Review: Two Way Street

Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt

YA fiction/romance, Published 2007

Challenges: YA

Read Dec 2010, 288 pp.

Verdict: 3/5

Book Blurb:

There are two sides to every breakup.

This is Jordan and Courtney, totally in love.  Sure, they were an unlikely high school couple.  But they clicked; it worked.  They’re even going to the same college, and driving cross-country together for orientation.

Then Jordan dumps Courtney – for a girl he met on the Internet.

It’s too late to change plans, so the road trip is still on.  Courtney’s heartbroken, but figures she can tough it out for a few days.   La la la – this is Courtney pretending not to care.

But in a strange twist, Jordan cares.  A lot.

Turns out, he’s got a secret or two that he’s not telling Courtney.  And it has everything to do with why they broke up, why they can’t get back together, and how, in spite of it all, this couple is destined for each other.

My Thoughts:

Although I rated this book a 3, it was a very quick and enjoyable read.  I liked the overall premise of this book – having to go on a road trip with an ex.  You know some drama is bound to occur.  However, some of the characters and writing left a little to be desired.  The story switches back and forth from Courtney and Jordan’s point of views, and goes back in time to slowly reveal what really happened for Jordan to breakup with her.  I didn’t like how the book ended though, it was too abrupt and cliche.  There was a great buildup throughout the book, although I think the entire “twist” of the story was a little ridiculous.  I did not think it was fair for an adult to ask a kid to keep his secrets.  I felt the tension between Courtney and her best guy friend/past crush Lloyd was pretty realistic, but I didn’t like how the author left some of these secondary characters’ story lines hanging in the end, especially Jordan’s relationship with his brother. 

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Review: Beautiful Creatures

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Caster Chronicles #1

YA Gothic Fiction/Paranormal Romance, Published 2009

Challenges: RIP V, 2010 YA, Series IV

Read Oct 2010, 563 pages

Source: Purchased

Verdict: 4.5/5

First sentence: There are only two kinds of people in our town.

Book Blurb:

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she’s struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations.  But even within the overgrown gardens, murky, swamps, and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met.  When Lena moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

My Thoughts:

This book had me at haunted plantation and overgrown gardens.  I had seen this book around the blogosphere, but didn’t really read what it was about until I saw it in my local bookstore.  I knew then that I had to have it.

Set in a deeply rooted southern town that still reenacts the War Between the States, there are still remnants of the beautiful plantation homes and it seems everyone in town is holding on to century-old secrets.  This story is told through a unique storyteller, Ethan.  It’s the beginning of his sophomore year.  The dream he has the night before his first day back changes everything.  He soon comes to realize that he and the new girl have a shared link – that they can talk to each other through some sort of telepathy. To top it all off, Lena is the niece of the town’s “Boo Radley.”  There are many references to To Kill a Mockingbird when it comes to Lena’s uncle, Macon.  Their family secret is that they are Casters, as in spell casters, and it is determined on your sixteenth birthday whether you will turn good or evil and Lena has moved in with her uncle until this has been decided.

My favorite story arc within this story was Ethan and Lena discovering Genevieve and Ethan’s names sake, Ethan Carter Wate and I hope we learn more about them in the sequel.  I also really enjoyed the character of Ethan’s grandmother, Amma.  She is the only one that tries to rein Ethan in, and yet she hold a few secrets as well.  Another favorite character was Marian the Librarian.

Overall, I really enjoyed this haunting gothic tale and look forward to see what happens with Lena and Ethan in the sequel, Beautiful Darkness.

Quotes:

There was a curse. There was a girl. And in the end, there was a grave. I never even saw it coming. (p. 3)

Book Trailer:

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Review: Perfect Chemistry

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

Perfect Chemistry Trilogy #1

YA Romance, Published 2008

Challenges: YA, Series IV

Read Oct 2010, 357 pages

Verdict: 5/5

Book Blurb:

A fresh, urban twist on the classic tale of star-crossed lovers.

When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created “perfect” life is about to unravel before her eyes. She’s forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she’s worked so hard for—her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect. Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more.

In a passionate story about looking beneath the surface, Simone Elkeles breaks through the stereotypes and barriers that threaten to keep Brittany and Alex apart.

