Twilight

Meyer, Stephanie. Twilight. New York City: Little, Brown, 2005.

Bella Swan is new in town. After her mother’s minor league baseball player is traded, Bella has to move in with her sheriff father, who she does not know very well, all the way in Forks, Washington. Forks is quite a change from her old town, Phoenix, but Bella tries her hardest to get used to her new school and life. Some teenagers from family called the Cullens, catch Bella’s interest, especially Edward Cullen. The only problem is that Edward acts like Bella is the most repulsive thing he has even come across. After a little investigating and some inquisitions, Bella and Edward become friendly and their mutual attraction becomes prominent. Being that close to Edward and his family, Bella begins to take notice of some distinct eccentricities and after some research comes to the conclusion that Edward and his family are vampires. Questioning Edward, he confirms Bella’s theory, noting that his family is “vegetarian”, because they do not consume human blood. After she meets his family and begins to get comfortable, they are confronted by a group of nomadic vampires, who have been killing people in the area in and around Forks. James, the lead vampire wants to kill Bella, but Edward and the Cullen’s do their best to protect her. After a flight from Forks to Phoenix to keep Bella safe, she is captured by James and nearly murdered, but Edward and a few other Cullens come in at the right moment and save her from certain death.

Bella is the type of heroine with which modern fantasy readers can identify. She is flawed, awkward and suffers from an unrequited crush on what could be considered an unattainable, uninterested male figure. However, Bella eventually discovers that as interesting as she finds Edward, she has special points intriguing to him in the same way. Edward has the ability to read everyone’s thoughts, but is completely unable to read Bella’s. With this addition, Meyer gives Bella a characteristic that makes her special, like any good fantasy main character. Meyer also cuts in to some of the heavier parts of the story to giving Bella some humor, lightening up her desperately in love, almost too serious protagonist. In regard to finding an appropriate outfit to meet Edward’s family, Bella notes, “I doubted there were any etiquette books detailing how to dress when your vampire sweetheart takes you home to meet his vampire family.”

Meyer’s writing is simplistic and modern, with an easy to follow story arc. This writing style affords the reader the ability to get involved with the story, without having to decipher too many plot turns and overreaching vocabulary. The School Library Journal not only said that “the pacing is appropriate for teens who want to learn all the details in this suspenseful tale”, but also that the writing was “realistic, subtle, succinct and easy to follow.” Meyer also gives great focus to the surroundings in the story, detailing the landscape as if it were another character in the story. Meyer’s imagery illustrating the often gloomy, rainy Washington days, fits in with the darkness of the tale, adding to the mystique of the setting.

Reluctant readers or those indifferent to the genre may have be grabbed by the flow of the wording and substantial romantic interludes; the tying together of love, the unreal and danger makes for a story that appeals to a wide variety of readers. The sheer popularity of the novel goes to further accentuate the fact that the work can be enjoyed by reader with different interests. Though the work is easy to read, it can be said that first-time writer Meyer’s inexperience shows in pieces of the work. Particular adverbs and descriptions are used ad nauseam (Bella’s reference to Edward being “beautiful” and “striking” occurs quite often, nearly every time she sees him), to the detriment of the story. By varying phrases and tightening story elements, Meyer’s fantastical world of good and bad vampires, future werewolves and regular humans would shine a bit brighter.

Book jacket cover found on: http://www.nassaulibrary.org/SyoTeensBlog/2009/05/-3-apples-book.html

Elsewhere

Zevin, Gabrielle. Elsewhere. New York City: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.

Somehow Elizabeth Hall (also known as Liz or Lizzie), has woken up on a cruise ship with a stranger for a roommate. The ship is headed for Elsewhere, but all Liz wants to do is go home. It takes her a little while (and some revelations by her shipmates) to understand that she is dead, not just dreaming, and cannot go back home. Once she arrives on Elsewhere, she is met by her grandmother who passed away before Liz was even born and is sent to orientation to get to know her new home. Everyone on Elsewhere ages backward from the age they died, then when they are 7 days old they get sent back to Earth. Liz cannot believe her luck; just shy of 16, she will never get to drive, fall in love, go to prom, go to college or do anything else. Initially, Liz refuses to acclimate to her new situation, preferring to watch what her family on Earth is doing and rejecting the tenets of Elsewhere. After an attempt to contact her brother on Earth, which is forbidden in Elsewhere, Liz realizes that she needs to make an effort to create a life in her new home. She finds a job working with animals, giving them an orientation to their new lives, like the one she had, connects deeply with her grandmother and even finds love. Liz learns that a life is a life, no matter where you live.

