Seventeen-year-old Daiyu was adopted from China, raised in St. Louise and one day while at the city fair near the Gateway Arch, she purchases a beautiful ring and suddenly her life is changed. Sharon Shinn takes Daiyu on a delightful and frightening adventure in time travel to a different world. While in this new and exciting place Daiyu discovers love, learns about trust, and must trust her own abilities to make the right choice. This was a fun and exciting read. (Teen readers, ages 12 and up)
Category: OZ: Young Adult Fiction (Page 14 of 15)
Hi there.
My name is Emily and for the past couple of weeks, I have been the new leader of the small peninsula in Lemuria known fondly as Oz. I have the privilege of reading all of the great children’s books and then gushing to everyone who enters my magical world. If you haven’t been in lately, there have been a lot of changes in Oz, so if you have any questions, look for me (brown hair, bangs) and I will answer all your questions and tell you what my favorites are right now.
There is always a lot of buzz about children and young adult books, but it seems like there is even more than normal right now. From movies (Where the Wild Things Are, New Moon, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1) to glowing reviews in the New York Times Book Review (Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, Spells by Emily Gravett, and Only a Witch Can Fly by Alison McGhee), children’s books are thriving even if the economy is not. And many of these books aren’t just for kids. Suzanne Collins’ series The Hunger Games has captured my heart and the hearts of several adults I know. Adults, people. We have even created a section called our “teen section” that consists of books I would recommend to anyone 13 or older. Don’t be scared. Come on back and see what we’re all about.
One thing that I am really excited about this job is meeting authors. Already, Jenny Cote has stopped by to sign her book The Dreamer, The Schemer, and the Robe; Michael Buckley, author of the Sisters Grimm series, came to sign his new book Nerds, and just last week, Alex Beard, author of The Jungle Grapevine, visited McWillie Elementary here in Jackson and came in to sign his book at our store. Author signings are a great way to get kids interested in reading. I had so much fun watching a brother and sister light up as Michael Buckley talked to them and signed their books to them. That experience will be with those children forever and adds immeasurable value to their books.
Coming up, we are having New Orleans native Paula Morris come sign her young adult book Ruined on Saturday, October 31st at 4:00 pm. Halloween is a great time for this signing because Ruined is a ghost story. We will all be dressed up, so come in your costume before you go trick or treating! It is really going to be a great event and we hope parents will bring their children to Lemuria’s Halloween party.
Also, on Sunday, November 15th, author Hester Bass will be in to sign her children’s book The Secret World of Walter Anderson. Illustrated by E. B. Lewis, this is a great way to introduce children to the great and local art of Walter Anderson. Even Nan, another Lemurian, raves about the greatness of this book. This is an event not to be missed.
We also received signed copies of Otis by Loren Long, a cute story about a friendly little tractor who makes friends with a baby calf; and local author Amy Carter has written an adorable Halloween children’s book entitled The Not So Wicked, Wicked Witch–and we have signed copies!
We have many more events and great books on the way, so I’ll keep you posted. A lot of great things are happening here. Don’t miss them! Get on our email list, email me (emily@lemuriabooks.com), stop on by! By plane, train, bus, car, or foot. Can’t wait to see you!
Okay, so forget about Gregor numbers 4 and 5 for right now. I have to tell you about an incredible book that is the start of a new series by the author of Peeps and the Uglies series Scott Westerfeld and is illustrated by Keith Thompson. It’s coming out late next week or early the following week. It’s called Leviathan. Where to begin…well, at the beginning, I guess. Our story takes place in 1914, in Europe, both continental in the Austrio-Hungarian empire and in Britain, so if you know your history, people and agendas and incidences are primed for the start of World War I. Enter the prince of the aforementioned Austrio-Hungarian Empire, Aleksander Ferdinand and his being secreted away in the middle of the night by a band of faithful men…meanwhile, enter Deryn Sharp, a girl who wants only to be an airman in the Royal Navy and of course, she is an exceptional one to boot, but well, as in Eon: Dragon Reborn (another must-read that came out last December), the Navy at this time only accepts male cadets. Disguise is the name of the game for Deryn, who cuts her hair and walks with a swagger (or tries to at least). She ends up as one of the crew of the Leviathan as they charter a renowned scientist to her destination in Constantinople. Alek and his men are making their way for neutral ground, as his own people, the Austro-Hungarians and the Germans are after him. But for both parties, unexpected incidences and choices occur to throw them into the same dire and chaotic mess together. Secrets abound, political agendas are ingeniously wielded by the author, and the two are on an adventure that will change them, and Europe, and the world forever. But did I forget to mention the main character?
