Title: The Softwire: Betrayal on Orbis 2
Author: PJ Haarsma
Genre: Middle grade science fiction
Publisher: Candlewick
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Review copy from the publisher
First line: “Here it comes!” Theodore Malone shouted.

This review was previously posted on my personal blog on March 24, 2008.

PJ Haarsma has created a completely new world in his science fiction series The Softwire. Johnny “JT” Turnbull is a softwire: a person who can enter and communicate with a computer in his mind. He arrives on the Rings of Orbis, along with dozens of other human children, where they are informed that they will become slaves of the Citizens, the upper-class that rules the planet.

JT’s talents as a softwire become public, which makes him a hot property, and gives him a chance to prove that he is more than just your average “knudnik.” The knudniks are humans and aliens that hold a status between slave and indentured servant on the Rings of Orbis. In order to gain his freedom, JT is expected to serve one rotation (year) on each of the four rings.

In The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1, JT discovers that there is something seriously wrong with the central computer that controls everything on Orbis, and his softwire abilities are pushed to the limit as he tries to figure out what the problem is, and how to fix it.

Virus on Orbis 1 was PJ Haarsma’s first book, and the writing is a little choppy. The world he creates is so unique, and vividly described, however, that I couldn’t put it down. I started the sequel right away.

Betrayal on Orbis 2, the quality of Haarsma’s writing increases considerably, and he manages to create another unique world in the mind of the reader. The world of Orbis 2 is very different from Orbis 1. JT didn’t think that things could get much worse than they were on Orbis 1, where he worked for Weegin, a bully and cheat. He was wrong: his new “guarantor,” Odran, is much worse – and JT is called on to use his softwire talent to communicate with creatures unlike anything he’s ever seen.

This series would be perfect for kids 6th grade and up. Boys will especially enjoy them, but there are some strong female characters, too, that will engage female readers. If you have younger kids that read at a higher level, keep in mind that there is some mild violence, but nothing I would consider gratuitous.

Bonus for Browncoats and fans of Castle: Check out PJ Haarsma’s web site for a video message from Nathan Fillion.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: children's fiction, middle grade fiction, science fiction

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Kate, Emma, and Michael have been on their own since they were small. Emma was just a baby the night they were taken away from their parents. Kate, now fourteen, has done her best to care for her younger siblings, always remembering her mother’s last words to her: “Keep your brother and sister safe.” and “We’ll all be together soon.”

Years have gone by since that night, years in which the children have been shuttled from orphanage to foster home to orphanage, always holding on to their mother’s promise. Finally, they arrive in Cambridge Falls, the only children in an orphanage in what seems to be a magical town, run by the mysterious Dr. Pym. While exploring their new home, they find a book – a book that allows them to travel through time. As Kate, Emma, and Michael try to find their way back to their own time, they must first defeat the evil witch The Countess and her hordes of Screechers – and discover their connection to the Emerald Atlas and the reason for their parents’ long absence.

The kids and I finished The Emerald Atlas earlier this week, and it is definitely one of our favorite read-alouds of all time. In fact, we ended up having to rush like crazy Monday morning to get schoolwork done, because I read long past our allotted time in order to finish the book. I am always thrilled when we discover another series together, especially a well-written fantasy series. John Stephens has created a truly unique world with a fully-formed history, one that involves dwarves, witches and wizards, and a tribal culture that hearkens back to the early Native Americans.

The three siblings whose adventure this is are admirably real. While they have had to stick together and get along on their own, they still squabble and annoy one another like typical brothers and sisters do. Kate, the oldest, is weighed down with the responsibility of keeping her family together. Michael and Emma’s safety is her first priority, and her desire to protect them can sometimes lead to poor decisions. Michael longs to be brave and honorable, as his fascination with Dwarvish culture attests. He is bright and quick-thinking, and his courage shines through when tested. Emma is fearless and independent and a little bit of a brat at times – but she is fiercely loyal to those she loves.

