I have to admit, this one was extremely sappy and predictable and I didn’t really enjoy it all that much. But my teen daughter loved it. And it’s clean. So I guess it’s worth a quick review for teens and parents of teens who like sticky sweet drama without all the hot and heavy.
Lurlene McDaniel has made something of a name for herself with many, many titles that deal with death, dying, disease, and other similar misfortunes. This one fits right in there. Sixteen-year-old Carley had cancer as a child, and the invasive surgery that saved her life also disfigured her face. She’s often taunted or just plain ignored. No boy will ever look at her twice. They certainly wouldn’t take time get to know the girl beneath the scars when there are so many other beautiful girls to choose from. Until a rollerblading accident lands her back in the hospital where she meets Kyle.
Kyle lost his vision in a chemistry accident. He’s scared, alone, and he welcomes Carley’s friendship. But when his sight begins to return, Carley’s afraid he’ll dump her once he sees her face. So she decides to leave him before he has the chance to hurt her.
I bet you can guess how it ends. I did. No surprises here. But the characters are likeable, and the bittersweet angst is right up a romantic teen girl’s alley. And as I said, this one is squeaky clean. At 1.99, the price is definitely right. Going on a road trip with a teen girl? This light read might fit the bill.
It’s my off week for posting a review, so I’m going to throw in something informal and fun. This is the video I’ve created to place in the back of my ebooks. Since print isn’t always conducive to conveying personality (though blogs are better at this than books), I thought I’d post it here, too. At 1:14, it’s short and sweet!
This particular book won Newbery Honors back in 1996, I believe, but I almost didn’t stick with it long enough to find out why. The story is, in essence, a quest. One that starts out slowly, with not much going on except characterization. Which is excellent. I just wasn’t sure where it all was going and considered ditching. I’m glad I didn’t.
Our hero, Gen, is a common pickpocket without enough brains to keep his skills a secret. His bragging landed him in jail, where we first encounter him. But lucky for Gen, the king of Sounis finds himself in need of a thief.
So Gen, the king’s magus, a soldier, and two other boys set off on a journey. And not much happens as they sneak over the mountains and into the neighboring country of Attolia. But don’t stop reading! And pay attention as you go. Because everything becomes crucially important a few chapters later. As the characters interact, you’ll be treated to some history between the countries, the backgrounds of all three boys, and a good deal about the gods of this made-up country. Believe me, you want to keep going.
Let me sidetrack a moment to describe the setting. It feels like it could be a real time and place in history, but I spent the entire story trying to figure it out. The names were very Greek, the mountainous terrain and abundant olive trees could be anywhere near the Mediterranean. The pantheon of gods sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place them (although ancient Greek and Roman mythology is not my strong point). Several actual names from history appear (like Archimedes). And finally, the whole thing has a medieval feel, but guns are referenced. I was quite confused. Finally, in the note at the end of the book, the author set my mind at rest. The setting is strongly influenced by her love of all things Greek, but it’s all made up. No wonder I couldn’t place it!
Anyway, we soon find out our hero has been requisitioned to steal a stone of immortality that has been influential in the line of succession for another neighboring country of Eddis. If the king shows up with their stone, the queen of Eddis must marry him. The problem? The stone has been missing for 500 years. The magus is certain it’s been hidden in an ancient temple in Attolia, but when they are betrayed, the Queen of Attolia isn’t keen on letting them go free.
This turned out to be a great read, but I don’t want to give anything away. Let’s just say I haven’t been surprised by a twist like this for a long time. Now I almost want to read through it again and find all the clues that were planted so cleverly throughout the story—all the way back to page one. You know, maybe I will!
I do want to register one complaint. The use of the word godsdamn is clever, considering the pantheon of gods, but it’s also too abundant, and it actually detracts from the setting. It felt too modern to even fit this story. Other than that, the book is entirely kid-friendly. I’d give this one a 10+ rating.
First time author Dawn Malone has crafted a winner in Bingo Summer. Charming, sweet, and artfully written, it takes top honors in my summer reading list. It’s just a superb example of middle grade lit. I loved it!
