Category Archives: Clean Fiction

Review: See You in the Cosmos by Jack Cheng

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , ,

See You in the Cosmos
Jack Cheng
Dial Books
Published February 28, 2017

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From Goodreads

11-year-old Alex Petroski loves space and rockets, his mom, his brother, and his dog Carl Sagan—named for his hero, the real-life astronomer. All he wants is to launch his golden iPod into space the way Carl Sagan (the man, not the dog) launched his Golden Record on the Voyager spacecraft in 1977. From Colorado to New Mexico, Las Vegas to L.A., Alex records a journey on his iPod to show other lifeforms what life on earth, his earth, is like. But his destination keeps changing. And the funny, lost, remarkable people he meets along the way can only partially prepare him for the secrets he’ll uncover—from the truth about his long-dead dad to the fact that, for a kid with a troubled mom and a mostly not-around brother, he has way more family than he ever knew.

My Review

See You in the Cosmos is told as if it’s the transcripts of Alex’s iPod recordings. I loved the unique format and the rambling voice Alex had, but it also meant for lots of long paragraphs which made the pages a little harder for me to read. Struggling readers might have trouble with this, too.

At the beginning of the story, 11-year-old Alex takes a train by himself to a convention where he hopes to launch his rocket. I loved his bravery and how innocent he was in taking off on this journey like it was nothing (his maturity and independence definitely reminded me of Willow from Counting by 7s.) But as I read the story, I was so nervous about his trip. I have an 11-year-old, and kept thinking about how terrified I’d be for her to be riding trains across the country and traveling with strangers. Obviously Alex finds great friends along his journey, and his trust in the world pays off in that way. I struggled—he did not.

I thought the reveal of the family situation (don’t want to give it away) pulled a lot of things together. Just as I started thinking, wait, this isn’t right, the pieces fell into place and Alex learned what was really going on. The one character I really didn’t connect with was his brother. I thought he did some odd things that really didn’t add up.

I loved the fact that Alex was so interested in rockets, but I wished there was more about those mechanics and his plans in the story. Most of the focus ends up being about his hopes in extraterrestrial life and his relationships with his family and community, which were also enjoyable themes. If you liked Counting by 7s, add See You in the Cosmos to your list.

Recommended for Ages 10 up.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
“Bleep” appears instead of any profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Alex meets a new friend who is Buddhist and has taken a vow of silence. He communicates through writing on a small chalk board.

Violent Content
One young man punches another in a fight over a girl. Alex is injured in an accident and hospitalized.

Drug Content
Alex’s friends (who are much older) drink alcohol. Later, one of them listens to the recording Alex made while they were drinking. She hears herself in the background talking and feels embarrassed about her behavior. She expresses regret for drinking in front of Alex.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

Review: The Lost Girl of Astor Street by Stephanie Morrill

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Historical, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

The Lost Girl of Astor Street
Stephanie Morrill
Blink
Published February 7, 2017

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Eighteen-year-old Piper Sail’s best friend Lydia goes missing from a neighborhood street in 1924 Chicago. Piper vows to find her friend, even if she has to take up the investigation herself. As Piper begins to hunt for Lydia, she soon learns everyone in her neighborhood hides a secret, even her father and the handsome detective who’s working the case. Piper realizes finding the truth may cost her newfound love, her respect for her family, and possibly, her own life.

I loved this book! I was hooked from the first page. Immediately we meet interesting (and funny!) characters and see complex relationships. There were a few elements of the mystery that I kind of saw coming, and I worried that would make the ending too obvious. It did not. The Lost Girl of Astor Street had plenty of twists and turns to keep me guessing at the real story behind Lydia’s disappearance and the odd behavior of some of the other characters.

The plot elements tied together well enough to be believable but also not feel too convenient—which I think is a delicate balance in a mystery. Piper kept busy with a lot of sub-plots, all interesting stuff that ultimately provided other pieces in the grander puzzle of the story.

One really random thing I enjoyed a lot was all the hats. It seemed like whenever anyone went anywhere, there were great hats involved. I loved that!

I definitely recommend this book. I loved the characters, found the mystery elements well-paced, and seriously enjoyed the adventure in 1920s Chicago. This one is a must-read for mystery and historical lovers.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Piper learns a little bit about the Irish and Italian mafia. She dates an Italian detective, and some friends/family members disapprove of the relationship. Piper’s friend Lydia has seizures.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
A few brief male-female kisses. Piper hears a story about a girl her age rescued from a human trafficking ring. She visits some places that prostitutes frequent as part of her search for Lydia.

