Book Reviews:Falling Hard (Roller Girls #1) by Megan Sparks

Annie and her father move from London, England to her father's small home town in Illinois where her father plans on opening a cafe.  While searching for a place to fit in at high school Annie makes new friends (including artist best friend Lexie)and tries to decide whether her gymnastics replacement should be cheer leading or roller derby.

This was a nice coming of age tale that most tween girls will be able to relate to in some way.  There is a small love triangle forming but as the book is part of a larger series that was not the focus of the book and is in fact left hanging only partially formed.  The real focus of the book is Annie's journey to finding a place for herself and her new love affair with roller derby, which I thought was a nice change from other realistic fiction books I've read for this age group.  Annie has a nice relationship with her father and I thought the author did a good job with both that relationship and Annie's relationship with her mother.  

As a Non Skating Official who has worked with women's, men's and junior roller derby leagues I will say that the roller derby is fairly accurate.  The drills, amount of work and athleticism required were accurate although their timeline for passing a skills test and playing in a bout was a bit expedited.  The author also did a wonderful job illustrating the camaraderie that develops between those involved in roller derby and the sense of welcoming and openness that teams try to foster.

The relationship Jesse has with the players and team which may surprise people from other sports is accurate for the way roller derby officiating currently works.  The book was also written during the last rules set (for those that aren't derby familiar; in January a major revision to the rules of roller derby came out.)  That being said it was only one or two references and I don't think it would keep a reader from going to a game and being able to follow what's going on.

There was one disparaging comment written about men's and women's roller derby being different games because men don't wear fishnets.  I know not everyone is a supporter of men's roller derby however I found the comment demeaning to both men and women's players.  The sport is about more then fishnets as the rest of the book spends a lot of time proving and while I believe there are differences in how the men play vs how the women play I thought the comment was unnecessarily disparaging of everyone.  

E-book copy provided by netgalley.

~Danger Prone Daphne, NSO

Book Review: Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

Mo LoBeau lives in Tupelo Landing with Miss Lana and the Colonel. Eleven years ago Mo floated down the river during a storm and the Colonel found her after getting into a car accident and forgetting his memory. They both settle in town and Mo lives with the Colonel and Lana who run a diner in town. She loves her adopted family fiercely (even though she still looks for her upstream mother) and most everyone else in town as the town is so small that everyone is heavily involved in everyone else's business. When a police officer comes to town looking for a murdered Mo and her best friend Dale will do everything in their power to protect the ones they love. 

What a funny, quirky mystery. The characters are just so amazing. I ended up wishing I could visit Tupelo and meet all these funny, loving people. Miss Lana and the Colonel are both a little bit crazy but you can see how much they love Mo and her friends. Lavender, Dale and Miss Rose were also really intriguing and interesting. I did find myself wondering if someday 10 years from now Mo and Lavender really will end up together. All of the characters and their small town in everybody's business love/hate relationships had me cracking up.

There were some parts of the plot I was able to figure out such as why Miss Rose had Dale fixing things up, however a lot of the mystery I didn't see coming including who dunnit which I was really excited about. It's been awhile since I read a mystery that I didn't figure out right away. I also loved it when the Colonel found out who he was. That brought a huge smile to my face. 

While it doesn't need it, I do find myself hoping for some kind of sequel. I would love to go back to Tupelo Landing and see Mo and Detective Starr solve another mystery.

Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer

It's been a couple of days since I finished this and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel. I've always loved any kind of a twist on a fairy tale, and the idea of Sleeping Beauty and vampires sounded like it would be entertaining. When I found out it was choose your own adventure I was a little unsure because I read this on the kindle and I wasn't too sure about how that would flow on a kindle, particularly since it was a transfered document rather then a regular e-book.

I liked the twist on the evil fairy being a vampire queen instead. I liked Lucy even though at times she made me nuts. I loved that when you were offered choices of what to do next, Lucy's rationale was explained. She wanted to this because.... or the other due to.....

I hated that regardless of what path you took, the ending was the same. I remember chose your own adventure being about how you could get all of these different outcomes. I also found it kind of silly that they listed all the different combinations at the end. I would have liked to figure it out on my own. I also did have some difficulty manuevering on the kindle. I think in the end this book was kind of half and half for me.

Abduction! by Peg Kehret

So this is definitely not a book I would normally have read. I read it for work and it's the last of the must reads for work for a little while. I had to read this as part of my job as a teen librarian but I definitely think it skews younger.

Matt lives with his mom and his sister Bonnie. Bonnie meets him everyday right after school and they take the bus home together. Until one day Matt isn't there. The tale that follows is sad and scary but packed with a lot of important information.

None of the charaters is very deep in this book. Everyone is there to tell their part of the story. The story is an important one. It's important to see how Matt was tricked and how many people saw something and didn't really realize what was going on. There is also a good description of the Amber Alert process and what goes into looking for a missing child.

