Va-Va-VOOM!

I googled Joy Puke and this is what I got.
Not disappointed.

VEGAS IS LESS THAN A WEEK AWAY.

I'M SO EXCITED FOR ALL THE BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

SOMETIMES I GET TOO EXCITED TO READ.

IT'S GOING TO BE A SLOW MONTH FOLKS.

SORRY NOT SORRY.




......but on a less yelling note....

I'm super stoked for Vegas and all the books.

I'll be traveling with folks and probably overwhelming them with my joy (although one of them is studying to become a librarian (all of the envy) and the other is related to me) so neither of these party members will be unnerved by my antics.

SUCH EXCITE.

I don't think there's any other random, irrelevant information I can impart on you besides the STEAM SUMMER SALE HAS BEGUN.

AWW YEAH.

I like all this good life stuff.

....

Randomness out.

HAPPY READING!!!!

Battling Boy

Battling Boy by Paul Pope

As a graphic novel, there isn't going to be much to say about the book or the story.

So I'm going to hop right to the amazon summary, "The adventure begins in the new graphic novel by comics legend Paul Pope.

Monsters roam through Arcopolis, swallowing children into the horrors of their shadowy underworld. Only one man is a match for them - the genius vigilante Haggard West.

Unfortunately, Haggard West is dead.

Arcopolis is desperate, but when its salvation comes in the form of a twelve-year-old demigod, nobody is more surprised than Battling Boy himself.

IT'S TIME TO MEET AN ELECTRIFYING NEW HERO.

An NPR Best Book of 2013" AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

If you read "IT'S TIME TO MEET AN ELECTRIFYING NEW HERO," and went DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN afterwards, you'd like this book.

The story starts with a city suffering under the onslaught of monsters; we see the city's hero (Haggard West) die within the first twenty pages. The desolation of the world is something felt in the dialogue but also depicted by the art. More on the art later.

Jump to a different world where seemingly Gods roam; understanding their strengths, helping other worlds defeat their monsters, and sending their children down the same path. This is where we meet Battling Boy. His Father sends him on something called a 'Rambling' as it is the eve of his 'Turning day' - what those are, the text doesn't tell us anything beyond that Battling Boy is sent off to train against monsters on a different world.

As the story unfolds, the art has a hasty style. All of the details are there, but the combination of dark tones starkly contrasted against a light blue, empty sky gives it an eerie feeling of a world where hope is present, but the world is already ruined.

It's kind of dark, science fiction for a young adult book but it carries a quirky charm of it's own.

Happy reading!

The Mark of the Dragonfly

The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but during the school year, I volunteer with a young reader's book club. It encourages middle school and high school students to read a diverse set of books - everyone reads their own book and comes to the meetings ready to discuss what they've read.

Quite a few of them have read The Mark of the Dragonfly, and loved it. With that kind of chatter, I had to pick up the book for myself and see what all the hype was about.

An amazon summary, "For fans of Frozen, The City of Ember, and The School of Good and Evil, The Mark of the Dragonfly is a fast-paced adventure story about a mysterious girl and a fearless boy, set in a magical world that is both exciting and dangerous.

Piper has never seen the Mark of the Dragonfly until she finds the girl amid the wreckage of a caravan in the Meteor Fields.

The girl doesn't remember a thing about her life, but the intricate tattoo on her arm is proof that she's from the Dragonfly Territories and that she's protected by the king. Which means a reward for Piper if she can get the girl home.

The one sure way to the Territories is the 401, a great old beauty of a train. But a ticket costs more coin than Piper could make in a year. And stowing away is a difficult prospect--everyone knows that getting past the peculiar green-eyed boy who stands guard is nearly impossible.

Life for Piper just turned dangerous. A little bit magical. And very exciting, if she can manage to survive the journey.


[STAR] "This magnetic middle-grade debut...[is] a page-turner that defies easy categorization and ought to have broad appeal."-Publishers Weekly, starred
[STAR] "Heart, brains, and courage find a home in a steampunk fantasy worthy of a nod from Baum."-Kirkus Reviews, starred
[STAR] "A fantastic and original tale of adventure and magic...Piper is a heroine to fall in love with: smart, brave, kind, and mechanically inclined to boot."-School Library Journal, starred" AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

I feel like the amazon summary told you a whole lot of vague something. 