Spiritual Content
At one point, Piper feels discouraged, feeling like she’ll never find Lydia. She says the only thing left to do is cry out to God, if you believe He’s there.

A couple of scenes are set in a church—funeral and wedding.

Violent Content
A young woman is shot. A captor interrogates a young woman, hitting her and shoving her underwater when the girl refuses to answer questions.

Drug Content
Piper’s family enjoys wine with dinner, despite Prohibition laws. (Piper herself doesn’t drink.) Piper’s brother comes home drunk and says some unkind things to her.

 

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Review: Beauty and the Beast Lost in a Book

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , ,

Today I’m part of a blog tour with Disney to celebrate Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book by Jennifer Donnelly! My review copy of Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book and a complimentary copy of Belle’s Library: A Collection of Literary Quotes and Inspirational Musings was provided by Disney.

Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book
Jennifer Donnelly
Disney Press
January 31, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book

Smart, bookish Belle, a captive in the Beast’s castle, has become accustomed to her new home and has befriended its inhabitants. When she comes upon Nevermore, an enchanted book unlike anything else she has seen in the castle, Belle finds herself pulled into its pages and transported to a world of glamour and intrigue. The adventures Belle has always imagined, the dreams she was forced to give up when she became a prisoner, seem within reach again.

The charming and mysterious characters Belle meets within the pages of Nevermore offer her glamorous conversation, a life of dazzling Parisian luxury, and even a reunion she never thought possible. Here Belle can have everything she ever wished for. But what about her friends in the Beast’s castle? Can Belle trust her new companions inside the pages of Nevermore? Is Nevermore‘s world even real? Belle must uncover the truth about the book, before she loses herself in it forever.

My Review

I won’t lie– I agreed to review this book for two reasons: one, because I love Jennifer Donnelly’s writing (A Northern Light is still my favorite, though I’ve enjoyed other books she’s written) and because I needed a little more Beauty and the Beast in my life to tide me over until the movie comes out next month. Right? You know.

Because I know what a fantastic writer Donnelly is, I didn’t worry that this book would be overly cheesy, and in fact it wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong– there are still silly antics between the household characters, like Cogsworth rambling about grand stories and Lumiere gently teasing him while Mrs. Potts mothers everyone. But on the whole, the story has a more serious tone– much like the original animated movie. The prologue and epilogue feature two sisters– Death and Love playing chess together and discussing a wager they’ve made over the lives of Belle and her Beast. That sets a darker tone for the story, but for the most part, the tale isn’t dark.

I liked that the story tied into some of the memorable moments from the movie– Beast sharing his library with Belle, and the way he saved her from the wolves. But there were added moments, too, where the reader gets to see expanded scenes from those referenced in the movie and a lot more of the process of Belle trying to figure out where she belongs and whether to trust her new castle friends.

The story about the enchanted book felt like it definitely could have happened between scenes of the original movie. I liked that I didn’t have to abandon one of my favorite childhood movies in order to enjoy this, but it didn’t try to compete with the movie, either. This was a fresh, different story that still tied in with the overarching tale.

Overall? I definitely recommend this one to Beauty and the Beast fans, especially those counting down the days to the release of the new movie who need a little something to get through until it hits theaters.

Recommended for Ages 9 up.

Cultural Elements
Belle comes from a small French town. In Nevermore, she meets a fair-skinned countess and her sister, who has dark skin and silver hair.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
One instance of mild profanity near the beginning of the book. (Beast makes a comment that he and his companions are cursed.)

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Some magical elements. Two sisters– Death and Love appear as sisters and make a wager on Beast and Belle. Death intends to win the bet by any means necessary. Throughout the story, as in the original Disney movie, Belle learns that it’s the strength of heart, of love that matters and that loving takes great courage.

Violent Content
A brief battle scene in which Belle fights off clockwork beings and briefly faces down Death herself.

Drug Content
None.

