Book Giveaway: The Dead Boys

I receive a free copy of The Dead Boys by Royce Buckingham. This book will be giveaway to a lucky reader. A special thanks goes out to Anna Ko for making this happen.

Here are the rules:

• Respond to this thread with a post
• New followers receive 5 entries
• Faithful followers receive 3 entries
• U.S residents only(sorry)
• The contest ends on Labor Day at midnight

Good luck to everyone!

Historical Fiction Friday

In today's spotlight we have Folly. It takes place during the Victorian Era, and as you know I love all things Victorian.

Here is a summary:
Mary Finn is unmarried and pregnant. Her baby's father has disappeared and she's been dismissed from her domestic position. A kindhearted woman takes her in, but then dies after the baby is born, and Mary is homeless again. She realizes that her son's only hope for survival is to be raised in the Foundling Hospital. Six-year-old James has been happy in his foster home, but now he must return to the hospital, where he was placed by his mother as a baby, so he can receive his education. His third-person narrative, which takes place in 1884, alternates with Mary's first-person account, which is set between 1877 and 1878. This alternating point of view may be a bit confusing for teens at first, but the story will quickly pull them in. Jocelyn's characters are richly drawn and fully developed, and the setting of late-1800s London is vividly detailed. The climactic scenes between Mary and Eliza, another maid, are funny and sad at the same time. The novel has a melancholy feel to it, but readers will care very much for these characters as they experience first love and sex, physical pain, jealousy, homelessness, hunger, shame, desertion, and heart-wrenching decisions.

I want it Wednesday

I'm a huge Deadliest Catch Fan. So when I found out there was a book about the Hillstrand boys I thought I needed to get my hands on this one.

Summary:
Every Alaskan king crab season, brothers Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand risk their lives and seek their fortunes upon the treacherous waters of the Bering Sea. Sons of a hard-bitten, highly successful fisherman, and born with brine in their blood, the Hillstrand boys couldn’t imagine a life without a swaying deck underfoot and a harvest of mighty king crabs waiting to be pulled from the ocean floor. In pursuit of their daily catch, the brothers brave ice floes and heaving waves sixty feet high, the perils of thousand-pound steel traps thrown about by the punishing wind, and the constant menace of the open, hungry water—epitomized in the chorus of a haunting sailors’ sing-along: “Many brave hearts are asleep in the deep, so beware, beware.”

By turns raucous and reflective, exhilarating and anguished, enthralling, suspenseful, and wise, Time Bandit chronicles a larger-than-life love affair as old as civilization itself—a love affair between striving, willful man and inscrutable, enduring nature.

Sig Hansen also has his own book.

Supernatural book without the supernatural ??

Lets be real. The cover to this book is very eye catching. I was sucked in by the cover, read the summary and thought I would really enjoy this book. Now, I know the whole supernatural teen love saga is hot(although I think it's slowly starting to lose steam), so I was expecting a sappy supernatural love story.

Nora Grey is a 10th grader trying to get good grades. Her little world is fine, except for her father dying, and her mother always gone because she has to take a job in Upstate New York to pay the bills. So the family is poor, but they have a maid(I didn't understand that). Everything else is good, until the mean biology teacher decides to change the seating chart. Now Nora is forced to sit next to the dark, mysterious, and snarky Patch. They do not get along and of course there is sexual attraction. I mean, how can a girl not like a guy who is always mean and rude to her? Well, the story progresses, at a very, very slow pace, and we learn that ...well, we don't learn much, and that's the problem. All we know is that someone is trying to kill Nora and she attempts(badly) to find out who is trying to do it.

Throughout most of this book I'm waiting and waiting and waiting for the action. In my opinion there isn't enough in the book. I thought this was going to be about fallen angels and all types of supernatural craziness. However, the story I got was a sheltered Nora liking Patch even though he treats her like crap, but hey its love right? I might have bought the love story if it hadn't been so mind numbing. Most of the book deals with these two snapping at one another. OK, that's fine, for three chapters, but can we move on? No, the author didn't think we could move on...apparently. And countless pages later I am still reading about them snapping at each other.

The writing is fine. I would compare it to a lot of teen books that are out now. The characters limp along throughout the story. The big bang at the end took too long. Some editing would have been great. If the book had been condensed, and the action more exciting and there were more fallen angels then I would have enjoyed it better.

Will my students enjoy it? I think teens who crave supernatural books will enjoy it. I don't know if this title will be as heavily circulated as some of the other ones out there. My suggestion is if a teen is really interested in this book to loan it from the library.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming school year to hear what my students have to say about this one.

Historical Fiction Friday: Review

This is the second book in the series The Cousin's War. Ms. Gregory has a large following, even among my teen patrons, so I decided to read this book.

Margaret Beaufort is obsessed with Joan of Arc and religion. The reader is introduced to this in the first few pages of the novel. And then they are heavily beaten over the head with this information for the next 100 pages and then only moderately beaten over the head with it for the rest of the book.

