Followed by Frost by Charlie N. Holmberg

Seventeen-year old Smitha is a giant pain: conceited, self-centered – a jerk.  As I began reading Followed by Frost, it occurred to me that if she didn’t change – and soon – I wasn’t going to be able to continue reading the story.  Smitha is definitely not the kind of heroine that interests me.  But having read and really enjoyed The Paper Magician trilogy, also by Charlie Holmberg, I trusted the author to fix things up.

Happily, unlike Smitha’s parents and sister and long-suffering friends and neighbors, her father’s employee, Morden, shows up to set things straight.  Morden fancies he’s in love with Smitha.  Clearly he doesn’t know her very well and appears to be making judgments based more on her good looks than her captivating personality.  Smitha, being true to herself, thinks he isn’t good enough for her and when he asks her to meet him one evening, she says yes and then blows him off entirely.  Uh oh.

Morden is not exactly what he appears to be.  He is not the humble, lovesick worker but rather, a wizard in disguise.  Smitha needs to be taught a lesson, he decides, and he’s just the one to teach it.  Morden turns Smitha into a sort of ice princess – and not in the beautiful but chilly Elsa from Frozen kind of way.

Smitha loses her good looks and her friends and family.  Her presence causes a constant snowstorm that dooms any community in which she lives, even killing off some of the locals.  Soon no one wants her around and she gets booted out, taking to the road for three long years of lonely wandering.

It’s not all lonely times, however, for while Smitha wanders along suffering all the pain and inconvenience of being a human freezer, she encounters Sadriel, a charming and handsome gentleman who just happens to be Death.  He doesn’t want Smitha’s soul, but rather, her “companionship” – or something like that.  Time and again, he asks Smitha to join him in a manner in which she would be neither alive nor dead.

Smitha’s not really into the whole romancing with Death kind of thing, so she resists (mostly) and, little by little, she transforms from self-centered jerk to someone thoughtful, kind, and selfless.  The transformation begins just in time for her to come to the aid of a young prince, Imad, who asks her to come to his drought stricken homeland and bring snow.  The new and improved Smitha agrees and soon takes up residence in the town under the watchful and particularly attentive gaze of Lo, the very handsome and somewhat silent captain of the guard.

I’ll just leave it there.

Followed by Frost is an excellent, old-fashioned fairy tale that is a satisfying story from beginning to end.

LAME FACTOR: 0 OF 5 (Smitha’s annoying tendencies straightened out before I could get aggravated enough to stop reading)

YOUR PARENTS WILL FREAK FACTOR:  Not unless they’re really weird

BRAIN POWER:  The story is very well-written but within the abilities of an average reader. 

100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith

I read about two or three YA books every week and I seem to blog about zero of them.  I attribute that to my being a full time teacher, an as full-time-as-you-can-get volunteer EMT, and an aspiring writer.  Mostly, though, I think I’m just lazy about writing for my blog.

So this morning, while my students have their heads in laptops and headphones supposedly working on a reading program I’m required to have them do (but sometimes watching professional wrestling videos instead), I thought I would use my time wisely and review one of the books I enjoyed most recently.  The book is 100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith.

First off, I am a sucker for books with male narrators, as is the case with 100 Sideways Miles. I’m not exactly sure why that is, but I’ve noticed it’s a pattern, such as my love for the Beautiful Creatures series.  This particular narrator is especially appealing as he’s such a nice guy.

Finn Easton sometimes thinks he’s nothing more than a figment of his father’s imagination – literally.  Finn’s dad is an author and the main character of his most popular book sounds a lot like the writer’s only son, right down to his name and heterochromia (I’m not going to tell you what this is.  Let’s just say that if you had studied your Greek and Latin roots the way your teacher told you, you would know).

The real Finn, the one outside the book, is sweet and smart and a gentleman even while being a teenage boy.  He lives with his dad, stepmom, and stepsister in a beautiful setting and spends his time playing baseball with his best friend Cade, and his relationship with all of them is a reflection of his gentle nature. 

Finn manages to be a super likeable guy in spite of some significant challenges.  First, there’s the fact that his mother was killed, and he was badly injured, in a freak accident when he was very young.  Then, there are the seizures that sneak up on him unexpectedly and, generally, at the most inopportune times, often leaving him unable to control his temper (something he normally never displays) or his bodily functions.

