Taken at Dusk by C.C. Hunter

I received an ad/junk in my gmail this week for a nice selection of ibooks. I decided to check out some of the YA lit on the list. This one looks pretty good. I like the premise of the book as it is a series and that's so "in" right now with YA readers. I checked out C.C. Hunter's website and she offers a pretty cool book trailer as well as some other fun things that will surely attract readers. 

While this series sounds just a little familiar - Twilight - I think it might promise to be special in its own right. This book is the third in the series, so I want to go back to the first and read it and the second before I read this one. Vampires and the like are not my usual genre, but I have to admit, I'm intrigued. The Shadow Falls series is about kids with "special" talents. In this third novel, the kids go to camp. Sounds so innocent! But this isn't an ordinary camp. It's a camp to teach kids with supernatural powers how to use their powers, but one young man is going so he can learn how to lose his. The twist in this novel will find the young female torn between two loves. Yeah, I know, I know - Twilight. But I think this one is different. I think it sounds better than the previously mentioned series. 


I really like the author's website too. It's very avant garde and just cool to linger for a while. The author has written a short story to introduce the series and it is FREE to download - photo below. One of the hooks for the first book, Born at Midnight  sounds creepily enticing! I especially liked the line about Kylie's stalker - she wants to get rid of him because she's the only one who can see him! Yikes! I can't wait to get started - just as soon as I finish the yearbook....down to 40 pages. I don't think I will be doing another one. I have way too many books on my list to read! 

Born At Midnight

Kylie Galen has had a lot of crap tossed in her lap lately. Her parents are getting a divorce for who the heck knows why. Her boyfriend broke up with her because she wouldn't put out. And her grandmother died because . . . well, older people do that. But now, Kylie's acquired a stalker and she hasn't a clue what he wants or how to get rid of him . . . and she really wants to get rid of him because apparently she's the only one who sees him. Thinking she may be losing it, her parents send her off to see a psychologist who gets Kylie sent to Shadow Falls Camp. Kylie and her parents think it's a camp for troubled teens.

(From the author's website) 


OK, I read the short story and I'm hooked. 
The short is free and is the first thing I downloaded to my brand new Kindle Touch! I  finally joined the digital book parade! I didn't believe it when others have told me that they read faster using their Kindles, but after my first read, I think I might have actually read a little faster. 


At first, I thought I was going to hate reading this writer's material. In the first paragraph, I found a grammatical goof and had there been too many more, I would have put my KT down and called it a night. As previously stated everywhere I write, vampires aren't really my thing (although as a kid, I was absolutely hooked on Dark Shadows and literally ran home from school to watch it - age revelation!). There were a few more grammatical "instances" in which better writing could have been instituted. It almost read like C.C. was in a hurry. Anyway, I stayed up way past midnight because I wanted to finish this short story. It does a nice job of introducing the characters and I did enjoy the dialogue between the characters. The story line is the basic story line that YA readers are soaking up - vampires, werewolves, and shape shifters. Another unforgivable, in my humble opinion, the female protagonist's name is Della - yes, and then there's is Bella! But, I did enjoy the short story and I can definitely see the use of the free short story dragging the readers into the series. Brilliant!


Downloading to school digital formats could be a very enticing way to get reluctant readers to just try  it. First, they have the digital format which is way cool to use, and second, it's short! It can be read very quickly offering a sense of accomplishment to those readers who just really do not want to read. I like it. 

http://www.cchunterbooks.com/news.html

ISBN-10: 0312624697

ISBN-13: 978-0312624699

St. Martin's Griffin

Cracker Queen, by Lauretta Hannon

Hannon grew up mostly in Warner Robins, Georgia, and presently lives in Powder Springs, Georgia. 

Some of the reviews I read prior to picking up my own copy included the following:
Lauretta's childhood experiences, growing up in Warner Robins, are told with a powerful original Southern voice with warmth and wit. Her mother and father, a jazz musician, lead by example as the perfect dysfunctional family. Through world class storytelling, Hannon relates that even through nervous breakdowns, infidelities, and alcoholism, she still felt loved and cherished. The dysfunctional family's stories such as ghost hunting, moonshine brewing, the famous Georgia Goat Man, and Crazy Aunt Carrie who gets arrested for assaulting a police dog are sure to set the record straight that nonfiction can be entertaining.  

