Review of Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale, Audiobook

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Romance, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

book_of_a_thousand_days_audio.jpg

Book of a Thousand Days

by Shannon Hale

read by Chelsea Mixon and the Full Cast Family

Full Cast Audio, 2008.  6 compact discs, 7 hours, 30 minutes.

Starred review.

Sonderbooks Stand-out 2009:  #1, Audiobooks

http://www.fullcastaudio.com/

http://www.squeetus.com/

When I first read Book of a Thousand Days ( http://www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/book_of_a_thousand_days.html ), I wasn’t quite ready to declare it the best book I’ve ever read.  Could I really put it ahead of my long time declared favorites, The Blue Castle, by L. M. Montgomery ( http://www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/bluecastle.html ), and The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley ( http://www.sonderbooks.com/YAFiction/BlueSword.html ), or ahead of Shannon Hale’s own The Goose Girl (http://www.sonderbooks.com/YAFiction/goosegirl.html)?

Well, after listening to Full Cast Audio’s fabulous production, I can say without a moment’s hesitation that this is by far the best audiobook I have ever listened to, and the story itself is definitely one of my all-time favorite books.  Okay, I’m still equivocating with the print books (simply because of having so many so much loved old favorites), but in the middle of listening to this book, I found myself gushing like a teenager to my son that this is the “best book in the world”!

Full Cast Audio surpassed itself with this production.  The voices suited the characters perfectly.  I especially liked Lady Saren’s voice, seeming timid and tentative at the beginning, but growing in strength.  Chelsea Nixon, who read Dashti’s voice, was wonderfully expressive.  They even included the snatches of the Healing Songs that Dashti sings throughout the book.

Lady Saren has been condemned to be sealed into a tower for seven years because she refuses to marry Lord Khasar.  Her father decrees this on the very day that Dashti the mucker maid showed up to be Saren’s new lady’s maid.  So Dashti enters the tower with Lady Saren, and their adventures begin.

Saren is terribly afraid of something.  So afraid that when Khan Tegus, the man Saren secretly promised to marry, shows up outside the tower, Saren makes Dashti speak with him, pretending to be Saren.

This book is a magnificent piece of writing.  All of the growth and development is done gradually and masterfully drawn out.  Dashti grows as a servant and as a person.  She grows in her mastery of the magic of the Healing Songs.  She grows as she figures out what is really going on with the evil Lord Khasar.  Meanwhile, Saren grows as Dashti calms her fears.  And the love story blossoms, slowly, gradually, beautifully.

When my CD player finished the book and cycled back to the beginning of the last CD, I found I couldn’t bring myself to eject it, and I’m listening to that last wonderful section all over again.  I don’t want it to be over!

A magical and beautiful book.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/book_of_a_thousand_days_audio.html

Review of Wildwood Dancing, by Juliet Marillier

Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

wildwood_dancing.jpg

Wildwood Dancing

by Juliet Marillier

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2007.  407 pages.

Starred Review

www.randomhouse.com/teens

“I’ve heard it said that girls can’t keep secrets.  That’s wrong: we’d proved it.  We’d kept ours for years and years, ever since we came to live at Piscul Dracului and stumbled on the way into the Other Kingdom.  Nobody knew about it — not Father, not our housekeeper, Florica, or her husband, Petru, not Uncle Nicolae or Aunt Bogdana or their son, Cezar.  We found the portal when Tati was seven and I was six, and we’d been going out and coming in nearly every month since then: nine whole years of Full Moons.  We had plenty of ways to cover our absences, including a bolt on our bedchamber door and the excuse that my sister Paula sometimes walked in her sleep.

“I suppose the secret was not completely ours; Gogu knew.  But even if frogs could talk, Gogu would never have told.  Ever since I’d found him long ago, crouched all by himself in the forest, dazed and hurt, I had known I could trust him more than anyone else in the world.”

So begins a wonderfully intricate tale loosely based on “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” but with many intricate plot threads woven through the tale.

