Young Adult

Team Human

2012, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I put off reading Team Human for a long time because I am not a Justine Labalastier fan. I don’t hate her I just don’t love her and sometimes she makes me grumbly. But it was on the shelf and I wasn’t finding anything else that I thought I could focus on so… Team Human it was.

And it was fantastic.

I loved it. I loved every character. I loved the relationships between the characters. I was tempted to start right back over at the beginning and read again. I hope there’s a sequel. I want to know more about Kit and Mel. I want to know more about Kit’s mom. And how he came to be on that doorstep. (So I want a sequel and a prequel? Or something?) What happens to Toby and the soccer player? Anna and her mom? Francis and Cathy?

Let’s see them all go to college … well not some of the moms. But you know what I mean.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Team Human Read More »

Three More Cybils — All Non-Fiction

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

Let’s see… what did I read?

Unraveling Freedom. This was interesting because I don’t read a lot of books about WW1, fiction or non-fiction. Nice change from the overwhelming amount of WW2 books I usually read. It was also a nice change to read about WW1 and the US – not WW1 in Europe.

Next, I read Amelia Lost. This took me a long time to get through and I’m not sure why. Maybe because I was reading it while Diana Nyad was attempting to swim from Cuba to Florida and following a living, awesome woman was more interesting than reading stuff about Amelia Earhart that caused me to not like her quite so much. (I had no idea the US government paid to build the airfield on Howland Island JUST for Earhart to land on. Sheesh. We/She would have been better off if she’d just had Roosevelt arrange for inflight fueling at Midway…)

Last, but not least, How They Croaked. This was fun. All of the interesting facts about how famous people died. Nice illustrations (cartoon-like.) It would be a fun book to have on the shelf for kids to pull down and flip through for fun.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Three More Cybils — All Non-Fiction Read More »

Pandemonium

2012, Books in Bed, Fiction, Young Adult /

Book two, Pandemonium – I was really looking forward to this one because I liked Delirium so much. I’m guessing that this is a trilogy, based on how book 2 went. It was one of those books created primarily to set up book three. All very predictable. What happens to Lena when she goes across the fence…leaving Alex behind… exactly what you expect. Now what will happen in book 3 to fix this messy business? I hope it’s a good book 3…

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Pandemonium Read More »

Code Name Verity

2012, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women, Young Adult /

Code Name Verity didn’t really feel like YA. In fact, I suspect the average YA reading kid won’t like it. It’s not about teens and while the main characters were young women, they weren’t that young. It’s deep. It’s complex. And as you read, you know this is not going to end well. And it doesn’t. Except that it does because war is hell and sometimes you have to face your fears and do what it is you fear you would never be able to do. I hated that part but it was right. It was what made the story really worth reading.

I really liked both Queenie (aka Julie) and Maddie. I liked them a lot. I liked them all the way til the end and I still like them. Those are women you want on your team – and as friends.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Code Name Verity Read More »

I Was a Non-Blonde Cheerleader

2012, Books in Bed, Fiction, Young Adult /

When TW read I Was a Non-Blonde Cheerleader, she asked me 57 things about cheerleading – most of which I did not know, because cheerleading has changed a lot since I was a cheerleader. It’s even changed a lot since Michelle was a cheerleader, (though Michelle could have answered a lot more of her questions.)   So all I really knew about the book was that there was cheerleading – and what sounded like hardcore competition level cheerleading.

Sure enough, that’s what it was.

And it was a lot of fun in a mean girl, teenage girl, cheerleading/football player sort of way – fun because the mean girls were only a little mean (in the scheme of things) and there was a lot of cheerleading going on.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

I Was a Non-Blonde Cheerleader Read More »

Between Shades of Grey

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Young Adult /

Whatever you do, do not confuse Between Shades of Grey (a YA novel) with 50 Shades of Grey. They are not the same book and you do not want to buy your pre-teen/teen the wrong book. (Elly noticed the audiobook case in the car and was appalled that we would listen to “THAT BOOK” in the car – the very same car that we use to drive CHILDREN around in. Which made us laugh and talk about how NOT sexy this book is. It also caused us to reserve 50 Shades of Grey in audio… but another post about that, once it arrives and we’ve listened to it, in the same car that we use to drive CHILDREN around in.)

