YA Book Reviews for Nov. 18, 2009

From CRBSLS

Fire by Kristin Cashore

This book's great cover explians that it is a "companion to Graceling." However "Fire" is more in the way of a prequel, and can actually stand as a separate story; except for one particularly nasty character, there is not a lot to connect the two books. Nevertheless, readers of "Graceling" won't be disappointed with this fast paced, action-packed romance featuring a strong female heroine. The central character, "Fire" is a monster human, who lives in a remote kingdom where she has been moreoreless adopted by the ruling family there. She has an on-again/off-again romance with her childhood companion "Archer," who is a regular human, and an outstanding bowsman. Fire, as a monster human (like the "Gracelings") has unusual talents, in her case she can manipulate and direct people's minds. When war threatens the kingdoms nearby--and Fire's people as well--she is called upon to use her powers to defeat their enemies. Fire feels conflicted about putting her talents to this end (she has a terrible memory of something she did to her own father), but she agrees, and Fire's life takes all kinds of new twists and turns, as she comes-of-age in the middle of a mighty battle between good and evil. Melissa Bergin observed that this book is perhaps for more mature readers than "Graceling," so be aware of this. For girls in Grades 8/9 and up. There is implied sex, and a few quite graphic scenes of violence.

Reviewed by Ann Sayers

The Dying Breath by Alane Ferguson

The fourth book starring sixteen year old Cameryn Mahoney in a forensic mystery series is just as well put together as the previous three without missing a beat. The likability relies on the 'girl power' attitude that Cameryn exhibits as she assists her father in solving murders: he's the county coroner and she a budding pathologist prodigy. She's been taken under the wing of an old-school pathologist who 'shows her the way,' but not before he impart his wisdom as Cameryn is again the object of an intense pathological killer who refers to Cameryn as his angel of death. In this book, he painstainkingly pursues Cameryn until she and him are standing at the edge of a cliff. Who will get the upper hand? (Reviewed by Alicia Abdul, Albany High School)

Front and Center by Cathering Gilbert Murdock

Another sequel, this is the third in the Dairy Queen series. In short, Murdock should have been happy with Dairy Queen and moved on to other interests. As with the second, The Off Season, Murdock struggles to maintain a consistent and narrowed focus on DJ Schwenk, a girl football player. Instead, she feels the need to discuss her older brothers, her younger brother, her recently outed gay best friend, her coaches, and her boyfriend/ex-boyfriend. Then, by the third and hopefully final book, she has DJ on the basketball team. I'm all for a real-girl with athletic interests, but c'mon, I liked DJ just the way she was: a stubborn, football playing girl who hated helping run her family's dairy farm. Isn't there enough there to write about? (Reviewed by Alicia Abdul, Albany High School)

The Silver Blade by Sally Gardner

This sequel to The Red Necklace continues the story of our hero Yann Margoza, the gypsy with mystical powers. After safely delivering his love, Sido, to England, Yann returns to Paris to help save aristocrats caught in the terror of the French Revolution. The wicked Count Kalliovski has returned and is masterminding a criminal empire from the catacombs under the city. There is a final showdown between Yann and the Count while the lovely Sido is in peril. A fun, period, swashbuckling read. (Reviewed by Marion Burghart, Schoharie Jr/Sr High School)

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

Set during the Wars of the Roses in England, this title tells the story of Elizabeth Woodville, a commoner so beautiful she entranced and married Edward of York. During her brief time as queen, she made many enemies by giving too much power to her family and relations. While not always likable, she is a compelling character who does what she thinks she has to in order to see her family prosper. This is a fascinating, turbulent time period and Gregory is a master at bringing the characters to life. (Reviewed by Marion Burghart, Schoharie Jr/Sr High School)

Becoming Billie Holiday by Carole Boston Weatherford, art by Floyd Cooper

Weatherford has done her homework and presented well the metamorphosis of Eleanora Fagan into legendary jazz singer, Billie Holiday. The jacket copy rightfully describes the poetry in this creative biography as “raw and poignant.” It must be so to deal honestly with Holiday’s life. Shuttled from one temporary caretaker to another by a mother who scraped by as a live-in maid, raped by a neighbor, turning tricks, dropout in the sixth grade, Weatherford-as-Billie boasts,

"At eleven, I had the body / of a grown woman, / the mouth of a sailor, and a temper / hot enough to fry an egg."

Floyd Cooper’s “subtractive technique” is an ingenious fit to both Holiday’s life and Weatherford’s poetry. Each illustration begins with a ground of paint in dark sepia from which shapes are erased, then enhanced with splashes of color in various media, using a dry brush technique (p. 117). The images are sometimes iconic and multi-layered, always evocative. (Reviewed by Donna Phillips, Oneida Middle School)

The Way a Door Closes by Hope Anita Smith, with illustrations by Shane W. Evans Keeping the Night Watch by Hope Anita Smith, with illustrations by E. B. Lewis

A father abandons his family. A father returns. The eldest son, who lives the cliché and becomes the man of the family for the years when his father is gone, can’t seem to decide which is worse. Though told largely from the perspective of CJ, the eldest son, these two slim books of illustrated verse capture well the family growing pains foisted on everyone.

Each book stands on its own merits, but pairing the two produces an additional experience. “Diamond in the Rough” (Door, p. 13) is a tidy rhymed poem in wistful celebration of all the wisdom that Daddy exhorts for his children, but which no one seems to have taught Daddy as a child. “The Jeweler” (Night Watch, p. 23) is a concrete poem in which the son has become a metaphorical jeweler who now has the ability to polish the father-gem by accepting the father's return. But now it’s father's turn to wait as the son strings him along.

Another layer of meaning and power comes from the juxtaposed illustrations. The muted palette, shaved heads, and impressionistic style of the second book evoke a complexity not found in the vivid colors, full heads of hair, and realistic style of the first. This richness is replicated in Smith’s verse as she plays with a variety of forms—a villanelle, an acrostic, a sonnet. This is not an addition to the typical free verse poetic fiction popularized by Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust. Put these in the poetry section, right after you read them and show them off to those students and teachers who love good poetry. (Reviewed by Donna Phillips, Oneida Middle School)

I Heard God Talking to Me : William Edmondson and His Stone Carvings by Elizabeth Spires, with photographs from Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Edward Weston, and others

I had never heard of William Edmondson. The son of freed slaves, in 1937 he became the first African American artist to have a solo exhibition of his work at the Museum of Modern Art. Through these poems and photographs, Spires introduces this complex and spiritual man who took up sculpture in his late 50s after getting the call from God. Like Edmondson, Spires transcends that original calling, incorporating details that Edmondson may or may not have known. For example, in a poem about boxer Jack Johnson, Spires writes

"I drove fast fancy cars. / Once, I got a $50 ticket for speeding. / When I gave the officer a $100 bill, / he said he didn’t have change. / I said, 'keep the change. / I’m coming back the same way I came through.'" (15).

Then in the next poem, “Porch Ladies,” Spires nails the personalities of two small-town front porch socializers who explain their lives in contrast to the “rush and bustle” of the world:

"But here on the porch / everything moves slow / slow as molasses, / slow as a seven-year itch, / slow as the day before Christmas, / Slow, we tell you. Slow!

Hey you, driving that fast car! / Slow down, for goodness’ sake. / No need to rush so!" (17).

Could be Jack Johnson speeding home on the return trip, a provocative juxtaposition to those porch ladies from a quiet man who heard God and had the patience to chisel art from odd chunks of limestone with a chisel, a file, and an old railroad spike (6). (Reviewed by Donna Phillips, Oneida Middle School)