The Wednesday Wars

Published Information

Author:	Gary D. Schmidt
Published:	May 2007
Genre:	Historical Novel
Pages:	272

Ratings

Violence:	G
Sexual Content:	PG
Language:	G
Reading Age:	Junior high (Elementary would even be ok, but much of history in book might be missed)
Buy Recommend:	Hardbound (Great feel good book, many in my family have read and will read again)
Overall Rating:	9 out of 10 (One of the best books I have read in a long time)

Plot Summary

Main Chars: Holling, Mrs Baker, Heather (sister), Meryl Lee

The book is set in the late sixties, during the Vietnam war, in New York. Holling Hoodhood is a seventh grader who is convinced that teachers are out to get him, in particular, Mrs. Baker. He assumes they arrange schedules and make assignments specifically to torture their students. Especially, him. However, as any teacher will tell you, this is not the case.

On Wednesdays, most of his class is off early in the afternoon to attend either Jewish or Catholic services for youth. Holling, being Presbyterian, goes to neither of these, so has to stay in class. He is the only one. So Mrs. Baker decides to make use of his time. First, she assigns him busy work like cleaning the erasers for the school. But after a few weeks of this, she decides this is a waste of time and so comes up with another scheme to make Holling miserable. They are going to read Shakespeare together.

Turns out, Holling loves to read. His favorite book is Treasure Island, but can't imagine Shakespeare can be that good. However, as the book moves on, Holling realizes that Shakespeare's plays are very applicable in our life and he begins loving this reading. Holling and Mrs. Baker begin to truly enjoy this time together, and as the year progresses, Holling realizes there is much more to Mrs. Baker, and for that matter, many other people in his life that he either took for granted or dismissed, than meets the eye. She helps him grow up in a much more real sense than his father and mother do.

Comments

I loved this book! Once again, I find that often times, my favorites are books that make me stop and think about my own life. What are my priorities? What are my shortcomings? What can I laugh at in my laugh? This book made me stop and think about each of these, along with many other questions. There are times in the book that I had to put the book down because I was laughing so much. I remember when my wife read the book and she kept laughing. I didn't understand it then, but I do now. As an adult, it is so funny to me to think back on when I was a youth, looking at parents, teachers, other adults, and couldn't understand their motives. As an adult, it is hilarious to see life through the eyes of a seventh grader, when I understand more, now, what the adults are thinking.

There are also times I had to momentarily stop reading because of other emotions it made me feel: sadness, joy, or anger. I love how Superman's father (bear with me a sec…) talks about the great promise we humans show both for good and bad. While there aren't super villains in this book, you still see the good and bad in people. We see people who are insensitive to race, or are diva types, as well as the power of forgiveness and love. Once again… great book.

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex

Published Information

Author:	Eoin Colfer
Series:	Artemis Fowl
Published:	August 2010
Genre:	Fantasy
Pages:	368

Ratings

Violence:	PG-13 (Not much detail, but many people die in bad ways)
Sexual Content:	PG (Artemis is temporarily besotted with Holly)
Language:	PG (Standard Fairy swearing)
Reading Age:	Junior High
Buy Recommend:	Paperback (My daughter and I will read it, but probably not more than once)
Overall Rating:	4 out of 10 (Still fun, but hard to follow, and not of same caliber as the rest of the series)

Plot Summary

As the book begins, we find that Artemis has a mental illness that only affects magical creatures called Atlantis Syndrome, with symptoms of paranoia, multiply personalities, OCD, and a few other things. But he has also come up with a plan to save the world (human and fairy) to help rid him of the guilt he has felt (which brought on the illness). He heads off into the Arctic area to show off his new idea to several important people in the fairy world.

At the demonstration, things go well and most of the group begin to buy into his idea. However the discussion is cut short when Artemis picks up an invisible craft flying towards their meeting. This craft is a space probe Foaly sent out years ago that, for some reason, is no longer responding the Foaly's instructions and commands. The probe basically kills all those at the meeting except Artemis, Foaly, and Holly. They are able to escape by using the machine Artemis has invented to save the world.