Jenica and her four sisters spend the night of every Full Moon dancing in the Wildwood, in the Other Kingdom.  They have rules to keep themselves safe, like no eating and drinking while there, no wandering into the forest.

But things in the Other Kingdom begin to change when the Night People show up.  Rumors about them in the mountains of Transylvania are dark and sinister.  One of them shows a particular interest in Tati, Jena’s oldest sister.

At the same time, everyday life is getting out of control.  For the sake of his health, their father must spend the winter in the city, and he leaves them in charge.  But Cezar, their interfering cousin, quickly makes it clear that he doesn’t think women capable of that responsibility, and he begins “helping” them by taking over.  They don’t hear from their father and cannot stop Cezar.  Meanwhile, Cezar has a grudge against the folk of the Other Kingdom and vows to destroy the Wildwood.

This tale is beautifully written.  Jena is resourceful.  She loves her sisters and loves her friend the frog.  She glories in her friends from the Other Kingdom.  She tries to protect them, and herself, from Cezar’s manipulations.

This wonderful and rich storytelling quickly captivated me.  It gives the flavor of Transylvania, going beyond the stereotypes to deeper myths.  A haunting tale of wonder and cleverness and sacrifice and true love.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/wildwood_dancing.html

Review of Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, by Jessica Day George

Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

sun_and_moon_ice_and_snow.jpg

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow

by Jessica Day George

Bloomsbury, New York, 2008.  328 pages.

Starred Review

http://www.bloomsburyusa.com/

“Long ago and far away in the land of ice and snow, there came a time when it seemed that winter would never end.  The months when summer should have given the land respite were cold and damp, and the winter months were snow filled and colder still.  The people said the cold had lasted a hundred years, and feared that it would last a hundred more.  It was not a natural winter, and no one knew what witch or troll had caused the winds to howl so fiercely.”

Here’s a beautiful retelling of the fairy tale, “East of the Sun, West of the Moon.”

When a ninth child is born to a poor woodcutter in the far north, the mother is so disappointed the baby is a girl, she doesn’t even give the baby a name.  However, this lass is destined to change the family’s fortunes.

Jessica Day George beautifully fleshes out the story, putting us firmly on the side of this brave lass who cares about her loved ones enough to defy the powerful queen of the trolls.

The only thing that hurt my enjoyment of this story was that I already have read a much-loved retelling of this same fairy tale, East ( www.sonderbooks.com/YAFiction/east.html ).  It’s been a long time since I read that version, but it feels somehow disloyal to that book to like this new version so much.  These are both books I will want to reread, but I will have to alternate which one I read, in order to keep from comparing them.  Both are beautifully done, each with their own take on the story.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/sun_and_moon_ice_and_snow.html

Review of Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale (Audiobook)

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

princess_academy_audio.jpg 

Princess Academy

by Shannon Hale

Read by Laura Credidio and The Full Cast Family

Full Cast Audio, 2007.  8 compact discs.  7 hours, 21 minutes.

Starred Review.

Winner of a 2006 Newbery Honor Award.

http://www.fullcastaudio.com/

http://www.squeetus.com/

I read and reviewed this book in the print version when it first came out.  ( http://www.sonderbooks.com/YAFiction/princessacademy.html )

At the time, I wasn’t quite as enchanted with the book as with Shannon Hale’s other books.  I think it suffered just a little because my expectations were so tremendously high.  This time, listening to Full Cast Audio’s fabulous production (complete with songs sung in between the chapters), the book was even better than I remembered it.

I think the problem before may have been that I read the book too quickly.  There are some issues at the beginning where I wasn’t quite tracking with Miri.  She felt like her obviously loving Pa was ashamed of her.  She was prejudiced against lowlanders.  And she was trying to get out of going to the Academy even when it would get her family in trouble.

However, all of those issues are resolved, and as the story goes, it gets better and better.  I like the way Miri discovers the magic of the mountain and all the village girls learn to use it together.  I like the way friendships are formed, and Miri becomes proud of her heritage.  There’s danger and cleverness, and even a sprinkle of romance.

