Book Reviews – Page 93

Around the world with The 39 Clues

The world has never seen anything like it: Scholastic’s action-adventure series, The 39 Clues, is taking the world by storm — one book at a time. After its release in September 2008, the first book, Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan was an instant hit, gracing the NY Times Bestseller List for 10 consecutive weeks. The second book, One False Note by Gordon Korman, heralded the holiday season a few months later, debuting at #1.

More than just the books, The 39 Clues goes where no other book series has ever gone before: multi-platform interactivity, with multiple components that enhance the reading experience: collectible game cards, the online game, and even sweepstakes across several territories.

Dan and Amy Cahill are two orphaned kids who discover that they belong to a family that has produced world’s most prominent personalities, divided among the family’s four branches: Lucian is the bloodline of legendary leaders and spies, including Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte; Ekaterina has cultivated scientists and inventors like Marie Curie; Janus is the hothouse for cultural icons like Mozart, Picasso, and Steven Spielberg; while Tomas boasts of daring explorers and discoverers, including Annie Oakley.

The death of Dan and Amy’s grandmother, Grace Cahill, is accompanied by an unusual bequest: a choice between a million dollars, or the first clue in the quest for the legacy of the Cahill family. Choosing the path of adventure, 11-year old Dan and 14-year old Amy Cahill must outsmart the other Cahills, who will cheat, lie, and steal to get ahead in the game.

Race around the world
The series details the Cahills’ adventures as each clue takes them closer to the Cahill family’s source of power. Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, developed the story arc for the series and penned the first book, “Maze of Bones,” where Dan and Amy begin their quest with six other teams of Cahill relatives hot on their trail from the Cahill estate and all the way to Paris.

The rest of the series is distributed among different authors, each bringing their distinct style to the story, keeping the adventure fresh and exciting.

Gordon Korman, author of children’s adventure series such as “Everest”, “Island,” and “Dive,” contributes the second book in the series, One False Note, with Dan and Amy (with their au pair Nellie and their grandmother’s cat Saladin) following the second clue to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna.

The third book, The Sword Thief (for release in March 2009) by Peter Lerangis, is set to take the Cahills to Tokyo, while the rest of the titles in the ten-book lineup are yet to be disclosed.

Beyond the pages
Most notable about the series are the interactive components that allow the reader to join the Cahill family quest, with readers from select territories (US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia, and Singapore) eligible for winning actual prizes in the 39 Clues sweepstakes.

The 39 Clues website (www.the39clues.com) allows readers to find out the branch of the Cahill family they belong to, and granting them access to the exclusive archives of the family branch. Cahill family resources are also available for those who want to learn more about other members of the family.

The 39 Clues game is also on the website, granting users a clue at the end of each mission. Additional clues can be unlocked by entering the card sets found in each book and solving a variety of puzzles, and further on, using the expansion card packs (sold separately) containing 16 randomly packed cards, with a rare card guaranteed inside each pack.

With the release of One False Note, another component was added to the series, this time a tabletop card game dubbed as Double Cross, which can be played with other 39 Clues readers with their own sets of cards from the book and the expansion packs. Players go on missions to collect Secrets and Founders cards and earn points. The first player to reach 39 points wins the game.

My take
Story-wise I found the books okay: fast-paced, thrilling — very cinematic, and everything an action adventure series should be, including the typical leaps in logic that come with these types of books. I think kids around 4th grade to junior high would love the series. My cousin Chickoy, who’s in sixth grade, enjoys it like I do, and we talk about the books whenever I visit.

I’ve never read Riordan (am not really into mythology so I haven’t tried the Percy Jackson series just yet), nor have I read any of Korman’s books (he’s got tons, he’s been published since he was in junior high!). The writing styles are very similar though, and so American, and I have a preference for British writers in the YA genre, so it’s hard to tell which of the two I like better, but judging from the two books in the series, I’m leaning more towards One False Note, which was more fluid for me.

