The Hero and the Crown

Book: The Hero and the Crown
Author: Robin McKinley
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: clumsy, black-sheep princess turns out to be Dragon-slaying, world-saving princess

Aerin may be the only child of the king of Damar, but it hasn't won her a big fan following so far. For years, people in and out of the royal court have whispered stories of how her witch mother used magic to ensnare the king in marriage and get an heir on the throne, and how she died of disappointment when her child was born a girl.

Aerin longs to do something of use for her father and the kingdom, so with the help of her cousin, Tor, she secretly learns to use a sword, and she becomes Aerin Dragon-Killer. Dark powers are stirring in the north, and though smaller than their legendary counterparts, small dragons are becoming a dangerous nuisance in the villages. But rumors exist in her father's books that one of the great dragons may still be alive, dormant and waiting to rise again and cause fiery mayhem. And there is still another problem to consider: the common source of the dragons, the rebellious spirit in the northern lords, and more ominous signs of dark times to come. She may have been belittled by people all her life, but Aerin's country needs her now for the gifts she never imagined she had.

A classic high fantasy; dragon-slaying and magic destiny-discovering adventure at its best. I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. And if you want more there's also The Blue Sword, written two years before this one but set much later in the history of Damar.

Dairy Queen

Book: Dairy Queen
Author: Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: your basic "girl runs farm, girl joins football team, girl falls for rival quarterback" story

D.J. Schwenk's two older brothers were high school football stars. D.J. is athletic, too, but now that her dad's recuperating from surgery, she's more or less been running her family's dairy farm. No more basketball, no more volleyball, and barely any time to hang out with her best friend, or do anything fun for that matter. From all those years of helping her brothers with workout drills, D.J. knows her way around a set of calisthenics. So when a family friend (and coach of the rival football team) asks her to train his quarterback over the summer, D.J. doesn't know exactly why she does it, but she agrees. Said quartback's name is Brian Nelson. He's got talent, he's got looks, but he's also a big whiner who blames other people for all his mistakes and isn't a fan of hard work. But he's not about to get shown up by a girl, so let the training begin.

Brian's actually not a bad guy, which complicates D.J.'s life when they're spending almost every day together. More complications ensue when she decides that what she really wants is the last thing anyone expects: to join the football team. A worthy addition to teen girl power lit. D.J. is funny, honorable, and heroic, in a rural-Wisconsin-meets-Title-9 sort of a way. Language and content is definitely on the high school side of the spectrum, but nothing all that edgy.

The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen

Book: The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen (Book Two of M. T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales)
Author: M. T. Anderson
Audience: Grades 4-6
In a Nutshell: makes fun of mystery series books, and has a crazy fun time doing it

I love M. T. Anderson. Loooove him. No, we're not related, despite sharing a last name. Everything he's ever written rocks. Sometimes (make that usually) it's disturbing in some way, but so well done. The guy is twisted, but boy, can he write. Just try to say the title of this book out loud and not want to read it. Some readers may not know what linoleum or lederhosen mean, but it still sounds fantastic. The Thrilling Tales series features a trio of heroes: Katie Mulligan, Jasper Dash, and Lilly Gefelty. Katie is the star of a creepy mystery book series- think Goosebumps. The "Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut" books were big in the 1940's, when fearless, brave and courteous Jasper fought bad guys with his crazy "futuristic" inventions, such as the Gyroscopic Sky Suite. Lilly doesn't have a book series. She doesn't realize yet that her life is not boring, so she's happy to hide in her famous friends' shadows. In the first book, the three friends saved the world from whales on stilts (hence the title: Whales on Stilts!) In this second tale, the trio try to take a vacation from mystery and the forces of evil, but no luck. They go to a mountain hideaway called the Moose Tongue Lodge and Resort, where Jasper has a coupon for free dinner. It turns out that the coupons were a fake, and many other mystery series stars were lured there by the same bogus coupon. No sooner have the guests realized the hoax then they get word that the adorable Hooper Quints have been kidnapped, and they all set out to solve the mystery. All except Katie, who really wants a vacation. But how long can she ignore a good mystery? And why is one guest always letting out bloodcurdling screams? And will Jasper survive his encounter with immunoglobulin E? The book is weird and quirky enough to appeal to readers who like weird, quirky books; if they are familiar with some of the books being panned, it gets even better. Goosebumps, The Bobbsey Twins, and any given old-fashioned horse books are just a few of the targets of Anderson's (fond) satire.

