Young Adult

The Secret of Shadow Ranch

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Classics, Nancy Drew Challenge, Young Adult /

Finally! George and Bess make their appearance. Ned is in “Europe” and we hear a good bit about him, off and on — also found a mistake. At the beginning of the book, Nancy tells George that she’s knitting a sweater for her dad. But at the end, she’s knitting a sweater for Ned. Also… no boating mishaps. Being in the dessert helps – though of course there was that river flood issue but Nancy was on a horse, not in a boat. Here’s my copy:

 

 

The Secret of Shadow Ranch

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The Mystery at Lilac Inn

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Classics, Nancy Drew Challenge, Young Adult /

Nancy Drew should stay out of boats. The first four books have had boat accidents – and no, not all of them have been boat accidents with Helen. It’s Nancy – she’s bad luck in boats. This is my copy. The binding isn’t happy. Sniff. How much does it cost to have the binding repaired on a Nancy Drew book? #4 Nancy Drew

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The Bungalow Mystery

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Classics, Nancy Drew Challenge, Young Adult /

I had forgotten that so many of the first books in the Nancy Drew series featured Nancy’s friend Helen – and lots of different male dates for Nancy. I’m so used to George, Bess, and Ned that I’m thrown when Nancy is hanging out with Helen (who she mostly drops once Helen gets married) and dates so many different guys.

I’d also forgotten how often Nancy’s mysteries are tied to her father’s cases. The Bungalow Mystery is another one of those – what a coincidence! Also… beware of FOREIGN model cars. People who drive them are quite obviously crooks. Also, if you ask good people if they drive foreign cars, they will be a wee bit offended by the question.

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The Hidden Staircase

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Classics, Favorites, Nancy Drew Challenge, Young Adult /

I wonder what happened to my copy of The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew #2.) I’m very sure I owned it. My dad probably sold it in that infamous yard sale. Hmph.

Nancy really really could have used a cell phone in this mystery. So could Mr Drew. And also maybe Helen. (I had forgotten about Helen and Jim’s romance. Very amusing in that patriarchal sort of way.) Also amusing in this one were the food references. How exciting – floating island for dessert! Yum!

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Skybreaker

2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

We enjoyed listening to Airborn on audio last year and were looking forward to listening to Skybreaker – the sequel to Airborn. I was disappointed – First, Matt’s become far too self-conscious about his lack of money. The whining and lack of self-confidence became tiresome and Matt became a character that I no longer respected.  Second, Nadira could have been a really interesting character but Oppel ditched her almost completely by the time they boarded the Hyperion. Why spend all of that time early in the book causing us to be interested in her and then barely mention her name once the story really got moving?

The next book in the series is Star Climber. I’m not sure I really want to read it. I’ve peeked that the synopsis and one review and it looks like we’ll find Matt whining his way through another adventure. That’s too bad.

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The Child Thief

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Should I start by confessing that I don’t really like Peter Pan? And I cannot stand the Disney-fied Tinkerbell, though I supposed I probably had some weird fondness for her when I was young. I think the problem was that I saw the Disney Peter Pan before I read Barrie’s original. The early tainting ruined it all for me.

And then there was Brom and Child Thief. I was opposed to reading it because the dude needs to get another name – does he think he’s Prince? Or Madonna? I was opposed to reading it because… see above. I was interested in reading it because naked women prints inside of a YA book – awesome, that doesn’t happen very often.

So – I read it. And ended up paying 60 cents for the pleasure because I was working my butt off and couldn’t read more than a chapter a night for almost a full week. I wanted to read it straight through. It was good. I might almost like Peter Pan again. Maybe. I definitely like The Lost Boys – particularly since this particular group of Devils weren’t just boys.

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The Battle of the Labyrinth

2 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I was a huge Percy Jackson fan after reading the first book. I talked so much about Percy that Rick Riordan’s wife stopped by my old Books in Bed blog to leave a comment. I really enjoyed the second book, too. And then there was the third book which I liked but… something happened and I was less enthusiastic about Percy. I don’t know if it was anything Percy did (or Riordan) or if it was just that I was in children/YA fiction madness and I just couldn’t manage to read one more piece of children’s literature – no matter how much I might want to.

Whatever it was, I never read book four – until Liz started reading the series and became fixated on it. When I told her I hadn’t finished the series, she told me that I HAD TO… so I reserved Battle of the Labyrinth and it took me forever to finish it. It wasn’t Percy’s fault (or Luke’s either) and it wasn’t Riordan’s fault. It’s me, I’m just not finding enough time to read. I enjoyed the book well enough but like KitCat, I found the Labyrinth a lot less scary than I expected to. The Labyrinth should have been really really frightening – and it just seemed like a normal day in the life of a Half-Blood Hero.

I think Book Five is upstairs on Liz’s bedroom floor. I’m trying to decide if I just want to go ahead and read it or if I want to head back to my TBR list or some general library reading. Will I enjoy book five more if I read it right after book four? Or should I hold off and think about it for awhile? Decisions, decisions.

Oh, I almost forgot… while I was reading The Battle of the Labyrinth, I asked TW what color ink her “pen” would write…If she had one like Riptide…. She said hers would be purple, which isn’t much of a surprise. Mine would be blue – or red – I can’t decide. What color “pen” would you have?

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The Libyrinth

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Queer, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women, Young Adult /

TW kept telling me that I had to read The Libyrinth. I couldn’t figure out why. It looked like some run of the mill YA fantasy novel. What’s the big deal? TW likes fantasy but she tends to be not as big a fan of YA as I am.

It took all of two paragraphs for me to figure out why she liked it. Books. A library, the biggest library EVER. Ritualistic book burnings carried out by people who are either Eradicants or Singers, depending upon your point of view. Strong women, lesbians. The book had everything. EVERYTHING.

One of the characters, hears written text, and since she lives and works in a library (the Libyrinth) she is surrounded by books – random lines from random books appear throughout the story and it’s interesting to see how quickly we recognize (or don’t) the lines. (The list of quoted books is in the back, which was nice.)

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Ruby’s Imagine

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Women, Young Adult /

I plucked Ruby’s Imagine off of the shelf because of the cover. It’s a tiny little book with a half flap type of book cover. It was appealing. And then it sat on the shelf in my house for weeks. When I finished the Weiner book, it was late at night but not quite time to turn off the lights so I grabbed this one. Something small, short, quick – and also something that needs to go back to the library soon.

I had no idea what this book was about.

A teenage girl in NOLA in the days leading up to/during Katrina.

If I’d known what it was about, I probably wouldn’t have checked it out. I’m glad I didn’t know because it was good. Great writing, excellent story, characters I enjoyed getting to know just a little bit. I don’t know if Kim Antieau has written anything else, but I think I’m going to find out.

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Fade

2009, Books in Bed, Fiction, Young Adult /

RJ and I got into a discussion about the Lisa McMann series and she convinced me that I shouldn’t wait to read more, that I should either read her copy of Fade or grab it from the library. So I did.

RJ was very troubled by Fade. I’m not sure why it was more troubling than Wake. Maybe because Janie figured out what’s going to happen to her because of her dream catching? Or maybe it was the date rape stuff? I don’t know, I haven’t had a chance to ask her. I just enjoyed it and am ready for the next book.

Of all the “powers” one might have, falling into other people’s dreams has got to be one of the most horrible. shudder.

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