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Beauty and the Beast: The Only One Who Didn’t Run Away by Wendy Mass

Dec11

Do you know that game where you sit in a circle and tell a story, each person breaking off at a critical moment to let the next person add to the story? This book felt like that kind of round robin story, only incorporating two stories in alternating chapters instead of just one. Maybe imagine two concentric circles and the story-telling, of two separate stories, goes around the circles in opposite directions–nah, that’s too confusing.

Wendy Mass wrote 11 Birthdays and Finally, two books I really liked. And she’s written some other fairy tale take-offs in the Twice Upon a Time series that includes this version of Beauty and the Beast. I haven’t read the others in the series, but I just couldn’t enjoy this one very much. I kept wondering when the “Beauty” chapters and the “Beast” chapters were going to converge, and then when they finally did about three-fourths of the way through the book, I just didn’t believe.

SPOILER, I guess. We have a wicked witch in this story who turns people into insects (and other animals). The insects, an ant and a grasshopper, then live for many, many years. I looked it up. Ants and grasshoppers don’t live that long, although I suppose enchanted insects could be different.

Tag line: The story of Beauty and the Beast like you’ve never heard it before.

That’s a true statement, but my problem is that I liked the way I heard it before better.
There’s Beauty or Rose Daughter both by Robin McKinley or Beast by Donna Jo Napoli or even the Disney movie of the story. This version just feels impromptu and implausible.

Other voices:
It didn’t work for Charlotte either.
Angie at Bibliophile Support Group was bored.
I didn’t find any other reviews. If you have a different take, please let us know in the comments.

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities by Mike Jung

Dec10

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities is a parody of super-hero comics and books and movies. In Copperplate City, Captain Stupendous is a fact of life, a very helpful and convenient fact of life. He’s the reason there haven’t been any abductions in Copperplate City in the last twenty-some odd years.
Captain Stupendous always, always shows up whenever any Super-Villain tries to take over the world or wreak havoc in the streets. And as president of the real Captain Stupendous Fan Club, Vincent Wu is the person who knows more about Captain Stupendous than anyone else in Copperplate City.

Several things annoyed me about this tale of a geeky super-hero fan club and the super hero they are sworn to adulate:

First of all, the boys in the fan club and other characters in the book have a tendency to YELL A LOT, INDICATED BY DIALOG WRITTEN IN ALL-CAPS. This typographical convention is not something I want to encourage in the writing and publishing of children’s books.

Secondly, there is a fair amount of barfing and burping and farting and freaking and sucking going on in the pages of this super-hero obsessed story, and since I’m not an eleven year old boy I could have done without all of that nonsense. I mean, you know, the book didn’t totally suck or make me barf or freak me out. It just felt as if the author said to himself, “Boys like to talk about barfing and farting, so I’ll put lots of that in here.” Yuck.

Third, I found the boys in the story–Vincent , Max, and George–just generally annoying. They picked at each other a lot, and I hear enough of that around my house with three teenagers in the family. Putdowns and insults ceased to make me laugh long ago. And Polly, the main girl character, wasn’t much better. She’s very concerned that the boys all realize that she knows karate and can kick bu– with the best of them. Again yuck.

Maybe it just wasn’t the right time, or I wasn’t in the right mood for the geeky, slangy kind of humor.

I liked the Oxford comma in the title.

Deadly Pink by Vivian Vande Velde

Dec9

Deadly Pink is a book about sisters and virtual reality games and forgiveness and persistence in doing what’s right. I kept thinking of Winston Churchill’s famous dictum: “Never, never, never, never give up.”

Grace Pizzelli is the traditional average younger sister. Her sister, Emily, who works as an intern for Rasmussem Games is the brilliant, talented one. And mostly Grace is OK with that because in addition to being intelligent and gifted, Emily is also kind and helpful to her younger sister. In fact, Emily is almost perfect, as older sisters sometimes tend to be.