I got it. Margaret wants to be another Joan of Arc. I also understand that Margaret is on a mission from God to put her son, Henry, on the throne.

The story that unfolds is about an uptight Margaret(who became really annoying towards the end) who is constantly praying, scheming and telling everyone she comes across she is on a mission from God. She's chaste, she's dull, and she's mean as a wet hornet.

Lord Stanley, Margaret's last husband is by far the most interesting character in the book. He marries her for political gain only and pretty much tells her how it is.

The story limps along at an unusually slow pace. The beginning had promise and then we get to the second half of the book which is dull, talks about battles, fighting, and I just don't care.

In this book Philippa Gregory manages to do what a lot of YA historical fiction authors do, and that is leave out the details of the time period. Nothing puts my knickers in a knot faster than no historical details. There was no explanations of food, clothing..nothing. I hate that.

This is a book to be missed for all of the reasons stated above. If you are a Ms. Gregory fan and need to read the book I would get it at the library.

Upcomig releases for August

So it's nearly the 10th and yes I forgot to post some of the new books that are hitting the stores. There are some really cool books coming out this month. Again, sorry I'm slow on the uptake this summer.

• Forgotten Seventeen and homeless by Melody Carlson
• Guardian of the Gate by Michelle Zink
• No and Me by Delphine de Vigan
• Stalker Girl by Rosemary Graham
• Winter Longing by Trisha Mills
• Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill
• John Belushi is Dead by Kathy Charles
• Three Black Swans by Caroline B. Cooney
• The Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
• Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
• The Mourning Wars by Karen Steinmetz
• Nevermore by Kelly Creagh

Historical Fiction Friday

This book doesn't come out until October 12, 2010, but I thought I would bring it to people's attentions today.

Here is a summary:
Lady Catherine is one of Queen Elizabeth's favorite court maidens—until her forbidden romance with Sir Walter Ralegh is discovered. In a bitter twist of irony, the jealous queen banishes Cate to Ralegh's colony of Roanoke, in the New World. Ralegh pledges to come for Cate, but as the months stretch out, Cate begins to doubt his promise and his love. Instead it is Manteo, a Croatoan Indian, whom the colonists—and Cate—increasingly turn to. Yet just as Cate's longings for England and Ralegh fade and she discovers a new love in Manteo, Ralegh will finally set sail for the New World.

Seamlessly weaving together fact with fiction, Lisa Klein's newest historical drama is an engrossing tale of adventure and forbidden love—kindled by one of the most famous mysteries in American history: the fate of the settlers at Roanoke, who disappeared without a trace forty years before the Pilgrims would set foot in Plymouth.

I want it Wednesday

I'm a day late on this. Sorry. Once again I've got a ton of stuff going on. But, better late than never, right?

This week I want to spotlight a book that caught my attention. I loved The Chosen One about a young girl who is raised in a polygamist cult so when I saw Sister Wife I thought I should give it a go.

Here is a summary:
Celeste lives in Unity, a community centered around the strict religious ways of the Movement, and one of their chief tenets is polygamy. Celeste’s impending fifteenth birthday means she will soon be assigned a husband, though secretly she harbors doubts. Her “impure thoughts”—simple and recognizable teen lust—are further stoked by her true-believer sister, Nanette, and Taviana, a former teen prostitute taken in by the Movement. The story shuttles between the first-person accounts of the three protagonists, and although their voices are sometimes too similar, their accounts of subservient life are fascinating. When Taviana is kicked out of Unity, the difficulties of adjusting to civilian life are clearly illustrated. Although Hrdlitschka is careful not to condemn, her details are damning—Celeste’s mother, one of her father’s five wives, is dying because her womb can’t handle her seventh straight baby, yet community doctrine prevents a doctor’s interference. Such specifics make this an infuriating book about faith—which is entirely appropriate.

An Interesting Topic

After is one of those interesting topics that is rarely discussed. The idea that a mother could have a child and throw it in the garbage like a discarded hamburger wrapper is something a lot of people cannot wrap their heads around. But maybe that's a good thing.

Devon Davenport tries to be the perfect student. She is great at soccer and wants to be the best player she can be. Besides being an amazing athlete she is a great student. However, Devon makes a big mistake. She ends up having unprotected sex and then gets pregnant.

Most of the story is told in flashbacks as Devon tries to remember how she became pregnant and how she tried to cover up, and forget, her pregnancy.

I enjoyed this book because of the subject matter. I think the author did a good job of trying to get inside Devon's mind and explaining why she would throw out her baby. While I did enjoy the book I'm not sure I was sold on the ending. But this is a personal preference, and I won't give it away. Some readers may enjoy it.

Students who are looking for a mature book will like this one. The subject matter is handled very well and it's one of those real life stories a lot of my teen patrons crave.