About Jennifer Donnelly

website | twitter | instagram

Jennifer Donnelly is an award-winning, best-selling author of books for young adults and adults, including the Waterfire Saga: Deep Blue, Rogue Wave, Dark Tide, and Sea Spell. Her other young adult novels include These Shallow Graves, Revolution, and A Northern Light, winner of Britain’s prestigious Carnegie Medal, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature, and a Michael L. Printz Honor. She has also written Humble Pie, a picture book, and the adult novels The Tea Rose, The Winter Rose, and The Wild Rose. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley. You can visit her at www.jenniferdonnelly.com, or on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @jenwritesbooks.

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Review: The Fearless Traveler’s Guide to Wicked Places by Peter Begler

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , ,

Fearless Traveler’s Guide to Wicked Places
Peter Begler
Capstone Books for Young Readers
Available March 1, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

When a skull-shaped cloud kidnaps Nell’s mother and turns her into a bird, she and her brothers vow to get their mother back. To do this, they must find a powerful Fearless Traveler and persuade him to take them to a land of nightmares. Once there, they will have to make the dangerous journey to see Ravenhead, the only Dreamer who can undo the curse and return Nell’s mother to her real form. Along the way, Nell and her brother battle nightmares both outside and inside themselves. The only weapons they possess are the wisdom in the Fearless Traveler’s handbook and the truths they learn about themselves.

This story reminded me a little bit of The Thickety books by J. A. White in its lyrical prose and scary-whimsical storytelling. I liked the voices of each character—Nell and her brother George especially. George cracked me up with his snarky, arrogant-but-cute commentary. I loved the message about mothers and their connection to their children. Nell is told over and over that even if she’s able to transform her mother back to her human form, she’ll have no memory of Nell or her brothers. Nell refuses to believe this. She clings to her mom’s earlier words that a mother cannot forget her children, and that her body becomes the memory of them. The whole story has themes like this—where belief in things that are true trumps fears we hold. I liked that message.

One of the things I struggled with a little bit is the fact that for much of the journey, Nell and her brothers depend on an adult to fight their battles and help them through some obstacles. Especially in a story with a female lead, to have a male adult character taking the hero’s role sort of grates on me a bit. It feels like a statement that says she couldn’t do this on her own. I don’t think the author was trying to say that, but the story came close to feeling that way to me.

However, by about the halfway mark, Nell leaves her adult mentor behind and begins a journey alone. Soon she’s joined by a male friend who takes on a bit of a leading role as far as the fighting goes. Again, I’m not sure if this was deliberate, but I felt like Nell deserved a little more of the spotlight instead of being pushed into more of a support role yet again. I also kept waiting for the song shared between Nell and her mom to become a significant element. At several points it was clear that Nell and her mother’s relationship was special and it seemed like a song was part of their special bond, but that didn’t end up becoming a part of the story’s resolution. Maybe something saved for book two?

Overall, I really enjoyed the writing in this book and the truly unique story-world. I thought the characters were really fun and I couldn’t help investing in them and hoping they won the day. If you liked A Path Begins by J. A. White or Grayling’s Song by Karen Cushman, you should definitely pick up this book.

Recommended for Ages 8 up.

Cultural Elements
Nell and her brothers are white. The witches come from Iceland.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Nell sees things on the people around her. Sometimes their faces change to that of an animal. She refers to this as seeing their “inner animal” and can dispel the vision by saying her name out loud.

Evil witches capture human mothers and intend to kill them as part of a ritual. Sometimes the witches are referred to as demons or in one instance a succubus.

Nell and her brothers cross over to another realm controlled by Dreamers who possess powerful magic. One of the battles they fight is one of transformation. Nell and her brothers transform into animals (their dream selves) at random and inconvenient times. Nell’s dream self is a fox who desperately wants to devour the yellow bird Nell must protect. Nell and the boys learn to combat the change by forcing themselves to remember who they really are. The story places a lot of emphasis on this idea—that there is power in clinging to truths like this or the Fearless Traveler’s motto.

Violent Content
A frightening cloud which sometimes looks like wolves and other times looks like a skull seems to be kidnapping women from Nell’s town. Nell fights a creepy octopus/wolf-like critter and takes on a team of creepy witches. Battle lines form between Nell and the Dreamers and the Witches and their allies, including some scary clowns.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

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Review: Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

Piecing Me Together
Renée Watson
Bloomsbury
Published February 14, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Piecing Me Together

Jade believes the only way she’ll find success is to get out of her neighborhood. That’s why she accepts a scholarship to a privileged, mostly white school. It’s why she puts her studies first—no time for boys, no time for goofing around. As a girl from a poor neighborhood, Jade knows she must appreciate the opportunities that come her way, even those that treat her as less-than. When she joins a mentorship program meant to help “at-risk” (read: black) girls, Jade’s frustration mounts. How is her so-called mentor supposed to teach her anything when she doesn’t have her own life together? How are the group’s pointless activities supposed to change anything for her?