That’s why it’s such a surprise when the officials at Rasmussem come to Grace’s school to get her to help Emily. It seems that Emily has been beta-testing a virtual reality game for young girls called Land of the Golden Butterflies, and she refuses to come out of the game. Unfortunately, the games are only made for thirty minutes of game play at a time, not for living in the game world forever, and no one knows what will happen to Emily’s body and mind if she doesn’t come out of the game. Grace must persuade her older sister to leave the fantasy world before her time runs out.

I was anxious to turn the pages in this virtual reality story to see what would happen next, why Emily is determined to stay in game land, and how Grace will save the day and rescue both Emily and herself from death by virtual reality game. The suicide theme may be a little heavy for some middle school readers, but I didn’t find it overwrought or too distressing.

The relationship between the two sisters is what makes the story really shine. Grace is annoyed and irritated by the way Emily treats her when Grace comes into the virtual reality world to save Emily. Emily basically tells Grace to get lost. But Grace doesn’t give up on her sister. I’m not explaining too well, but these are real sisters who love each other in spite of imperfections and mistakes on the part of each of them. Here, let me give you a few quotes to illustrate:

“A cranky part of my brain kept repeating that we were in this bad situation because of Emily, and it was hard not to let my irritation spill over. The last thing I needed was Emily feeling sorry for herself. It infringed on my feeling sorry for myself.”

“That was it. My patience snapped. I wanted to shake some sense into her, some sibling loyalty. I settled for grabbing her arm to get her to stop dancing.”

“Mean? Mean was eating all the chocolate Easter eggs and leaving the stale Peeps. Mean was making fun of a bad hairstyle. Mean was letting someone else take the blame after you tracked mud onto the clean floor. Mean didn’t begin to cover what Emily had put me through.
But she was rocking me, making gentle comforting noises as though I were once again the six-year-old who’d fallen off our backyard swing trying to fly too high. ‘Everything will be okay.'”

I also liked this book because it was a contrast to all the kids-save-the-world books that I’ve been reading for the Cybils Middle Grade Fantasy judging. In Deadly Pink, one girl, Grace, tries to save her sister, Emily, and it’s hard and suspenseful and engaging. But we’re not asked to believe that a group of twelve year olds or one thirteen year old is the only possible resource to rescue the entire world from imminent destruction. What a relief!

Grace and Emily Pizzelli, the Pizzelli Sisters, are some wonderful sisters to get to know. And their story is suspenseful and funny, both. From the author blurb, I learned that Ms. Vande Velde has written two other books about virtual reality games created by the (fictional) Rasmussem Corporation, Heir Apparent and User Friendly. Has anyone read either of them? I’m not fan of video games, but I liked this book well enough that I’m willing to go find the two other books set in the same fictional world and try them out –especially if I can get a recommendation. Anyone?

In the meantime, Deadly Pink is worth your reading time, especially if any of the motifs in the opening sentence of this review pique your interest.

The Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda

Dec5

Not exactly my kind of book. The Savage Fortress was inspired, writes the author, “by the real Savage Fortress–a maharajah’s palace near Varanasi, India–as well as his life long fascination with the goddess Kali.”

So, this Hindu goddess:

'Goddesses' photo (c) 2008, LASZLO ILYES - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

And this rather medieval looking maharajah’s palace:

'India - Varanasi - 010 - one of the Maharaja palaces' photo (c) 2007, McKay Savage - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

And the tag line is: Heroes aren’t made. They’re reborn.

If you’re interested in a reincarnation story in which an British teen of Indian ancestry must fight to keep Ravanna the evil god of the rakshasas (demons) in his place of exile so that Ravanna won’t take over the world and make it into a place of (more) chaos and suffering on a grand scale, then The Savage Fortress is your book. To me, it just felt evil and confusing, although I will admit to a certain train-wreck fascination. The writing certainly ranged from adequate to good, but I’m just repelled and bewildered by Hindu mythology. If everybody is going to come back after death and fight the same battles all over again, what’s the use?

Then there’s the Kali motif that I found deeply disconcerting in this story for middle grade readers:

“Kāli is the Goddess of Time and Change. Although sometimes presented as dark and violent, her earliest incarnation as a figure of annihilator of evil forces still has some influence. . . The figure of Kāli conveys death, destruction, and the consuming aspects of reality. As such, she is also a “forbidden thing”, or even death itself.

