Wonder

It's like people you see sometimes, and you can't imagine what it would be like to be that person, whether it's somebody in a wheelchair or somebody who can't talk.  Only, I know that I'm that person to other people, maybe to every single person in that whole auditorium.

August Pullman is ten years old but has never gone to school.  It has always been easier for August to be taught at home.  There were surgeries to be considered and doctors appointments.  You see August has a facial deformity and it shapes his life.

Wonder is the story of August's first year in school, his fifth grade year.  August enrolls at Beecher Prep Middle School where the academics are easy for him, but his severe facial deformity makes it difficult for him to trust the motives of his peers.  It is hard for August to make friends.

Some incredible people are in August's life - his mom, dad and older sister cherish and protect him.  But a boy needs more.  He needs friends.  Two kids at Beecher Prep are able to see the boy instead of the face, and their friendship opens a door for August.  He learns he is more than a face and that others can see that too.

R.J. Palacio is the author of Wonder.  It is her first novel, and she so got it right.  August is believable, written as a fifth grade boy like any other except he constantly deals with the stares of strangers and the bullying and insensitivities of some of his peers.  He's not perfect.  He can be harsh and selfish, but the August that you take away from this book is charming, smart, honest and funny.

 The story is primarily told from August's perspective, but other characters jump in and tell their story as it relates to August.  Again, Palacio pulls off a literary challenge - changing narrators without losing the character.

August is a wonder.  You'll cry for him, cheer for him, and you'll wish you knew him.  He's that special.

But hey, if they want to give me a medal for being me, that's okay.  I'll take it.  I didn't destroy a Death Star or anything like that, but I did just get through the fifth grade.  And that's not easy, even if you're not me.

Blog you later!

Ali B.

The Fault in Our Stars

I am at a loss for words.  Not an enviable position to be in when you are trying to describe one of the best books you've ever read.  Notice I didn't say, "one of the best YA books," because it isn't just YA good ~ it is good good.

Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace are teenage cancer patients.  They meet in support group, develop a friendship and fall in love.

There is so much to love in this book.  Do yourself a favor and read it.  Here are some of my book club's favorite lines:

"...suffice it to say, that the existence of broccoli does not in any way affect the taste of chocolate."


"I want this dragon carrot risotto to become a person so I can take it to Las Vegas and marry it."


"That's what I believe.  I believe the universe wants to be noticed.  I think the universe is improbably biased toward consciousness, that it rewards intelligence in part because the universe enjoys its elegance being observed.  And who am I, living in the middle of history, to tell that universe that it - or my observation of it - is temporary?"


"There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1.  There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others.  Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million.  Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.  A writer we used to like taught us that.  There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbound set.  I want more than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got.  But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity.  I wouldn't trade it for the world.  You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful."


"I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things.  I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you."


"'Mother's glass eye turned inward,'  Augustus began.  As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once."


Blog friends, I could go on and on and on...  Every line is well constructed and crisp.  But I want you to read this book.  Laugh, cry, and be thankful that there are writers like John Green and books like The Fault in Our Stars.


Blog you later!

Ali B.

Rules

My ten year old son recommended Rules.  He read it in school with his book circle group and suggested I read and review it at Literary Lunchbox.  Book recommendations from my fourth grader?  Does it get any better than that?

Rules is the touching story of an adolescent girl and her eight year old autistic brother.  Catherine loves her little brother David, but his needs and habits are also a source of embarrassment and resentment.  In an attempt to teach David proper manners and behaviors, Catherine composes a list of rules for her brother.

1. If someone says "hi," you say "hi" back.
2. If it's too loud, cover your ears or ask the other person to be quiet.
3. No toys in the fish tank.

In Rules, Cynthia Lord writes characters in real life situations who have to adjust their actions to accommodate differently abled friends and family.  I enjoyed this book for its attention to autism, friendship and family dynamics.  I recommend this award winning book to Middle Grade readers and their parents.

Blog you later!

Ali B.

The False Prince

I'll admit I was surprised by being surprised by The False Prince.  From the beginning I liked the main character Sage, but I was worried about the plot set up.  It seemed predictable.  Too predictable.  A handful of orphans, an empty throne, greedy men, and a treasonous plan to fool a kingdom - It didn't seem too hard to figure out what would happen.  Here's how I thought things would go down:

1. Rich baddy (Conner) would try his best to beat/intimidate/terrorize orphan boys until they bent to his will.
2. Sage, the rebellious orphan, would rebel and cause mischief.
3. The orphans would become friends and unite in their hatred for Conner.
4. Conner would see that Sage was the best *prince* to take the throne.
5. Conner would somehow use Sage's loyalty to his new friends to manipulate him into pretending to be the prince.
6. Somehow Sage would outwit Conner and save the day and the kingdom.

Some of my predictions were accurate.  Conner was bad.  Sage was a rebel.  I love a good rebel.  And Sage does outwit the evil Conner, but Jennifer Nielsen does a great job of keeping the reader guessing and wondering who to trust.  I stayed up late enjoying Nielsen's plot twists.  I love a good plot twist.  

