Starters

Rating: 3/5

Author: Lissa Price

Pages: 336

Genre: Young Adult/Science Fiction/Dystopian

Synopsis:

Callie has never felt more desperate. The Spore Wars left her world in devastation as it resulted in the deaths of everyone from their twenties to their sixties. With her parents dead and no other family to speak off, she is forced to roam the streets with her sick brother and their friend, Michael. With danger at every turn, their very lives are at stake.

When Callie gets word on the street about a company called Prime Destinations, a place willing to pay teens more money than Callie could ever dream of having. This could be her one way ticket out of the slums. All she has to do is allow an Ender (the society’s senior citizens) to occupy her body for a time, giving them a chance to feel young again. It’s all as easy as falling asleep.

But when Callie wakes up in the middle of her rental session in a place she’s never been before, she soon finds out that her renter had more on her mind than a few nights on the town, and that Prime Destinations has a much bigger, sinister plan up their sleeves.

My Reaction:

I liked the unique concept of this book. I’ve read a good handful of these sorts of books, and although I was reminded of some of them, I feel like as a whole this is an idea I haven’t seen before. This is definitely an action packed, thrilling ride. There’s a lot of mystery that slowly unfolds, but things aren’t all completely satisfied which leads us into the sequel, Enders.

Something that made the book relatable is that we have somewhat familiar settings and objects that make this world seem like it really could happen at some point in our future. Hopefully not though…

Overall, this book kind of fell in the middle of the scale for me. It wasn’t bad, in fact I think I’d say it was a good story, but it wasn’t necessarily a book that will land on my all time favorites list. I’m curious enough to check out the second book just to see how a couple details play out, but at the same time I feel like I could walk away from it. Like I said, it isn’t bad read, and I do think there are some readers who will absolutely love it.

I didn’t necessarily care for one of Callie’s relationships with one of the characters. The one good thing that came out of it was an interesting twist at the end that I didn’t see coming. I won’t say anymore. Once you get to the end of the book, you’ll know who I’m talking about.

The style and feel of this book reminded me of a number of other popular dystopian books out there. For that reason alone, I feel that there is definitely an audience for this book, and if you enjoyed any of the similar books listed below, you should pick this one up and give it a go.

Reader Guidance:

• There were a couple of things worth mentioning. If this were made into a movie, I could see it being rated PG-13.
•  There are a few cases of mild profanity, as well as someone giving the finger.
•  When Callie first goes to Prime Destinations to find out how it all works, she asks if there’s any chance her renter would have sex while in her body, and she’s told that’s strictly prohibited. Later on, she’s reminded by another character that no sex is allowed.
• There’s a couple of instances where some guys check out girls and it’s referred to as “undressing us with their eyes.”
• There are two small make out scenes (Nothing too major. Nothing past kissing and talking about the thrill and touching “my face, my neck, my hair.” Honestly, I didn’t care for those scenes because it’s just slightly enough to make me shy and start to get a little uncomfortable, but I’m extra sensitive to those sorts of scenes. I realize this. If a small make out doesn’t bother you, you’ve nothing to fear!)
• There is some violence. Note that this may contain some SPOILERS:

o   Chips inserted in the brain are setup in such a way that if you try to remove them they will explode (this doesn’t actually happen to anyone).

o   There are a couple instances of physical fighting. The more intense one involves a girl with what sounds like brass knuckles. She gives quite a beating the requires a stitched up face afterwards.

o   A 12 year old girl is killed while acting as a diversion.

o   A small car crash leaves a character with a lovely gash in her head.

o   Okay, here’s a SPOILER: Callie tries to kill someone. They are pushed out of the way by another character, so he isn’t killed, but the shot still hits him in the arm.

o   The marshals (cops) use a sort of enhanced, sometimes lethal taser to help hunt down unclaimed minors.

o   Another SPOILER: Callie’s renter is killed. We aren’t witness to it, so we don’t really know details except for that she’s murdered.

