Suburban (in)Sanity

Book Review - Infinity Ring Book 1: A Mutiny in Time by James Dashner

I've been reading a ton in advance of the kids' fall book fair (which they do through the awesome independent bookstore Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, IL.) It's so much better to be able to hand a kid a book I've read and be able to say "You liked 39 Clues. This book is pretty similar but has *time travel*!" which is what this review is about. I'm trying to keep my Goodreads account as current as I can so feel free to friend me or follow me over there if you want the absolute latest.

Infinity Ring Book 1: A Mutiny in Time is a quick read about kids in a alternate future history world where the Americas were discovered by two brothers, not Christopher Columbus.

Dak and Sera are best friends and 12 when the story opens. Dak's into history, Sera's a science geek. These interests prove helpful when the two become embroiled in an international time-traveling scheme to reset historical "breaks" where history went wrong.

In the vein of 39 Clues (even comes with some trading cards packed into the cover.) Looks to be a fun new series for middle-grade readers.

I found some of the characterization overly simplistic, little view into the main character's motivations aside from what is obviously stated/required due to the events of the plot, and some cardboard cutouts holding places for what will hopefully be more interesting characters in future books. A good quick read for kids looking for action-based middle grade. 

Book Review - Matched by Ally Condie

I just finished Matched by Ally Condie . It was excellent, I highly recommend it. It is a(nother) YA dystopia. What I found interesting was how the author manipulated the limited point of view of the main character to have us, the readers, brought along on the journey to see how the existing Society was oppressing the main character and all of those she holds dear. The fundamental conflict is a love story conflict, but the book was recommended to me by a friend's 16 year old son, so I believe there's plenty in it that would appeal to males and females.

Matched opens with the main character getting ready for her Match banquet, where she'll learn who her Match will be with all the other 17 year olds from her borough. Unlike the other kids, though, her Match is someone she already knows, a boy she grew up with who is already dear to her. Later she looks at her microcard with her match's info, which she doesn't need since she already knows him, and for a brief moment a different boy's face pops up as her Match. Problem is, she ALSO knows him.

So the main conflict begins with Cassia's curiosity about the other boy, Ky, growing, all while she's starting to notice the oppressive aspects of her Society, such as the three pills they're all required to carry at all times (red "for emergencies", blue that can provide nutrition for three days, and green to calm down) or the fact that at 80, you die. Everyone does.

Because of the love story premise, I'd keep this in the upper middle school/high school age range for recommendations, but there is no overt violence or sexual content so it could be appropriate for younger readers (just might not be that interesting.) The parallels to war time oppression and oppressive regimes in modern day are very interesting and could lead to great book group discussions.

The pace is quick and I found myself enjoying the way the author unveiled the story so much that I slowed down in reading it, which is something I do sometimes when I want a book to last. I felt the characters were very believable, and even though it's a love story, really it's a rebellion story, and that made it very very interesting.

 

Book Review - Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

This book surprised me. It came up on a bunch of "people who read X read Ship Breaker" lists and I started tracking it around. When I read the acknowledgements and learned that Paolo Bacigalupi is friendly with other MG and YA writers I adore (Sarah Prineas, Greg van Eekhout), it started to click. But beyond the fact that this writer knows others I like, this book is just flat out excellent.

This is the story of Nailer, a light crew member, teen boy living on the gulf coast in a post-apocalyptic world of brutality, riding from one storm to the next. His father is unbelievably cruel, his life full of work breaking down big old ships on the coast, hoping to find a "Lucky Strike." When he and his friend discover a small yacht wrecked after a storm, they've hit the bigtime, until they find a girl hurt inside. The process of figuring out what to do about the girl, avoiding his brutal father, and eventually leaving his gulf community is the meat of this fast-paced story.

For parents, the story includes quite a lot of violence, adults against each other, adults against children. The characters pull through for the most part. There is also some youth drinking, which helps illustrate how foreign a world these kids live in, even while we can envision it from trips to Florida. I would suggest it's best suited for kids old enough to handle these mature themes, which to me is 13ish and up, 7th gradeish and up. Depends on the reader. The violence and drinking are not any worse than that portrayed in Hunger Games (though the kids partake of the firewater in this book.)

