Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

     Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children may not have been the best book to choose while I was sick, but it seemed like a good one to distract me from my fever and coughing attacks.  It has been sitting in my pile for a couple of weeks, bought on the spur of the moment because the pictures and back of the book reminded me of Stephen King.  

     After witnessing the horrible murder of his beloved grandfather, Jacob sets out to understand his grandfather's dying words.  He discovers his grandfather Abe's fairy tales are true.  As a young Jewish boy, Abe is sent to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children to hide from the Nazis.  The orphanage is an ideal refuge until the Nazi bombing September 3, 1940.  The Nazis are soon overthrown, but new monsters take their place.  Abe is the only one who can see the new monsters, and he risks everything he loves to keep the monsters at bay.  Jason has unknowingly inherited his grandfather's gift and must save the children his grandfather leaves behind.           

     It is definitely one of the weirdest books I have ever read.  It has a bit of everything thrown into the mix: romance, horror, mystery, action, time travel, children with "freak show" abilities and the Nazis.  Unfortunately, the book tries to go too many places and loses its focus.  There are so many characters to keep track of, it is hard to feel for any of them, which is too bad because I want to feel for the kids.  The romance between Jacob and the girl his grandfather also loved is too much of an "ick factor" for me to get past, and the random sexual comments are too much for a recommendation to my students.         

     The photographs in the book are supposed to be actual photographs that people donated of peculiar children, and they are fascinating.  

     The book could have made a very cool allegory about monsters and the underlying truth of his grandfather's experience with the Nazis.  It also could have been a cool horror story.  It's too bad it tries to be everything and fails at all of them.  

     Tim Burton has bought the rights for the movie, so it will be interesting to see how it translates to the big screen.       

Wonkenstein: The Creature from my Closet

     Rob is a typical twelve-year-old kid with an annoying older sister and a tag-along little brother.  He doesn't do well in school, has a messy room, and  a huge crush on his neighbor Janae.
     Rob's dad brings home a closet door from Goodwill for Rob's closet.  It even has a weird handle that has a strange man's face on it.  Rob throws everything into his closet - including his chemistry set, playdough, and books he never reads, and shuts the door.
     One day a weird creature emerges from the closet.  He is a mix of Willy Wonka and Frankenstein's monster.  Rob decides to call him Wonkenstein.  Wonkenstein gets Rob into lots of trouble, some serious misunderstandings, and lots of adventures - including reading the two books that mean so much to Wonkenstein.
     This book is written in the style of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  Every page has lots of cartoon drawings, so it is great for reluctant readers.  The main characters are boys, which makes it a great choice for ten-year-old boys who don't like to read.  It was silly, but the perfect kind of humor for kids who are learning to read chapter books.  I recommend it for reluctant readers or kids who are learning to read longer books, but still need the support of lots of pictures to understand the plot.   

Divergent

     Divergent takes place in a futuristic Chicago where the people have divided into five factions:  Candor for honesty, Dauntless for the brave, Amity for the peaceful, Erudite for intelligence, and Abnegation for the selfless.
     Beatrice and her brother are both sixteen when they must make the life-changing choice of the faction they will join.
     Beatrice leaves everything behind, including her name.  If she survives the initiation, she will hold a place in the society she has always admired.  If she fails, she risks her life and the lives of the people she loves.
     Divergent by Veronica Roth is all action and no soul.  The plot is full of surprises and unexpected twists, but the characters are shallow and dull.  Even though the book is non-stop action, I was bored.  The few sex scenes thrown in for interest make it an unlikely suggestion for my students.  The lead up to the climax is interesting, but from the climax to the end, the book becomes a copy of several Hollywood movies.
     Unless you are a huge science fiction fan, I do not recommend Divergent.  If you want a poignant book about war, finding a place in a society you don't belong to, and fighting your personal demons, read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card instead.

Stories I Only Tell My Friends

     Two things you should know - first I hate autobiographies/biographies and second I love Rob Lowe.  Rob Lowe won.  

