The Last Full Measure, by Ann Rinaldi

The Last Full Measure is the story of the Civil War Battle at Gettysburg through the eyes of a 14-year-old resident, Tacy.  Ann Rinaldi has told the story in an interesting and unique way, and those young people who are interested in Civil War stories should not miss this.

Tacy lives in Gettysburg with her mother and a brother, David, who is 21 and cannot fight in the war because of a crippled leg.  Her two older brothers, as well as her father, are all serving as Union soldiers.

There is much accurately portrayed heartbreak – Tasy’s horse is stolen by the Confederates, many of the 400 or so free black people are rounded up and taken south to be sold as slaves, the precious family cow is stolen, and worse of all Tasy’s friend, Jennie Wade, is killed by stray gunfire.  The reader feels Tacy’s pain, and also her difficulty dealing with her brother’s authority. He is unhappy about not being able to serve, and takes some of these feelings out on Tacy.

At first, I was bothered by the simple language, and what I considered lack of depth, but then I realized that this book is written for 10 to 14-year olds, and I believe that the language is appropriate.

There is plenty to balance out the sadness.  There’s secret romance, a new dog, and Tacy’s friendship with Marvelous, her black friend. The tragedy at the end of the book left me feeling somewhat unconvinced, but it created a lot of drama that younger students will probably enjoy.

It’s a well-balanced, informative, interesting story of a terrible time in our country’s history. This would be a wonderful story for a classroom novel during the study of the civil war, because there is much to discuss. The book includes an afterward by the author about her research, and also an extensive bibliography.

Thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing me with the e-book ARC for my honest review. 

Holiday Break Reading Challenge #13 - My Fictional Friends

You may think I'm crazy, but oh well.....I probably am.  Sometimes when I read a book I love a character so much that I think, "You know, if he/she were a real person I could really be friends with him/her." Some authors just have a knack for writing lovable characters. So, think about some of the characters you have gotten to know over your years of reading. Who would be your best friend (or at least a friend of some kind) if he/she were real?

I've seen this one on a lot of responses, but hey, I think I agree:  Hermione from Harry Potter.  Who wouldn't want her as a friend?

Andi, from Revolution. Yea, she had a lot of drama, but I think she'd be a good friend.

Flavia de Luce, from Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. She's only eleven, but I can't stop laughing at her, and she's so smart -- I want to be her friend.

Skeeter Phelan, from The Help. What an amazing, courageous woman.

I'm sure there are others.  I noted that most of these "friends" are from adult books.  I just don't see myself as friends with YA teens, or paranormal heroines.  I love those books, but I guess I feel too old to fit in with that crowd!

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

Marcelo in the Real World is a realistic story about a boy with high-functioning Asperger’s syndrome. I learned a lot about Asperger’s when I read the memoir Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s, by John Elder Robison. Marcelo’s story, because it is fiction and about a teenager, will resonate with teen readers and I think they will get a very accurate sense of what this disorder entails.

Marcelo’s “real world” is his dad’s legal office. Marcelo has always gone to a special school, Paterson, and has had a summer job working with the horses at the school.  His father has decided Marcelo needs to be exposed to more of the real world, and decides that Marcelo should work in the mail room at his law office. If Marcelo is “successful” he can return to Paterson in the fall.  If not, he will be required to attend the public school.

The best thing about this book is that while you are seeing the world through Marcelo’s eyes, you begin to think that maybe we all should be more like Marcelo. He takes everything at face value.  He responds to things very slowly, because he thinks things through very carefully. He can’t do two or more things at one time – he needs to concentrate on one task at a time.  All of these traits could be seen as beneficial to anyone.

Jasmine is Marcelo’s boss in the mail room. She is a wonderful, realistic character, and because of her attitudes and behaviors, Marcelo adjusts well to his new environment.  Marcelo’s job becomes complicated because he has to not only work in the mail room, but also has to work for a young lawyer, Wendell, who is unscrupulous.  Marcelo has to make ethical decisions that would be difficult for anyone, and are even more so with Marcelo’s way of looking at the world.

Marcelo has a supportive family, but his father obviously has problems with Marcelo’s disorder. He wants the best for his son, and in pursuing this goal, he sometimes makes the wrong decisions – but don’t all parents do this from time to time?

