Lina has only known life in the City of Ember, a settlement built and stocked with all the supplies its citizens might need hundreds of years earlier. Now the shelves of the storehouses grow increasingly bare, and power outages plague everyone. When Lina and her best friend Doon discover a damaged document, Lina wonders if it could be from the Builders themselves. She and Doon work to decipher the message and save Ember before the city’s power supply fails for the last time.
I picked up this book because a friend recommended it, and I’m so glad I did. Actually, I wish I’d found it sooner, because it’s definitely the kind of story my daughter and I would have enjoyed reading together when she was a little younger. City of Ember would make an excellent family read. If there’s an audiobook version, I’d recommend it for a family road trip.
Reading the chapters, I felt like I could see the city underground. The characters are confused by references to things outside their experience that are commonplace for us. This definitely gave the story that closed-in feel while letting the readers have a bit of a laugh at the joke.
I loved Lina and her family, Doon, and especially Doon’s father, who always encouraged him to think more deeply and critically about the world around him, even when it was an unpopular thing to do.
If you liked The Giver or The Diary of Anne Frank you want to check this one out. Sorry, I know those are both classics… this story definitely has the same kind of feel to me, and has won many awards as well.
Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.
Cultural Elements
There weren’t many cultural details given about the characters, but most appeared to be white.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content Long ago, Builders built the city and left Instructions for the people to follow. Citizens still keep the instructions as sacred, but not in a worshipped sense.
Violent Content At one point, guards chase Lina and threaten her with confinement.
Alicia’s hallucinations are only getting worse: more frequent and more intense. Despite that, she doesn’t want to give them up because the hallucinations are the only place she sees her father. Then he shows up in real life, warning Alicia of incredible danger, and suddenly everything shifts. The people Alicia trusted most have been lying to her, and now she’s on the run from them. The hallucinations are real. In them, Alicia journeys to other universes, ones where more than her life is at stake. She must find an atlas, a map to all of them and stop one critical universe from dying if she’s to save the people she loves and her own life in her home universe.
When I first started reading this book, I was worried it would be too confusing. I wasn’t really hooked by the whole hallucination bit—it seemed like asking a lot for me to invest in the most exciting parts of the story believing they were fake. But once I realized that they were real, I definitely wanted to keep reading. I loved Alicia and Hafeez. Jax, the boy from another universe that she meets, wasn’t my favorite—he’s kind of stubborn and I just didn’t really connect with him very well. I’m totally team Hafeez.
I liked how she had an opportunity to revisit the relationships in her life in other universes. Things were often different in other places than they were in her home universe, but often there was some lesson hiding in those moments or some kernel of truth she could grab onto. I also really liked the references to Sylvia Plath’s poetry and Alicia’s connection with her.
The only thing I really consistently struggled with is the fact that Alicia is so young—almost fifteen—which seems to place the story in the lower end of YA, yet there’s a LOT of profanity. I feel like aging Alicia up a little or reducing the profanity would have made it easier to recommend to readers.
The story ends with lots left unresolved, which hopefully means there will be a sequel. If you liked Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton or Life at the Speed of Us by Heather Sappenfield, you need to read this one. I think the characters are more even than Seeker, and I liked the way The Infinity of You and Me handled the multiverse better than the way it was in Life at the Speed of Us.
Recommended for Ages 15 up.
Cultural Elements
Alicia’s best friend Hafeez is Middle Eastern. Other characters appear to be white.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used frequently.
Romance/Sexual Content Brief boy/girl kissing.
Spiritual Content Alicia jumps between universes to other realities similar and different to her own.
Violent Content In one reality, a man shoots Alicia and appears willing to hurt her further. Her mother discusses a surgery that could prevent Alicia from experiencing the jumps to other places. She intends to force Alicia to have the surgery without her consent.
A bully picks on Alicia and Hafeez at school. He punches Hafeez.
