11 Birthdays

Title: 11 Birthdays

Author: Wendy Mass
Level: 9-12 Years

Location: J Mass

It's Amanda's 11th birthday and she is super excited -- after all, 11 is so different from 10. But from the start, everything goes wrong. The worst part of it all is that she and her best friend, Leo, with whom she's shared every birthday, are on the outs and this will be the first birthday they haven't shared together. When Amanda turns in for the night, glad to have her birthday behind her, she wakes up happy for a new day. Or is it? Her birthday seems to be repeating itself. What is going on?! And how can she fix it? Only time, friendship, and a little luck will tell...

Bottomline:  This was a fun quick read about true friends who need to mend their wounded friendship and it takes a repeating birthday to get things right.  The main characters are endearing and when they become selfless and start helping others is when they really shine.  I love a story when everyone is better off in the end!  Great story and written well for the younger reader.

Going Bovine

Title: Going Bovine
Author: Libba Bray
Location: YA Bray

Can Cameron find what he’s looking for?

All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school—and life in general—with a minimum of effort. It’s not a lot to ask. But that’s before he’s given some bad news: he’s sick and he’s going to die. Which totally sucks. Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure—if he’s willing to go in search of it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the heart of what matters most.

Bottomline: This was an interesting read - a bit of adventure, a bit of fantasy, and a bit of "is this real or is it a dream?". He definitely comes across some interesting things on his road-trip, including: a talking gnome, a cult obsessed with being happy, snowglobes, spring break Party houses, etc etc. I wasn't really liking the story at the beginning, but it pulled me in and I really wanted to know if Cameron would achieve his "quest".

Madapple

Title: Madapple
Author: Christina Meldrum

Age: Young Adult

Location: YA Meldrum

I'm not quite sure what to say about this book. It's about a girl, Aslaug, who had a sheltered life with her harsh mother, surviving on the land and knowing all about plants and their properties. Her mother mysteriously dies and Aslaug is forced to take care of herself and she finds family she didn't know she had. This family experience is kind of weird, and some interesting events occur - including more mysterious deaths. The alternate chapters take place in a court room, 3 years in the future, as they decide if Aslaug is involved in these mysterious deaths and if she is sane.

Bottomline: It was a very interesting read, especially as you try to piece together the little bits of information they give you. The story was engaging and I wanted to know how it all turned out. If you read it, let me know what you think!

Skinned

Title: Skinned
Author: Robin Wasserman
Reading Level: Young Adult
Location: YA Wasserman

Lia Kahn was perfect: rich, beautiful, popular — until the accident that nearly killed her. Now she has been downloaded into a new body that only looks human. Lia will never feel pain again, she will never age, and she can't ever truly die. But she is also rejected by her friends, betrayed by her boyfriend, and alienated from her old life.
Forced to the fringes of society, Lia joins others like her. But they are looked at as freaks. They are hated...and feared. They are everything but human, and according to most people, this is the ultimate crime — for which they must pay the ultimate price.
This is a book about learning what's important on the inside, not on the outside. Lia has a reality-check when she becomes the epitome of what she and her friends despised- a "skinner" - a mechanical copy of her previous life. Her family, friends, and even her boyfriend have a hard time excepting Lia's new form and Lia herself is having a hard time moving on from being rejected from her previous life. She has to decide what she wants and how she feels - and if she even can feel.

Bottomline: I enjoyed this book. If you like the dystopian stories (Hunger Games, City of Ember, Uglies) then this the book for you. This is a start of the Gripping Trilogy and it should be exciting - I'm intrigued!

Blood Promise

Title: Blood Promise (Vampire Academy, Book 4)
Author: Richelle Mead
Location: YA Mead
Reading Level: Young Adult

This review vaguely discusses the plot points of the 3 previous Vampire Academy books. If you have not yet read Vampire Academy, Frostbite, and Shadow Kiss, skip ahead and read the bottom line.

When Blood Promise begins, Rose is in Russia trying to locate Dimitri and killing any Strigoi that wander across her path. She knows she needs to carry out the promise she made to Dimitri, but is still emotionally reeling from the events in the last book. Meanwhile, Lissa is back at the Academy with Adrian attempting to master more facets of her spirit powers. She misses Rose terribly but manages to make a friend in the new headmaster’s enigmatic daughter, Avery. Under Avery’s influence, Lissa’s powers become darker and on the other side of the ocean, Rose encounters one of the hardest personal struggles she will ever face. Will Rose find the strength to fulfill her promise to Dimitri? Will Lissa face the darkness that slowly envelopes her?

One of the fears in reading such a long series (a reported 6 books!) is that the middle books will function primarily as filler for the meatier content to come at the end of the series. Therefore, I am thrilled to report that this 4th book in the Vampire Academy series contains the same amount of fresh content, exhilarating action, and emotional turmoil that readers have come to expect from this series. Richelle Mead introduces a few new characters in this book which help the story feel crisp and exciting, as does Rose’s journey in Russia, a place where she knows little of the language and culture.

I find it very difficult to talk about the plot of this book without giving anything away. I will say that I found Mead’s writing impressive in this installment simply because she makes Rose’s emotions so palpable. The reader really feels Rose’s insecurity about her identity and place in the world as well as her anguish over the task to which she is committed. I did not feel as invested in Lissa’s problems but that part of the story still worked very well. Without revealing too much, I think Vampire Academy fans will be extremely pleased with this book, there is sadness, but also a fraction of hope to carry through to the next installment.

The Bottom Line: If you have not read this series, start reading Vampire Academy now! I truly enjoyed the emotional, exciting and hopeful journey that Blood Promise delivered. My favorite of the series by far will have fans impatient for the next installment. The next book, Spirit Bound, has a reported release of May 18, 2010.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Title: The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Author: Carrie Ryan

Reading Level: YA
Location: YA Ryan

Mary lives in a colonial-esque village surrounded by fencing that separates the village from the forest. The forest is off limits as the "unconsecrated" or zombies, roam freely and often try to breach the fence to attack the living. Generations have lived a simple life of survival, always dependant on the "sisterhood," a religious order that runs the community in all ways, taking away the need for commerce or free-will. The goal of the villagers is to survive and that is all they know. Mary questions this existence and soon events in the village cause her to seek out answers.

Bottom Line: I love a good post-apocalyptic novel and this one had me hooked for awhile, but then hoping for it to be over ASAP. I thought the characters weren't really developed until close to the end of the novel and this kept me confused trying to figure out why the protagonist was thinking and doing different things. I like the imagery, the discovery, and self-discovery, but then when the end finally came, I was thinking, huh?