The way this book surprised me is that I'm generally a little sick of YA dystopias. I'm a super-fan of science fiction and a writer of YA/MG sci-fi myself, and get tired of the bleak and dark future portrayed in so many. While this book does paint a pretty desperate picture of the future, the spirit of the characters carried me up and out of that bleakness. I really enjoyed this book.

I enjoyed the pacing, I enjoyed the way Nailer had a plucky spirit that made me root for him from the very first moment. I enjoyed the richly painted future world that was similar but oh-so different from our current world. I found the book immensely compelling, very hard to put down. I hope you will, too.

Book Review - The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander books 1&3

I'm in the process of considering a move from Shelfari to Goodreads, and decided to look at some of my book reviews on Shelfari (one of many reasons I'm only *considering* the move, since I would hate to lose all that intel!)

In doing so, though, I realized I had reviewed two of the Prydain books by Lloyd Alexander. These are books I often recommend to other readers and other parents of voracious readers, so I thought these might be of help. I only reviewed the first and third in the series, but each book is excellent in its own right. We listened to the five on audio book and really enjoyed them, we can't recommend them enough.

The Book of Three:

The story of the assistant pig-keeper and how he goes off on an adventure and learns much about his land and himself in the process. There's an excellent sidekick-type of character, a girl he meets about 1/3 of the way through. Her voice and quips lend a richness to the story, and much comic relief. My kids (ages 6 & 8) absolutely loved this story, which surprised me. We listened to it on audio, and it was read by a very talented british voice actor, which made it even better. Highly recommend.

The Castle of Lyr:

Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles have been a wonderful source of audio entertainment for my family. We particularly love the audio recordings of these books, as the voice talent is exceptional. Gurgey is our favorite head - a creature of indeterminate origins, Gurgey often speaks of "my poor tender head" and is known for semi-alliterative phrases like "crunchings and munchings" that are very funny.

 

In this third book of the Prydain series, the princess Alanwe (by the way, only long long after we read this book did I learn that it's spelled Eilonwe - ah, well, this is one of those risks of listening to books rather than reading them in print. And I am one of those lazy people that is not going to go fix it all...) is going to another castle to learn to be a lady. Taryn and Gurgey accompany her, and meet up with the Prince of that castle - a flighty nimwit named Ruun. Before long, there is interest and intrigue when Alanwe goes missing, in the company of the ambitious chief steward, Maag. Taryn and friends join the search, with Taryn agreeing to protect Prince Ruun for the king.

 

They encounter tangles and mishaps, and everyone's character is tested.  

 

The real value in these books is in the way the characters are each so unique, yet also so distinct. It is pretty easy, even without the benefit of the added dialects and inflections that the voice talent on the audio cds provides, to tell who is talking just by the kinds of things they say. They each have a way of speaking and a way of getting their points across that is hard to miss.

 

The kids find the different charcter's voices engaging, and the action and battle scenes (very mild battle, adequate action to keep an 8 year old boy entertained) hold their interest throughout the whole book.

 

I find these stories a little slow moving at times, but the unique characterizations and fun little magical details or lore of the land to be really interesting. Very much worth it, and if you can get it - do the audio book!

Book Review - The Boy at the End of the World by Greg van Eekhout

Because the Internet is Awesome™ (more on this later) I have had a chance to read an Advanced Reader Copy of the forthcoming MG sci-fi novel The Boy at the End of the World by Greg van Eekhout.

 

The middle-grade age range has very little science fiction published in it, I get frustrated at the lack of space and robots and stories about the future that are particularly geared toward middle-grade readers, as I happen to have two sharing my home at the moment. I also am weary of the very dark and depressing dystopias that occupy the YA space and pass for science fiction. While I loved Hunger Games as much as the next person, it's not something I'm comfortable reading with my soon-to-be-fifth and second graders. Too much.

So I'm here to tell you that while Boy (I am also growing weary of typing the whole title out, so you're just going to have to cope with a shorthand...) is a future dystopia, it's also a really interesting and active book, great for middle-grade readers, a special appeal to boys.