Piper is a scrapper; she lives in a po dunk town that has a number for its name. As a scrapper, she goes out into the meteorite fields after a storm.

This world has meteorite storms that rain objects down from the sky that are thought to be objects lost from other worlds. There are different theories about the phenomenon that are explained through out the book (hint: you'll have to read the book to find out about them [/snark]). It's extremely dangerous to be out during the storms due to the ROCKS FALLING FROM THE SKIES AT HIGH VELOCITIES but also because a poisonous dust surrounds the meteorites when they fall.

Side note: I completely love that the book reminds me strongly of the saying 'Rocks fall, everyone dies' (although SPOILER, no one dies from a rock falling on them).

ANYWAYS.

So Piper is friends with Micah whose family looked after her when her father left to work in the mines at the capital. Her father sent her money, letters, and sometimes drawings from the capital. One day, the letters stopped arriving and Piper knew her father was dead.

Micah is kind of like a little brother/friend all rolled into one to Piper. He's very enthusiastic about everything and wants to get the best loot from the meteorite showers.

One day, Micah hides out in the fields when a storm hits. Piper escapes the shelter and finds him in the field. They hide under a rock out cropping together and Piper spots a caravan that is also out in the storm. The meteorites start hitting and tear the field apart; after the dust starts to clear, Piper sees the caravan has been destroyed. Micah also has a head wound and is unconscious; as Piper looks around for a pallet to get Micah to safety, she sees a girl whose unconscious in the wreckage as well. Miraculously, Piper manages to get both Micah and the mysterious girl to her house. Micah's brother gets Micah to their house and calls for a doctor.

Piper tends to the girl who is a little bizarre when she wakes up. As Piper gets the girl some food, a strange man comes looking for the girl and seems bizarre and wrong somehow. The girl is terrified of the man so Piper refuses to let him in.

Piper and the girl escape to the 401 in the hopes of reaching the capital; the girl (whose name is Anna) has a dragonfly tattooed onto her arm which thankfully grants them safe passage onto the train despite the security chief's misgivings.

THAT IS ENOUGH SUMMARY.

So something this book doesn't say is that everyone is a human; it leaves itself open to quiet possibilities in the future by doing so. We've already been exposed to a couple in this book, but I'm excited what the next book will bring. I'm hoping this is a series that will take off because the premise that's been set up leaves itself open to political upheavel, wars, adventure/exploration, and a whole mess of coping with relationships/secrets and frankly, just being different.

I agree with what some of the young adults said in book discussion; they loved how Piper was logical about her choices and really evaluated her situations most of the time rather than diving in recklessly. It was refreshing to read about an intelligent young adult rather than the emotionally driven narrators that are running rampant in books. However, Piper's story really lends her to be more intelligent than anything, which again is refreshing. Eh.

All in all, it was quite a fun read.

Happy reading!

Bird

Bird by Crystal Chan

So....this book was definitely a coming to terms with grief, discovering yourself, and fighting for what you believe in all jammed pack in this heart wrenching story.

If you can't handle bawling at books, then you might want to pass on this.

For everyone else, this book was soooo good.

There were a lot of moments where I almost couldn't handle the overwhelming FEELS the book invoked within me. FEELS EVERYWHERE.

......so there's that.

FEELS.

An amazon summary, "Entrenched secrets, mysterious spirits, and an astonishing friendship weave together in this extraordinary and haunting debut.

Nothing matters. Only Bird matters. And he flew away.

Jewel never knew her brother Bird, but all her life she has lived in his shadow. Her parents blame Grandpa for the tragedy of their family’s past; they say that Grandpa attracted a malevolent spirit—a duppy—into their home. Grandpa hasn’t spoken a word since. Now Jewel is twelve, and she lives in a house full of secrets and impenetrable silence.

Jewel is sure that no one will ever love her like they loved Bird, until the night that she meets a mysterious boy in a tree. Grandpa is convinced that the boy is a duppy, but Jewel knows that he is something more. And that maybe—just maybe—the time has come to break through the stagnant silence of the past." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

Jewel was born into a grieving family; on the day she was born her older brother, John (nicknamed Bird), died by jumping off of a cliff as he believed he could fly.

