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A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park Review

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Having recently interviewed Linda Sue Park for the latest edition of Kid Writers Magazine, I was excited to read her bestselling book A Long Walk to Water. The book details the story of a boy named Salva who leaves Sudan during a war and eventually finds his way to Kenya and the United States. Salva lives in my town, and while I don’t know him personally, I’ve run into other people who are also “lost boys.”

Summary

We follow Salva’s journey from Sudan, which starts when the fighting breaks out when he’s in school. Salva, an eleven year-old boy, is forced to abandon his family and run off into the bushes, where he joins a group headed for Ethiopia.

On the way he befriends a boy of similar age, who winds up getting eaten by a lion. He also runs into his uncle, who has a gun and becomes the leader of their little group, and helps take care of Salva. Unfortunately, his uncle is also killed.

After a long while Salva makes it into Ethiopia, where he lives for several years. When there is a change in government the military chases them out of the country into a river filled with crocodiles, shooting at them with guns all the way. Salva is very lucky to make it out alive, and he leads a large group of kids to Kenya.

He stays in Kenya for several years, and even starts learning English. The Kenyan camps have some shortcomings like not enough food, so he is very excited when he hears that a small amount of people will be chosen to come and move to the United States. He is one of them, and moves to my home town, Rochester, NY.

Moving to America is a whole new world for him, but he soon gets used to it. He attends college to get a business degree, and six years after being in the US he manages to track down his father, who is in a hospital. He wasn’t sure whether his family was alive or not, but he reunites with his father, and learns that his mother and one of his three brothers are still alive.

Salva decides to help people throughout southern Sudan get water, and is instrumental in building a number of wells there. Throughout the book we follow a girl at the beginning of each chapter who has to walk half the day just to get water that is dirty and sees the new well being made. At the end she can now just get water easily and with the saved time can attend school.

Review

I was surprised at how short this book is, but it does a good job of just sticking to the facts and not trying to add any embellishment or anything. It’s a nonfiction book really, and it reads very well just following the adventures of Salva. More details about the refugee camps and about exactly what Salva does after he comes to the United States would’ve been nice and I think really added to the book.

I like A Long Walk to Water and think it’s well written, although I also think it’s aimed at too young an audience. It’s for middle grade readers/young teenagers, and I don’t really see the point of having them read about this. It’s a tale about suffering and how this guy persevered throughout it all. Now I find it inspiring what Salva did, but if I was younger it probably would’ve just confused me.

So for middle grade readers I don’t recommend it, because I don’t think kids should really be reading books of this type. To get the actual positive message of the book you have to have a more mature view of the world, which is why I think this would be better suited to older teenagers and up.

Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix Review

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Double Identity is a science fiction book written by Margaret Peterson Haddix that has the twists and turns typical in a Haddix story. The book has some good things and some bad things, but is anything is for sure it’s that you’re not going to get bored reading anything by this author.

Summary

The book starts out with Bethany, the main character, on a drive to visit an aunt she knows nothing about. Her mom has been crying, something is wrong, and she is shocked when her usually loving parents tell her that they are leaving her with this aunt.

Her aunt Myrlie is nice enough, but they don’t know each other at all and even Myrlie doesn’t know why she has been asked to take Bethany. Myrlie is a kindergarten teacher, but takes time off to help Bethany get acquainted with her new life.

Bethany’s dad calls once a day, but his number can’t be tracked and Bethany has no idea what’s going on. She starts hearing the name of a girl named Elizabeth, and so many people start staring at her and asking if she really is Elizabeth that she no longer wants to go out.

Bethany is desperate to discover the identity of Elizabeth, and what is really going on in her family. How come her parents who have cared for her so much have simply deserted her? What is her connection to this girl she has never heard of? Why is there a strange man around who seems to be after her?

Review

This is a good book by Haddix. The twist of Elizabeth’s identity as well as Bethany’s was a big surprise and very interesting.On the other hand, there are some flaws about the book.

The lack of action is a serious problem. The whole of the book is Bethany finding out her identity and coming to grips with it, but she doesn’t actually do a single thing throughout the entire book. If it was me writing the book, I would’ve probably sent her halfway across the world and had her almost die a bunch of times, but I guess everyone has their own style.

Part of the reason why there’s so little action is that the book kind of drags out. It takes place over a time span of only a few days, which go pretty slowly. This is quite unlike Running Out of Time, Haddix’s most popular book, where the character risked her life a couple times. Speeding up this book and giving it more action would’ve been nice. 

The characters are another thing that are lacking a little. Double Identity spends a long time developing the characters, but I still don’t really identify with them too much. Bethany tells the story first person, so we know her very well, but although I can connect with her on a human level, I didn’t really get too personally with her. To me the most interesting characters were Bethany’s parents and the villain, for going through what they did and the choices they made, but those characters aren’t featured very much.

I also think this book might be a little frightening (it certainly would’ve been to me when I was younger). Kids will always wonder about stuff in science fiction books like this, but it would’ve been nice if there had been a disclaimer somewhere in the book that said this kind of thing can’t actually happen.

