Review 13 (Extra Credit) The Hunger Games

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic, 2008. Print.

Citation:

The Hunger Games are about to commence and young Katniss has volunteered to take her sisters place.  Katniss is about to embark on an adventure that could very well result in her death, or great glory.  The Hunger Games are a death match pitting children from all the districts of Panem.  Twenty four children in ages raging form twelve to eighteen go in to the Hunger Games area and only one can come out alive.  Katniss has saved her sister but can she now save herself and survive the Hunger Games.

Justification for Nomination:

I really enjoyed this book.  Suzanne Collins has written a great action novel that has a great pace and tells a gripping story which makes it very readable.  I am not sure that it rises to the level of award winner even though I believe that it will continue to be a very popular book for YA readers.  I think the fact that it is being made into a movie will only (hopefully) mean that more people, young and old, will pick it up.  The Hunger Games will have appeal for especially for female readers because Katniss is a well written and complex character she will appeal to all readers as well.  Katniss is very skilled at hunting and has managed to hunt enough to keep her mother and sister alive in her poor district.   Intelligent, capable, and very layered, Katniss is a character that young female readers can identify with.  While The Hunger Games is really an action thriller Katniss has to deal with her conflicting feelings for two boys.  Peeta is the boy she is fighting with in the games and Gale her hunting partner back in District Twelve.  In the midst of fighting for her life Katniss must also make sense of her feeling for both boys.  The Hunger Games is a well written, fast paced action thriller set in a dystopian future that features a story and a main character that readers will react to.  Once you start reading The Hunger Games you will not want to put it down until you have finished.

Genre:

Sci-Fi    

Review 12 (Extra Credit) Going Bovine

Bray, Libba. Going Bovine. United States: Delacorte Press, 2009. Print.

Citation:

 

Cameron is dying of mad cow disease, and when a punk rock angel appears he know things are going to get stranger.  Cameron must set out on a quest with his dwarf friend Gonzo and the Norse god Balder, who is trapped in the form of a garden gnome, to kind the mysterious Dr. X.  Dr. X holds the secret that will save the Universe from total destruction and might just be able to cure Cameron’s disease.

Justification for Nomination:

Any book that starts out with stoners in a High School bathroom talking about the Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment has got to be good.  Now, if that same book can run the Schrödinger’s Cat theme throughout the book along with Don Quixote, and Norse mythology themes, than that book is great.  Going Bovine by Libba Bray is a great book.  While dealing with a very fantastical plot it both real and moving.  The reader has to guess if all Cameron’s crazy adventures are really happening or just the dreams of a dying boy.  Bray uses real language to convey her characters and both Cameron and Gonzo sound like teenagers.  Mixed in with the story are such literate and intellectual concepts such as Schrodinger Cat, Don Quixote, and Norse Mythology, all of which Cameron was exposed to before he got sick which just adds to the mystery of is this all really happening?  Bray has managed to create her own pop culture for the world she has created and steeps her young characters in it. The ideas of reality and fantasy are explored and interwoven is an often humorous and very intelligent and warm story. Written well and crisply paced Going Bovine is a book that all ages can enjoy, and should.

Genre:

Fantasy

Review 11( Extra Credit) American Born Chinese

Yang, Gene Luen., and Lark Pien. American Born Chinese. New York: First Second, 2006. Print.

Citation:

Three stories weave together to tell a complete story about finding ones true self and learning to live with ones identity.  The first story is the history of the Monkey King and his exploits to prove himself a true deity.  The second story is about Jin Wang whose family moves from San Francisco to a new neighborhood where Jin is a true outsider.  Jin tries to figure out his place in the new culture that he lives in.  The third story is about Danny a teenager who has to deal with visits from his Chin-Kee, a living breathing Chinese stereotype.  There will be a revelation for all three characters and their fates will become intertwined.  

Justification for Nomination:

It would be easy to dismiss American Born Chinese as a comic book, and that would be a mistake.  For a graphic novel American Born Chinese deals deftly with issues of selfhood and racial identity.  All three of the main characters deal with trying to figure out who they are and where they fit into their respective communities and societies.  Stereotyping and alienation play a large role in all three stories.  The Monkey King resorts to violence to try and prove that he is who he thinks he is: who he wants to be.  Jin Wang is simply confused and alienated and unsure of how to become his culturally approved self.  He tries to navigate his world where he is a very noticeable outsider because he is Chinese and the majority of the kids in his school are white.  Danny is white but has to deal with his cousin Chin-Kee who is every negative Chinese stereotype all rolled up into one character.  Danny tries his best to avoid Chin-Kee and distance himself from the stereotypes being acted out in front of him and to distance himself from Chin-Kee and what is his cultural heritage; Chin-Kee is in fact his cousin.  The way that Gene Luen Yang tells these stories is through the visual medium of the graphic novel, but the message is not list and is in fact intensified when one can actually see hoe stereotypical Chin-Kee is.  When the stories merge at the end it is clear  that the message of American Born Chinese is really about finding out who you are, accepting that and going on to create a culturally approved self that you can live with.