In a pod they were able to recover, they follow the probe as it drills into the ice and water. Very quickly they realize its destination is Atlantis. Their mission becomes returning to the surface to be able to transmit a distress signal to the fairy community (that and they are running out of air and will die if they don't get out). They are able to get the message and Atlantis is evacuated.

At the same time, Butler has received a message that his sister is in trouble. Butler goes out to meet his sister and shows up just in time for he and sister to be attacked by thousands of mesmerized humans being controlled by an unknown fairy. They are able to escape, but are tracked by some criminal dwarfs intent on killing them. Once again they escape and realize Artemis must be in trouble. Using a tracking device Butler put on Artemis, Butler tracks Artemis and saves Artemis' group from the pod.

Now that they are back together, the realize the events must be related, but are not sure who the perpetrator is. They must work quickly to figure out who is behind all of this and catch them before more damage can be done.

Comments

While the book was fun, it was a disappointment to me for several reasons. First, the book is very different than the others, meaning, Artemis isn't as important as he is in other books in the series. Instead he is more of a comic relief character. I found some of the best parts of the previous books have been the interaction with Artemis and this change was hard for me to accept.

Second, a new villain is introduced, Commander Root's brother to be exact, but we don’t really have time to connect with him. It seems the character development with him is very weak, and he is killed off by the end anyway. Though he is killed off through his own choice. Through the whole book, he seems like a self serving, egotistical type criminal, but it the end, his love for his human wife, whom he mesmerized, who is now very old and about to die, is enough for him to walk off into the sunset with her, saving the day. Just seems out of character.

I also don't like that the book starts you off in a very confusing situation. We have been use to the Artemis of old that is smart, can solve any problem, does whatever it takes, but from the first minute in the book, we know Artemis is not his normal self. He seems crazy, weak, etc. The best way for us to begin this book would have been for the author to walk us through his transition into craziness, especially as he begins to realize he has a problem, rather than drop us the middle. That can sometimes work, but in this case it left me very unsatisfied. It was almost as if the writing was being limited in some fashion outside of the book/story. For example, having to meet a deadline so the author cut some content, or having a limit on the number of pages. I can't imagine any other reason why some of the pieces of the story were summarized rather than detailed. Especially when the last couple of books in the series were quite a bit longer. So why not this one?

Additionally, we now know that there are two Opals running around in the world (from the last book), and she gets a passing mention in this book. That is especially irritating because there were several items I wanted cleared up from the last book regarding her. So what was the point of the book? Add a new villain just to kill him off? Was this whole book basically a setup for the next book where Opal is dealt with? Was the book just to set the stage for how Opal would be released? It seems like a waste of effort if that is all that is achieved.

Finally, for some reason, I had thought the plan was to do seven books? I remember reading that 4 or 5 books ago. So what happened? Story get too big for the series? Making too much money to just end it? I am all for a continuing series, but set that expectation, or at least don't set the expectation of the number of books, and then change. I feel the same way as I felt when Aragon became a four book series. Brandon Sanderson did this as well, but he warned people about it before releasing and explained his reasoning so most people were ok with it. Aragon and Artemis Fowl did not set expectations, and so once again, it was a surprise. And if the next book (assuming there is one) is not of a better quality, then it's not a good surprise.