The premise of an all-powerful family is quite ludicrous when you think about it, but I have to the think tank some credit and say, why not? It’s fiction, after all. I like the idea of the 4 branches, and it’s ingenious, the way you can take a test to find out your Cahill branch — I’m Lucian, by the way– much like Hogwarts students get sorted into their houses.

What trumps up the series for me is really the interactivity. I logged in my starter pack of cards on the website and voila, two hours later
, I was still hell bent on unlocking more clues. In this day and age, when books have to compete with so many things to grab a kid’s attention, The 39 Clues series certainly bridges the gap.

It’s an effective marketing tool too, because the cards are not reusable or share-able, but the kids enjoy them, and if it gets them to read, then it’s money well spent.

***
My copy: Maze of Bones and One False Note, both hardcover

My rating: Maze of Bones and One False Note, both 4/5 stars

If you liked Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief… (Holocaust review series)

You’d probably like these:

The Boy in Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Book #15 for 2009
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
Book #16 for 2009

Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief was one of my best reads for 2008 (read in October). I waited it a bit to read it because it was really hyped about for a while, and I’m glad that the hype turned out to be well worth it. It was such a charming novel and I loved every bit of it, and I was crying buckets (rivaling the amount of tears I cried while reading Deathly Hallows) throughout the last third of the book.

The characters were so alive, and so lovable — Liesl, Rudy, Papa, Mama, Max — that you can’t help but feel for them. The most compelling thing I found about it was that it was told from the point of view of Death, which was so amazing — an abstract thing, personified! I never thought I’d feel sorry for Death, but in this book I did, especially in the parts when Death was saying he didn’t necessarily like taking lives, that it was just something he had to do… I’m getting sniffy just thinking about it.

I used to avoid Holocaust-themed books because I knew they’d i nevitably be sad, but The Book Thief got me into a Holocaust phase and I ended up getting other books with similar themes.

While not as lengthy or as deep-seated in emotion as The Book Thief, the three books in this selection are also well-written young adult novels, and offer additional insight into the Holocaust.

The Boy in Striped Pyjamas (read last December) is actually subtitled “A Fable,” and it reads like one too, with a matter-of-fact tone. It is the story of nine-year old Bruno, son of a Nazi commandant, who is bewildered at having to move to a new neighborhood because of his dad’s new assignment. They move to a strange place, where their house is the only house for miles. But when Bruno looks out his window, beyond the chain-link fence, he sees thousands of people in blue striped pyjamas. Unbeknownst to his family, Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy from the other side of the fence, and life is never the same again for Bruno.

I liked this book because of the truly ironic and ohno-ohno-ohno-inducing twist (I swear!), and the innocent naivete of Bruno is heartrending amidst the terrible events happening around him.

Now they’re making it into a movie — David Thewlis as Father, egads! — I’ve got to stock up on the tissues!

Number the Stars is a Newbery-award winning book by one of my favorite authors, and it does not disappoint either. Annemarie and Ellen are best friends in WW2 Denmark, which was trying in vain to resist the Nazi invasion. Ellen’s family is Jewish, and when the hunt for Jews begin, Annemarie and her family must do what they can to help their friends escape.

The book was not as sad as I thought, and it was in fact quite positive and hopeful — unexpected for a Holocaust novel. It seemed different from Lois Lowry’s Anastasia series, and I appreciate that Lowry could write books outside of the series, and win a Newbery while she was at it.

Finally, the biggest surprise came from Milkweed. I’ve never read any books by Jerry Spinelli, although I knew his work is highly acclaimed. I used to think his works were too street, but this one seemed different so I decided to give it a try (not to mention it was P10, hardbound, at Book Sale).

Like The Book Thief, it’s hard to explain Milkweed in a few sentences. Insert deep breath here. I would say it’s a hard-hitting story of friendship, hope and survival about an orphan with no clear identity, who grows up in Nazi-occupied Poland. I can’t explain much more than that, because it gets complicated, but it was like a precursor to The Book Thief (Milkweed was published 2001)– a blend of whimsy, poignancy, and stark reality — and I couldn’t put it down once I started it. I ended up reading most of it in the car on my way to a meeting in QC and then back again to the office (sometimes traffic has its benefits).