This is the story of Fisher, who wakes up in an "ark" that he has only cursory knowledge of (he has cursory knowledge of many things.) Click the robot assists him in escaping, as the ark is under attack. Fisher is a boy, and knows some things but not others. He's been pre-loaded with the Fisher profile, so his specialized knowledge runs deep in the fishing arena, but not much else. But he's a plucky kid, very determined, and he has a large vocabulary of curse words (referenced obliquely like that, in a way that's very funny) that he can use when things get tough. He sets off to get away from the ark, since it's under attack and all. Click the robot follows, trying to keep Fisher safe as he has been programmed to do. Before long they find a mastadon (a small mammoth/elephant like thing) that Fisher nicknames Protein. Protein accompanies them on their travels, never saying a word but having an impact on the action here and there. Fisher figures if things get desperate enough, he can always kill Protein and eat him (hence the nickname.)

We follow Fisher as he and his ragtag band walk across a post-apocalyptic United States seeking other surviving humans living in other arks. Along the way they encounter all kinds of challenges and Fisher has to use not just the knowledge and information he was "pre-loaded" with (according to Click the robot) but also the new skills he develops during the journey. He befriends a sentient prairie dog, Zapper, who is critical to the final conflict.

I'll leave the details of the plot off to avoid spoilers, but a few points about the book for potential readers. This is a great book for boys, but would be appealing to girls as well. It's aimed at middle-grade readers. My fourth grader read it in almost one sitting (before bed one night and after waking the next morning.) It clocks in at 210 pages, thus does not feel particularly intimidating for those reluctant readers. The action keeps the story moving, another plus for boy and/or reluctant readers.

As an adult, I appreciated the way the story provided all kinds of instruction about environment, survival skills, etc. as incidental to the storyline. Fisher tries to set traps to catch small game, for instance, and has to figure out how to travel (by foot for the most part, traversing huge swaths of the former US in the process.) Some kids might realize they're being taught in the course of reading, but the instruction is well buried in the narrative, I think it works well for the story. The story ends tidily (some sadness) - but there is a final chapter that easily leaves the door open for a sequel, which I hope Greg van Eekhout pursues!

In short, I highly recommend this middle grade science fiction novel, particularly for boys. The Boy at the End of the World by Greg van Eekhout, due out June 21st!

 

P.S. The Internet is Awesome™ because I got this ARC by being friends with another author whose work I love, Sarah Prineas, author of the Magic Thief book series. We've never met in person, love that internet thing and all my imaginary friends therein.

 

Excited! A favorite book - Magic Thief - is on the Rebecca Caudill list for 2012

I just love it when books I love get noticed by others, thereby bringing them more readers, more of an audience, and hopefully enticing those authors to Keep Writing Us New Stuff, because after all, most readers are addicts of a sort.

So when my kids' school librarian emailed me today to tell me that one of my most favoritest books ever - The Magic Thief (I blogged about the third book in this series, Magic Thief: Found, last summer)  made the Rebecca Caudill list for 2012 I whooped with excitement. No really, I whooped. Or exclaimed with glee. Audibly. I'm certain some sort of noise escaped my lips. The kids were here, they heard me, I swear.

What is the Rebecca Caudill list? It's an Illinois Young Readers Book Award for kids in grades 4-8, they get to vote! So I'm doubly excited because this book, which I think has been overlooked by entirely too many young readers, will get increased attention because kids can read the RC books and vote on them. Yipee!

You should read it. Great book featuring an alternate magical fantasy world with a really compelling main character. The kids and I listened to the first book on audio as well, and it was excellent, great voice talent (and selected by BookList as one of the top audio books of 2010). I was surprised to learn the author liked the audio book as well. I didn't know how connected authors are with the audio productions of their books.

So run, don't walk, to get yourself a copy of The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas.

 

My reading round-up, YA and Middle-Grade sci-fi and fantasy

I had put some thoughts together about what I've been reading lately for another board and thought I would share them here, too.

But first, I'm curious - does anyone else use Shelfari to track their reading? I like to track what I read, and have used Shelfari in the past, but my account is out of date at the moment while I consider several things.

Many readers I know use Goodreads. Anyone have any comment on the difference between them or an opinion over which is better? In parallel, I'm contemplating a move of this blog over to the wordpress blog I've stubbed out, you know, change of scenery and all. They do not appear to have a way to connect a Shelfari widget, which is one of the reasons I've stalled. Would appreciate any thoughts on goodreads vs. shelfari or if there's something else better out there. I've seen some people using a facebook widget, but I want something I can integrate on a blog.