Overall, compared to the rest of the series, it seemed like a rushed effort and was not up to the caliber of the rest of the series. It almost seemed to me like one of those webisodes that are becoming popular with TV shows these days. Keep the main story running and then add small inserts here and there to explain away plot lines that are about to be introduced.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella

Published Information

Author:	Stephenie Meyer
Series:	Twilight, parallel to series
Published:	June 2010
Genre:	Urban Fantasy
Pages:	192

Ratings

Violence:	PG-13 (You are aware of extreme violence occuring, but not many instances of it being described)
Sexual Content:	PG-13 (Romance is not a key element of this book in the series, but there are cases of using sexuality to control others)
Language:	PG (Can't recall much, but I do think there were some occasions)
Reading Age:	High school
Buy Recommend:	Borrow (Not a normal novel, but fun experience. Buy only if you need to have all of Meyer's books)
Overall Rating:	5 out of 10 (Not really meant to have own plot, etc)

Plot Summary

This book is meant to be a companion to Stephanie Meyer's Eclipse. It basically tells the story of a fairly minor character that you meet at the end of Eclipse. At the conclusion of Eclipse, there is a battle between the team of Cullens and werewolves against Victoria and her recently created Newborn vampire army. In the end, Bree surrenders to the Cullens rather than get killed. However, the Volturi show up just after the fight to "clean up the Newborn army" but arrive too late. When they discover that one has survived, Bree, they kill her.

So the book lasts a couple of weeks or months starting from the point Bree is turned, to the point where she is killed. Basically, you watch her try to fight her urgings to kill without much success. You also meet several other characters, one of which I think shows up in the fourth book, but I am not sure. Anyway, the story was built up so that the actress playing the part of Bree in the movie Eclipse would have some method of understanding the character. Since the effort taken to get most of the story out, Stephanie Meyers just put in a little extra time to fill in the details and release the novella.

Comments

This book isn't meant to be a stand alone. Much of the background to what is happening will be missed without having read the others. Additionally, the book is almost 200 pages, but there are no chapters. There are a couple of breaks that you might normally see in a chapter signifying a new time period or new point of view, but no called out chapters. If you are not into the Twilight series, I don't think this book will be as enjoyable as it could be.

Catching Fire

Published Information

Author:	Suzanne Collins
Series:	Hunger Games #2
Published:	September 2009
Genre:	Science Fiction
Pages:	400

Ratings

Violence:	PG-13 (Hand to hand killing, )
Sexual Content:	PG-13 (Kitness and Peeta sleep in same bed, kissing at other times)
Language:	PG (Swearing is mentioned, but not the actual words)
Reading Age:	High school
Buy Recommend:	Hardbound (My family will read, some of us more than once)
Overall Rating:	7 out of 10 (While very good, felt like an intermediate step to third book)

Plot Summary

Now that Kitness and Peeta have won the Hunger Games, they think they are safe and life can go back to normal. But they realize very quickly that life will be even more difficult for them. In winning with both of them coming out alive, they have beaten the Capital at their own game, and those who care know it. The leader from the capital, President Snow, visits Kitness and makes it very clear that she will have to keep up the façade of her being in love with Peeta. Kitness' family is at stake, as well as Gale and his family. The president knows that Kitness is in love with Gale, but wants Kitness to feel her very own form of misery. Kitness and Peeta decide to get married to try and convince him that they will do what it takes, but they soon find out that the President will not be satisfied.

Part of the problem is that the way Kitness and Peeta won was shown as a form of defiance. A sign of hope to the rebels. Some of the districts begin revolting. By the time the games have begun several of the districts are in a full revolt. In some cases, the district has already locked down the district, but in others, there are still problems. Before things can get any worse, they lock down district 12, in hopes that Kitness and Peeta can't do any more damage.

Every 25 years, there is a special hunger games, where different rules apply. For example, in the 50th year, twice as many tributes are required. So 4 from each district are sent. Interestingly, this is the one Halemitch won. Now that the 75th year has come around, the rules are changed again. For these games, the tributes will be chosen from the winners of previous games. Kitness and Peeta both realize they are going back this year.

There are a couple of other differences in these games, maybe differences the Capital didn't expect. For example, most of the winners know each other since they see each other at the games each year. In many cases they are friends. So it becomes easy for many of them to form friendships and alliances again. Another difference is that the people in the capital love the winners. They are like celebraties to them. So by the Capital leaders putting the winners back in the arena, the people of the capital are not happy at all. It becomes an even more apparent problem when during the introductions, many of the tributes make comments about how unfair things are and that something should be done. By the time the interviews are over, the city is up in arms about how bad the games are.