Drug Content
Alicia’s therapist tries to regulate her experiences with medication. Later, a therapist sedates her and restrains her. She believes her dad may be on drugs—maybe that’s why he’s gone from her life.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Books are one of my favorite gifts to give (okay, and to receive!) because there’s something for everyone. There were years where we gave a book to each person on our Christmas list. I enjoyed my holiday shopping that year especially because it was a chance to take all that I knew about a person’s interests and try to match them up with a book. This year we’ve chosen to support a local charity organization for the majority of our gift purchases, but there are a few books that still made it onto our gift list. Here are my top picks for the readers on my Christmas list.
For the Fairy Tale Lover
Traitor’s Masque by Kenley Davidson
Page Nine Press
Published December 14, 2015
Traitor’s Masque isn’t a simple retelling of Cinderella. Here you’ll find spies and intrigue and not one, but two handsome princes. If you loved the movie Ever After you need to read this book.
From my review: When Trystan’s secret horse rides are interrupted by a handsome, intelligent stranger, she has no idea she’s just met the crown prince of Andari. To her, he’s just a lonely nobleman, seeking the same healing solitude as she is. So when her stepmother’s tyranny reaches new heights, Trystan leaps at an offer from a friend of her late father’s. The lady offers Trystan the freedom she desperately craves for one tiny favor: deliver a message. Not until she’s agreed does Trystan realize she’s just committed to betray the friend she met in the woods, the man she may be falling in love with: the Prince of Andari.
Goldheart by Kenley Davidson
Page Nine Press
Published May 2016
From my review: After recovering from a kidnapping, Elaine Westover wants nothing more than to live a quiet secluded life with her paints. But as her father’s home falls into disrepair and his business fails, she has little choice but to offer her services painting portraits. When a wealthy man hires her to paint an impossible portrait for a year’s income, Elaine considers accepting the job. At the interview, he makes it clear she has no choice but to accept, and he bundles her off to the attic against her will, promising to release and reward her when she completes his task. Her only friend and protector is Will, a young man she takes to be a servant. He vows to help her in any way he can, and soon she realizes she’s falling in love with him. Will feels drawn to Elaine as well, but when he discovers the connection between his family and hers, he knows he can never let her discover his name without ruining every moment they’ve shared together.
Pirouette by Kenley Davidson
Page Nine Press
Published May 2016
From my review: When twelve princesses of Caelan refuse to dance as commanded by their father, he imprisons them in their pavilion and offers a challenge. Anyone who discovers the princesses’ secret will marry his pick among them and choose the fate of the others. Anyone who tries and fails will be stripped of land and title or life. But it’s the forgotten thirteenth princess who holds the key to the princesses’ rebellion. Ilani may be crippled, but she is by no means powerless.
Into this standoff comes Lord Kyril Seagrave and his companions from Andar. They hunt an exiled, dangerous prince and the truth about whether Caelan means to invade their home. Kyril is supposed to lead the expedition, but near as he can tell, everyone else is more qualified for the job, and he begins to wonder if Prince Ramsey sent him simply to get him out of the way for a while. When Kyril meets Ilani, he feels a pull toward the girl he can’t explain, and he vows to right the grave injustice done when she was crippled at seven years old. But to right the wrongs of the past, the princesses’ secret must be revealed, and before exiled Prince Rowan can turn the situation to Andar’s ruin.
Heartless by Marissa Meyer
Feiwel & Friends
Available November 8, 2016
Also on my list is Heartless by Marissa Meyer, which explores the story of Alice in Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts. I haven’t read it yet, so I don’t have a content review, but I hope to post one before the year’s end. If it’s like Cinder, then I expect it to be pretty clean with maybe some light, infrequent profanity. Her other villain origin story, Fairest, did have some sexual content.
From Goodreads: Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland and a favorite of the unmarried King, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, she wants to open a shop and create delectable pastries. But for her mother, such a goal is unthinkable for a woman who could be a queen.
At a royal ball where Cath is expected to receive the King’s marriage proposal, she meets handsome and mysterious Jest. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the King and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into a secret courtship.
Cath is determined to choose her own destiny. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.
For the Younger Christian Reader
In the Hall of the Dragon King by Stephen Lawhead (Dragon King Trilogy)
Thomas Nelson (reprint)
Published May 30, 2011 (originally published in 1982)
From Goodreads:In the dead of night, Quentin, a young acolyte, is unexpectedly summoned when a mortally wounded knight stumbles into the temple of Ariel. Determined to save the realm of the Dragon King, the dying knight makes a desperate plea for someone to continue his quest. Now Quentin must choose—a life of ease or a dangerous, unknown path.