The next book in this thrilling series? The teaser in the back begins like this:

It is a land of wonders...

It is a land of mystery...

It is a land that time forgot

(or chose specifically not to remember)

It is called... DELAWARE!

How can you not love that?

I haven't gathered enough data to know if actual kids find these books as hilarious as I do, but oh well.

School's Out-- Forever

Book: School's Out- Forever (Book 2 of Maximum Ride)
Author: James Patterson
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: kids with wings hide from crazy scientists and look for their parents

The first book was action-packed and interesting, and this one pretty much is, too. To be honest, I read this a while ago and now I'm trying to catch up on my Barker posts. Max and the other genetically-engineering flying children continue their quest for truth, parents, and blowing stuff up. Lots of action, twists, turns, betrayals, but not a whole lot accomplished in the end. But there's a third exciting installment due out in May, so stay tuned. Maybe book three will be more revealing.

The Prophet of Yonwood

Book: The Prophet of Yonwood
Author: Jeanne DuPrau
Audience: Grades 4-8
In a Nutshell: find a home, fall in love, help the world

Nickie's great-grandfather just died, leaving the family's huge old mansion in the small town of Yonwood, North Carolina, to her mom and aunt. The house is so old it has a name: Greenhaven. Nickie's aunt, Crystal, just wants to clean it up and sell it as soon as possible, and Nickie comes along to help. She also has three goals of her own: 1. To convince her aunt not to sell Greenhaven so that she and her mom and dad can live there, out of the dangerous city; 2. To fall madly, passionately in love- not forever, just for now, to see what it's like; 3. To do something helpful for the world. She sees her chance to do #3 when she hears about the Prophet. Several months back, a woman in town had a fiery, frightening vision of the future, and now she's half-delirious in bed, muttering confusing things that a few prominent town members (like Mrs. Beeson) interpret and pass on as God's will to the rest of the people. With the President on television nearly every day warning of an imminent war with the extremist "Phalanx Nations," people are all too willing to believe a vision of fiery doom, and they do whatever Mrs. Beeson tells them to do in the hopes that they can prevent the coming disaster and destruction. Nickie tries to help Mrs. Beeson do good by reporting people who might have evil tendencies, but she soon realizes that it's not as easy as judging appearances and first impressions to decide who's good and who's eeevil. To mix things up, throw in a cute stray dog (good?), a new friend who loves snakes (evil?), a mysterious white-clad "terrorist" wandering the woods, and a secret message hidden in postcards from her father. Nickie reaches all three goals, but not how or when she expected.

This book was disappointing; all the more so because I love the first book, The City of Ember, and the sequel, The People of Sparks. Prophet is presented as the Third Book of Ember, prequel-style, but the connection is pretty slim. The author threw in a lot of wrap-up and tie-in facts in the final chapter, almost like she hit her page quota and resorted to summary. The story quickly gets bogged down in message and metaphor, mostly related to the current state of the post-9/11 world. Not that war, fear, safety vs. freedom, and questions of religion and who really knows God's will aren't perfectly good topics to tackle, but the approach here gets too heavy-handed. It hampered my attempt to enjoy the story and characters apart from The Lesson To Be Learned. I don't like being hampered.

Foundation

Book: Foundation
Author: Isaac Asimov
Audience: High School to Adult
In a Nutshell: they're saving humanity, but they have no idea how

Sometimes I feel like a big slacker of a sci-fi fan, because there are a lot of classic novels I've never read. This was one of them. Here's the deal: Hari Seldon is the galaxy's greatest psychohistorian, meaning he can predict major events and risings and fallings of civilization based on what he knows of history, sociology, and statistics. That's right, math. Don't bother looking up "psychohistory", because the author made it up. Leave it to Asimov to imagine a universe where a math geek will save us all. That's what Seldon set out to do: through his science he sees that the gi-normous and all-powerful Galactic Empire will soon collapse, plunging the human race into 30,000 years of primitive dark ages before we recover. Seldon believes he can reduce that dark time to a mere 1,000 years. How? By setting up the Encyclopedia Foundation on a little planet on the edge of nowheresville, galactically speaking. The job of the Foundation members is to create a massive encyclopedia containing the sum of human knowledge so that it won't be lost in the dark time to come. A nice idea, but will that really eliminate 29,000 years of suffering? No, not really. Turns out old Hari Seldon had a lot more planned than just a 1,000-volume leather-bound set. The tricky part is, Seldon purposely didn't tell anyone else what chain of events would begin after the Foundation was created. So the people of the Foundation planet have no idea what they're really doing, or how it might save humanity.