My Thoughts:

LOOOOVED IT! I read this one in 2 sittings and just could not put it down. I can’t help it, I love me a bad boy! hehe I can definitely see what all the Simone Elkeles rage is about.  As soon as I finished this one, I immediately picked up the second in the series, Rules of Attraction, which is not a direct sequel, but rather based on Alex’s younger brother, Carlos.  The third in the trilogy will be based on the youngest Fuentes brother, Luis, entitled Chain Reaction and comes out May 24, 2011, according to Amazon.  I think I have since collected all of Simone Elkeles’ works to read in between now and when Chain Reaction is released.

The story flips back and forth between Brittany and Alex’s view points, which keeps the tension and flirting at a maximum level.  Brittany is the most popular girl in school, on the pom squad, and is dating the most popular boy in school, the football jock.  But she has her secrets that even her best friend barely knows about.  Then there’s Alex.  He lives on the other side of town, you know the bad part of town.  He’s earned his way into the Latino Bloods gang in order to protect his mother and two younger brothers.  His only retreat from the hard gangbanger life is attending school.  When Alex and Brittany are paired up in Chemistry class, they initially hate each other for who they think each other is.  But they soon start to see glimpses into each others’ true selves and sparks begin to fly between the forbidden couple.

I love Alex.  That’s all I can say.  Overall, I loved it (if you can’t tell already), but I’m not sure how I feel about the ending and epilogue.  I think it was a little too sappy for me, but it didn’t stop me from picking up Carlo’s story.

Read-A-Likes:

If you love the bad boy turned good story, I would recommend Tara Janzen’s Steele Street series.  It’s not YA though.   I’ve currently only read #1 and #9 in the series.  Here’s my review for #9 – Loose and Easy.

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Review: Magyk

Magyk by Angie Sage

Septimus Heap Series #1

YA Fiction/Adventure/Fantasy, Published 2005

Challenges: YA, Series IV

Read: Oct 2010, 560 pp.

Shelf Life: 2.5 years – Purchased: 3-19-08

Verdict: 5/5

Book Blurb:

Septimus Heap, the seventh son of the seventh son, disappears the night he is born, pronounced dead by the midwife.  That same night, the baby’s father, Silas Heap, comes across an abandoned child in the snow – a newborn girl with violet eyes.  The Heaps take her into their home, name her Jenna, and raise her as their own.  But who is this mysterious baby girl, and what really happened to their beloved son Septimus?

My Thoughts:

Once again I have found a gem of a book hidden in my stash!  Thanks to Angie on yafictionfreaks on youtube for her awesome reviews of the first four books of the series, which made me go grab my copies out of the stash.   I have recently discovered a lot of YA book reviews on Youtube…dangerous stuff! ;D

I really enjoyed Magyk.  It’s the first in the series and sets up a new fantastical “magykal” world.   There are wizards, witches, ghosts, swamps and boggarts, Message Rats, and lots of magic.  In this book, Jenna finds out that her family isn’t exactly who she thought they were and they must set off on an adventure with the castle’s ExtraOrdinary wizard to flee from the evil ex-ExtraOrdinary wizard who comes and takes over the castle.  There is also a mystery surrounding Boy 412, a member of the Young Army who essentially unwillingly gets entangled with joining Jenna and her group.  Half of her family has flown to the forests with the Wendron Witches and Jenna and the other part of her family have set off by boat down the river in search of the Marram Marshes to hide at their Aunt Zelda’s cottage.  I read this one during the 24 hour read-a-thon and could not put it down.  I loved the adventure with all the twists and turns and learning more about the world they live in.  I can’t wait to see what happens next in Flyte.

This books is appropriate for younger readers, around age 8 or so.  The main kids involved in the story are 10 years old in this book.  It was an easy read, but I didn’t feel that the author “dumbed” down the language at all, which is hard for me to get through and enjoy as an older reader and I don’t think it’s really necessary for younger readers either.  I really loved the chapter names and of course, the included map of Septimus Heap’s world.

Readalikes: Harry Potter series (the early years) by J.K. Rowling, Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini

♥ emme

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Review: Beauty

Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast by Robin McKinley

Fantasy, Published 2005, Orig. 1979

Read: Aug 2010, 325 pp.