However, the games go on. Now, Peeta and Kitness go into the games again, and while some of the tributes are older, or a little more frail, they are all winners and are able to do anything necessary to win. The only chance Peeta and Kitness have will be to enlist the help of some of the other tributes. But which ones can they rely on? They will have to rely upon Halemitch's help more than ever if they hope to survive.

Comments

This second book is just as good as the first, though it is very different. The first book was pointing out problems in society. There is still some of that here, but the book is more about how there are different ways to express disagreement and individuality, even when you are very restricted in your rights. In some cases, we can full out rebel. In other cases, we spread our disagreement with media or word of mouth -- grass roots if you will. But the point is, there is always something we can do to help improve society or overcome persecution from others. It is not always easy, but we can do it. We can't wait for something to happen, rather we must take action.

The book does have a couple of graphic scenes, such as when Gale is tied to a post and whipped, and then nursed back to health. Or when someone tries to cut out a tracker out of Kitness. That being said, the game is not viewed from the same stand point as last time. In the first book, there was quite a bit of brutality between the contestants. There is very little of that in this book. It is more about the tributes figuring out the dangers around them and overcoming them. Overall, the violence isn't as prevelent as in the first.

City of Glass

Published Information

Author:	Cassandra Clare
Series:	The Mortal Instruments #3
Published:	March 2009
Genre:	Urban Fantasy
Pages:	560

Ratings

Violence:	PG-13 (Graphic fantasy violence, death, killing)
Sexual Content:	PG-13 (Assumed incest, kiss between two guys)
Language:	PG-13 (B-word used, along with other words of that class)
Reading Age:	High school
Buy Recommend:	Borrow (I wouldn't recommend, unless I knew people liked the first couple)
Overall Rating:	4 out of 10 (Mostly low from personal feelings, see below)

Plot Summary

Valentine now has the first two mortal instruments (the cup and the sword) and is looking for the third, the mirror. Jace and Clary want to do everything they can to stop that from happening. Of course, no one seems to know where are what the mirror is. Jace and Clary want to go to the City of Glass to figure out anything more that they can, but Jace doesn't want her to go. It is just too dangerous because the leadership of the shadow hunters cant be trusted. Jace is able to trick Clary into missing the portal, but gets ambushed by some forsaken. Several of the shadow hunters are injured with one being killed, but they are able to teleport to the city. In order to save him, they also take Simon with them, but since he is a vampire, he is not suppose to be there and is in a different kind of danger. Simon is healed, but is imprisoned to be studied. He is the only vampire alive that can walk in the sun. Through the book, Simon realizes that is because Jace allowed him to drink of his blood to save him in book 2. Jace has told Simon that his blood is special (giving him additional speed and strength, just like Clary can create new runes), but they are not completely sure why. The people studying him want to figure out the secret, but Simon continues to tell them he doesn't know anything.

Clary partly wanted to talk to the council to help them figure out what is going on with Valentine, but she also wants to visit a warlock in the city that can help her revive her mother, so Clary is furious that Jace would leave without her, and in her anger, creates a portal herself (which she isn't supposed to be able to do) and steps through, with Luke grabbing her and tagging along. Unknown to her, though, the city is protected from portaling and Clary and Luke end up in Lake Lyn which is poisonous for shadow hunters. In a desperate attempt to save Clary, Luke takes her to his sister's, who is not on good terms with him.

Now all the main characters are in the city and are meeting new friends and reuniting. While they know danger is approaching, they feel fairly secure in the city, since it is protected from demons. However, Valentine has told them he knows a way around protection. The council ignores the warning, and soon, the wards are brought down and demons invade and destroy much of the city and its population. Now, they know Valentine can destroy them by summoning more demons and it is just a matter of time before they are overwhelmed. Valentine offers them an option: surrender and agree to him being king, or he will kill everyone. Finally, it is up to Jace and Clary to figure out how to protect the city and stop Valentine.

