Book Review: Dark Parties by Sara Grant

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Dark Parties cover imageNeva lives in a world where someone is always watching. The government built the Protectosphere she lives in to keep everyone safe, yet that same government also seems to make people disappear and never come back. As life inside the dome becomes more limited, the government squeezes its citizens ever more tightly to squelch insurgencies before they spread. Yet Neva is determined to rebel. Her status as the offspring of one of the founding families may protect her for a while, but it doesn’t stop those she loves from being affected in ways she never could have imagined.

In Dark Parties, author Sara Grant paints a civilization of the future that seems to have started off with noble intentions. The world was a dangerous place, so they built a protective dome to keep everyone safe. But government control grew until everything was regulated and everyone was afraid to speak out. History was routinely revised to reflect current thinking. Genetic manipulation bred undesirable physical qualities out until most of the population looked similar.

Just like Neva, the reader doesn’t know who to trust either. Her dad is suspect since he works for the government, and her mom is often away from home. She finds out her long-time boyfriend Ethan has been implanted with a tracking device, and her friends are disappearing at an increasing rate.

Dark Parties will keep you on the edge of your seat as you follow Neva through the confusion to a startling end. Along the way she confronts issues of friendship, courage, brutality, conformity, and love. She wrestles with big concepts: should she fight back, or should she become a good citizen and accept what’s in store for her? Is security more important to her than individuality? Can one person make a difference? Neva’s journey should bring up discussions about issues that are as relevant today and they would be in a future world. I recommend it for girls aged 15 and up.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book for review.

Tips on Starting a Family Book Club

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When my daughters were young, reading books together was one of our favorite things to do as a family. Most often, my husband, daughters and I would snuggle up together just before the girls went to sleep, and either my husband or I would read aloud. We stopped often to laugh or talk about something we had just read. No matter how many directions we went during the day, it was comforting for me to know that for 20 or 30 minutes each night, we would put aside time to be together and focus on a story.

We didn’t call what we did a family book club, but that is in effect what we created. I like to think those family book sessions helped spark an early interest in reading that later led to our mother-daughter book clubs and our continued interest in sharing books together. If you’re considering starting your own family group, here are a few tips to keep in mind.

  1. Find a consistent time to read, and make sure that no other distractions get in the way. For many families, that window of time comes up just before the kids go to bed. It’s sometimes easy for busy parents to fill this time with chores, but everyone benefits from a breather where you are all focused on engaging in an activity together.
  2. Choose books that your kids will think are fun and imaginative. Children love to hear about fantastical worlds where the rules they are familiar with don’t apply. When your children are very little, you can start out with picture books that you read over and over again, talking about something new in the story each time. As they grow, you can graduate to more complicated stories that cover issues of family and friendships.
  3. Make the time a treat, and don’t force it as a punishment. This should be a fun time for everyone. If the book isn’t resonating, don’t keep going just because you think your kids need to finish the story. If this happens, they will look for ways to get out of family reading time and so will you. At the same time, don’t threaten to cancel your reading sessions if your kids do something you disapprove of. Your book club should be a way to grow closer together, not further apart.
  4. Be open to other storytelling methods. We used to love listening to the stories on NPR’s Rabbit Ears Radio. For a half hour, we would all lie quietly and listen to the tale being read, then we talked about it afterward. You can look for books on tape or seek out a storyteller that performs at the library or somewhere else in your community.
  5. Don’t be afraid to use funny voices as you read, and stop to explain something if you need to. My daughters usually didn’t interrupt, but sometimes while reading I got the feeling they didn’t really understand what was happening in the story. When my husband or I stopped and asked if they knew what was going on, we had a chance to talk about it and they often learned something new.
  6. Bring something you read about into another part of your day. For instance, if the characters in a book enjoy eating ice cream, set up a time when everyone in the family can go out for a treat just like in the story.

November is National Family Literacy Month, and I’ll be presenting ideas for families to read together throughout the month. You may want to look at this article on good books to consider for your family book club. And don’t forget to add a comment to my previous post for your chance to win a copy of Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs. I’ll be giving away one copy each Friday in November to help encourage new clubs to form.

 

Book Review: The Shattering by Karen Healey

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The Shattering cover imageKeri can’t believe her brother would kill himself. She and Jake were very close, and she’s astounded that he could do something like that without her having a clue he was troubled. So when a former friend whose older brother also committed suicide suggests Jake may have been murdered, Keri is sure she’s right. Especially when Janna point outs a pattern of suicides among older brothers over the years.

The two team up with Sione, who has also lost a brother, to find out who may be killing these boys and why. But their search has not gone unnoticed by those who would rather not be discovered.