The kids and I all adored these children and became entranced in their fantastical adventure. The story comes to a satisfying conclusion at the end of The Emerald Atlas, but it is obvious that the children’s journey is far from over. This is the first book in the Books of Beginning series, which I am assuming will be a trilogy, as there are three Books of Beginning mentioned. We are all looking forward to book two.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: children's fiction, fantasy, middle grade fiction

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This is the second book in Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, and the second one I’ve read aloud to my kids. We loved this one just as much as the first. Riordan has done a good job of giving us an over-arching mystery (the prophecy surrounding a child of one of the “Big Three” gods at age sixteen), but also giving us a rollicking, fun tale in the meantime. Percy, Annabeth, and a young Cyclops named Tyson head out to the Sea of Monsters to rescue Grover and prevent him from becoming a Cyclops’ bride. Like the first book, modern culture is woven together with Greek mythology, making for some very funny and hair-raising adventures.

Title: Poet’s Choice: Poems for Everyday Life
Author: Selected and introduced by Robert Hass
Genre: Poetry
Publisher: The Ecco Press
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy from the public library

Like many anthologies, I loved a few poems from this collection, liked a lot more, and didn’t care for some. But what makes this one stand out is the format. When Robert Hass was United States Poet Laureate, he started a nationally syndicated poetry column that ran in many national newspapers. He compiled those columns by season and put together this book, which includes not only the poems he chose to share with the American public, but also his thoughts on the poem, as well as as a bit of biographical detail about the poet. Most of the poetry is American, with a few exceptions, and much of it is very good. I enjoyed reading Hass’s notes on each poem and his explanation as to why he chose that one for his column.

Title: Waiting for Columbus
Author: Thomas Trofimuk
Genre: Contemporary fiction, literary fiction
Publisher: Doubleday
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Source: Print copy from my personal library
First line: Imagine a man standing on a rocky shoreline looking out to sea, pondering the question, the same question we whisper when we look up at night into a star-crazed sky – swirls of light millions of years old – everything moving away, or toward, or around: What’s out there?

What can I say? I read this a couple of months ago for a read-along with some other bloggers, and some of them disliked it as much as I loved it. All I can say is that I thought it was brilliant. Beautifully written, lushly sensual with details of taste, touch, smell – and an intriguing mystery as well. A man washes up on the beach in Spain. His belief that he is Christopher Columbus lands him in an insane asylum, where his detailed tales of Columbus’s life intrigue the nurse who cares for him. Who is he? What happened to him to cause him to have such a slip from reality? And why is she so drawn to him? Trofimuk answers all of those questions, and gives us a beautiful story of love and loss.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: children's fiction, contemporary fiction, fantasy, literary fiction, middle grade fiction, poetry, read-alouds

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Natalie – age 14: A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn

Noah – age 12: Dragons in Our Midst: Raising Dragons, Book 1 by Bryan Davis

Jonathan – age 11: The Journal of Curious Letters: The 13th Reality, Book 1 by James Dashner

Josiah – age 9: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

The only one of these books I’ve read is the last one, which is excellent. Josiah had been reading through the Boxcar Children series, but got tired of those and wanted something different. He seems to be enjoying his choice. Josiah and Jonathan both tend to be more reluctant readers, so I’m always pleased when they find a book that makes them enjoy quiet reading time, instead of dreading it.

Jonathan recently finished the latest in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, so I requested several books from the library that I thought might appeal to him. This seems to be the best way to go with him – to simply take him to the library presents way too many choices, and he ends up overwhelmed or coming home with something he didn’t really want to read. I was surprised, but pleased, that he chose the 13th Reality book, as it was the longest of the selections I presented to him. He is about 1/3 of the way through, and after reading time on Thursday, said, “Mom, I really like this book.” This is high praise, indeed.