As the school year draws to a close, Finn and Cade discuss their plans for the summer, the most important of which is a road trip from California to Oklahoma to visit a college they’d like to attend. For Finn, it’s the first step toward independence.  Before he can escape his father’s book, though, a new chapter opens for him: the arrival of Julia Bishop, a transfer to his school.  Julia isn’t put off by Finn’s ill-timed seizures or what happens after he experiences one and soon, the two fall in love.

Which would be great if Julia’s parents didn’t live in Chicago.

Will Finn ever see Julia again?  Will he ever become his own person and not just a character in a book?

I’m not going to tell you.

LAME FACTOR:  I thought this was a great book, largely based on Finn’s personality, an engaging story, and, well, frankly the EMT in me was interested in the details of the seizures.  I give it a 0 on the lame factor scale.

YOUR PARENTS WILL FREAK FACTOR:  Cade is not Finn.  He is gross – but then so are lots of teenage boys.  The grossness is appropriate to the story, but if your parents are sensitive about that kind of thing (lots of references to sex), you should probably check with them to see just how freaked out they would be.

BRAIN POWER:  The book is extremely well-written but within the abilities of the average YA reader.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies!

I love Jane Austen novels.  I love zombies.  Need I say more?

Check out the trailer for the film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

https://youtu.be/jAChymiQC-o

You Don't Know Me by David Klass

Testing students’ reading levels is one of the most boring things I have to do as a teacher.  It’s a necessary evil, of course, since I have to have an idea of where to begin teaching each kid, but some of the passages are absolutely painful.  There’s one about dragons that makes me want to shoot myself – but maybe it’s just because I’m not a dragon kind of gal.  There’s another one that focuses on a conversation that I’ve heard so many times that I have it memorized.  Happily, some of the passages are actually really good like The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare and Ann Martin’s A Corner of the Universe.

The one I’ve always liked best is from the book You Don’t Know Me by David Klass.  The passage the students read is about 300 words long and highlights the fourteen year old main character’s love of a classmate, Gloria, who, in his fantasies, he refers to as Glory Hallelujah.  Glory seems pretty sweet and accepts John’s invitation to a basketball game and I had great hopes that this really nice kid was about to begin a relationship with the girl of his dreams. 

Then I decided to Google the book while a student was reading the passage.  Let’s just say that, in spite having read thousands of books, I was totally wrong.

You Don’t Know Me is no sweet YA (early YA) novel.  Instead, it is the story of an abused boy dealing with his mother’s cruel and criminal boyfriend and a host of other people who treat him like crap.  “You don’t know me,” is the phrase John uses to protect himself.

Luckily for John, not everyone in his world is a giant jerk and there are people who value him, who care about him, and who actually do “know him.”

I don’t want to give away anything, so suffice it to say that You Don’t Know Me is a touching coming-of-age story with a very likeable main character who makes you want to beat up almost everyone else in his life.  It’s well worth reading – and so much better than that damn dragon story.

LAME FACTOR:  If it were lame, I would have stopped reading it.  0/5

YOUR PARENTS WILL FREAK FACTOR:  I doubt it.

BRAIN POWER:  The story is well written and aimed at late middle school through early high school.  It’s nice to have a story with a male narrator.

Eleanor & Park: A Playlist

To say that I am obsessed with Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell would be an understatement.  In fact, I love it so much, I am having trouble writing a blog post about it.  I think I may need to sit with it a bit more before I'm ready.  I first read the book a few months ago - and immediately read it again to absorb it (the first time I just wanted to see how it ended).

I'm currently nearing the end of my third reading and I still feel like I haven't absorbed it quite enough.  I don't think I've ever felt that way about any book.

In the meantime, music plays a central role in the book and I recently discovered this playlist on Barnes & Noble's website.  I've been listening to it pretty much non-stop.  It's a pretty accurate and complete representation of the music in the book.

Enjoy.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/eleanor-parks-lovely-mix-tape/

The Riverman by Aaron Starmer

Lately, I’ve been reading more for research than for pleasure; that is, I look up the best selling self-published books and try to figure out what makes them sell.  I can’t say I’ve been terribly impressed by the quality of most of these books, but they’ve earned their authors plenty of cash, so bravo for them.  I hope that I will be clever enough to manage the same thing.  That said, I have managed to squeeze in some legitimate reads including The Riverman by Aaron Starmer.