Let me explain. The Axes powers put philosophy, faith, and military ingenuity in their Clankers, steam-chugging, iron machines that funny enough look like creatures. Meanwhile, the Allies put their faith in fabricated animals. Known as Darwinists, the Allied powers such as Britain have engineered creatures for man-made purposes such as war and combat. Enter the Leviathan, a whale-like living ecosystem that functions militarily as an airship. Its function as a catalyst for much of the plot of the story cannot be understated. There are just so many interesting, fascinating creatures and clankers in the book, you’ll just have to read it to get a feel and a sense for how imaginatively real, complex, and alive these weapons of war are. Speaking of life or narrative vibrancy if you will, the writing by Westerfeld is just so lively in its combat descriptions, matter-of-fact, but lively at the same time, especially when the opponents have weapons like nothing on this earth! Each character, and maybe it’s because of the crucible of war, is rich with his or her own agenda, his or her own fears and acts of bravery to combat those fears that it makes for highly compelling reading. Moreover, Keith Thompson’s illustrations that accompany the narrative enrich it so and are, to me at least, quite sleek and expressive, capturing, magnifying the scene in my head that I found them to be an asset rather than a liability as sometimes pictures can be (e.g., movie characters who don’t look like the person we have envisioned and come to love in our own heads).
Published by Simon & Schuster, they are giving a book summary and trailer (using Thompson’s illustrations) on their website.
POP by Gordon Korman, September 1, 2009
This one is for the guys—girls might like it too. Marcus is a high school football player who has moved to a new town and must attend the football team tryouts. While practicing for tryouts in a park, Marcus forms a friendship with an older guy, Charlie, who knows a lot about football. Marcus soon learns that Charlie Popovich was once an NFL Linebacker. When practice begins, Marcus meets Troy Popovich, you guessed it, son of Charlie. Troy and Marcus disagree on practically everything. Marcus soon realized that there is a secret about Charlie that the family is desperate to keep. Marcus is very fond of his new friend and is willing to go to great lengths to do what he thinks is best for Charlie in spite of what the family wishes. This is a good read for you guys. Young adult: ages 12 and up
The Doll Shop Downstairs by Yona Zeldis McDonough, September 1, 2009
This is a story about three sisters who live with their parents in a dwelling above the doll repair shop. The war threatens to put the doll shop out of business, but nine year old Anna dreams of saving the shop and finding a way to keep her favorite doll. Every age will find this story warm and very endearing. Young Adult Middle: ages 7 and up
The Underland Chronicles (5-book) series by Suzanne Collins
This is what I’ve read so far:
Number One
Gregor the Overlander
Number Two
Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane
Number Three
Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods
My journey to the Underland with Gregor got its start in another book, namely Suzanne Collins’ incredibly deft and shrewd Hunger Games. In Hunger Games, a Young Adult Fantasy story, Collins relates the thrilling, clever, and highly enthralling experience of the protagonist Katniss Everdeen in a life or death arena known as the Hunger Games. I could go on ad nauseum about this trilogy (the second one Catching Fire comes out next month!), but I’ll just let you read Grace Wallace’s blog on it here.
Well, after Hunger Games was spread around Lemurian employees, one of us, namely Emily, wanted to read other works by Collins, namely the first book in the Underland Chronicles Gregor the Overlander. And then, well, I stole it from her!
I was hooked by the very first couple of pages (the time it took Collins to establish her setting and main character Gregor). And I wasn’t hooked in a bad-for-you-addictive kind of way that some books are designed to have over their readers but rather I was drawn near to Gregor’s world and sympathies in a straightforward and empathic manner. I found myself admiring, respecting, and wanting to learn more about Gregor, an eleven-year-old kid with adult concerns. Add in the fantasy factor of a secret civilization existing beneath the layers of earth that separate it from the Overland of New York City and, if you’ve read any of my other blogs, I was “in”- even to the point of feeling sadness over a tragedy involving a giant cockroach!! (That, my friends, is the genius of Collins’ writing! infusing gritty and harsh, unpleasant worlds with feeling, sacrifice, and relational warmth.)
