Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
So how to explain Leviathan? It is set during 1914 in an alternate world in which Charles Darwin discovered biotechnology. So the British Empire was built on the backs of strange, fabricated beasties while the Germans and the Austro-Hungarian Empire bulked at such blasphemy and relied on machines instead, earning them the title of Clankers.
Reading it on the heels of Howl’s Moving Castle, I couldn’t help but imagine the book coming to life in the hands of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. The was an element of mecha anime – the “clanker” machines used by that walk around like AT Imperial Walkers (think of Howl’s Castle). Then imagining the blend of machine and animal employed by the British; what the creators of Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke could do with that!
It is the first in a series of three books (published October 2009, 2010, and 2011) and one full-color guidebook, The Manual of Aeronautics. It includes illustrations by Keith Thompson “because back in 1914, almost all books were illustrated, and I wanted it to look and feel like a book from that period. Plus, there are so many weird animals and machines in the world of Leviathan that I wanted to show them” (Scott Westerfeld).
According to the Akron-Summit County Public Library, “Steampunk is a genre with a huge underground following… but it has yet to become mainstream. Scott Westerfeld may help to change that. His newest title, Leviathan, takes history, fantasy, adventure, animals, Star Wars and the women’s movement, tosses them in a pot, swirls them around, and creates an absolutely delicious feast of a story.”
Read the great review at A Chair, A Teacozy and a Fireplace that made me pick this one up.
The Ranger’s Apprentice Series by John Flanagan
This is a great series for middle grade readers. Clean content. It will appeal to boys but includes female roles, one especially strong female. The dialog is humorous and the characters well-developed if not a little stereotypical. Tamora Pierce’s Protector of the Small series comes to mind as a strong pairing. Kids who have enjoyed the Pendragon series or The Books of Umber as well.
With a story line that keeps things moving, kids will be eager to read on. I have finished the first four volumes and checked out the website. Lots of fans already and maybe a movie from United Artists (funding, of course, is the road block).
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney
Kinney does it again. This time our admittedly lazy hero, Greg, must mend fences with Rowley (his best friend), work off a debt to Rowley’s dad, go above and beyond to attract the attention of the community pool life guard, and become famous by creating a new comic strip for the local newspaper. All this leads to a boring vacation with Rowley’s family, a failed attempt at a V.I.P. Lawn service company, and no girlfriend or fame.
But Greg remains optimistic through it all. Incredulous at the adults around him and baffeled by their misunderstanding of his genius, he holds himself accountable for nothing and is seemingly without empathy. Of course, this results in one seriously funny book.
Greg has been holding on to a library book for a little too long. This is what he imagines will happen if he returns it.
Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally) by Lisa Yee
Holly still sounded mad. A couple of years ago, all he had to do was stick a crayon up his nose and Holly would crack up and forget why she was angry. Bobby wished he had a crayon in his pocket now (p 121).
Holly and Bobby are entering that time in their lives when it is uncool to befriend the opposite gender. So they keep their friendship hidden but solid, until Jillian Zarr, alpha female, enters the scene. Soon, Holly has straightened her hair, painted her fingernails and started wearing dresses to school. Bobby warns her, “If you’re not careful, you’ll turn into a girl!” (p 55).
When the two find themselves running against each other for Student Council Representative, Bobby wants to win badly. With depth and humor, Yee tackles a classic boys versus girl plot line with more depth and humor than the usual. I like that Yee doesn’t sell out, turning Holly away from Jillian nor having her blow Bobby off in the end. It takes a strong-minded, centered girl to navigate both sexes and I believe Holly Harper can. And it won’t be long before Bobby appreciates that Holly is, indeed, a girl.
Murder at Midnight by Avi
“There can never be enough books,” said Magnus. ” The pity is it takes years to create each one.”
“Is that true?” said the surprised boy.
“Fabrizio, a book must first be written. To do so, the writer exchanges days for words, months for paragraphs, and years for chapters – time turned into books. There’s your magic” (p 31).
I wasn’t expecting funny but this book was a hoot! Especially in the beginning. It reminded me strongly of the word play humor of R.L. Stine’s (sadly out-of-print) Space Cadets series (see Fabrizio’s misunderstanding of the truth, pg 49 – 50).
Fabrizio was a street urchin before Magnus and his kind wife took him in as a magician’s apprentice. In his extreme naïveté, Frabrizio succeeds in implicating his master in a plot to overthrow King Claudio of the Kingdom of Pergamontio, Italy in 1490. A loyal servant to the end, Fabrizio must prove his master’s innocence before the stroke of midnight or his master shall be killed and Fabrizio will become homeless once again.
Of course, there is a lot of intrigue and mystery leading to a satisfying theatrical ending. Another great book to add to OCL’s suggested reading list.
Publisher: Scholastic Press (September 1, 2009)
I have an ARC copy of this book. First person to leave a comment with email will get it!
