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books

Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams

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I have a love-hate relationship with verse novels. Despite knowing how hard of a format it is to do successfully, sometimes it seems to me the easy way out of writing a novel. This is the feeling I struggled with when I began Carol Lynch Williams’s new title Glimpse: the verse made little sense to me initially, but fortunately, it begins to make complete sense as the story forges forward.

Hope walked in on her sister Lizzie holding a gun and threatening to shoot herself, and it is that scene that causes Lizzie to be sent away to a mental health facility for the summer. This summer drags long for Hope, as she and Lizzie had always been close. Not only that, but dad was gone and mom’s new job forced Hope to leave the comforts of her home quite often. Mom had to make money some how, and her method of choice involved a new man every night.

When Hope and her mother visit Lizzie, she is extremely strange around her mother. But with Hope, she tries to act normally. Hope is on to something — she knows there is something much deeper going on with Lizzie than she or her mother will let on.

It’s the diary that will tell it all. But just how will Hope be able to track down Lizzie’s diary in the house her mother made them abandon?

Glimpse is a fast-paced story that, despite its pacing, requires a slow reading to pick up on the clues of who Hope and Lizzie really are. Although I didn’t predict the ending, it was foreshadowed quite a bit throughout the text.

The verse format’s sparseness is perfect for the story telling, as the clues to Lizzie’s breakdown and desire to kill herself are pepper throughout but only, well, sparsely. The haunting and mysterious tone of those novel mirror that, as well. As a reader, I feel at once removed from the situation and entirely close to it — but never close enough to put my finger on it. The reader is really Hope, pulling together the broken pieces.

Our narrator here is reliable because of this. I initially didn’t feel much for Hope, but as things began getting stranger with her mother and Lizzie, I began to really sympathize with Hope. The powerful ending made me want to remove Hope from the entire situation, and it made me feel a lot for Lizzie, who I initially saw as selfish.

Glimpse is a powerful book to follow Williams’s prior title, The Chosen One. She has a powerful eye for crafting realistic characters and gripping situations, and I think that Glimpse is a title we’ll be hearing about come awards time. This will appeal to fans of Thalia Chaltas’s Because I am Furniture, though I don’t know quite how much Ellen Hopkins fans will find this satisfying — it’s got some grit, but it is not in the same category as Hopkins’s titles. It’ll also work well for fans of Julie Ann Peters and for fans of the realistic fiction (but not necessarily “issue” driven) titles.

Tweet Heart by Elizabeth Rudnick

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There is something to be said about a book that is ultra contemporary: it is fun! I picked up Tweet Heart by Elizabeth Rudnick on a recommendation and rave from dear Alea and am so glad I did.

Tweet Heart follows four friends, Claire, Lottie, Will, and Bennett through their series of Tweets on Twitter, as well as a few blog posts and emails. There is nothing more to it in terms of story plotting, as it all unfolds through social media. Claire is crushing hard on a guy named JD while Will is seriously crushing on Claire but can’t get her attention. Enter his plan to pretend to be JD on Twitter and you have a romance that you don’t expect will happen and will leave Claire tricked and disappointed.

You wouldn’t be too far off on that for plot, but there is a lot more to it — JD DOES end up giving Claire the time of day, but it won’t be the same JD she was tweeting with. When the bomb drops about who the “real” JD is (“real” as in the one playing him on Twitter and the one who is a boring, one track minded jock in person), things among the four good friends will shift . . . and it might be to everyone’s benefit.

Tweet Heart was a cute, fluffy read that I really found worked well with the Twitter platform. The quick bursts really gave each character a distinct voice and made their personalities work well; in fact, I found some of the additional stuff — the emails and blog entries — almost distracting. I think the book would have functioned well completely without them.

This book made me think a lot about the studies that come out, oh, about daily, stating that teenagers aren’t using Twitter. Whether or not that is true, I think that this book will reach a teen audience easily, as teens understand how the social media platform works, and I think they will connect with these completely plugged-in teens. Besides that, they will also connect with the trick Will plays as they recognize themselves in either his position or Claire’s position; if not themselves, they likely know someone who has been in either of those places.

We have four unique characters, too: the girl who wants a boy who she believes is out of her league; the girl who has no problem meeting and dating boys (she meets one while on a family trip in Europe but it fizzles out from distance, but no fear: soon after, she’s found another guy while at a department store); the guy who has a mad crush on the first girl; and the guy who is a big, lovable dork. I think Bennett, the unabashed geek, was my favorite character.

