Fairest by Gail Carson Levine, 2006

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In the kingdom of Ayortha, who is the fairest of them all? Certainly not Aza. She is thoroughly convinced that she is ugly. What she may lack in looks, though, she makes up for with a kind heart, and with something no one else has-a magical voice. Her vocal talents captivate all who hear them, and in Ontio Castle they attract the attention of a handsome prince - and a dangerous new queen. In this masterful novel filled with humour, adventure, romance, and song, Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine invites you to join Aza as she discovers how exquisite she truly is.

(326 pages)

When I was younger, I absolutely adored Fairest. I liked it even more than I did Ella Enchanted, its more successful older sister, and I read it several times out of sheer love of the story.

Now that I'm older, I'm sad to see that this is yet another book that doesn't captivate me the way it used to. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's still good. I love the way Aza ruminates on beauty, inside and out. The juxtaposition of Aza and Ivi (both beautiful, but in different ways) is very striking, and I still love watching Aza interact with the gnome ZhamM, who is the mentor and friend that I wish every protagonist had. But the romance with Ijori, while sweet, is kind of cloying and almost rushed to me now (I guess because they don't have as many scenes together as I would have liked).

Really, I think now that I'm older I mainly just want the entire book to be longer. I want to delve further into the intricacies of court; I want a closer look at Aza's feelings of inadequacy and hideousness; I want a more subtle, beautiful relationship between Aza and Ijori that grows up over time; I want all this, plus more time with the fascinating and kind gnomes. I could happily have spent an entire book just in their underground home, exploring the lifestyle and political system that's so different from our own.

It's still a really good book, though, and I highly recommend it to any and all. If you liked Ella Enchanted, then you need to read Fairest; if you haven't read either book, then you definitely need to read both of them as soon as possible!

Which book do you like better, Ella Enchanted or Fairest? Let me know in the comments below.

Running Girl by Simon Mason, 2014

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Meet Garvie Smith. Highest IQ ever recorded at Marsh Academy. Lowest ever grades. What's the point? Life sucks. Nothing surprising ever happens.
Until Chloe Dow's body is pulled from a pond. Garvie's ex-girlfriend.
Inspector Singh is already on the case. Ambitious, uptight, methodical, he's determined to solve the mystery--and get promoted. He doesn't need any "assistance" from a notorious slacker.
Or does he?
Smart, stylish, and packed with twists and turns from start to finish,Running Girl introduces an unforgettable new character to the world of crime fiction--so lazy he'd only get out of bed for murder.

(432 pages)

This book is deeply disturbing.

Though I suppose I knew it would be when I saw that it was a high school murder mystery.

I won't spoil what happened (obviously - what sort of terrible person would I be if I spoiled the end of a mystery novel?), but let's just say that there's some pretty sick stuff that they at the very least theorize was going on in Chloe's life including stalking, pedophelia, and rape. It's truly horrifying to read about, and part of me wishes I hadn't at all.

The mystery is well done, though. There were a couple of times when it seemed like everything was obvious, that the mystery was solved, and then someone (usually Garvie) would point out some small incongruency and the entire thing would unravel. Setting aside the fact that the murder theories become progressively disturbing as they go along, this definitely keeps interest the entire novel through.

I do have to say, though, that this is one of very few murder mysteries I've ever read that wasn't by Agatha Christie. I've devoured murder mystery books by the gallon, sure, but never really branched out from the one author. So when I read a murder mystery, I can't help comparing it to Christie's. Garvie - with his frustratingly apathetic approach to life, his weed addiction, and his constant betrayal of his mother's trust - is not exactly the young counterpart of Christie's Hercule Poirot, but he does share the latter's habit of keeping his cards close to his hand. Somehow I find it more annoying when Garvie does it than when Poirot does, though I don't know if that's just because I generally find Garvie to be pretty unpleasant as a character. Where Poirot is a genius who genuinely cares about the people he's investigating, Garvie is just a high school weed-head who's investigating the murder of a girl he didn't really like just for the fun of it. When he doesn't tell people everything he knows, it's more obnoxious than anything.

I don't know if I can explicitly recommend this book to anyone - not just because of the intense material, but also because of the terrible language that pops up occasionally - but I think everyone has to decide for themselves whether or not they're feeling up for it. You've read my review, you have an idea of what Running Girl is like, and now it's up to you to decide whether you want to read it. If you need any more information before you make your decision, ask me anything you want in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: I received an unsolicited ARC of this novel from the publisher.

Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia, 2015

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Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are off to Alabama to visit their grandmother Big Ma and her mother, Ma Charles. Across the way lives Ma Charles’s half sister, Miss Trotter. The two half sisters haven’t spoken in years. As Delphine hears about her family history, she uncovers the surprising truth that’s been keeping the sisters apart. But when tragedy strikes, Delphine discovers that the bonds of family run deeper than she ever knew possible.
Powerful and humorous, this companion to the award-winning One Crazy Summer and P.S. Be Eleven will be enjoyed by fans of the first two books, as well as by readers meeting these memorable sisters for the first time.

(304 pages)

I didn't actually realize until after I'd finished it that Gone Crazy in Alabama is the third book in a trilogy. This somehow seems like very important information to me now, but while I was reading it I had no idea. I definitely doesn't feel like you're missing anything if you haven't read previous books, though I'm sure you are.

It's a good book, though a little convoluted at times. There are so many relatives that they learn about that I almost wanted to draw out a family tree to keep everyone straight. So many of the stories the girls learn are heartbreaking - like the man who had two wives and a different daughter with each, and the Native American woman whose father sold her husband (an escaped slave) and their children into slavery - and it's so sad to see how there's both a connect and a disconnect between family members that's so different from today's. Delphine's family roots are traced back into her great-great grandparents, and it's considered normal to have cousins that are really just second or third cousins that you treat like first cousins. At the same time, even though there's an intimacy in the accounting of who is a member of the family there's also a disconnect; for example, there's the white sheriff in town who's technically the girls' cousin (a real first cousin), but who still treats them like riffraff when they come into town. In a family where the color line is so blurred, where the main characters have bloodlines from three very different races, some still refuse to see their relatedness to others because of the outward difference in their skins. It's terrible.

I can't say that this was my favorite book in the world, both because it was very frustrating (in a life-isn't-fair sort of way) and because after a while I got sick of reading about so many imperfect and rather unhappy people. The threads of liberty versus prejudice run deep and are interesting to analyze through Delphine's eyes as she struggles to compare her free Northern upbringing with the repressed racism that faces her in Alabama. I don't know exactly how long ago the book is set (the Jackson Five were still performing, so maybe fifty years?), but it's sad to see that it definitely wasn't as long ago as I could have wished. Sad, and uncomfortable.

If you're interested in this book, then by all means read it. I'm not going to shove it down people's throats, and I don't know that I'll ever take the time to purposefully re-read it, but Gone Crazy in Alabama was a very interesting and enlightening read for me personally. It could be for you, too.

Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave by Virginia Hamilton, 1993

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The year is 1854, and Anthony Burns, a 20-year-old Virginia slave, has escaped to Boston. But according to the Fugitive Slave Act, a runaway can be captured in any free state, and Anthony is soon imprisoned. The antislavery forces in Massachusetts are outraged, but the federal government backs the Fugitive Slave Act, sparking riots in Boston and fueling the Abolitionist movement.
Written with all the novelistic skill that has won her every major award in children's literature, Virginia Hamilton's important work of nonfiction puts young readers into the mind of Burns himself.

(208 pages)

I read Anthony Burns as a summer reading assignment for my new AP US History class. The assignment was to read a book connected to US history and then write a review of it, so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and post my review on here as well as on the class website. The format is a little different from my usual reviews, because there are some specific questions I'm supposed to be answering, so sorry if it sounds a little stilted.

Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave is (as I'm sure you've already guessed) about a man named Anthony Burns, who was a fugitive slave. Moving past that obvious piece of information, I'll tell you that it's a historical fiction that takes all of the true facts known about Burns' life, adds some embellishing details about his childhood as a slave, and then tells the story of his life in the style of a fictional novel. It's a very gripping read, made doubly so because the story's true. The narration swaps between descriptions of his arrest/trial (focusing both on Anthony's emotions and on the people around Boston connected to his case) and flashbacks as Anthony reminisces to himself about his life growing up on the slave plantation. It's a very compelling rhythm, because as the trial unfolds the true (and terrible) picture of what exactly Anthony is trying to escape is revealed so that you can't help but be swept away in the truth of how devastatingly important it is that Anthony be allowed to go free.

