Review: INFINITE SKY by C.J. Flood

3.79 STARS from 462 GoodReaders

You can't tell that the coffin holds the body of a boy. 

He wasn't even sixteen, but his coffin's the same size as a man's would be.

It's not just that he was young, bu because it was so sudden. No one should die the way he did: that's what the faces here say.

I think about him, in there, with all that space, and I want to stop them. I want to open the box and limb in with him. To wrap him up in a duvet. I can't bear the thought of him being cold.

And all the time the same question flails around my head, like a hawk moth round a lightbulb. Is it possible to keep loving somebody when they kill someone you love?

This is the prologue to CJ Flood's INFINITE SKY.  The narrative by thirteen year-old Iris Dancy gives readers the bitter sweet story of young love. A forbidden love that ends in murder.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Review: CHASING SHADOWS
Review: REALITY BOY
Review: FANGIRL  (light-hearted drama)
------------------------------------------------------------------

BACKSTORY

The Dancy family is self destructing.  Iris' mother upped and left. In her absence the household routine has ceased. Meals are haphazard and the house is a mess. Iris and her brother, Sam, struggle with their feelings of abandonment.  And their friends and father don't make the situation better. Mr. Dancy is drinking heavily, so when Gypsies move onto their property, it's possible for anything to happen. Even love. Even death.

It was three months after Mum left that the Gypsies moved in. They set up camp in the paddock one Sunday night while we were asleep.  My brother Sam was excited when he saw them.

"Gypos!" he shouted.

Sam used to have a Gypsy in his class: Grace Fitzpatrick. She'd been famous at school because she could do as many things with her feet as with her hands. She could even write her name with them, which was funny because she couldn't read. Sam, who'd sat next to her in assembly, said she smelled like cat piss and fire smoke.

The prolog sets the stage of INFINITE SKY.  As the book unfolds the reader is left wondering who was killed and how.  Is it Sam?  Is it the gypsy boy, Trick? 

The story is bitter-sweet and many of my friends loved it. To be truthful though it wasn't for me. The writing was excellent, but I just couldn't connect with Iris.  But don't keep you from investigating this debut novel.  

http://www.telegraph.co.uk  review

amazon reviews

theguardian.com review

Pam~


INFINITE SKY
by C.J. Flood

Reading Information:
Page Count: 256
no reading information currently available
--sample pages and reviews available

Review: GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE by Andrew Smith

3.90 STARS — 1,877 GoodReaders

The GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE was a really interesting read. It has characters that were very well developed and if I had to classify it, I would say that it is a Coming-of-Age/Scifi hybrid.

***Special Note
Consider yourself warned.  I have to say that this will not be a book for everyone. There's a huge focus on sex and the book is rife with profanity. Even the giant bugs have sex-- and they may have said some naughty things too.

The end of the world began at about 2:00 a.m., around three-and-a-half feet away from a discarded floral-print sleeper sofa infested with pubic lice in Ealing, Iowa. 

BACKSTORY
Austin Szerba lives in a small town in Iowa.  He has a best friend .AND. a girlfriend .AND. life is pretty good. That is until Austin and friend accidentally unleash an army of unstoppable giant praying mantises.

The story is told from Austin's point of view.  It's unique in that he considers himself a historian of his own life. And ultimately we readers get to experience two timelines. The first timeline is in the present as Austin maneuvers through school and life in a small town. The other begins with his grandfather's survival of WWII.  It leads to Austin's father's birth and eventually Austin's own arrival into the world. It's a tale of how it took luck and perfect timing to initiate the destruction of the United States of America, and Austin's survival of it.


Three Stars?  Four Stars?  This is one of those difficult books to rate. I enjoyed reading GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE and feel my time wasn't wasted,  BUT I really have no desire to every read it again.

“Everyone on every road that crossed beneath the point of my pen was always going to do the same things over and over and over.
I was confused.
How could I be in love with a girl ‘and’ a boy, at the same time?
I was trapped forever.
You know what I mean.”

THE GOOD

--How the story was constructed. The use of historical perspective was just great.

--Portrayal of teen angst.  You should know that a large portion of this book is character development of teens.  And there's a wonkingly large amount of angst involved; and it is very well done.

--Humor.  Wonderful humor throughout. Some of it is gallows humor but most is just humor involving the human condition. Delicious.

THE LESS GOOD

--There's a lack of drama involving the creatures. They were never scary. And not all that funny either.

--The book's too long. I love quirky books. Especially a quirky book with interesting characters, but the amount of quirky I can appreciate is limited.  This book frequently bored me. It might not be that way for you.

--Repetitive. The main character is so obsessed with his 'manly parts' that it ended up being boringly repetitive.

So why is GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE on MUSTREADYA?  [Yes, GoodBooksforKids is going to become MUSTREAD YA and KIDLIT when I have time.] It's on the blog because the characters, both primary and secondary, are well drawn.  And it's on here because I was glad I read the book, and I think others are going to enjoy it as well.

