Timothy of the Cay

Title: Timothy of the Cay

Author: Theodore Taylor

Summary: The stories of Timothy's childhood and Philip's life after he leaves the Cay are told in alternating chapters.  Timothy first goes to sea at age 14, becomes a captain of his own ship, and eventually serves on the ship where his life crosses with Philip's.  Philip undergoes a surgery to regain his vision.  When it works, he returns to his Cay to finally see everything that Timothy had described to him.

Stars: 6.  It was okay.  It could have been better.  Personally, I liked The Cay better than this book.

Violence: 4, Timothy was cuffed on the back of the head occasionally, and the fierce hurricane that killed Jennifer and her family was pretty violent.  However, nothing was too graphic.

Romance: 2-3.  Charlie told Timothy to settle down with a lady, but Timothy never really acted on it.

Language: 4 for d--n.

Appropriate for: 7-8, but only if you've read The Cay.

Other: The title of this book was extremely boring.  Even though it left out Philip's name, I thought that was particularly appropriate.  The Cay was told in the first person, from Philip's point of view, and his name was rarely ever mentioned.  However, there was nothing in the title that made me want to read the book, apart from The Cay being a good book.
I almost thought Timothy's story wasn't that essential, other than showing another angle of the discrimination against blacks.  I was more interested in Philip's story.  I almost wanted to just skip the Timothy chapters and read only the Philip chapters, but I resisted.

Taking Sides

Title: Taking Sides

Author: Gary Soto

Summary:   Lincoln is a star basketball player for Franklin Junior High, a tough school in a bad neighborhood.  Then he moves to a nicer school district and goes to Columbus Junior High.  When he has to play against his old school, he doesn't know if he should play hard and seem like a traitor to Franklin or be easy and seem like a traitor to Columbus.  In the end he realizes that he's not like the Columbus kids.  He's a Franklin through and through, wearing a Columbus uniform.  He plays for himself and for the love of the game, not worrying about who wins.  

Stars:  7.  Not one of my favorite genres, but Gary Soto's writing is really realistic.  

Violence:  6.  Fighting is discussed, but never described in detail.  Lincoln has a toe injury and a knee injury, and both are described (the injuries, not the acquiring of them).  

Romance:  6 for discussion of boyfriends (come on, I mean, they're in eighth grade, but still . . .) and minimal hand-holding.  

Language:  0

Appropriate for:  junior high/middle school

Other:  This was a good exercise of my Spanish.  For the words I didn't know, there was a glossary in the back (which I never found until I was finished . . .).  I liked the culture intertwined in this book (for example, the tortillas at all meals and speaking Spanish at home).  

The Secret Adversary

Title: The Secret Adversary

Author: Agatha Christie

Summary:   Tommy and Tuppence, two young people who had survived the war, get together and try to make some money.  A case comes up at once:  a man wants Tuppence to assume a false identity and live in France.  When he asks her name, she decides that she had better not tell him, so she takes one that Tommy had told her about the other day, Jane Finn.  The man starts up and begins getting scared.  This all leads into a quest for the real Jane Finn, who had been handed important papers by an agent at the sinking of the Lusitania.  These papers, if published, could begin the overthrow of the English Government.  Some people want these papers to publish them.  The secret society is headed up by a criminal genius who goes by "Mr. Brown."  With the aid of an acclaimed KC and an American millionaire (cousin of Jane Finn), they try to track down the leader.  The person who turns out to be the criminal is - as always with Christie's novels - extremely unexpected.  (Except . . . I expected that he/she was the criminal halfway through the book.  Either it wasn't that unexpected, or I'm very perceptive.  I'm tempted to believe the latter, but common sense tells me that Christie wasn't at her best in this novel.)  

Stars: 8.  Definitely not one of Christie's best novels.  The coincidences were a little too much for me.  

Violence: 5 for threatening people with firearms and whacking people on the head with heavy objects.  Oh, and old knocking people out with the stuff in a handkerchief (they inhale it, and they get knocked out).  

Romance: 5 for several proposals - at least three.  No graphic physicalities.  

Language: 6, for h--l and related expletives.  