The first time I read Anthony Burns, I was completely absorbed in the drama of the story, of the emotions running throughout each scene. The second time through, I spent most of the time wondering how much of what I read was actually true. The author says in the afterward that she filled in the story's gaps, and sometimes that's obvious–like when she makes up some tales from Anthony's childhood, or writes as though she definitively knows the inner workings of the main characters' heads–but sometimes her eagerness to add extra information makes me a little leery about the historical accuracy of other parts of her account. It makes for a compelling story, for example, to know exactly what Burns's lawyer said in his final passionate speech; the speech recorded in the book is a very clever, emotional, well-written speech, and I would love to applaud the person who wrote it - but since, a few chapters later, the lawyer mourns that the judge didn't take notes during the speech ("Not one note, Dana thought. Not on any of my points . . . He wrote not a word!") it begs the question: how did Hamilton actually get the original speech to put in her book? There may be a simple answer to that question or there may not be (I certainly haven't been able to find any transcript of the trial online), but this is just an example of how I wish she had been a little more clear about delineating between historical fact and made-up details.

Okay, moving on. The biggest piece of new historical information that I gained from Anthony Burns is - and don't laugh at me for not already knowing about this!  - the Fugitive Slave Act. This was an act that required citizens of free states in the North to return escaped slaves to their masters in the South; anyone who knew about an escaped slave and didn't turn him in was breaking the law. This law obviously sparked some major backlash from abolitionists, and so Anthony Burns focuses not only on Anthony's feelings throughout his trial but also on the response the people of Boston as a whole had toward his potential return to slavery. It's very interesting (in a horrifying sort of way) to see how the law itself was so obviously and overtly pro-slavery to the point where it could force people like Anthony to go back into the terrible slavery they'd almost escaped for good. It made me think about the government as a whole, and about how sometimes it's really nothing more than a tool used by evil people to justify and even enable the horrible things that they do.

Okay, well that's chipper. I guess this review was bound to be a downer, considering it's about a man's attempt to escape slavery. I usually try to avoid those sorts of books, because they're just so darned depressing, but somehow this one just really caught my eye. I'm glad I read it, in an "I learned something about my past" sort of way, though I'm also disturbed by the way Anthony and his fellow slaves were treated by their "owners." And also by the fact that he died only seven years after he was freed.

I know, that really puts a damper on the whole "triumph" part of the byline.

Defining Dulcie by Paul Acampora, 2006

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Quirky, uplifting, and written in a spare prose, this hopeful and humorous debut explores the connections made in life, the resilience of the human spirit, and the absurdities that keep life interesting.

(176 pages)

After a string of pretty lousy selections at the Little Free Library within walking distance of my house, I was just about ready to give up putting in the effort to go over there and swap out my books. When I pulled out Defining Dulcie, I sighed and shrugged - I figured it was the best of bad options, and would turn out as mediocre as the other books I'd gotten there.

When I actually read it, though, I realized that I'd been gravely mistaken. This is a very good book, one I'm so glad to have read.

I know that Dulcie's mother means well, but I can't help but hate her for the way she rips Dulcie away from everything she knows and loves. That's why, when she prepares to sell Dulcie's dad's car, I can totally relate with Dulcie's impulse decision to steal the car and drive cross-country to go back to her home. I am most definitely a fan of the familiar, of being comforted by what I can feel and see and touch; being ripped away from everything my father had ever owned in that way would feel to me (the way it does to Dulcie) like I was losing him all over again.

I really love Dulcie's grandfather, who takes her in once she gets back to her hometown. He's the kind of grandfather everyone wants to have: warm, funny, loving, understanding - and above all else he's simply just kind. He takes in Roxanne, a cheerful but wounded rising senior who's helping out at the school during the summer so she can spend as much time as possible away from her abusive mother at home.

And yes, I said "helping out at the school." There is a school involved, even though the story's set during the summer. But Dulcie's grandfather isn't a principal, or a teacher, or even some sort of summer volunteer; no, he's a janitor. And so was Dulcie's father, until he accidentally mixed some cleaning chemicals that shouldn't have been mixed and wound up dead on the bathroom floor. Yikes. It's very interesting watching Dulcie's grandfather, and reading memories about her father, because it's clear that both men take/took a great sense of pride and accomplishment in their responsibility to keep the school pleasant and clean. I haven't read too many books, frankly, about kids whose parents hold jobs that are traditionally viewed as being menial; I kind of wish I read more of them now, because it lends a really interesting perspective to things.

So yes, I do recommend Defining Dulcie. Don't let its small size and older release date fool you: it's a powerful, well-written novel about parental relationships, life goals, and - above all - dealing with grief. I truly enjoyed reading this little gem I found in a Little Free Library, and I hope you get the chance to read it too.

