Fantasy Fiction for Teen Girls

Ai Ling is a little different than most girls her age. She doesn’t want to get married to a man she doesn’t love. She doesn’t want to conform to the rules of a married wife which would make her subservient to her husband. However, if she does not marry she will bring shame to her family.

She doesn’t have much time to think about her martial status because she must rescue her father. Not only that but she has to fight demons along the way and vanquish a deadly foe that could destroy the entire Kingdom of Xia. While she is trying to save her kingdom from impending doom she meets Chen Young. She feels as a connection with him, but is unsure of what to do about it.

Silver Phoenix is a nice change from your typical fantasy books. The main character is female, and she is strong. She might not always be confident in every choice she makes, but I enjoyed that flaw. Ai Ling isn’t some angry, moody girl running around with a sword out to destroy everyone in her path. She is very human with a lot of emotion.

There is a lot of action in the book too. I’ve heard it said that female authors tend to write more romance than fight sequences when they write fantasy. This is not the case with Silver Phoenix. There is a ton of action sprinkled with a little romance.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel and I think students who enjoy fantasy will like Silver Phoenix. It has action, adventure and romance. Everything is covered in this novel. I look forward to reading Ms. Pon’s future novels.

Don't forget I have an upcoming interview with Ms. Pon which I will publish this Saturday.

Tell me Lies, tell me Sweet Little Lies

Anna, Emma and Mariah are three average high school girls. Their lives are rather mundane until one night Mariah invites Anna and Emma to her boyfriend’s house when his parents aren’t home.

It was going to be a fun party, but when Emma's parents do not see them at the movies(where the girls said they would be) her parents start making phone calls. The girls are worried their parents are going to find out that they were at a party. Frightened by the punishment they could receive the girls make up a harmless little lie. The girls never thought that their lie would balloon out of control or that innocent people could be hurt.

The story is another multiple narrative and consists of Anna, Emma and Mariah. Each girl’s perspective on the events was interesting and added a lot to the story. But I think what made this story so unique and so chilling was how believable it was.

I think most teens will enjoy this book.

An Interesting book about Gay Teens

Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez is an interesting, and frank book about the lives of three gay teenagers. Well, two are gay and Jason isn’t sure if he is or not.

The main characters are Jason, Kyle and Nelson. Each has their own set of problems which makes this book interesting and down to earth. For instance, Jason has a girlfriend, but isn’t sure if he is gay and struggles with the truth. Kyle hasn’t come out to his parents and is afraid to do it. To make matters worse his father is a drunk and Kyle struggles with an abusive home life. Nelson has no father, is in love with Kyle, and makes some really bad choices that could endanger his life. Thrown into the mix we have the boys dealing with students who are homophonic and the typical drama of high school.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It showed me the different issues that these characters had to deal with without being preachy. I liked how the story was broken down into three points of views. Each chapter represents a different character's perspective. By printing the characters name in bold at the beginging of each chapter the reader is instinantly connected to the character. As a person who hates multiple narratives in stories I found this very helpful. The author did a good job of staying away from the gay sterotypes. Overall, I think the book was well done.

For students who enjoyed Rainbow Boys there are two other books in the series including Rainbow High and Rainbow Road. Mr. Sanchez has also published his new book entitled The God Box.

For more information on author Alex Sanchez check out his website

Young Adult Books aren't Important

It’s the day after Christmas and I decide to head out to the bookstore because I have been waiting for The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray. This is the third book in the Gemma Doyle series.

Now, this series has become very popular. I do believe that A Great and Terrible Beauty made it to the New York Times best-selling list.

Sweet. Hence, one would think the book would be easy to find.

Wrong.

I went to my local Barnes & Nobel store (the one on Rt. 31). B&N has bestsellers and all the popular authors, so they must have Ms. Bray’s latest book.

Wrong.

In fact, when I asked the lady behind the counter where I could find the book she told me, “We don’t have any in stock but we can order it.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This is one of the most popular teen series and one of the largest store chains doesn’t have it in stock? Unacceptable.

So I went to Walden book store, thinking that well maybe they would have it. Again they didn’t have it either. Well, I take it back. They had it, somewhere in the back, but couldn’t find the book. The young lady helping me was very kind in trying to locate the book, but with a store growing with costumers who needed assistance she had to abandon me. I could accept that but I couldn't accept that somewhere in the back was a missing box of books. If it had been a box of Harry Potter books do you think they would have lost them?

I went to Target. It was a last ditch attempt to try and find the novel. I went to the small YA section and was greeted by empty shelves. I had struck out again.

I'm sorry but I'm more than annoyed. This is a hot YA series. If James Patterson or Jodi Picoult had released a book the day after Christmas do you think it would be proudly displayed and well stocked in Barnes & Nobel? You better believe it would. But, since this is a YA book it deserves to be overlooked?

So the quest contiunes. I could always order it from Amazon, but by the time I do that my Christmas break will be over and I won't have time to read it. Plus, that's not the point of this little rant. The point is that if this had been an adult book by a popular author I do believe things would have been handled differently. But I guess if it's a young adult book it just doesn't matter, that is, unless you are J.K. Rowling.

For those who wish to find more information on the series Random House has a great website:

Gemma Doyle Series