By beginning the story in the world of the living, Zevin communicates with the reader one of the basic and most important elements of fantasy works: the reader is going to follow the main character on a journey beyond this world. How Zevin accomplishes this what is worth note, as she talks about the death of Liz through the eyes of her Earthly canine companion. Lucy, the dog, sets the tale that the reader is about to enter, in a fun and original way. Just that brief interlude provides the necessary and critical transition between the actual world and the world of Elsewhere. The plot points within the book so vital to the success of the work are inventive and afford the author to create essential growth in Liz, making her likeable and further emphasizing the theme. Liz, hesitant to embrace or commit to her new life, begins to understand and realize that there is a cycle to life and she is cycling through, just like everyone else. Whereas before she laments that she’ll “never go to college or get married…or live on my own or fall in love or get my driver’s license”, Liz comes to recognize that “there will be other lives.” This maturing of her character, deepening of her self-awareness through coming to grips with her death, allows her character to be understood, liked and well-received by the reader.

Zevin takes the topic of the afterworld and creates a setting that has its foundation within the actual world. In doing this, Zevin gives the reader a frame of reference in regard to what Liz’s world may actually look like. To readers that are uncertain or disinterested in this genre, having mystical elements grounded in reality may be more appealing. In Booklist, Jennifer Mattson also notes that “the setting is an elaborately conceived afterlife called Elsewhere, a distinctly secular island realm of surprising physical solidity (no cottony clouds or pearly gates here).” By scattering some magical elements throughout the story, like the ability to use binoculars to view Earth or speaking to animals, Zevin skillfully reminds where the story is taking place, but does so not to overwhelm the reader with that fact.

Book jacket found on: http://www.iowa-city.k12.ia.us/schools/city/LMC/CityReads/BookGroup/BookGr.htm

Princess Academy

Hale, Shannon. Princess Academy. New York, NY: Bloomsbury. 2005. ISBN: 9781582349930

Plot Summary:
High in the mountains of fictional Danland lays Mount Eskel. The people of the mountain are strong, large and hard-working, daily working to mine linder, a marble-like stone, which is their livelihood. Every capable man and woman (including teens) are put to work in the quarry, with the exception of Miri. Miri, who is smaller than girls older than she, is made to stay home by her father, making her feel as if she is missing out on something essential with her friends and neighbors. One day, a royal announcement is made that all eligible girls are going to be sent to a princess academy. At the end of the academy, the prince will choose a bride from the girls that pass.

Miri finds it difficult to be away from home, especially when the tutor at the school is strict and punishes girls for the smallest of reasons. She loses the friendship of many of the girls after a run-in with Tutor Olana and throws herself into her studies. Miri finally finds a friend in Britta, a girl who grew up off the mountain, and eventually wins the friendship and admiration of many of her classmates after she stands up to the unfair Tutor Olana. In her studies, Miri finds out how valuable linder is to the rest of Danland, helping her village to trade for things they have never had before. Additionally, she is chosen academy princess and meets the prince, who does not seem to measure up to her best friend, Peder. After the royal ball, the academy group is captured by bandits, but Miri saves the day by using ‘quarry-speech’ to call the people of her village to their aid. In the end, Miri learns that family and community is worth more than a crown or palace.

Critical Analysis:
Miri is the type of character that is not afraid to show her flaws, making the character that much more identifiable to the reader. She is strong-willed, nervous around the boy she likes and struggles with the fact that she does not work in the quarry with the rest of the village. These elements make the character real, not one that is better than anything the reader could ever attain in their lives. Other characters in the book are equally rounded and not one of them is easily explained. Each has their own secret wish or hidden desire that is revealed in due time. This helps the story root itself in realism in the midst of fantasy.

Hale draws such a distinctive picture of the village, the reader is able to get an instinctive feeling for the village. Views, houses, even beds, are described with such vividness that the reader can truly imagine how it would have felt, smelled or be seen from Miri’s perspective. In the same way, the village and villagers are described, allowing the reader to get authentic understanding of the closeness that would exist. Vocabulary used by the different characters enhances this visual, in that the children speak differently to one another than they would to an adult or the prince himself. The theme is consistent with the struggles that Miri finds during the course of the book. While speaking out is difficult, in the end it is the right thing to do.

Awards and Reviews:
“This is not a fluffy, predictable fairy tale . . . Instead, Hale weaves an intricate, multilayered story about families, relationships, education, and the place we call home." – Linda Plevak, School Library Journal

“[N]icely interweaves feminist sensibilities in this quest-for-a-prince-charming, historical-fantasy tale. Strong suspense and plot drive the action as the girls outwit would-be kidnappers and explore the boundaries of leadership, competition, and friendship.” - Booklist

2005 Honorable Mention for "Favorite Novel of the Year", Publishers Weekly's Cuffie Awards
2006 Newbery Honor Book
2006 Utah Children's Book Award
2007 Beehive Award winner
An ALA Notable Children's Book
A New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing
A Book for the Teen Age by The New York Public Library
A Bank Street College Best Children's Books of the Year, starred entry

Connections:
*What is life really like for a princess? Find some famous real-life princess and what they spend their time doing. Have students work on a “week in the life” project based on the life of the princess of their choosing.
*Create a reader’s theater based on the book! This will be appealing to boys and girls alike; girls will get to be princesses and boys get the chance to be a bandit or quarrier.
*Linder is VERY important to Mount Eskel. What things are important exports for your town? Read and research the exports that help to feed and clothe the families of your hometown.

