Stories from the Greek Myths
Author: Clemence McLaren
Summary: This is a compilation of three retellings of Greek myths about love and the goddess of love, Aphrodite. They are told in first person, from the view of the heroine. One retells the story of how Atalanta outran everyone except for one clever young man who thought to ask the goddess of love herself. Then there's the story of Andromeda insisting on marrying Perseus after he saved her from the vile sea monster. The last is the tale of Psyche, who was fortunate enough to have Eros himself, son of Aphrodite, fall in love with her. He takes her to a beautiful villa with invisible servants. He only comes at night when it is so dark that she cannot see him. He is gone in the morning. But Psyche's sisters give her the idea to hide a candle in the room and look at her husband when he was asleep. She did, but he woke up. She found that he was Eros, and he left her. But Aphrodite decided to give Psyche another chance and gave her four tasks. The first three she accomplished with the help of animals, and the last she had to go into the Underworld. She accomplished them and was reunited with Eros.
Stars: 7
Violence: 3, because of Perseus killing the sea monster.
Romance: 6 because of kissing (of course all the couples kissed). Also bare shoulders (of Eros) but it didn't describe anything horribly indecent.
Language: 0 again. I know, I know, it was supposed to be 1-10, but how can I help it if it wasn't even a 1?
Appropriate for: Young adult.
Other: I enjoy McLaren's retellings (such as Waiting for Odysseus) because they take women into account.
Subtitle: Love Stories from the Greek Myths
Author: Clemence McLaren
Summary: This is a compilation of three retellings of Greek myths about love and the goddess of love, Aphrodite. They are told in first person, from the view of the heroine. One retells the story of how Atalanta outran everyone except for one clever young man who thought to ask the goddess of love herself. Then there's the story of Andromeda insisting on marrying Perseus after he saved her from the vile sea monster. The last is the tale of Psyche, who was fortunate enough to have Eros himself, son of Aphrodite, fall in love with her. He takes her to a beautiful villa with invisible servants. He only comes at night when it is so dark that she cannot see him. He is gone in the morning. But Psyche's sisters give her the idea to hide a candle in the room and look at her husband when he was asleep. She did, but he woke up. She found that he was Eros, and he left her. But Aphrodite decided to give Psyche another chance and gave her four tasks. The first three she accomplished with the help of animals, and the last she had to go into the Underworld. She accomplished them and was reunited with Eros.
Stars: 7
Violence: 3, because of Perseus killing the sea monster.
Romance: 6 because of kissing (of course all the couples kissed). Also bare shoulders (of Eros) but it didn't describe anything horribly indecent.
Language: 0 again. I know, I know, it was supposed to be 1-10, but how can I help it if it wasn't even a 1?
Appropriate for: Young adult.
Other: I enjoy McLaren's retellings (such as Waiting for Odysseus) because they take women into account.
The Last Girls of Pompeii
Title: The Last Girls of Pompeii
Author: Kathryn Lasky
Summary: In Pompeii, Julia's two older sisters are getting married. But while her parents are planning joy for her siblings, they are plotting something different for Julia, with her withered arm, and her slave Sura, who is very beautiful. Sura will be sold as a concubine to a nasty fuller and Julia will be sent as a priestess to a cult. Marcus, Julia's cousin, will help Julia run away. But then Mount Vesuvius erupts and everything is changed. Julia and Sura run away, but Marcus and all their friends and family are buried.
Stars: 4
Violence: 3, because some squabbling sisters hit each other. Julia pricks the fuller with a hairpin and draws blood. Gladiators fight in an arena and one is hurt in the arm. Perhaps Mount Vesuvius erupting may be thought of as violence.
Romance: 5 for when the fuller and a porter try to kiss Sura. The fuller is married. In the baths, girls step on the private parts of Mercury in a fresco.
Language: 0, though I know this isn't on a 1-10 scale. There were no bad words at all.
Appropriate for: Young adults.
Other: I noticed quite a few errors. Was this a first draft or something? Lasky spelled sibyl both "sibyl" and "sybil". One part, at the end of Cornelia's wedding, was missing a period and may also have been missing part of the writing. I can't see how this got past an editor and to the publisher.