Full Cast Audio’s production, as always, enhances the book beautifully.  They truly use a full cast of different voices for different characters.  This production made an already wonderful book even better.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/princess_academy_audio.html

Review of The Empty Kingdom, by Elizabeth E. Wein

Historical, Teen Fiction Review 0

empty_kingdom.jpg

The Empty Kingdom

The Mark of Solomon, Book Two

by Elizabeth E. Wein

Viking, 2008.  215 pages.

http://www.elizabethwein.com/

The Empty Kingdom is a sequel to The Lion Hunter, which follows The Sunbird.  In The Empty Kingdom, Telemakos, grandson of Artos of Britain, begins to grow into his heritage.

He is still living in Himyar, still knowing the state secrets he discovered in the last book.  How can he warn the emperor of Aksum?  And if he is caught, what terrible things would happen to him?

The Empty Kingdom includes more intrigue, more danger, and more exploits by Telemakos’ feisty little sister Athena.

The books Elizabeth Wein writes began with The Winter Prince, a story of King Arthur’s sons.  The rest are set in old Ethiopia and south Arabia, where one of those sons, and his sister, ended up.

Telemakos, the hero of these last three books, has the light hair of his British father but the dark skin of his Aksumite mother.  He has an amazing talent for learning secrets, and seems to be drawn to a fateful destiny.

Elizabeth Wein’s characters have amazing depth.  At the end of the book, I caught myself wondering who was good and who was bad.  How like life that is.

I hope there will be more stories of Telemakos and his sister Athena, as well as the lands of Aksum, Himyar, and post-Arthurian Britain.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/empty_kingdom.html

Review of Chalice, by Robin McKinley

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

chalice.jpg

Chalice

by Robin McKinley

G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2008.  263 pages.

Starred Review.

http://www.robinmckinley.com/

www.penguin.com/youngreaders/

Chalice is a new Robin McKinley book in the tradition of Hero and the Crown and Beauty.

As always, Robin McKinley is a consummate world-weaver.  The magic in the world of Chalice isn’t quite like any fantasy world I’ve read about before, but is presented smoothly and beautifully, through story rather than explanation.  In this land, demesnes are held by a Circle, composed of the Master, the Chalice, the Grand Seneschal, and nine others.

Willowlands lost both Master and Chalice in one disaster, and Mirasol, chosen as the new Chalice is woefully ill-prepared, but perhaps more prepared than the new Master.

Their new Master was coming home: the Master thought lost or irrecoverable.  The Master who, as younger brother of the previous Master, had been sent off to the priests of Fire, to get rid of him…. 

The priests of Fire said they would see what they could do, but they promised nothing.  The younger brother of the old Master had just crossed into the third level, and by the third level Elemental priests can no longer live among ordinary humans.

But six weeks ago the Grand Seneschal had received another message from the priests of Fire:  that the Master of Willowlands was coming home.  It would not be an easy Mastership, and the priests were not sure it was even posible, but the Master himself felt the responsibility to his demesne, and he was determined to try.

Mirasol was a beekeeper long before she was Chalice.  She holds her Chalice in honey, the first Chalice to do so, rather than the usual water or wine.  Her bees become unusually responsive to her as she learns her role.  She hears the earthlines and mends the rifts in the land of the demesne, trying to recover after seven years that the new Master’s older brother abused it.

Can Mirasol, inexperienced and unapprenticed, learn what she needs through books?  Enough to help the land adjust to a Master who was so far along in the Fire Priesthood that he burns her hand when he brushes against it to take the Welcome Cup?

As in some of her other books, the main weakness is that the action is mostly internal.  Several important incidents are told through flashbacks, losing some immediacy.  Even as the action was reaching a climax, we read, Many years later her memory of the week before the faenorn was that — till the very last night — she had no sleep at all, except in those moments between blink and blink when you are so tired that you fall asleep standing up with your eyes open and wake again by finding yourself staring at the thing in your hands that you had been staring at just a moment ago.  That sentence gives away that Mirasol will live through the events at the end of this week and makes the reader feel like she is looking back on the events, rather than currently experiencing them.