I haven’t reviewed this series, but I remember reading it in seventh grade or so. The story has overt Christian themes. I liked the whole series. It’s a great choice for readers of high fantasy.
Knife by R. J. Anderson (Faery Rebels Series)
Orchard
Published January 8, 2009
From my review: Knife, a young faerie confined within her kingdom inside a large oak tree, is determined to escape to the outside world. As a girl, she came face to face with a human, and survived. Since that day, her curiosity about the house and the strange creatures who live inside it only grows. When Knife finds an opportunity to get a closer look, she takes it. But with every new discovery she makes about the outside world, the strict rules and strange customs of her people only feel stranger and well, wrong. Maybe Knife can save them. If she can find out why her people lost their magic to begin with, perhaps she can reverse the spell. But doing so will risk her place among her people, and it may force her to accept truths about herself, her queen, and her human friend that she’s not ready to face.
Curio by Evangeline Denmark
Blink YA/Zondervan
Published January 6, 2016
From my review: In a world in which women are of little value, Grey tries to remain beneath the notice of the ruling Chemists. To draw attention to herself risks her very life and the lives of her family and her best friend Whit. When Chemists punish Whit for protecting Grey, she abandons hope of hiding and vows to help others like Whit, no matter the cost to herself. When the Chemists realize what she’s done, her family protects her by spiriting her away to a world within her grandfather’s curio cabinet. There, among a strange world of clockwork people, Grey must find a hidden ally and a key that may bring an end to the Chemists’ tyranny.
Celebrate Diversity
Genius: The Game by Leopoldo Gout
Feiwel & Friends
Published May 3, 2016
From my review: As the clock counts down to Zero Hour, 200 of the best and brightest kids form teams competing to solve a challenge created by a young visionary with world-changing goals. For Rex, Tunde and Painted Wolf, the competition is only part of the challenge. Rex needs a supercomputer housed at the challenge site to locate his brother whose been missing for two years. A war lord threatens to wipe Tunde’s whole village off the map unless Tunde and his friends deliver a powerful weapon to him at the end of the contest. Painted Wolf will do anything to help her friends, but she must keep her identity a secret or her family’s lives are forfeit.
The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten
Doubleday Canada
Published August 27, 2013
From my review: Almost-fifteen-year-old Adam meets Robyn at his group therapy session for teens with obsessive-compulsive issues. It’s hardly the setting for romance, but Adam can’t deny how he feels for her. Robyn seems drawn to him, too. Maybe. But while Robyn’s most troublesome days seem to be behind her, Adam’s life continues to spiral out of control. He’s at the mercy of his half-brother’s anxiety issues, and his mother refuses to get help though the threatening letters she receives only seem to be getting worse. As Adam desperately struggles to hold everyone together, he begins to split at the seams. But it may be the voices of his Group mates which bring him the strength and courage to face greater truths about his family, his condition, and himself.
Gifted by H. A. Swain
Feiwel & Friends
Published June 14, 2016
From Goodreads: In Orpheus Chanson’s world, geniuses and prodigies are no longer born or honed through hard work. Instead, procedures to induce Acquired Savant Abilities (ASAs) are now purchased by the privileged. And Orpheus’s father holds the copyright to the ASA procedure.
Zimri Robinson, a natural musical prodigy, is a “plebe”–a worker at the enormous warehouse that supplies an on-line marketplace that has supplanted all commerce. Her grueling schedule and her grandmother’s illness can’t keep her from making music–even if it is illegal.
Orpheus and Zimri are not supposed to meet. He is meant for greatness; she is not. But sometimes, rules are meant to be broken. Here is a thriller, love story, and social experiment that readers will find gripping–and terrifying.