Marcelo’s discovery, which sums up the book perfectly: “For all the pain I saw at Paterson, it is nothing compared to the pain that people inflict upon each other in the real world.” (p. 302)

The book was easily readable, and I think teens who are interested in a realistic, interesting story about a teen struggling to find himself will enjoy this.

Holiday Break Reading Challenge - Day 11

Today's activity requires you to create a sentence out of the books you have on your shelves. The main words for the sentence must come from the book titles, but you can add a small word or two in order to help it make sense if you need to. Just put your added words in [brackets]. You can use as many book titles as you want, but use at least 3.

Hold tight! If I stay, I will save you [from those] dirty little secrets [that were] written in blood!

This was fun! If you want to check out some others go to: http://holidaybreakreadingchallenge.blogspot.com/2010/12/activity-11-book-title-sentence.html

Firelight, by Sophie Jordan

Firelight is a unique fantasy adventure that I found very entertaining. Sophie Jordan has created a paranormal creature unlike any other.  The draki are descended from dragons.  They have a human form, but can manifest their draki form usually at will, and especially when they are stressed or frightened (or sexually aroused).  Jacinda is our main character, and she, as an adolescent, has decided to manifest and fly through the skies with her friend in their draki forms during the daylight, which is against the rules.  There are humans that hunt the draki and sell them to the enkros, and the two draki are immediately pursued by a very aggressive group of these hunters.

The enkros are not very well-defined in this book, but that may be intentional, because they may play a bigger part in the coming installments, and we really don’t need to know that much about them yet.

So from the very first couple of pages this book grabs you.  After Jacinda manages to escape the hunters, her mother takes Jacinda and her twin sister, Tamra away from the pride (the group of draki’s they live with.)  Tamra and her mother are unable to manifest, but Jacinda is supposed to be mated with the alpha male, Cassian, because she is a fire-breather--a very rare form of draki. She does not accept this destiny, but also doesn’t want to leave the pride.

They end up in the dessert, which is the very worst possible place for draki, because they need moist, rich soil, and green plants to thrive.  Jacinda’s mother wants Jacinda’s draki to die, so she will no longer be able to manifest.

There’s romance, of course.  Jacinda is inexplicably attracted to the “wrong” boy, Will.  As the story progresses, we are given more and more reasons why Will is the wrong boy.  And, of course, Cassian tracks down Jacinda and wants her back.

The romantic scenes between Jacinda and Will are hot and steamy.  Jordan does a great job of describing the tension, and the struggle that Jacinda goes through to keep from manifesting when she is near Will.  You will not be able to stop turning pages—as the end of the book nears, things between Will, Jacinda, Cassian, Will’s family, and Tamra get more and more tense and the book ends with a shattering, unfulfilling climax the keeps one hoping that there’s GOT to be another book, because things can’t end this way. (And there will, of course, be more books in this series.)

Give this book to your paranormal romance fans – vampire, werewolf, and fairy lovers.  There gonna love the draki too!

In My Mailbox - Not much to report this week

I brought home two books from the library, both of these because of suggestions or reviews from bloggers, so thanks!

Hate List, by Jennifer Brown
Vanish, by Tess Gerritsen.  I've never read her before, but someone said she's like Kathy Reichs, who I LOVE!

I also got Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann from Simon & Schuster free to read on my computer.

Now I just need to get busy reading and try to get caught up!

In My Mailbox is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

Holiday Break Reading Challenge Day 10 - Book Gifts!

Yesterday was Christmas - the day when most people exchange a few gifts. Being book lovers like we are it stands to reason that we either received books or gave books for Christmas. In this activity I want you to tell us what books (or book related materials) you received or gave this holiday season. If they were books you gave to others - tell us who they were for.
I gave my husband a book -- actually Mollie, our dog, gave it to him:



And one of my FAVORITE gifts of all:

Since I have a new Kindle, this will be a lot of fun to use!  Better than actual books, at this point.

What did YOU get?  Check out http://holidaybreakreadingchallenge.blogspot.com/ for more posts about book gifts!

Holiday Reading Challenge - Day 9 - It's Christmas!!

Merry Christmas.  We have a beautiful WHITE one, since we got about 3 inches of snow yesterday.  Here's today's challenge:

Since today is Christmas and everyone will probably be busy, I'm making Today's activity easy. Here is what you have to do:

1. Since today is the 25th, turn to page 25 in the book you are reading right now.
2. Count down the page to line 25 and tell us what the sentence says. If there is a partial sentence or word in that line you can leave it out. If you don't have 25 lines on your page just choose the 7th line (2+5=7).
I'm reading Firelight, by Sophie Jordan. I'm only on page 38, and already am really into this book.  It starts out with a bang!

