Fly Trap and The Mysterious Benedict Society

Fly Trap by Frances Hardinge          (Children's)

I absolutely loved the first book, Fly By Night. It had an incredibly original plot and a main character who was considered unlovable by those around her, but who the reader knew was a wonderful person. Mosca Mye's name has dark connotations since she was born during the hours of the fly god, so everyone sees her as a skulking thief. It's even worse now that she and Eponymous Clent have fled the rebellion they may have caused and they find themselves in Toll. By day, only those born at the hours of  the bright and beloved Blessed can walk the streets. If you are unfortunate enough to have a name like Mosca, you have to live in Toll-By-Night and never see the sun again.

Of course Mosca has a problem with this, and she is going to  turn Toll on its head, try to steal its Luck and do whatever she has to to survive. Also known by the title Twilight Robbery, this book is both funny and intriguing.


The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (Children's)

Yes, I'm a million years late to this book series, but this, the first book, was so charming that I had to write about it. It had everything I love: smart kids, shadowy figures bent on ruling the world, people who want to give themselves their own nicknames, narcolepsy, and one of the most obstinate female characters ever. If you love children who shave their heads to disguise themselves, if you love girls who have already run away to the circus, and now want to try something new, if you love infiltrating shadowy organizations, then you will probably love this book.

CB # 33-37 Percy Jackson and the Olympians

The Lightning Thief

The Sea of Monsters

The Titan’s Curse

The Battle of the Labyrinth

The Last Olympian                     All by Rick Riordan

                To be short and sweet, this is a really fun children’s fantasy series, focusing on what would happen if the Ancient Greek gods were around in present day America. Percy Jackson has always been getting into trouble, and he can never stay in the same school for more than a year, but he learns when he’s 11 that there’s a reason for this. He’s actually a demigod, a son of Poseidon. Monsters are drawn to demigods and wish to destroy them, and Percy finds a relative safe haven at Camp Half-Blood, where all the campers are demi-gods. In the first book, Percy has to clear his name and prevent war between the gods, when Zeus’ Lightning bolt goes missing. There is also an overall series plot, coming from a prophecy that one of the children of Hades, Zeus or Poseidon will making a choice when he or she turns 16 that could lead to the destruction of Mount Olympus, and therefore the Western world.

                I liked that Percy, although the star of the series, is not the best at everything. He always needs to rely on his friends, including the brilliant Annabeth, daughter of Athena, and Grover, a nature loving satyr. I loved that there are lots of smart and strong girls and women in the series, and Percy regularly had to rely on their support to survive. I loved that even though I knew most of the myths that the plots are based on, Riordan would surprise me by changing the details to better fit a modern retelling. I loved that all of the demigods were dealing with disabilities (dyslexia and ADHD), but that the ADHD improved their fighting skills, and the dyslexia is caused by their inborn gift to read Ancient Greek. I thought it was a nice touch, for kids to see heroes with those issues.

                I did feel like the stories did have a slight formula (Percy being kicked out of school after fighting a monster, Camp Half-Blood is in danger, there’s a prophecy from the Oracle, etc.) but I still enjoyed it. My other complaint is that SPOILER AFTER THE JUMP

CB #9 The Wee Free Men

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

The original plan for my reading week was to get tons of reading done. It didn’t happen. Instead I went to look at penguins,  wander around museums, cheer on the Habs and tried to sleep. This was the only book I finished, though I did get fairly far in my next read.

I was raised on fairy tales, specifically Irish fairy tales, where the fairies are out to get you. It’s not that they’re evil, per say, but they want what they want and they don’t have the same understanding of consequences. They don’t understand that humans need their friends and family, and that being tossed out of fairyland 100 years after you were taken, does you absolutely no favours.  I always knew that if the fairies took me then I’d better not eat a thing they offered me, unless they could offer me salt, and having some iron on your person is always helpful. Also, (though not as relevant to this book) be kind to people in general, and not just strangers. The people you know really well are more likely to be the ones who run into Fairyland to save you (usually on a horse that only ate clover, or was never shoed, or some other crazy detail) so maybe you should be kind to them so that they won’t abandon you.

