Book Review

I finished the series! Emmy Laybourne wrote a GREAT science fiction trilogy and I loved it from beginning to end!

Savage Drift

Emmy Laybourne

Emmy Laybourne ends her trilogy with a bang!  The series starts with a biochemical weapon released into the air. Depending on your blood type, you have hallucinations, suffer from infertility, go crazy and start killing people, or blister and burn until you die...not good options.  When 2 school buses stop during the hail near the shopping center, it seems like a group of kids have a choice at survival.  When a bomb is dropped on the city, fortunately some of the kids have escaped.  We are now in the third book...the kids and teens have been rescued and are staying at a refugee camp.  But when Niko finds out Josie is still alive (one of the teens that starts killing people when exposed), and being mistreated at another camp, he chooses to go find her and help her escape.  Astrid, pregnant and sick, is about to be taken by the government for testing.  Dean helps Astrid escape with Niko and Jake.  This story follows their struggles to get help and freedom.  But, there are still drifts of the poisoned air...

This is a wonderful shift from the Dystopian genre.  Still futuristic, Laybourne adds more science than zombies.  Laybourne is able to create a realistic future world, with struggles among the teens, but can also incorporate real teen issues that happen right now in our present state.  The combination adds to a story all readers can relate to.  The third story stretches the series out a little bit, and it is possible that the story could have been shorter or added to the second story, however, Laybourne's writing is superb and hold readers' attention throughout the story.

Check out the whole series of Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne at MCPL!

Book Review

Young Hoosiers are awesome---you need to read more! I just finished the book for the next Young Hoosier Book Club and must share it on here!

The False Princess by Eilis O'Neal

One day, the princess wakes up and speaks with her parents.  That day, she finds out she is in fact, NOT Princess Nalia.  She is Sinda, a lowly peasant girl that has been raised by the royal family to avoid a prophecy fortelling of the princesses death by age 16.  Now that both girls are 16, Sinda is shipped out of the castle to live with her aunt, while Princess Nalia leaves the convent she grew up in to take over her princess duties.  Sinda will never know her parents, her father, under a wizard’s spell, believed his daughter to be dead, and died himself years later.  Sinda had only one friend, Kieran, who she can no longer see because he is royalty and she is not.  When she meets Tyr in the village, she falls head over heels because he is so good looking and charming.  But Sinda’s aunt warns her that he is trouble—he thinks he is better than he really is.  When Sinda finds out the truth, magic bubbles inside her and she burns a few flowers and the grass around her.  Scared by this new development, she leaves her aunt to attend the Wizard’s College in the city.  When they fail to accept her (she is too poor now), she finds Philanthia, the crazy wizard to teach her.  Fortunately, she also makes contact with Kieran again! Unfortunately, the real princess has requested from Kieran that he introduce the two. When Sinda and the princess meet, followed by a strange man in a dark cloak, Sinda begins to wonder if what the world believes about the princess is true, or if there may be a vengeful wizard behind everything wrong with the story.  When Sinda and Kiernan find out the oracle gave a false prophecy, and is related to one of the wizards, the story begins to unfold and Sinda finds herself in danger.

This was not at all I thought this book would be like, and thank goodness! Because at first, I didn't want to read this book because I thought I would be reading about princesses waltzing around, kissing princes, and acting like a Disney movie.  What I GOT was sorcery, lies, deceit, oracles, prophecies, sacrifice, learning who you are as a person, and general awesomeness!  Boys, you will like this too, I do believe.

Sinda is a phenomenal character, and the ways O'Neal changes her throughout the story is a success.  Sinda starts out as a privileged "princess" but when the truth comes out, she is tossed out with next to nothing.  You see her overcome obstacles, fall for stupid men, but come out on top, because she herself is stronger than anyone gives her credit for.  She is not longer a princess living a plush life with everything.  She is a fierce, determined woman, and young girls around the world should be proud to call her a princess!

Book Review

I'm a reading machine! At first, this next book was requested by a TAB member...oh maybe a year ago.  I finally took the time to read it, and I was not disappointed!

Relic: The Books of Eva by Heather Terrell

 

Eamon is about ready for "The Trial," the test to find a relic from the 21st century in the icy wasteland that now covers Earth after major floods destroyed everything else.  Only, when Eamon is practicing his climbing, he falls to his death...was it accidental? or intentional?

Eva needs to take Eamon's place in the trials, and after mere weeks of training by the Boundary dweller, Lukas, she feels ready to compete.  What she finds encased in the ice is not quite what she thought.

In a world where "MasterCard" and "Apple" are gods the current citizens believe the past dwellers worshipped, Eva and her friend must find the truth in the past, present, and future.

When you begin reading this story, you don't think of it as a science fiction book.  You assume it's in a new world of the author's making.  However, Terrell finds ways to incorporate the past Earth into this new frozen one.  There are some slower parts to this story, but in the end, you need these parts to understand the whole--to understand why Eva's people feel the way they do about life on Earth before New North.  Terrell takes her time to explain, in detail, what the leaders of New North have taught their people and why.  She takes time to develop a land and characters that create a possible future Earth.  And in the end, she rewards you with a full circle explanation that leaves you breathless.

