The Fault in Our Stars (John Green)

The Fault in Our Stars is the story of Hazel, a 16-year-old girl who has cancer and is always hooked up to an oxygen tank.  She thought she was lying on her death bed when she was 14-years-old, but by some miracle, the tumours in her lungs have shrunk.  Her life is anything but ordinary - she doesn't have many friends, she can't do many things alone, and she isn't the happiest of children. While she is still alive, she is by  no means healthy.

Hazel then meets Augustus at a group therapy session - a boy who is of similar age, who is attractive, smart, in remission, and who is interested in her.  Their friendship grows throughout the novel and Hazel starts to experience life and the ups and downs of true friendships.

I thought it was a very well written young adult novel.  I know that it has been a very successful novel, and I will say that it definitely tugged at my heartstrings a bit.  You start to get attached to the characters and you feel like you're on their journey with them.  You root for the relationships between people, and you desperately hope that their lives with turn around and finally have more good news than bad. 

The two teens featured in the book (Hazel and Augustus), are not normal teenagers.  They seem much more mature than what they are and they speak in a much better dialect than you would expect from a teenager.  Maybe a bit unrealistic, but I'll let it slide because it was a cute love story and because I think there were a few good lessons for the young adults and teens who will read this book.

I may have shed a few tears (so be prepared if you take on this one), but it was a fast read and I think it's a good book for teens.  You learn about empathy and about how sometimes, it's ok to not be strong.  There are many quotable quotes throughout the novel, and I really hope that readers will read this and start to appreciate the experiences and situations that they are given in their lives. 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs)

I bought this book with a gift card I received for Christmas.  Basically, I was at Chapter's and wanted to take advantage of the 30% off hardcover boxing day sale.  I searched on their computers for top 2011 picks and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs showed up under Top Teen Books.  (And once again, I did judge the book by the cover... Doesn't that picture make you want to read it?)

The story is centered around Jacob, a sixteen-year-old boy who used to believe everything his grandfather told him (because who doesn't believe these fairy tales as a young child?).  Jacob's grandfather, Abe, then whispers his final words to Jacob, filled with weird ideas and confusing information.  When his terrifying nightmares start, Jacob journeys to an island near Wales to find some answers.  If nothing else, Jacob's family hopes that this journey will help him distinguish between fantasy and reality.  Once there, he finds "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" and begins to believe that these children, who were in fact "peculiar," may still be alive. 

Sounds a little weird, right?  The first hundred pages seemed like they could be very real - no talk of magic - everything seems to be based on Jacob's imagination.  Later in the book, though, there is some "magic" (if you want to call it that!)  There is some time travel - that is, Jacob, who has found the home for peculiar children and knows that something is up, finally finds the entrance to their loop, which is a different world and relives September 3, 1940, over and over again. 

Now what do I mean when I say the children are peculiar?  Well, one of the boys is invisible, one girl has super human strength, another girl can light a flame ball in her hand, and another boy releases bees from his body every time he opens his mouth.  Sounds weird, but it actually makes a lot of sense in the story.

This story mixes real photography from old collections with a new fiction story. I really loved how these very strange photographs were used to tell a creative story.  Just looking at the pictures is cool enough, and then reading the story that "goes along with them" lets you use your imagination and really get into the plot. 

The storyline really kept me interested, especially near the middle and end of the book, where there is a lot more adventure than there is at the beginning.  Without too much of a spoiler... while the book could be a standalone book, I feel like there could possibly be a second one on the way, with the story left kind of wide open at the end. 

I liked this book.  It was good and kept my interest.  You need some imagination to read it - don't expect it to be like a true story based on the photographs.  It's worth reading just to see how well Ransom Riggs connects the photographs.  It was a great first novel by Ransom Riggs and I would definitely read another.

Wonderstruck (Brian Selznick)

I just finished Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick.  I first heard about this book from this blog, written by a librarian who reads many young adult books.  Often, I just skim what she's read, but when I saw her review about Wonderstruck, I immediately looked for it in the library database.  Since there were quite a few copies available throughout the area, I decided to wait for a bit before checking it out (since I saw that it was a GIANT book and didn't think I had time to read it quite yet).  Walking through Chapters last week, I noticed that Brian Selznick's Wonderstruck has now made it right to the front and center.  I picked up the book and skimmed through it, noticing that a good portion of the book is made up of beautiful art.  After being home for two minutes, I searched for it again and noticed that now, 5 of the 7 copies were currently checked out of the various libraries in town.  I thought I'd better get on it before 30 people put the book on hold before me!  I had a copy transferred to my nearest library and picked it up two days later.  Wow, what a story...

The concept of Wonderstruck:  It's composed of two different and separate stories.  Ben's story is told entirely through words and Rose's story is told through pictures.  Ben is searching for a father that he has never known and Rose is in search of an actress who she reads about in the papers.  Their stories are set 50 years apart - oh, and did I mention that both Rose and Ben have hearing impairments?