The premise of this book is good, and what it’s appeal is really more that of a mystery than a science fiction as we follow Bethany along and try to find out what’s going on with her life. Double Identity is engrossing, thought-provoking, and mostly a good read, although near the end the lack of action along with the bantering and self-talk of the characters got to be super annoying.

Overall, I think it’s worth it to read this book, but I wouldn’t recommend it. There are a lot better books, including by this author.

Masterminds Book 1 by Gordon Korman Review

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I’ve been super excited for the release of Gordon Korman’s new book Masterminds. Actually, it’s the first book in a trilogy, and it’s one of Korman’s action series. Like almost everything he writes, it’s very well done and captures the reader all the way through.

Summary

The book starts innocuously enough in Serenity, a very small town in New Mexico where everything is perfect. There’s no crime in Serenity, no problems. Everyone works at the local factory, which is supposed to manufacture traffic-cones. All the kids go to a nice school, where they take classes like Contentment, and most never leave the town.

Korman switches around narrators in this book, a tactic he’s used in both No More Dead Dogs and Schooled to great success. It allows us to get to know all the main characters and also to follow the story from multiple angles because Korman always likes to throw in crazy events that snowball together into a big explosion…often a literal one.

We start out with Eli Frieden, son of the mayor of Serenity and best friends with Randy. Randy and he are always getting into all kinds of trouble, playing all sorts of fun and crazy stunts. Something weird happens, though, when the two venture outside of city limits and Eli has a health collapse.

This is where we meet the Purple People Eaters, or security guys who run around the town who nobody knows. The big question is: Why does a town as safe as Serenity need that kind of thing? The kids are so sheltered they don’t know what a murder or crime even is.

Soon after they exit the town limits, however, Randy gets sent out of town. Eli knows something is fishy, and he enlists the help of a nice girl named Tori Pritel, and soon join forces with the rebellious Mailk (who always says he’s going to leave Serenity as soon as he can), Hector (Malik’s best friend who is really timid), and eventually Tori’s best friend Amber, a girl who rigidly defends the town of Serenity.

By more weird events happening, it isn’t long before the kids realize that something very strange is going on in the town. And that something could mean great danger for them.

Review

This is an awesome book. The science-fiction plot twist Korman pulls is excellent, and gets you really engrossed in the story. The kids have to work almost entirely on their own, going completely against the entire population of the rest of the town, and that’s something worth reading.

The characters are all very identifiable, although none of them is personally super deep or inspiring like some characters in other Korman books. What draws you in about them is that they think for themselves and they’re courageous, having to go totally against everything they’ve ever been taught and believed with only themselves to trust, so in that way they are inspiring.

This book reminds me a lot of the excellent Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix in terms of them both having a fake town. The Haddix book had crazy plot twists till the very end but was also a more morally straight forward. Masterminds pushes the envelope of ambiguous morality in a lot of different directions, and I expect to see it tackle a lot of hard questions and events that would naturally come from this story.

I respect that Korman is writing some more science fiction type stories just to get into new stuff. I totally understand that as a writer, and Korman’s been a published author more than twice as long as I’ve been on the planet! So it’s good that he’s experimenting with new stuff, but his themes of kids doing great stuff and taking matters into their own hands is what sticks throughout his books and makes them so worth reading.

With all of that said, I cannot recommend this book right now for one very important reason: The series won’t be completed for another two years! It’s crazy, I know. This book was 322 pages, unlike other Korman trilogies where a single book would be little more than a third of that. Nevertheless, I wish they would come out with books more quickly, and Korman has said he’s writing them as quickly as he can but it’s the publisher’s decision. Of course I still wanted to read the book now, but it’s kind of ridiculous to expect kids to read a book and then a whole year for book two and then another year for the conclusion. Nevertheless, I congratulate Korman on another very engrossing book and I’ll be waiting for February, 2016.

Unleashed by Gordon Korman Review

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Gordon Korman’s Swindle Series has been going on for quite a long time, and now the seventh book of the series has been released: Unleashed, in which Griffin Bing’s (aka The Man with The Plan) school is going an invention contest, and he’s competing against Darren Vader. There is thievery, breaking into government buildings, and knocking off the power grid for miles around

Summary

When Griffin starts getting congratulatory remarks at school one morning he can’t figure out why. Then he realizes it’s because his school is competing in a statewide invention contest. Because Griffin’s dad is an inventor, everyone figures Griffin is going to ace the contest. The problem: Griffin doesn’t know the first thing about inventing.

His worst nemesis, Darren Vader, however, goads him into the contest, and they even make a bet that whoever wins will write a script that the other will be forced to read to the entire school. Now Griffin really doesn’t want to lose.

When Melissa Dukakis, one of Griffin’s best friends and tech wizard, signs up for the contest for herself, Griffin is not pleased; he was expecting Melissa to help him. She’s about to agree, but then their friend Pitch comes in, fresh off not being allowed on the wrestling team because she’s a girl, and levels an outrageous accusation at Griffin that he’s being discriminatory. Melissa doesn’t know what to do, but now their group has split into two; the boys and the girls.