Author: Kathryn Lasky
Summary: In Pompeii, Julia's two older sisters are getting married. But while her parents are planning joy for her siblings, they are plotting something different for Julia, with her withered arm, and her slave Sura, who is very beautiful. Sura will be sold as a concubine to a nasty fuller and Julia will be sent as a priestess to a cult. Marcus, Julia's cousin, will help Julia run away. But then Mount Vesuvius erupts and everything is changed. Julia and Sura run away, but Marcus and all their friends and family are buried.
Stars: 4
Violence: 3, because some squabbling sisters hit each other. Julia pricks the fuller with a hairpin and draws blood. Gladiators fight in an arena and one is hurt in the arm. Perhaps Mount Vesuvius erupting may be thought of as violence.
Romance: 5 for when the fuller and a porter try to kiss Sura. The fuller is married. In the baths, girls step on the private parts of Mercury in a fresco.
Language: 0, though I know this isn't on a 1-10 scale. There were no bad words at all.
Appropriate for: Young adults.
Other: I noticed quite a few errors. Was this a first draft or something? Lasky spelled sibyl both "sibyl" and "sybil". One part, at the end of Cornelia's wedding, was missing a period and may also have been missing part of the writing. I can't see how this got past an editor and to the publisher.
Blood Secret
Title: Blood Secret
Author: Kathryn Lasky
Summary: Jerry's mom has disappeared and left her at the mercy of the church. Jerry can't speak anymore. She goes to live with a relative of hers, Constanza, and discovers an old trunk in the root cellar. When she touches each object, she has a hallucination of sorts and is transported back into her ancestors' times, during the Spanish Inquisition. She has lots of these visions and is able to piece together the story of what happened during the Spanish Inquisition.
Stars: 5
Violence: 4, because the book discussed people being burnt at the stake. One woman's neck was broken, and it was seen as "merciful."
Romance: 4 because of when, in the first chapter, Jerry sees her mother's bare rear end.
Language: 5, for though some bad words were sprinkled around, there were not as many as in Avatar.
Appropriate for: Young adults.
Other: There were no really gross grammar or spelling errors, as in The Last Girls of Pompeii, which was also by Lasky. I liked the way that Lasky brought Jerry back in time and had her meet her ancestors. It was hard to understand who was who. There were so many generations, and you had to sort things out. With so many names, you couldn't know who was who without much riffling through names. There were so many generations to sort out. Also, when a Jew named Miriam was baptized, she became Maria. Then in old age she wanted to be called Miriam. So it was quite confusing. Fortunately, the author provides a family tree (of sorts) at the end of the book. (I wish I'd discovered it before I'd finished the book.)
If you liked this book, I'd recommend King of Shadows and Victory, both by Susan Cooper. They involve hallucinations into the past. But King of Shadows has the main character, Nat, actually influence the past instead of just seeing it.
Author: Kathryn Lasky
Summary: Jerry's mom has disappeared and left her at the mercy of the church. Jerry can't speak anymore. She goes to live with a relative of hers, Constanza, and discovers an old trunk in the root cellar. When she touches each object, she has a hallucination of sorts and is transported back into her ancestors' times, during the Spanish Inquisition. She has lots of these visions and is able to piece together the story of what happened during the Spanish Inquisition.
Stars: 5
Violence: 4, because the book discussed people being burnt at the stake. One woman's neck was broken, and it was seen as "merciful."
Romance: 4 because of when, in the first chapter, Jerry sees her mother's bare rear end.
Language: 5, for though some bad words were sprinkled around, there were not as many as in Avatar.
Appropriate for: Young adults.
Other: There were no really gross grammar or spelling errors, as in The Last Girls of Pompeii, which was also by Lasky. I liked the way that Lasky brought Jerry back in time and had her meet her ancestors. It was hard to understand who was who. There were so many generations, and you had to sort things out. With so many names, you couldn't know who was who without much riffling through names. There were so many generations to sort out. Also, when a Jew named Miriam was baptized, she became Maria. Then in old age she wanted to be called Miriam. So it was quite confusing. Fortunately, the author provides a family tree (of sorts) at the end of the book. (I wish I'd discovered it before I'd finished the book.)
If you liked this book, I'd recommend King of Shadows and Victory, both by Susan Cooper. They involve hallucinations into the past. But King of Shadows has the main character, Nat, actually influence the past instead of just seeing it.