This Dark Endeavour

Genre: Adventure/horror

Format: Hardcover

Suggested age: 10+

Author: Kenneth Oppel

ISBN:  9781554683390

Publisher:  Harper Collins 2011

Victor Frankenstein will stop at nothing to save his twin brother, Konrad from the mysterious and deadly blood disease that is threatening his life.  With help from the twin’s beautiful and headstrong cousin, Elizabeth, and their not-so-adventurous friend, Henry, Victor explores the forbidden library and delves into the dark and dangerous world of alchemy.  All his life Victor has been second best to his brother, Konrad until he discovers the seductive art of alchemy.  Will his passion for control and love for Elizabeth help to save Konrad or be the demise of the brothers?

Award winning author of Airborn’s  Kenneth Oppel delivers a twisted tale of adventure and science.  Set in Victorian times, I could easily see this novel turned into a gothic steampunk film for young adults.  Far different from the latest influx of dystopian novels I have been reading, I found This Dark Endeavour a refreshing change.  From the attention to propriety  of the Victorian customs to the formalities of language, Oppel does a fine example of replicating the era and still allowing for the adventure and daring that excites today’s youth. 

The Next Place

The Next Place

 

Genre: Picture Book

Format: Hardcover

Suggested age: 5-adult

Author: Warren Hanson

ISBN:  9780931674327

Publisher:  Waldman House Press  1997

Warren Hanson, author/illustrator of Older Love  and Kiki’s Hats has created an eloquent picture book titled, The Next Place.  Whether he is describing heaven, the great beyond, or nirvana, his text and illustrations describe a peaceful afterlife free from earthly flaws, possessions, pain, and turmoil.

Given that Hanson is the author and illustrator, it stands to reason that the text and the artwork are intricately woven together.  His poetic text swoops, swirls, and cascades throughout each page matching the pictures beautifully.  The reader’s eye is led through the pages, noticing the finer details that Hanson has added to the mosaic tiles framing his pictures.  One is left to wonder if this book is written as a  commemoration as Hanson has incorporated mosaic tiles embedded with names on the last page of the book.  I was particularly touched by this book and noticed that it was first published the year my father passed away.  If only I had known about this book.  It would have perhaps given me more peace……

I'll be Watching

I’ll be Watching

Genre: Fantasy Fiction

Suggested age: 12-adult

Author: Pamela Porter

ISBN: 9781554980963

Publisher:  Groundwood Books

The Loney children, Ran, Nora, Jim, and Addie must learn to survive when their father dies in a drunken stupor and leaves them to the mercy of their cruel and pious step-mother, Effie who flees town with a traveling bible salesman.  Ran, the eldest, joins the army certain that it is his only choice to help support his siblings while Nora quits school to ensure that Jim and Addie can continue their schooling.   Their little family is cast into a tailspin when Ran’s plane crashes and Ran is MIA.  Left with only a few dollars they must overcome crooked postal workers, near-starvation, a bitter prairie winter, and quickly learn how to survive on their own. Set in 1941, against a historical backdrop, this tale seems to be written as a realistic fiction but the fantasy fan will be please to see how Porter infuses this otherwise realistic novel with spirit narrators.

Achingly beautiful prose tells the story of four orphaned children struggling to survive in a rural town in Saskatchewan.  Porter interlaces the voices of the townspeople, children, and their own spirit parents to tell a ghost story like no other with various subplots weaving in and out of the Loney’s tale. This free-verse novel follows her award-winning, The Crazy Man, with its own accomplishment of winning an honourable mention from the BC Book Prize committee.

Divergent

Divergent

Genre: Fiction

Suggested age: 12 -18

Author: Veronica Roth

ISBN: 9780062024039

Publisher:  Katherine Tegen Books

Imagine if you had to make a decision at 16 years old; a decision that would determine, your beliefs, your friends, and your allegiance.  In a world where faction is thicker than blood, you choose your faction once, no turning back.  

In a dystopian Chicago, Beatrice Prior is faced with such a choice.  Chicago has been divided into five factions, each dedicated to a virtue:   Abnegation (selflessness), Amity (peaceful), Dauntless (bravery), Candor (honesty), Erudite(knowledge).  Upon inconclusive results from Beatrice’s aptitude test, Beatrice makes a bold decision shocking everyone, including herself, and sets forth to discover if she can truly live (and perhaps die) solely under one faction’s rule.  Reinventing herself as Tris, she must turn her back on her family and endure a dangerous and daunting initiation, all while hiding a deadly secret about herself.  Failing in either endeavor means death or worse, being rendered factionless. 

 

Roth’s dystopian future is reminiscent of both DuPrau’s City of Ember and Collins’ The Hunger Games, which in itself warrants a vague suspicion of the reality holding this society together; who’s holding the puppet strings?  The action that surrounds the train tracks reminds me of Westerfeld’s Uglies series and gives me hope that those tracks go somewhere free of the madness of the faction system, what’s behind those gates that Dauntless soldiers tirelessly patrol?  Although this is only book one of the series, I would have liked to have been given a few more tasty hints at what incited the faction system (besides “war”) and possibly have been introduced to older members of this society that may or may not harbor the no doubt, bloody history of the faction system.  All in all, I’m on the wait-list for the ebook version of Insurgent, Book Two and am eagerly waiting to read more about Roth’s futuristic world.  

For a preview of Divergent visit HERE. 
Or, view my book trailer!

Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea:One Man’s Journey to Change the World…One Child at a Time.

Genre: Non-fiction-- 371.822

Suggested age: 8-13

Author:  Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin

ISBN: 9780142414125

Publisher:  Puffin

Who would have thought that a failed attempt to scale K2 would result in a life-changing mission to bring world peace to all through building schools in remote villages?  Three Cups of Tea is a true story about just that!  Greg Mortenson wandered into a remote village in Pakistan upon making a wrong turn that could have turned deadly.  The people of this village nursed him back to health.  In return, Greg promised to come back to build a school for the village’s 84 children so that they could learn indoors with a trained teacher and much needed resources. 

This is the type of story that I never tire of.  The bravery, perseverance, and resourcefulness of Greg Mortenson is inspiring to readers of all ages.  I also love that this story is available for all levels of readers in picture book, adult, and young reader editions.