Tag: YA

The Pagan series

After several days of interrupted reading, I finally finished Pagan in Exile by Catherine Jinks (Book #45 for 2009).

The Pagan books have been in my wishlist for some time now, and I was surprised to come across Pagan’s Crusade (book 1) at Book Sale last year. Cecille got me Pagan in Exile for Christmas.

After two books in the series, I still pretty much don’t get it. The past few days have been busy for me, but if Pagan in Exile was interesting enough, I’d have finished it the first day.

I was really interested in the series as I have never read any Templar knight novels before, but I had several problems with this series.

First, I really hate it when books do not provide enough context into the central ideas that form the backbone of the story. This series, for instance, is set some time during the Crusades, but assumes the reader knows all about the Crusades.

I blanch at books like this, which plunge you right into a foreign concept, because it’s difficult to get into the story and even more difficult to imagine it. Style-wise, it’s okay if concepts are explained along the way, e.g. Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, which takes some getting used to but makes it all worth it in the end. But if the author simply expects you to make conjectures out of the meager information provided, it’s just plain annoying.

Second, Pagan, the protagonist sticks out like a sore thumb in this series. He is supposed to be a wisecracking teener who serves as a squire for a Templar knight. Annoying wisecracks notwithstanding, he doesn’t sound like someone from the period in which the book is set. However vague the time period is, I’m sure they weren’t quipping Wham! or hups-a-daisy! or God, how I hate monasteries in the Crusades.

Yawn, yawn. What a bore. Nothing to look at. Nothing to eat. Not much of a road, this one. A real goat track, hemmed in by scrubby forest: the occasional oak, lots of sweet chestnuts, wild thyme, campions and other things I don’t recognize. Little brown birds. Twit, twit, twit. Enough to drive you crazy.

Pagan’s thought process and sarcasm are disjointed against the historical setting. I understand that the character is wisecracking, but I’m sure that with the proper research, the author could have prevented Pagan from being an anachronism in his own title series. It just takes away the credibility of his character.

Speaking of speech, the series contains a lot of cuss words (not to mention sexual content) that makes it inappropriate for young readers.

Finally, the storyline is frustrating. After two books, I felt as if I’d been led around in circles. There is no clear plot developmen, no goals for the protagonists to achieve, no rising action or climax, and the books just make you plod on and on and on.

It hits another of my pet peeves — I get really annoyed when I don’t know what the author is driving at. I have hundreds of books waiting to be read and I devote time to your book, the least you can do is to let me know that there is a point to reading it.

I tried to like this series, but come on, throw me a bone here…

I don’t think I’ll read the rest of the series.

***
My copies: Pagan’s Crusade, trade paperback, from Book Sale (~P80); Pagan in Exile, trade paperback, from Cecille — both mooched already.

My rating: Pagan’s Crusade 2/5 stars; Pagan in Exile 2/5 stars; Pagan series 2/5 stars

Sleuthing in the dark

From Charlie’s Point of View by Richard Scrimger

Book #28 for 2009

I had high hopes for this book because it had such an original premise: the Stocking Bandit has been on an ATM robbing rampage, and Charlie’s dad has been arrested because the police are convinced he is behind the crime.

As if that isn’t enough for a kid to deal with, Charlie happens to be blind. With the help of his friends, Charlie must find the real Stocking Bandit — and fast!– before it’s too late for his dad.

As YA books go, it’s a good blend of relevant themes, such as dealing with a disability, friendship, family, and bullying, but the multiplicity of themes also works against the book, as it draws the story away from the mystery. As a whodunit, it doesn’t quite take off because it tries to tackle so many themes that only bog down the book.

It takes forever to before the action and the actual sleuthing starts, and while the main premise of the book is a blind sleuth (which, to me is so cool), the actual sleuthing isn’t all done by Charlie. I understand that he needs his friends to act as his seeing guides, but they end up stealing a lot of the thunder. The book is entitled From Charlie’s Point of View, and yet the story’s point of view (the persona) shifts to his friends Bernadette and Lewis every few chapters and it annoyed me because I think it leaves the main character, Charlie, short-changed.

The book design is thoughtful; I think the braille patterns and the blank spreads signifying Charlie’s blindness were great details, but it takes more than that to hold a reader’s attention.

This is the second book I’ve read in Dutton’s Sleuth line — the first was Lulu Dark Can See Through Walls, which was average — and I’m getting quite disappointed. I think I’ll pass the next time I come across another title from this series.

***
My copy: hardcover with dust jacket, P50 from the Fully Booked sale table, now on my BookMooch inventory.

My rating: 2/5 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!

Pardon the estrogen.

Book #11 for 2009: The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares

I read the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants two years ago, just before the movie was shown, and I liked both. I lost my copy (someone borrowed it, I forgot who, and it never got returned… this is why I do not like lending my books!) and replaced it when I joined BookMooch, and I only recently got a copy of the 2nd book at the Scholastic warehouse sale, it was the pretty Australian edition for only P50!

I saw the 2nd movie with Myx (my best friend — hehe the movies are totally girl-bonding flicks!) and I loved the Santorini bits, and the hunky boys (male model in birthday suit and Brian – who would have thought the gamer dude had a bodacious bod underneath the ratty sweatshirt!) I finally got around to reading the book last night – it was a quick read and I enjoyed it.

What I love most about the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is that it’s realistic – the characters are real girls in real-life situations and real problems. I also like that it’s not skanky – that’s where all the other YA series for girls seem to be going these days, and I really don’t like it.

Unlike the first book adaptation though, which was exactly like the book, the 2nd book is quite different from the movie, which was a blend of a bit of books 2 and 3 and a lot of book 4 from what I’ve read in the reviews.

It’s a light and charming read, and while I’m in no hurry, I’m definitely reading the next books in the series.

***
My copy: trade paperback (Australian), rummaged for P50 at the Scholastic warehouse

My rating: 4/5 stars

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney

The Face On the Milk Carton is a riveting thriller about a 15-year old girl, Janie Johnson, who lives in a well-off neighborhood with parents who love her. One day, she is idly looking at the back of a milk carton and comes across a picture of three year-old Jennie Spring, kidnapped twelve years ago. The heading reads, “Have you seen this child?”

Janie takes a look at the red pigtails and the polka-dot dress and a wave of recognition hits her. She has seen this child. In fact, she realizes that the face on the milk carton is hers.

Flashes of memories of her “other” family (the Springs) hit her, and as much as she loves her family, she cannot deny the conviction that she is Jennie Spring… Will she choose the family she has known and loved? But what about the family that has been deprived of her presence?

Surprisingly, it was a decent read, for P40 at the book sale. Now if only I can hunt down the three other sequels.

***
My copy: put up for mooching last year, mass market paperback

My rating: 3/5 stars