Okay, the initial catalyst for the plot is pretty unlikely. (Summer wins ten million dollars with a lottery ticket.) But the emotions the story conjures up once it gets rolling are absolutely universal. Forced to move across the state by her impetuous mother, Summer starts eighth grade in a new school where kids dress differently and act differently than she is accustomed to. She soon finds herself changing to become like everyone else and not liking the way it makes her feel. Her new friends aren’t friendly. Her dirt-poor past is an embarrassment she tries to hide. She’d give the money back if only she could go home! Rich or not, Summer’s emotional journey is an altogether human response that every single kid out there can identify with.
Now for my favorite part. Drop dead gorgeous writing. Let me show off some of the ingenious images Ms. Malone creates for us…
“…her pout stuck out far enough that I could have pegged her lower lip with my pea-shooter if I had it on me.”
“I followed her into the dining room with a table long enough for a plane to land on.”
“Snow had erased the horizon. Sky and landscape blended together in one solid, white wall. The woods across the road looked like tree-shaped ghosts, draped in snowy sheets.”
“Once I started talking, I couldn’t stop. It all spilled out, at first a little drip-drop of information as she looked over the pictures and articles. Then the words ran together, widening like a fast-moving stream, tumbling over a mountain waterfall, and they wouldn’t quit until I ran dry of every last detail.”
“My throat closed up when he reached for my hair, so any words I had were stuck somewhere between my collar bone and the back of my tongue.”
Doesn’t this remind you of the quality you find in an ALA notable book? Too bad the ALA doesn’t consider self-pubs or this one could sweep their awards! As it is, I’ve decided to honor it with the first Squeaky Award I’ve given out in quite some time. I highly recommend you grab this one up today for your 4th-8th grade reader. (It’s only 99 cents. How many traditional presses price like that?!) Two thumbs way up.
“…And in other Olympic news, Michelle Isenhoff SMASHED her mountain bike goal earlier today by completing 1,000 miles a full SIX WEEKS ahead of schedule. And she’s not done yet, Al. Isenhoff is hoping to complete another five hundred miles before snow puts an end to her season. It’s a truly remarkable story. Tune in later this evening for complete coverage and her interview with Bob Costas…”
Earlier this summer, I read the first book in Donna Galanti’s Lightning Road fantasy adventure series, JOSHUA AND THE LIGHTNING ROAD. It just so happens that today Ms. Galanti is unveiling the trailer for book two, JOSHUA AND THE ARROW REALM, which will be releasing on August 30th, so I waited to post my review until today. You’ll find my review all the way at the end of this special guest post.
BOOK TRAILER REVEAL + GIVEAWAY FOR JOSHUA AND THE ARROW REALM!
The Midwest Book Review calls book one, JOSHUA AND THE LIGHTNING ROAD, “a heart-pounding thrill ride full of unexpected twists and turns from start to finish.” Grab book one for just 99 cents now through September 20th.
Be sure to enter the fun giveaway package at the bottom of this post that includes a paperback of book one, poster of the Lost Realm, bookmarks, and a $25 B&N gift card (U.S. only). Sign up for Donna’s Thunderclap book release campaign and help her zap the world through social media with her lightning message!
ABOUT JOSHUA AND THE ARROW REALM:
On August 30th take the lightning road back to a world of beasts, bandits, and heroes in book two of the Lightning Road series. Join Joshua in a new fight for power in the Arrow Realm. Can Joshua and his friends conquer an unstoppable evil?
Joshua never thought he’d return to the world of Nostos but is soon called to the Arrow Realm to free his imprisoned friend, King Apollo, kidnapped as a power pawn in Queen Artemis’s quest to conquer every realm. With his loyalties divided between our world and theirs, Joshua wonders whether he alone can restore magic to the twelve powerless Olympian heirs and save all those enslaved. But when he finds himself abandoned in his quest, he fears he cannot only save those imprisoned—but himself as well.
“Fast-paced and endlessly inventive, Joshua and the Arrow Realm is a high-stakes romp through a wild world where descendants of the Greek gods walk beside you, beasts abound, and not everything—or everyone—is as it seems.” ~ Michael Northrop, New York Times bestselling author of the TombQuest series
JOSHUA AND THE ARROW REALM BOOK TRAILER:
(Quick aside from Michelle….Sometimes WordPress is tempermental, so if the embedded trailer doesn’t work, you can still click here.)
EXCERPT:
A faint rumble groaned through the whistling wind.
Boom!
Thunder ripped the sky overhead.