Pratchett wrote the Tiffany Achung books for younger readers who might also like the magic and weirdness of Discworld. I have the incredibly bad habit so just reading whatever book in a series I can get my hand on, so I’ve already read A Hat Full of Sky, which I thought was just alright. I enjoyed this book far more because I got to understand Tiffany. However, I do love Pratchett’s footnotes, and once again there was only one.

She’s been the youngest child in her family for close to nine years, and then all of a sudden she has a baby brother, Wentworth, who she has to take care of all of the time. She’s intensely practical so when she notices that there’s a Jenny Green-Teeth with eyes as big as soup plates ( the kind that are eight inches across) in her river, she tempts it with her brother and then clobbers it with an iron frying pan. This causes the Wee Free Men , the toughest, tiniest fairies who love to drink and fight, to realize that she’s a hag or witch, and ask her for her help. The Queen of Fairies is on her way and she will try to enslave them once again. As well, she has already captured some humans who might want to escape her version of happiness. Oh, and she just kidnapped Wentworth.

This novel is funny and sweet and possibly a bit scary for younger readers. Like a lot of Pratchett’s works there are a few morals including: question conventional wisdom, don’t assume that people you don’t understand are evil and my personal favourite.

   'Now… If you trust in yourself…’

               ‘Yes?’

               ‘… and believe in your dreams…”

               ‘Yes?’

               ‘… and follow your star…’

               ‘Yes?’

               ‘… you’ll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren’t so lazy. Goodbye’

Good advice for all of us.

CB#6 Flipped

 Flipped by  Wendelin Van Draanen         (YA)

                Getting mail is one of the loveliest things. It’s so much more exciting than an email and mail is even better when it’s a friend sending you a book.  Thanks Britt, for making my day when you mailed me an awesome novel.

                 Van Draanen has been on my radar for a while because I really like her Sammy Keyes mysteries. Keyes is a tomboy in middle school who secretly lives with her grandmother because her gran isn’t supposed to have anyone living with her. She sarcastic, loves softball and solving mysteries. Keyes is a really awesome character who does what she believes in and doesn’t go along with the flow. Juli Baker is the same. She raises chickens, she loves soccer and she’ll stay up in the old sycamore tree to try to save it from being cut down.

                The narration of Flipped switches between the two main characters: Julianna Baker and  Bryce Loski. In the second grade, Juli has a crush on Bryce from the first time she meets him. He’s just so cute, and she’s been waiting for a friend her own age for a while. Meanwhile, Bryce is just terrified of her and doesn’t like that she’s messy and so eager to be friends. The plot quickly zips along to the eighth grade, noting that all the while Juli’s had a crush on Bryce, while Bryce tries to completely avoid her.

                However, things are starting to change. Juli is slowly becoming aware that Bryce isn’t who she sees him as, and Bryce is starting to wonder if he’s been worried about the right things all along. I have a major saw that I like to harp on, which is that we often fundamentally misunderstand people so that we can continue to see the world as we like. There’s a way that we like to see things, and so when something or someone doesn’t fit our original view, we just misunderstand it so that our viewpoint continues to work, to our personal detriment. Juli sees Bryce as a good person who’s just really shy, mainly because he’s so good looking. Bryce sees Juli as annoying but is too scared to tell her that’s she’s coming on too strong. As well, he is completely focused on appearances, thinking that her house is a mess, and he worries too much about what other people think. Of course, the way they feel is going to flip, and maybe Bryce can change.