Similar Books:

While there were a number of books I thought of, there were two in particular that came to mind.

The Host by Stephanie Myer—The main reason I was reminded of this book was because of the similarity of essentially two beings in one brain that can communicate with each other. Also as I recall, there was a bigger make out scene in this book that also made me uncomfortable. I tell you, I have a hard time reading that sort of thing. What can I say? (If you’re looking at the screen incredulously, would it help you to know that I’m chuckling a little at myself right now?)

Uglies by Scott Westerfield—This one is the first book of a series. I was reminded of it because of the fact that there’s a lot of work done on Callie in the beginning to make her look physically perfect and therefore more appealing to renters. But there’s not so much emphasis on this as there is in where a huge point of the plot is that once you turn a certain age you are made pretty and get to go live the good life with all the pretty people. As with Starters, everything is not what it seems. There was probably making out in this book too. HA! It’s been too long for me too remember specifically, but I do remember a love interest, so, you know, make out potential there.

Next Book:

We’ll go ahead with the next book in the series, Enders. After all, we have to figure out the rest of the answers to the mystery. Besides, sometimes you like stories better as a whole than just as one book. Let’s give it a go!

Books Read to Me in Elementary School

My friend Amanda and me about a month ago.
We met in our 2nd grade class.

Ah, elementary school. So many good memories. That one time I twisted my ankle falling off the

monkey bars and got stuck in an air cast for who knows how long. The yo-yo man who rocketed yo-yos into popularity. Meeting a friend that is still your friend 20 years later. That time Red Rover was banned from the playground. That other time when everything Pokemon was banned. And yet another time when I nearly passed out in the middle of class, so someone from the nurse's office came and pushed me back to their office in a wheelchair. The list goes on and on.

I think one of the highlights of my young school career was that special time in the middle of the day when we would all gather around our teacher’s feet criss-cross-applesauce style and she would read to us from the pages of some glorious piece of fiction. I believe this is one of the things that fostered my love of reading (that and independent reading time, trips to the library, those forced reading tests, books on tape, and my friend Kathryn who always had a good book to recommend, and I’m pretty sure she’s the first person to inspire me to read books under my desk instead of listening to the teacher…).

Here are some of the books I remember being read to me during that very special portion of class time:

Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco

As I recall, this is a bit of a sad book. It’s a story about two boy soldiers who meet each other in the heat of the Civil War. One of the boys is white while the other is a former slave. This book was read to me in either 2^nd or 3^rd grade, and obviously it left a lasting impression on me. I haven’t actually read the book since (now I’m going to have to pick up a copy!), but I remember the end being very tragically touching. I don’t want to give anything away! This is a 48-page children’s book.

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

This is another children’s book with just 32 pages! This was such a fun retelling of a well known story, and I loved it as a child! The story is told from the perspective of the wolf. I love stories like these that make us see multiple possibilities or perspectives of a single story. In this version of the story, you’ll see that the wolf, perhaps, wasn’t as bad as he seemed. This is a really fun children’s story!

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

If you’re familiar with this book, you’ll know that it also has a sad ending, and yet, I love it. Basically it’s about a young boy and his two dogs. I bet you can guess what makes the ending sad… I tried to read another book by Wilson Rawls, and I just couldn’t get into it. (That was Summer of the Monkeys by the way.) But this one, even now, is a great piece of fiction. Also, I recently saw a statue depicting this boy and his two dogs outside of a public library, so apparently I’m not the only one who thinks it’s a great story.

Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel

This is a series of four children's books that I absolutely loved! We even watched a video version of these stories at school. As you can imagine, they tell about the adventures of two best friends, Frog and Toad.

Some honorable mentions are:

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'dell

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald

Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stile Gannett

(I actually don't remember if this one was read to us or if we read it together. I just remember doing big projects on it. I'm pretty sure I made a board game centered around the book.)

