Woolvs in the Sitee

Jenn's Pick!

A graphic novel story of a boy living, seemingly, in a post-apocalyptic world. We don't know much about him, except that his family is gone, he lives in the basement of his building, alone except for his neighbor upstairs, Missus Radinski. Things may have been bad for quite awhile, as the narrator spells entirely phonetically, as though he's never been to school. He is terrified of the "woolvs," though as the reader, we're never given to know what the "woolvs" are. A short, haunting story, with beautifully dark illustrations, that leave the reader to interpret what happens to the characters after the book closes.

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

Jenn's Pick!

Aislinn can see faeries but has spent her whole life pretending they are invisible. Her grandmother, who can also see them, has taught her the only way to avoid the capricious nature of the faeries is to never, never draw their attention. Which is all well and good until faeries, from the royal court, no less, start following Aislinn. She has been chosen by the Summer King, and from that instant, is no longer entirely mortal. She can become one of the immortal Summer Girls, free and easy. She may choose to take the test ordained by the Summer King and Winter Queen. If she passes, she becomes the Summer Queen, immortal and saves both faerie and human-kind from destruction. If she fails, she will be trapped helping the Summer King until he can find the next potential Queen. The only thing that's not an option is remaining human, with her Grams and her best friend turned maybe-boyfriend. Unless she can outsmart the faerie folk.

And Sometimes Why by Rebecca Johnson. The younger teen daughter in an upper middle class family of four experiences an accident that affects each member differently. A TV game-show celebrity’s life takes an unexpected downturn. Into the mix too are several other characters struggling with the hand they’ve been dealt. The life paths of the different characters cross in this well written thought provoking page-turner. I enjoyed the story; It really affirmed how attitude in the wake of things happening to us can really affect our future.

Slam! by Nick Hornby

Jenn's Pick!

This is the first thing I've read by Nick Hornby, even though he's got some classics that come highly recommended (like ("About A Boy," and "High Fidelity".) But I'm a believer, I'll read the others. This was one of those books where I didn't know much about the plot when I picked it up. In fact, what I did know was that the book was about a guy, Sam, who is a skater (skate boarder, not ice skater, which he makes clear early on in the book for anyone who might be confused.) I also knew that Sam frequently sought advice from the poster of Tony Hawk hung on his bedroom wall. So there were some surprises in this story for me. (If you want to have the same experience, you should probably stop reading this post.)

Turns out, that in addition to being a skater who seeks advice from a Tony Hawk poster, Sam is also a teenage dad. He's got a new girlfriend, and well, she ends up pregnant. What I liked about it though was the story became much more than a typical teenage cautionary tale. The characters, Sam and his girlfriend Alicia, their parents, the other skaters a the local skate park, they all seemed like people I might know or hang out with. They were really real. Sure, there was just the smallest bit of time travel in this story, but that didn't detract from the realness of it.

I took the combination approach to this story, listening to it as an audio book (love those British accents!) for most of the story, then finishing it off by reading the book.

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

Jenn's Pick!

First part -- Spoiler Free : Last Saturday was a big day for those of us following the story of Bella the human, her vampire boyfriend Edward, and her werewolf best friend / perhaps potential love interest Jacob. Breaking Dawn was finally here!! If you've got a request on Breaking Dawn here at LGPL, you might want to give a "thank you" to super-library-employee and Stephenie Meyer Fan Carol, who got up early last Saturday, on her day off, went to Costco, and brought us two more copies of the book. She's a hero. For those who haven't read any of the Twilight series, you'll want to do that before reading Breaking Dawn. For those who plan to read Breaking Dawn, but haven't yet, I'll say that it does a good job of wrapping up the story Meyer has been telling us for a few years now. That's all I'm going to say. You should stop reading this review and put yourself on the list for either the book or the audio CD.

Second Part -- Full of Spoilers. Really. Don't read this if you're not done with the book.

I don't know about you, but I was extremely pleased with the way this book turned out. I've heard some folks are unhappy with the tidy happy ending, or that they're upset that Edward and Bella had a kid so soon, and, sure, I get that. But I still liked this book a lot. I read it faster than I read Harry Potter last summer. Then I started it over again right away.

So, Bella and Edward get married, in a lovely Alice-planned wedding. Jacob shows up, that was nice of him wasn't it? We knew he'd be there. I like Seth in this book, he's a good guy. Bella lets slip that she and Edward are going to have sex before she become a vampire, and Jacob becomes furious. We have to question Bella's judgment in sharing this info, but it's good for one last classic Jacob-Edward standoff, isn't it. Bella and Edward leave for their honeymoon on a secluded island owned (of course) by the Cullen family. The new Mr. and Mrs. Cullen have their honeymoon, and low and behold, Bella ends up pregnant. Not just pregnant, but pregnant with something that's growing at an alarming rate. Here come the first two big surprises of the book. 1) Bella turns to Rosemarie for help. Nice. and 2) The middle section of the book is told from Jacob's point of view. Really good call, Stephenie.

Bella's not doing so well, and Jacob can't stay away. There's friction in the pack, when Sam feels he should protect his people by destroying the child Bella's carrying, and most likely Bella in the process. Vampire babies = extremely bad, we learn. It makes sense, they don't have the ability to control themselves, or hide fact that they're vampires, so chaos ensues. Jacob leaves the pack to defend Bella, the baby, and the Cullens. He disobeys a direct order from Sam by finally stepping up to the Alpha plate, and he becomes a pack of one. Briefly. Until both Seth and Leah join him. Sam decides to hold off on destroying the truce, the baby, Bella, and the Cullens, but things are still pretty tense. Bella's all set to die for the baby if she has to, but figures as long as she can keep her heart beating until the baby is delivered, Edward can make her a vampire at the last minute and all will be well. And, essentially, this is what happens. In a gory birth scene, Edward delivers the half-and-half baby, while Jacob performs CPR to keep Bella's heart beating. It's a close call, but Edward injects vampire venom straight into her heart right after the baby is born. Jacob leaves the room thinking Bella has died, and briefly contemplates killing the baby who killed Bells. But, in another great moment in the book, instead, as soon as he sees the babies eyes, he imprints, and is committed to the new little Renesmee for life.

