The Giver

The Giver

Lois Lowry

Genre: Juvenile Fiction, Dystopian Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads):  Jonas' world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

Marcie's Review: Perhaps because I have recently read so many recent young adult dystopian fiction novels, I found this book (one of the first in the genre) to be slow and uneventful.  It is thought-provoking, sure, but nothing much actually happens in the book.  The dystopian world is one in which citizens have no free choice, but they actually seem pretty happy and content with their lives, so it was hard to feel that the society was too awful.  

Marcie's Rating: 3 stars

Becky's review:  I love how this book was written.  It certainly is thought provoking.  I agree that it was somewhat uneventful but the lack of action didn't bother me.  Jonas was learning about how the world was and what feelings are and that development was enough for me.  I felt the author described sensations amazingly and precisely.  Reading Lowry's descriptions made me feel things.  I thought their world was quite an interesting solution to ending problems with the world.  I am very intrigued to read the next books in the series.

Becky's rating: 4 stars

Wonder

Wonder

R.J. Palacio

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads):  I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.

August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?

R. J. Palacio has written a spare, warm, uplifting story that will have readers laughing one minute and wiping away tears the next. With wonderfully realistic family interactions (flawed, but loving), lively school scenes, and short chapters, Wonder is accessible to readers of all levels.

Marcie's Review: I loved this book, and would recommend it to anyone!  Auggie is such a wonderful, sympathetic, funny character who deals with his problems in a very mature way.  His family is loving and supportive, as are his true friends (at times I had a hard time believing middle schoolers could be so understanding).  I could not put this book down, and was sad when I finally finished it.

Becky's Review:  I really enjoyed this book.  A lot of times when I read books that are intended for middle grades, I find that they are written at a very basic level that seem too simplistic to me but this book is not like that.  It is very well written and as I was reading, I really didn't notice that it's intended for a younger audience.  I too had a hard time putting the book down; it's a fast read.  I really loved Auggie's attitude through the book and it was interesting to see other points of view as well so that you knew how Auggie affected other people.  The one complaint I have about the book is Justin's chapter.  It drove me nuts that there were no capital letters.  I had a hard time reading that whole section because I wanted to correct all mistakes!  I don't think the author needed to write in that format for the book to be successful and believable.

Marcie's Rating: 5 stars

Becky's Rating: 4 1/2 stars

Population: 485

Population: 485

Michael Perry

Genre: Memoir

Summary (from Goodreads):  Here the local vigilante is a farmer's wife armed with a pistol and a Bible, the most senior member of the volunteer fire department is a cross-eyed butcher with one kidney and two ex-wives (both of whom work at the only gas station in town), and the back roads are haunted by the ghosts of children and farmers. Michael Perry loves this place. He grew up here, and now -- after a decade away -- he has returned.


Unable to polka or repair his own pickup, his farm-boy hands gone soft after years of writing, Mike figures the best way to regain his credibility is to join the volunteer fire department. Against a backdrop of fires and tangled wrecks, bar fights and smelt feeds, he tells a frequently comic tale leavened with moments of heartbreaking delicacy and searing tragedy.

Review: I read this book for my bookclub, but I don't know that we will find a lot to discuss when we finally get together.  It caught our interest because it is about small town life in a Northern Wisconsin town, and the description sounded like it would be dramatic and probably funny.  Unfortunately, the description wasn't a very accurate summary of the book, as it dealt more with the tragedy involved in being a volunteer fire fighter/paramedic than with the comedy.  I felt like the author sometimes tried to hard to use fancy language and provoke deep thinking; while I love books that use SAT vocabulary words and make me think, I don't like it to be too obvious.  Having said all that, the stories were quite interesting, and the descriptions of small-town Wisconsonians accurate, at least as far as I could tell.

Rating: 3 stars

You Read to Me, I'll Read to You

You Read to Me, I'll Read to You

Author: Mary Ann Hoberman
Illustrator: Michael Emberley

Genre: Picture Book

Summary (from Goodreads):  Here's a book with something new - you read to me! I'll read to you! We'll read each page to one another - you'll read one side, I the other. A unique book 'in two voices' that uses traditional reading teaching techniques (alliteration, rhyme, repetition, short sentences) to invite young children to read along with an adult. Each of the twelve short stories fit on one spread and features childlike themes - family, friendship, pets and seasons.With clear, color-coded typography and amusing illustrations, this collection is sure to entertain.

Review: Amelia says "This book is fun because we can take turns reading and we can both read together.  I like the stories, especially "The End" because it tells you that you can pick another book to read when you are done reading this book.  I like how some of the pictures are a little funny."

I like the book for very much the same reasons - it is novel to read a book out loud with a beginning reader that is designed to be read by two people.  It's much more fun than reading a regular picture book out loud together; usually that doesn't flow very well.  The sentences are generally short and easy to read, but can be read with various expressions to make them more fun.  As an adult, I found some of the storylines a little dull, but again, this is a book designed for kids, and my kids thought they were entertaining.

Rating: 5 stars

The Garden of Happy Endings

The Garden of Happy Endings

Barbara O'Neal

Genre: Women's Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads):  From Barbara O’Neal, beloved author of How to Bake a Perfect Life and The Lost Recipe for Happiness, comes another magical, heartfelt novel—perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah and Susan Wiggs.