Charlie reached the frozen pond, spinning across it. “Woohoo! I win! You Americans can’t beat us at speed!”
Lightning flashed. It zinged across the pine trees like brilliant sunlight. A seed of terror flickered inside me.
Boom! Boom!
Another flash scorched the sky.
Charlie’s smile fell to a frown as he raced across the ice, peering up into the swirling clouds.
We both knew what lightning could do.
Suddenly, sneaking outside for a moonlit sled ride before Bo Chez got home from his monthly poker game didn’t seem so smart.
The sleet turned to snow. Icicles flew off trees like glass splinters, shattering on the hard snow. As I shot toward the pond, a tree on the edge moved. Its branches swayed in the swirling snow.
It wasn’t a tree, but a girl! She stumbled through the mad flurry, arms outstretched.
“Charlie, look!”
Gusts snatched the words away as my sled hit the ice and careened out of control on the bumpy surface. The girl staggered and fell onto the pond. I twisted my sled away to avoid hitting her and smashed right into Charlie. With a yelp, he pulled me up, and we clumped toward the girl. We lifted her up, half dragging her back up the hill to the house in the pelting snow and sleet.
“Who is she?” Charlie yelled.
“No idea,” I yelled back.
He said more, but his words were lost in the wind.
My lungs burned with the cold and effort. There was only one reason someone would appear with lightning—to steal us. This girl might appear like a waif unprepared for a storm but I couldn’t trust that’s all she was.
Donna Galanti is the author of The Element Trilogy (Imajin Books) and The Lightning Road series (Month9Books). She attended an English school housed in a magical castle, where her wild imagination was held back only by her itchy uniform (bowler hat and tie included!). There she fell in love with the worlds of C.S. Lewis and Roald Dahl, and wrote her first fantasy about Dodo birds, wizards, and a flying ship. She’s lived in other exotic locations, including Hawaii where she served as a U.S. Navy photographer. She lives with her family and two crazy cats in an old farmhouse, and dreams of returning one day to a castle. Donna is a contributing editor for International Thriller Writers the Big Thrill magazine and blogs with other middle grade authors at Project Middle Grade Mayhem. You can find her at www.donnagalanti.com.
BOOK REVIEWERS:
E-book ARCs are available for this next thrilling book in The Lightning Road series! Email donna(at)donnagalanti.com for copies and specify the format you’d like.
GIVEAWAY:
(Another aside from Michelle… WordPress is VERY particular about rafflecopter embeds, so unfortunately, I’ll have to do this one with an ugly link.)
I’m back. And as I promised way at the top of this post, here’s my review of book one, JOSHUA AND THE LIGHTNING ROAD.
Joshua and the Lightning Road is a middle grade fantasy adventure with similarities to Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. The premise is summarized nicely in an excerpt from Leandro’s History of Our People, a book within the book: “The Olympians heirs [of ancient gods] believed their time had come to an end, when one discovered that mortal children of Earth had powers to fuel their world. And so began the stealing of these children for vile purposes.” Twelve-year-old Joshua is one of these stolen children, and so is his friend Finn. Joshua just wants to find Finn and escape back to Earth. But could he be the Oracle, the prophesized one who would set the Lost Realm to rights?
Ms. Galanti’s prose is often as lovely as anything I’ve ever read. (“The blue sun hung over us in an early morning lavender sky as tentacles of fog reached up to grab it.” Beautiful!) She also creates some great, kid-pleasing details, like malumpus-tongues—people who can speak to animals—and a society built around the descendants of ancient gods. The story is well crafted, with small clues written into the beginning that I didn’t even know were so vastly relevant until I went back and reread the first chapter. And the bedtime tale that Joshua’s grandfather tells him ends up having tremendous meaning. The progression works. The plot comes together. There’s action, decent characters, and a fantasy world that will please kids.
Yet, I have a few criticisms. Several times there were abrupt mention of things that could have been worked into the story earlier, like “the very horse on which he’d carted me from wherever we landed.” What horse? Did I miss something? I went back. I could find no mention of them riding in on a horse. Or “no waking from the nightmare this time.” Joshua was having nightmares? I went back. No nightmare. I also thought there were too many twists based on one or two characters. How many times can one person be a good guy/bad guy? How many times can a fallen character get up again? But mostly, this story simply didn’t grip me.
