adolescence

Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson

 in Blog Events / Fantasy / Fiction / Young Adult by

 

I took park in a book blog event called Nerds Heart YA . What it is is that books that were written in 2011 and were overlooked are chosen for this competition. The books have to fall under the following categories.

  • Person(s) of Color (POC)
  • GLBT
  • Disability
  • Mental Illness
  • Religious Lifestyle
  • Lower Socioeconomic Status
  • Plus-size

The two books that were passed on to my division of the contest was Tall Story but Candy Gourlay and Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson. The Blogger, which I was paired with, was Sam from Parenthetical. After some debating we chose the book to go on to the next round. Our decision was Toads and Diamonds.

Summary

“Set in the fictional Indian land of Hundred Kingdom, Tomlinson’s memorable novel employs magic realism to explore a universal truth: an individual’s gifts and talents are not always as they might seem. Stepsisters Diribani and Tana are blessed by the goddess Naghali-ji in very different ways. When Diribani speaks, flowers and gemstones fall from her mouth. Tana’s talent seems to be more of a curse: she produces frogs and snakes when she talks. While Diribani is held at the opulent court of the Believers, where her every jewel is collected and tallied for the kingdom’s profit, Tana is chased from her village by its snake-fearing residents. Taking on the disguise of a mute stable hand, she returns, and with her unusual abilities, she saves the land…”

*Amazon.com

Review

I have to say that this was quite a good book. The story line was interesting as it was taken from a French fairy tale, which Sam told me. I voted to choose this book as a winner because of the story line. I have never really read a book that is taken off a fairy tale. I have read fairy-tale-like stories but not one taken from an actual fairy tale. It was about these two girls who met a goddess in human form (she was testing them.) One of the girls was gifted with speaking jewels and flowers. The other girl was gifted with speaking toads and snakes. Each thing that the girl got was a gift and a curse. People tied to kill the girl who spoke jewels but jewels can buy riches. The girl who spoke toads and snakes was feared and kicked out of cities but snakes were needed to get rid of insects. Each girl had to learn how what she was given was a gift and a curse. It was a very touching story.

One thing that I did not like though, was that I did not really think that the author described the characters very well. I personally could not picture them in my mind at all. What they were wearing may have been described but what they looked like was not. I could not imagine them. That puts me off a book very much if I cannot imagine what I am reading.

I chose this book over the other one also because Tall Story, I felt, did not go anywhere. It just was kind of boring and did not appeal to me that much.

So, Parenthetical and I have chosen this book to be passed on to the next round in the Nerds Heart YA book blog event. Hopefully the next set of bloggers will like it.

Please check out Parenthetical’s review of Toads and Diamonds.

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore Lorien Legacies

 in Adventure / Book Reviews / Books / Young Adult by

“Three Are Dead. I Am Number Four.”

I wanted to see the movie I Am Number Four  but didn’t make it to the movies in time.  I need to get the DVD and  Netflix has a long wait for it. So, I decided that if I couldn’t watch it just yet, I could read it. I didn’t know there was a book until the other week when I was in Barnes and Noble and saw it sitting on the shelf.  So I ran off to the library and 3 days ago I got it and gobbled it up really fast.

This book was about a boy – Number Four – who was the next one on the enemies hit list. Number Four is from a different planet and his is the last of his people.  The enemies were also from a different planet and they were trying to completely wipe out the Lorien – his planet and home – race. There were only 9 remaining and three were dead. Number Four did have a name in the book but he changed it every single time he moved. So the story was originally about his love for this girl and that was how the story was going. But as the story progressed it changed and turned to the enemies and how they were coming for him.

The story, I thought, was going to be a little more exciting and I though that there would be more to it. The ending was just one big fight  and that whole thing was put into about a chapter. Suddenly towards the end of the book a new important character arrived. The last couple of chapters were boom, boom, boom, boom – one thing after another and it got kind of confusing. While I was reading the book I would not have thought it was about an alien race because Number Four seemed so, well, human.

Number Four was described well with his build and how he looked. The characters in this book were described well too. I could picture them all in my mind as I was reading it.

This book was sad as one of the main characters died and it was a sad way to die (can’t tell you how he died). You felt the pain of some of the people in this book. This book was good as it did have a good story line and it kept you entertained so  I would definitely recommend  reading it. But do read the book first before you see the movie because from the trailer I can see that it is a little different from the book.

Enjoy the book and tell me what you though of it. What is your opinion on the book?