Challenges: Summer 2010 Reading Challenge, Once Upon a Time, YA Reading Challenge

Shelf Life: 3.5 Years – Wow!… – Purchased 12-19-2006

Verdict: 4.5/5

Book Blurb:

Beauty has never liked her nickname.  She is thin and awkward; it is her two sisters who are the beautiful ones.  But what she lacks in looks, she can perhaps make up for in courage.

When her father comes home with the tale of an enchanted castle in the forest and the terrible promise he had to make to the Beast who lives there, Beauty knows she must go to the castle, a prisoner of her own free will.  Her father protests that he will not let her go, but she answers, “Cannot a Beast be tamed?”

Robin McKinley’s beloved telling illuminates the unusual love story of the most unlikely couple: Beauty and the Beast.

My Thoughts:

Beauty and the Beast is probably my favorite Disney version fairy tale.  It could very well have to do with the library…I think I would put up with the Beast for a library like that.  And McKinley’s version does not disappoint. Her Beauty also has a very magical library in this tale, with books that had not even been written yet.

McKinley does not stray much from the original tale, but spends a lot of time with the family’s background story.  Beauty, whose real name is Honour, grew up in a seaside city, the youngest daughter of a very successful sea merchant.  Then one fateful day of high seas, several of her father’s boats are lost at sea, including her sister’s, Grace, beau.  Beauty’s oldest sister, Hope, has already married and moved to the country and with the debt of repaying what was lost at sea, the family goes into ruin and is forced from their fancy city home to the country with Hope and her husband.

On a second trip home from the city to settle his debts, Beauty’s father becomes lost in the forest and meets the Beast.  He is treated very warmly until he leaves and picks a perfect rose to bring back to his Beauty.  The Beast rages and demands his enslavement, but does allow him to return home first to tell his family of his fate.  The characterization of the Beast is a bit confusing, because he is portrayed to be generally a nice guy, wining and dining the weary and lost traveler, but do not mess with his rose garden, because then he will keep you captive, but if you have a daughter he could marry instead, even better.

The tale of Beauty coming to live with the Beast and ultimately falling in love with him and lifting the Beast’s curse is hurriedly told through the second half of the book, and this is my only complaint about this enchanting retelling.  I would have liked to know more of the Beast’s past, he has lived in the castle for over 200 years.  Perhaps this is why McKinley revisits the tale in another book, Rose Daughter.  Overall, Beauty was very enjoyable and a keeper for readers of all ages.

Quotes:

This arbour of roses seemed somehow different from the great gardens that lay all around the castle, but different in some fashion he could not define.  The castle and its gardens were everywhere silent and beautifully kept; but there was a self-containment, even almost a self awareness here, that was reflected in the petals of each and every rose, and drew his eyes from the path. -pp. 88-89

This single room of the library was as large as our whole house in the city had been, and I could see more book-filled rooms through open doors in all directions, including a balcony overhead, all built  from floor to ceiling with bookshelves. -p. 190

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Review: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: A Fable by John Boyne

YA Fiction/Historical Fiction – Holocaust, Published 2006

Read June 2010, 218 pp.

Challenges: 2010 YA Reading Challenge

Shelf Life: 1 year, 6 mos. – Purchased 12-16-08

4/5

Book Blurb:

If you start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy named Bruno.  (Though this isn’t a book for nine-year-olds.)  And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence.

Fences like this exist all over the world.  We hope you never have to encounter one.

My Thoughts:

This book is all about the ending – that final blow – that leaves you stunned thinking did that really just happen?

As there are so many wonderfully written reviews on this one, I will try not to rehash the plot too much.  This book offers a point-of-view rarely told – that of the son of a German Nazi Commandant.  But this nine-year-old boy has absolutely no clue what his father does, why he’s moved from Berlin to “Out-With,” or why a fence separates him from his new friend on the other side, Shmuel, who always seems to be wearing striped pajamas.

Plus, as you can see by the book description, the author wants the reader to discover this story page by page as it slowly unravels. Boyne describes in an interview that the idea came to him “originally as one single image, of two boys sitting on either side of a fence, having a conversation.  And I knew where the fence was.  I knew those two boys shouldn’t be there.  They had no business being there.”