Freedom’s Just Another Word by Caroline Stellings
Second Story Press
Published September 6, 2016
From Goodreads: The year Louisiana – Easy for short – meets Janis Joplin is the year everything changes. Easy is a car mechanic in her dad’s shop, but she can sing the blues like someone twice her age. So when she hears that Janis Joplin is passing through her small town of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Easy is there with her heart – and her voice – in hand. It’s 1970 and Janis Joplin is an electrifying blues-rock singer at the height of her fame – and of her addictions. Yet she recognizes Easy’s talent and asks her to meet her in Texas to sing. So Easy begins an unusual journey that will change everything.
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
Clarion Books
Published May 3, 2016
From my review: When Zomorod Yousefzadeh and her family move (again), she decides to take the opportunity to start fresh and try to fit in with her new California schoolmates. The first thing to go? Her name. She adopts the classic Brady Bunch Cindy as her identity. After a rough start, she begins to find true friends. But when unrest in Iran turns into an American hostage crisis, Cindy begins to catch glimpses of an uglier side of the Land of the Free. Cruel bumper stickers and slogans send chilling messages to Cindy and her family. Cindy tries to protect her parents from some of the cruelty, and her friends try to encourage her that not everyone feels so negatively about Iranians. Ultimately, Cindy has to navigate her own way through the crisis and find the balance between devotion to her family, pride in her heritage, and the freedom to pursue her own individual identity.
When a panic attack lands Viviana in the hospital, her mother insists that she slow down and stop taking her studies so seriously. But even the thought of slowing down stresses Vivi out. She has summer engineering camp to attend! And SATs to prep for! And college applications to write! Everything has to go perfectly, no room for error. It’s the only way her dad will stop being disappointed in her and come home. And after her failure at school, the one involving Dean and that photo she sent him, Vivi needs something to go right.
But her mom won’t be swayed, so instead, Vivi ends up spending the summer with her best friend working at the community pool. At first it seems like a nice change of pace. But Vivi’s mistakes find her, even in her new quieter life. And she discovers that she’s not the only one who was hiding from the truth. Her father has a secret that could destroy the entire family.
I found it so easy to identify with driven, perfectionist Viviana. I loved her relationships with her mom and sister and the way her friendship with Sammie changed over the course of the story, too. It felt very real and authentic, exactly the kinds of changes relationships can go through in high school. I liked that Vivi’s family was so complex. I liked that her mom’s cancer was something they’d overcome together, and you could still see the shadow of it over them, but it didn’t define them as a family, or her mom as a character. Her mom surprised me. I kind of expected not to like her, and then as the story went on, you could really see the strength she possesses and how much Vivi gets that same strong character from her.
For me, The Best Possible Answer is another win for Kottaras. I loved it. Fans of Eleanor & Park might like it, even though the romance isn’t really a central component. I think Viviana shares a lot of the qualities that drew me to Eleanor.
Recommended for Ages 13 up.
Cultural Elements
Vivi’s mother is Russian and Jewish. Her best friend Sammie is Filipino. Viviana has been suffering panic attacks. A neighbor is schizophrenic.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used with moderate frequency.
Romance/Sexual Content While Vivi dated a boy named Dean, she sent him a picture of herself naked. After they broke up, he distributed the picture to the whole school. Vivi kisses another boy several times.
Spiritual Content Vivi and a friend help a schizophrenic man. They also debate whether love exists. Her friend says yes, though Vivi’s less certain. Vivi’s friend Sammie follows horoscopes and believes they come true. Another friend says it’s bogus.
Violent Content None.
Drug Content
Vivi recalls a party years ago at which she drank a beer, her one and only ever. Later she and some friends go to a college dorm where some other kids have been drinking. They don’t associate much with anyone who’s been drinking though.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Trouble with the law sends John back to his mom’s house, a place he hasn’t lived since a year after his brother’s accident. Still reeling from his girlfriend’s death, John’s only plan is to keep his head down until he’s served out his time. Then he’s California bound. Connections, especially with a girl, are the last thing he needs. But as the issues he once left behind begin to catch up with John at home, he finds that his usual retreats—pot and alcohol—aren’t enough. As the pressure builds, John must make a choice: to face the terrible truth about his past or let it destroy him and his family again.
