Book Review: Huntress

Nature is out of balance in the human world. The sun hasn't shone in years, and crops are failing. Worse yet, strange and hostile creatures have begun to appear. The people's survival hangs in the balance.

To solve the crisis, the oracle stones are cast, and Kaede and Taisin, two seventeen-year-old girls, are picked to go on a dangerous and unheard-of journey to Tanlili, the city of the Fairy Queen. Taisin is a sage, thrumming with magic, and Kaede is of the earth, without a speck of the otherworldly. And yet the two girls' destinies are drawn together during the mission. As members of their party succumb to unearthly attacks and fairy tricks, the two come to rely on each other and even begin to fall in love. But the Kingdom needs only one huntress to save it, and what it takes could tear Kaede and Taisin apart forever.

The exciting adventure prequel to Malinda Lo's highly acclaimed novel Ash is overflowing with lush Chinese influences and details inspired by the I Ching, and is filled with action and romance.

I was such a fan of Ashby Malinda Lo that I couldn't wait for Huntressto hit shelves. Huntress is something of a prequel to Ash. Kaede and Taisin's story is told in Ash, but here we get to see the story unfold. Taisin is a student at the Academy moving towards her goal of becoming a sage. When she gets visions of herself on a journey, she brings it to her teachers.

In her visions, she sees herself, Kaede (another student), and Prince Con on a journey to Taninli, the land of the sidhe. Stories say that humans and fey once had a connection, but they have cut themselves off from each other for so long, that the humans aren't even sure the sidhe still exist. Until they get an invitation from the queen herself. Their land is dying. Each summer is less and less like summer until the year that spring doesn't seem to be coming at all. So these three set out on a journey with three guards to see if the queen can answer the question of the seasons not changing.

Kaede and Taisin are both training to be sages. Taisin seems to have a knack for many sage duties while Kaede has none. But being the daughter of the king's Chancellor, much is expected from her. Including marriage to Lord Win. Taisin knows from her visions that she and Kaede will fall in love, but she's refusing to let that happen. After all, a sage must make a vow of celibacy.

One thing I loved about both Huntress and Ash, was that we have straight characters and gay characters, and they are who they are. A character comes out as being gay and that's that. There are no arguments. No being ashamed. No issue with their life choices. And, personally, I think that's beautiful. That's how this world should be. Everyone should be free to love who they love without others' taking issue. Most of the time, LGBT books center around issues that occur when a character "comes out" because, unfortunately, that's the world we live in. But I think it's nice to have a book that doesn't revolve around a character being gay. That it's just a part of who they are.

I'm generally not a fan of high fantasy, but I loved this book. It was beautifully told, and I adored the characters. Kaede and Taisin were adorable together, and watching their love grow was beautiful. The supporting characters were great as well, as was the story. I'm looking forward to reading more from Malinda Lo in the future.

Read More

THE NEVERENDING STORY

THE NEVERENDING STORY
By Michael Ende
445 pp. Puffin. £7.99. (Ages 9 and up)

ISBN
9780140317930

Rating: ? Stars

I haven't finished “The Neverending Story” and I never will because it never ends. I got this book for my ninth birthday because I read too quickly and my parents thought this might keep me company for a while. I started to read this book because I had watched the movie. The movie was good, so I expected the book to be just as good (or better, because most of the books I've read have been better than the movies which they make after them just to get more money).

This book is about a boy called Bastian who reads a stolen book in the school attic. The book Bastian reads is about a boy called Atreyu who is trying to save Fantastica. He can only do this by finding a human who can give the childlike empress a new name, which will make the Nothing go away and which will make the childlike empress well again. Bastian ends up calling the empress “Moon Child”, which makes the childlike empress well again and makes Fantastica safe again, but he does not know what adventures Fantastica has waiting for him.

I think that you should be at least nine to read this book because if you are younger you won't understand it when it switches between the two worlds, and if you are older you won't appreciate the adventure and the magic.

In my mind the old turtle is a bit like humans. Most humans don't care a bit in the world about what happens to the world and if their ancestors have a happy life or a sad life but only care about themselves, just like the old turtle. The Big Bang is a bit like the Nothing, except the Big Bang started off with nothing and ended with something, but the Nothing started off with something and ended with nothing at all. I think that Atreyu is bit like ME because he does care if Fantastica survives or not. When I came to the part where the monkey said that he would have to stay in that topsy turvy town forever if he didn't find his way home again before he lost all of his memory, a shiver went down my spine because I was worried that he would have to stay in that topsy turvy town forever.