My Review

As Jade wrestles with the injustices in her life, she begins to realize the only way things will change is for her to find her own voice, to speak up, and challenge the people around her. Her courage and vulnerability make her story deeply moving and accessible. When she shares her experiences with racism with a white friend, at one point her friend sort of shrugs and says, “I don’t know what you want me to say.” Jade’s ability to articulate this response—support me, believe me, she tells her friend—opens conversation and dialogue about race relations issues.

Overall, this is a rich story. It’s easy to connect with Jade through her experiences, to love her, and to understand how she feels and why. It’s easy to cheer for her victories, as a young woman and an artist. I loved that she’s a collagist, and I loved the way her art was a key component of the story. I loved the way history (the story relates some information about York, an African American man who traveled with Lewis and Clark) and poetry played a key role in the story as well.

I definitely recommend this book to readers who enjoy contemporary fiction or novels about art and friendship.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Jade, her family, and her best friend Lee Lee are African American. Her mentor comes from a wealthy African American family. Her friend Sam is a white girl being raised by her grandparents. Jade is studying Spanish hoping for an opportunity to travel in an educational program. Each chapter begins with a Spanish word translated to English.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Jade attends a meeting with her mentorship group that focuses on dating and relationships. She’s not interested in either one, and the conversation stays pretty vague.

Spiritual Content
Jade comes home to her mom listening to gospel music and cleaning. Following a terrible event, Jade asks her uncle to say a prayer. He calls prayer a “poor man’s drug,” and tells Jade the person she needs to be talking to isn’t God but politicians who can make changes. Jade prays anyway.

Violent Content
Four police officers beat up an unarmed fifteen-year-old black girl when they break up a party. Jade and her friend hear about it on the news, but feel shaken up.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links which do not cost you anything to use but which help support this blog.

Review: Wanted by Betsy Schow

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , ,

Wanted
Betsy Schow
Sourcebooks Fire
Available February 7, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Rexi, Robin Hood’s daughter, scrambles to make amends for accidentally releasing the wicked witch from her prison and mucking up everyone’s happily ever after. That’s sort of the problem, though: no matter what Rexi does, everything ends up an even bigger mess. But all that has to change now that Rexi is faced with becoming Forgotten, erased from Story forever. Rexi vows to do whatever it takes to break the curse that binds her to chipper princess Dorthea and rewrite her own story, to become a hero.

I think the best part about this book, for me, were the quotes opening each chapter. They were very tongue-in-cheek references to fairytale stories and characters. I also really loved the whole mixed up fairytale situation in Wanted. Instead of a gorgeous mirror mounted on the wall, the magic mirror has become a compact whose rhyme is broken. Rexi’s just-roll-with-it attitude made some of these unexpected shifts pretty funny.

The whole story has a pretty snarky voice, which sometimes grated on my nerves. There were moments I was like, okay, does Rexi actually like anything? But ultimately her deep desire to be wanted, to be valued by others and even loved totally won me over.

Fans looking for something a little older than the Ever After High books, but with much the same twisty-but-silly fairytale quality should definitely give this a read. I think it would appeal to fans of the School for Good and Evil books, too.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
The major characters seem to be white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Rexi swears in fairytale words, shouting things like, “Spell no,” or “Glam it.”

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief boy/girl kissing.

Spiritual Content
Lots of magic. The Storymaker has the ability to write stories, but he’s not a purely benevolent force. The story definitely takes on a “life is what you make it” kind of attitude, but also emphasizes the value of heroism and good deeds. Characters who don’t live a heroic story become forgotten and fade from memory and existence.

Violent Content
Some scuffling and battles. Brief gore. One of Rexi’s allies swaps heads with other characters, which is a little it icky. Not a lot of gross description, but a little bit for sure.

Drug Content
Rexi drinks tree sap tonic to keep her memories from becoming confused. She makes a very brief reference to feeling as if she’s had some spiked beverage at one point when she feels woozy.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

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