The Holocaust is one of the most popular topics for both fiction and non-fiction, but I’m glad there are more books about it in the young adult genre, as its target readers do not usually see history beyond textbooks and classroom lessons. This way, they see history from another person’s point of view, and share the reality that the victims and survivors of that time experienced.

***
My copies: The Book Thief, paperback mooched from the UK, upgraded into hardcover bought for P160 at the NBS booth at the MIBF; The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, bought for P40 at Book Sale, upgraded to hardcover with dust jacket from NBS Booksak Presyo sale bought for P100, paperback on its way to the US (mooched from me); Number the Stars, paperback, received as a bonus mooch; Milkweed, hardcover, bought for P10 at Book Salei

My ratings: The Book Thief 5/5 stars; The Boy in Striped Pyjamas 4/5 stars; Number the Stars 3.5/5 stars; Milkweed 5/5 stars

***
Phew, four books in one review!

Be careful what you wish for…

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Book #12 for 2009
Euro Book #2 for FFP Diversity Challenge

In Jasper Fforde’s The Fourth Bear, one of the subplots is a reference to Oscar Wilde’s only novel — The Picture of Dorian Gray, and it definitely got me curious.

Then I came across the Viking Whole Story edition at a Book Sale branch – illustrated by Tony Ross (of Francesca Simon’s Horrid Henry series) in addition to the pictorial annotations on the story’s historical, cultural, social, geographical, artistic, and scientific context. I had to pass on it because it cost nearly P400, but it was one of the first books I mooched on BookMooch, and I had to wait a couple of months for it because I had to angel mooch it from the US, etc., etc.

I always thought it was a Faustian novel in the literal sense. You know, the “pact with the devil” type of thing, like in Bedazzled or in Shortcut to Happiness or I was a Teenage Faust (LOL, I think I saw that one thrice).

The young Dorian Gray, after sitting for a painting, realizes (after Harry eggs him on) he’ll never be as beautiful, and utters a wish for eternal youth and beauty — that the painting would take all the beatings of time and age instead of having them on his person. And then it just happens – he has indirectly traded his soul for the luxury of eternal youth.

At 260+ pages and 20 chapters, I thought it would be an easy read, but as I settled into reading, I soon got bogged down by the various ideologies Oscar Wilde was espousing.

It’s the confluence of Wilde’s philosophical statements that to a degree obscure the otherwise simple storyline. As a homosexual living in Victorian times, Wilde clearly had his issues.

First was his overarching philosophy on art, leaning towards aestheticism, or “art for art’s sake.” Wilde even writes a
lengthy preface to explain his perspective,that art should have no other purpose than being beautiful, which offended sensibilities in a time when art was used as a tool for education and moral guidance.

Wilde proclaims this philosophy every chance he gets within the novel but still ends up contradicting himself, as his story is a cautionary tale of what could happen when the lines between life and art are blurred, and the high price to pay (in Dorian’s case, his soul) to achieve beauty.

Aside from that, Wilde also makes a social commentary on how superficial his circle was, and how people were often judged by their physical appearance (e.g. Dorian was the picture of purity and innocence, ergo no one believed he could’ve done the black deeds he was rumored to have done).

He also warns of the negative effects of influence, whether direct (as in the case of Lord Henry Wotton) or indirect (via the yellow book), and emphasizes the need for individualism and thinking on your own.

Finally, it is pretty hard to miss the homoeroticism in this book, as from the first chapter, it is clear that there was a love triangle of sorts between Basil Hallward, Dorian Gray, and Harry Wotton, and he wanted to justify homosexuality in the novel.

It was really love— it had nothing in it that was not noble and intellectual. It was not that mere physical admiration of beauty that is born of the senses, and that dies when the senses tire. It was such love as Michelangelo had known, and Montaigne, and Winckelmann, and Shakespeare himself

Wilde believed that homosexuality was not unnatural and was an indication of refined culture, as in the tradition of other great men. In the biography included in the book, it states that Wilde was tried for sodomy.