The characters were definitely not all realistic because some could do magic, and the characters definitely don't look normal. Contrary to those big differences between the characters and us there were some similarities. For example, Bastian turned a little evil from having the power of wishing, because power makes you sour. Similarly the setting, like the characters, was a bit realistic and a bit unrealistic. The human world where Bastian lived was realistic, but Fantastica was completely unrealistic (you can even guess that by its name).

Although I had discovered many morals in reading this book there is one in particular that stuck with me. The moral that I think is really important is that when Bastian had the power of wishing he turned a bit evil. However, I am not sure that the book was all about this real moral problem in the world. Still, while reading it I noticed that it talked a bit about Bastian turning evil from all of the power he had, Atreyu trying to save him by defeating him, and Xayide trying to defeat him by being defeated (the opposite, something which doesn't make sense at first but after you think about it starts to make sense).

also on Guardian Children's Book Site

Read More

Book Review: Black Heart

Cassel Sharpe knows he’s been used as an assassin, but he’s trying to put all that behind him. He’s trying to be good, even though he grew up in a family of con artists and cheating comes as easily as breathing to him. He’s trying to do the right thing, even though the girl he loves is inextricably connected with crime. And he’s trying to convince himself that working for the Feds is smart, even though he’s been raised to believe the government is the enemy.

But with a mother on the lam, the girl he loves about to take her place in the Mob, and new secrets coming to light, the line between what’s right and what’s wrong becomes increasingly blurred. When the Feds ask Cassel to do the one thing he said he would never do again, he needs to sort out what’s a con and what’s truth. In a dangerous game and with his life on the line, Cassel may have to make his biggest gamble yet—this time on love.

I’ve been a fan of Holly Black’s since I read Tithe in 2007. And her Curse Workers series is by far my favorite thing she’s written. So imagine my excitement when I got my hands on an arc of Black Heart.

Sadly, Black Heart is the final book in this series. And I needed this book to be great. However, considering how much I’ve loved Holly Black’s other books, I had hope that it would reach my high expectations. And it did! I read this book in two days and didn't want to put it down.

This will be a short review because I don't want to spoil anyone. But trust me when I say you want to read this series. Cassel and Lila are amazing characters. And I really enjoyed Daneca, Sam, and the rest of the supporting cast. The curse work and the mob is new, fresh, and interesting. And something different in YA is so great. Because so often I feel like I'm rereading because so many books are so similar. It tied up all the loose ends left over from books one and two and wrapped up the series very nicely.

I can't wait for Holly's next book: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.

Read More

THE EVOLUTION OF CALPURNIA TATE

THE EVOLUTION OF CALPURNIA TATE
By Jacqueline Kelly
352 pp. Square Fish. $7.99. (Ages 9 and up)

ISBN
9780312659301

Rating: ? Stars

      I came to read this book because my mom had bought it from America. She had read some of it first. She thought it would be nice if I read a book about a girl born in the same place as herself, Texas, and liked that it talked about evolution and nature.
      You might be wondering what this book is about. It is about a girl called Callie. She turns into a naturalist, but then faces the problem of what she is expected to do. The moral off this book is that it’s not really fair that girls are expected to be house wives. The truth is that some girls want to do other things for their life. I completely agree with the author’s point. This book teaches you about naturalists and how a long time ago in Texas girls weren't allowed to be naturalists but had to be housewives. A naturalist is a person that studies nature, like plants and animals.
      Callie (Calpurnia tate) is a bit realistic and a bit unrealistic. I think she is a bit realistic because she is not “Mrs Perfect” and acts like a normal person. However Callie is a bit unrealistic because most people don’t find a humming bird’s nest a few weeks after they start looking for a new species. In contrast J.B. (Callie’s younger brother) is definitely realistic because he is a lot like my younger sister who always wants cuddles.
      The setting was quite realistic because it wasn’t magical or anything. I do acknowledge, though, that they must have been one of the richer families to have everything they had. Ages nine and up should read this book because if you are any younger you will think it is boring because it's not magical or silly.

Read More

Write What You Almost Know (Deborah Coates)

If you're a writer, and even if you're not, you've probably heard the phrase, 'write what you know.' Some people will tell you it's good advice. Some people will look at it as a rule and argue ways to break it. I find it useful and yet sometimes I also find it difficult advice to follow.

It's impossible, especially if you write fantasy or science fiction to always write what you know. And yet, even then it's good advice for writing believable characters, compelling details, and for walking that narrow line between sense of wonder and suspension of belief.