So here's the quote:

"It needs to be done," Severin insists.

And, I don't even know what the "it" is in that sentence.  That's part of the mystery so far!

Hope you enjoy your day, and enjoy what you are reading.

Follow Friday and Holiday Reading Challenge Day 8

Combining these two posts into one so I don't "over post" today!

Activity #8 - Books Involving Christmas

Merry Christmas Eve.  For today's activity I want everyone to think about books that have Christmas as an important part of the story.  Post the cover and the synopsis so we can see what it is about.

 

It wouldn't be Christmas without the GRINCH!

 

Description from Amazon

The Grinch, whose heart is two sizes too small, hates Who-ville's holiday celebrations, and plans to steal all the presents to prevent Christmas from coming. To his amazement, Christmas comes anyway, and the Grinch discovers the true meaning of the holiday.

Holiday Break Reading Challenge is hosted here.

 

From Parajunkee's Follow Friday:

 

 What are you plans for this fabulous day?

Complicated.  On Christmas Eve, we go to my Mom's house for the extended family's Christmas gift exchange, and we have drinks and appetizers.  On Christmas day, we eat at noon at my husband's family and at 5 at my Mom's.  This year, my daughter will be returning late Christmas day from Mexico, so we won't open our presents until Sunday morning.  Looking forward to it.  Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, and thanks for stopping by!

Revolution, by Jennifer Donnelly

I loved this book. I simply didn’t want it to end; it was exactly what I enjoy in a book.

Revolution has two main characters.  Andi is in the present time.  She’s suffering from depression because she feels responsible for the death of her little brother.  She attends a prestigious private school, and is in danger of not graduating because she won’t write her senior thesis.  Her mother is also suffering from mental illness, and when her father appears (they are divorced) and sees how Andi and her mother are living, he puts her mother in a hospital, and takes Andi with him to Paris, hopefully to work on her thesis.  She’s a gifted musician, and while staying with friends (Lili and G) who collect antiquities, she finds an old guitar and in the case is a very old diary.

The diary belongs to our second main character, Alex, who lived in the late 1700s, and explains much about the beginning of the revolution in France. Alex is the companion of the prince, Louis-Charles, who is the heir to the throne. He is the son of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVII, and after they were beheaded, Louis-Charles was imprisoned, suffered horribly, and died at the age of ten. 

So Andi is reading this diary, and in the mean time her father (who is a Nobel winning scientist) is trying to determine, using DNA testing, whether an old shriveled up heart that G has acquired belonged to Louis-Charles.  She is also researching a composer, Amande Malherbeau, who was composing during the late 1700s also. So the plot intricately weaves together, and although far-fetched, I totally believed it.

This book has everything.  The names that Vijay (Andi’s friend) calls his mom made me laugh out loud.  The romantic scene at the Sacre-Coeur made my heart melt. The tour of the catacombs had my hair standing on end. The stories of the children, both Louis-Charles and Andi’s brother, made me weep.

The descriptions of the settings were fantastic.  I have been to Versailles, and I could picture every room as if I were there again.  I want so badly to hear Andi play the guitar; I felt I almost could as I read the story.  The descriptions of the mud and dirt and smell of 18^th century Paris made my stomach turn.

Andi’s romantic interest, Virgil, adds to the story also, especially musically.  He is a well-defined character, and an entertaining rapper! I loved the musical references.  Everything from Bach and Mozart, to Led Zeppelin and the Ramones.  It was simply amazing how Donnelly used music to help tell the story.

If I had a problem with the book, it would be the fact that the diary is not chronological. Every time I began reading an entry, it would take me a minute to orient myself to where and when Alex was writing about.  This is a minor complaint, and didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book.

The ending is satisfying and comforting, which is nice once in a while. I have one question for those who have read or will read this book:  What happened to the iPod? Wouldn’t it have had a great impact at the end of the story if Andi couldn’t find her iPod? I thought it was an unresolved issue that should have been addressed.

I’m sure this isn’t a book for everyone.  It is beautifully written, but if you don’t like historical fiction, this probably won’t be one of your favorites.  But that won’t keep it from being one of mine.