The Shattering by Karen Healey is a thriller that also looks at the grief that family members feel after suicide. Keri, Janna and Sione want to know the truth about their brothers’ deaths, and they dig up lots of secrets about local townspeople in their quest. But they are also painfully aware that their actions may put them in danger, and they want to avoid hurting their parents any further. Undercurrents of racism, sexual orientation, and social class gives readers a lot to think about as they turn pages to solve the mystery. Teens aged 15 and up should be fascinated by the issues and the twists and turns of the story until the end.

Publisher Little, Brown and Company provided me with a copy of this book.

Book Review: The Thirteenth Summer by Elizabeth Laing Thompson

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The Thirteenth Summer cover imageCrystal has never really spent much time with her rock star dad, and now that her mother has to live out of state for a few months while training for a new job, she will get her chance. Rage Waters and the Fellas are on tour, and Crystal is both excited and nervous about joining the chaos of their nomadic life. This is the chance she’s waited for to get to know her dad and find out if he really cares for her. Trouble is, threatening notes from a crazed fan may put them both in jeopardy before she finds what she’s looking for.

The Thirteenth Summer by Elizabeth Laing Thompson mixes normal teen concerns with the reality of the life of a famous entertainer. Crystal worries about her braces, body odor, frizzy hair and breakouts, particularly when she’s around Luke, who is the son of another band member. She also finds out that while Rage’s lifestyle comes with perks—fancy hotels, limousine rides and expensive restaurants—it also doesn’t leave much time for Crystal to spend one-on-one with her father. Not surprisingly, several major conflicts come up as the two get to know one another and learn how to talk with each other.

Crystal is 13, which means she’s between wanting to cling to some of her younger traits and wanting to be more grown up. That brings up some interesting issues, particularly as Crystal gets to know Luke better. The mystery of the crazed fan—dubbed psycho girl by band members—adds another twist to the story.

I thought The Thirteenth Summer was a lot of fun to read and it would provide interesting discussion for girls and their moms to talk about family relationships, finding confidence in yourself, and knowing how to communicate about important issues.

The author provided me with a copy of this book.

Book Review: The Bone Magician by F. E. Higgins

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Here’s a guest review by author Christina Hamlett.

Title: THE BONE MAGICIAN
Author: F. E. Higgins
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (2008)
Genre: YA Fantasy

Deodonatus Snoad. Benedict Pantagus. Aluph Buncombe. Rudy Idolice. The gritty city of Urbs Umida has attracted no shortage of characters with odd names. The only things perhaps odder than their monikers are the professions they’ve chosen to pursue and the motivations that dictate their interactions with others.

At the center of this dark tableau is a young protagonist named Pin, a mortician’s apprentice whose unsavory duties include keeping a three-day vigil over the recently departed to ensure that they are, in fact, dead as a doornail before they get buried. On one particular night, however, Pin’s views about death are radically altered when he happens to witness the surrealistic machinations of a mysterious older man and his assistant, Juno, who bring a female corpse back to life for a few last words with her grief-stricken fiancé. Plucky Pin is as determined to expose the tricks behind the duo’s charade as he is to clear the name of his missing father, a man whom the poison pen of Deodonatus Snoad has labeled as a serial killer.

Subplots featuring a caged and vicious creature called The Gluttonous Beast, a potato-throwing dwarf, and a charming man who believes that the shape of one’s skull and the presence of bumps can predict criminal behavior give this fast-paced tale plenty of film adaptation potential.

Teens and tweens who have gravitated to the likes of Harry Potter will easily get caught up in the mystical elements, and Higgins does such an effective job at crafting realistic and compelling ambience that you can practically smell the stench of the River Foedus in which hapless victims draw their last breaths.

Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

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Laini Taylor is a master at weaving tales that include creatures of all kinds, but her stories are solidly grounded in the human experience. Her characters want what many of us want: to know where we come from, to feel love, and to hope for the future. Karou in Daughter of Smoke & Bone is no exception.

For as long as she can remember, Karou has straddled two worlds: the one most humans see where she lives as an art student, and the world of Brimstone’s shop where she grew up surrounded by what humans would call monsters. The drawings she creates are the only things that bridge the two worlds the way she does.

