Fell by David Clement-Davies

Here is a credible story about a  black wolf, Fell, who has been rejected by his pack, wandering alone in the forest, and refusing to use his gift of reading the minds of others.  This adventure is very believable as we read about the thoughts of animals and their human connection.  As a very young child Alina is saved by Fell and when she grows up she is labeled as a changeling which refers to a child left by fairies.  She is an outcast and unfairly treated by the family that takes her in to their home.  She seeks her destiny and tries to stay away from those who mean harm.  Alina and Fell share a common thread of loneliness and uncertainty about their fuure.

David Clement-Davies wrote Fell five years after The Sight, which is a prequel of this book but Fell does stand on its own.  The setting is Transylvania and and there is a connection with another famous character from this region.  Read this if you like intricate and adventurous stories about animals interwoven with humans.

Black Butler

The Victorian gothic manga, Black Butler by Yana Toboso, features a too perfect butler and his charge, the Earl of Phantomhive, a twelve-year-old boy who is the head of a very successful toy and candy business.  But both of these characters are something more, with deadly secrets and dark pasts.  Together, they host dinner parties and solve mysteries. 

The artwork is elegant and the reveal moments are both dramatic and gorgeous.  I am, quite frankly, in love.  There is murder, black magic, inept minor characters, cross-dressing, kidnapping, betrayal, kick@$$ fight scenes, and the most wonderful costumes.  What more could a fangirl ask for?  Oh yes - multiple volumes so my new favorite addiction can be drawn out just a bit longer. 

~ Book Ninja

It's summertime and the reading is easy...and kinda sleazy

I have no problem admitting this--when the temperature reached 84 degrees inside my house, I put down the William Faulkner book I was dutifully trying to reread for the sake of my brain and reached for my latest fluff pick, Vixen by Jillian Larkin.  This book puts "historical fiction" in the camp of hot summer read!  The time is 1923, Chicago, land of flappers and mobsters, lavish parties and serious segregation, complete with flasks of whiskey in your garter and guns in your trunk.  Each chapter tells the story through alternating viewpoints of three young women; there's Gloria, the naive heiress engaged to the most sought after guy in the city, her jealous friend Lorraine, whose goal is to become the fiercest flapper around, and  "country cousin" Clara, who covers up a past more shocking than anyone could imagine.

Dragon Trilogy

 His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik takes place during the Napoleonic Wars.  In this fantasy,  aerial combat is accomplished with the use of dragons.  Laurence of the British Navy finds himself the trainer for a dragon he has named Temeraire and he has new responsibilities as he feeds and gets to know the newly hatched dragon.   This is an exceptional dragon of strength and power and I am surprised that he is also intelligent and can speak!   Laurence feels conflicted because if he stays with Temeraire he must leave his career as an officer in the Royal Navy and join the flying aerial fleet. There were fantastic battle scenes and unique dragons of different breeds with exceptional skills.  Novik continues this soaring adventure with Throne of Jade and Black Powder War.

 

A Deadly Serious Cat and Mouse Comic

Maus, by Art Spiegelman, was the first graphic novel I ever read. I was about twelve, I think, and I snuck it out of my brother's collection of comic books. There was just something different about it that caught my interest: it was a real book, heavy, with binding and a hard cover. Yeah, it was a comic book. But it wasn't like the Spiderman or Superman comics that I'd glanced at and found boring. It was a new way to look at a sad, serious subject: the Holocaust.

It is a truth universally acknowledged...

...That the month which contains so much love-themed commercialism leaves book lovers in want of Pride and Prejudice. One of my favorite light reads last year was Prom and Prejudice, which our Book Lady blogged about here. It's a modern-day update set in a prep school, with way more coffee.

Best name ever? Possibly

Despite the fact that I talk The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: The Pox Party up all the time, I hadn't even thought about writing a review until I noticed Octavian Nothing winning an informal poll of teen services librarians for coolest male name. M.T. Anderson has created a book that is next to impossible to forget, even though sometimes you kinda wish you could.

Octavian has written his autobiography which takes place mostly in the Boston Area, before and during the Revolutionary War. He was raised with his mother (an African princess) in a big estate owned by a "scientific" group called the Novangalian College of Lucidity. Both were educated in literature, science, languages, you name it. At some point though Octavian realizes the other Africans in the household aren't treated as well as he is and it's probably not right that the College weighs his poop. (Seriously, they do that.) To the College's displeasure, he soon discovers the horrible truth behind the poop weighing and some gruesome(though historically accurate) horrors occur. Octavian then sets out to escape with the help of a sympathetic scholar and the start of the Revolutionary War may just help him find a new life.

The second volume, The Kingdom on the Waves, continues his story.

--The Stacked Librarian

I Call It Courage

The setting is cold and harsh but the story will warm you. Corrag by Susan Fletcher is about a girl in prison, accused of being a witch and sentenced to die! While she is waiting for her fate in a cold, dank prison, a man comes to talk to her for information about a massacre. In the process of their conversations we learn about her life and his thoughts as he writes letters to his wife. You can feel the cold, the fear, and the loneliness but cannot help being captivated by this young girl and her life in 17th Century Scotland. This is the kind of story that stays with you long after you have finished. It is based on a true event.

When One Book Isn't Enough

Believe it or not, every single one of the favorite teen books in this year's Summer Reading Program was part of a series. This is a great time to be a fan of YA series -- there are so many excellent ones coming out, and the library has a great selection! So if you're going to be bored over winter break, or forced to head off on a holiday trip, why not grab a series or three to keep you entertained?

If you loved Harry Potter, give Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain a try! Think Harry Potter's life started out rough? Imagine if he'd been a lowly Assistant Pig-Keeper, who got all muddled up in magic, battles, royalty, and epic quests! Start with The Book of Three.

Some thoughts on censorship

In honor of Banned Books Week, I would like to offer some thoughts on censorship.

Censorship is, of course, the act of censoring. And to censor means "to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable" (Merriam-Webster). (In the Roman republic, the censors kept a count of those who met birth and property requirements to enter the Senate; the basic idea is still roughly the same - taking a measure of, for example, a book to see if it meets certain qualifications, whether these be moral or literary).

Here There be Adventure!

Often what makes or breaks a book is the main character. Some characters are placeholders, put there for things to happen to. But some leap off the page in three dimensions, tearing through the story, knocking other characters on their rear, and staying with you long after you turn the last page. One of my favorite examples of this is the Bloody Jack series by L.A. Meyer, well worth reading for history buffs, sailor wannabes, and anybody who likes a ripping good yarn.

Bloody Jack starts out the first book as Mary Faber, a clever urchin from the streets of 1804 London who sees the chance to better herself. So what if that chance takes the form of pretending to be a boy named Jack aboard one of His Majesty's naval warships? She's not going to let a little thing like gender stand in her way.

Over the eight books in the series, she gets in all manner of trouble, including piracy, kidnapping, sailing down the Mississippi, treasure hunting, all the while remaining faithful (well, mostly) to her beloved Jaimy, a fellow sailor on her first ship.

Jacky is a delight and a pain both. She's impulsive, often thoughtless, even more often stubborn. But she's also warm-hearted, generous, clever, and daring, and she will steal your heart.

Then hold it for ransom.

--Maureen K.