Six Kids and a Stuffed Cat by Gary Paulsen, 2016

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It seemed like a normal school day, until a horrible storm forced the very cautious school administration to make everyone hole up in a safe place. Six students find themselves stuck in a tiny, questionably smelly space—a school bathroom—with a stuffed cat for entertainment. Hijinks ensue and the unexpected happens. They enter as strangers…and leave as friends.
A special script accompanies the novel, so any six kids can get together with their friends and perform the story anywhere they’d like.

(144 pages)

Okay, this was not exactly what I was expecting.

It's a really short book - really more of a novella than a novel, really. The story was over just as I thought it was getting really interesting, and I suppose I'm so used to meaningful stories taking place over time that I have trouble taking the entire episode in the bathroom as nothing more than exactly that: just a short episode.

It's actually even shorter than the 144 pages the volume as a whole is, because the entire story is re-written in play form. And no, I don't mean that the book is continued in play form or that new meaning is given to the tale as the play casts different light on characters or inflection. I mean that it is literally transcribed into the format of a play, so that people can perform it if the urge strikes. That means the prose story itself is just 76 pages.

I feel like this was supposed to be meaningful, but it really just came across as bizarre more than anything else. It would have made a really interesting middle grade novel, with more fleshed-out characters and room for them to really grow, but in the short format of a novella everything felt really random and kind of rushed.

I don't know, though, maybe I'm just too thick and am missing the point. If you've read Six Kids and a Stuffed Cat and you got more out of it than I did, please enlighten me in the comments section.

All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook by Leslie Connor, 2016

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From Leslie Connor, award-winning author of Waiting for Normaland Crunch, comes a soaring and heartfelt story about love, forgiveness, and how innocence makes us all rise up. All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook is a powerful story, perfect for fans ofWonder and When You Reach Me.
Eleven-year-old Perry was born and raised by his mom at the Blue River Co-ed Correctional Facility in tiny Surprise, Nebraska. His mom is a resident on Cell Block C, and so far Warden Daugherty has made it possible for them to be together. That is, until a new district attorney discovers the truth—and Perry is removed from the facility and forced into a foster home.
When Perry moves to the “outside” world, he feels trapped. Desperate to be reunited with his mom, Perry goes on a quest for answers about her past crime. As he gets closer to the truth, he will discover that love makes people resilient no matter where they come from . . . but can he find a way to tell everyone what home truly means?

(400 pages)

This is a very interesting scenario, isn't it? Such a moral dilemma. If you'd asked me before, I would have said that no way should a kid be raised in a prison; it isn't right to bring a child up amongst dangerous criminals who would be a threat to him or - at the very least - teach him really wonky morals. I would envision something like the opening scenes of "Megamind," where the titular character is taken in by prison inmates and raised behind bars by prisoners who teach him that policemen are bad and thieves are good. This is not the case in All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook, however; in fact, some of the inmates (committed for manslaughter, or one-time accidental murders) are morally superior to the people Perry meets outside of jail.

I really enjoyed chewing through all of the moral dilemmas and thought-provoking questions raised by the scenario presented in the novel - most of which I don't really want to discuss because they're spoilers. I also liked the characters, all of whom were realistically drawn with both good sides and bad sides. Perry is a great kid, he really is, and I felt terrible for him as he watched his entire life come apart at the seams. It's easy to hate Thomas VanLeer, the man responsible for ripping Perry away from his home and loved ones, but it's clear that he honestly believes he's doing the best thing for Perry.

I don't think this is one of my favorite books in the entire world, because while it's very good it feels like there's some extra unidentifiable spark missing that would take it to that higher level. As a regular read, though, it's very good: entertaining, thought-provoking, and emotionally satisfying. I recommend it to anyone who thinks it looks interesting - and if you do read it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the book!

Firestorm by Mark Robson, 2010

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Dragon's in Areth each have a single predestined rider and a single life mission, given to them by the Oracle. But this once all-powerful being is now fatally damaged and fading fast... Only the dragons and their riders can save it!
Nolita is terrified of dragons! Learning to fly her day dragon would be dangerous enough without irrational fears to contend with and a vicious dragon-hunter on her tail. With Elian, another novice rider, Nolita seeks the first of four Orbs, whose combined power can restore the Oracle. Only Nolita, as a day dragon rider, can claim it. To do so, she must face her worst fears, and face them alone...