About the targeted audience: While this book has been categorized under the YA label, and while the reading level itself is certainly there, I find the subject matter a little too mature for that age group, meaning that they would need some parental guidance as there will be a lot of questions concerning the history behind the Holocaust and concentration camps.  I think this provides an excellent opportunity for older children to learn of the horrors that Bruno, himself, is blind of seeing.  There is a lot of reading in between the lines here.  The author has provided a “present day” scene, if you will, that does not allow for all the knowledge we know now in hindsight.

About the protagonist’s grave naivete: Bruno is very naive and does not understand what is going on around him.  He is mostly concerned about himself – why does he have to move?, why does he have to lose his three best friends, why does he have to live in a shabby house with only three floors instead of five?, why can’t he cross the fence?  I think  this book works so well because of Bruno’s ignorance of his surroundings.  No adults in his life explained to him what was happening around him or why they had to move or what exactly his father did as a German soldier.  I think the author best describes his reasoning for Bruno’s extreme innocence: “I was interested in juxtaposing [the extreme evil in the subject of the Holocaust] with an extreme innocence.  And the two would go together.”

I have seen much debate as to if it would even be possible for Bruno to be so unaware of what was happening.  I think many adults were very much in denial about the horrors of Hitler and the concentration camps.  Over time, Bruno matures a little and he starts to look outside of himself and wonder about the life of his friend Shmuel and risks it all to help him find his father.

I say Pajama, You Say Pyjama: I’m guessing most of the “pyjamas” were changed to “pajamas” for the US version, but I saw a few “pyjama’s” creep up.

Overall Feelings: I feel that this was a well written and thought out story of the Holocaust.  It is written sparingly and is a very quick read, but is one that will definitely stick with me for awhile.  I often became annoyed by Bruno’s ignorance at the beginning of the story, but as I continued and unraveled more of the fable, I started to believe more and more in the message that the author conveys.

However, I think it is very crucial to keep in mind that this is a story based on factual events.  It is a fable written to not only bring to light the Auschwitz or the other concentration camps and the horrors that happened there, but also to recognize that genocide continues to exist today, that the German concentration camps did not happen that long ago – not thousands or even hundreds of years ago – but the 1940s.  It brings to light the incredible cruelty of the fences we continue to build that separate us.

I highly recommend reading Night by Elie Wiesel for a harrowing first-hand account of the Holocaust from a survivor.

Quotes:

“Who are all those people outside?” he said finally.

Father tilted his head to the left, looking a little confused by the question.  “Soldiers, Bruno,” he said.  “And secretaries.  Staff workers.  You’ve seen them all before, of course.”

“No, not them,” said Bruno.  “The people I see from my window.  In the huts, in the distance.  They’re all dressed the same.”

“Ah, those people,” said Father, nodding his head and smiling slightly.  “Those people….well, they’re not people at all, Bruno.”

p. 52-53

Some of My Favorite Striped Reviews:

Wikipedia

Bloggin’ bout Books

Heather @ Book Addiction

Movie Trailer:

I’m looking forward to seeing the movie version.

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Eragon – a fast paced adventure tale and this is just the beginning

Eragon by Christopher Paolini, Audio narrated by Gerard Doyle

Inheritance Cycle #1

YA Fiction, SciFi/Fantasy, Published 2005

Challenges: Audio Book Challenge, 2010 YA Reading Challenge, Once Upon a Time IV, Series Challenge IV

Read April 2010, March 2005

Story: 4.5/5, Narration: 4/5

From the Cover:

When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy; perhaps it will buy his family meat for the winter.  But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself.

Overnight his simple life is shattered, and his is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power.  With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old storyteller for guidance, Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrain and dark enemies of an Empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds.

Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders?  The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands…

Review:

Eragon is a fast paced adventure tale that has it all: dragons, dragon riders, magic, elves, dwarves, an evil king, and even a werecat, who is one of my favorite characters.  I’ve been wanting to finally get to the third of the series, Brisingr, but it has been so long since I read the first two, I thought I should get a refresher on the storyline. The narrator does a great job holding the pace and my attention in the car.  The only thing that weirded me out was his interpretation of Saphira’s voice – something like a creepy Yoda/Grover growlish voice…I mean I realize she’s a dragon, but she’s a girl dragon and it really made me wince every time she spoke.  That, however, is my only complaint with the story or audio version, so not too bad.