Noah has been steadily making his way through the Warriors series, and is taking a short break to read Raising Dragons, which a good friend recommended to him.

Natalie is always reading several books at once – this is the one she most recently finished, I believe.

What are your kids reading?

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Stanley Yelnats has terrible luck, and it’s all because of his dirty rotten no-good pig-stealing great-great-grandfather. For generations, his family has suffered under a curse of bad luck, and Stanley’s simply the latest victim. He has been convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sentenced to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention camp for troubled boys. At the camp, he meets the Warden and her sidekick, Mr. Sir. Their method of reforming the boys is to force them each to dig a hole every day, five feet wide and five feet deep. It soon becomes clear that the digging isn’t random; the Warden is looking for something.

Holes is one of my daughter Natalie’s favorite books – one of the few that she has read more than once. She kept trying to convince me to read it aloud to her and the boys, but I was resistant since we’d already seen the movie (a movie which, by the way, follows the plot of the book fairly closely). I gave in, though, and I am so glad I did! As much as we enjoyed the movie, the book is truly a classic of children’s fiction. Josiah, my nine-year-old, is usually the least vocal about our read-aloud books, but he told me more than once, “I really like this book, Mom.”

As we read the story of Stanley and the Yelnats curse, we also learned the history of Camp Green Lake and why it dried up, as well as the reason the Warden is digging up the lake bed. In spite of the injustice Stanley suffers at Green Lake, he changes in ways he never could have imagined, and also meets Zero, a fellow inmate who has had as bad a run of luck as Stanley has. The two forge a friendship that has astonishing repercussions for both of their futures.

This book is full of things that kids love. There are crazy characters: the Warden, with her rattlesnake venom-infused fingernail polish; Mr. Sir and his sunflower seed habit; Kissin’ Kate Barlowe, the female outlaw who kissed each of her victims; and Madame Zeroni, the woman at the heart of the Yelnats curse. There are fiercely poisonous spotted lizards. There are lots and lots of onions and a mysterious concoction called Sploosh. There is a tragic tale of forbidden love and vengeance, and there is a terrific ending. Holes will go down as one of our favorite read-aloud experiences.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 21 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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I loved both of Shriver’s previous novels – The Post-Birthday World and We Need to Talk About Kevin. She is wordy at times, but her words are so well put-together, her characters so detailed and real, that I like burying myself in her books, no matter how long. Unfortunately, I did not have the same experience with So Much for That. The premise was interesting: Shep Knacker is ready to run away from the US, from his job, from his family if they won’t come along, and move to a small island off the coast of Africa and exit the rat race, only to discover that his wife has cancer. Unfortunately, it read more like a political diatribe against the American economic and health care systems than a novel. While I agreed with many of the points being made, it was simply too politics-heavy to be more than mildly enjoyable. The audiobook readers were adequate, but nothing extraordinary.

Title: Inkspell
Author: Cornelia Funke
Genre: Middle grade fantasy
Publisher: The Chicken House
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Brendan Fraser
First line: Twilight was gathering, and Orpheus still wasn’t here.

Can I just say that it is extremely cruel to have Brendan Fraser read this audiobook, but not Inkdeath, the final title in the trilogy? His voice – I could sing songs and write odes to his voice. No matter the character or accent, he was pitch-perfect. I loved the hours spent listening to this book. Of course, without the gorgeous story full of eccentric people, fantastical places, and oodles of book worship to hang his velvety voice upon, I would have been listening to beautiful sound with no substance. Fortunately, Funke delivers on this sequel to Inkheart. I really want to know what happens in the final installment in the series, but the audiobook is read by someone else. This is so, so wrong. I tried, I really did, but I couldn’t make it past the first twenty minutes. And I fell bad, because I’m sure in any other circumstances, the other gentleman would be a perfectly adequate reader, but I can’t listen to Mo, Dustfinger, Fahrid, Meggie, and Eleanor’s voices produced by anyone but Mr. Fraser. I will be reading book three in print.

