Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a note to let you know I won't be posting this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Hope you and those you care about have a fantastic week.

 

Book review - Hello?

Title: Hello?
Author: Liza Wiemer
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books:  Let’s Get Lost by Adi Alsaid
                      Love Letters to the Dead by Lauren Myracle

Rating:

a decent read

Summary (provided by publisher):Tricia: A girl struggling to find her way after her beloved grandma's death.

Emerson: A guy who lives his life to fulfill promises, real and hypothetical.

Angie: A girl with secrets she can only express through poetry.

Brenda: An actress and screenplay writer afraid to confront her past.

Brian: A potter who sets aside his life for Tricia, to the detriment of both.

Linked and transformed by one phone call, Hello? weaves together these five Wisconsin teens' stories into a compelling narrative of friendship and family, loss and love, heartbreak and healing, serendipity, and ultimately hope.

My opinion: I wasn’t sure about this one at first. It is kind of a slow start and I didn’t connect with the  characters very quickly. It gets stronger as you go, though, and becomes a solidly entertaining read. The various format styles helped considerably, keeping the character perspectives clear. It was interesting how their various traumas came to light and affected their choices. Somewhat predictable but still worth a read.

Advance Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Pick 6: Sports stories

While I’m not a fan of most things athletic myself, I must admit sports have great natural drama for stories. Competition reads well on the page and can provide other natural lessons on teamwork and fair play. Here are six sports themed books published in the last six months.

6 New Sports Stories
1. March Grand Prix by Kean Soo
2. A Whole New Ballgame by Phil Bildner
3. Breakaway by Kat Spears
4. First & Then by Emma Mills
5. Losers Take All by David Klass
6. The Edge by Roland Smith

Book review - The Anatomical Shape of a Heart

Title: The Anatomical Shape of a Heart
Author: Jenn Bennett
Genre: romance
Similar books: Has to Be Love by Jolene Perry
                     Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn
Rating:

A quick, fun read

Summary (provided by publisher): Artist Beatrix Adams knows exactly how she's spending the summer before her senior year. Determined to follow in Da Vinci's footsteps, she's ready to tackle the one thing that will give her an advantage in a museum-sponsored scholarship contest: drawing actual cadavers. But when she tries to sneak her way into the hospital's Willed Body program and misses the last metro train home, she meets a boy who turns her summer plans upside down.

Jack is charming, wildly attractive . . . and possibly one of San Francisco's most notorious graffiti artists. On midnight buses and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who Jack really is-and tries to uncover what he's hiding that leaves him so wounded. But will these secrets come back to haunt him? Or will the skeletons in Beatrix's own family's closet tear them apart?

My opinion: Bex and Jack are a great leading couple. Strong willed, fun loving, and flawed. While their relationship happens a little too easily and doesn’t enough bumps and trials to be realistic, the characters themselves are so likeable that it sort of makes up for the unbelievable love story. I like that the parents’ stories weren’t simple either. Their conflicts are complex and require understanding.

Advance Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Book review - Evie Brooks is Marooned in Manhattan

Title: Evie Brooks is Marooned in Manhattan
Author: Sheila Agnew
Genre: realistic fiction
Similar books:  Piper Green and the Fairy Tree by Ellen Potter
                       Boy's Best Friend by Kate Banks
Rating:

funny, informative, and heartwarming

Summary (provided by publisher): New York City. Evie Brooks has seen it on the TV, but she never imagined herself living there. But when her mother dies, Evie finds herself leaving her home in Dublin and moving to Manhattan to visit with her American uncle for the summer. Never having owned a pet more substantial than a goldfish, twelve-year-old Evie is intrigued by Uncle Scott s veterinary practice, and before long is working as an assistant in the clinic. Soon she finds herself immersed in dogs galore, parrots, reptiles, and an assortment of other creatures and their eccentric owners. And she loves it. Manhattan would be just about perfect if it weren t for Uncle Scott s lawyer girlfriend, who has plans for him that do not involve Evie. Before the summer is over, Evie has an important decision to make: stay in New York and confront the problem of Scott s girlfriend or return to Ireland to live with her godmother."

My opinion: I’m a big fan of this one. Evie is a great protagonist - sweet, conflicted, sassy, and realistic. She skews a little young but not overly so. Agnew blends information about animals and veterinary medicine nicely with a plot about grief and unexpected family. The Leela storyline is a little over the top but the rest of the book and what it accomplishes balance that unreality out. A great book for young girls.

Advance Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Picture books for everyone

The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers

Jeffers has this great knack for taking everyday, mundane situations and turning them into something absurd. In this case, a boy accidentally licks a book which leads him to eat it. Henry then goes on to eat a number of books. Kids will enjoy the sheer ridiculous in this book. Visually, this book is done in almost an altered book style. Illustrations are a combination of collage and original drawings. Even the text that shows through on each page has some bearing in the events therein. Cute, clever, and likely to be met with cries of "again." Cries which most parents won't mind.

Book review - The Peddler's Road

Title: The Peddler’s Road
Author: Matthew Cody
Genre: fantasy/retelling
Similar books: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer
                       A Tale Dark and Grimms by Adam Gidwitz
Rating:

thrilling

Summary (provided by publisher): Drawn from the Pied Piper tale, this exciting new trilogy by the author of Powerless is brimming with adventure, mystery, and rats!

It is said that in the thirteenth century, in a village called Hamelin, a piper lured all of the children away with his magical flute, and none of them were ever seen again.

Today tough, pink-haired Max and her little brother, Carter, are stuck in modern-day Hamelin with their father . . . until they are also led away by the Piper to a place called the Summer Isle. There they meet the original stolen children, who haven't aged a day and who have formed their own village, vigilantly guarded from the many nightmarish beings that roam the land.
           
No one knows why the Piper stole them, but Max and Carter's appearance may be the key to returning the lost children of Hamelin—and to going home themselves. But to discover the secrets of the Piper, Max and Carter will have to set out on a mysterious quest down the dangerous Peddler's Road.

My opinion: Lots of cool stuff going on here. This is an excellent retelling, taking the bare bones of a familiar story and respinning it with new details and motivations. I’ve often wondered where the Piper took all of the children, what he gained by those actions. This book give him motivation in spades. A great cast of characters: Max, Carter, and the other children not to mention the magical creatures and the housekeeper, all of whom are fully-fleshed and each with his own motivation. A great sense of adventure, plenty of action. One could argue that it gets a little overly descriptive at times but those moments pass quickly. An exciting story on it’s own with at least one sequel to come.

Advance Reader Copy provided by NetGalley