Okay, here's the goods. In the interests of time and because I bought them from Barnes and Noble for my Nook, I'll include links there (I read most of these in ebook format) - but you know how it goes, you can get most at your local library, from Amazon, or better yet - your local bookseller. I hear Anderson's Booksellers in Naperville sells some ebooks, too. This represents, FYI, about 2 months of my reading.

I've been on a Diana Wynne Jones streak lately, and absolutely adore her books, every one of them, for the way she plays with magic, makes fun characters, and tells not big grand earth-shattering end-all battles between good and evil, but just nice stories with interesting magic.

The ones I've recently read include all of the books in the Chrestomanci series (In order, they go: A Charmed Life, The Magicians of Caprona, Witch Week, The Lives of Christopher Chant), plus a short story collection featuring the same characters (called Mixed Magics), and The Pinhoe Egg, which is set in the same universe and features the main character Eric Chant from the first Chrestomanci book (the characters overlap some throughout all four or five of those books.)

We also did the audio book of The House of Many Ways, very enjoyable voice talent, and audio of Enchanted Glass (library loans). My primary caution with her books, particularly evident in audio, is that they tend to be slow burns. They're not going to grab you by the throat, but they're lovely stories told in interesting ways with interesting magic and compelling characters. Just be patient with them and give them some time to warm up. If you can only spare time to read just one, read Howl's Moving Castle, which was not available in ebook form but is an astonishingly good book.

Next was I am Number Four, which is coming out in a movie soonish. It's an interesting sci-fi story. There's some online discussion/controversy about the book as it's written by someone then marketed through what some are calling a "scheme" - another author selling rights and supposedly paying the original author pennies. I have no idea, but it's a YA sci-fi and there's precious little of that so I read it. Nice story. Enough tension and interesting features, not too crazy on the action end. Reminded me of The Warrior Heir, but I liked the writing a little better in this book. We've started seeing trailers for the movie (main actor is the same one who played Alex Ryder in Stormbreaker) on TV so the 9 year old has asked to read it now. It's themes and content aren't too advanced, though there's a bit of kids drinking beer once and loads of kissing, but that's within our tolerances so I'm queing it up for him for his next read.

I read Life As We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer, which is a future dystopia about the moon being hit by an asteroid and coming closer in orbit to the earth, and the massive catastrophes that result. Very interesting story, told 100% first person journal-entry style. I loved the style, and enjoyed the story. It was a much smaller story than I figured, I kept expecting some big grand event to take place, but really it's also a small, close story about a teen and her family and how they survive in crazy circumstances. It's also YA Sci-fi. I recommend this one, but warning that the story is a bit of a downer, I found it tiring to read after a bit and am glad to have moved on, mostly just because it seemed so *real.* I suppose that's a sign of the writer's skill, eh? There are other books out in the series but I'll take a break before (if) reading them. Because it's a bit of a downer and there's a small section where the mom accuses the daughter of sleeping with someone and they throw around the term "make love" about a hundred times on one page, I'd recommend holding off for most non-teens.

I just finished The Comet's Curse by Dom Tesla, a radio personality in Colorado. It's a YA sci-fi, set on an "escape ship" leaving earth after a catastrophe (by this point I'm starting to wonder if there are ANY YA sci-fi books that aren't categorized as post-apocalyptic or disaster or dystopias. Sigh) has caused everyone on earth to be afflicted by a horrible disease that will kill them after age 18. So a crew of 251 15 and 16 year olds are sent into space to escape the disease and recolonize another planet. This is the first in a series.

I didn't love the storytelling style (interleaved narrative with present-day and flashbacks, quite a lot of "telling" to the audience. It felt like it was written in a style appropriate for a younger reader, telling us things that we could intuit from the text just fine. I think it's just the writer's style, though, as the choice of 15 and 16 year old protagonists puts it smack in the center of the YA genre.) Story was just so-so. I don't highly recommend it, but I'm glad I read it because I am certain my stories are at least as good as this one! As for reading level/age - while the story features older protagonists, I think this is a fine book for younger readers because the content is kept clean (a few crushes/what-does-she-think-of-me kinds of things but that's it.) The storytelling style might also work well for a younger reader (thinking 9-13, plus those in the 14+ YA age range, of course.)