What’s more, like Aerin of The Hero and the Crown, like Jake of Dragonhaven, most of Mirasol’s work is done alone, and there are many things she must figure out on her own.  So instead of scenes with dialogue, these moments end up being long passages telling about Mirasol’s thoughts or solitary actions.

Mind you, no one tells someone’s thoughts more lyrically than Robin McKinley!  Chalice is truly a wonderful book that catches you up into another world.  I would love for her to write a sequel.  And I will never look at bees or honey quite the same way again.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/chalice.html

Review of Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer

Fantasy, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

breaking_dawn.jpg

Breaking Dawn

by Stephenie Meyer

Megan Tingley Books (Little, Brown), 2008.  756 pages.

Starred Review

I admit it:  There is no need for a review of Breaking Dawn.  You should NOT read it unless you have read the three books that come before it:  Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse.  Once you’ve read Twilight, you will know if you want to keep reading.  If you do, then nothing I can say will stop you!

However, I can’t resist the opportunity to offer my opinion.

I liked Breaking Dawn.  I loved the way she pulled off a happy ending, almost too happy, but still leaving me smiling.

Okay, she threw in a completely bizarre plot twist.  But I did like the way so many vampires came together, and I like the way this time Bella provided an important contribution to the final conflict.

There were a couple of places where I laughed aloud.  The first was her description of Edward’s eyes on his wedding day.  It was even more over the top than a spoof I had read before the book came out:  “His eyes were a buttery, burning gold.”

Come on, buttery?!!

When I read the resolution of the love triangle, though, I laughed so loudly, I woke up my son, who was asleep on the other bed in the hotel room.  Still, it did resolve things….

I’d better not say any more!

These books may not be great literature, but they are absorbing reading, escapist romance, and a whole lot of fun.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/breaking_dawn.html

Review of Eclipse, by Stephenie Meyer

Fantasy, Romance, Teen Fiction Review 0

eclipse.jpg

Eclipse

by Stephenie Meyer

Megan Tingley Books (Little, Brown), 2007.  629 pages.

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/

http://www.lb-teens.com/

This was my favorite book of the Twilight quartet, which is phenomenally popular now with teenage girls.  I read it at the same time as a co-worker, just in time to read the fourth book of the series, and we had a lot of fun discussing it.

If you haven’t read any books of the series, you definitely need to start with Twilight.  Once you’ve read that one, you will know if you want to keep reading or not.

Yes, they are vampire novels.  But these are not typical vampire books at all.  These books are for lovers of romance who don’t mind a little over-the-top plot situations.

Edward is not the typical vampire, dark and evil.  He and his “family” do not drink human blood, instead hunting large game animals.  (Having read Barbara Kingsolver, I think that they would run out of wildlife on the top of the food chain in a very short time.  But let’s not bring quibbles about reality into the story….)  These vampires stay out of sunshine not because it would harm them but because they are too dazzlingly beautiful for sunlight.  They are also super strong and super fast.  With this group not drinking human blood, where’s the drawback?

Eclipse explores more of the backstory of the vampires.  We learn more about their history and motivations.  Bella and Edward actually share some thoughts instead of just restrained passion.  We learn why Bella doesn’t want to be a teen bride and why Edward is reluctant to let Bella become a vampire.

They also explore more of Bella’s relationship with Jacob, her friend the werewolf.  I like the way the way the werewolves and the vampires end up needing to work together.

Here’s another fast-moving plot with plenty of tension, romantic and otherwise.  This story was more unified than the other books.  Instead of a crisis tacked on at the end, this one has a unified theme.  Some young vampires are terrorizing Seattle, and it appears that, as usual, Bella is in danger.  The entire book builds up to dealing with that danger, in a satisfying way.

I still believe that a lot of the intense romance of these books is built into the restraint.  Bella and Edward’s relationship is chaste, since to consummate it might kill her, but loaded with tension.  I hope teen girls don’t read this and think there are boys out there who’d be able to sleep with them every night and have Edward’s self-control.  But what a romantic dream — a strong, incredibly handsome, self-controlled, powerful protector whose love is for Bella alone.  Throw in vampires and werewolves, and you’ve got a tremendous hit!

