Still Under Construction!! Futher Details

All of the reviews will be based on my own opinions. I admit that I have a particular bias, so there are going to be points where you and I disagree. Here is a break down of what this Blog will accomplish:

Title of the Book

annotation: Brief, catchy description of the book's plot

Brief summary of story

Review, discuss what I like, and did not like.

Rating of the following pieces. This will be on either a 1-10, 10 being the best, or a 5 star scale.

1) Readability/Pace - Did the book keep my interest? Was it fast paced? Did it seem to take forever to read it.

2) Plot - how was the plot?

3) Characters - Are the Characters interesting? Annoying? Do they have growth?

4) Interesting Facts/Trivia - ANy interesting trivia that I can find

See you soon!

!!!Under construction Notice!!!

Hi everyone, thanks for checking out my blog, and hopefully past blogs as well. I have just finished my Young Adult Literature class, hopefully with a good grade. That said, I will continue to review books on this blog, but the format will change. I will start to focus on several facets of greatness while writing a review. Here's what you can hope to expect soon:

* a wider focus on novels apart from YA titles. There will still be review of those, but there may be less.

* I plan to read a wider variety of novels, but for a time at least, I will be focusing primarily on Science Fiction, fantasy novels with a particular focus on Sword and Planet, Star Wars, and Vintage 1930's - 1970's Science fiction.

* I will also review comics. This includes undiscovered talents from the online comics world, because darn it, they need to be recognized!

* I will also try to squeeze in actual literature as well.

* I may be doing other blogs about restaurant reviews, movie and music reviews, and Other things.

* I will also try to review up and coming undiscovered gems.

* Lastly, things being reviewed will not necessarily be the latest and greateset, but will also encompass "Blasts from the Past," and underappreciated releases from a while ago that you may have missed.

OK, that's it for now. I will be contemplating review criteria, if you have any suggestions for a review criteria, let me know. I have some ideas, but nothing solid.

See you soon!

Passionate Plea Fiction

I most passionately plea that you read and vote for Jumper, by Steven Gould. Each page that you turn, will only pique your interest to read the next one. Gould’s narrative keeps you guessing, and raising the stakes ever higher. As Davy gains control over his powers, his challenges become greater. He first escapes from his father’s abuse and from being raped by truckers by teleporting accidently. But as he learns to control his powers, he escapes from police detection, robs a bank and eludes detection for a time. At this point his biggest risk is his girlfriend or the police discovering his ability. During this time, he is also growing from a young man to full self sufficiency as he consciously decides to stop relying on his father’s support (Davy uses his power to facilitate food theft) and hack it on his own.

After a family catastrophe, Davy trains to develop his powers to take on terrorists, but as he becomes a nigh unstoppable force for vengeance, the NSA begins to hunt him down. As this part of his growth unfurls, his girlfriend is held hostage to ensure his compliance. In the midst of all of these breathtaking events, Davy struggles to find his identity and independence. He searches for maturity, and struggles with his morality.

Jumper is as much about Davy’s growing up, and leaving the shadow of his abusive past as it is about his ability to teleport. Jumper hits the highest amount of developmental flags of all the books I’ve read this semester. It’s also got the protagonist going against steep odds, and a large sense of uncertainty. Read Jumper, you won’t regret it.

Passionate Plea Non-Fiction

If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor truly has it all. Being Bruce Campbell’s autobiography, his voice rings true when reflecting on his younger years while successfully bringing us to his adulthood. Bruce begins with his childhood in suburban Michigan highlighting some of his adventures from childhood and adolescence. Along the way, he hits several of the developmental areas, chief among them being independent at such an early age. Some of his hijinks include an elaborate fort/tunnel system, wanton destruction of green army men, and using paper lanterns to create a UFO sighting. These adventures lay the foundation for his further life, that of becoming an actor.

During his adolescence, he and his friends over come the odds and make an 8MM film for their local community. With their quasi success, they are inspired to go further and make an actual feature film in their early adulthood. Bruce and Co. raise money, find actors, film in grueling conditions, lose actors, and must gain more money to distribute the film. In short, they overcome huge odds to make and sell their film, Evil Dead. The remainder of the book focuses on Bruce’s struggles to make a living as an actor.
While the early half of the book focuses on the developmental areas, and becoming independent, the second half serves as a great roleplaying experience for teens to read. Acting is not always glamorous and it’s definitely not easy. Reading about it from the eyes of an “everyman” like Bruce Campbell, with a relatable growing up experience, Bruce makes the life of an actor something anyone can relate to.

"Witness" By Karen Hesse

Annotation:

Small town in Vermont takes on dramatic changes when the KKK slime their way into authority by using their most common weapons. Fear and intimidation. Perseverance, and mercy are the only weapons to fight back with.

Justification for a Neutral Stance:

Leanora Sutter, and Esther Hirsch; African-American, and Jewish teens respectively are already eyed suspiciously by the townspeople, except a few kind souls in the town. When the KKK worms their way into town, they become the targets of hate, and discrimination.

The Klan also affects many other people in the town, many do not wish to be a part of it, but some jump at the chance. One, a grocer, decides to join as a way to boost sales in his store, despite his wife's protest. The other, the local Reverend of all people joins for his own reasons.

Through several plot twists, an unlikely assassin makes an attempt on Esther's father, while another is ordered to poison the well water at Leanora's place, but due to an attack of conscience cannot bring himself to do it. The insanity of the Klan's reign of terror come to an abrupt end when Calvin Coolidge is elected president.

This book I can neither reject, nor nominate for several reasons. First I will do the unpleasant thing, and announce it's shortcomings. The story of "Witness" is a bit hard to follow, it's obvious how the Klan comes to town, but I could not really determine why. Second, the Klan leave with no reason that I could discern in one reading. Third, as a YA novel, it does not delve much into the adolescent developmental process. Lastly, the story didn't really "grab me." It's a good story, but in my opinion it was not great.

The things this book does well, is it offers up a few interesting characters, and there are some themes that while not Young Adult themed, should be learned by YA. First, the characters, Iris Weaver, the local booze runner, is interesting as a free spirit but appears to have no actual purpose in the story, or with the Klan.

Merlin van Tornhaut is kind of sympathetic, but not very. He gets implicated as a murder suspect in a shooting case, but he couldn't have done it. He was about to poison some body's well that night, luckily he didn't make it. His only redeeming quality is that his cnscience kept him from being an effective Klan member.

The preacher was just a creep, mainly because a Christian man should be preaching peace, but he was a hatemonger, and pedophile.

Esther, by far my favorite character, was incredibly innocent, and she was just an endearing presence of love in a maelstrom of hate.

I think the themes in this book also are a redeeming quality, and may be of interest to YA. Firstly it will allow them to explore how ignorant racism is, and show that victims of hate could be someone like you or me. Second, "Witness" shows what happens when peer pressure gets out of control until reason has left everyone.

Although there are some good themes addressed in this book, and some of the characters are of note, "Witness" is a good book that could have been better. The characters and situations are a great start for a great story, but the story feels like it's missing a few things. It failed to draw me into the story in any significant way, and resolved events too cleanly and quickly. I cannot nominate this book for our award because it lacks many qualities that it should possess, but nor can I reject it because it does bring up some pertinent issues.


Genre: Verse novel, Historical fiction