The Rithmatist

by Brandon Sanderson

Joel wants so badly to be a Rithmatist. What's that, you ask? A person who can draw circles and lines with chalk, that will defend against chalkings. Which are chalk drawings that can and will eat you alive. WHAT?

First of all, it doesn't get much more original as far as ideas for a story go. Between each chapter, the illustrator maps out one of the defensive strategies used by Rithmatists. By the end of the book, you know the rules of this world so well, you basically feel like you could defend against the wild chalklings. And you would, if it wasn't so darn scary.

Joel goes to an Academy where Rithmatists and regular students alike attend. He's been sneaking into Rithmatist-only classes for a long time, though. Even though he knows he missed his chance to become one for real, he wants to know everything he can about them. When Rithmatic students start to disappear, and only drops of blood remain in their chewed up defensive drawings, he knows he has the tools and the knowledge to help. He just has to convince someone to let him.

I was drawn into (ha, ha) this book immediately, and was so absorbed I swear I was thinking in chalk drawings. Scary, mysterious, and totally fascinating. Really and truly different from anything I've ever read.

Flora & Ulysses

by Kate DiCamillo

Flora is a cynic, and with good reason. Her parents are divorced, and her mom seems to love her lamp more than her own daughter. Flora lives for her comic books, so when her neighbor Tootie runs over a squirrel with her new Ulysses 2000X vacuum, and Flora revives him, she thinks he MUST have super powers. Turns out, being sucked up in that vacuum DID change the squirrel, whom Flora now lovingly calls Ulysses. He can type, fly, and write poetry. Unfortunately, every super hero must have a nemesis, and for Ulysses, that is Flora's mother, who only sees the squirrel as a rodent who must be dispatched, and fast. Flora and her neighbor's nephew, temporarily blind William Spiver, must protect Ulysses at all costs.

I love little cynical Flora, and her awesome, hilarious sidekick William Spiver. I listened to this on audio, and the narrator is amazing. This story works great as a read aloud, and her ability to give each character a different voice was a big part of the fun for me.

Yes, the young characters use big words that maybe a ten year old wouldn't use. But this story also stars a squirrel who types poetry, so I'm okay with it. The Newbery Committee made a great choice this year.

The Testing

by Joelle Charbonneau

I have a love/hate relationship with this book. I really wanted to hate it.

Here's what it's about. So there's this girl Cia, and she lives in a messed up future version of the United States. You see, we've destroyed ourselves with war, and by not taking care of the earth, and all that good stuff. Now, the powers that be have created The Testing. Only the best and brightest get to go (have to go?) to the big city to participate. They are put through a series of ordeals in which many, many, young people die a very violent death. There's a boy, too. Tomas. He's soooo dreamy. He tells Cia he loves her, but she's not sure if she can trust him.

Sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so. And honestly, I cant' even tell you, "But wait! This is different!" Cause it's not. But for some reason, even though I rolled my eyes through the whole thing, I just kept on reading, which I don't tend to do if I'm not interested in something. I finished it. And then, there was a sample chapter for the next book in the series. I read that, too. Today, I checked out Independent Study.

I cannot explain my behavior. It just is what it is. This is the Twilight of dystopias. Stupid, cheesy, but somehow, oddly compelling.

We Were Liars

by E. Lockhart

Cady comes from a life of privilege. Her family owns an island off the coast of Massachusetts. She and her cousins have spent every summer of their lives on the island. Cady's mom Penny fights constantly with her two sisters, Bess, and Carrie, over who has the nicest house on the island, and all three sisters drink too much, way too often. This causes the three older cousins, Cady, Johnny, and Mirren, to try to create their own little oasis of sanity by simply sticking together. They're joined by Gat, the son of Carrie's boyfriend, but he's Indian, and he's not wealthy, and this causes issues, especially when Cady begins to show a romantic interest in him.

At some point during the summer they were all 15, there was an accident, and Cady was injured. She doesn't return to the island until summer 17. No one will talk to her about what happened, and her memory is sketchy. As Cady starts to put the pieces together, so will you, mostly likely with a growing sense of unease.

So this book is one of those with a crazy twist at the very end. Maybe because I was expecting it, it just didn't really catch me off guard. But I love E. Lockhart, and the writing is beautiful, as usual. She definitely paints a picture of these snotty New Englanders that sticks in your head. Her strength here is her characters, even though the plot is what seems to be getting the most attention.

The Underneath

by Kathi Appelt

Part fairy tale, part legend, part animal adventure, this book defies categorization. It's certainly not for everyone, but I guess it was for me, because I can't stop thinking about it. All of my emotions while reading this book weren't good, and there were a couple of places where I just couldn't take any more sad, but I kept going. The writing is lyrical--very poetic and flowery. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not as much. But at all times while I was reading this, I was feeling SOMETHING. Scared, defeated, hopeful, relieved--I felt it and felt it strongly.

There are two stories going on here. We have a pregnant cat who seeks refuge under a rickety house, and befriends the hound dog chained up there. The house's owner, Gar Face, is the embodiment of true evil. He is a sociopath in a children's book. It's terrifying. The other story takes place 1,000 years before. We hear the story of Grandmother Moccasin, now sealed and buried in a jar because of her awful deeds, but about to be set free by the very next rain storm. She is also pure evil. Nothing made these two bad. They just are. I think that's a hard concept to work into a book for young people, but the author has done it, and done it well. Doesn't make it any less scary. The two stories tie together at the very end in a pretty satisfying way.

A weird, weird, book, but so different from anything I've ever read.

Eleven

by Patricia Reilly Giff

Sam has a non-traditional family. His parents are gone, and he lives with his grandfather, Mack. One day, he finds a newspaper clipping in the attic. Unfortunately, Sam can't read. He can only tell that it's a picture of him as a child, and that is has the word missing. He begins to wonder if Mack is really his grandfather after all. He enlists the help of Caroline, the new girl in school, to work with him on a class project. He hopes that when they get to his attic, she will be able to read the clipping and solve the mystery.

Overall, this was a pretty disappointing read for me. It might be because I listened to it, and the reader was really dry. Very little inflection in her voice, so perhaps if I had read the print version I would have felt differently. This is marketed as a mystery, but the plot had very little tension, and the resolution was just kind of what you think it's going to be. Not a bad story about friendship, family, etc., but not what I expected.

Wonder

by R.J. Palacio

How do you describe a book like Wonder?

Auggie Pullman was born with a severe facial deformity. This book is about his fifth grade year, his first time in public school. It's told from several different perspectives--his, his sister's, some of his classmates, etc.

I listened to this on audio, and it was really well done, so I don't know what a regular reading experience of this would be. I'm glad I listened, though, because when Auggie talks, you listen. He starts the story, and as he describes what it's like to live in his body, I couldn't help but think back to times when perhaps I wasn't as kind or as sensitive as I could have been. You almost feel guilty that he has to live with this, and you don't.

And then his sister Via begins to tell her side of the story, and while you still feel for Auggie, you feel for her, too. You suddenly feel, well, like she lets you off the hook a little. Via is my favorite. When she started talking about the Punnett square, and calculating the odds that her own children might one day have Auggie's health problems, then casually mentions that she won't be having any, I almost lost it.

With each different voice, the reader gets to experience the emotion of Auggie's condition from another perspective, and it's really magical. This story is a celebration of a parent's unconditional love for a child, the power of simple kindness, and a reminder that life's biggest blessings don't alway come packaged as expected. Everyone should read this book.