Collins combines an emotionally intelligent and astute kid with other complex characters as well as the fantastical element of giant talking, equally complex warm-blooded and cold-blooded creatures amidst a hostile terrain to create a world that pulses with vibrancy, darkness, and light. This narrative conveys frank portrayals of combat (as Collins does in Hunger Games) that grotesquely entertain the senses even as the relational interactions within the story gently provoke the deeper waters of human sensibility and psyche.
Gregor lives with his mom, ailing grandma, seven-year-old sister Lizzie and two-year-old sister Margaret (Boots is her nickname) in a small apartment in the Big Apple. Gregor’s dad has been missing for over two years now. With his income gone, the family is struggling to get by and Gregor does all he can to help, like not going to camp and instead staying home to babysit his sisters. Gregor and Boots go to do some laundry in the old building’s laundry room, and like Alice and the rabbit hole, Boots falls down a laundry shaft chasing a toy. What can Gregor do but go after his sister? Down, down, down they go (I won’t tell you how it is they survive the fall) into the Underland, full of crawlers (cockroaches), gnawers (rats), fliers (bats), cutters (ants), nibblers (mice), and hissers (lizards), among other creatures I’m sure Collins will reveal in books 4 and 5–all of which are huge! talking groups of animals that are either in alliance with the humans in the Underland (such as the fliers) or are viciously fighting against them (such as the gnawers). It is here that prophecies are revealed and quests are begun. People (ahem, salient creatures I should say) you thought were friends turn out to be enemies and enemies can be friends.
The politics are strange, ferocious and precarious–ultimately deciding the fate of all in the Underland. As I make my way into the fourth book (Gregor and the Marks of Secret), I am finding this out more and more. It’s a lively bunch down there! Recommended for ages 11 and up. Hunger Games recommended for ages 14 and up.
Want to be fancy? Come join the book parade of Jane O’Connor. O’Connor has written the following books:
Fancy Nancy
Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy
Fancy Nancy Bonjour Butterfly
Fancy Nancy’s Favorite Words from Accessories to Zany
Fancy Nancy Explorer Extraordinaire
Fancy Nancy Party Planner Tea Parties
The latest—Fancy Nancy Party Planner Tea Parties–is great fun for little girls and might provide helpful tips for Moms having their own tea party.
If your wallet is feeling a little pinched, you might try the beginner readers at a sweet price of $3.99. The titles are Fancy Nancy Sees Stars, Fancy Nancy the Dazzling Book Report, Fancy Nancy at the Museum, Fancy Nancy and the Boy from Paris, Fancy Nancy Poison Ivy Expert, Fancy Nancy the Show Must Go On, and Fancy Nancy Pajama Day. There are also several sticker books. (All picture books, ages 4-8)
Mortimer’s First Garden by Karma Wilson, Children’s Picture Book, Ages 4-8
From the best selling author of Bear Snores On comes Mortimer’s First Garden. Would you like to plant a seed and watch it grow? This story lends itself to being able to do that with your child. Mortimer has a seed and he is also hungry. He has heard that in the spring seeds can be planted, they will grow and produce more seeds. He has a choice, eat the seed in hand or risk planting that one seed. What does Mortimer do?
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The Devil’s Paintbox by Victoria McKernan (Young Adult Fiction, 12 and up)
In the winter of 1865, circumstances find Aiden and Maddy Lynch (brother and sister) stranded on a piece of dried up farmland in Kansas. The last of the food has been eaten when Jefferson J. Jackson arrives on the farm. Jackson is looking for strong men to join his wagon train which is headed for Seattle, not two half-starved teenagers. The children convince Jackson to take them on the 2,000 mile journey. Jackson tells them bluntly, “Aside from disease, there’s storms, Indian stampedes, and pure awful accidents. Anyway you can think up to die is out there waiting.” In spite of the warning of hardship, the children gather courage and spirit to make the long journey. As the wagon train moves along the trail, you can easily visualize the beautiful and sometimes harsh western frontier. Aiden’s honesty, loyalty, courage and keen wit for survival will be the force that will bring him through until the end. The novel will being warmth, sadness and hope to you the reader and will provide a sense of appreciation of how tough early America must have been. Just think, no cell phones, no television, no running water2009 is looking pretty good.