Appropriate for:  Teen/adult

Other: 

Perelandra

Title: Perelandra  (Space Trilogy, #2)

Author: C.S. Lewis

Summary:  Dr. Ransom returns, and this time he's got to go to Venus and save that planet!  The Oyarsa of Malacandra (referred to as Malacandra from now on, since there's an Oyarsa of Venus [Perelandra] and a twisted Oyarsa of Earth [Thulucandra]) sends Ransom to Venus in a coffinlike structure that melts upon his landing.  Perelandra is a land of floating islands that move in relation to one another.  Ransom meets a green Lady, who is the equivalent of Eve.  Weston suddenly arrives on Perelandra, trying to convince the Lady to live on the fixed land (which Maleldil had strictly commanded her not to do).  It's only Weston's body, though.  It is someone else inside.  The sleepless creature, Un-man, persists in his flattery and persuasion.  Eventually Ransom, with the support of Maleldil, physically wrestles with the Un-man.  Though hurt, Ransom pursues the Un-man to the fixed land.  There, he vanquishes Un-man - or so he thinks.  He's gotten into this chimney kind of structure by swimming through a crack in the rock, but he can't do it again.  So he climbs up.  Eventually the Un-man finds him again, but Ransom pushes him into a fire pit.  Un-man dies (and doesn't come back this time).  He is met at the top by the Oyarsas (Oyarsae?) of Mars and Venus, Malacandra and Perelandra.  The Lady and her King are also there.  The Oyarsas send Ransom back home in another coffinlike structure.  

Stars:  9.  The description, if possible, was even better than in Out of the Silent Planet.  

Violence: 8.  The fighting of the Un-man and Ransom was violent.  It wasn't graphic.  It just stated the wounds, and that in and of itself was bad enough.  They were pretty bad wounds.    

Romance: 6; the Un-man suggested that there was something between Ransom and the Lady, since they were both naked in all their associations.  However, that kind of relationship was apparently foreign to Perelandra, and it wasn't really even a wish in Ransom.  

Language: 0-1

Appropriate for:  Older teen/adult

Other: Its allegory was great.  Loved it.  However, it was a bit deep and tangled.  I have the feeling that in a couple of years or so I'll understand it better.  

An Old Fashioned Girl

Title: An Old Fashioned Girl

Author: Louisa May Alcott

Summary:  Polly goes to town to stay with Fan and Tom.  While there, she contrasts her plain dresses with the rich girls' fancy ones.  She also notes a man who manages to be both fashionable and courteous.  His name is Sydney.  
She returns later to teach music in town.  Sydney falls in love with Polly, but she doesn't return his affection.  She nips the romance in the bud.  Then Fan and Tom's family hit hard times.  Tom gets a job out west, and from his letters Fan and Polly believe he loves another girl.  But Polly loves Tom.  Turns out, Tom loves Polly, too.  Sydney and Fan get engaged, and it's a general "happily-ever-after" ending.  

Stars: 5

Violence: 3; Tom tumbles off his velocipede and consequently gets injured.  His injuries are not graphic.  Alcott, no doubt writing for girls in her time period, probably thought girls would have no interest or business with a scene of that sort.  

Romance: 7.  Heh, romantic concerns must encompass over half this book.  Nothing inappropriate for 19th or 20th century girls, so certainly nothing shocking to 21st century readers, except for maybe the barefaced modesty and conservative view of romance.   

Language: 0, I'm pretty sure, but I might have missed one or two words.  

Appropriate for: Young adult/teen

Other: I've noticed a pattern in Alcott's books.  I've made a Google Docs spreadsheet for you all to check out, since it's easier to understand in that format.  The three books I used are An Old Fashioned Girl, Rose in Bloom, and Little Women.  Spreadsheet
Also, I think the picture of Tom at the end spoiled it for me.  He looked old, ugly, and weird.  To my mind, he looked like Bhaer (from Little Women).  It didn't fit Tom.  Here, I'll post a picture.  

Out of the Silent Planet

Title: Out of the Silent Planet  (Space Trilogy, #1)

Author: C.S. Lewis

Summary:  Dr. Ransom, a philologist, is kidnapped by two men who truly deserve the title of "evil scientist":  Weston and Devine.  They take him to Malacandra, which is called Mars on the earth.  Weston and Devine have a philosophy of imperialism on a large scale, and they plan to annihilate the inhabitants of Malacandra to make room for humans.  The Oyarsa of Malacandra, who is the leader of Mars under Maleldil (an allegory for God), sent for Weston and Devine.  Weston and Devine, misunderstanding Oyarsa's gesture of friendship as an intention to use them for human sacrifices, left Malacandra and returned with Ransom to use for a sacrifice.  Ransom escapes and meets the hrossa, which are like seals, the sorns, huge herdsmen slightly reminiscent of Cyclops (but with both eyes), and the pfifltriggi (sp?), creatures dwarflike in their love of working metals.  