                In the Q & A in the back, Van Draanen  talks about being a teacher and noticing how her students always had crushes on such unworthy people. However, those people were cute or pretty, and as a teacher she couldn’t really say anything. I think Flipped really does try to show that appearances aren’t everything. As well, it honestly portrays the ridiculous moments of boy craziness that can happen to anyone, even smart, sensible girls. I remember middle school, and those stupid stomach flips and moments of going crazy over someone who wasn’t that special at all. My only thing to criticize is that I felt like Juli’s crush started too early for it to last for so long. Five years is a long time, especially if you aren’t really talking to him.

Short Cuts

Not much to say about these books:
            A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett

 In this Discworld book for children starring the young witch Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men (basically the toughest fairies of all time), Tiffany moves away from her home to study with another witch, but doesn’t realize that she is being chased by an ancient evil. Granny Weatherwax makes an appearance. Like everything Pratchett writes, it’s really funny, but it’s not his best and there are actual chapter divisions and fewer ridiculous footnotes. I love his footnotes.

Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logsted       (YA)

This novel is a modern retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story, with the Beast being Lucas, who accidently blew off his hands in a chemical explosion and is starting over at a new high school. Aurora is the Beauty, who has moved after her mother’s death. It’s short and sweet, but I feel like the author could have gone an awful lot further. The story isn’t particularly fable-like, with the first person point of view switching between the two main characters, so I feel like there could have been more realism around Lucas’ disability. Yes, Lucas does talk about wishing he could touch Aurora, and his shame around the explosion, but I would have liked some more information about how he used his hooks to do everyday things. Sometimes, I honestly didn’t understand how he was doing certain things. As well, Aurora could have had more personality. She’s beautiful and she’s kind, but because she’s new she’s going to go around with the popular crowd. I believe that, but I can’t believe that she doesn’t have more defining features.

                Thank you, Jeeves by P.G Woodhouse

                I usually love P.G. Woodhouse. I love the wacky hijinks, I love the silly names and I love how incredibly smart and sane Jeeves is, especially since he’s the personal valet to the (though often engaged) permanent bachelor Bertie Wooster. Most of this novel gives me exactly that, but unfortunately the entire last half of this plot revolves around black face. Bertie and other characters end up with boot polish on their faces, while they are masquerading as black musicians and can’t take it off for various comic reasons.  It’s a novel from the 1930’s, so it’s not entirely surprising but it did really ruin my enjoyment of the novel. Bertie is mistaken for the devil a few times with his face covered in boot polish, and although I hope it's because boot polish simply looks unnatural on skin, I don't think that was where Woodhouse was going with it.

Let's hear it for the sidekicks

Harry Potter and the etc.... by J. K. Rowling

I’m not actually going to write a review of any Harry Potter novel, because either you’ve read it or you haven’t. If you don’t like these books then there is nothing I could say to change your mind, though you do have to admit that J. K Rowling really knows how to plot things out.

 Instead, I would just like to talk about my favorite character in the series, Ron. I mean sure, Harry is always going off and being brave, but he’s also always wanting to do it alone.  I think if you’ve read enough children’s books, you know that doing it all by yourself is just silly. There is a time and a place to be a lone wolf, and it is almost never when fighting the forces of evil. Without Ron and Hermione, Harry would have died multiple times. Now although Hermione is smart, loves to read, and loves the library, she isn’t actually my favorite. She is the smartest in the year, she’s helped the guys with their homework on too many occasions and without her we wouldn’t have had the intricacy of plot of the Prisoner of Azkaban. My problem with Hermione is that when she is being at her worst, a know it all who is shocked that you haven’t read Hogwarts: A History, she reminds me too much of myself, and some other people I know.

No, why Ron wins in my books is because he is useless. He is not the smartest, nor the bravest. He isn’t even the best at magic. He knows all of this, especially since he is the youngest boy in his quite large family. He comes along anyway.

Harry and Hermione have a purpose in the trio, they even have names that start with the same letter, but Ron is the prop that keeps them all upright. When he goes missing, things are worse. He is the guy who will tell you a funny joke and cheer you up, and yes, he makes many, many mistakes, but he always apologizes and he’s always genuinely sorry. He’s also Harry’s first real friend, and his family always treats Harry like he’s one of their own. The movies have definitely added to my love of Ron, especially since he has the best actor of the trio, but it started with the first book.