Even though Karou’s name means hope in her first language, she doesn’t know anything about her beginning. She only knows that she was trained to take care of herself, and now that she lives among humans, she often goes on errands to bring Brimstone what he needs to create his magic. When an angel intent on killing her appears, and the doors to Brimstone’s shop are destroyed, Karou is suddenly aware of just how little she knows about herself and how to find her way back to those she loved.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone has elements of a Romeo and Juliet tale—lovers who find each other against the odds, families that are sworn enemies, and hope that the rift between the two sides can heal—but that’s where similarities end. The world Taylor has created for Karou is mesmerizing, and even the little details like Brimstone’s collection of teeth are suffused with meaning. I found myself torn between reading quickly to see what happens, and slowing down to savor the details along the way. Either way this is a book that’s likely to totally engross you from the moment you read the first word until you finish the last. I didn’t realize there was to be a sequel until I got to the end, but now I happily await the next book. I recommend it for mother-daughter book club with girls aged 15 and up.

Book Review: Waiting for June by Joyce Sweeney

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Waiting for June cover imageHere’s a guest book review form author Christina Hamlett:

WAITING FOR JUNE
Author: Joyce Sweeney
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish (2006)
Genre: YA

When I was a high school freshman, there was a girl two years ahead of me who was inexplicably sent off one summer for an extended visit with relatives in Minnesota. Or so the story went. My mother, however, divulged the truth to me that the girl “got herself in trouble” and was off having a baby that would subsequently be put up for adoption. She further warned me that I was to have absolutely nothing to do with the girl when she returned because it would ruin my reputation and likely send me down the same dark path. (I remember thinking at the time how stupid she was to imply that pregnancy was a contagious condition.) Back in the 1960s, teenage girls who “went all the way” with their boyfriends and became pregnant were subjected to similar disappearing acts. Those who kept the news from their parents put themselves at the risk of back-street abortionists. Flash forward to the 21st century and some of the high school classrooms I’ve visited to deliver talks on Career Day. Not only have I seen a surprising number of girls in their last trimester who just can’t wait to be mommies but have also overheard just as many more who carry home pregnancy kits around in their backpack and are clearly disappointed if the stick registers negative.

As unsettling as it is to think of babies being born to girls just short of their senior proms and graduation, there are obviously exceptions to the issue of maturity. Joyce Sweeney’s confident young heroine, Sophie, in WAITING FOR JUNE knows exactly what she has gotten herself into and is welcoming the birth of a little girl that she will love beyond measure. Sophie’s stubborn refusal to identify the baby’s father (the result of a one-time indiscretion) has made her an object of curiosity, speculation and gossip amongst her peers as well as raised the hackles of her single-parent mom who has just as steadfastly refused to divulge the name and whereabouts of Sophie’s dad. As if doctor appointments, homework assignments and figuring out how to get a job weren’t enough items on Sophie’s already crowded plate, she has also attracted the attention of a vicious adversary who leaves threatening notes in her locker. Sweeney does an exceptional job at creating a page-turning thriller that is interspersed with red herrings. There’s also an underscore of mysticism which, unfortunately, is the story’s only weak link. The fact that whales are involved would have been more plausible to me if the story were set in the Pacific Northwest instead of Florida.  Other than that, Sweeney captures the voice, mindset and obsessions of her target demographic. While adults are likely to figure out the villain’s identity midway through the story, there are enough distractions for teen readers—especially involving Sophie’s mother’s past—that they’ll be caught off guard when all truths come to the surface.

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Book Review: Circle of Secrets by Kimberley Griffiths Little

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Circle of Secrets cover imageWhen Shelby Jayne’s mamma, Mirage, left their family, Shelby swore she’d never forgive her. Now it’s a year later, and because her father will be out of the country working for six months and her grandmother recovering from hip surgery, Shelby finds herself deep in the swamps of Louisiana on Mirage’s doorstep with a suitcase in hand.

She’s not interested in Mirage’s reasons for leaving or in her box of recipes for healing spells, but she is drawn to the blue-bottle tree in the backyard. The tree is beautiful and mysterious at the same time, and it’s mystery grows when Shelby finds notes inside some of the bottles that seem to be written from one person to another. Also mysterious is her new friend Gwen, who is always hanging around the cemetery and seems to be abandoned by her parents. If Shelby can solve the mystery of each, she just may be able to create a healing spell of her own that will mend her family and lift the burden of a tragedy from long ago.

Circle of Secrets is Kimberley Griffiths Little’s newest book set on the banks of a Louisiana bayou. A companion to The Healing Spell, it expertly weaves a new tale while giving a nod to the previous one. Shelby Jayne faces many issues that should lead to good discussion as she deals with bullies in a new school, struggles to forgive and reconnect with her mother, and sees family conflict with new eyes.

Little never misses a beat as she weaves this tale of mystery, magic, and mother-daughter relationships. I highly recommend this for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 9 to 14.

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