Just For You!

I am convinced those people who claim to only read intellectual, stuffy books, magazines, and newspapers secretly have a stash of fun, easy reading hidden under their beds. Why fight the fact that sometimes, a funny, easy, entertaining, endearing read is all you really want? And with Tera Lynn Childs, you are bound to get just that with Just for Fins. 

Lily may be a mermaid queen, but that doesn't mean everyone takes her seriously. In her mermaid kingdom, she tries to use her position to call the other mermaid kings and queens to join forces to help Tellin's kingdom (her "husband" or bond mate, in name only). Tellin's kingdom is on the verge of starvation due to pollution and over-fishing, but that doesn't mean anyone wants to help them. The other leaders scold Lily for not recognizing their own human-caused problems and promptly depart from the meeting, leaving Lily to look like a fool.

But Tellin's dying kingdom isn't Lily's only concern. An ancient law is dug up that states Quince, Lily's true love, must pass three trials in order for them to remain together. If he fails, she will be banished to the water, he will be banished to land, and neither can come together ever again. Now Lily finds everything she ever loved on the line with little hope of fixing things. But it is about to get worse when the merpeople consider acts of sabotage on oil rigs and ships perfectly acceptable revenge to save the oceans humans have so carelessly destroyed. As a half-human who is in love with a human, Lily can't imagine the losses and devastation such acts could cause. But how can one teenage mermaid stop generations of oceanic destruction all by herself?

I just love Tera Lynn Childs. She never disappoints. Her stories are witty, fun, and just make me smile. This was a good conclusion to the mermaid tales (pun intended), but I wish the trials for Quince weren't so rushed. With the focus on the environmental issues, the trials we stuffed into a few short pages them forgotten about for a long stretch. It seems like it could either have been more developed or left out altogether instead of making a big deal out of it then ignoring it. Still, the environmental issues were a great, serious element to these fun stories, and whole-heartedly appropriate for a modern day story of the sea.

These are fairly young books and would be best for middle readers or an immature young adult reader. Although, if you can get a stronger young adult reader to pick them up, they would most likely enjoy the entertaining stories. They do have a great joy to them, and I know I have enjoyed every book I read by Childs!

When All the Water is Gone...

With such a haunting and beautiful cover, this post-apocalyptic story by Cameron Stracher had a lot to live up to. How do you take a scary scenario and breathe some life into a hopeless world? The Water Wars does it with strong characters who keep you rooting for them through every obstacle and struggle.

Vera and Will live in a world where the water is gone, and with it, life as we know it has gone as well. People survive on genetically modified foods, are given water rations that barely keep them alive, and dream of the days with grass, animals, and rain. When Vera sees the new boy, who rides in a limo and has a bodyguard, pour a cup of water out onto the road, she knows there is something different about Kai. No one wastes water anymore, not when there isn't enough to keep the world alive.

Kai tells Vera and Will about a hidden river, and they can't stop thinking about it. One day, Kai takes Vera to an old abandoned mill where he shows her the water in a hidden aquifer below the surface. Later, when she and Will go to find Kai, they discover his body guard shot and his apartment trashed. Kai is nowhere to be found. Worried about their friend, they take off after him, using his father's notebook they found in the apartment. From the minute they leave their small, dehydrated town, they find themselves on a whirlwind journey that they just barely survive.

Kidnapped by pirates, they are taken out of Illinowa and to Minnestoa. There, environmental terrorists blow a dam that almost kills Vera and Will. Now they find themselves in the hands of the most brutal and greedy group- the environmentalists who destroy the earth just as quickly as the others, if they can make a profit doing so. Just when they think all hope is lost, Ulysses, the pirate leader, comes to their rescue. They continue on their journey to find Kai, but in the meantime, they realize all they knew about their government, the water, and the world is wrong. Now they must rely on the help of outlaws and pirates to get to Kai in time. Can they do it?

This was a really interesting post-apocalyptic tale. Since it was a shorter novel, it would be a good start for a student who is interested in this kind of topic but hasn't read much yet. The writing is fairly simple, and the horror of the story isn't in the language or the gruesomeness, but rather in the sheer possibility of something like this being possible. It would be a good story for any age group, from late elementary students through high school. It is particularly good for older students with lower reading abilities who want a mature subject. The action is non-stop and will keep the attention of any reader.

The beauty of this story is that even when the worst thing possible happens, there is still a way to survive it all and come out on top. Even when Vera or Will were ready to give up, the other one kept them both going, refusing to give up on their friend Kai. Nothing was going to stop these two kids. I also liked the idea that things are not always as they seem. With the pirates and the other outlaws, the ones who you would assume are good people turn out to be horrible and greedy, and the pirates turn out to be pretty good people- Ulysses even risks his life to save the kids. This story will defy all your assumptions and keep you reading until the very end. There is never a dull moment in a world where there isn't enough water.