After tragedy shatters her small community in Seattle, the Reverend Elsa Montgomery has a crisis of faith. Returning to her hometown of Pueblo, Colorado, she seeks work in a local soup kitchen. Preparing nourishing meals for folks in need, she keeps her hands busy while her heart searches for understanding.

Meanwhile, her sister, Tamsin, as pretty and colorful as Elsa is unadorned and steadfast, finds her perfect life shattered when she learns that her financier husband is a criminal. Enduring shock and humiliation as her beautiful house and possessions are seized, the woman who had everything now has nothing but the clothes on her back.

But when the going gets tough, the tough get growing. A community garden in the poorest, roughest part of town becomes a lifeline. Creating a place of hope and sustenance opens Elsa and Tamsin to the renewing power of rich earth, sunshine, and the warm cleansing rain of tears. While Elsa finds her heart blooming in the care of a rugged landscaper, Tamsin discovers the joy of losing herself in the act of giving—and both women discover that with time and care, happy endings flourish

Review: I picked this up from the library because I had previously enjoyed O'Neal's How to Bake a Perfect Life, and I hoped this book would be just as entertaining.  The primary plot involves Elsa's crisis of faith, and I found her emotions realistic and relatable, and her struggles thought-provoking.  There are some elements of the paranormal, which I generally find hard to believe, but they were presented in such a way that I wanted to believe in them.  My problems with this book were the characters of Tamsin and her daughter Alexa, who came across as completely spoiled and out of touch with reality.  While I understand that good books can (or even should) have unlikable characters, I felt like the author had intended them to be quirky, sympathetic, likable people, and I just didn't see them that way.  Overall, though, this is a feel good book with interesting characters and relationships and the added bonus of imparting gardening knowledge and describing delicious sounding food.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Light

Light: A Gone novel

by Michael Grant

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian Fiction, Fantasy

Synopsis:  It's been a year since all the adults disappeared.  Gone.

In the time sine every person over the age of fourteen disappeared from the town of Perdido Beach, California, countless battles have been fought: battles against hunger and lies and plague; and epic battles of good against evil.  And now, the gaiaphage has been reborn as Diana's malicious mutant daughter, Gaia.  Gaia is endlessly hungry for destruction.  She yearns to conquer her Nemesis, Little Pete, and then bend the entire world to her warped will.  As long-standing enemies become allies, secrets are revealed and unexpected sacrifices are made.  Will their attempts to save themselves and one another matter in the end, or will the kids of Perdido Beach perish in this final power struggle/

Light, the sixth and final book in the New York Times bestselling Gone series by Michael Grant, creates a masterful, arresting conclusion to life in the FAYZ.

From the book jacket

Review:  I'm a little at a loss of what to say about this book.  It is the dramatic finish to the series that I was looking for.  But there was such tragedy in this book and destruction that made me emotional.  The ending was satisfactory (which means the side that I wanted to win won) but not without much loss of human life.  Gaia was indeed quite the evil character.  I was disappointed by a bit of the aftermath.  I wanted to see everyone connected with their families again but that was not the case.  Perhaps the ending that Michael Grant was more realistic than what I wanted to see happen!  

As for the whole series, it is very addicting and every book is a page turner.  You will be relatively satisfied by the end.  Every book is very long-I don't think any of the books are under 400 pages.  If you read this series, you must be prepared to be in it for the long haul.  You also must be prepared for gruesome and disturbing imagery.  This series is not for the squeamish.

Rating: 3 1/2

Click here to read my review of Gone.

Click here to read my review of Hunger.

Click here to read my review of Lies.

Click here to read my review of Plague.

Click here to read my review of Fear.

Fear: A Gone novel

Fear: A Gone novel

by Michael Grant

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian Fiction, Fantasy

Synopsis: It's been one year since all the adults disappeared.  Gone.

Despite the hunger and lies, even despite the plague, the kids of Perdido Beach are determined to survive.  Creeping into the tenuous new world they've build, though, is perhaps the worst incarnation yet of the enemy known as the Darkness: fear.

Within the FAYZ, life breaks down while the Darkness takes over, literally-turning the dome-world of the FAYZ entirely black.  In darkness, the worst fears of all emerge, and the cruelest of intentions are carried out.  But even in their darkest moments, the inhabitants of the FAYZ maintain a will to survive and a desire to take care of the others in their ravaged band that endures, no matter what the cost.

From the book jacket

Review:  This book was just as captivating as all the others and was hard to put down.  But I'm getting a little tired of the characters and the darkness.  I want the final battle or whatever is going to happen to happen.  I'm glad I'm onto the last book of the series now.  That book could really skew my perception of the whole series!  I did like the last 2 books better because they did not contain as many scenes with Drake-the cruelest character I've met in a long time but Michael Grant must have decided that this book needed some cruelty so he added Penny as a more major character.  I did NOT like her and I was quite disturbed by her and that made the book a little less enjoyable.  I really don't care to read about unnecessary cruelty and the disturbing mind of someone who can be so cruel.  One of the things I really liked in this book was the chapters written from the perspective of those outside the FAYZ and what happened to 2 of the characters who came out of it.  I am looking forward to being done with this series but yet I can't not read the books so clearly Michael Grant has written these books well!

Rating: 3 stars

Click here to read my review of Gone.

Click here to read my review of Hunger.

Click here to read my review of Lies.

Click here to read my review of Plague.