On top of the main plot, there are various subplots regarding relationships. For example, Jace and Clary are still very attracted to each other, but know that they can't possibly have a relationship since they are siblings. Simon is still in love with Clary, but knows she doesn't return the sentiment. Not to mention Alec, who is gay, has not come out of the closet, in particular, about his attraction to one of the warlocks. These are all resolved in the book.

Comments

The book was quick moving and I had a hard time putting it down, but it was still a bit of an uncomfortable read for me. Partly from the relationships, and partly from the religious undertones of the book. With the relationships, Jace and Clary have an incestuous relationship going, or so we think throughout the book. Turns out this is not the case, but we don't know that until the end. The assumption in the book is that attraction knows something about siblings, and even through Jace and Clary thought they were siblings, the attraction they felt knew better. We see the opposite as well where Clary meets her real brother (she is ignorant of the relationship) who is handsome, etc, but when he tries to kiss her, she is revolted because he seems to close to her in some way she can't describe. Also, Alec's relationship is dealt with, in the end, by having him kiss the warlock in front of a large crowd of shadow hunters, including his parents. Being that this is a teen action/adventure/romance, both of these are fairly major themes in terms of the plot.

With religion, there were several references to biblical events. I don't mind when religion is brought up in a fantasy book, but I start having problems when Christianity is brought in. For example, the mark of Cain is used to save someone, and angels are summoned and captured by men. I don't think I would have minded if angels were generic creatures fighting for good, like the demons fight for evil, but when specific angels from the bible are summoned, captured, forced to fulfill wishes, and killed, I have a more difficult time with it.

Hunger Games

Published Information

Author:	Suzanne Collins
Series:	Hunger Games #1
Published:	October 2008
Genre:	Science Fiction
Pages:	374

Ratings

Violence:	PG-13 (Book about teenagers killing each other)
Sexual Content:	PG (There is quite a bit of kissing once the game starts)
Language:	PG
Reading Age:	High school (More mature themes)
Buy Recommend:	HARDBOUND, PAPERBACK, BORROW. (EXPLAINATION)
Overall Rating:	9 out of 10 (Plot driven, fast moving, makes you think when done)

Plot Summary

The background of the story is a future earth after some kind of holocaust. At some point after the disaster, a state system evolved where there was a capital and 13 districts. Each of the cities was responsible for some type of production: coal mining, fishing, agriculture, fabric, etc, with the capital city being the governing body. At some point, the 13 districts revolted against the Capital because of working conditions, or something along those lines. The 13th district was made an example of and was destroyed. All the other districts were forced into submission once again. But as a constant reminder of the power of the Capital over the other districts, the Hunger Games were created.

Each district, excepting the Capital, must use a lottery system to choose one girl and one boy from each city. These "tributes" then go to the Capital and compete in the Hunger Games. The games are a duel to the death in a fabricated environment that can be a jungle, snowy wasteland, beach, or anything else that can be imagined. The environment is built to force the tributes to come together to fight. In some cases, the landscape causes this (for example, only one body of water to drink from). In other cases, the game coordinators release some form of destruction that you must run away from (such as a fire) and by running away from it, the game coordinators herd you into proximity of other tributes. When the tributes first enter the game, there is basically a pile of weapons, food, and survival gear available. But if you want any of it, you have to be prepared to fight/kill others to get it. Only one person is allowed to leave the games. The winner then gets a life of luxury and immunity from other games. However, previous winners do serve as coaches for the current games, so you never really get away from it. Again, the idea is that the Capital has all control and can do what they want, so the districts shouldn't even hope to think they can be successful in revolting again.