Can mercy be found in the heart of her who was born of the stone?
Were she not merciless, would she kick the breast of her lord?
Men call you merciful, but there is no trace of mercy in you, Mother.
You have cut off the heads of the children of others, and these you wear as a garland around your neck.
It matters not how much I call you “Mother, Mother.” You hear me, but you will not listen. From a poet named Rāmprasād Sen in Wikipedia article on Kali.

And our hero, Ash, ends up defeating Ravanna with the power of Kali, the goddess of Darkness and Death. Ewwww. (I’m not too fond of zombies or vampires, either.)

The Voyage of Lucy P. Simmons by Barbara Mariconda

Dec3

“Against a brilliant fireworks display of glittering diamond dust, the Lucy P. Simmons carried us off together on what I knew would be a most spectacular voyage.”

The preceding sentence may sound as if it could be the opening sentence of a middle grade fantasy novel called The Voyage of Lucy P. Simmons, but it is instead the closing sentence of a book that begins with tragedy and ends with to be continued, my least favorite ending. I even like ambiguous endings better than tbc endings—at least with ambiguous I get to think up my own ending without fear that I will someday be contradicted or proved wrong by the author’s official sequel.

The tragedy at the beginning is the death of Lucy’s parents. Lucy lives in Maine, 1906, and she and her parents are involved in a boating accident. Lucy is the only survivor. Now her Uncle Victor and Aunt Margaret have become her temporary guardians, and Uncle Victor is out to get Lucy’s inheritance, her father’s house and her fortune. If Lucy can only find her other surviving relative, Aunt Pru, she knows that Uncle Victor’s evil plans will be thwarted. And it seems that the house itself is helping Lucy as she tries to fight, in a ladylike early twentieth century manner, against her uncle.

The magic in this book is odd– a magical mist that appears to point out important items when necessary and a magical flute that belonged to Lucy’s father. The flute sort plays by itself when danger is near, but the warning is too late and too inconsistent to do much good. I could never identify with Lucy too well. She is alternately headstrong and foolish, then restrained and unable to decide to do anything. I wanted her to try to tell people about what Uncle Victor was doing. Or run away. Or scream. Or something.

Then, when Lucy’s rescuer comes, we are unsure as whether to trust the mysterious Marni or not. It is implied that Marni is a sea witch, but I was never sure whether sea witches in this story are good and helpful or whether we’re being set up for a betrayal in part two. And so at the end of the book the main characters sail off for Australia (yes, from Maine), leaving Uncle Vic–and Lucy’s old life–behind.

“Then as we sailed out toward the open sea, I vowed never to look back again.”

This melodrama mixed with magic just didn’t work for me. I felt unsettled and dissatisfied as skimmed toward the non-end of the story. If you’re willing to invest in a prequel to a voyage to Australia, then you may get a different vibe out of the whole novel. Good luck to you, matey.

Christmas in the UK, c.2011

Dec1

“It was early morning. Tilly turned over in her bed. As she moved her feet, she heard the rustle of the Christmas stocking. She moved her toes again, to feel the delicious weight of it. She reached out for the clock on the bedside table. Six o’clock. It was still too early to wake up Mom and Dad, to go rushing to their room to open her presents.

She turned on the bedside light, reached down, and pulled the stocking up so she could see it properly. It was stuffed to the top with small packages all wrapped up in shiny paper with silver stars. Tilly pulled at the top one, undid one end, and then put it back, suddenly guilty. She must wait for morning.

The bubble of happiness inside her was growing bigger and stronger. It was Christmas. Mom would be coming downstairs for once, to be with her and Dad all day. And she had a new friend at last. A girl a little like her, and a little bit like Ally . . .

Tilly lay quietly in bed, waiting for the day to begin.” ~Tilly’s Moonlight Garden by Julia Green.

