VVMBookBlog

Two young people from two different worlds are brought together when a deadly tsunami wave destroys Mau’s island and its inhabitants (the Nation), and Daphne’s British ship is swept from the sea and destroyed on Mau’s island.

Mau was just returning from his coming-of-age experience and would be coming home to the island ceremony initiating him into manhood.  Daphne (real name Ermintrude) has escaped living with her very proper and controlling grandmother and was on the ship heading to be with her father on another British-owned island.  Then the tsunami hit and now they’re alone on the island, forced to learn each other’s language so they could help treat the other tsunami victims who found their way to the island.

I expected to read just another fantasy book by Terry Pratchett.  Instead I found a book that takes place in a parallel universe, and looks at what human beings can do when everything else is taken away, and all customs, traditions and rituals need to be examined for what they really mean.  When the anger Mau feels at his gods who might have caused the tsunami and the death of his people, he can open his eyes to other realities on his island, along with Daphne whose curiosity and accumulated knowledge help make sense of the secrets they find.

Lots of adventure, especially when the Raiders led by British mutineers arrive on the island to cause problems.  It’s a thick book but one I just couldn’t put down until it was done.  And now I’m left with much to think about when people can change how they see the everyday things around them.

Chris Crutcher is such a great author, especially for books for older guys and readers ready for a complicated story.  And Deadline is no exception!

Ben is 18 and the older of two brothers who are both seniors in high school. When he goes for his track physical in the fall, his blood tests tell his doctor he has a rare form of a disease that, without or maybe even with, treatment gives his very little time to live.  Since he is 18 and his father is pretty much focused on dealing with his mother who is probably bi-polar, Ben decides he isn’t going to tell anyone and is just going to live his senior year to the fullest!

He does this by:

• going out for the football team (instead of track…he’s rather short) and combined with his brother to form the best quarterback/receiver team around,
• making friends with and eventually going out with hot girl and volleyball player, Dallas Suzuki, and,
• speaking up and questioning the opinions and “teachings” of his social studies teacher, Mr. Lambeer, when Ben’s research on Malcolm X leads him to promote naming a street after Malcolm X in their little town in Idaho, population 943.

Taking risks becomes easier when he has nothing to lose!

Lots of interesting characters in this story, but none is as important to Ben as his spiritual alter-self, Hey-Soos, (get it?) who communicates with Ben in almost-dream states, and helps Ben try to figure out what’s happening and how he should handle the situations that arise in his year of risk-taking.

This book isn’t officially published yet but Ms. Kochel from Olson Middle attending a publisher’s conference in New York and picked up several advance review copies.  So watch for it in September and read another great Crutcher book!

Sometimes we think that persecution of people who were Jewish happened only in Germany under the rule of Hitler and that was an isolated situation. I learned so much more last summer when I visited Berlin, Germany, and took a tour of the Jewish Museum Berlin. There I learned that Jewish people have been persecuted in many parts of the world for over 2000 years.

This book, Incantation, takes us back to the year 1500 during a time in Spain called the Spanish Inquisition. This was a time that many Jewish people were killed, but could avoid death by converting from Judaism to Christianity. These people were called conversos. Some conversos continued to follow their Jewish faith and traditions but in secret. And that’s the background for this story.

Estrella and Catalina are neighbors and friends, and can’t imagine their lives without each other. But then Catalina’s cousin, Andres, comes to live with Catalina’s family and things begin to change between the two friends, along with escalating political events in their town. Public book-burnings of Jewish books, people being killed when their secret religion is discovered, and Catalina’s jealousy of Estrella’s relationship with Andres lead Catalina to do something she can never undo.

I’ve only read one other book by Alice Hoffman–Green Angel–and I really couldn’t get into it. It was dark and depressing, and written in kind of a dream-like way that made it hard to connect with the story. I had the same feeling with this book–that I was reading it through some kind of dream filter, but the subject matter was so intense and I could really feel for Estrella and her struggles.

As in so many books I read for school, the topic of the Spanish Inquisition was another time in history I didn’t know much about. And again, a book opened up another part of our history for me, as well as showing me another time when people were tested by fellow human beings.

Lucky is a girl, 10 years old, whose life doesn’t seem to live up to her name–Lucky.  Her mother was killed in a storm when she accidentally touched some power lines that blew down.  Her very absent father then arranged to have his FIRST wife, Brigitte from France, come to the little nowhere town in the deserts of California to be Lucky’s guardian.

But it was Lucky’s part-time job cleaning up garbage outside the location of the local 12-step anonymous self-help groups–alcoholics, smokers, gamblers, etc. that adds to the story.  A hole in the wall allowed her eavesdrop on the many secrets told in the group sessions, and things she heard caused her to look for her own meaning in life and her “Higher Power.”  Her fear was that Brigitte would get too homesick for France and Lucky would have to go to the orphanage.  What can she do to cause Brigitte to realize she needs to stay here with Lucky? Or should she go by the prayer she hears people at the 12-step meetings reciting–the one about accepting what we can’t change but finding the courage or wisdom to know what we SHOULD do?

This book was the Newbery Award winner for this year, and I think it was a big surprise to most people.  We always try to predict what the Newbery winner will be based on all of the “best book” lists we’ve seen recently, but this book really came out of nowhere.  I’ve heard it compared to Because of Winn-Dixie because the main character is younger and has issues with family members.  All of the references to 12-step meetings–the slogans, prayers and traditions–aren’t a part of the experience of most younger readers, so I don’t know if that part will be appreciated.  So honestly, I don’t know what kind of an opinion to give about this book.  I’m glad I read it, I’ll buy a copy or two for our media center because it’s a Newbery, but that might be it!

If you have ever experienced a death in your family, you know that it can have all kinds of far-reaching effects beyond just missing the person who has died.

In this book, Liz’s grandmother, Bunny, died suddenly of a heart attack. Liz’s mother was very close to Bunny, so Bunny’s death led to a major depression for Liz’s mother, Christine. An invitation to a spiritualist church that offers the possibility of communicating with people who have died gives Christine a reason to get up and out of the house, hoping to connect with her mother. But hearing about that church, or any church, alienates Liz’s father so much that he feels he might have to leave. And Liz is in the middle of all of this!

Then some new people move in across the street with their crabby neighbor, Mrs. Crosby. It’s her daughter Lily, grandson Nathan and granddaughter Courtney. But Lily hasn’t been home for years– hasn’t wanted to come home–and is now dying of terminal cancer. What will happen to Nathan and Courtney if she dies?

Liz becomes friends with both Courtney and Nathan, and especially Nathan! She finds herself in the midst of both families dealing with problems relating to each other under some pretty difficult conditions. And each family needs to figure out what to believe about death and about how to get along with those who are still living.

I think this author, Ellen Wittlinger, does a great job of developing her characters. I could really empathize with Liz and Nathan, and I really got frustrated with Liz’s mother! Another good book by Wittlinger, Zigzag, had the same effect on me. She gives her readers a lot to think about!