Paula Morris has set this exciting ghost story in the city of New Orleans several years after Katrina. Rebecca Brown is from New York City visiting her Aunt Claudia who lives in a creepy house across the street from the Lafayette Cemetery. Rebecca makes a friend with Lisette, a ghost , who has a score to settle. If you like ghost stories and mysteries you will love this one. (Ages 12 and up)
Suzanne Selfors, author of Saving Juliet, delivers a welcome and enjoyable summer read in Coffeehouse Angel. (This is one especially for those suffering from the sometimes heavy and deep summer reading lists for school.)
Coffeehouse Angel begins with 16-year-old Katrina opening up her grandmothers coffee shop one morning only to discover a vagrant, albeit a beautiful one, sleeping by the trash can out back. Her simple act of kindness towards this mysterious man yields surprising and supernatural consequences.
A light but warm story full of lovable, quirky people with realistic struggles, this book affectionately portrays the insecurity and uncertainty every young adult feels growing up, and the power of love, friendship, and community to draw out vibrant strengths and gifts each person can offer to others. (Ages 12 and up)
Julie Berry succeeds in her debut Young Adult novel The Amaranth Enchantment in that she imbues her main character Lucinda Chapdelaine with emotional honesty, fortitude, and humor in the face of difficulty.
Lucinda’s life so far has been one of happiness cut tragically short as her parents died when she was five, leaving her homeless, penniless, and without love. Having lived for ten years with an uncle and cruel aunt, fifteen-year old Lucinda finds her life turned upside-down when, on the same day, a mysterious and beautiful woman leaves a magical jewel in her uncle’s jewelry repair shop, a dashing young prince converses with her, and a plucky thief takes advantage of her kindness by stealing the mysterious customer’s jewel. Forced out of the house by her vindictive aunt for “stealing” the jewel, Lucinda takes this “opportunity” to visit her old home only to find that Beryl, the jewel’s owner, is the current resident. Beryl is an enigmatic woman, full of dark secrets and an aching heart, and it is in the space of the latter, in the emotional space of grief unredeemed that Beryl and Lucinda connect. It is this tenuous thread of connection that precipitates the fast-moving action of the rest of the narrative. Such a pace enables Berry to maintain an emotional buoyancy within Lucinda as she faces the obstacles along her path. In return for retrieving the stone, Lucinda is guaranteed her old home. Amidst discovering the whereabouts of thieving Peter, our young maiden runs smack dab into her worlds-apart prince and a precarious dance of flirtation and romance ensues, only to end in darkness. Uncertainties abound: for the present, can Lucinda get back Beryl’s magical stone? For the future, can prince and commoner live happily ever after? And for the past, can grief be swallowed up in love? Discover your own answers to these questions when you read The Amaranth Enchantment. Ages 9 and up.
From the seventh grade until high school graduation, I spent my weekends working in Oz, and I’m happy to say that I never grew out of the children’s books I was selling. Now, coming back to Lemuria after a year away at school, I feel like a kid in a candy shop because I’m surrounded by so many incredible new books that I can delve into this summer.
The first one that I’ve gotten my hands on is Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and it has definitely started my summer off right. It takes place far into the future when the vast nation of Panem rules the ruins of what once was North America. Every year, the cruel capitol demands a tribute of one boy and one girl from each of its twelve outlying districts to be locked in a huge arena where they must battle each other to the death on live television for the entertainment of the Capitol.
Hunger Games follows the story of Katniss, a 16-year-old girl who is selected to represent her district in the games. It’s imaginative, engagingly written, and so far proving difficult to put down. Katniss is bold and adventurous–the kind of girl you want to root for from the very beginning. This books is defintely worth checking out, a perfect read for the summer.