Title: Black Swan Green
Author: David Mitchell
Genre: Contemporary fiction, coming-of-age novel, British fiction
Publisher: Random House
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Source: Audiobook from the public library
Audiobook reader: Kirby Heyborne
First line: Do not set foot in my office.

Each chapter of Black Swan Green represents a month in the thirteenth year of Jason Taylor’s life, a year full of all the frightful experiences that a boy of thirteen must suffer. Jason isn’t one of the most popular boys – or the least popular boys. When he is given the opportunity to become one of the “it” crowd, his conscience won’t let him do what needs to be done in order to be accepted. In the course of this year of his life, he writes poetry under an assumed name, worries about the obvious tension between his parents, fantasizes about the girls at school, falls into a gypsy camp, tries to overcome his stammer, and starts to become a person. In the course of listening to this book, Jason became one of my favorite young protagonists, and he was perfectly voiced by Kirby Heyborne.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 24 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, british fiction, children's fiction, coming of age novel, contemporary fiction, fantasy, middle grade fiction

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Liam Digby is a twelve-year-old boy in a thirty-year-old man’s body. No, he hasn’t got a growth disorder or undergone some magical switching spell – he’s simply large. Very large. His height might not be enough to make people think he’s an adult, but the peach fuzz starting to grow on his face doesn’t help. There are times when being mistaken for an adult can be fun – like when he gets this close to taking a Porsche out on a test drive, or when the principal at his new school mistakes him for the new teacher – but mostly, it’s a pain. People expect him to act like an adult, but he’s still just a kid.

When Liam hears of a father/child contest to win a trip to the newest and greatest amusement park in the world, he decides to use his height to his advantage. He talks his friend Florida into posing as his daughter and they head off for the thrill ride of a lifetime – a ride that turns out to be the first rocket to space with a crew made up of children and one adult chaperone. Only, Liam is the chaperone, and he’s only twelve. When something goes wrong, Liam finds himself the responsible adult on a rocket ship adrift in space.

The kids and I have spent our read-aloud time for the past couple of weeks with Liam, Florida, and the other kids on the Cosmic thrill ride, and it was time very well spent. Boyce knows how to write the kind of book that boys and girls alike find engrossing. Cosmic has a lot of humor, plenty of heart, and a massive adventure that kept us reading, often turning page after page long after our allotted read-aloud time was over.

The idea of a few parents and kids being selected for the experience of a lifetime had a bit of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory about it, with the parents rather than the kids being the annoying ones. There is Monsieur Martinet, who pushes his son Max to succeed at any cost. There is Eddie Xanadu, who thinks that money can buy anything, and has raised Hassan to believe the same thing. And then there are Samsons One and Two, who value logic and intellectual achievement above people. All of these people, along with twelve-year-old “dad” Liam and his celebrity-obsessed “daughter” Florida, are thrown together for astronaut training, with hysterical results.

Liam may not be a real dad, but in some ways understands what being a dad is more than the actual fathers do. His experiences at the training center and on the rocket give him a new appreciation of his own father, and what it means to be dadly. When I read the last sentence of Cosmic aloud, Noah gave a sigh – a sigh I know well, because it’s the same sound I make when I finish a truly satisfying story. The kids were very excited to hear that Mr. Boyce has other books that we can read together very soon.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: children's fiction, middle grade fiction, science fiction

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Sumiko, a young Japanese-American girl, lives with her younger brother on her Auntie and Uncle’s farm in California, where they grow carnations and weedflower. While sad about the loss of her parents in a car accident, Sumiko and Tak-Tak are happy with Auntie and Uncle and their two grown sons. Then Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, and Sumiko’s family’s lives – along with the lives of thousands of other Japanese immigrants and Japanese-American citizens – undergo tremendous upheaval. Her uncle and grandfather are taken to a prison camp because her grandfather used to be the principal of a Japanese school. The rest of the family are sent to the Poston Internment Camp in Arizona. Sumiko’s love of gardening and her friendship with a Mohave boy help her to find hope even in the midst of prejudice, injustice, and war.