Crossed

     I am so disappointed in Crossed and Ally Condie!  This is one of the worst sequels I have ever read.  She sold out.  It was like she just wrote anything to get done by a deadline rather than having thought about the characters, the writing, or the story.
     Cassia, Ky and Xander all act like totally different people without any explanation or reason.  The characters I fell in love with in Matched are all jerks in this book.
     Most of the new characters are superficially developed and only serve the purpose of moving the plot forward.  The exception is Vick.  Of course, he is suddenly killed off halfway through the book, just after touching my heart with his story of lost love.  It reminds me of a Shakespearean scholar who once told me that Shakespeare had to kill off Mercutio because he was stealing the play from Romeo.  There was no point to killing off Vick unless he was taking us away from Ky.  It didn't change the symbolic meaning of the book, move the plot forward, or change any of the other characters.  It was a pointless death and we already saw lots of other characters die pointless deaths at the beginning of the book.
     The actual writing is not very good, especially when it was brilliant in Matched.  In this book, Ally Condie doesn't take the time to show us what is happening.  She doesn't give us enough details to lead us to our own conclusions about the characters and what things mean.  She takes the shortcut of telling us how to interpret everything.  It is annoying and comes off as condescending.
     There are plot flaws in the book that Ally Condie uses when she wants and drops when they become inconvenient.  In Matched Cassia learns her society uses colored pills to control people.  When Cassia was very young, her grandfather told her she was strong enough to not need the pills.  She reflects on that memory several times and avoids taking any pills.  In Crossed, Cassia suddenly believes society's claim the blue pills will help her survive without food or water.  She doesn't stop to consider the consequences or her grandfather's words before she takes a pill.  Later, Cassia thinks about taking a red pill to forget the past twelve hours, but she remembers her grandfather's words and changes her mind.
     There are also lots of coincidences that happen so often they become unbelievable.  Cassia just happens to be placed in a camp near Ky's previous camp.  The first words she says are "I am looking for someone.  His name is Ky.  He has dark hair and blue eyes.  He came from a city, but he knows this land, too.  He has words."  Of course, one of the boys knows exactly who she means and leads her into the Carving.  Later, half dead from poison, she stumbles up a cliff to see the sunset.  Ky and Eli happen to see her and they happily reunite.  These kinds of coincidences happen constantly.  It would make a great soap opera because it is almost laugh out loud ridiculous.
     Rather than take the time to flesh out the plot and the characters, Ally Condie tries to force the plot by having new characters just "figure things out" without any knowledge of what went on before or using the clues we have.  Indie suddenly knows everything about Ky and Xander, even though she just met Ky and has never met Xander.  Since I didn't have any of the clues Indie used to "figure it out", I felt cheated, rather than having an AHA moment of "Oh, that's what that meant."  I felt like I was ten again and hearing Darth Vadar say, "Luke, I am your father."
     When Cassia finally finds what she is looking for, she is sent back to society.  Coincidentally, society hasn't even changed her status, so in the third book she can be back with Xander like she never left.  She risks everything to find the rebellion and then happily lets them sort her back into society without a word.  So much for all the times she and Ky swore not to go gentle.
    

Miles to Go

     I picked up Miles to Go by Richard Paul Evans on purpose.  I'm not a fan of his writing, but I wanted an uplifting book for the holidays.  Reading it reminded me of why I'm not a fan of his writing.  It should have been an uplifting book.  It had all the parts of the formula: sad story, characters overcoming hard times, a happy ending.  The problem was it had all the parts of the formula.  All of his books follow the same formula and when I read them, I get bored.  There are no surprises, no suspense, no mysteries.  I can't even cheer for the characters because they lack personalities.  They are cookie cutter gingerbread people without any unique decorations.
     His writing is also bland.  He likes to tell the story, rather than show us.  This subtle change makes a huge difference to the reader.  When I hear about the characters and what they feel, rather than experience it with them, they are removed from me.  I am just the reader, rather than a part of their world.  When I am part of their world, I care deeply about them and want to know what happens to them.  Writers do this by showing us what they are going through, rather than just saying things like, "She was depressed."
     There were great things about this book.  I loved some of the quotes the characters said.  They sounded like inspirational posters.  The trouble was without an interesting character to connect the quotes in my mind, the quotes were easily forgotten.  I also enjoyed the story on the Good Samaritan experiment.  I was so intrigued by this story, I Googled the experiment to find out more.
     Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to make me like the book.  I didn't even feel like talking about the book when I was done, and you know how much I love talking about books I am reading.
     It was an okay book, but like the characters, it will be easily forgotten.  If you are looking for an inspirational read for the holidays, pick up a Mitch Albom book.  His books will be ones you will not forget.  

The Last Olympian

     The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan is a fitting ending to a wonderful series.  I am sad to see the series come to an end.  It has been a pleasure to spend the last two years with Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Tyson.
     In this book, all of the pieces from the earlier books come together in an epic battle between the Titans and the Olympians.  Although strength and prowess play a role in the battles, the true heroes are successful because they are able to persevere, see the good in one another, and join together to fight for their cause.
     I was intrigued by Prometheus.  He was an interesting character and I am still not sure if he was trying to help or hurt Percy.  I loved the way Prometheus gave Pandora's Box to Percy to test Percy's view of humanity and hope.  I would love to read more about Prometheus in other books.
     Although the characters are growing up, they still kept the internal qualities that I loved about them.  I enjoyed the ending of the book because each character was given an ending that he/she deserved.  No one was overlooked or pushed to the side in a quick ending.
     I loved the way all of the human characters were given redemption, even though they had turned to the dark side.  It was an uplifting view that all of us make mistakes, but all of us can redeem ourselves and make a difference in the end.
     Rick Riordan is an amazing writer.  I love his characters, his creativity in creating a world unlike anywhere else I have ever been, his humor, and his uplifting view of the heroic qualities in all of us.  I am a better person for having read his books.