It is obvious too, that Wilde did not care much for women, as the novel is highly misogynistic — all the women characters are silly and underdeveloped. In fairness though, Sybil Vane is effective in establishing the ill effects of placing vanity above virtue.

While Wilde was a major proponent of aestheticism as he struggled to free himself and his work from the confines of Victorian society, he also wanted to push his own doctrines, and that was what made the novel as confusing as it was.

Ideologies aside, I liked the novel for its original plot and the final twist (which I don’t want to spoil for anyone). Faustian themes are always fun to read, and I looked forward to the times Dorian would inspect the painting for changes

I also enjoyed The Whole Story edition of the book for Tony Ross’s comical illustrations, as well as the collection of images that explained a lot of the novel’s context, although I think the layout could still be improved, as it was distracting at times.

Took me a while to digest it, but I’m glad I read the book — I just googled for film versions and there is a Dorian Gray movie coming out this year, and it promises to be a good adaptation, judging from the cast: Colin Firth as Lord Henry Wotton (rats, he’s always doing gay roles now); Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian) as Dorian Gray; and Rachel Hurd-Wood (from Perfume) as Sybil Vane. It’s a British production; I do hope they show it here.

***
My copy: full color paperback, mooched from the US

My rating: 4/5 stars

Reliving the Harry Potter High

(First printed on Manila Bulletin Students and Campuses, December 2008)

I felt a thrill running through me when I found out that there was going to be a local midnight release of J.K. Rowling’s latest wizardry book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

Over a year after the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I numbered among the Harry Potter fans still hungry for more of the wizarding world and unable to find this kind of magic in other popular book series.

Before the release, I’d already requested my sister in Singapore to buy me a UK edition of the book. I’ve also spent months staring at the collector’s edition of Beedle the Bard day after day, hemming and hawing (until now) about shelling out $100 dollars for the coveted handcrafted tome. Wired for local news on The Tales of Beedle the Bard, I chanced upon Powerbooks’ site announcing the two-hour midnight release, I made a frantic phone call to my cousin Dianne, my partner-in-crime for Harry Potter hijinks.

The midnight release was pretty tame in the comparison to the other crazy things we’ve done for the love of Harry Potter, including, but not limited to: making a complex paper-mache diorama of Harry battling the Hungarian Horntail for the release of Half Blood Prince; “forging” (and inventing) signatures of Harry Potter characters one afternoon when we were bored and had nothing to do; getting customized t-shirts proclaiming “In Snape We Trust” before the release of Deathly Hallows; attending the Deathly Hallows press launch as Luna Lovegood and Nymphadora Tonks in full costumes made from scratch and lining up at 6am the next day for the release of the book; throwing an all-out birthday party for Harry’s 27th birthday, and building up a collection of Harry Potter books in different languages.

As the clock struck midnight, only a handful of people were lined up at the store, and we realized that this was the test of true fandom – we were among the very few who absolutely could not wait to get their hands on Rowling’s latest volume.

Wizard bedtime stories
The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a canon within the Harry Potter canon, much like the previously released Hogwarts schoolbooks Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

The book is a collection of oral tradition that exists in the wizarding world, with illustrations by J.K. Rowling herself. The translation of the book from ancient runes is credited to Hermione Granger, who received a copy of the obscure volume as a bequest from the late Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore in Deathly Hallows.

Now distributed in the Muggle world, the slim volume contains five wizarding tales written for young wizards and witches: The Wizard and the Hopping Pot, The Fountain of Fair Fortune, The Warlock’s Hairy Heart, Babbity Rabbity and her Cackling Stump, and the legend of the Peverell brothers and the Deathly Hallows, The Tale of the Three Brothers.

“They have been popular bedtime reading for centuries… [and] are as familiar to many of the students at Hogwarts as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are to Muggle (non-magical children,” Rowling explains in her introduction.

Like Muggle fairy tales, each story extols virtues and defames malevolence, serving as cautionary stories that wizarding parents used to instruct their children about the boundaries of magic. The stories also address relevant wizarding topics such as Muggle relations and intermarriage, love potions, and wandlore.