 

The False Prince is a book about kingdoms and castles, honor and deceit.  There's plenty of mystery and intrigue in the story, but it won't overwhelm adolescent readers.  I recommend it to both Middle Grades and young Young Adult readers looking for an adventure series without vampires, werewolves or cyborgs.  

Blog you later!  ~  Ali B.

Insurgent

I have an unwritten policy (as most of my policies are) that I don't review sequels if I have previously reviewed another book in the same series.  Today, I'm ignoring that policy.  I just finished Insurgent, and I want to write about it.

I tip my hat to Veronica Roth for keeping the momentum going and following up her debut novel Divergent  with a *can't put it down* sequel.  I did not read it in one sitting.  It is, after all, 544 pages and I have to sleep, work and take care of those two adorable and demanding kids of mine.  Until my clone is spawned, I have other things to do besides read and write.  Bummer!

Here's what I liked:

• The factions are still important to the story and plot, but Roth did a great job of building up the role of the Factionless and the Divergent.
• Roth blurred the line between bad and good.  I like that.  Her characters, even though they belong to strictly-defined factions, aren't one dimensional.  Some of her *good* characters do bad things, and some of her *bad characters* do good things.  
• Veronica Roth painted a landscape with words.  When I read her descriptions, I can see the setting.  She gives readers enough to visual a faction's headquarters or an Erudite laboratory.  
• I like to be surprised, and there's no better surprise than death.  Roth doesn't have a problem killing off her characters, large and small.  For an added twist, she doesn't mind bringing a character back from the dead either.  That's just the right amount of soap opera drama for YA fiction.
• Tris isn't beautiful.  It's a YA novel, and the lead character isn't a knock-out.  Enough said. 

So, if there are things I liked, there are bound to be a couple of things I struggled with.  They weren't game changers, but I have two small issues.

Here are my issues:

• I grappled with faction identity.  There are five factions, the Factionless, and the Divergent, and it was hard keeping track of who belonged where.  It was especially hard to follow who was Divergent, and while I understand the reason behind revealing the characters who chose different factions other than the one they were born to, it made things a bit confusing.  Add to that the alliances and faction traitors, and things got messy for me.
• I love Tris!  I love Tobias!  I didn't love their relationship in this book.  Too much lying and none of the unconditional trust from Divergent.  I appreciate that conflict needed to be created to maintain the YA love angst, but I hope Roth returns to the original Tris and Tobias in book #3.

If you haven't read Insurgent, read Divergent first ~ then read the sequel.

Blog you later!

Ali B.

Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You

You are my angel, my darling, my star.  .  . and my love will find you, 
wherever you are.


Reading with your child shows them how much you care.  It is such a simple act ~ snuggly and safe and comforting.  Wherever You Are:  My Love Will Find You is a beautiful story about the power of parental love.  The book tells the story of a parent's ever-present love for her child.  Each page, each illustration, each line sends the message that the child is never alone, love is always there.

The text is simple and appealing, especially for the preschool crowd.  It rhymes and little kids like that.  The illustrations are my favorite part of the book.  They are, in a word, charming.  The parent is never in the pictures.  That's kinda the point.  The child is pictured, small and busy, with a different wild animal in every scene.  And the scenes are vast ~ the sea, a lake, a rolling prairie.  But the child is not fearful.  Love is there.

My bookshelves are full of wonderful stories about children who have tested the limits of parental patience only to learn that their parents still love them.  I love these books.  I read them to my children and quote them quite often.  With Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You, Nancy Tillman has added a different version of parental love to my shelves.  Her book is about love's ability to stretch and grow and find us know matter where we go.  We don't outgrow our parent's love.  Hallelujah!


Blog you later!

Ali B.

Cinder

The future.  New Beijing.  Cyborgs.  A plague.  Lunar life.  Interested?  You should be.  Cinder is a futuristic Cinderella story complete with an evil stepmother, a handsome prince, and a magical ball, but there are differences too.  An android has replaced the singing mice.  A plague-fighting doctor has replaced the fairy godmother.  And Cinder doesn't lose a glass slipper, but she does lose her cyborg foot.

I'd had Cinder in my "to be read" pile for months.  My pile grows like evergreen - fast and beautiful.  I was especially intrigued by Cinder - the character.  I wanted to read about this teenage cyborg mechanic.  She wasn't a helpless beauty.  In fact, she's described as rather plain with unkempt hair and a wardrobe of grease-stained cargo pants.  She sounded like my kind of girl.  It turns out she is.

Cinder  reads like the first book in a series - you know there's more to come.  There are some unanswered questions and a few spots where I wanted more backstory, but not so many that Cinder becomes confusing or dull.  On the contrary, I was hooked from the very first chapter.  It's a new take on a classic fairy tale, so there are some obvious conclusions to be drawn, but there were also lots of surprises, twists, and original characters to delight YA readers.

Marissa Meyer has done a fantastic job of leaving her mark on the classic Cinderella story!

Blog you later!

Ali B.