I read this book very quickly - partly because it was very good and partly because of the beautiful artwork that fills up many of the pages in the book (and allows you to flip the pages quicker than if they were filled with words).  As you're reading both stories, you can see some similarities.  Both stories are well told and, as a reader, you wonder how Selznick is going to finish (and perhaps mesh together) these separate stories.

Also, let's take a moment here to again say how beautiful the artwork in the book is.  I was unsure when I was starting this book - how I was going to understand a storyline when there are no words to help?  The images do such a good job of telling a solid story.  (Yes, a picture can be worth a thousand words.)

Because of its size and weight, it's not a book I would recommend when you're heading on vacation, but it was a great, quick, young adult read that makes you smile at the end.

The Maze Runner (James Dashner)

Initially, I had only stopped at Chapters to look for the November/December edition of the National Geographic Traveler.  One of my friends will have a photo featured after being a merit winner in the National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest.  My friends are just so awesome!

Being too early for the magazine (guess they really do mean that it will be out in November), I was wandering around during a 20% off sale.  I wasn't going to buy anything until I walked by the Young Adults table in the middle of the aisle. 

Usually, I notice and kind of smile at how the Young Adults table is covered in vampire books.  I read the Twilight books and, while I liked getting caught up in the vampire craze at the time, I think I'm done with the vampire world (except for maybe the last two Twilight movies, of course).  This time, I also noticed The Maze Runner by James Dashner on the table.  Not being like all the other vampire books on the table, I picked it up and read the back.  I just had a feeling that it could be another book, like The Hunger Games, that would surprise me and bring me to another world.

Let's start with a short description.  Thomas wakes up in a giant box that has brought him to a place called the Glade.  Around the Glade are large stone walls that open each morning and close each night, leading to a huge maze.  This place has a population that is make up entirely of kids - and they're all boys.  No one really knows why they are there or how to get out.  They only know that every month, a new boy shows up in the box, and that whoever sent them there is watching them and is providing them with the food and supplies they need to survive.  A day after Thomas arrives, there's an unexpected arrival in the box - a girl.  Things start to change in the Glade and everyone works hard to find the answers they need to survive and get out of the weird world they are in. 

I'm not entirely sure where to start with my thoughts on this book.  I liked it - just not as much as I liked The Hunger Games.  I found that it took me a little while to get used to the language used in the book.  And, because of "how they do things" when someone first arrives at the Glade, there were lots of conversations at the beginning of the book that I found confusing - I understand that they have a system for how they introduce people to the environment, but there was almost too much running around in my head for the first few chapters.  Once I got some answers, I found that it all made a lot more sense to me. 

I was intrigued throughout the book, really trying to come up with solutions for the problems these kids were facing in the Glade.  (And I feel uber smart because I came up what they tried in Chapter 42 before the author said it.)

You realize that they're all just kids and that they've been forced to grow up because of the situation they were put in.  I think there could be some great discussions around this theme, especially if this book was used in a classroom setting.

I am somewhat satisfied with the ending.  You feel a little relief for the tension you were feeling, but it does leave you with a twist in the Epilogue...  You kind of want more answers - answers which you hope will be answered in the next book, The Scorch Trials.  I'll probably reserve the next book from the library even though I'll have to wait a month or so before it's in (which is good news for the book - there is a wait list for it!). 

If you're in the mood for something a little different - a book that has some real life themes mixed with a lot of imagination - then I'd recommend this.

The Hunger Games, Catching Fire AND Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)

 I read The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins after hearing so many good things about these books.  One recommendation was from my friend Amanda's blog. 

These books were read by me during the summer in record time.  I could attempt to write a blog post about each individual book, but they were read right after one another so quickly that I probably couldn't even get my thoughts right about what happened in which book.  What I do know is how much I loved these books. 

The first novel, The Hunger Games, introduces you to a different world, a place you couldn't even imagine.  Each  year, one boy and one girl from each district is chosen to fight in a battle to the death on live TV. 

Sounds strange, right?  I thought so, too, but there was something about this book that just kept me so captivated.  You fall in love with the characters and their stories, and the descriptions that Collins includes in the book make you feel like you are right there in the action.  There's always something about these books that take place in an exciting and different world that make me feel like I'm a kid again (um, Harry Potter anyone?).  They also make me wonder how someone could come up with these crazy and awesome ideas. 

The story continues in Catching Fire and Mockingjay.  Both books have equally exciting plots (I don't really want to give anything away, if you haven't read the first book...).  If you read and like the first book, I don't think it's possible to go without following up with Catching Fire and Mockingjay! 


This Young Adults trilogy is highly recommended by me.  Although I was a wee bit embarrassed to be buying this book from the "Teen" section (since I can't even count the number of times I'm asked whether I'm still in high school), I'm so glad I did. 

Seriously, go out and find these books now if you haven't already.  Start reading and let your imagination go to The Hunger Games.