The Homecoming is pretty much exactly the kind of novel I love reading. While John’s coping strategies aren’t my favorite in literature, I can’t help but root for a guy like him. He has a great heart, which we saw a little bit of in Ramey’s earlier novel, The Sister Pact, which describes some of his relationship with Leah from Leah’s sister’s point-of-view. Speaking of sisters, I love John’s relationship with his little sister and found it super endearing.
I liked that the story dealt with issues of family. John’s brother is disabled, and the family struggles a lot with how to manage his care. He’s not a perfectly likeable guy, either, which I found to be different than we often see in literature. His family clearly loved him, but it wasn’t always easy.
A couple of other interesting elements: John discovers a talent for architecture and begins learning the CAD program in a class. It’s a bright moment for him. At his dad’s insistence, he joins the lacrosse team, which also turns out to be a good thing for him. So several scenes show him exploring both of those interests which are a bit unusual for YA. I liked that.
If you like tragic-yet-hopeful contemporary YA, this is definitely a book you should check out.
Recommended for Ages 16 up.
Cultural Elements
Major characters are all white middle class. John’s brother is disabled.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used with moderate frequency.
Romance/Sexual Content John reflects on having been with a number of girls since Leah’s death, but that those relationships were superficial and didn’t touch his heart. He and one girl begin making out and retreat to her room to have sex but are interrupted. At the time, she states that she wants to have a casual relationship with him.
Spiritual Content None.
Violent Content John’s brother Ryan punches family members and injures them. A car accident injures a boy. Another accident injures a woman and her adult son. During a lacrosse game, another player makes unkind comments to John and other players take turns going after the guy. No detailed descriptions of violence or injuries.
Drug Content
John smokes pot and drinks alcohol, sometimes alone and sometimes with others.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Every night, Subhi slips out of the compound in the refugee camp and finds the treasures he believes the magical Night Sea brings him from his far away father. Every morning he shows the gifts to his mother, now barely responsive. Subhi has only known life within the fences of the permanent detention center. Up the hill from the center lives a girl named Jimmie who bears her own grief. She comforts herself with her mother’s necklace pendant, a sparrow carved from bone. She meets Subhi, and begs him to read her mother’s journal to her. Subhi shares the pages, filled with stories and songs as magical as the ones his mother once told. As conditions worsen for both Jimmie and Subhi, each must find courage, as the characters from the songs and stories of their mothers did.
Bone Sparrow is one of those stories that will haunt you. From the first page, the beautiful narrative sucked me in. I immediately loved both Jimmie and Subhi and the colorful cast of characters in and out of the detention center. It reminded me very much of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and left me reeling much the same way that story did.
The latter part of the tale shows some pretty intense violence. Up until that point it felt like a solid, literary middle grade read, but the heaviness of that violence made me reconsider whether that’s really where the book belongs. Bone Sparrow definitely deserves a place on the shelf with John Boyne’s acclaimed novel and others that shine a light on world issues, like Blue Gold by Elizabeth Stewart and Over a Thousand Hills I Walk With You by Hanna Jansen.
What really left me speechless was the fact that the conditions Subhi and his family endure in the detention center are in fact based on real situations and reports. The way the Rohingya people have been treated in these camps is unbelievable. I’ve continued to read more about the people and their refugee status. I know that’s a very polarizing idea right now, but I encourage you to look up more information. I’ll post links below the content section of this review.
Recommended for Ages 12 up.
Cultural Elements
Jimmie and her family are Australian. Subhi is part of a group of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, once Burma.
Note: The Rohingya people have been denied rights to citizenship by the Myanmar government and driven out or killed. Many live in refugee camps like the one described in this book.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content None.
Spiritual Content When a sparrow lands on Subhi’s bed, his sister warns him that this warns of death. At night Subhi believes a magical Night Sea brings him gifts from his father, who lives far away.
Brief mention of Gods in the stories written by Jimmie’s mother. The bone sparrow necklace plays a role in the stories, guiding a man to his lost love and offering protection.
Violent Content Horrible conditions plague the refugees in the camp. Some begin a hunger strike, sewing their mouths closed. Refugees barricade themselves in one quarter. A fire starts. Soldiers and refugees fight. Subhi witnesses a soldier beat a boy to death.
Drug Content
None.
Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