I don’t want to end on a minor note, though. Donna Galanti has some great things going, but I really, really struggle with stories written in unfamiliar worlds. We probably weren’t the best match. Still, the story is solid and the writing lovely. I’m certain kids will find this adventure fun and engaging. For 99 cents, it’s worth seeing if yours is one of them.
I’ve seen this one on a few different sites lately, particularly on the review blog of Patricia Tilton, who always has great taste, so I picked it up. It’s Ms. Ryan’s newest, released only last year, and it lives up to her classic style. It claimed Newbery honors this year.
Being a writer myself, I found the book and story layout really interesting. Readers jumps right into the tale on the very first page. There’s no title page. No copyright. Nothing. Just the initial scene, much like television shows do when they save the theme song and opening credits till after they’ve hooked their viewers. In this case, the initial scene acts as a prologue. It’s written like a folk tale that takes place long ago, with pretty pages decorated in a border to set it apart, with black text on white paper, then white text on black paper. Very engaging. Then comes the title page. Then the main story, which takes place in Germany in 1933. It’s sort of an abrupt jump from the folk tale, but it all ties in eventually.
A little more about the folk tale. We’re introduced to a young boy named Otto who gets whisked away to another time and place where three little girls are threatened by an evil witch. Incidentally, the story he brought into the woods with him, the story with his name in it which he reads to the girls, narrates the their story. But it is unfinished. He will be one of the characters who helps the girls to their happily-ever-after. Of particular importance is the harmonica they give him.
The rest of the book is actually the passing of the harmonica to three different children in our world. The first is Friedrich in Germany. But before Friedrich’s tale concludes, the story takes another leap when the harmonica moves on. This time we meet Mike, an American orphan in 1935. And long before we want to leave him, we’re jolted to California in 1942 where we’re introduced to Ivy, a third generation Mexican American. Her story, too, ends abruptly.
I haven’t taken time to tell you how Ms. Ryan develops each character, or how the historical context is so richly created. Or how the struggles each child faces are broken down to a very human level that kids can understand and relate to through her characters. Ms. Ryan illustrate the Nazi regime, including such delicate policies as the sterilization of those considered inferior. She shows the difficulties orphan had during the Great Depression. And she illustrates the inequality Mexican Americans faced as well as that horrible chapter in American history when we incarcerated Japanese Americans during the Second World War. Actually, I rolled my eyes a bit at all the sappy melodrama. But for kids who are experiencing this history for the first time, it’s a startling introduction.
So all the way through the book we’re left hanging. First the three girls and the witch, then each of the other characters. Their stories all mingle and come to completion in the final section of the text. The ending is extremely coincidental, but it wraps up the story nicely. The beginning and ending tie up in a nice neat bow. This wasn’t my favorite story by Munoz. The abrupt leaps drove me nuts. But it turns out sweet, story threads are intricately woven, and the language is eminently beautiful. I think kids will find it more intriguing than I did. Ages 10+
I have to admit, this one was extremely sappy and predictable and I didn’t really enjoy it all that much. But my teen daughter loved it. And it’s clean. So I guess it’s worth a quick review for teens and parents of teens who like sticky sweet drama without all the hot and heavy.
This particular book won Newbery Honors back in 1996, I believe, but I almost didn’t stick with it long enough to find out why. The story is, in essence, a quest. One that starts out slowly, with not much going on except characterization. Which is excellent. I just wasn’t sure where it all was going and considered ditching. I’m glad I didn’t.
First time author Dawn Malone has crafted a winner in Bingo Summer. Charming, sweet, and artfully written, it takes top honors in my summer reading list. It’s just a superb example of middle grade lit. I loved it!
Breaking News
Earlier this summer, I read the first book in Donna Galanti’s Lightning Road fantasy adventure series, JOSHUA AND THE LIGHTNING ROAD. It just so happens that today Ms. Galanti is unveiling the trailer for book two, JOSHUA AND THE ARROW REALM, which will be releasing on August 30th, so I waited to post my review until today. You’ll find my review all the way at the end of this special guest post.
On August 30th take the lightning road back to a world of beasts, bandits, and heroes in book two of the Lightning Road series. Join Joshua in a new fight for power in the Arrow Realm. Can Joshua and his friends conquer an unstoppable evil?
I’ve seen this one on a few different sites lately, particularly on the review blog of 