Wide Openis contemporary fantasy set in the present day US. There are ghosts. There's magic. Hallie, the main character is a soldier who is returning home from Afghanistan. Those are not things I know. Though some of them are things I can know, that I can research.

But there are also things in Wide Open that I know or have known or almost know.

A friend once told me that the better piece of advice is to 'write what you almost know.' And I have to admit that advice resonates with me. When I almost know something, when it's not unknown, but not yet, or no longer, intimately familiar, I can see it and recognize it, and still notice the detail. I can appreciate it in ways that I often can't appreciate the everydayness of my house or my street or the state of Iowa. In my own house, I ignore the squeak of the back door, the splash of yesterday's mud across the glass. I don't remember that the driver's side door of my car sticks when the temperature drops or the light at the end of my street goes out every time it rains.

It was years after I left western New York State where I grew up before it appeared in a story. If I set a story in Iowa, it's usually in a part I've been to, but not the central part where I live. I've visited western South Dakota. I almost know it. And so I can write about it.

From Wide Open, here's a description that's almost South Dakota, set in a county that doesn't exist:

The clouds had turned steel gray and were starting to spit rain by the time they pulled onto Seven Mile Creek Road. Hallie was cold, but she couldn’t tell if it was because the weather had turned even colder or because there were two ghosts in the car with her. Probably both. They’d come up the county road, turned north, and headed back toward Highway 54.

Hallie thought they’d stop at that intersection, the one between Seven Mile and 54, thought that must have been where it happened because there was a stand of trees right there, between the road and the creek—cottonwoods mostly and a couple of old bur oaks. They did stop, waited for an old black Suburban to cross the intersection, then turned left onto Seven Mile Creek Road past an old garage and a partially collapsed house. The old cracked asphalt crumpled to nearly nothing as they came up on the town of Jasper, or what was left of it after the tornado in ’94—a couple of concrete block buildings without roofs or windows, stalky weeds ranged along what was once a road or driveway, a rusted-out car next to a stack of old tires.

Beyond Jasper, Seven Mile dwindled to practically nothing—old asphalt, then gravel, then, abruptly, hard-packed dirt.

Davies turned left again, bounced a little as the car dropped onto a dirt track with dusty brown blades of grass spiking up along the crown.

“This—,” Hallie began, then stopped when the deputy looked at her. But this couldn’t be right. What would Dell have been doing up here? At night? By herself? “I thought she hit a tree on Seven Mile,” Hallie said, eyeing the deputy suspiciously.

“I didn’t tell you that,” he said.

“You didn’t tell me anything.”

Read More

GRACE

GRACE
By Morris Gleitzman
192 pp. Puffin. £6.99. (Ages 12 and up)

ISBN
9780141336039

Rating: ? Stars

We borrowed this book twice from the library but the first time I didn’t read it because I was busy reading other books. You may think that I finally started reading this book because it had a really cool cover or because the name sounded exciting. If you did think one these things then you are completely wrong because the front cover was only a picture of a girl and the name of the book was the name of the girl, Grace. The reason I read this book was actually because I had been to the Red House Book Awards and he was one of the people that might have won the award, so I thought it must be a good book then and decided to read the book.

You are probably wondering what the book is about. It is about a girl called Grace who starts doing what she calls ‘sins’. In her church the dad always gets the blame. Because of this her dad gets expelled, which means he has to go away and never gets his family back. Grace is for most of the book doing more sins while trying to get her dad back so that she doesn't have to do sins anymore and so that she can be a whole family again. You probably think that she is breaking a car killing a person or something like that. If you did think one of these things then you are completely wrong because she only did things that were bad for her religion like touch an outsider.

This book was set in Australia. It takes place in Grace’s house, Grace’s new house, the farm of prayer, the zoo, Kyle and his dads house and finally in the hospital.

This book gave a really good moral that suggests it is fine to have a religion as long as you respect other people’s religions and don't go to crazy about your religion. I completely agree with the author’s opinion. In this way the book is really similar to My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece. If you have read this book and liked it I greatly recommend to you My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece.

There were some parts of the story that I wish were longer, like the part where she got her dad back. In contrast, I despised that it never actually tells you why the project she did was so bad and when her dad's there and when he's not. There are actual, real religious sects like the one in the book all over the world, like in Arizona, USA, and they have lots of people that are extremist Christians just like in the book like that there. I discovered that this book is similar to My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece except the crazy people in that book are Muslims and the person that isn't crazy is Muslim. When I came to the part where they were taking her dad away I started to tremble and feel my eyes moisten with tears because he was expelled, and when you were expelled you normally never saw your family again. I would absolutely hate if we had that rule and if my dad ever got expelled because I like my family and never want to have it be broken apart.

