Evermore (Immortals Series #1) by Alyson Noel

Plot Summary:

     Enter Evermore, who has just lost her entire family in a tragic car crash. She has to move in with her single aunt, and is struggling to move on, mostly because... she still sees and talks to her little sister who is now a ghost. To make matters worse, she has caught the eye of the very handsome new boy in school. Though she is determined to ignore both her attraction to Damen and his attraction to her, Ever is fighting a losing battle on both fronts, because the two of them were meant to be...


Personal Response:

     These books are very "Twilighty." Damen is very much like Edward, particularly upon first inspection. From the point where the hot, rich boy mysteriously chases the unlikely girl, it rings a similar bell. This series would be great to recommend to teens that loved Twilight and need some new material.
     As I read the series, I began to get very frustrated with the story. In every book (I read five of the six books), there is a new reason that Damen and Ever can't be together forever, literally. I really enjoyed the first few, but I got tired of the same old problems. Having said that, it did captivate me for several books, and I think a teen might be more forgiving of the stagnant plot than I.
     The subject matter does not really deal much with sex, as there are always the issues between the lovers, but I have not read the last book, so I don't know if that is true to the end of the series.

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Plot Summary:

     Welcome to Nottingham! Will Scarlet is one of Robin Hood's Merry Men, only without the "man" part. She's really a girl with a secret identity who is hiding from the evil Lord Gisbourne, also called "The Thief Taker." Indecently, thieving is exactly what Will does best, a pastime that will not only get the slight girl into trouble, but will also take the captivating Robin in with her. Robin, who has her loyalty, Robin who could have even more than that...


Personal Response:

     The story of Robin Hood is a personal favorite, I have never met a version of Robin Hood I didn't like, so I was all too excited to dig into this book after I saw it in a New York City library last year. I have to say that I reaped the reward for my zest. The story was fantastic! This version is very different from the other Robin Hoods! I protested throughout most of the book, how is Will Scarlet, whom I was really beginning to like, supposed to be Robin's girl? There is only one girl for Robin and that is Maid Marian, everyone knows that! Having said that, the author found a way to make everything work out to my satisfaction in the end! Read Scarlet, enjoy it!

The Serpent's Shadow By Rick Riordan

Summary:

     The last book of The Kane Chronicles, The Serpent's Shadow features the dynamic Kane siblings who have been trying to save the world from Apopsis, the Egyptian god of chaos, who will eat the Sun and destroy the world and seems undefeatable.
     Sadie is struggling in her love life, trying to decide between Walt, a dying mortal; and Anubis the god of death. Carter has love issues too, but his mainly revolve around Zia, a girl once saved from an ancient curse.
     Carter and Sadie think they have finally found a way to defeat Apopsis, the only problem is... they have to trust a the very dishonest ghost of an ancient magician. As if that wasn't enough, they must face Neith, the goddess of hunting, deranged magicians from the House of Life, and demons.
     In the mean time, Zia seems to be channeling the sun god, Ra, who finally gives Carter the Pharaoh's throne and calls the other gods to war.

Personal Reaction:
     I have read the entire series, and I do not think this is the best book in it. Having said that, The Serpent's Shadow is a solid read, giving a satisfying ending to a very good series. I love the fact that Riordan can reach out to both male and female readers by changing perspective from Carter to Sadie. In addition, their relationship feels very legitimate, harboring resentments, irritating each other, and poking fun are all things a reasonable teenage sibling relationship should entail.
     The novel is very fast paced from the first page, much more so than the former novels, which both clipped along quickly themselves. It is action packed. Having said that, Riordan still made time for romance and humor. Riordan writes his way out of most of the conflicts of the series, even the ones I couldn't have imagined a solution for.
     The Serpent's Shadow is a great book and is acceptable for tweens to older kids, there is a little violence, and a few kisses.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

 Extremely Limited Summary: 
     Hazel is a terminally ill teenager. She has stage four thyroid cancer. She meets a boy at cancer group therapy. Augustus is an amputee, a former basketball player, in remission, very handsome, and totally into Hazel. The teens fall in love.
     They talk about getting their cancer wish and Hazel admits to having already used hers on Disney World, but Gus has been saving his. He comes out of remission and gets very sick.
     Hazel is obsessed with a book and its author. The book has a sudden ending and Hazel is dying to know what happened to one of the characters after it is over.


Personal Reaction:

     I cannot bear to reveal the end (or even the middle) of the story and rob anyone of the journey. The ending of this book is kind of like your opponent's poker hand, you have to pay to see it. In fact, I feel like I have already revealed too much about this wonderful book. The Fault in Our Stars is extremely edgy, allowing teens to deal with rough parts of life instead of everyone pretending that they do not already deal with these topics. This book is real, real, real. I find one of the most compelling aspects to be the pressure that Hazel feels to live. She feels like a bomb that will go off and devastate everyone around her. I never thought about that aspect of having cancer as a young person before.
     This book is probably not appropriate for readers under eighth grade or so, and SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
contains some mild sexual content.

Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan

Plot Summary:

             Carter and Sadie are brother and sister magicians. Their magic is based on ancient Egyptian gods, and they have a job to do. They must save the world from being eaten by a snake, Apopsis. In order to achieve this lofty goal, they need to awaken the sun god, Ra, which is easier said than done. They must find the three parts to the book of Ra and then assemble them without getting nuked. Then they must follow the directions given by the book in order to wake Ra and follow his daily journey through the duat (the Egyptian god world).  Sadie gets attacked by a vulture god and a baboon god, Carter gets attacked by water spirits, and they both get saved by the ugly dwarf god, Bes. In addition to battling gods and spirits, they add the House of Life and a new magician, Vladimir Menshikov to the list of enemies. Sadie vacillates between her god crush and her human crush, while Carter “digs up” his old girlfriend only to find that she no longer has feelings for him. In the end, Sadie and Carter do awaken Ra only to find him a little lacking in the, um power and maturity departments. Of course they are not safe and sound because there is going to be a sequel.
 

Personal Reaction:

            Riordan has a very strong writer’s voice. It is my understanding that he also writes adult books, and I would like to read them an compare them to his young adult novels which I have enjoyed. I read this book out of order without having read the first book of the series, which I am going to have to go back and do. I think it was very creative to do this work from two different points of view and as a recording so that Carter and Sadie can speak to each other  as well as to the audience at any point in the book. That allows for further voice, character development, and some comic relief. Riordan often uses foreshadowing in his work, but keeps mum pretty well about Walt’s disease. This was a great book.

Riordan, R. (2011). The throne of fire  . New York: Disney/Hyperion.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (From the Banned Books List)

Plot Summary:

             Huck Finn, a backwoods boy who has fended for himself most of his life and been raised mostly by the southern town that he lives in gets kidnapped by his father, who only wants his money. Huck escapes the brutal clutches of his father and pretends to be dead, at the same time, a slave, Jim runs away and meets up with Huck in the woods. They build a raft and float down the Mississippi. Huck and Jim set off for grand adventures and many trials. These include dressing up as girls and lepers, living with a nice family involved in a feud that suffer considerable losses to the other side, and meeting up with a “duke” and a “king.” The Duke and The King end up being con artists who regularly get into lots of trouble and end up selling Jim back into slavery. Huck poses as his friend, Tom Sawyer, in order to rescue him, but the real Tom shows up and poses as his cousin, Sid. Together they plot to free Jim in the most impractical ways because Tom wants it done “like it says in the books.” They end up making the situation much worse than it really is and the action comes to a peak with Tom getting shot by someone chasing Jim. He lives but their identities and intentions are revealed. In addition, we find out that Jim’s master died and already freed him. Tom pays him forty dollars for his trouble and we find out that Huck’s father is dead, so he returns to his home town.

Personal Reaction:

            This book makes me laugh out loud. Twain is such a satirist! I know that people challenge this book because of the “n” word, but I feel that it sometimes borders on the blasphemous. I love the inner struggle that Huck goes through, feeling that turning Jim over to the authorities is the right thing to do. Feeling like he is stealing from Jim’s master, but it is hard to read the part where he decides that he will just go to hell because he isn’t going to do the right thing by turning Jim in. I love the ignorance portrayed by all of the characters and the allusions even though I don’t get many of them (it doesn’t detract from the book), but I do get more than I did when my mom read this to me in the seventh grade! Wonderful, timeless book, of course it should never be banned.

Ratliff, T., Gelev, P., & Twain, M. (2008). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn  . Happauge, N.Y.: Barron's.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Plot Summary:

             Set in a futuristic North America where the U.S. once existed, we meet Katiness, a tough girl who hunts to help her family make ends meet. The country is divided into districts surrounding a Capital. At one point in the past all of the districts rose up against the Capital in a revolution and lost. As punishment, each year a girl and boy are chosen from each district to participate in The Hunger Games and fight to the death. Of course, Katiness’s little sister is chosen to go. Katiness volunteers to go in her place, so she and Peeta, the boy champion from her district head to the capital.

            The champions are flaunted and observed for a while before the business of the competition itself is gotten down to. Katiness and Peeta are to be trained by the last champion from their district, who is an old drunk, and not as helpful as they would like. Finally tournament day arrives and the race is on. Katiness makes friends with a little girl named Rue, who reminds her of her sister and gets killed by a stronger boy. Katiness kills him with her bow and arrow, her weapon of choice. She hides out in a tree, drops a futuristic wasp’s nest on her opponents, and discoverers Peeta hiding. A romance blossoms between the two of them, but only one can win the competition. In the end, she and Peeta are the last men standing and threaten to both eat poison berries (and ruin the competition for there would be no champion), forcing the Capital to acquiesce and let them both win.

Personal Reaction:

            This is one of my favorite books of all time. The action is awesome, and Collins inspires great feelings of loyalty toward the characters. We are loyal to Katiness, yes, but also Peeta, and Katiness’s childhood friend, Gale. The scene where Katiness is hiding in the tree always reminded me (before I read them again), of the scene in Huckleberry Finn when he is loading the canoe after escaping his father. In addition, I love the part where Rue dies and Katiness give her “funeral rites” as an act of defiance against the Capital. Collins uses suspense so well in this book that we do not even have an option of reading the next one, and this is added to by the cliffhanger ending.

Collins, S. (2008). The hunger games. New York: Scholastic Press.