Since that day, her Grandpa hasn't spoken a word and Jewel has lived amongst a family that doesn't seem to love life anymore - that just takes each day and tries to survive to the next.

It's the summer; Jewel has no friends and no one to play with until John arrives. He's about the same age as her and is visiting his Uncle for the summer.

Jewel slowly becomes friends with him as they accept things about each other that haven't been accepted by others before (like how John wants to become an astronaut and Jewel wants to be a geologist).

 Jewel constantly struggles with her distant parents and silent Grandpa - although her Grandpa seems to be convinced that John is not good news.

As Jewel learns more about who her family used to be, her heart aches for a brother she never knew, and thus unfolds the story of Bird.

It was absolutely beautiful.

Happy reading!

Don't Even Think About It

Don't Even Think About It by Sarah Mylnowski

Do you ever get to the point in your reading stack where you've just read a lot of books with depressing subject matter?

I do. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not really afraid to read anything that is too sad/intense/about cancer/etc. as I usually have a lighter, fun waiting for me.

This was one of those books.

There were some more serious bits to it, but when the tagline on the back reads, "Secrets. Scandals. ESP." It's usually going to be funny, takes itself so seriously that it's funny, or an unintentional train wreck.

Luckily, it was somewhere between funny and takes itself so seriously that it's funny.

Confused? An amazon summary, "Contemporary teen fiction with romance, secrets, scandals, and ESP from the author of Ten Things We Did (And Probably Shouldn't Have).

We weren't always like this. We used to be average New York City high school sophomores. Until our homeroom went for flu shots. We were prepared for some side effects. Maybe a headache. Maybe a sore arm. We definitely didn't expect to get telepathic powers. But suddenly we could hear what everyone was thinking. Our friends. Our parents. Our crushes. Now we all know that Tess is in love with her best friend, Teddy. That Mackenzie cheated on Cooper. That, um, Nurse Carmichael used to be a stripper. 

Since we've kept our freakish skill a secret, we can sit next to the class brainiac and ace our tests. We can dump our boyfriends right before they dump us. We know what our friends really think of our jeans, our breath, our new bangs. We always know what's coming. Some of us will thrive. Some of us will crack. None of us will ever be the same.
 So stop obsessing about your ex. We're always listening.

"Smart and frequently hilarious."--Publishers Weekly, starred


“A tour-de-force comic narration that will leave you gasping in awe—if you ever catch your breath from laughing.”—E. Lockhart, author of We Were Liars


“Hilarious, moving, and utterly ingenious.”—Robin Wasserman, author of The Book of Blood and Shadow and The Waking Dark “Sarah Mlynowski does it again with a fresh, fun, and fabulous story filled with secrets, surprises, and a sixth sense. Don’t even THINK about passing up this hilarious read!” —Elizabeth Eulberg, author of The Lonely Hearts Club “Finally, someone understands that if you develop powers as a teenager, it’s not the government you have to watch out for—it’s your best friends. Funny, realistic, heartfelt, satiric, and unpredictable.” —Ned Vizzini, New York Times bestselling author of It’s Kind of a Funny Story" AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE

So, in case you missed it, the premise of the book revolves around a homeroom full of kids getting the flu shot at lunch one day and develop...an odd side effect.

Telepathy.

The book is a bit weird as the narration follows around everyone in the class to an extent; it portrays it as there's roughly 20 kids who had the vaccine that gives them telepathy, but there are about 8 characters the book actually likes to focus on.

Yet, the book has an aggravating habit of switching to speaking in third person directly to the reader then flipping to watching the scene unfold with a little commentary to the reader. It's odd and disconnecting from the book.

The book goes through the unfolding of the telepathic powers, the different quirks of how their telepathy seems to work, and then centers around five people having intense drama and FEELINGS towards each other.

Like high school, just less secrets.

Through the book I found it irritating that characters would pop up to provide a tidbit of information or to reveal a quirk of the power before being completely forgotten again. Or to prove a point of how confusing it is to be shunned from a group of very....well-connected people.

All in all, the book had funny moments, a few moments where the narration threw me out of the story, and an ending that led me to wonder if there would be more books (is this the first book in a series?).

Telepathy can be a nightmare in high school....and also might reveal that the school nurse used to be a stripper. Who knew?

Happy reading!