Book Jacket found on: http://bookbutterflyangel.wordpress.com/2008/06/

Going Bovine

Bray, Libba. Going Bovine. New York, NY: Delacorte Press. 2009. ISBN: 9780385733977

Plot Summary:
Cameron Smith is unpopular, has a job he hates, a popular twin sister, doesn’t do very well in school and finds it hard to communicate with his parents. He finds himself in the middle of a suburban wasteland and longs to get out. Soon after the reader meets Cameron, something inside his head begins to change. He is having trouble controlling his body and keeps having visions of fire giants along the landscape of his seemingly normal hometown. After a toaster catches fire in the kitchen and Cameron has another hallucination, his parents take him to the doctor where they find out Cameron has Creutzfeldt-Jakob – or mad cow - disease. The disease is incurable and will eventually leave Cameron without any brain function.

Soon after the diagnosis, Cameron is sent to the hospital where he shares a room with Ignacio “Gonzo” Gonzales. After a visit by a “punk-rock” angel, who tells Cameron he has to search for the cure, Cameron and Gonzo embark on a road trip to find the doctor that holds the key to cure. They stop in New Orleans, where they play with a jazz legend, get taken to a commune where there is no unhappy thought allowed, find themselves in the company of a living breathing garden gnome named Balder and make a stop at an MTV-style beach house. Along the road, Cameron and Gonzo find out different things about themselves, but are always on the lookout for Dr. X and the cure. Eventually, Cameron figures out that this journey is all a figment of his imagination and that there is no cure. While Cameron of this world passes away at the end of the novel, he finds himself living in the afterlife with the punk-rock angel.

Critical Analysis:
A work of low fantasy, Going Bovine does its best to allude to the reader that not everything is as it seems in the story. Cameron has flashbacks to the “real” world during the moments that he stops to sleep on his adventure. These include moments when he sees and hears his parents, his nurse and feels some connection to his actual surroundings. Bray does an excellent job of connecting the main character’s adventures on the road trip, to stories that Cameron has shared with the reader prior to his diagnosis. For instance, his mother would regale he and his sister with Norse tales and that translates to the inclusion of the talking gnome, Balder, in the story. This consistency in thought brings continuity to the story, amid the fantastical things that are happening to Cameron.

Cameron is identifiable to many readers of the target audience of the novel. He is on the fringe, not in the inner circle, but does his best not to care. During his expedition, Cameron figures out what how self-centered he has been his whole life, bringing a new depth to his character. Prior to this discovery, Cameron is not a character the reader may particularly care about, but his journey into understanding the importance of letting other people in makes his character admirable and likable. Clearly, the theme of this work is within the growth of Cameron’s awareness that love, living and friendship are more important than he knew.

Awards and Reviews:
“[M]eandering and message-driven at times…[s]ome teens may check out before Cameron makes it to his final destination, but many will enjoy asking themselves the questions both deep and shallow that pop up along the way.” Suzanne Gordon, School Library Journal

“Bray portrays Cameron so realistically that he is every teen struggling with his or her identity. At times, readers will both love and hate Cameron as his adventures are alternately comical, nail biting, and heart wrenching.” – Laura Panter, VOYA

“This is a huge book in every way: an epic, picaresque 480-page journey; a scathingly observed social satire of the ways in which we numb ourselves to avoid the pain and risk of actually engaging with our lives; a stay-up-late-to-finish-it page-turner; and a sprawling, hilarious, and deeply moving meditation on what it is, in the end, that makes life worth living.” Claudia Mills, Ph.D., Children’s Literature

2009 - Children's Book Sense Pick
2009 - Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of the Year
2009 - Booklist Books for Youth Editors' Choice
2010 - Michael L. Printz Award Winner
2010 - ALA Best Books for Young Adults
2010 - NCSS/CBC Notable Children's Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies
2010 - New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age

Connections:
*How does one get mad cow disease anyway? How does it affect the body? How can you prevent it? Break students into groups that answer different questions about the facts of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
*Cameron in the first chapter is very different than Cameron in the last chapter. In what ways did each character change on the trip? Compare and contrast the characters at the beginning of the journey to who they were at the end.
* What were some of the things that Cameron mentioned about his life that returned during the road trip in different ways? (Look for ways that the author included facts Cameron mentioned before the introduction of his illness into different parts of the story.)

Book Jacket found on: http://hamiltonteens.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/going-bovine-by-libba-bray/