We all saw this coming, right? I've never understood what Team Jacob folks thought would happen when Jacob inevitably imprinted on someone other than Bella. If she'd chosen him, she would have been crushed. Sure, I thought at some points in Eclipse that Stephenie might take us down that road, but I never in my wildest dreams thought that Jacob wouldn't imprint on someone at some point. That it was Bella and Edward's daughter just made things tidy. Some would say "too tidy," but I liked it. This also straightened out the mess with the packs, because it's totally forbidden to harm the object of another wolf's imprinting, you know, for obvious reasons.

Then came my absolute favorite part of the book. Bella as a vampire. Haven't you been wanting to know what it's like to be a vampire? I have been, for three and a half books now! I was going to feel really cheated if somehow Bella ended this book as a human. Luckily Stephenie delivered again, and we got to see all the creek jumping, Emmett arm-wrestling, mountain-lion eating we've been craving. Awesome. I also really enjoyed Bella finding out that Jacob had imprinted on Renesmee, and that he'd done something about that horrible name. It's clever, but really? Not that great a name. And in another unexpected pleasant turn of events, Jacob clued Charlie in, just the right amount, so he can still visit Bella and his new granddaughter. Yes, some people think this was just a little too easy, but again, I liked it!! I refuse to be swayed.

Those were my favorite parts of the story, but for the sake of thoroughness, let's just cover what else happens. Now that werewolves aren't a threat to Renesmee, of course, we've got to bring the Volturi back. Turns out they want an excuse, any excuse, to bring the Cullens down, and they think they've got a good one in the shape of a cute new baby vampire. Since real baby vampires are so destructive, they've been banned, and word gets to the Volturi that the Cullens have created one, thus violating vampire law. Of course we all know that Renesmee isn't a full vampire, she's a Cullen! So she's a nice vampire, but the message gets muddled and the Volturi are set to attack. The Cullens muster the troops, gathering every vampire they can from around the globe to "witness" the showdown with the Volturi. They figure if they can just explain that Renesmee is good, all will be well. But, we all know how the Volturi fight. If Jane and Alec have their way, there will be no time for explanations. Alice and Jasper take off, and most people think it's because Alice has foreseen the Cullen's downfall, and so the mood is generally dour. I think most of us readers never doubted Alice for a second, right? We knew she was coming back. Bella plans for the worst, and gets ready to send Renesmee off into the world with Jacob, while she and Edward stay behind to fight and die. Fortunately, though, it turns out that Bella does have an amazing talent. The same knack that keeps Edward, Aro, Jane and Alec out of her brain can be turned into a shield. So when the Volturi try to attack, it's Bella who keeps everyone safe. Ta-da! Happy ending. Not bad, huh? More than 750 pages in just under six paragraphs.

What did you think? Too easy? Are you devastated that it's over? Do you think Stephenie will write more of the story from Renesmee and Jacob's point of view? Or are you just holding on for the Twilight-from-Edward's perspective? Were you a little disappointed that Bella's talent is "shielding?" Are you as perplexed as I am that suddenly "Jasper" has become "Jazz?" Really? Are we going to start calling Edward "Eddie" next? Did anyone go to the midnight release parties?

Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway

Jenn's Pick!

If you need one last great summer read before fall hits, check out Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway. Audrey breaks up with her boyfriend Evan, who happens to be the lead singer for a band that's really not going anywhere. Evan writes a song about their breakup, "Audrey, Wait!" that becomes a smash hit. Pretty soon, paparazzi are following Audrey everywhere, and her reputation is, well, shall we say, tarnished? She's just trying to get past Evan, and perhaps spend some time with her shy, rule obsessed coworker at the Scooper Dooper. Things get out of hand.

This book was funny, clever, and sweet. I enjoyed Audrey's relationships with her parents, and her best friend and her enormous cat, Bendomolena.

If you read "Audrey, Wait" and you like it because it's the insider scoop on someone who's famous but doesn't want to be famous, you should try "Amazing Grace," by Megan Shull.




If you read "Audrey, Wait" and like it for all the great music, try "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. We don't seem to have this book at the moment, but we'll get a copy.

Madapple by Christina Meldrum – Off the beaten path coming of age story involving an odd young woman and a trial involving multiple murders. Aslaug Hellig has been raised and home schooled in isolation by her Danish mother Maren. She grows remarkably knowledgeable about the natural world and literature. She has only the views of her mother about the outside world. Her mother dies of cancer. A neighbor witnesses Aslaug digging a grave for the body in her back yard and notifies the police. “They’ve charged me with what they call abuse of a corpse. To clean Mother, bury her, bless her, was to abuse her, they tell me. And now they are cutting her up.” Aslaug flees to a nearby town to live with her aunt Sara and two cousins Susanne (called Sanne) and Rune. Aslaug becomes pregnant – but because of her state of mind doesn’t realize who the father is. Sara and Sanne are later found dead inside their burned church. At the trial, the prosecution tries to link Aslaug with the Jimson weed (madapple) found in their bodies and Maren’s, as well as the fire. The defense team point to reasons for Aslaug’s behavior. The alternating “trial” chapters are realistic.

More at play here are Aslaug’s sense of reality clashing with societal norms.
This very well written page turner is awash with literary and religious allusions; It even includes a bibliography.

Excellent read! I found the book to be above the fray in young adult literature.