Genre:

Graphic Novel, Multicultural

Review 10 Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

 

 

Moore, Christopher. Lamb. New York: Perennial, 2003. Print.

Citation:

If you think you know the real story of Jesus of Nazareth, you would be wrong.  Biff, his childhood friend has been brought back to life to write his gospel, the definitive and true gospel of the real life of Jesus.  What follows are the stories that you might know from the bible turned on their heads and those missing years of Christ's life are finally filled in.  You will now know the whole story, warts and all from the definitive expert on Jesus Christ of Nazareth Biff, his lifelong friend. When you are done you will see why Biff was completely written out of the four gospels we know today.

Justification for Nomination:

I honestly laughed so hard that I cried at several points in this book.  Lamb by Christopher Moore tells the story of Jesus from a different angle.  This point alone will have some readers angry because it is messing with religion, but a careful reading of this book will show that Biff is indeed a pig and a sinner and kind of a jerk but, Jesus does no sinning in the book.  The loutish behavior is all Biffs’.  I predict that Lamb will work its way onto some lists of book to be banned, however that would be a mistake.  I found this story to be well researched and a great deal of care was taken not to make fun of Christian beliefs or to argue against the divinity of Jesus.  It really is a what if story about  the missing years in the life of Jesus, the years that the bible does not tell of.  Jesus witnesses a great deal of sin, most of it committed by Biff, and tries to understand it without actually sinning himself.  Some of the writing in Lamb is so crisp and funny that I had to reread several passages over again because I was laughing so hard.  Be sure to pay special attention to the funeral dirges sung by Biff.  As much as I liked this book and would recommend it to anyone who wanted to read a truly funny book, I can only nominate it with reservations.  Many YA readers would like this, Biff is crude and very funny and a great character, but the biblical setting and the attention to detail about the lifestyles and politics of the time might turn off the YA reader.  The dialogue is crisp and well written, the story is fabulous and very creative and the humor is excellent.  Lamb is a recommend read even if it is not a wholehearted Printz nominee.   

Genre:

Humor, Coming of Age

Review 9 The Dragons of Babel

Swanwick, Michael. The Dragons of Babel. New York: Tor, 2008. Print.

Citation:

            War has come to Will’s small town and when a Dragon crashes into his village his life will never be the same.  After becoming the Dragons’s lieutenant Will knows that he will never be the same and after that he will not be able to stay.  As Will makes his way to Babel he encounter a menagerie of fantasy characters and animals.  Once in Babel he become part of a con operation but this con will have a lasting impact on Will and his future.

Justification for Nomination:

Where to begin?  This book goes beyond Steampunk and Fantasy, it has elements of both as well as gritty city drama, noir, and war.  The world that exists in The Dragons of Babel has both human and fantasy characters interacting in a setting that weaves modern world and fantasy world seamlessly.  The reader should be cautioned that this mix will be a tad confusing at first but do not be discouraged; read on.  It will be worth it.  The Dragon in the beginning is actually a sentient machine (just the first clue in how amazingly unique this world is) and it gets into the mind of young Will and is forever with him.  The city of Babel itself is like New York if New York had elves running its high society and frogs running its seeder saloons.  The Dragons of Babel is not an easy read, but it is definitely worth the read.  

I would recommend this to readers who have a love of challenge and an ability to enjoy crossed genre.  Michael Swanwick must be a student of the Fantasy genre.  His book is filled with references to mainstream and obscure fantasy stories and characters.  To call this book merely a Fantasy/Sci Fi tail is to do it a disservice.  The story has con men and corrupt government officials, a coming of age element, weird and sometimes graphic fantasy/horror elements that blend together to create a world that cannot be adequately described in a simple sentence.

The Dragons of Babel  won the Alex award and should be considered for a Printz because of its creativity and grand storytelling.  If you do not like fantasy a lot just wait, the next couple of chapters may unfold like a classic noir style story or a gritty urban story.  That is what really makes The Dragons of Babel work.  It works because it gels so many different genres into a comprehensive whole that is readable and enjoyable even when it is challenging the reader.

 Genre:
 

Fantasy/Sci Fi, Alex award winner*

*with elements of many other genres woven in.