Is it Worth it to Survive If this is All There is?

I was excited to find another YA post-apocalyptic novel, but The Compound by SA Bodeen is SO much more than that. In fact, its level of twists, turns, and truly disturbing plot lines will keep you interested through every page.

Eli is the son of a brilliant billionaire, Rex, whose technological advances have rocked the world. When he finds out a nuclear attack has occurred, he rushes his family into The Compound, a shelter he has been working on for almost a decade in case just such a thing occurred. When they rushed to get in, though, their grandmother and Eli's twin Eddy are left outside. When Eli shouts that they have to wait for them as the Compound door closes, his father says, "At least I have one of you."

Life in the Compound has been growing increasingly precarious despite the monotony and the boredom. The food source that was supposed to last for 15 years has been compromised in many ways. The livestock grain was poisoned, the grow lights were actually normal bulbs, and the food supply would never last for the full 15 years necessary for the radiation to dwindle to safe levels. Rex has found a way to survive for longer, but the result, held behind the yellow door, is something no one in the Compound but Rex is willing to consider.

When Eli finds his brother's old computer and picks up a wireless signal (Rex had removed wireless capabilities from all the other computers), he beings to question why they are really in the Compound. Was there really a bomb? Did people survive? Could Eddy and Gram have survived? Is his dad telling them the whole truth? This novel will keep you asking crazy questions from beginning to end.

While there is no sex or real violence in this story, it is very disturbing in parts. The lengths Rex will go to survive will leave the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end. At first he is a quirky rich man intent on protecting his family, but as the story unfolds, it is clear he is also more than a bit unstable. I would save this crazy story for a more mature reader, although the reading level is quite accessible. While the life in the Compound is fairly routine, Rex's madness is anything but. This is an amazing, creative, and disturbing story, but make sure not to read it on a dreary day!

We all Need more Fantasy!

It makes me crazy when every book that comes out is compared to the giants like Harry Potter and Twilight. Now don't get me wrong, I am sure you could find similarities in just about anything within the genre, but why ruin a good story by obsessing with how it compares to other books? if you read Need by Carrie Jones, you have to put Twilight out of your mind! If you do, you will be pleasantly surprised by how this book stands on its own two fantastic feet.

The story starts with Zara arriving in Maine to live with her grandmother after her stepfather dies and she loses her spark. Zara's mother and grandmother think a change of scenery is just the recipe for pulling Zara out of her funk. When Zara arrives, she finds herself pulled between two gorgeous young men, Nick and Ian, and hated by the popular girls. Luckily she finds friendship in Issie, Devyn, and Nick. Unfortunately, that isn't all she finds.

When two boys go missing, stories of the last time this happened begin to surface. Before Zara was born a bunch of young boys went missing, never to be seen again. Now that it is happening again, the town is growing nervous. Zara keeps seeing a man who has followed her from Charleston to Maine and when she shares the information with Issie and Devyn, they share their hypothesis with her: he is a pixie. Pixies are evil creatures that can make themselves look human. If their King is without a Queen for too long, he requires young boys as tributes for him and his subjects to feed from. The only protection humans have from pixies is the weres: werewolves, weretigers, werebears, even a were-eagle. When Zara continues her research, she realizes there is much more to her mother, her stepfather, her grandmother, her friends, and even her own history. Now Zara and her friends and family must find a way to stop the pixies from hunting her and taking any more tributes.

This is a really interesting story with creepy pixies instead of vampires. Their history and culture is so interesting and complex, I just wanted more! I loved both the main character and the subordinate characters. Zara is strong and forceful, and her grandmother is one we all wish we had (OK mine is pretty cool, but Gram ROCKS). I love that Zara doesn't take crap from the popular girls who clearly think she is encroaching on their territory. And when things start to get dark and creepy, Zara throws herself at the problem instead of hiding from it. At one point she goes alone into the woods and shouts, yells at, and even threatens the pixie she is convinced is hiding in the woods. In her spare time, she even writes letters for Amnesty International and starts a chapter in her new high school!

The story is the first in a trilogy and leaves room to continue. It is captivating and exciting, combined with a whole new world of pixies and shape shifters. This is a great book for both boys and girls and is at a great middle-of-the-road reading level- good for middle school to high school. I have already ordered the second book and can't wait for the third! But I am pretty sure I have pegged who the pixies and the weres in my life are!

On Our Minds @ Scholastic: Kids log 12.6 million minutes for summer reading already!

On Our Minds @ Scholastic: Kids log 12.6 million minutes for summer reading already!