Stars: 9.  It was a little hard to work through, but I loved the description and new words.  I promise myself I will reread it later.  In the daytime.  

Violence: 6.  This is more of a thoughtful book, but they killed a sea monster (I forgot what it was called, but Ransom helped kill it, disobeying the eldil who spoke to him.)  

Romance: 6, for when Ransom and his hross friend discussed hross love (not in too much detail or with too much abandon, for it didn't go into the physicalities of it).  

Language: 0-1

Appropriate for:  Older teen/adult

Other: This was a good step up from The Chronicles of Narnia (I still like the story of the Chronicles better, but this was great too).  It contained more challenging vocabulary, more tangled allegory, and great description.  I had to look up no less than 15 words in the dictionary.  

Runemarks

Title: Runemarks

Author: Joanne Harris

Summary: Maddy Smith is a Fiery.  She has a rune, which allows her to do magic.  When she meets a wandering Fiery named One-Eye, she never guesses the truth.  When he sends her below ground to find a treasure called The Whisperer, she discovers Loki, one of the old Norse gods, and he tells her that old One-Eye is actually Odin, the head honcho.  At least, he was the head honcho before the big war.  Now the rest of the gods aren't fully on his side. Maddy and Loki, with the guidance of the Whisperer, venture to the Underworld, where the showdown will occur between Odin and the Nameless.  The Nameless turns out to be the most unexpected character of all.  

Stars:  4-5  

Violence: 7, because when the Nameless speaks, everyone's nose bleeds.  Also, a lot of battling and casting runes happens - which usually involves violence.    

Romance: 4.  Hel, goddess of the Underworld, trades Loki for Balder.  Originally, she had asked Loki to kill Balder so that she and Balder could be together in the Underworld.  (Evidently Balder was god of sunshine or something, so he was handsome.  But really . . . a handsome god named Balder?)  

Language:  4; it contained d--n and b-----d.  

Appropriate for: Young adults

Other: It was like Rick Riordan's The Red Pyramid, what with all the glamours.  And I could draw a connection between runes and hieroglyphs.  

The world was almost confusingly complex.  One set of gods is confusing enough.  Two sets is just crazy.  Maybe the Norse gods were that numerous and befuddling originally.  Well, the author could have explained them better.  

This book seemed anti-Christian or something.  The titles of some of the antagonists were parsons and bishops (and this wasn't the kind of book where the "bad guy" is the protagonist, like Macbeth).  The Nameless, who was really, really, greedy and bad and terrible etc., was called the Ancient of Days.  The antagonist was the established church.  The church sometimes had communion, which was a black-magic connection of the entire church and the Nameless.  It's as if the author is saying that the church is bad.  And that makes me not so sure about this book.  

Beauty

Title: Beauty

Author: Robin McKinley

Summary: Beauty's father wanders into an enchanted castle, where he is shown hospitality.  As he leaves, he picks a rose for Beauty.  But the Beast, the owner of the castle, tells him that he must bring back his daughter to live with the Beast or else come back alone and die.  Beauty comes to live with the Beast and discovers that he is not what he seems.  When she agrees to marry him, he turns into a prince.  

Stars: 8.  I like books that retell familiar stories (fairy tales and Shakespeare, for example).  

Violence: 3 for when the Beast sends the horse off by smacking it on the flank with his claws.  He frightens the invisible servants with a roar so loud that it actually tumbles Beauty over.  

Romance: 6, since it is a princess story.  It isn't graphic, though.  The invisible servants try to make Beauty wear a dress that she considers . . . immodest . . . but it isn't described in that much graphic detail.  (That was one of my favorite scenes.)  

Language: 0

Appropriate for: 9+  

Other: I really liked the description of places, especially of the castle.  The invisible servants were - to say the least - amusing.  

El Dorado

Title: El Dorado (sequel to The Scarlet Pimpernel, or one of the sequels)

Author: Baroness Emmuska Orczy  (Her full name is Emma "Emmuska" Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orczi.  No wonder she shortened it!)  