Moving to Savannah finds the author living in an eccentric neighborhood surrounded by hellions, heroines, thugs, a woman who looks like a rutabaga, a lady who keeps Baby Jesus chained up in her front yard and a root doctor who performs a hoodoo on her. In the midst of the madness, she finds meaning and discovers joys. 

So, those are the "funny" highlights of the book. And I think reading the descriptions about her book is actually funnier than reading the book. Also claiming to be the book to move the Sweet Potato Queens on down the dirt road, I don't see that happening. In fact, I don't see any book about southern women replacing The Sweet Potato Queens, nor any chic lit, period. I’m also not quite sure why this was on the YA lit list in my county’s vertical meeting that I attended several months back. But, it intrigued me. Because the author is from Middle Georgia, and that’s where I presently reside, I wanted to check it out to see what she thought was so funny around here. I’m still wondering! One of her teachers is a county "staple" English teacher - very well respected with ions of experience. This particular vertical meeting was all about YA lit and was quite informative. There were book talks and round table talks, and this was one of the books suggested for our YA readers. So I wanted to read it. 

While parts of this book are funny, other parts are horribly sad as the author drops bombshell after bombshell of her highly dysfunctional family and her totally pitiful upbringing. This is one of those books that we could recommend to a student who is in need of connecting to something similar in life in order to make meaning or to at least know that someone else has experienced a painful childhood with unorthodox parents who also have drinking, cheating, breakdown-prone problems. Beyond that, it isn’t the “normal” YA book. It isn’t really normal anything. However, I will give it to her that she can tell stories - and that's what most of this book really sounds like, but it's supposed to all be true. 

Perhaps had I read this prior to the Sweet Potato Queens and even more, had it not been touted as the book to replace my beloved Sweet Potato Queens, I might have appreciated it more. But, I did read SPQ first. I adore Jill Conner Browne and was quite upset when I read that she was going to be in my neck of the woods, the day after she appeared. It was heart-breaking! While I’m on the subject of the SPQ, I have read all of those and have the work of fiction on an audio book and have finished about half. They claim the novel is a work of fiction about things that they didn’t do but could have and still might. The repertoire of SPQ books include The Sweet Potato Queen’s Book of Love, a cookbook, a financial instruction type book, a child rearing book, and one of my favorites – The Sweet Potato Queens' Field Guide to Men: Every Man I Love Is Either Married, Gay, or Dead, just to name a few. There is a website and the offer to become a SPQ with the opportunity to host a chapter in your very own area. If you have never read a "Queen" book, do yourself a favor and get one today! I recommend reading the first book, first. It will make better sense as Browne frequently refers to information in her prior books. 

Well, this was supposed to be about The Cracker Queen, but I veered off on a tangent about The Sweet Potato Queens. I am thinking it was because the gauntlet was tossed and I pursued. You just cannot compare cracker queens to sweet potato queens, especially in the face of she who is a sweet potato queen.

Love,

Tammy

(of course you can only understand the significance of my sign off if you have read any of the SPQ's books!)

And, while we are talking about the Sweet Potato Queens, I am not endorsing anything SPQ for YA.

ISBN-10: 1592404502

ISBN-13: 978-1592404506

Publisher: Gotham 

The Lovely Bones by Alice Seabold

This is one of my favorite YA books. The storyline is one that might cause you to first balk at reading it, but it truly is handled exceptionally well. 14-year-old Susie Salmon takes a shortcut through a cornfield on her way home from school and is lured into an underground den by her pedophile neighbor, Harvey. He rapes and murders her, a parent’s worst nightmare. He then disposes of her body in a way that will surely keep his secret forever. Well, maybe not.

Susie’s spirit goes on to her own personal heaven where she watches her family and friends who struggle to move on with their lives as she comes to terms with her own death. She meets up with a beloved dog as well as some of Harvey’s other victims. Lindsay, Susie’s sister, plays a crucial role in the pursuit of justice for her sister. Determined to prove that Harvey is her sister’s murderer, she sneaks into his house and finds a diagram of the underground den. Before she can get away without being caught, Harvey returns and a heart-stopping race ensues as Lindsey makes for an escape determined not to be his next victim.

