Tag Archives: young adult

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I don’t usually like to say too much about the content of the book but on this one I’m just going to put it right out there from the get go.

The main character in this book is a seventeen year old girl diagnosed with a terminal cancer and most of her acquaintances- they have cancer too.

So yes, this book does require a box of Kleenex but I spent at least as much time laughing as I did crying. Unfortunately the red, puffy eyes tend to stick with me longer than the silly grin.

Would I recommend it? There are times when the young adult audience it’s written for is more apparent then some of us cynical adults would like but I’d still pass it on.

The Gates by John Connolly

So, you know, the gates of hell are opening and a small boy needs to save the world, same ol’ same ol’.

Except.

Except there are footnotes!

And I really do love footnotes.

These footnotes are not just any kind of footnotes, oh no.

These footnotes are the laugh out loud kind of footnotes.

And…

…get this.

It’s the first in a series.

I haven’t read them yet – but I’m going to.

I’m mean really, a humorous, young adult book with footnotes in a series.

It’s like John Connolly wrote it just for me.

Would I recommend it? Oh – The Large Hadron Collider is in it too. What more do you need out of a book?

Doomwyte by Brian Jacques

Hello my name is Jessie and I love books with talking mice, and shrews, and otters, and moles with funny accents, and any other little woodland talking creature as well.

I  think that by this age most have out grown their love of small furry talking creatures, but…well…I haven’t.

This is one of the newer Redwall books and I love all of these books.

I love them because the good guys always win.

Because even though they win the war they usually lose a few good “men” along the way.

Because swords are not in themselves evil, just the nasty varmints who wield them.

Because friendship always wins.

Because there is always a riddle to solve.

Because the Dibbuns (children) are always getting into mischief.

And most importantly, because when all the fighting is done there is always a feast.

I read Mossflower when I was in middle school, it’s still my favorite, but well, as you can see I thought the rest were pretty good too…

Would I recommend it? Yes, I’d rank it among my favorites, but if you’ve never read any I always recommend starting with Mossflower. I’m impatiently waiting until I’m able to read these aloud to Ivy.  Unfortunately we are currently at the point that even a Franklin book is enough to start Ivy shaking with fright.  I’m thinking we’ve got quite awhile before we can read about marauding sea rats, raven tyrants, and wildcat queens!

The Unusual Suspects & The Problem Child by Michael Buckley

The next two books in the Sisters Grimm series were much like the first.  They were fun, playful quirky sort of books, and now that I’ve read three of them I feel my “research” is finished.

Would I recommend them? I will be recommending them to my daughters, if I can remember they exist when the girls are finally old enough to read them!

The Fairy-Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley

Book one of The Sisters Grimm, totally my kind of a book. A young adult fantasy book where fairy tale creatures, or “everafters” as they are called in the book, are everywhere and not quite what you remember from the stories, there is a Great Dane and Prince Charming is sort of a cad.  I think young adult fiction is my own personal book candy. Quick to read, sweet, fun and slightly addictive. I’m off to order the next one from the library, and if anyone asks it’s research for recommend books for when my girls are older, yeah that’s it, research…

Would I recommend it? Yes, although I suspect an actual young adult would find it more enjoyable. Of course if you are also an adult doing research of your own I’d pick it up!

Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

This is quite possibly my all time favorite book and it is, without a doubt, the book I have read the most often over the most number of years. I have given it to friends to read, I have read it out loud to two different people, I have even had my book club read it. Did I mention I love it?

Reasons that you will love Dealing With Dragons:

1- Chapter titles – For instance chapter one is titled: In Which Cimorene Refuses to Be Proper and Has a Conversation with a Frog.

2-Cimorene (the princess and heroine of the story) often refuses to be proper.

3-Dragons uses princess to cook and clean for them.

4- A sign above a door that reads, “NONE OF THIS NONSENSE, PLEASE.”

5- Other princesses are just as dull and ditsy as you could hope they would be.

6- King of Dragons is just a title, nothing to do with gender.

7-Dragons like Cherries Jubilee.

8- Princes also have to follow proper protocol.

9-A bucket of water won’t melt a clean witch.

10- Cimorene’s happily ever after involves being interested and busy and has nothing to do with a protocol following prince!

Would I recommend it? Yes! Technically it’s a young adult book, please ignore that and read it anyway.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

Now the problem with this post is that I must publicly admit that not only have I read all the twilight books but that I was interested enough to check out this “eclipse novella.”  Yup, I read them, and I liked them. I did not start until after they were all written and I had a few friends rave about them, but I did eventually cave, and I was addicted, and I read them all back to back, and my husband has teased me about it ever since. I have not however gone to see any of the movies. How you can make a movie out of a book where the main character just talks about how beautiful her vampire boyfriend is and then not have that beautiful of a guy acting as the vampire is beyond me, but I digress…

This book takes one very minor character from Eclipse and gives you her whole story.  I think I can do no better than what Stephenie Meyer says in the forward:

“I hope you end up caring about Bree as much as I do, though that’s kind of a cruel wish. You know this: it doesn’t end well for her. But at least you will know the whole story. And that no perspective is ever really trivial.”

I think it exemplifies the part of authors that awes me. To create and know your characters so well that you have all these back stories in your head, to not only choose what goes in a book  and what doesn’t, but to have enough knowledge of your creation that everyone no matter how small a part acts accordingly, whether we as readers know it the first time we meet them or not. It amazes me.

Would I recommend it? Now I feel sort of silly, and maybe I’m not making any sense tonight, but my answer to this is no. This isn’t really a book to pick up just to read, if you have read the rest of them then sure, its a fun (OK,well not super fun it is a very short life) read. But I didn’t think it was awesome in itself or a necessary addendum to the books.  It is what it stands for that amazes me, the actual book not so much.

There is no picture, becuase the book is black and shiny which I find mostly impossible to photograph. Not only that it is highly recognizable from afar as a Stephenie Meyer book, you don’t need my poor picture to find this one on a shelf!