Tilly’s Moonlight Garden is the definition of a quiet, gentle fantasy. Not much really happens. A little girl named Tilly moves to a new house, leaving her best friend Ally behind. Tilly’ mother is having a difficult pregnancy, lots of bed rest, and Tilly is worried about her mum and and about making friends at her new school. Led by a wild fox, Tilly finds a magical secret garden behind her new home, and she meets a mysterious friend there.

It was never clear to me how old Tilly was in the book, and that was a bit bothersome. She acts rather young, maybe seven, but she also thinks that others would judge her too old to play with a dollhouse, maybe ten or eleven? She’s a lonely little girl, however old she is, and it’s also not really clear whether the fantastical events (a friendly fox and a ghostly girl) in the story are real or just a figment of Tilly’s fertile imagination. I tend to think probably meant to be real, but it’s sort of left open to the reader’s judgment.

Young readers with the patience to see this one through will find some delightful echoes of Philippa Pearce’s classic Tom’s Midnight Garden and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. Those who are looking for fast action and thrills had better look elsewhere. Anglophiles like me might also enjoy this very British story of a lonesome little girl and her fantasy friends in a secret garden.

Author Julia Green’s website.

Signed by Zelda by Kate Feiffer

Nov29

This book is for all those fans of graphology, the study of handwriting. If you have one in your life, Signed by Zelda is the book. Lucy, the female protagonist of the story, is nearly obsessed with handwriting. She gathers handwriting samples wherever she goes. She looks up samples of famous signatures on the internet. She knows how to tell if a signature is a forgery. She even knows how to forge signatures herself, but she’s still working on being able to replicate John Hancock’s signature.

However, the book is only partly about Lucy and her interest in graphology. It’s also about Nicky, the boy who lives in the apartment above Lucy’s and is always in time-out, sent there by his shouting and uncaring dad. (Mom absconded to India.) And it’s about Pigeon, a talking, pie-eating pigeon, and Grandma Zelda, who’s Nicky’s sometimes forgetful but excellent pie-making grandmother. Grandma Zelda’s specialty is Zeldaberry pies (recipe in the back of the book).

When Grandma Zelda disappears, Nicky, Lucy and Pigeon band together to find her. This final third of the book is both the best and the weakest part of the story. It’s best because we finally get to see the three friends working together to solve a problem, the disappearance of Grandma Zelda. But it’s the weakest because Nicky’s dad, the person responsible for Grandma’s vanishing, was just too bad for his eventual “redemption” to be believable. He’s bad, bad, bad, all through the book; then he apologizes and everything is fine. (Not a spoiler. It’s pretty obvious throughout the book who the bad guy is and what his nefarious plan is.)

Signed by Zelda is quirky, sort of a stretch on the believability scale, and a delight for anyone who’s a fan of handwriting analysis–or pigeons. Lucy even has rules, called LUCY’S WRITING RULES:

LWR #1: Watch your back around paper stabbers.
LWR #2: Confused people have confused writing.
LWR #3: Real friends write with real letters.
LWR #4: You are your I.
LWR #5: Every signature has a secret.

Context is everything, and you would probably have to read the book to get the full significance of Lucy’s Writing Rules. I just wonder what Lucy would make of my signature?

'Signature' photo (c) 2008, Jim Hammer - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

The Dead Gentleman by Matthew Cody

Nov27

More steam-punk, time travel, kids-save-the-world with a dose of zombies, pirates, and intrepid explorers thrown in for good measure. Shake it all together, and you have an adventure story that answers the eternal question: “Should you be afraid of dark closets and basements and monsters under the bed at night?” (The answer, of course, is a resounding “YES!”)

Tommy is a nineteenth century Dickensian London street urchin who is recruited to join the Explorers’ Society, a group of men devoted to exploring portals to other worlds. Jezebel Lemon is a twenty-first century schoolgirl who lives in a New York apartment with her dad, an artist. When Tommy and Jez become partners, they have to find a way to save the world from the un-dead, Dead Gentleman.