This is the second of Cynthia Kadohata’s books that I’ve read (Kira-Kira was the first), and I am convinced she is one of the best living writers of children’s historical fiction. I have always found the subject of the World War II Japanese internment camps heart-breaking and fascinating, and yet it’s a part of history that I don’t find that we often talk about. It is a shameful episode in American history, and yet a time that needs to be explored and understood.

Ms. Kadohata gives her readers a wonderful character in young Sumiko, and we experience internment through her eyes. The adults around her at the camp have such a varied range of reactions to the injustice: some are determined to be the best Americans possible, enlisting in the military, growing food for the war effort; others are outraged and want nothing to do with the American government who has locked them away, causing them to lose their homes, their businesses, their livelihoods.

Because the Poston camp was built on a Mohave Indian reservation, we see yet another aspect of prejudice – not only white prejudice against Native Americans, but the Japanese and Native American mistrust of each other. When Sumiko becomes friends with Frank, she has her own ideas about people and poverty challenged and changed. Weedflower is a well-written, ultimately hopeful book, and one that older children, teens, and adults alike will enjoy.

Audio notes: Kimberly Farr is an accomplished reader whose work I have previously enjoyed on audiobooks like Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman. She isn’t a flashy reader, but gives the characters’ voices just enough differences to allow the listener to get lost in the story.

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2011. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: audiobooks, children's fiction, historical fiction, middle grade fiction

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When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

From my review: “When You Reach Me won the Newbery Medal, and the honor is definitely deserved. This story of a girl growing up in New York City in the late 70s is amazingly well-written. I loved the main character, Miranda, and her fascination with Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time.”

North! Or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson

From my review: “Like book one in The Wingfeather Saga, I read North! or Be Eaten aloud to my four kids, and it has everything that we love about a fantasy series: action and adventure, fantastical creatures, difficult decisions regarding responsibility and loyalty, heroic quests, sacrificial love, and finding forgiveness. There is something amazing about reading a book like this to your kids – the themes they are taking in are ones I believe are so important. There isn’t any sense of “okay, kids, you’re going to learn a lesson now” – simply amazing story-telling, vivid world-building, tongue-in-cheek humor, and wonderful characters.”

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

From my review: “The kids and I all really enjoyed the Percy Jackson movie, but I’m not sure we would have been so impressed if we had read the book first, because the book is brilliant. It has much more humor and avoids the whole romantic angle, since Percy is only twelve in the book, not 16 like in the film. This was one of our favorite read-alouds of all time, and we will be reading the rest of the series, too.”

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2010. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: children's fiction, favorites, middle grade fiction

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Author links:

~ Neil Gaiman appeared in a recent episode of Arthur, and posted the link to the episode on his blog.

Reviews and blog posts that have me adding to my to-read list:

~ The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger, mentioned by Jen at Devourer of Books.

~ And the Pursuit of Happiness by Maira Kalman, reviewed by Vasilly.

~ The Returners by Gemma Malley, reviewed by Lisa at Lit and Life.

~ Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass, reviewed by Julie at Booking Mama.

Reading challenges:

~ I’m excited about next year’s Gothic Reading Challenge.

Book to movie news:

~ Jamie Ford’s Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet has been optioned for a film. This work of historical fiction stands out as one of my favorite reads of the year.

~ Kathy at Bermudaonion has posted the trailer for the film version of Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I’m really excited for this film, even though I wasn’t crazy about the Robert Pattinson casting. I’m trying to reserve judgment until I see it.

Other bookish links:

~ Classic Kids’ Book Covers Then and Now

© CarrieK for BOOKS AND MOVIES, 2010. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: book covers, book to film, children's fiction, reading challenges

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