Being an avid young adult fantasy reader, when I stumble across a true “find,” I feel compelled to relate it to others! So, here is an overview of a series I have absolutely fallen in love with.
The Naming, Book One of Pellinor in Alison Croggon’s fantasy quartet, sheds light on the epic story of Maerad, a young woman born into a desperate time of war and treachery in the complex and vast world of Edil-Amarandh. Now sixteen, she lives as a slave to spiteful masters, destined for a life of demeaning servitude. But, alas, one extraordinary day, the Bard of Lirigon, Cadvan, mysteriously appears in the settlement. He, as Bard, can see the awesome gifts lying dormant within Maerad. For, in Edil-Amarandh, Bards are humans with special gifts and Maerad is discovered to unknowingly possess gifts so powerful that she may be the One to save Edil-Amarandh from its present and terrifying evil darkness. Together, they flee the cruel world of Maerad’s childhood, only to embark on a more dangerous quest than either has ever known, coming face to face with otherworldly hatred, evil, and malice.
Told as the translation of a newly retrieved text, The Naming epitomizes the fantasy genre characteristics. Croggon lays a rich and evocative foundation of quest-making; intensely mesmerizing otherworldly characters; and the warmth of human relationships that redeems dark times even as the night blots out the day. Suspense, action, deception, uncertainty, and beauty fill the pages of this debut fantasy novel.
The Riddle, Book Two of Pellinor in Alison Croggon’s fantasy quartet, immediately begins where The Naming ended. Cadvan and Maerad escape with their lives from the treacherous city of Norloch to flee over sea to the island of Thorold. There, they launch a search for the meaning to The Riddle of the Treesong, a cryptic text which potentially has the clues to defeating their enemy, The Nameless One. The quest for answers takes Cadvan and Maerad back into the mainland area of the Kingdom of Annar, rife with seething enemies and tumultuous chaos. Journeying north into the icy realms of the Winterking, an otherworldy being, known as an Elidhu, who aided the Nameless One in his last victory over Edil-Amarandh, Cadvan and Maerad are separated. Maerad must then tread alone upon her quest to unlock The Riddle of the Treesong. But she herself becomes prisoner to the Winterking himself, trapped in his glacial palace. Yet surprises await, not the least of which is Maerad’s fascination with her captor. Torn between desire to stay with the Winterking and her duty to Edil-Amarandh, Maerad must make a desperate and agonizing choice, as she did before, between continuied captivity and the beauty of freedom.
In her sequel to The Naming, Alison Croggon has again produced another triumph of fantasy literature. This time, readers get swept away into the heat and noise of Busk, the Bardic city of Thorold, all the way into the white silence of Arkan-da, the Winterking’s stronghold in the far, cold north. The geography of the story plays a salient role, another striking characteristic of the fantasy genre, one which Croggon successfully wields.
The Crow, Book Three of Pellinor in Alison Croggon’s epic fantasy quartet, tells the tale of Hem, Maerad’s long-lost younger brother. Separated in childhood, Cai (Hem’s birth name) also possesses Bardic capabilities, ones that are masterfully explored in Croggon’s third book. At the end of The Naming, Book One of Pellinor, having been unexpectedly reunited with his older sister Maerad, Hem travels off with his new-found tutor Saliman to the southern city of Turbansk. There, the people must keep at bay the forces of the Nameless One, battles in which the Bard Saliman does his part. Fianlly, when the vibrant city cannot hold out any longer against the black tide bearing down on it, Saliman, Hem, and others escape into an underground city. It is here that Hem’s uniqueness as a Bard and as Maerad’s brother come into the forefront, as an Elidhu speaks with Hem. Elidhus are as beautiful as they are otherworldly, strange, and more powerful even than the Nameless One. Along the way, Hem’s ability to speak with birds enables him to befriend a white crow. The one lonely crow has its part to play , a part that unknowingly unlocks The Riddle of the Treesong, the cryptic text Maerad seeks to unravel in The Riddle, Book Two of Pellinor.
Now, all that remains is for sister and brother to meet and join forces in The Singing. It’s out and Lemuria has it. Read this fourth and final installment of such praiseworthy fantasy literature today!