The premise is very interesting, and I enjoyed the book for a while. But honestly, I got a little impatient toward the end. Like Asimov himself mentions in the foreward, the book is all ideas and talk, talk, talk. Big, exciting things do happen, but they're always "off-camera", so to speak. Only once that I remember was the point of view actually in the action. Maybe I've just been reading too many action-heavy YA books (is that even possible?!), but after a while I wanted to see the action for myself, not just hear someone talk about what just happened, or was still happening, or was about to happen. Anyway, I'm glad I read it, but I don't think I'll check out the rest of the series quite yet.

Howl's Moving Castle: The Movie

Movie: Howl's Moving Castle
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Rating: PG
Audience: Children to Adult
In a Nutshell: like the book, but with an anti-war message instead of a trip to Wales

I was a good girl and read the book first, then rented the movie. Generally I like Miyazaki a lot, and Howl's was no exception. There were definitely changes from the book, he certainly made the story his own, but I like each version for what it is. Diana Wynne Jones's original novel is more light-hearted. One could describe it as a playful romp and not be lying. The movie isn't so much "playful romp" material, although there is plenty of humor. The movie has slightly darker themes, two of them being the big bad pointless war that Howl opposes, and the danger of Howl losing his humanity to the bird creature he can change into. Also, there's no magical door to Wales like there is in the book; there's no connection to our world at all. Besides that, many characters and parts of the story are similar, if adjusted a bit to fit movie format and Miyazaki's style. Billy Crystal as the voice of Calcifer the fire demon is one of the best parts. That's one thing I'll say for Disney, which handles the English language dubbing and theatrical releases of Miyazaki's films: they do an excellent job casting the voice talents. I won't go into any more detail, but I'd say the book and movie are equally great in their own ways.

Bodies from the Bog

Book: Bodies from the Bog
Author: James M. Deem
Audience: Grades 4-8
In a Nutshell: title says it all

I read this one because I was fascinated by Bodies from the Ash and wanted to see more from Deem. Lots of nice big photos of bog mummies and artifacts from Denmark, England, Ireland, and more to be found here. The author tells us about how bog mummies form and what we've learned from them so far about ancient European cultures. Were these people sacrificed, murdered, executed, or just accidentally drowned? Everyone has their opinion. At least, everyone who studies bog bodies does. And if you read this book, maybe you will too. It's visual, it's informative, it's nice and macabre. Thumbs up.

Ithaka

Book: Ithaka
Author: Adele Geras
Audience: Teen
In a Nutshell: waiting for Odysseus with a few Greek gods, a few hundred nasty houseguests, and one very old dog

This is kind of a sequel, but it stands alone. The first book is called Troy. Now the battle of Troy is over, but Odysseus is still far from home. While he's off having all the adventures it takes to get an "odyssey" named after you, life at home on the island of Ithaka goes on. His faithful wife Penelope and son Telemachus still believe he's alive and coming home, but after 12 years and counting few others share that belief. The story is told mainly through the eyes of Penelope and Klymene, a girl who, along with her twin brother Ikarios, is a servant at the palace and was raised with Telemachus. The arrival of Telemachus's distant cousin, a selfish man magnet named Melantho, throws love complications out in all directions. Then dozens of nasty, rude chieftains and their men arrive to vie for the hand of Penelope and camp out in the courtyard for months, and if Penelope doesn't find a way to stall them things could get ugly. The regular narrative is augmented by two kinds of poetic interludes as Penelope unknowingly weaves on her loom the story of her husband's journey as it happens, and as Odysseus's dog, Argos, dreams and waits for his master to return.

This isn't necessarily my kind of book, but I read it for a review group and actually liked it. It's good historical/mythological fiction written from the other side of Homer's famous Odyssey, the side with the women and children, and the writing kept me engaged. The male-female relationship content gets pretty mature, though not graphic, as both the teen and adult characters are the target of Eros and Aphrodite's influences. It also made me wish I knew The Odyssey better to know how this story ties in. Not enough to actually re-read it, but good job anyway, Ithaka.