The Riverman is a middle grade novel with a male narrator, twelve-year old Alistair Cleary.  I love this kid – which is most likely why I enjoyed the book so much.  He is sweet and sincere and well meaning boy trying to navigate the world between being a kid and being an adult.  That world becomes much more complicated when a neighbor, Fiona Loomis, shows up at the door with an incredible story and a request to write her biography.

At first, Alistair is reluctant to get involved in the project.  Fiona is pretty weird (wonderfully weird) after all, but as Fiona tells her tale, Alistair finds himself irresistibly drawn to both the story and the storyteller.  As Fiona tells it, she and a select handful of children, all of whom have disappeared, have access to an alternate universe of their own making, a world where everything would be perfect were it not for the presence of The Riverman, a stealer of children’s souls.

And while Alistair isn’t entirely sure that he believes the story Fiona has to tell, he is certain that she needs protection and that he is just the one for the job.  With his friendships with other boys deteriorating, Alistair’s feelings for Fiona grow providing his life with a meaning he hadn’t realized he was missing – which makes her well-being that much more important. 

Suffice it to say the story comes to an end with a fair amount of excitement, some missteps, and a really sweet exchange between Alistair (did I mention I love that kid?) and Fiona.

LAME FACTOR:  I can’t say I’m big on series books, but I’m actually going to read the next one.  Definitely a zero of five.

YOUR PARENTS WILL FREAK FACTOR: Boys will be boys.  Kids will be kids.  There’s nothing that bad in here and if your parents think so, they don’t know what you’re up to.

BRAIN POWER:  While the story is very well written, it is a middle grade book so no problems.

The Scorpio Races

So, as usual, I have been reading plenty of books and blogging about zero of them, mostly because I’ve become obsessed with getting my own book published.  It is a slow, soul-sucking process which should come as a surprise to absolutely no one.  Happily, I’m not particularly sensitive, and press on in spite of all the rejection.

Anyway, in the past three weeks I’ve finished three books and thought I should blog about at least one of them.  All three, Legend by Marie Lu, The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, and The Riverman by Aaron Starmer, were quite good in their own way, and I would recommend them all.

In all fairness, though, I should start with The Scorpio Races because Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver was the first YA book I’d ever read (having been born in the olden days, I only had children’s books or adult books available to me) and started me on a seemingly never-ending binge of YA reading.  It is her work, in fact, that inspired me to even think of writing my own book.

The Scorpio Races is set on what appears to be a British/Irish sort of island in an indeterminate time period that seems to be the past – but if you’ve ever been on a British/Irish sort of island, you will realize that this is often the case.  Much like Shiver, the story is told from alternating points-of-view.  Puck (Kate) is the heroine of the story.  She’s a little grumbly and a lot brave, motivated to take on the terrifying challenge of racing her gentle horse against men riding killer water horses because she believes it may prolong her eldest brother’s leaving the family home.  Oh yeah, also because her parents are dead, her young brother is just a tad off, and they risk getting kicked out of the only home they’ve every known. In light of all that, prize money seems pretty tempting.

Sean Kendrick serves as the other narrator.  All angles and silence, Sean loves the island, but he loves the horses even more, particularly his water horse, Corr.  Like Puck, Sean is also motivated to win the Scorpio Races in order to sort out his own variety of issues; that is, until Puck comes along putting a new spin on both winning and on being alone.

As usual, I found the characters extremely well-written, original, and multi-dimensional.  The story, which revolves around the Celtic myth of the Capaill Uisce, water horses who rise from the ocean only to get extraordinarily cranky with anyone who tries to stop them from going back, was also quite original.  The setting, which is complex and multilayered, is generally one of my favorites anyway (i.e., anything Celtic and rainy) so I was pretty predisposed to enjoying that aspect of the story.

All in all, The Scorpio Races definitely doesn’t disappoint in any way and, as with all Maggie Stiefvater’s works, I highly recommend it.

LAME FACTOR:  Maggie Stiefvater doesn’t have a lame bone in her body.  0 of 5.

YOUR PARENTS WILL FREAK FACTOR:  I can’t think of any reasons why they would.

BRAIN POWER:  I’m clearly prejudiced, but this is a great author who uses real words, beautiful sentence structure, and metaphors the rest of us couldn’t even begin to imagine.  Your brain might actually grow.