In this first book of the yet-to-be-released 4 book cycle, Eragon first encounters a dragon, his dragon, loses his uncle who has taken care of him most of his life, and sets out on a life changing quest with Brom to avenge his uncle’s death by the Ra’zac, and ultimately track down the Varden to help further their cause against the King and his Empire.  Brom, the town’s storyteller, has concealed the truth about his past and why he had settled in Carvahall, Eragon’s village, in the first place.  Together, Brom and Eragon set out with Saphira across the Empire and run into many dark and evil forces.

My favorite characters:

• Solembum: Along the way, however, Eragon and Brom stop in the coastal village of Teirm to search shipping records to track down the Ra’zac and Eragon happens upon an herbal shop, run by Angela and her werecat, Solembum.
• Murtagh:  An unlikely comrad, especially as more and more of his history is revealed, but Murtagh remains loyal to Eragon’s cause throughout this book and much more of his story is continued in the next books of the cycle.
• Brom: He leaves too quickly in the story, although he has taught Eragon so much, much of his story remains to be told.

Quotes:

I will add in some favorites later…

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Tuck Everlasting is Enchanting!

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

YA Fiction, Published 1975

Read April 2010

Challenges: Once Upon a Time IV, 2010 YA Reading Challenge, Time Travel Reading Challenge

Shelf Life: 4 yrs, 2 mos – Purchased 2-3-06

5/5

Book Synopsis:

What if you could live forever?

Doomed to – or blessed with – eternal life after drinking from a magical spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can.  When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is less a blessing than it might seem.  -School Library Journal

Review:

Winnie Foster has lived within the confines of her home and yard, never going past the fence row alone.  She wanders out to the country street watching a toad cross the road.  Winnie muses that the toad must be making fun of her for not being able to leave her own yard.  She yearns to run away, to be free from the boredom and strictness of her home and family.  Then suddenly Winnie’s ordinary life shifts when a stranger happens upon her gate on the little road headed to Treegap.

Having seen the movie a few years ago and just now picking up the book, I always thought Winnie was older.  In the book she is only 10 years old.  Some have questioned how she could have such a crush on Jesse (17) at such a young age.  I don’t think it’s unreasonable for her to have a crush, especially now that she knows his secret.  I think the time period must also be kept in mind since girls typically married at younger ages in 1880, perhaps not at ten, much not too much older than that.  I think Jesse having been a child for so long thinks it wonderful that now someone who knows his secret could potentially share a life with him once she gets a little older.  Another huge difference is the size of the woods.  In fact, the Tucks live nearly 20 miles from Treegap and it’s magical inhabitant so when they “kidnap” Winnie, they really do take her from the world she has always known.

The Tucks decide to take Winnie to talk with Pa (Tuck), knowing he will know how best to explain the story of the spring by the tree.  She quickly learns about the sacrifices the Tucks have had to make, losing everyone else they love over time, as well as their home and truly missing out on life, despite all the things they have gotten to see and do with their everlasting time on earth.  Though it appears to be a blessing and people would kill to know their secret, as Tuck explains, they are no longer apart of life, they are outside of life, ever wanting to belong to it again.  This is why Winnie must keep their secret.

Living’s heavy work, but off to one side, the way we are, it’s useless too.  It don’t make sense.  If I knowed how to climb back on the wheel, I’d do it in a minute.  You can’t have living without dying.  So you can’t call it living what we got.  We just are, we just be, like rocks beside the road. -p. 64

Overall, I absolutely loved Babbitt’s enchanting fairy tale world with Winnie, her toad, the woods, Treegap, and the Tucks.  Winnie grows to love the Tucks in the short time she has with them, despite their differences, and has quite the adventure outside the Foster fence.  Such a powerful and eloquent story packed in a small book.

Quotes:

She wandered for a long time, looking at everything, proud to forget the tight, pruned world outside, humming a little now, trying to remember the pattern of the melody she had heard the night before.  And then, up ahead, in a place where the light seemed brighter and the ground somewhat more open, something moved. -p. 25

The sweet earth opened out its wide four corner to her like the petals of a flower ready to be picked, and it shimmered with light and possibility till she was dizzy with it. -p. 45

Movie Trailer:

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Beware, You Never Know Where A Story Beginning Will Lead You…This One Leads To A Fantastical Adventure!