It’s a clean read, too, with no language or adult situations. This is the kind of book any teenage girl could pick up and enjoy without having to worry about reading something uncomfortable. There’s enough thrust to the story line and the format to interest a wide variety of primarily female readers — from those preferring Jenny B. Jones and Cindy Martinusen-Coloma to those who prefer Simone Elkeles.

While this one won’t have huge staying power, I think it’ll get a nice readership for a few years. I hope Rudnick publishes more titles, though not necessarily in just this format; I think her style and her true-to-life dialog will resonate with teens. Though I didn’t initially plan on purchasing this one for my library, I ended up purchasing a copy for both branches because of the wide appeal, unique format, and relatability that readers will have to these four likeable and flawed characters.

Oh, your windswept hair!

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Maybe this series is better described as the Beiber effect on girls? I want to hand many of these ladies a hair brush.


The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan. This is what the cover was supposed to be, but it ended up being changed before publishing.

Breathless by Jessica Warman. This one’s at least swimming.


Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines. I guess being ready for battle gladiator style can make your hair messy.


Banished by Sophie Littlefield. Oh how I want to push it out of her face!


The Frenzy by Francesca Lia Block. If your hair is that beautiful a color of red, I guess you can cover your face in it.


Keep Sweet by Michelle Dominguez Green. I have a feeling the girl in the story actually has longer hair than this. But I digress.


Ravenspeak by Diane Lee Wilson. Another pretty red head, but this time the hair covering her face with a horse attacking the brain doesn’t even make sense.


Birthmarked by Caragh O’Brien. She looks electrified. Maybe she put her finger in a socket?

Blindsided by Priscilla Cummings at least gives us a reason: the main character is blind.

Thanks to Janssen, here’s another:

It is indeed impossible to see like that.

I hope this is a trend that stops soon. You scratch up too many book jackets trying to brush their hair. I haven’t even touched on the books where the wind is sweeping a girl’s hair away from her face ala this and this and this.

There are more of this style flying around (oh ho ho!). Share them if you know of them.

Sea by Heidi Kling

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Remember when you were a kid, and you would wait patiently (excitedly) for that toy you just knew you’d get for Christmas or your birthday and then when you got it, it wasn’t what you had wished for in your mind?

For me, that was Heidi Kling’s much anticipated debut novel Sea. That’s not to say it was bad or that there isn’t a readership here, but that’s to say for me, it didn’t work and I was quite let down.

Sienna Jones lost her mother in a terrible plane accident a few years ago, and the thought of flying terrified her. But, since her dad worked for a non-profit that helped children in overseas countries, she knew it was a part of her world and she’d need to confront this fear sooner or later. It’d be sooner, though, when dad surprises her with a plane ticket to Indonesia to help him with his efforts in preparing children orphaned by the Asian Tsunami become more independent.

She was, of course, not interested, but after a talk with long time friend/crush/boyfriend Spider, she decides she’ll go with her dad and his friend/crush/girlfriend/”mom replacement.” When they land and are welcomed to the orphan house, Sienna locks eyes over the drumming with a local boy with whom she will fall madly in like with. Yes, in like.

In her crush-like manner, she will do anything to be with him, including hop a plane to another part of the country in order to help him locate his father (he’d heard rumors he was still alive). Bad idea, of course: there is no dad, but someone else from his past has crept in and suddenly, Sienna is much more alone.

What worked well in this story was a unique foreign setting. There are so few mainstream books written for teens set in a foreign country. This, paired with the contemporary issue of the Asian Tsunami, kept me compelled and forced me to continue reading this title. I loved the setting, and I thought that Kling did a good job of weaving in cultural norms and discussions of how customs in other countries are just as valid and important as those in America. Sienna was a bit of a brat, and I think Kling did a good job of setting her straight.

But for me, that’s about where the good ended. I found there was more for me to dislike than like here. Sienna is an irritating character, who I wanted to smack more than one time. She was full of herself and bratty in a manner that reminded me more of an adult writing what they perceive as teen angst rather than a teen who sometimes is moody. I found the ancillary characters completely flat, particularly the boy she meets and falls in love with in the most cheesy manner. I can’t even remember his name.

Moreover, the writing itself left much to be desired. What may have sounded unique or may have been included to set a scene was clunky and confusing. There is a recurring statement about the “orange popsicle haze” of the sky, and it never once really resonated with me. I get the orange popsicle coloring, but the haze? It didn’t work for me. A number of other similes or metaphors used through the book came off more as confusing than effective, and the use of the drum beat for love came off more as cheesy than cute.