Summary: In revolutionary France, Armand St. Just, a follower of the Scarlet Pimpernel (aka Percy Blakeney, his sister's husband) falls in love with an actress, Mlle. Jeanne Lange, while working for his leader in enemy country.  (Percy, an Englishman against the French Revolution, is famed for rescuing innocents from the blade of Madame Guillotine under the guise of the Scarlet Pimpernel.  However, some in France know his true identity.  Percy's mission at the beginning of the book is to rescue the young Dauphin from a cruel prison in France.)  Jeanne is not a supporter of murdering "aristos" and saves Armand's life by hiding him.  She is arrested, giving Percy a double mission:  rescue the Dauphin and Jeanne.  Armand doesn't trust his leader, supposedly in the madness of his love, and goes back to save Jeanne himself.  The long and short of it is, Percy goes back to save Armand and gets captured himself.  The French starve Percy, trying to make him tell them where he's put the Dauphin.  Finally, after about seventeen days, he seems to give.  He says that he will lead them to the place.  They take Percy's wife Marguerite (also Armand's sister) and Armand as insurance.  Eventually, Percy trades places with one of the Frenchmen in a powerful position in the hierarchy and rescues his wife and brother-in-law.  

Stars: 6

Violence: 7.  Percy was kept on bread and water for seventeen days.  During this time period, he was also not allowed to sleep.  Every time the author talked about him, she mentioned something about a deathly appearance and waxy hands and sunken eyes and . . . well, it was extremely creepy.  

Romance: 7.  This book could partially be classified under "romance."  I didn't read it for the romance, though . . . I liked the mystery of the first book in this series and decided to read the sequel.  Believe me, though, the mystery was better in the first book (The Scarlet Pimpernel).  

Language: 5.  Lots of "demm'd."  There might have been some others.  

Appropriate for: Young adult or adult.  (I read the first book when I was, what, 10?  Oh well.  I get more out of it now that I'm older.)

Other: On Goodreads (yes, I am on Goodreads) the author profile for the Baroness mentioned that she was most famous for The Scarlet Pimpernel.  It also mentioned that she tried to write sequels, but they were not so popular.  I can see why.  The trick Sir Percy used at the end of this book wasn't at all like the one in the previous book.  I was amazed at the end of The Scarlet Pimpernel.  I had this feeling of "Oh.  That's it?" at the end of El Dorado.  I'll admit that the exchange of letters was clever, but I really felt that the Baroness could have come up with something a bit more original for the ending.  

The Lost Hero

Title: The Lost Hero (part of the Heroes of Olympus series, sequel to Percy Jackson and the Olympians)

Author: Rick Riordan

Summary: Jason wakes up on a bus with a bunch of strange kids.  He can't even remember who he is.  Piper and Leo, his friends, are duly unsettled, but they accompany the rest of the bus kids to the Grand Canyon.  In the Grand Canyon, storm spirits attack.  The teacher, Coach Hedge, is carried away.  Annabeth comes, steering a flying chariot, and brings the three demigods to Camp Half-Blood.  It is revealed that Percy is missing and the goddess Hera is being held prisoner.  Leo is claimed by Hephaestus, Jason by Zeus, and Piper by Aphrodite.  There's something odd about Jason, though.  He seems to prefer calling gods by their Roman names.  The three set out to rescue Hera.  Each is visited by strange phantoms:  Leo by "Dirt Woman" and his old babysitter; Jason by wolves; and Piper by a large giant.  They finally follow the trail through to the Wolf House and free Hera.  By the time they return, Jason has almost all of his memories back.  He recalls that Thalia is his sister, and that he came from a camp of Roman demigods.  Annabeth then understands that her boyfriend, Percy Jackson, is at the other camp.  Jason warns that they aren't as friendly over there . . .

Stars: 5

Violence: 5. Violence was in this book, granted, but it wasn't very graphic.  Piper cut off an Earthborn's six arms, but the monster didn't bleed or scream.  In fact, the scene was used for humor.  "The Earthborn looked down, very surprised. He mumbled, 'Arms go bye-bye.'"  When monsters died, they disintegrated into the ground.  No blood.  

Romance: 5. There were a few kisses discussed, including Percy/Annabeth and Jason/Piper.  

Language: 0

Appropriate for: See, I'm not really sure about this.  The writing style made me think 8-9 year olds, but the content made me think 14-15 year olds.  

Other: I wouldn't really call this good literature.  It's got a great plot line, but it needs a little bit of remodeling as regards the tone and vocabulary and all.