Pam~


GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE
by Andrew Smith

Reading Information:
Word Count: 100,976
Page Count: 432
Accelerated Reader: 6.2 / points: 16.0
AR quiz: 165472
--sample pages and reviews available

Other resources:
NYTimes review
Washington Post review
Entertainment review
CommonsenseMedia

Review: LIV, FOREVER by Amy Talkington

3.77 STARS — 368 GoodReaders

It sucks to be dead.

I collapsed onto the ground. I swung my arms and felt stinging pain as they whipped right through the dead leaves. Through them. Not possible. I paused --calmed--tried to pick up a leaf. I focused intensely. I had to pick up that leaf. It would mean everything was normal. I managed to manipulate it between my fingers, but touching it caused a burning sensation on my fingertips as if it's orange-red color was actual fire. I moved it barely--almost imperceptibly. Then I dropped it and slumped over, my whole being exhausted ad weakened as if I'd just carried a heavy piece of furniture up a flight of stairs.

BACKSTORY

Liv Bloom has the opportunity of a lifetime. She's gotten a scholarship to the elite Wickham Hall school. When she arrives she finds that she doesn't fit in, but she doesn't care. They've given her a gorgeous studio with tons of supplies. And even better, before she dies she finds the boy that has all the makings to be her one great love.

YES, I said die. Poor Liv doesn't get to make much art or spend much time with her new boyfriend before she is murdered. The question is why? Why was she murdered and why does she see all these other ghosts?

The story centers around 3 characters: Liv, her love Malcolm, and a remarkable boy she meets by happenstance, Gabe.  Gabe's claim to fame, besides the fact that he is also an outlier in their world of super rich children, is that he can see ghosts. And it's the three of them that set out to discover who has been murdering girls over the centuries.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Review: IN THE SHADOWS
Review: MISTWALKER 
Review: THE GHOST BOX
------------------------------------------------------------------

Remarkably, LIV, FOREVER, with all of the ghosts and deaths, is a sweet story. It's also a very quick read.  A little slow in the beginning but that's more or less necessary to create the background and to invest the reader in the characters.  I enjoyed how the three worked out the mystery. Liv can talk to Gabe and Gabe to Malcolm so it made for a fun communication triangle.

For those that don't like high-stress/suspense stories, don't worry. LIV, FOREVER is not like that. It's a highly enjoyable twinkie read that would be suitable for Middle-graders and Young Adults. I enjoyed it.  

Pam~


LIV, FOREVER
by Amy Talkington

Reading Information:
Word Count:  66,148
Page Count:  278
Accelerated Reading level: 4.7 / points: 10.0
AR quiz: 164732
--sample pages and other reviews available
--audio version available
--sample e-chapters available

Review: A DEATH-STRUCK YEAR by Makiia Lucier

3.94 STARS — 245 GoodReaders

**Starred Review** SchoolLibraryJournal

A DEATH-STRUCK YEAR reminds me of some of the American Girl books. It's well-researched and works hard to convey the essence of an era. It's also written to appeal to a female audience.

THE BACKSTORY

The backstory for this book is the deadly Spanish Flu and World War I. 

Cleo Berry, our heroine, lives with her much older brother, Jack, and his wife, Lucy. Cleo's parents were killed in a car accident when she was younger, and she's fortunate in that her brother is well off and she is able to go to a private girl's school and even dream of going to college. Her biggest problem is that hasn't a clue what she wants to do in the future.

THE STORY

As the story begins Jack needs to do some business traveling and because his and Lucy's wedding anniversary is coming up, they've decided to extend his travels and celebrate the anniversary in San Francisco. Cleo is to be moved temporarily to her school, which boards many of it's pupils, until they return.

Unfortunately, while Jack and Lucy are gone, the deadly Spanish Influenza, which had been on the East Coast only, jumps to Oregon. As the death's begin to mount the school is closed. Children like Cleo are expected to stay in residence, but Cleo has other plans and she returns home. 

Shortly afterwards, she decides she can not stay barricaded in the house, and she signs up to become an assistant with the Red Cross. This is obviously the start of her adventures.

~

The writing in A DEATH-STRUCK YEAR is good. It's crisp and straight forward. The plotting is logical.

The book has earned kudos and starred reviews and that's not really surprising as it's obviously well researched, and it has enough excitement, and a satisfying enough ending for a middle-grade read.

In my own mind, I see this book fitting into the average category. Basically because to my adult sensibilities the story is predictable and lackluster. It's perfectly obvious, for example, from the first introduction who the love interest will be. This would not, however, keep me from recommending it to my own middle-grader. It's a good example of edu-tainment.

Special Tweens Note:  there is some swearing, a tiny bit of drinking --which is used to introduced the notion of prohibition-- and of course, there are sick people, dying people, and dead people of all ages. In addition there is a one-time mention of a birth control pamphlet.

Pam~


A DEATH-STRUCK YEAR
by Makiia Lucier

Reading Information:
Page Count:  288
no reading information currently available
--sample pages and reviews available