As a side note, I would also like to note my love of Snape, for the obvious reason, as well as because all of his visible plans; stopping Quirrel, capturing Sirius etc. always come to naught because of Harry. Can’t Snape have anything good?

Returning to an old friend

The Ear, the Eye and the Arm by Nancy Farmer

 I must admit, I have always been a serial rereader and as a child I reread The Ear, the Eye and the Arm, as well as A Girl Called Disaster about five times each . I decided to return to The Ear to see how it holds up.

            It’s set in Zimbabwe in 2194, and it follows the three children of the Chief of Security:  Tendai (13), Rita (11) and Kuda (4). Since their father so powerful and has eliminated almost all the gangs, he is always afraid that his children will be kidnapped as a way to get back at him. Instead the children are homeschooled and never experience much of the outside world. As well, since their parents are always working, they live surrounded by robots and are watched over  by the childlike Mellower, who is a professional Praise Singer. Unfortunately, this makes it very hard for Tendai and Rita to get their explorer badge in Scouting, so they ask  the Mellower to help them leave the house for a day to go from one part of the city to another. The Mellower hypnotizes their father during Praise into giving them codes out of the house, as well as money for the bus and for food. However, the three children have no experience of the real world, including how to pay for food and how to take the bus and they are promptly kidnapped. When their parents realize what has happened they hire detectives.  The Ear, the Eye and the Arm were born in Hwange village, where their mothers were exposed to plutonium in the water. Each of the detectives has specialized mutations, including amazing hearing, amazing sight, and the ability to sense other people’s feelings, and occasionally read minds. The novel follows Tendai as he tries to bring his sister and brother home, and the detectives as they try to find the children.

             I still love this book because it has such a mishmash of genres. It’s sci-fi futuristic, it’s filled with adventure, there’s a coming of age story, there’s a detective story and  Shona beliefs about ancestors, spirits and witchcraft are integral to the plot. Ancestors can pass their gifts on to their descendants, and if it is necessary,  the mhondro or spirit of the land can enter people to help them save Zimbabwe. At one point, the children reach Resthaven, a walled community that decided 200 years ago to live as their ancestors did and to deny the advances of technology. Tendai loves the traditional village life because it feels so right, especially compared to his machine-filled home, but he can’t deny that there are some problems too.  In Resthaven, Rita has to work harder than he does because she’s a girl. As well, when twins are born, one must die, and the witch who cursed the mother and caused twins must be found and punished.  Traditional life isn’t seen as perfect, but it also isn’t denigrated as the bad old days.

  The novel also talks about the way that people put a blind eye to other people’s problems. The children had no idea that there were place like Dead Man’s Vlei, an old garbage dump, where people live and mine the plastic and other resources. The people who live there are seen as disposable people, out of sight, out of mind, but the Vlei is also a safe place for people who have been thrown out of regular society. A lot of stock is put in the way that too much Praise may help people feel so good that they ignore the experiences of others.

You are allowed to mock me, but I only found out that Nancy Farmer is white when I was in high school.  At first, it bothered me because I was concerned about appropriation and (when I was younger) authenticity, but rereading the novel again I think that it demonstrates a love for Zimbabwe and its people. It doesn’t make the country or the characters exotic and the appendix mentions that her explanation of the spirit world of the Shona, and of the Shona as a people is simplified because a young non-African audience might not understand. I did some research and found out that she worked as a scientific researcher in Mozambique and Zimbabwe from 1972 to 1988 and lived through some very dangerous situations, especially because there were civil wars occurring in both countries at the time. She returned to America mainly for her son’s sake. Rereading the novel now with that in mind, my main thoughts are that I hope that Zimbabwe can someday be as bright and peaceful as what she’s imagined, because right now it’s a dark, hard place.