Each story is annotated by Albus Dumbledore, whose notes on the book were among the many papers he bequeathed to the Hogwarts Archives. J.K. Rowling additional comments are added by J.K. Rowling to bridge the gap for Muggle readers.

Revelations
While the average reader can appreciate The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the book’s more significant nuances are reserved for the faithful Harry Potter readers, who will devour this hearty blend of wizarding lore.

For those who haven’t quite gotten over the tragic events at the Hogwarts Astronomy Tower, Beedle the Bard embodies the ultimate Albus Dumbledore fix. Dumbledore proves to have been right when he posed the question “You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us?” as his quirky annotations bring him back to life, revealing both his scholarly findings and candid personal recollections.

Rowling states that the notes were completed around eighteen months before Dumbledore’s demise, and it is unclear whether they were written for his own satisfaction or for public consumption, but they reveal another important key to Dumbledore’s identity – the side of his personality that he carefully concealed: his flamboyance, his self-importance, even traces of a more sinister bite.

The slim volume also packs heady nostalgia and new revelations for the Harry Potter reader, who will appreciate Dumbledore’s anecdotes on familiar characters from the series, with revelations on how Nearly Headless Nick came to the chopping block; the Malfoy’s long running campaign against Muggles; why pantomimes are banned from Hogwarts; Professor McGonagall’s reasons for becoming an Animagus; Professor Kettleburn’s reckless career as the Care of Magical Creatures professor; and even Aberforth’s favorite bedtime story.

Marking another chapter in Harry Potter fandom, The Tales of Beedle the Bard stands as the first measure of the longevity of the concluded series, separating the true Harry Potter fans from those who only watched the movies, or read the books just because everyone else was reading them.

J.K. Rowling has given her fandom their Christmas gift, and I join the legions of fans around the world who will read the book again and again, fueled by new points for discussion, to relive the magic that Harry Potter that has brought into our lives.

***
My copy: hardcover US + hardcover UK + traditional Chinese + Spanish

My rating: 5/5 stars

The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

I wanted to read The Spiderwick Chronicles after I saw the movie adaptation on HBO. I found the movie a bit twee for my taste, and I wanted to find out if i

t did the books justice. Luckily I was able to mooch the complete hardcover boxed set from a member in the Netherlands, who very kindly walked to my aunt and uncle’s apartment to bring them over, along with some other books I mooched.

I was actually surprised to find that the movie covered all five books already, which was a bit of a letdown, as I was expecting a longer storyline and more adventures.

The five books were a quick read: short chapters, large fonts, no big words, and a lot of illustrations. I was able to finish the whole series in one day (with a lot of activities in between), and I think that if I was younger, I’d have enjoyed them more.

Don’t get me wrong – the story is imaginative, and I enjoyed DiTerlizzi’s detailed illustrations, but on the whole, it was much too juvenile for me.

I remember feeling the same way reading the first book of A Series of Unfortunate Events (I liked the movie, though). I find it harder to appreciate books that talk down down to the reader, even if the book is meant for younger readers. There’s a certain snootiness to the tone that annoys me, like the author / narrator is speaking slowly to make sure the reader understands all the words.

It’s still a success though, at least for its intended age group, and the authors have expanded into a second series: Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles. I was able to read the first book, Nixie’s Song, for a review I was writing last year, and it has new characters (although Jared, Simon and Mallory appear in it too, and even cameos of Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi) and more faeries, so kids are bound to enjoy that too. But I like the characters in Nixie’s song better, Nick and Laurie are much more interesting than the Graces and have better dynamics.

I’d recommend the series for kids who are making the transition into chapter books, but for the same genre and roughly the same age group, I think Elizabeth Kay’s Divide series (The Divide, Back to the Divide, and Jinx on the Divide), while virtually unheard of, trumps Spiderwick big-time.

***
My copy: hardcover boxed set of The Spiderwick Chronicles; hardcover Nixie’s Song

My rating: Spiderwick, books and series: 3/5 stars; Nixie’s song: 3.5/5 stars