It’s not a bad book. It was just troubling to listen to on audio.

The book is about Lithuanians deported to Siberia and kept in camps and prisons where they suffered horrible, horrible things. So that’s interesting – we see a lot of books about Nazi Germany and the atrocities perpetrated on Jewish people but not so much about the NKVD and the people of Lithuania, Finland, and Estonia.

What wasn’t so good was that as Lina is telling the story, she suddenly flashes to telling a story from her memories of home. It’s jarring. Difficult to figure out what the heck happened, when you’re driving along in the car listening along. In print, I would assume it’s easier to tell when you’ve moved into memory.

TW also mentioned that she did not really like Lina – the 16 year old girl who tells this story. I didn’t dislike her but I was surprised that she didn’t grasp some stuff earlier – or ever. She wasn’t dumb, she was just clueless for longer than I’d have liked.

This is a Cybils shortlist book – and that’s fine. I don’t NOT recommend it. I do feel like it’s one of those books that teachers and parents think children should read but a book that children probably wouldn’t pick up on their own. It’s something that will feel a little too much like homework to them.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

Between Shades of Grey Read More »

This Is Not a Test

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I was nervous about reading This Is Not a Test – because, it’s Courtney Summers and she makes me crazy. So crazy that I swore I’d never read another one of her books. I’m not very good at sticking to my guns when it comes to YA. In case you hadn’t noticed.

Thankfully, she stepped into the world of zombies and all was right with the world. Well not really, but all was not so horribly wrong, either. Which is weird since zombies took over the world and people died and stuff. But that, believe it or not, was better than what I expected after Some Girls Are and Cracked Up To Be. Heh.

Good zombie, YA trouble book. I liked it. A lot of bad stuff happened and she did a very good job of making her screwed up characters screw up in ways that made sense to me. I hope she sticks with fantasy. Heh.

Also – Tina T – super damn brilliant.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

This Is Not a Test Read More »

The Mysterious Benedict Society Series: Books, 2, 3, 4

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Young Adult /

I read the first Mysterious Benedict Society book ages ago and then never read any of the others. When Sassymonkey mentioned book 4, The Mysterious Education of Nicholas Benedict, I decided to catch up and reserved the rest at the library and then I read them all straight through.

The Perilous Journey and The Prisoner’s Dilemma were much like the first book – the four children work together to defeat Mr Curtain and his (mostly) evil henchmen. The Ten Men are creepy. Very creepy. And the kids are very smart. Mr Benedict still has necrophilia.  

The Mysterious Education of Nicholas Benedict is a prequel – and gives us a lot of missing info about how Mr Benedict came to be Mr Benedict. This one’s a little different than the other three books, obviously, but there are still good kids (though not necessarily gifted kids) and the most of adults in the story are not so much bad – they’re just flawed and need someone to help nudge them along the proper path, thankfully there’s Nicholas to sort them out.

Fun series. I’m glad I caught up this way.  

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

The Mysterious Benedict Society Series: Books, 2, 3, 4 Read More »

If I Stay and Where She Went

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Fiction, Young Adult /

I decided to read If I Stay and Where She Went because I didn’t really have anything else burning a hole in my TBR pile and since Where She Went is a BlogHer Book Club book I figured what the hell.

And I am an idiot.

I took a vacation and did not pay one iota of attention to what Where She Went was about, I just knew that If I Stay was the book that came before it – so I started there.

Totally not the book I really wanted to read on the day of Skeeter’s memorial service. But, since I’m a glutton for punishment, I said what the hell again and kept reading. And read the book straight through and yes I shed a tear or two. While I did not hate the end, I understood immediately why Gayle Forman had to write a sequel, even if she hadn’t been planning on writing a sequel

And I really liked Where She Went  – though I did not expect to. I really wasn’t sure as I was reading, because Adam was so very much not the same person he had been in the first book. I understood why he wasn’t but it was tough going there for a bit. And I do believe he’d have been OK – even without the happy ending. I liked that. I liked that the resolution and the closure came before everything fell prettily into place.

Nicely done. Both books, nicely done.

Posted via email from Life. Flow. Fluctuate.

If I Stay and Where She Went Read More »