The characters were quite interesting because Grace (the main character of the title) who completely loved and believed in God (not too much though, like the crazy people) became friends with Kyle. Kyle did not believe in God and when he did believe in God at all he definitely didn't love him at all and sometimes when he was in a bad mood he would completely hate God.

Ages nine to twelve should read this brilliant book because if you are younger you won’t understand and your brain will be bursting and if you are older you won’t like that it has lots of adventure and action.

Read More

RUNNING WILD

RUNNING WILD
By Michael Morpurgo
196 pp. HarperCollins. £6.99. (Ages 8 and up)

ISBN
9780007267019

Rating: 5 Stars

      Michael Morpurgo is FAMOUS. Michael Morpurgo is so famous that at today’s book fair everyone was shoving past each other to try and find one of his books. However, “Running Wild” sat on my shelf for over a year unread. It is by Michael Morpurgo and I am not interested in most of his books, unlike most people in my class who have his whole (or nearly whole) collection. Michael Morpurgo’s books are less appealing to me for three reasons: most of them are about domestic animals, most of them start off with an adventure but then they quickly detour into drama before getting on with the story, and because he uses some description that is not needed.
      This book was set in the Indonesian rainforest. It is about a boy named Will who is saved from a tsunami by a very unusual elephant called Oona. Will has to try and learn how to survive in the rainforest with the help of Oona. You might guess that I read this book because of the adventurous cover, which is actually misleading because the cover looks Indian, although the story is set in Indonesia. Anyway the actual reason I read this book is because my mom urged me to after reading it herself and liking it, and because we were going to The Red House Book Awards and we wanted to have read it before having it signed by Michael Morpurgo.
      I think that the story would be much better if Michael Morpurgo took out the first two chapters. They have absolutely nothing at all to do with the rest of the story and don't even really make any sense. You might not figure out how good the rest of the book is if you start snoring before you are even on the second chapter. Besides taking away the first two chapters, I think he could expand the part about the bad people who catch him in the forest. The villains are based on real-life threats to the rainforest. The baddies cut down the forest to plant palm oil trees, kill mommy orangutans to steal their babies and sell them as pets, and kill tigers to sell their fur.
      I really liked how the author noted some real life problems like illegal hunting and burning trees to grow palm trees in place of them for palm oil. I wish the writer would write more about the growing of palm trees in place of the rainforest because that applies to the whole forest and is serious. The author gave some hints about his own opinion because most writers make the main characters have the same opinions as themselves. I discovered from the subtle hints in the book that the writer thinks that what people are doing to the rainforest is bad and I completely agree with his opinion. The reason I agree with the author is because I've actually been to the Indonesian rainforest. While I was there I learnt about what people were doing to the rainforest and how it was affecting the orangutans, gibbons and lots of other animals. I thought it was really sad. I even saw illegal logging and saw people cutting down the rainforest.
      The writer may think that he can write about just any animals and no one will notice but he is completely wrong because in Indonesia they do NOT have any long tailed lemurs or any humming birds! In spite of these big differences between my adventure and Will’s adventure, there were some similarities, for example he did see some of the same animals as we saw such as gibbons and poisonous snakes. When I came to the part where the bad people had him locked up in a cage and were deciding what to do with him I started to shiver with fright that the boy and the three orangutan babies would never get out again and felt a bit like I was there, in that situation.
      Meanwhile the writer could have written about the characters in much more detail because sometimes I didn't understand what the characters look like or who they are. Provided the information I did get about the characters, I think Oona was a bit like the guide we went to the rainforest with, and I think that Will is a bit like ME. I think that the writer made the characters a little bit unrealistic because wild orangutans do not just come down and hold peoples’ hands, people cannot swing in trees that well, and elephants don't understand humans. Besides these things that make the story unrealistic, there are some things that make Will realistic, like feeling sad about death, not knowing what to do, and getting angry from sadness.
      I think that this book is similar to “The Primate Puzzle” because they are both about going to the rainforest and trying to save the animals. For anyone who has read this book and liked it, I strongly recommend to you “The Primate Puzzle”.
      This book was so good that I wish the writer would write more good stories like it. I think you should be at least nine to read this book because you may not understand the boring parts and it will be twice as boring for you if you are not nine and up, even the exciting bits might be a little bit boring if you are too young. This book has taught me that Michael Morpurgo is actually quite a good writer and has inspired me to read another book by him ("Escape From Shangri-la") and swap one of my books for his book ("Adolphus Tips").

Read More