A Midsummer Tights Dream by Louise Rennison

A Midsummer Tights Dream by Louise Rennison. Pub. HarperCollins, 2012.

This book is a laugh. Very clever parody of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Nights Dream, Northern England and Irish character, and a pre-pubescent girl who is waiting for her corkers to grow.

I found myself laughing out loud in places and smiling with the genius of the wit.

Tallulah Casey is a madcap girl but serious about her acting ability and her quest for boys. In the first book , Withering Tights, she attends Dother Hall performing arts college run by the outrageous Sidone Beaver. She wondered whether she would ever meet boys and start snogging.

Well she’s done it twice now and longs for more especially with her absent boyfriend Alex who writes her a promising letter. But there are other boys.

Back at scholl she meets her old classmates including the Bottomley sisters whose mother drives the bus and does cage fighting in Leeds at the weekend. She also meets bad boy Cain Hinchcliff or the animal in trousers, who gives her something to think about.

Great fun but don’t let me spoil it for you read it yourself. If you have read Rennison’s previous series about Georgia Nicolson then you will love this book. I did.

The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler

The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler. Pub. Simon & Schuster UK. 2012.

A romantic comedy with great appeal for high school students. Every library needs a novel like this, it is light, easily read, topical and fun.

It is 1996 and childhood friends Emma and Josh have not spoken or been together for more than 6 months after Josh noticed how Emma was filling out her jeans and tried to kiss her. Josh feels hurt and Emma embarrassed.

Then Emma’s father buys her a computer with Windows 95 and when she logs on to America Online there is a jump 15 years into the future and she clicks into Facebook. She finds herself aged 31 and checks out whether she is still in contact with her current friends especially Josh.

What she finds rocks her to the core. She involves Josh who is quite happy with what Facebook reveal is going to happen to him as he is going to marry the hottest and richest girl in school who currently doesn’t know him from a bar of soap.

Both Emma and Josh try to alter or ensure that what Facebook reveals to them. Should you tamper with the future? or just let things happen as they would naturally in the course of time?

A believable plot by twin authors writing consecutive short chapters with Jat Asher being Josh and Carolyn Mackler being Emma. The marriage works and they produce an entertaining novel on teenage relationships in 1996 with the future sticking it’s nose in.

Cinnamon Rain by Emma Cameron

Cinnamon Rain by Emma Cameron. Pub. Walker Books, 2012. 

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel for High School students particularly those at senior level between school and the world outside.

It is a novel written in blank verse and is very easy to read. The story flows well with short two page poems describing the action, and you want to keep reading.

Luke, Casey and Bongo are friends at school and each has a section as narrator telling their side of the story.

Luke is a shy boy, good sportsman, good academically, not sure of where he is going but wants to have casey in his life.

Casey holds everybody at arms left. Her domineering father makes her unsure of the choices she has in life and all she longs for is to get away. She likes casey but opens up more to Bongo.

Bongo has a dysfunctional family life. His mother is a juny, his father abusive and his only brother Dylan who he adores is taken away by social services. He gets away and lives rough but is always looking for his big chance.

Most importantly about this story is all three kids feel connected to each other. Will this connection survive? Read and find out.

A very satisfying ending to this novel.

The Prince of Soul and the Lighthouse by Fredrik Brouneus

The Prince of Soul and the Lighthouse by Fredrik Brouneus. Pub.Steam Press, 2011.

This is a novel that talks about deep things such as the soul and reincarnation but it does it with great wit and humour. It is a book for secondary school students and young adults and it is very easy to read.

George Larson is 18 and in past lives unbeknown to him he has been a fish, and anteater, Isaac Newton and the king of soul Otis Redding. While he was Isaac Newton he invented a mechanism that helps the newly dead to reincarnate into something acceptable to them like another human being instead of an animal.

Devious people want this invention which is called a Lighthouse for want of a better word and George larson has no idea what is going on.

Firstly he is visited by his dead uncle, then a Tibetan Monk comes calling and the Finnish exchange student, the drop dead gorgeous Kaisa seems to know something as well. Urged by the Tibetan monk, George goes looking for the Lighthouse to save the world and has an adventure that will have you smiling and admiring at the wit of it all.

Brouneus says in the book that “fiction has to be credible to be believed, to be real”. I do believe he has done it!

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Wonder by R.J. Palacio. Pub. Bodley Head, 2012.

This book should be read by or to every child.

It is the type of story that will make you happy, sad, understanding, angry, you name the emotion or feeling and this book has it.

What’s more,it is easy to read. Short chapters with a variety of narrators giving a different point of view or experience. Great cover too.

August has reached 10 years old and he has been home schooled all his life. His excellent parents have kept him home for “his own sake”. They have fears that exposing August to the range of human behaviours in school will be detrimental to his self image, his morale and everything that makes us human beings. Why?

August was born with severe facial disfigurement which I am not going to tell you about, read the book yourself. When people look at him they gasp and sneek secret looks because they are fascinated and horrified at the same time.

August’s parents decide to send him to school and this evokes a range of reactions and experiences for everybody concerned. You will be appalled by some of the reactions.

The book is narrated by August, his sister and a number of friends and acquaintences who witness and have part in his first year at school. It is fascinating and remarkable, but totally predictable I am afraid, and this is what makes it so powerful.

This book is for everybody but primary and intermediate children will relate to it the most.

I will leave you with the feelings of August’s older sister Via ‘ We’ve all spent so much time trying to make August think he’s normal that he actually thinks he is normal. And the problem is, he is not”.

Unbelievable!!

The Lunar Chronicles Part 1 Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Pub. Puffin, 2012.