The Dragon of Trelian by Michelle Knudsen
One hundred years ago, the Kragnir Queen was found murdered during a visit to the neighboring Trelian kingdom. The countries have been at war since. In an effort to end the feud, the current kings plan to wed their children, Princess Maerlie of Trelian and Prince Rylant of Kragnir.
Calen is a mage’s apprentice. Tied to the service a Lord or King, mages use magic to serve their patron. When Calen shows no great aptitude, his master, Serek, royal mage to the King of Trelian relaxes his teaching.
Meg is Maerlie’s younger sister with a special bond between herself and a dragon she stumbled upon in her youth. Lately, the secret bond between the two grows stronger. A chance meeting between Calen and Meg lead to an unlikely but mutually welcome friendship. When the two overhear a plot to murder Maerlie on her wedding night, they must pull all their cleverness, courage and strength to save Maerlie and the kingdoms.
A well-structured, intriguing plot with realistic characters and a good balance between action, politics, character development and fantasy appropriate for middle grade readers.
Nothing in the way of extraordinary regarding the magical elements. We’ve seen links between dragons and people before (Eragon), mage’s (Tamora Pierce and The Bartimaeus Trilogy), and dark creatures that inspire fear (ringwraiths and dementors).
Calen’s unique gift to see magic was rather interesting.
‘I saw the spell as she was casting — it was deep red, like the spell for killing weeds, only much stronger. Or the spell you used on that soldier, that first one who was attached, when you were trying to burn out the poison. Only this was darker, and … worse, somehow.’ Calen shuddered, remembering.
Serek had stopped and was looking at him intently. ‘You saw the spell?’ (p 291).
But the story is engaging and the writing (although I spotted a few copyrighting errors) is solid. Young fans of Fablehaven, The Shamer’s Daughter, The Hobbit and dragon lore in general will greatly enjoy this book. I’ve seen it on several mock Newbery lists but as much as I love fantasy, it’s not the strongest contender.
Read additional reviews at: Dolce Bellezza, King County Library, School Library Journal, Becky’s Book Review
Publisher: Candlewick (April 14, 2009)
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick
Telling the truth don’t come easy to me, but I will try, even if old Truth ain’t nearly as useful as a fib sometimes (p 7).
“Although he is underage, Homer P. Figg’s brother, Harold, is illegally sold into the Union Army by their ruthless guardian. Now Homer must run away from Pine Swamp, Maine, and his wretched home to find his brother and save him from the war, before it’s too late.”
Like Tom Sawyer, our young and inventive hero sets out on a ridiculously impossible task, runs into scallywags, spies, crooks and the occasional Good Samaritan and, firm in his task, Homer cajoles, performers and escapes by whatever means necessary to achieve his ends…
I scampered into that balloon with nothing in my head but the desire to get away, and no idea what it meant to cut the anchor line. I wasn’t thinking about how you get down again, that’s for sure (p 167).
An amusing and adventurous read with equal measures of depravity, death, and hope that I’m sure will be as well received by readers as it has been by critics: Fuse #8, Shelf-Employeed, Kirkus, and Publisher’s Weekly.
The cover is unfortunate. As much as I adore Shannon’s children’s picture books, this cover, while appropriate, did nothing to grab my attention.
Publisher: The Blue Sky Press (January 1, 2009)
Locomotion and Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
Lonnie C. Motion, aka Locomotion, became an orphan when his parents perished in a house fire. Lonnie and his younger sister survived but were separated into different homes afterward. Told through a series of Lonnie’s poems assigned by his teacher, we learn all about the tender-hearted Lonnie and his sweet sister in Locomotion.
Through Lonnie’s optimistic and honest perspective, we glimpse the heart of an honest child making his way through a world that seems set against him, not in obvious or purposeful ways, but in all the subtle ways that can tear a child apart. And Lonnie knows what he’s up against, “…alotta those people are white. Maybe it’s that if you’re white you can’t see all the whiteness around you” (p13). But Lonnie is strong. He affects those who would wish him absent (his sister’s new ‘mother’) or silent (his ‘mother,’ Miss Edna), changing them for the better, and sees straight through those with evil intent (the drug store guards who are suspicious of him because he is black, p 7). He clings to those who build him up: his sister and his teacher. Locomotion was a National Book Award Finalist and a Coretta Scott King Honor winner.
In Peace, Locomotion, Lonnie writes to his sister. He doesn’t send the letters, but writes them “because I love writing and I love you and when me and you are together again, I’m gonna want us to remember everything that happened when we were living apart” (p 8). Just wonderful writing. Genuine, insightful, and beautifully optimistic even when dealing with the horrors of war, loss, and separation. A Printz Award nominee that could go the distance.
Read more at: BCCLS
The Devil’s Paintbox by Victoria McKernan
When I was a child, my friends and I would huddle around a computer (I’m dating myself; computers were rare way back then) and play a game called The Oregon Trail. It was all the rage. (My goodness, how things have really changed!) I never thought about what it might have been like to actually traverse that path. McKernan’s novel brings it home, makes it personal.