Frustrations with local police will cause you to want to reach through the book to smack them into action. Unable to handle the events, Susie’s mother leaves her family for some odd quest to find herself causing much pain and suffering for the entire family, but mostly Buckley, Susie’s four-year-old brother. There is just enough supernaturalism to create an eerie suspense. Buckley sees Susie now and then as she watches over him from her heaven, and her friends sense her presence at the most opportune times.

The comic relief for the heavy subject comes in the form of Susie’s grandmother, Lynn. An eccentric alcoholic, she moves in with the Salmons when her daughter takes off for her self-discovery quest. She brings love and acceptance to Lindsay and provides the mother-figure Buckley so desperately requires.

This is truly an excellent read and will have your fingers ready to hit on the next-page-button on your ereader. A movie was released in 2009, and amazingly was very well-done. The director, Peter Jackson, did not want to lose the mood of the book and succeeded in creating one of the few movies that actually complements its book. He stated in an interview that the reader has “an  experience when you read the book that is unlike any other.” I totally agree and appreciate his efforts to keep the storyline intact in his movie version.

Side note: there has been some religious criticism that claims Seabold has left Susie’s heaven “utterly devoid of any apparent religious aspect.” There is no apparent God, judgment nor any comment on the spiritualism of heaven. Seabold counters that her book was not meant to be religious in any way and that she was simply trying to create a heaven for Susie that was simple by design, with no intentions of depicting any religious ideas, and that would be a place of beauty and comfort for Susie. I am of the opinion that a parent should probably consider more carefully the actual subject of the book’s content, a young girl’s rape and murder, more so than the implied religious content. While God is seemingly absent in Susie’s heaven, it is up to the reader to make the religious connotations.

Seabold further commented that people take things and interpret in their own ways and that she cannot do anything about that; however, she believes her book “has faith and hope and giant universal themes in it, but it’s not meant to be.” This is one of those arguments that I present to my students – we can read a book and interpret it as to what we believe the messages are, but that does not necessarily mean those are the messages of the author? I love it.

I read a review about this book that is slightly weird, slightly unbelievable, and slightly helpful.
A mother lost her 13-year-old son, David, to a severe asthma attack. He died very quickly and unexpectedly. She bought this book to give to her 17-year-old daughter to "comfort" her in the wake of her brother's absence. Before she could give it to her daughter, she started reading it and could not put it down. The mother dreamed the family went to visit David in "his heaven" and found comfort knowing he was ok. That was the slightly helpful part. The slightly weird part, bordering on unbelievable, was that she said she "teared up" more reading the book than she did the loss of her own son. Hmmm. Alrighty then. All of that to say, this book might be helpful to YA readers who have lost a sibling. Or perhaps those who are experiencing "belief" issues. I know some students who read this book who thought they might not believe in God. Here's where intellectual freedom could be addressed, especially living in Middle Georgia in the middle of the "Bible Belt," where kids might not have the freedom to believe as they choose. For YA readers who feel threatened having to believe as their parents do, and thus rebel, this book could offer a softer side of "religion" and issues of the after life. That is my take and I grew up Baptist! I know many Baptists who would be offended in the offering of the above explanation in Seabold's spiritual criticism, however, Susie's "heaven" is at least a starting point to offer the explanation of an afterlife of some sort.

Publisher: Back Bay Books

ISBN-10: 0316044938

ISBN-13: 978-0316044936

God is in the Pancakes

My next YA read will be God is in the Pancakes, by Robin Epstein. I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Epstein a few months back and she is just as down to earth as you can imagine. She is also quite genteel, for someone from the north! Our media specialist invited her to speak about her book and she actually came to our little school in Middle Georgia and spoke to the students for FOUR periods. Then she was whisked off to speak at another school. She graciously answered questions and even told a joke. She was a stand-up comedienne before her success as an author. One of her books was co-authored by her lawyer sister, and is titled, So Sue Me Jackass.