The Book of Story Beginnings by Kristin Kladstrup

YA Fiction, Published 2006, 2008

Read March 2010

Challenges: 2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge

4.5/5

From the Cover:

In June 1914, young Oscar Martin mysteriously disappeared from his Iowa farmhouse home.  His sister claimed Oscar had rowed out to sea – but there is no ocean in Iowa.  When, nearly a century later, Lucy Martin and her parents move to that same farmhouse, it’s not long before Lucy discovers the strange and dangerous Book of Story Beginnings.  And it’s not long before Oscar reappears in a bizarre turn of events that sends the two distant relatives on a perilous journey to save Lucy’s father.

Review:

Young Oscar’s mind was filled with ideas, but just story beginnings.  He could never quite figure out what to do with his characters after that.  Oscar had found a book, a secret book, among his mother’s old things in the attic that had a mysterious preface:

Beware, you writers who write within;
Be mindful of stories that you begin;
For every story that has a beginning
May have a middle and an end.

Know this, too, before you write:
Though day must always lead to night,
Not all beginnings make good tales;
Some succeed, while others fail.

Let this book its judgment lend
On whether and how your beginning ends.

But a young, adventurous boy of 14 does not let this stop him.  So Oscar writes his fate into the book and disappears that same night, never to be seen again.  Oscar’s sister, Lavonne, saw Oscar row out to into the open sea.  She spends her entire life trying to figure out what happened to her lost brother and right before she dies an old woman, she has a dream with the young Oscar saying “Lucy will explain!” as he disappeared out into the sea.

Lucy, much the same age as Oscar was in 1914, finds herself having to move (kicking and screaming) to The Brick, Oscar’s family’s old farmhouse in Iowa.  But she has a mission: to help her late Aunt Lavonne and finally answer the family’s secret: Where did Oscar go?  Lucy even adds her own story beginning to the book before realizing its unique consequences.  She soon finds herself entangled in all the story beginnings written within The Book of Story Beginnings along with her great uncle Oscar in search of her father.

I really loved this book.  It has adventure, magic, mystery, and time travel.  The author’s bio says she is hard at work on the next Lucy Martin book so maybe we will find out more behind The Book of Story Beginnings book, itself and how Oscar’s mother had it in her possession. As active as Oscar and Lucy’s imaginations are, they find themselves rowing out to sea, picked up by a pirate ship of orphans, and headed to a tropical island where the King and Queen never get along since the Queen loves birds and the King has transformed all the people of the island into cats.

Ready to set sail?  Be careful how you begin!

Recommended for younger readers.  There are several lessons prevalent throughout the book, including marriages aren’t perfect – parents argue, they can’t always get along, but they work through it even if the kids don’t see it, choosing to be happy with the circumstances you are given, and the importance of realizing the consequences of the decisions you make and how they impact others.

*SPOILER ALERT and DIGRESSION* The only issue I had with this book was involving the time travel.  On Catberd Island, time moves very slowly, which is why Oscar is the same age he was when he disappeared.  But time back at The Brick keeps going and in fact they are gone for weeks and weeks…long enough for Lucy’s mother to be beside herself, police reports taken, detectives searching, etc…and for her father to just explain it all way…”oh we were just playing around with magic and have been on this magical island where I was a bird and your daughter was a bird and Oscar used to be a cat…”  Ummm no…more like “Sorry Mrs. Martin, you’re husband has gone crazy…”  Seems like there should have been some better way to handle this lapse in time, but it’s a children’s story so I guess I shouldn’t digress on this issue…

Quotes:

It’s just a story, she reminded herself.  A story with characters who could surprise you, who could catch you off-guard.  Anything could happen in a story. -p. 297

But don’t you think there are some stories that are more alive than that?  When you put certain books back on the shelf, don’t you feel as if the people inside are going on with their lives after the story is over?  Lucy felt that way about most books she loved. -p. 356

The happiest endings – I think they’re endings that feel like beginnings. p. 359

Click here for a discussion guide by the publisher, Candlewick Press.

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