Stitches

Graphic novels have taken the literary world by storm, and they're become increasingly popular among the young adult set. The emphasis on the visual and use of text only when it's necessary can make these novels especially appealing to young adults with reading problems. When you first pick one up, your reaction may be "But this is just a comic book." You would be wrong, oh so wrong. I still haven't read as many graphic novels as I would like, mostly because that misconception jumps out of my brain, slaps the graphic novel out of my hand, and points me to something more like a "real book." However, the graphic novels I have taken a chance on have impressed me with their content, which in no way resembles that of an Archie or Bat Man comic.  Yes, the comics are out there, but like everything else, we need to be judicious consumers. Pick up Persepolis or American Born Chinese, and I defy you to compare them to comic books. Today, I add to that list Stitches, by David Small.

Stitches came to my attention because it was one of ten books that won this year's Alex Awards. Awarded by the American Library Association, the Alex Awards are given annually to books written for adults that have special appeal for children, age 12 to 18. Each spring and summer I try to read my way through the most important of the children's book awards, which help guide me when buying books for school or selecting books for individual young adults.  Of course, it's also just plain fun. I try to get through as many of the Alex Awards as possible because they usually provide me with good choices for our higher skilled readers; in general, they hold appeal because young adults can relate to the themes or the characters, but the language is more sophisticated. 

Stitches is a memoir of illustrators David Small, recipient of the Caldecott Medal, the Christopher Medal, and the E.B. White Award for his work in picture books, including Imogene's Antlers, So, You Want to Be President, and The Gardener, one of my favorite children's books. Stitches is a dark book. Small grew up in an angry family with a cold and authoritarian mother and a distant father who lived for his work. As a child, David suffered from respiratory problems. His father, a doctor, believed he could treat David with heavy doses of radiation. Years later, David developed a growth in his throat. His parents delayed getting him to a doctor, but one day he woke up from an operation to find that he had stitches across his throat and could no longer speak. Even though David was horribly scarred and mute, his parents hid his cancer (probably caused by the radiation) from him until became old enough to figure it out for himself. Stitches is a coming-of-age story that follows David's childhood struggles with his parents and health issues, his transition to an adolescent who runs away from home to escape, his journey to becoming an artist, and ultimately coming to grips with his family's past.

Stitches opened my eyes to yet another way images can be used to tell a story. It was quick read for me (I read it in an hour before bed), which makes me think it would be a reasonable book for a young adult with difficulty reading. The use of text is limited, but the print is fairly large and in capital letters, which makes it easy on the eyes. For the struggling or reluctant reader, it also offers the advantages of being an adult book (much easier than trying to sell a high school kid on a 4th grade novel) and being a true story, which many of my students appreciate. Small's story is grim-bordering-on-gothic, but he rises above his troubled childhood to become a successful illustrator so it also has elements of triumph and success. You may want to pick up a few of his children's books so that you can see the contrast between the images in Stitches.  If you need a good memoir, or you want to try a graphic novel for the first time, or you have a little time to while away, give Stitches a try; you can't lose.

Evil Genius

Eighth grade student Oliver Watson is not the least popular kid in school, but he's close. He's pudgy, socially awkward, and never knows what's going on in his classes. He is insulted and abused on a regular basis by his classmates, derided by his teachers, and pitied by his parents. He is also the third wealthiest person in the world. You should fear him.

I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President, by Josh Lieb, tells the story Oliver's campaign for the presidency of the eighth grade class. Despite his apparent bumbling idiocy, Oliver is a world power. Having realized at the ripe old age of infancy that he was smarter than his parents, he decided to play dumb. His mother had married with nothing but her looks to offer, and they were long gone; she "would be terrified by my brain." His Daddy wanted nothing more than to produce "something amazing," something that would "change the world." But Oliver was already put off by Daddy's misplaced arrogance and "wasn't going to let him warm his frigid little heart by the hot flames of my genius."

When the time was right, Oliver stole $50 from his mother and invested it well. Quickly, he became a world power, with personal assistants, secret operatives, hidden rooms, bat caves full of technological devices, and off shore oil rights. I'm not sure how accurate that list is, but you get the gist. Oliver=hidden power + hidden money. The one thing Oliver craves, despite his disdain, is the love and respect of his father, who wants in return, a "normal" son. When the student council elections are announced, Oliver realizes the only way to get through to Daddy is to become president, just like Daddy used to be. Oliver plans to use his power and money to win the election; his attempts to bribe the principal, manipulate his English teacher through hidden messages in his cigarettes, and unseat the most popular kids in the school are laugh-out-loud funny. His soft, round, and stupid mother inadvertently becomes the manager of his rag tag campaign, and their attempts to help him out by controlling his campaign come close to undoing all his behind-the-scenes work.

No spoilers here, but Oliver discovers that even genius, money, and power are vulnerable to variables beyond their control. As the bombers circle overhead, he struggles to hang on to his empire while finding a way to build a relationship with his parents.