I'm now just starting to read Shipbreaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi, which is up for some awards this year. It's another future dystopia (le sigh) set in coastal Florida where the main character is a boy who helps break down huge old rusty oil tankers to get their parts. The storytelling is EXCELLENT and is a fantastic study in how to communicate a lot about an unusual environment/different world via basic dialogue and narration, without resorting to blocks of exposition. He also uses a lot of slang and unusual terms, which makes it challenging to read but also interesting to see how the terms are introduced and how you can figure out what is meant by them.

So far I'm really impressed, but not far enough to say more than that. I think the writing is fantastic, though, so I'm glad even though it's another intense dark seemingly depressing future story. I'm about halfway through and the story gets pretty brutal, the main character's father is a problem, drug abuse is common, and even the kids pass around a bottle of alcohol one night and talk about hangovers. The whole story has you wondering whether the main character will survive the day, much less what will happen next. It's very compelling to read. Reminds me a lot of Hunger Games, but in a way it's even more brutal because this world that the main character lives in sounds like it could happen to us, given a little less luck with the environment and more global aggregation. Because of the slang, the drug and alcohol mentions (and some passing veiled references to prostitution) - I'd stick this with YA readers only, but your mileage may vary. In any event, it's a fantastic read and I'm finding myself coming up with all kinds of excuses to go read. Like now. Time to finish this blog post so I can finish the book, enjoy!

Reading with Teen Reads Week

Did you know it was the Young Adult Library Services Association's Teen Reads Week? I didn't, but now I do thanks to a great post by sassymonkey on BlogHer.

I posted a lot of this in the comments thread on her post, but then I realized it was worth it's own place on my blog, too.

It's true. I read children's literature. Lots and lots and lots of it. It's far and above my preferred content to read. Now, I'm a writer, an aspiring writer of children's literature, so part of my interest is professional, but let's be honest. Writers write what they love, and I love Young Adult and Middle-Grade fiction.

I've never felt a need to apologize for it, I think I have managed to find circles of friendships where others are reading the same kinds of things I'm reading. It is partly due to the fact that my social circles largely revolve around my children's school and their activities, and are based on the ages of my children, but it's been almost like a secret club membership, too. When I get talking kids books with other enthusiasts, the non-kids-book-readers are left out (for once! usually it's the other way around, where my eyes glaze over while someone talks about Water for Elephants or Lovely Bones or some other depressing romp through the roses.) And we kids-book lovers can go on and on and on.

Turns out there's a lot to read and enjoy in children's fiction! And many different paths to take. I personally take the speculative fiction path, which because of the lack of science fiction published in YA and MG, means mostly fantasy. Nothing wrong with that, but one of many reasons I write YA sci-fi is because there just isn't anything out there to read in YA sci-fi, and I want to read it (I've always wanted to read it, ever since finding my first Heinlein book on the shelf of my 8th grade school library.)

But I have other reasons for reading YA/MG. Here are a few of them:

1) It's less of a commitment to read YA/MG. I read the excellent fantasy series The Assassin's Apprentice early this year and it took me the ENTIRE month of January, plus some, to read 3 books. I prefer to be onto a new topic/book/concept at least once a week, preferably every 5-6 days.

2) I prefer the general tenor and tone of YA/MG. While dark themes are covered (Hunger Games in particular gets very psychological and dark) they generally (though I thought HG was the exception) end in a positive/upbeat way. The authors don't seem to feel the need to fill the stories with "it sucked, then he died" over and over and over, though there are some authors who do this who I tend to avoid because of it (or ones who put the main character in peril time and again with no break. Too tiring to read!)

3) There is some FANTASTIC fiction going on in YA and MG. Truly wonderful stories, wonderfully told, interesting ideas. I read science fiction and fantasy almost exclusively and the YA/MG writers understand how to create an abnormal situation yet make it completely intelligible to the reader. Grown-up speculative fiction writers sometimes forget this slight detail!

My favorites, in no particular order:

The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander, Anything by Shannon Hale, anything by Scott Westerfeld (including his high-YA stuff about late teens/early twenties kids like So Yesterday and Peeps), Diana Wynn Jones (oldie but a goodie), Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, Of course Harry Potter, Twilight, and Percy Jackson series, The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede, Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage, The Magic Thief books by Sarah Prineas, Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver, The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, Blue Sword and Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (those two are my all-time favorite YA books) and the Princess Bride (the novel is excellent.) .