This book is getting some Printz Award buzz. Here is a sample of the beautiful prose:
Aiden had somehow expected to wake up one day and just see the mountains there, tall and snowy and stabbing at the sky like the picture of the Alps in The Atlas of the World. But the horizon crept up so slowly that they appeared at first only as a faint rise on the far edge of the earth, like a line of baby teeth (p 61-62).
It is the spring of 1865. Having just survived a bitter winter, Aiden and his sister, Maddy, are the lone survivors on their family’s draught-ravaged farm in Kansas. Mr. Jefferson J. Jackson is a trader looking for able men to work as loggers in Washington.
“Timber company outside of Seattle will pay me one hundred dollars for every man I bring in.” He looked the skinny boy over again and hoped he wasn’t going to regret this. “Once there, you’re bound to work it off. It’s hard work. Rough living. Plus costs of your passage owed to me. That’s another hundred dollars. Each. It takes most men a year to work it off and you got her to keep, so figure two.”
Maddy and Aiden go along with Jackson’s wagon train, ending their starvation but opening the way for new dangers. The caravan is full of different people heading west for different reasons, but Aiden and Maddy are the main focus of the narrative. While the others are well described and interesting, we never feel too attached to them. Some will surely die. Their deaths are swift and unexpected but bring home the reality of the dangers each travelers faces. When a group of Indians crosses path with the train, the story widens its scope and never looks back, extending in length even after the wagon train disperses.
The whole story was fascinating and multifaceted. Aiden and Maddy’s development was brilliantly told, the plight of the Indians was not simplified nor their characters stereotypical. I was wondering where the story was going as it dragged a little after Aiden broke off from the group, but I should have had more faith. McKernan showed her readers the rough logging community, the treacherous city and the peaceful calm of Jackson’s trading post and brought it all together with the sly and calculating puppet-master, Napolean Gilivrey, timber company owner. Magnificent.
Read another review at: BCCLS, Plymouth Staff Choices
Vocabulary:
scurvy (p 31), gregarious (p 35), taciturn (p 129), ague (p 135), desultory (p 251), totemic (p 260)
Discussion Questions:
- Read the Recent Trends in Infant Mortality Rate in the United States (published by the National Center for Health Statistics). How does this information compare to the infant mortality rate as painted by Aiden (p 38)?
- After speaking with Marguerite about Doc Carlos, Maddy reflects silently, “It seemed there was no end to the complexities of hurting” (p 58). What does she mean by this? Do you find this to be true as it relates to your life? How are the surviving characters hurting at the novel’s conclusion (consider Aiden, Doc Carlos, Tupic, Annie and Polly, even Napolean Gilivrey)?
- The Nez Perce Indians have a different view of religion, nature, man, and the world: “Too much Bible” (p 99), Aesop’s Fables (p 110-12), “Sand Creek changes the way the heart beats in a man.” (p 125), and prayer versus action (p 144-45). What do you think of their views and their different positions on how to deal with white men? How does Aiden react to them?
- The Nez Perce Indians are also confused by Aiden’s description of an orphan (p 148). How are orphans treated today and is it a good system?
- When Tupic and Aiden part ways, Tupic says, “In a different world, I would keep you as my friend.” Why couldn’t the two remain friends and how is the world different now? How is it the same?
- How does Aiden react to those who insult himself or his sister (p 17,77-78, 233-35)? How does his reaction reflect his physical/mental state, his development, his character/personality? How would you have reacted?
- When the army soldiers appear, the Indians are skittish and Aiden becomes suspicious and asks, “Have you done something?” “Yes, we have dome something,” Tupic said sharply. “We were born Indians” (p 115). What does he mean by this? Are there ethnic groups today that might say the same thing about their existance and why? How can we change how they are treated?
- Woud you have traveled the Oregon Trail, knowing its dangers and what awaited you at the end? Why do you think people did it?
Pendragon: The Merchant of Death (Book One) by D.J. MacHale
After learning many of the library teens enjoyed this series, I decided it was time to pick it up. Young, handsome, popular Bobby finds himself ‘flumed’ to an alternate world. He learns that he is a Traveler, someone who can travel between worlds to promote peace and balance. The only problem is that Bobby wants nothing to do with being a Traveler. If Bobby’s Uncle (also a Traveler) weren’t in mortal danger, Bobby would return home immediately. Instead, he is stuck in Denduron, a rustic, medievil land with a social order reminiscent of The Time Machine’s Eloi and Morlocks. Here, the Eloi are Milago, a mining society that provides for the more advanced Bedoowan (Morlocks). The Bedoowan are cruel masters who feed the Milago people to lion-like beasts called quigs in colosseum style games.
The story is told through letters Bobby sends across the void to his best friend, Mark. In return, Mark sends Bobby some everyday toys (CD player, boom box, etc.) that are later used as magical props to help Bobby achieve his goals (think A Kid in King Arthur’s Court).
Nothing out of the ordinary here. A good beginner fantasy read, but not much in the way of character development or originality.