There is a lot about this book that I love. Oliver is a perfect evil genius; his haughty arrogance and intellectual brilliance combined with the simple need for parental love made me want to bring him home and feed him grilled cheese sandwiches. Josh Lieb paints the adults and other students in Oliver's life in such tedious, mediocre, boring, fatuousness that I felt they deserved to be manipulated by him. I felt that the ending was a little too tidy, but with Oliver's wealth, maybe it WOULD be. This is a great read for a kid who has a healthy intolerance for foolishness and appreciation for the underdog. Even though Oliver is an eighth grade character, this is not an easy read; his character's vocabulary and experiences are well beyond those of the average eighth grader. Lieb's use of pictures, footnotes, paragraphing, and varied kinds of dialogue help to break up the story and keep the reader's interest.

Pick it up now; you know you want to. Besides, how else will you find out who is the next eighth grade president?

Who are the Kids' Enemies Now?

Oh, Lord, more zombies! Well, actually these aren't true zombies, int he strictest sense. But they are still terrifying! The Enemy, by Charlie Higson, has zombie-like adults (anyone over 16 years old) who are so sick and diseased they have gone mad. They shamble around like zombies, but they aren't the living dead. They can be injured and scared, and other than the overwhelming hunger that will lead them to eating anything, they don't bear much resemblance to real zombies- just a pack of crazy, plotting, adults ready to kidnap and eat any kid who dares come into contact with them.

Enemy starts out with a group of kids who have been living in Waitrose, a grocery store in a good neighborhood. There is another group of kids farther downtown in the poorer neighborhood hiding in a grocery store called Morrisons, but the two groups don't cooperate. Life is difficult for the kids, as they are finding barely any food while scavenging, are losing kids all the time to attacks from grown-ups, and morale was gone long ago. When an odd boy named Jester shows up with grown-ups after him, the Waitrose crew and the Morrisons crew save him and bring him into Waitrose. He tells them of his job, to gather kids all over London to come and help grow food and defend Buckingham palace.

With the situation growing more and more dangerous each day, both crews decide to travel across town to the palace. This is no easy feat, of course. They must battle everything from smart, plotting bands of grown-ups, to apes from the zoo who seem to be suffering from the same sickness that attacked the adults. When they finally arrive after having met another crew of kids called the Holloways and having lost many kids, they realize life in the palace isn't as idyllic as Jester told them. There isn't much food and the leader, David, plans on ruling all of London, even if it means war with other kids. Blue, head of the Morrisons, and Maxie, new head of the Waitroses, must figure out whether safe life controlled by David in the palace is better than a free life outside the palace where danger is at every turn.

This was an enthralling story, but I warn you, there is absolutely no closure. Higson is clearly gearing up for a sequel, and I cannot wait! The story is great for boys, primarily, or any girls who need suspense, and can be used for high level middle school students all the way to high school students. The violence isn't particularly gruesome. Although there are zombie-like adults walking about, there is no gore. Any violence is done tastefully without reaching for the blood factor. The interesting part is how similar the last quarter of the book is to Lord of the Flies when the 3 crews get to the palace. The acts of kids trying to play at "government" and "politics" gets out of hand and dirty real quickly. The characters are very interesting, and the side story of Small Sam, a kid taken from the parking lot at Waitrose, gives another side to the city. This is a great book for a kid who needs action to keep them reading, because in The Enemy, the action never stops!

When Breaking the Rules Is Good

Elizabeth Scott has been a hit or miss author for me. I read Stealing Heaven and it was so good, I immediately bought everything she had written. Her earlier novels weren't as good, though. They were very dark and creepy, and the writing wasn't as engaging. So when I saw the most recent release, The Unwritten Rule, I was excited because it looked like she had gotten back to her Stealing Heaven writing.

The story is about a girl named Sarah who has a crush on her best friend's boyfriend, Ryan- the ultimate defiance of the biggest unwritten rule of friendships. You would think this would make you hate Sarah, but her friend Brianna is the more disgust worthy of the trio. Sarah tries to avoid Ryan at all costs, but Brianna is constantly dragging her with them on dates and making her amuse Ryan while Brianna flits about. After a while, it is hard to deny that Ryan has feelings for Sarah too.

Brianna is the worst kind of friend. She is the type of attractive, popular girl who sees her friends as accessories that will make her more attractive. In particular, accessories that are clearly not as wonderful as Brianna is, thereby making Brianna look better. At times, the things Brianna says to Sarah, like "Don't worry, I know the guys like me aren't exactly interested in you, but maybe a freshman will really like you for who you are" make me want to strangle her. In fact, despite the "unwritten rule" I wanted Sarah to not only take Brianna's boyfriend, but clock her as well.

This novel was OK, not stellar, just OK. It wasn't the best I have read, but certainly not the worst either. Unfortunately, in a genre that has exploded with amazing fiction, I have a hard time recommending something that is just OK. I think this would be a good choice for any middle school to high school girl who reads a lot and won't be detracted by the mediocre plot and writing. The writing isn't complicated and the plot is fairly simple. The characters, however, will defy any impressions you may have started the book with!