One way we get the time to read more is by listening to them on audio books. We listen in the car (even short trips - because 5 minutes a day times about 3-6 trips/day equals plenty of reading time. It's also good practice for the kids to be able to pick back up where we left off a day or two before, remembering the plot and characters.) We listen while I cook dinner, or while doing other hands-intensive but mindless chores in the house like cleaning counters or organizing closets.

Shannon Hale's books are generally done on audio by Full Cast Audio, which uses...you know, full casts to do their audio books. Each character is played by a different voice actor (or a good actor using different voices/accents.) Way cool. The Golden Compass audiobook was done by a cast as well and I really liked that. The Prydain Chronicles narrator is EXCELLENT, as is Jim Dale who reads Harry Potter (as well as the Peter and the Starcatchers series, which didn't catch my fancy as much.)

I can't say enough about great children's fiction. Some of my writer friends believe that children's fiction is the only growing category, since a good book or series like HP, Twilight, and Hunger Games will cross over into the adult market (but you rarely see an adult book cross over into children's fiction, The Book Thief excepted, though it's such a borderline book since it features an eleven year old protagonist, but being narrated by death during World War II, it's really an adult work that is appropriate for more mature YA readers.)

Still not convinced? Okay, then I dare you. Try The Blue Sword, or Ender's Game, or The Book of Three (first in Prydain.) Try Dealing with Dragons (First in Enchanted Forest Chronicles) and try not to laugh at the way Dragons keep princesses in that fitional world. Immerse yourself into an ancient setting with Wolf Brother, or try to keep a straight face while reading The Princess Bride. See if you can finish The Princess Academy (Shannon Hale) without your heart racing along with Miri, the main character. I dare you to not get sucked into the Golden Compass. Try not to be surprised at the turns of events in Westerfeld's Uglies. I dare you not to cry at The Book Thief's climax. And honestly, I'm just picking out speculative fiction, there's a ton out there that's more mainstream like Chasing Vermeer and Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie (or anything by Sonnenblick,) and mysteries to solve in 39 Clues, honestly at this point you've got to stop me because I could go all night.

So what about you? Did I convince you? What of your favorites did I neglect to mention?

 

Sidenote: Photo credit: iStockphoto via MS Office's clip art online gallery. I have no idea if I should be crediting/referencing that when I use their images, since I own the licenses to the software through which I gain access to the website. Would appreciate any insights...

Book Review - The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

The kids and I really enjoyed the Percy Jackson series, which the (then) 7 year old and I each read independently (in paper form) last summer, and then followed with the audio books that all three of us listened to (sometimes a fourth on weekends...) Rick Riordan has a great ability to take some of the mundane details of being a kid in today's busy world and interleave it with the fantastic--in the Percy series, that meant Greek gods and goddesses running amok in modern USA.

Riordan's newest book, The Red Pyramid, attempts to do for Egyptian mythology what the Percy books did for Greek mythology. And therein lies the biggest rub about this new book. At least for me as a grown-up, Greek mythology was familiar due to an interest and the ever-awesome (still in my possession) D'aulaire's Book of Greek Myths. It seemed my 7 year old 2nd/3rd grader had at least passing awareness of the likes of Zeus and Poseidon that pre-dated his reading of the Percy books.

Egyptian mythology is a big black hole to me. I've heard of Ra, and know that Isis was somebody important, that's about as far as I have gotten. So some of the fun of the Percy series ("what is he going to have Hermes, the messenger god, wear this time?") is missing because of the lack of familiarity. However, Riordan does a good job of grounding the gods and goddesses, explaining their roles, helping fill in the blanks. But those who are first picking up this book should be warned (particularly for those reluctant readers who prefer reading without effort) that there's a fair amount of new characters/content presented, with funny-sounding names like Set and Sekmet and Bast and Horus. It takes a little while to get the names straight, figure out how to pronounce them, and who does what.