This book is most definitely a cautionary tale for younger kids. There is a lot of good information here and I think that it's a good reminder to adults that children can't always take care of themselves and that even the strongest precautions sometimes aren't enough. It's also a good reminder to children to always be aware of what's going on, to ask for help and to never go with strangers

The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour by Michael D. Beil

This was another read for work which is why the review is so light. I know I need to read this again so I wasn't willing to go too in depth in case I honestly get sick of it.

Sophie see's a woman in a window at school and drags two of her friends. The women needs help solving a twenty year old mystery that may reunite her with her estranged daughter. In addition to the mystery there are boy problems, a Great Expectations skit and an evil deacon.

This was a cute little mystery. There wasn't anything super exciting about it. If you think about it enough a couple chapters in and you can figure out who dunnit. The girls are sweet and likable as are many of the other characters (except the bad guy of course.)

My one complaint is that there was math. The girls need to solve a series of puzzles and the whole thing leads to some plane geometry. Oh there were vicious vicious flashbacks. I was not happy.

There is also a slightly religious aspect to the entire thing, however it's mostly from a historical perspective and no one's being beat over the head with anything. All of the parts discussed end up being relevent to the story.

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

This is a great gross out read for tween and young teen boys. Gregor is babysitting his 2 year old sister Boots when they get sucked into Underland, a place below New York City that is settled by humans and some incredible speaking animals including but not limited too giant rats, cockraoches, spiders and bats. At first all Gregor can think of is getting home, but then he realizes his dad is a prisoner of the rats and that he may be able to free him by fulfilling an old prophecy.

This book was a great quick paced adventure. There is tons of cool, guy appealing gross out here (did I mention the talking GIANT cockroaches). There are quick escapes, massive battles and last minute saves. There is also a lot of death, betrayal and sadness here as well. There are also politics and intriuge here as well.

This is one of the first of several books I had to read for work that I know I will be reading inside and out and over and over this summer. Hence the short review, I am trying to avoid burning myself out. As I read it again I may add more to the review. Once the summer's over (and I know it wont confuse me) I think I want to read the rest of the series.

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

Harry's father dies and she is sent to Daria. Once in Daria she begins to love the country although she does find herself a bit bored. Then she is abducted by the local king and grows to become a strong commander and legend among his people in her own right.

I finished this book last night and it was completely amazing. This is another book that I wasn't sure what to think about because I had heard that a lot of people weren't happy when it was awarded the Newberry and I think that's because it's high fantasy which doesn't appeal to everyone but I still think people should give it a chance.

The world building in this book was just amazing. From the depictions of the dry, windy desert of Damaria, to the stark differences between the Homelanders' very proper and polite society to Corlath's people's more equal and almost Arabian society, and the haunting descriptions of the evil northerners and their demonic mounts I just felt like I could picture everything that was going on, and imagine it as a place I might want to visit someday.

Reading about how Harry grows from someone who considers herself a misfit for being a bright girl who likes to keep busy to a both physically and mentally strong young woman but becomes a leader in her own right. She is willing to risk anything and everything to do what she thinks is right. Many of the minor characters are fully fleshed out as well, with both Harry's horse and a cat that adopts her having very strong personalities even though they aren't anthropomorphized in any way.

Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Cinderella has left her Stepmothers house to give live in the castle until the wedding and she's having trouble fitting it. She also never gets to speak to the Prince alone so she's having trouble connecting with him. The only people she's getting along with are her tutor Jed and Mary a servant. At the castle women are considered too delicate for everything, and for a girl like Cinderella who took her fate into her hands it's just against her nature.

I really wanted to like this. I love tales that are based on or twist fairy tales and Margaret Peterson Haddix is such a prolific teen author, but alot of the time I just felt frustrated when I read it. To me a lot of the characters felt like one demensional stereotypes, like they were never fully fleshed out. None of the characters ever did anything surprising, I could figure out what was going to happen based on their archetype.

***Spoiler***
I was also a little bothered by the ending. If Jed continues working for the Charmings, how are him and Ella supposed to end up together. I understand that it's important to stop the war; and a big part of the theme of the book was taking responsibility and doing something to change your situation not just being impassive but if felt like the author was setting up an impossible road block for them.
***End Spoiler***

However it wasn't all bad, I did like the way the Charmings chose to handle Cinderella's disapearance. I thought it was funny and I do hope that everyone involved got what they deserve out of the relationship.

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger

What a great book for fourth to sixth graders. It totally accurately portrays what first young romance is like, and it does it in a fun and funny way. Dwight is the weird kid in class, but he folds phenomenal origami and gets straight A's but only in math. He folds an origami yoda and claims it gives advice/predicts the future. Tommy a sort of friend of Dwight's needs to know if Origami Yoga is real because he asked a very important question and need's to know. The book is his case file, an organized collection of everyone's experience's with Origami Yoda so he can scientifically decide whether or not Origami Yoda is real.

Part graphic novel, part case study, I really enjoyed the read. Also includes directions for how to make your own origami yoda.