(320 pages)

I was actually all set to turn this book back into the library without reading it, because I decided it looked just too cliche for my scarce time. My mother, however, convinced me not to; she'd seen it in my room, thought it looked interesting, and devoured it in a single sitting. She told me it wasn't crazy original, but it took old ground and trod it very, very well.

And so I decided to read it after all. I do agree with my mom that it was well done, but I also can't entirely get over the fact that I've read so many books like it over the years. I mean, there are only so many books about dragons and their riders and a quest to save the world. It's been done, you know?

It's a rather forgettable book, really, and it's already beginning to blend in my mind with all of the other dragon books I've read. The characters mainly follow the usual stock tropes (the strong and stand-offish female, the proud/unpleasant newcomer, the generically nice guy who keeps everyone together, etc.), though it was refreshing to read a completely different character for once: when the description says Nolita is "terrified of dragons," that's not an overstatement. She literally runs away into the woods and faces starvation because she's so afraid of going anywhere near the dragon she suddenly finds herself attached to. It takes true bravery to overcome your fears, and watching her struggle to combat them was the best part of the book.

I did get the second and third books in the quartet from the library, but I only got around to reading the second book (which isn't as good as this one). The library doesn't even have the last book. It's too bad that there are so many dragon books similar to this series, because if there weren't I think I would have totally snapped it up. As it is, though, I really can't say that it stands too far out from the crowd.

The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase by Wendy Mass, 2016

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It has been a few months since the Harmonicandy was chosen as the winner of the nationwide candymaking contest. Forever changed by the experience, Logan, Miles, Philip, and Daisy have returned to their regular lives. But when presented with the chance to go on tour to promote the new candy, they each have very different reasons for hitting the road.
The stakes are a lot higher than they thought, however, and a decades-old secret is revealed. In this action-packed adventure, the four friends embark on a journey full of hidden treasures, imaginary worlds, rivers of light, a map of awe, a sky of many colors, and one very small cat who thinks he's a dog.
And candy.
LOTS and LOTS of candy.
They've already learned to trust one another. Now they'll have to trust themselves in order to face what lies ahead and save what really matters.

(544 pages)

When I asked my ten-year-old brother if he liked The Great Chocolate Chase, he said "Yes, but it was kind of annoying how people kept getting important information and then keeping it secret for like forever." When I pressed him and asked how he thought it compared to the first book - which is one of his all-time favorite novels, one of a very elite group of books he's re-read - he surprised me by saying that he thought this book was every bit as good as its predecessor. I know he definitely chewed it over even when he wasn't reading: he kept wandering up to meat random times and asking me whether I'd seen such-and-such coming or if I knew how this-or-that tied in with the first book. It was very cute (and slightly annoying), and definitely heartening to see how perfectly Candymakers 2 captured and held my brother's attention.

As for me, I definitely enjoyed it. There are few things I love to do more than curl up with a big fat new book by one of my favorite authors, and so I really loved the opportunity to do that with Candymakers 2. I totally agree with my brother, though, that it was pretty frustrating when the characters teased huge reveals and then waited entire chapters to reveal what they knew. The worst of these was when Daisy did a DNA test in the RV, and then announced that it would take like twenty hours and the data would only be processed while the vehicle was actively in motion. I mean, seriously?

But that's a minor quibble. I really did love reading this extension of one of my very favorite MG novels, and Mass did a wonderful job of instilling almost all of the same magic and excitement from the first book into the second; she has a skill few other authors do, of being able to write sequels that don't feel watered-down. This one may feel a bit stretched, like she threw in some extra random plot points just for length, but that's entirely excusable because all of the side plots are really interesting. It's actually the main plot, one of the big reveals that comes toward the end, that had me scratching my head and struggling to keep suspending my disbelief. I can't talk much about it, though, so suffice it to say there's some very fantasy-esque sci-fi.

If you're reading this review, you've either never read the first Candymakers or you have read it and are deciding whether to read this book. If you're the former, just go read The Candymakers. Like, right now. You can thank me later. If you're the latter, be assured that you can safely read and enjoy The Great Chocolate Chase; it adds to, rather than takes away from, the charm of the first book. And, as an added bonus, it has cameos with characters from three other Wendy Mass books. I only caught two of them, both of which were incorporated in natural (but also really fun) ways. If you read the book, try to catch all three so you can tell me which one I missed!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary ARC of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.