We all wonder what has happened in the past when we only have artifacts to guess, religion to lead, and governments who want the answers to be their own making.  What do we REALLY know about Pompeii, Atlantis, Ancient Greece? What we've gleaned from artifacts in the ground? In Relic, we read a new story, but with us as the "Ancients."

Book Review

Ann Aguirre is at it again! Mortal Danger is the first in her new series called "The Immortal Games."  I finished this one in 2 days!

Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre

Edie Kramer is the butt of jokes, and ridicule of the school, and she's tired of it.  On a bridge ready to commit suicide, Edie is interrupted by Kian, a mysterious teenager that offers her a choice.  She can have 3 favors as long as when she receives all 3, she is at the mercy of the company to fulfill 3 favors for them.  Edie accepts this, and with the first "wish," she chooses to be beautiful.  Kian makes arrangements for Edie to go away for the summer at a Science camp to make the transformation believable.  When Edie returns, things go her way.  The Teflon group (the cool kids) immediately warm to her and want to be her friend.  Edie's plan for revenge is going perfectly.  Until some of the group start dying in horrific ways.  Edie never signed up for that, and now she must protect her friends and family from vying companies that both want her indebted to them for life.

Mortal Danger is unique.  It is original.  Ann Aguirre has such an incredible way of taking older story ideas and plot lines and changing them, morphing them into something so much better and intense.  We have seen the "3 wishes" before...people want fame, fortune, love, etc.  But Aguirre takes this need to be accepted at all costs and creates a scientific situation (time travel) and combines it with the supernatural, as we are used to in tales such as this. Because of this, you will not read anything in the story that you have read before.

Yes, the love story is a little much. Kian would do anything for Edie and vice versa.  This might be played up a bit in the story, but it is easy to accept when you realize why Kian acts the way he does, his history, and his current situation make him susceptible to weaknesses he may otherwise be strong enough to fight.

Pick this book up at the library, but don't expect to get any sleep tonight!

Book Review

It's time for another book review.  The high school book club requested we read Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie.  Instead of discussing the details and themes of the book, we decided to discuss the theories of Barrie's life surrounding Peter Pan and the children in his life.

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

   All children grow up. Except for one.  Peter Pan is a classic tale of pirates, Indians, lost boys, mermaids, and fairies.  Barrie wrote this classic in the early 20th century, and it continues to live on in all of us throughout the years.  However, I bet you didn't know the language of Victorian England was rampant through this tale!

Peter Pan is not quite the version Walt Disney put out when he made the cartoon 40 years ago, but it gets the general adventure across to the audience.  Younger children may struggle reading the original Peter Pan as it contains much language used in the early 1900s in England.  However, some versions offer explanations of outdated terms and phrases...you just have to find the right one.

Peter is the quintessential lost boy in a land where all kinds of creatures roam free.  We are left wondering if Peter is a version of his author, and if the children in the story represent those close to J.M. Barrie in real life.

Nonetheless, many adventures are to be had in this story, from the cutting of Hook's hand for the crocodile, the kite that blew Wendy to safety, and the ever disgusting medicine Wendy encourages the boys to take every night before bed.  However, there are many classic adventures we know that are only written in the story as mere sentences with no details and background.  This is disappointing, as we assume the whole entire story will be chock-full of incredible adventures and mishaps! However, I believe Barrie had a more metaphorical goal with this story--the idea of parents versus children, and what it means to be either.  Why children may not want to grow up, and the difference between reality and make-believe. 

Whether you know this story by heart from when you were a child or from the Disney movie, I suggest you go through this book and reread its passages in a new light!

TAB Meeting December 2014

Apparently, teenagers go on vacation when they don't have school, thus we have 6 teens tonight at TAB.  However, they enjoyed the cupcakes and sodas while they decided which books I should buy, which displays I should put up and which origami I should have at craft night.

Here, the teens are enjoying perusing Booklist book reviews to find perfect YA books for us!

 

And because the Christmas season is here, TAB wants to wish you a Merry Christmas!

 

Kaeley- Feliz Navidad



Emily- Merry Christmas and remember the reason for the season!!
Hannah: Enjoy your two weeks off! Read lots of books!
Ibrahim-Happy...Let it Go! Let it Go! I am one with the wind and skyyyyyy... Ibrahim did not type this Ibrahim is a boss and OP!
Omar: Happy Birthday- Frosty T. Snowman
Jacob; Remember the reason for Christmas, and stay safe during the break!
Regan- merry Christmas and a happy new year=)

December 3rd Friday

Well, the teens have done it again! We've broken our record number for craft night on 3rd Friday with a whopping 71 people coming in to make Holiday crafts! Thank you to the 8 teenagers that gave their time Friday night (and the first night of their winter break) to help at the library.  I know I had so much fun, and once again, I could NOT do all this without these teenagers!