With this back drop, we are introduced to district 12. District 12 is the coal mining district. It is very poor, and most activity is severely limited. You can't leave the district, you can't hunt, you can't speak freely against the capital, etc. Kitness lives in District 12. Her father was killed in a coal mining accident, and her mother completely shut down after that for a while, so she has been the provider for the family. She provides by illegally hunting outside the district and then selling her catches to others in the district. As the tribute selection occurs, Kitness' little sister is chosen. Kitness immediately volunteers to go in her sted, thus again protecting her family. So Kitness and Peeta, the other tribute, leave for the capital to prepare for the games.

Kitness knows if she is to return to District 12, Peeta will be killed, if not by someone else, then by her. And while she doesn't feel anything towards him romantically, he did help her at a very desperate time in her life. He tossed her some burnt bread when her family had nothing. That small act saved her life and the life of her family, right after her father had died.

As she participates in the games, she also begins realizing that some of the other tributes have also lived very similar lives as her. In fact, one from District 11, Rue, reminds her so much of her sister, that they form an alliance to help each other. So how can she win if it means she has to kill others that are beginning to mean so much to her?

Comments

This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is well thought out, and fairly simple. Yet the commentary it provides on today's society kept me thinking about it for days. It is not a happy book, though it does end well. Suffering and death are key elements of the book, and what the tributes are forced to go through to survive is psychologically hard (though not necessarily to the reader).

I just read this for the second time in preparation for this review, and by the third chapter, you begin feeling a little drained just reading it. But it is very hard to put down.

In looking at our society, some of the themes that are dealt with are: handling government when we feel it has overstepped it bounds, why some of society don't care or even realize there are others suffering and dying while they enjoy an incredible amount of indulgence, how some of the more wealthy see others simply as entertainment or worker bees and treat them as little more than a pet, and how difficult it is for some in our society to step outside the bounds their environment has placed them in. The book doesn't present solutions for these problems, but rather makes us re-evaluate our lives and recognize if we are part of the problem rather than the solution.

With all that in mind, I would not recommend this for junior high youth unless you are planning on reading it with them. The issues dealt with, and the actions the tributes are forced to take are fairly intense, and could be disturbing.

Choke

Published Information

Author:	Obert Skye
Series:	Pillage #2
Published:	June 2010
Genre:	Fantasy
Pages:	352

Ratings

Violence:	PG
Sexual Content:	PG
Language:	PG
Reading Age:	Junior high
Buy Recommend:	Paperback (We will not read more than once)
Overall Rating:	5 out of 10 (Fun, but not as original as the first, contrived in some cases)

Plot Summary

It has been eight months since the dragons were released and destroyed by Beck. And while you might think causing city wide destruction might be cause to help you change, Beck still gets himself into trouble. During the first couple of chapters in the book, he successfully destroys the shop classroom by trying to inflated an earth ball that turns out to be a weather balloon in the room, and puts Kate and himself in the hospital from the injuries. Once again, everyone at school thinks he is the boy to be avoided… Including Kate's parents.

As he waits to heal, strange things start happening again: a rose plant attacks him for no apparent reason, a very white man, whom Beck nicknames Whitey, appears in the hospital and threatens him with a sword if he doesn't release the queen dragon, and a reporter from a nearby city approaches him several times trying to get him to reveal what he knows about dragons. Things aren't normal by a long shot and most adults don't believe any of it.

When he gets out of the hospital, he gets back together with Kate (after apologizing, and convincing her how sorry he is) and Wyatt and they discuss what to do about the situation. They decide to find the last dragon egg that supposedly was lost in the last book, and hatch it. The intent is to kill it once the dragon hatches, but plans never goes as expected.

Comments

I didn't like this book as much as the original. While it was still funny and fast paced, there were almost too many plot twists (literally and figuratively) to enjoy. It seems that much of the story line is contrived to enable a specific action sequence to occur. So young kids (older elementary or junior high) will still love it just as much as the first, but I would guess most others will force themselves to read it because of how good the first one was and hope the next one (the book left it wide open for a sequel, but I haven't heard anything official… not that I am really connected.) will be more original.