The movie review will be coming up soon.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

 in Adventure / Creative / Fantasy / Fun / Interesting / Reluctant Readers / Young Adult by
Cover of "American Born Chinese"

Cover of American Born Chinese

Summary

Amazon.com

“Indie graphic novelist Gene Yang’s intelligent and emotionally challenging American Born Chinese is made up of three individual plotlines: the determined efforts of the Chinese folk hero Monkey King to shed his humble roots and be revered as a god; the struggles faced by Jin Wang, a lonely Asian American middle school student who would do anything to fit in with his white classmates; and the sitcom plight of Danny, an All-American teen so shamed by his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee (a purposefully painful ethnic stereotype) that he is forced to change schools. Each story works well on its own, but Yang engineers a clever convergence of these parallel tales into a powerful climax that destroys the hateful stereotype of Chin-Kee, while leaving both Jin Wang and the Monkey King satisfied and happy to be who they are….”

Review

I have not read a graphic novel for quite a long time. Well, I do not believe I have ever read an authentic graphic novel, I have read a Warrior Series graphic novel but I am not sure if that qualifies.

This book was quite interesting. I am usually not a person who reads graphic novels because I feel that it does not give me the satisfaction of a regular book. I like to have to use my imagination  to see the characters and I like to see them in my own eyes. When you read a graphic novel, the characters are drawn for you. There is no imagination involved as you read the captions to go along with the story. Graphic novel’s, I believe, are for reluctant readers. They get you to read as they are good stories but they do not require a lot of concentration. I read this book in under a day as it was so simple. Do not get me wrong, it was a good book and the pictures were well done, but I personally do not like .

The pictures in this book were well done. I do like graphic novel drawings. They are a unique style of drawing and I respect people who can do it as it is quite an amazing art form. It was also a humorous book. Not like splitting your sides funny but it had its moments.

I personally believe that this is really a boy book though. There was no violence as such (even though at one point someone got speared and put over a spit but is saved) but the story line just came across to me as being a boy type of story line. I cannot explain how but that is the vibe that I got.

This book was a National Book Award Finalist. It also won a Michael L. Printz Award for young adult literature.

I would recommend you to read the book as it is a graphic novel and it is a good change from reading a regular book. I hope that you enjoy.

If you have read it tell me what you think about it.

Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

 in Book Reviews / Books by

20 pages. That was all that I read. This was because of what was in the book. You can read the review here. But since I did not read the book I do not know much about the story but I am going to tell you this from what I read. There is a lot of cursing in this book. You pretty much have every word in the cursing dictionary. Everything from hell to the -eff word. CommonSenseMedia.org rates if ok for 15 year olds but I would have to disagree. On their website I would advise younger readers not to look at the description of this book because all of the words are spelled out and no young readers should know about 3/4 of the words on the page. There is also a lot of sex talk.

I put this book down because it was vulgar. I did not want to read anymore so I just gave it up. If you would like to read it be my guest and tell me how you found it. But personally, I do not want my head filled with all of these disgusting images so if you are that type of person who likes keeping their head clean, stay away from the book.

I Am Legend

 in Adventure / Books-to-Movie / Interesting / Young Adult by

Starring

Will Smith – Robert Nevill
Alice Braga – Anna
Charlie Tahan – Ethan
Dash Mihok – Alpha Male

Summary

Robert Nevill is the only survivor of a virus which wiped out all of man kind. There are only a handful of people who were immune to the virus but Robert Nevill does not know that, but Anna does. In this thriller, Robert Nevill had to find a cure to save all of the infected, if not then the world will destroy itself more than it already has already and what is left of the human race will die out. The only problem is that the time is ticking and the infected people are coming for him and they are getting smarter. Way smarter and way stronger.

Review

This was a really interesting movie in the sense of what was going on. This movie was about the infected people and it was pretty freaky. I watched this movie on the TV so bits of it were edited out because of commercials but it was still pretty weird and I do not think that any of the creepy bits were taken out so from what I saw I could tell that anyone under the age of 15 should not see it. So, it was about the infected people but it seemed to be a zombie movie. The infected people looked like zombies without all of the gruesome things. This is definitely a one time watch movie for the storyline, but maybe a two-time watch for the details. You had to concentrate to understand what was going on. It was not complicated,  but you had to listen to understand what the virus was and what it was doing and so on and so forth. I would not recommend for anyone to watch it unless they are over the age of 15. This is a pretty intense movie. Commonsensemedia.org rates it -iffy for 13-15 year olds. There was a little blood and there was lots violence so I agree with commonsensemedia.org. Hope that you heed my warning and if you watch it – enjoy!