Most of these books were read to me by my 2nd/3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Sadler. She even gave me a couple of books which are still in my collection all of these years later. So even though she'll most likely never ever see this post, this one's dedicated to her. I always thought she was a great teacher. Thanks, Mrs. Sadler! I hope I was a decent student back then!

Tune in next week for my final review of the book Starters! Until then, are there any books you remember that were read to you in school?

Summerlost

Rating: 4/5

I absolutely love this cover!

Author: Ally Condie

Pages: 249

Genre: Children’s Fiction

May I point out that this book earned higher than a 3.5? See, I can be more generous when I want to be!

Synopsis:

It’s been a year since the tragic accident that killed Cedar’s father and brother. Now with just her mother and other brother, Miles, they are doing their best to pick up the pieces and cope with their loss. They are spending the summer in their mother’s hometown, fixing up a small home they intend use as a summer getaway while renting it out to college kids during the rest of the year. It is here that Cedar first sees Leo, riding his bike past their home wearing what appears to be some medieval costume.

Intrigued, and more than willing to take her mind off things, Cedar decides to follow him not knowing how it will dramatically affect the rest of her summer.

My Reaction:

This was a very sweet book and one that I feel is great for addressing some of the harder issues that some children have to face, like death. It addresses bullying to some degree, children with special needs, and there’s even a moment where an assumption is made based on someone’s racial background that hurts a character’s feelings. I really appreciated the way that Ally Condie brought these issues into her story, but at the same time, none of the instances were preachy, in-your-face, you’re-a-terrible-human-being sort of way. And the whole story isn’t based on those issues necessarily. It’s more about dealing with loss.

Cedar’s brother who died had special needs, so part of Cedar’s healing process is thinking about how hard it was sometimes and how in the moment she didn’t always want to deal with her brother, but ultimately she loved him very much. And I would say that she had a special bond with her brother because she had learned how to understand him where others couldn’t because of his situation.

Overall, I think this book is fantastic, and I have tender feelings towards it. It illustrates how mourning isn’t a onetime event. Sometimes, even years and years later, we can look back at certain moments in our lives and still feel a portion of that grief. However, we learn through the help of multiple characters that with the pain there also come love and joy in the remembrance of good memories. Sometimes life is just hard, and it can take time to get through those tough stages of our lives.

I think this book could be a good tool to help children become aware or introduced to difficult topics as well as show support to them if they’ve had to deal with similar things. Plus there are great themes of friendship and going for your dreams and the importance of family. I would recommend this book and not just to children.

In my notes to myself as I read this book, I wrote, "A sweet book with heart." It's worth a read. Plus, I forgot to mention, a lot of the plot is surrounded by this town's annual Shakespeare festival which just appeals to my English nerd.

Reader Guidance:

Just be aware that a huge topic of this book is death and coping with the death of a family member at a young age. As mentioned above, there’s a few instances of bullying—more specifically, there’s a scene in a lunchroom where kids are throwing little things or food at a special needs student; there’s a group of kids who like to pick on Leo by shouting at him as they ride by on bike or knock his hat off; and one of the bullies that picks on Leo later tattles on him and Cedar, getting them into trouble.

Similar Books:

A few different books crossed my mind as I read Summerlost, each of them for different reasons.

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall -- This came to mind because it's another summer tale about family, friendship, and a little bit of loss (although it's not as heavily focused on the loss bit in comparison with Summerlost, if I remember correctly). There are actually a few books in The Penderwicks series.

Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie C. Tolan -- It's been a while since I've read this one. This one is a little more on the comedic side in that the Applewhites are quite an eccentric group of characters. They are a very creative, artistic family that run a sort of home school. I thought of it mostly because the whole family ends up trying to put on their own production of The Sound of Music. This is almost more a self-discovery book as on of the Applewhite children struggles to see how she fits into her family while at the same time dealing with a new home school student named Jake, who up until this point has been on the fast track to becoming a juevenile delinquent.