The book follows the story of Carter and his sister Sadie (Carter is about 14, Sadie a few years younger.) They don't really know each other, only spending a day together once or twice a year. Sadie lives with their maternal grandparents in England, Carter travels with his Egyptologist father. Each (naturally) envies the life the other leads. The book is told in switching first-person perspective, alternating between Carter chapters (usually each POV has more than one chapter in a row) and Sadie chapters.

One of my observations as an adult was that I often got confused about child kid was narrating the chapter. The chapters are headed by the name of the narrator, so it was quick to check, but it's worth mentioning that there can be some confusion when reading "wait a minute, she doesn't know how to...oh, it's Carter telling this part!" The author tries to clear this up by giving Sadie some Britishisms and Carter being bad at basketball, but the cues aren't enough, even with the little bit of sibling banter that generally precedes each chapter to tell you who has taken over the narration.The book is fast-paced, there is a lot of action, as is typical for Riordan's middle-grade works. My other concern, though, is that it's really really crazy long. I usually finish mid-grade books in 2-3 days. This one took me about 15, which is unheard of in the Land of Reading Children's Fiction. I am definitely worried about giving this one to my 8 year old who is of late famous for not finishing books.

In spite of the different terminology, long length, and slight confusion on who the narrator is, it's still a good read. There's plenty of interest and intrigue. Many skin-of-the-teeth escapes (a few more than I prefer, but not nearly as many as in a Dan Brown novel.) The characters are endearing. They go to interesting settings, some in England, Egypt, France, and many in the U.S. There is enough description and detail to get an image of where they're located without tolkein-esque diversions. The narrative voice for both Carter and Sadie is funny and sarcastic and very current in the way "kids these days" talk.

There are some deaths (wouldn't be children's fiction without it, right? Sigh) but Riordan creates a world in which even death isn't a barrier to seeing people, so they are handled well and of course he avoids gory descriptions of human's demise. Most of that happens off-camera. There are some close-calls, presumed deaths that turn out to be not-deaths. Nothing that's too shocking, nothing that would be too hard to handle for an average middle-grade reader. There's a lot of weapon use by Carter (Sadie has a different kind of magic, less combat-related.) Sadie does quite a lot of flirting/thinking about a boy, which given that I believe her age for the story is only 12 seemed excessive (I had thought she was 14, but later in the story I got the idea she was only 12...) but it's all talk, and lightly handled.

There are plenty of hooks left for future stories to take off with, but the story does end on a satisfying resolution of major plot conflicts. I'm sure we'll be reading the next installment in a year or so, and I'm sure Riordan will have dreamed up new demons for the kids to battle, new conflicts, new weapons, and new tangles, and we'll gobble it up.

Book Review - 39 Clues Book 7 The Viper's Nest by Peter Lerangis

If you aren't familiar with the 39 Clues series, it's a series of middle-grade action/adventure books written by different middle-grade authors. Rick Riordan, well-known for his Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, wrote the first book. In it we are introduced to Dan and Amy, teen/tweens whose parents are dead and whose grandmother has just passed away. At the reading of her will, the kids, along with other members of their extended family, are given the opportunity to search for 39 Clues or to walk away with a million dollars.

Of course the kids decide to hunt for the clues, what kind of story would it be otherwise? 39 ways to spend your time on your yacht? As you might imagine, they end up running around all over the world in search of these clues. You have to suspend quite a lot of disbelief to enjoy the series, but the fast pace and pretty accurate historical/geographic detailing is interesting and a good launching-off point for discussions with your middle-grade reader. Be warned, though, parent death is a prevalent theme, and in virtually each book there's some expectation that some character or another has died (in true Scooby-Doo-like fashion, that whole death thing rarely seems to stick.)

===39 Clues Book 7 - The Viper's Nest by Peter Lerangis

A good installment in the 39 Clues franchise. The book opens where the previous one left off, on an island near Krakatoa. It quickly moves to South Africa and the book stays there for the duration, which is unusual for these books. 

As is true with other 39 clues books, there are a thousand and eleven daring rescues, impossible escapes, and incredible coincidences, but it was an enjoyable read. I liked the way this author managed the various themes necessary for this particular installment. My only wish is that they had done some more teasing for the big reveal of Dan and Amy's family branch - as it's been some months since I read the previous titles, I can't recall where the one mentioned fits in (and it wasn't mentioned elsewhere in this particular title.)