This is great reading that will have heaps of appeal to futuristic fantasy readers in their teenage years. It is part 1 of a projected four book series by a critically acclaimed author and deserves close attention.

The World is divided into five and this book is set in New Beijing capital of the Eastern Commonwealth. The major threat to humans is twofold, plague or Letumosis, which is fatal and has no known cure, and Lunars led by the evil Queen Levana who are based on the planet Luna.

It is a world in which humans mix with Androids and cyborgs and all the old oil based industries are gone.

Cinder is 16 years old and remembers nothing before her 11th birthday. She is a cyborg with 36.28% of her body made from machines and circuits. She can tell if you are telling lies and is very attractive although she is unaware of this. She is bonded to a step mother who is undoubtedly wicked and has two step sisters.

If it sounds like a Cinderella story then it is. Cinder in the course of her job as a modern mechanic, meets the Emperors son Kai, and he asks her to the ball to keep all the groupies away from him. yer Right!

The Earth is in crisis. Queen Levana threatens war unless Kai marries her and when the Royal Ball comes round all hell breaks loose.

I was intrigued by the story which struck me as being a cut above some of the drivel I have passed my eyes over of late.

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. Pub. HarperCollins, 2012.

This is one of the loveliest stories I have read for sometime and primary children and intermediate kids will love it.

Ivan is a silverback gorilla with an artistic bent, who lives in a cage or domain as he calls it, in the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade.

He has Stella the elephant and Bob the dog to keep him company but he doesn’t know what it is like to be with other gorillas, in fact he thinks he is the only gorilla. Very sad.

He has been with Mack the arcade owner since he was captured but has other human contacts particularly Julia a young girl who gives him paper and crayons to draw.

One day a baby elephant, Ruby is brought to the Arcade and this changes all the animals lives. She inspires Ivan to remember and to question his existence and future. What happens will stir your emotions to a level few books achieve.

One of the best animal stories I have read, even though all the animals have been given human thoughts and actions. The chapters are short and the language simple so that even the most reluctant of readers could manage this book easily.

It is based on a true story and questions human’s treatment of animals in zoos. Read it you will love it

Ashes by ILsa J. Bick

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick. Pub. Quercus, 2011.

An absorbing read this, perhaps a bit long, but dealing with some pretty raw material.

Seventeen year old Alex has lost her parents and been diagnosed as having an inoperable tumour on the brain that has already taken away her sense of smell and taste. She goes walkabout in the forests near the Great Lakes to think things over and after meeting an 8 year old brat Ellie and her grandfather an Earth shattering thing happens that changes things for ever.

An electromagnetic pulse, EMP, of unknown origin, zaps the World, killing millions and  changing young people and old people into something they were not before. It changes Alex.

The EMP  cuts all solid state and computer operated machines so that communication is destroyed. The cities are destroyed to ashes and the civilisation that remains is reduced to survival mode and being America the very worst and best of human qualities is exposed.

The pulse has changed people in different ways depending it seems on the hormonal balance of the body. Teenagers either develop super senses as Alex does and some become flesh eating maniac zombies. Old people either die immediately or are rejuvinated.

Alex meets Ellie and ex soldier Tom and together they survive quite well. But then things change as pressure on the world increases, the trio are separated and Alex experiences the mayhem that the World has become.

Well written with a high level of tension and horror but well worth reading. Teenagers will find it absorbing.

Ilsa J. Bick is a new author for me and it seems this idea is ripe for at least one sequel.

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick Introduced by Lemony Snicket

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick Intro. Lemony Snicket. Pub.  Houghton Mifflin Children’s Books,  2011.

Many of you will know the Chris van Allsburg picture book classic The Mysteries of Harris Burdick first published in 1984 that featured 14 illustrations with a title and worded observation underneath that suggested mystery.

Many teachers have used this book to inspire their students to write stories on what they have seen in the illustrations. I myself have pondered what happened in each.

Well 14 very good American writers have provided their thoughts of what happened in each. Jon Scieszka, Louis Sachar, Lois Lowry Kate Di Camillo, Stephen King and others including Chris Van Allsburg himself have answered the mysteries of the pictures.

Some will appeal  others will not. I personally loved the Lois Lowry story of the Seven Chairs -The fifth ended up in France. Brilliant imagination from all 14 writers and a great addition to any school library.

I read this book in half a day so it will keep you interested, Mysteries always do.

The stars of this book are of course the illustrations themselves. Check out the picture book it is a classic.

Flip by Martyn Bedford

Flip by Martyn Bedford. Pub. Walker Books, 2011.

This would be the strangest book for teenagers I have read for some time but boy was it compelling reading. It will make you flip.

Alex wakes up after a night out with his mate and finds himself in a bedroom he doesn’t recognise. He looks in the mirror and it isn’t his face, he goes to the toilet and the crown jewels are not his, they are more impressive in fact. Yuk!!

He hears a female voice calling Philip down to breakfast and he quickly realises that he is Philip, well the body is Philip but his mind is Alex. What has happened?

First he has to negotiate the first day including school, Philip’s friends, classes, sister, girlfriends and parents. Philip is alien to Alex. What has happened to his own body?

Mentally he starts to fall apart. Philip is a sporty jock with limited intelligence and Alex is more cerebral preferring chess and academic performance.

Alex tries to contact his family in London but discovers something is wrong and suspects that his own body of Alex is  dead. He goes to London to see his family and I can tell you no more. Read it yourself.

Martyn Bedford makes you think. He touches on that important aspect of human existence, the soul. Can it be transferred from one person to another? Psychic evacuation he calls it. Terrific stuff. I loved this book.

Wonderful ending. Read it.