I liked the friendship aspect of this story. What does it take to make people friends?What if a friend betrays you? What do friends do to balance each other and compensate for the other’s weaknesses? Tommy is a bit rash, rushing in where others fear to tread; Jez is more cautious, but she approaches bold and daring by the end of the novel. Then there’s also Bernard, another friend and ally who’s super-cautious, but loyal. The friends complement one another.

I didn’t much like the villains of the piece, not that you’re supposed to like villains. The Dead Gentleman and his henchman Macheath are a little too nefarious and mustache-twirling to be believed. However, each to his own villains, I suppose.

For middle grade steam-punk adventure fans, The Dead Gentleman is a solid entry in the genre. Recommended on the back cover by Pseudonymous Bosch.

Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui Sutherland

Nov26

Clay and his four young dragonet friends have lived their entire lives hidden away under the mountain, being trained for their eventual destiny: to end the dragon war among the various groups of dragons in Pyrrhia, the dragon-inhabited land in this intriguing story of dragonets, prophecy and coming of age. Each of the dragon tribes has a queen ruler, except the Sandwings, who have three sisters fighting for control of the tribe. Other dragon tribes have taken sides in the Sandwings’ war, so the entire land of Pyrrhia is at war and has been for quite a long time. It’s kind of like World War I Europe with all the intertwined alliances and treaties, except with dragons.

The Dragonet Prophecy, the first book in a projected series about the “dragonets of destiny”, tells the story from the point of view of Clay, a Mudwing dragon who, despite being the biggest and possibly the most talented fighter of the five dragonets of destiny, has a heart for peace and non-violence. That’s not to say that the story itself is non-violent; there are several complaints on Amazon about the book being too violent for the intended age group. I think the appropriate age group is about 10 and up, and for better or for worse, most 10 year olds in our culture are accustomed to the level of violence in The Dragonet Prophecy (dragons eating prey, including humans, and dragons fighting other dragons).

There’s not much of a theme here or underlying subtext. Maybe the story is about how difficult it is to make peace in the midst of war and warlike dragons. Or maybe it’s about coming of age, and finding your parents, and moving on from there. However, not every story has to be about Big Ideas. Some can just reference the Big Themes and rely on plot and characters to carry most of the weight. The Dragonet Prophecy is that second kind of novel.

I thought this book was a promising start to a somewhat unconventional and unpredictable story. The world-building was good, and there’s lots of room for more surprises as readers find out more about the cultures and habits of the various tribes of dragons in Pyrrhia. I’m looking forward to reading the second book in this series, The Lost Heir, due out in January, 2013. It’s told from the viewpoint of Tsunami, a SeaWing dragonet who, accompanied by her fellow dragonets of destiny, goes to find her parents underwater in the SeaWing kingdom.

The Hop by Sharelle Byars Moranville

Nov25

I hereby christen a new genre: eco-fantasy. (Ummm, OK, so Google shows over 28 million hits for eco-fantasy. There’s nothing new under the sun.)

Anyway, The Hop is an eco-fantasy, complete with Big, Bad Developers, a nature-loving heroine, and talking toads. The toads including one named Tad, live in Toadville-by-Tumbledown. Their habitat is about to be destroyed by Central Iowa Realtors, a company looking build a new shopping center. Only if Tad can kiss a human girl will Toadville be saved.

Told alternately from the point of view of Tad the Toad and of a girl named Taylor, this story was cute and enjoyable, even if it was a bit predictable. Of course, Toadville will be saved. Of course, Tad will kiss the Queen of the Hop. Of course, all will be well, even if it takes a cross-country journey to Reno, Nevada, a bit of magic and a rich conservationist to pull it all off. For gardeners, herpetologists, fifties music fans, and eco-fantasy readers.

In the meantime, if you’re starved for herpetological information:
Toads Could Be Used to Predict Earthquakes.
Frogs and Toads Nature Study
Enchanted Learning: Toads
Frog and Toad page on Pinterest
For further reading: The Frog and Toad Collection by Arnold Lobel, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, Commander Toad and the Space Pirates by Jane Yolen, The Toad Books by Morris Gleitzman, Toad by the Road by Joanne Ryder.