Up from Jericho Tel by E. L. Konigsburg -- I thought of this book because of the similarities in dealing with the history and death of a famous actress. This book has a bit of a supernatural element to it in that the two kids who are our main characters come face to face with the spirit of a dead actress. It's not in a creepy, haunted sort of way. More like it's just like they came to a person house for a spot of tea and some biscuits!  

Next Book:

The next book up was recommended to me by one of my neighbors who I went on a walk with one 

day some weeks back. This is the first of two books, and it looks like it fits into the realm of dystopian novels. Let's jump right in with Starters by Lissa Price!

Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book

Rating: 3.5/5

Author: Jennifer Donnelly

Pages: 341

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy

Synopsis:

Taking place somewhere between the wolf rescue scene and the "Something There" musical number, this story is almost like a book within a book, making the title, Lost in a Book, very fitting for this book (Heh heh, okay, I've said book enough times). Simply put, this story is a tale that takes place smack dab in the middle of Disney's Beauty and the Beast (more specifically, their live action version).

Belle's still having a hard time transitioning to her new life. Things are becoming more confusing than ever as she finds herself uncertain about the beast's character. At the same time her heart is torn between the love for her father and her new found love of the enchanted objects of the castle, what Belle could really use is an escape, one which she finds in the same place she always has--in the pages of a book.

When she stumbles across a magical book within the beast's library that literally sucks her in, it seems better than anything she could have ever hoped for. But is the book more than it seems and is it possible that she will get lost in its pages, unable to ever return home?

My Reaction:

It has just occurred to me that I'm very stingy with my 4 and 5 star ratings. I guess I need a little more wow factor to get me to commit to something higher. A five is like "I love this so much that I believe everyone in the world should read it else they will miss out on one of the greatest things of life ever!"

That doesn't necessarily mean this isn't a book worth reading.

I think the hardest trial of this book is that it takes place in an already well known and well loved story. That's risky. As a reader and huge fan of Disney's storytelling, it can be hard to accept something new into a beloved story or to keep yourself from comparing it to the movie. Not to mention that sometimes books based off movies aren't always the best in my experience. So I was a little leery when I started this book, but curious too. Also, the cover is one of the most beautiful book covers I've ever seen. I should give the book an extra point just for that!

I feel that Jennifer Donnelly put a lot of work into making sure all the beloved characters we already know were true to what Disney as already portrayed them as. She also did very well crafting her own characters and blending the two together. 

There were somethings I wasn't sure about at first as far as writing style. I found myself thinking, "Yeah, I already know this. This feels slightly repetitious." However, that was only towards the beginning of the book and didn't last very long. Also I'm pretty sure I thought at one point, "Don't be an idiot, Belle." It's probably a good thing characters can't hear my thoughts...

What really pulled me in was the building up to the climax and the climax itself. It was pretty exciting, and although obviously I knew things were going to turn out, I wasn't sure exactly how it would. 

Overall, not a bad story. It was intriguing and also catered a bit to my nerdy side what with references to Shakespeare and Greek mythology. I also really enjoyed that the story is littered with "golden nuggets" as my tenth grade English teach called them. 

Here is one such gem:

"Home is all the people, all the places, and all the things that you love. You carry it wherever you go."

I really liked those moments and how, even though this isn't in itself a love story in and of itself necessarily, it still has some good commentary on love. It talks about how love takes courage and how love gives us power to do things we wouldn't normally do.  

Reader Guidance:

None that I can think of.

Similar Books:

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

This was the first book that came to mind, which I imagine some people might find strange since I'm not recommending another book based off a fairy tale. However, these stories actually have quite a lot in common--wishing to escape the current situation, finding another world that seems amazing, realizing that world actually kind of sucks, realizing how much you want your old situation back, and having to fight to fix everything. See, they're pretty much the same story!

Next Book:

Summerlost by Ally Condie. I learned about this book's existence through Good Reads. This is another one where I'm sucked in by the cover alone! So we'll give it a shot. But be warned! It sounds like it's meant to be a tear jerker about loss and friendship.