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/eclipse.html

Review of November Blues, by Sharon M. Draper

Contemporary, Teen Fiction Review 0

november_blues.jpg

November Blues

by Sharon M. Draper

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, New York,  2007.  316 pages.

http://www.sharondraper.com/

Sharon Draper is the author of the amazing and moving book, Copper Sun, a story of escaping slavery.

November Blues begins as 16-year-old November Nelson discovers she is pregnant.  She knows when the baby started, since it was the night before her boyfriend died.

In some ways, this seems like just another story of teen pregnancy.  It’s good, and it’s absorbing — the writing pulled me in so that I checked it out rather than shelving it at the library, and then kept me reading until early morning — but in some places the dialog and situations felt stilted and stereotypical.

A teen pregnancy novel is a hard one to write.  Because the situation itself involves thousands of teens, but a novel must focus on one particular teen.  What happens to that one teen will feel symbolic of what happens to the other teens in that situation, and that’s a bigger burden than a young adult novel can necessarily carry.

Taken as a story, this is a fun high school tale, with some sobering things to think about.  The no-good backstabbing popular girl gets her comeuppance, and November learns who her true friends are.

November has to choose between keeping her baby and giving the baby up to her dead boyfriend’s rich parents.  I found myself wanting to shake them and say, “Isn’t there an alternative?  Can’t you let November keep the baby, but provide her support and be a huge part of your grandchild’s life?  Does it have to be all or nothing?”  Again, this was one particular story, but the situation felt so prototypical, I found myself wanting the author to present all possibilities, more than I would have cared in a novel about, say, choosing between a career in art or science.

An enjoyable story about a typical teen in a difficult situation.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/november_blues.html

Review of First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover, by Mitali Perkins

Contemporary, Teen Fiction Review 0

first_daughter.jpg

First Daughter

Extreme American Makeover

by Mitali Perkins

Dutton Children’s Books, 2007.  278 pages.

www.penguin.com/youngreaders

http://www.mitaliperkins.com/

http://www.sparrowblog.com/

Sameera Righton’s father is running for President of the United States.  She’s leaving her international high school in Brussels to join him for the last several months of his campaign.

Right from the start, his campaign staff are planning changes for Sameera, starting with her name.  Her family has always called her Sparrow, but the campaign manager thinks that “Sammy” sounds “more American.”  Sparrow was born in Pakistan and adopted when she was three years old, so she doesn’t look like her parents.  Are the American people ready for that?

What’s more, Sparrow, who’s long prided herself in her thoughtful blog posts for a small circle of friends, is now asked to let a supposedly media-savvy campaigner write her official blog.  “SammySez” ends up sounding like a mindless shopping-crazed TV addict.

Sparrow tries to keep a semblance of normal life during the crazy campaign months.  She does her usual summer trip to her grandparents’ farm, and tries to take some of the load off of her recuperating grandma.  At least until the press finds her.  I love her strategy for sneaking out of their Washington, DC, hotel in a salwar kameez.  I think it would work!

This book is fun reading, and perfect for this summer before the election.  Mitali Perkins has posted a real blog for Sparrow at http://www.sparrowblog.com/.  On it, she keeps track of news stories about the children of the real-life presidential hopefuls.  I wonder how much their experiences are similar to Sparrow’s.

I do like the way Mitali Perkins weaves in some tasteful discussions about faith into her work.  I met her nine years ago at a writer’s conference in Paris, and she mentioned that her faith was an important part of her writing.  Her characters express that faith is important, but don’t claim to have all the answers.

I also liked the international flavor to the book.  Sameera grew up overseas, as her parents were an ambassador to NATO and a human-rights activist.  Having met Mitali in Paris when she was living in Asia, I wasn’t surprised to read that she was born in India and lived in many different countries growing up.  The part of the book dealing with international relations definitely had an authentic ring.

This is a good book about a teenager thrust into the limelight, and it also gets the reader thinking.  What makes a person American?

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on the main site at:

www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/first_daughter.html