That said, Sea has a built-in readership that will find the characters and storyline compelling, and they will get a lot out of the setting here. It’s a fluffy read, perfect for summer, and because it has little in the way of language or sex, it’ll work for younger teen readers and those who prefer their stories clean. I wish it had a little more heft to it, since there was so much to work with from the setting, but I’ll have to wait a little longer.

I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

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When the first ring appears around his ankle, John gets a little scared. When the second appears, he’s full-out worried. But when the third appears, his life is at stake.

John is a member of the Garde — one who develops legacies — from the planet Lorien. He and eight other Garde from the planet Lorien are the only ones to survive the takeover of their home planet from the rival Mogadorians. The Mogadorians have destroyed their own planet and chose to take over Lorien for their own gain and wipe the native citizens out.

John and the fellow eight survivors have come to Earth, a planet much like theirs, and they have spread themselves out in order to not be found together. The Mogadorians are going to find them on Earth, but the more dispersed they are, perhaps it’ll take longer — especially since they have to be killed in order. And despite their being spread out, they will know when others have been killed by the rings that will appear on their ankles.

I Am Number Four picks up as John discovers the third ring on his ankle. He and his guardian Henri, a fellow Lorien who will not develop legacies (and thus referred to as a Cepan), must abandon their lives on the Florida coast and move somewhere completely new. It’ll be Paradise, Ohio, this time, where John will develop relationships with his fellow classmates in ways he never has before. John is finally old enough now to find a girlfriend and to understand how important relationships with people his own age are. However, Henri will warn him repeatedly that this might not be a good idea, since their lives in Paradise are certainly impermanent.

Pittacus Lore is the pseudonym of a pair of writers, James Frey (of A Million Little Pieces fame) and Jobie Hughes. This title was highly buzzed at this year’s BEA, and interestingly, it was a late add to the Harper fall catalog. Perhaps that has to do with the fact this was already in film production, with the movie slated to his theaters in early 2011.

I Am Number Four was worth the 440 page roller coaster. This was an incredibly fast paced, action-filled novel that sucked me in immediately and kept me engaged right through to the end. I found John and Henri’s planet’s history interesting and it was just enough not to bore me with details. I did not get confused about what was happening, nor did I feel like I didn’t get enough history to understand why they had to do the things they did. It was a perfect balance of their past with their present situation to keep me going.

I found that John was a completely relatable character, despite being an alien. He had real feelings, and I thought he had real feelings toward his classmates (even Mark, his immediate arch nemesis-turned-good-friend). There’s enough thrust here to make what happens at the end — which I promise is hugely action-paced and kept me reading well past the time I should have stopped — even more immediate.

The one big issue I had was that Sarah, the only female who makes more than a quick cameo, is a flat and voiceless character. She’s got no interests of her own beyond John, and I feel she was a little too quick and flighty in accepting the truths he tells her. I wish she was a but more of a challenge to him in the way a real girl of her social status would be. And to answer the question my husband posed to me while reading, yes, aliens and humans can have relationships, and children they produce are super geniuses (think Ghandi, Thomas Jefferson, etc.). Pittacus Lore thought through this pretty thoroughly.

I Am Number Four will make an excellent movie, and it’s one I will definitely see. When I finished this volume, I immediately went to find out when the second book will be released (Spring 2011) since I will continue into this series. This appeals to both genders, and I think it will have special appeal to teen male readers who haven’t had anything spectacular thrown at them in series form for a bit now (Alex Rider and Redwall are still hot in my library, but they’re not especially new, whereas girls keep getting vampire romances and other series aimed at them). Likewise, there are some greater themes in this book, too, including the importance of keeping one’s home planet safe and “green” — the Mogadorians ruined their planet while the Lorien kept theirs alive through love and thoughtful use of and recycling of good and products. Since both species can share Earth, I think the message is pretty clear we can decide our own planet’s destiny.

And don’t worry: there are plenty of secrets and magical powers to be revealed throughout. John is in for quite the surprise on more than one occasion. Bonus points on this novel for having virtually no language issues (there is one instance, but that is where one chracter tells another it is not okay to be profane) and the romance that develops between John and Sarah is totally clean. There is some violence, but it’s nothing beyond what you’d see on daytime television. We don’t even cross into prime time violence here.

You can check out this website for more insight into the book, the movie, and into aliens. I learned Wisconsin is one of the top ten places for UFO sightings…something I might have to spend a little more time investigating, as well.

* Review copy won at BEA.