I have checked this book out of our library several times, but when the kids see that I have a copy, I relinquish it so they can read it. We have multiple copies of it, but it's never on the shelves!


The opening of the book has a great hook:
"Here's what I've come to realize about perfect happiness: It's a fragile as the bubbles that form on the top of a pancake." 


God is in the Pancakes by Robin Epstein

Fifteen-year-old Grace, having turned her back on religion when her father left, now finds herself praying for help with her home and love life, and especially with whether she should help a beloved elderly friend die with dignity.

Here's the description from Amazon.com:

Fifteen-year-old Grace Manning is a candy striper in a nursing home, and Mr. Sands is the one patient who makes the job bearable. He keeps up with her sarcasm, teaches her to play poker . . . and one day cheerfully asks her to help him die. At first Grace says no way, but as Mr. Sands' disease progresses, she's not so sure. Grace tries to avoid the wrenching decision by praying for a miracle, stuffing herself with pancakes, and running away from all feelings, including the new ones she has for her best friend Eric. But Mr. Sands is getting worse, and she can?t avoid him forever.

So, yes, this is about assisted suicide. I've only read the first chapter due to giving my copy away, but I'm told by everyone who has read this book that Epstein handles the subject masterfully and with dignity. 

This book falls in a couple of genres. It is in the realistic genre and could also be considered a book that could challenge intellectual freedom due to the fact that it is about assisted suicide. Because the protagonist is asked by an elderly man to help him die, I think it could be of use in several ways, one of which would be in psychology classes. Young adults who have elderly family members could also benefit by seeing the alternative viewpoint of a senior citizen who wants to pass on. 

***UPDATE!

I finally got to read beyond the first chapter and finish this book, thanks to Spring Break and KT (my new best friend - Kindle Touch - I have an upcoming post on this soon!)

I now see why the kids at school had no reservations stripping me of my checked out copies! This main character, Grace, will no doubt tug at your heartstrings as you follow her course throughout the story. She will make you laugh and she will make you cry, but one thing is certain; she will make you care. One of my students told me that Grace was the kind of character she wished were real so they could be friends. That is how beautifully crafted Epstein's characters are. They actually could be real people. 84-year-old Frank Sands reminds of my own 85-year-old father, so for me, reading this was especially  poignant. My student was right - these characters do make you feel that they are real. 

I was surprised by the depth of  "religion" in the book - NOT that it is a "religion-ish" book that might turn kids off. Quite the contrary. Obviously, God is mentioned in the title, but I did not, for some odd reason, equate that to God being in the story! Not to give away too much, but the pancakes do equate with God, because that's where Grace finds her comfort. I suppose I may have been a little surprised because meeting the author gave me a different impression of her in a religious light. Don't ask me to explain that - it makes no sense. Usually, I delete things that make no sense! It is important to know that it is not a "religious" book with an author's agenda; it's just a story in which a young girl is faced with questions that she must take to God. While she receives no clear-cut answers, she does well in spite of the fact that it is an awesome request. 

While the topic of this novel rests on the ultimate decision Grace must face - assisting her dear friend with taking his life before he total loses out to ALS, it is not depressing. Grace is faced with so many other life-challenges at the same time, it's incredible to travel this journey with her. Does she assist him? I'm not telling. It truly will ruin the book should you decided to read it. I begged my students to just tell me. I assured them that I would be ok with the answer, but none would tell. And they were right. The reading would not have been the same going in with the answer. Smart kids!

This realistic work of fiction is as I thought, a book that could be read by students (and adults alike) who may be faced with the point that elderly loved ones may have a different viewpoint of living vs dying. This story made me think of my own mother who chose to die eight years ago rather than face another surgery just to die anyway, or worse in her opinion, live through it to face a diminished quality of life. 


I can see that it could also challenge intellectual freedom due to the choice that a young girl faces - to help her friend die. Only one of my students who read this said she was not surprised by Grace's choice. I will admit that I was. 

For an ex-stand-up comedienne and writer of video games, you will be surprised to find the author has created a book truly worthy to be considered a work of art.  

Publisher: Dial Books (Penguin)

ISBN-10: 0803733828

ISBN-13: 978-0803733824