Savannah is having trouble with Luthor constantly chasing after a delivery truck, so Melissa invents a machine that emits a high-pitched noise whenever Luthor starts chasing that keeps him off the road. Savannah is overjoyed, but that doesn’t last too long when Melissa’s invention disappears.

Not that Griffin’s invention is going along too well, either. He’s trying to invent a silent vacuum cleaner, but for some reason it’s knocks out the electricity everywhere when he turns it on. Finally the team gets back together to help find Melissa’s stolen invention. Melissa is shattered and refuses to talk to anyone anymore.

The gang thinks Vader might have stolen the Hover Handler, as Melissa calls it, but he’s so confident about his own professionally made invention that they realize he’s not even worried that anyone could pose a threat to him. Their next target is their new neighbor, Mr. Hartman; or Heartless, as Griffin has dubbed him. When he moves in he no longer allows the kids to take a shortcut across his property to school, making an extra twenty minutes of work for them. He’s very suspicious of the government, and even worries that the Hover Handler was actually a means of spying on his house.

When they hear the noise of the Hover Handler emitting from Mr. Hartman’s house, they spy on it and eventually are forced to raid it in an attempt to take it back. But when they realize the noise is really coming from a piece of mechanical equipment, they wonder whether Mr. Hartman was right about the government all along: Did Uncle Sam really steal Melissa’s Hover Handler?

Review

Unleashed was good, combining typical Korman action and excitement with awesome plot twists and outrageous characters. The book also showed that the series may be growing a little old and not be as fresh as it once was.

What made the Swindle Series continually good, despite the fact that this is the seventh book, published seven years after the first one, is that Korman has managed to construct an entirely new and exciting plot in every book. I was a little wary about the last book, Jackpot, but Korman managed to keep it new and inject it with an entirely different storyline. The overall theme is not new here, with the plot of the team looking for a stolen item basically taken from Framed, to which the plot bears many similarities.

Griffin becoming an inventor, and his invention succeeding in a way he doesn’t want it to by sucking all the power for itself is hilarious. Many new characters in this book were also very funny, including Mr. Hartman, who has the floor plan of every government building a 100-mile radius, and the U.S. government itself.

The characters are becoming more important in the series, in the past being mostly a backdrop to the plot, and now being interesting and real enough to make an interesting story just on their own. It seems to me that Korman probably didn’t have too much trouble writing this one, since he’s gotten to know the team so well, but there are still tons of jokes and other cool things sprinkled throughout the pages. While the arc of the story may have been somewhat recycled, the characters and the actual details of the plot make up for it easily, Korman clearly giving 100% into making the whole book engaging and funny. We are still seeing new sides and actions from the characters all the time, instead of just recycling the same things, which continues to make the books interesting.

One weird thing is that Victor Phoenix, a big new character in the last book, is simply missing. Korman told me that he didn’t suspect anyone would miss Victor, and that the story isn’t really going in a continuous order. I’ve seen other people raising questions about Victor’s absence, however, and it is kind of shocking to see him simply gone, considering the fact that while Griffin is still the leader, Victor was sitting at lunch with the team through all of the previous book, and it only reasons that he still would.

 I think the storyline works a lot better without Victor (after all, who wants more than one book of a guy whose main characteristic is that he was bullied?), but it would’ve been helpful to give some explanation like that he was on vacation or moved away or something like that. Victor’s disappearing act isn’t really that big of an idea, though, and it doesn’t really impact the strength of the book apart from being a little disappointing.

Overall, I love Unleashed, and any middle grade kid will like it. All the books in this series are pretty much equally good, with the possible exception of Showoff, and though some say that the series is getting old, Korman continually proves them wrong. He has said there is at least one more book, which I’ll be looking forward to. This is the first one that slightly lacked originality, but it’s still a great addition and it’ll be interesting to see other adventures Korman has up his sleeve for the team led by The Man with The Plan.

 

Blue Birds by Caroline Starr Rose Review

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Blue Birds is the second book by Caroline Starr Rose, and I was fortunate enough to have been given a copy of the ARC. Caroline is also the author of May B., a good book that I especially liked for its allusion to “the place where the earth meets the sky.” Both are historical fiction novels, with the first focusing more on the main characters own inner struggle and the second geared towards a girls’ interaction with the world in a very big way.

Summary

Blue Birds is set in Roanoke, starting in 1587. Of course Roanoke is the location of the famous Roanoke Colony, which mysteriously disappeared but not without leaving some strange markings. Throughout the book we follow the adventures of Alis, a girl from Britain who has sailed over to America with her family, and Kimi, an Indian girl.

When Alis gets there with her parents, however, things are not as they planned. They were intending to go and establish the colony of Ralegh in Chesapeake Bay, but their pilot Ferdinando abandons them in Roanoke. The colony has been empty for a long time, and it appears that her beloved Uncle Samuel may be dead. 

Still, they are going to make the best of the situation. Alis’ mom has a baby and Alis starts helping out with taking care not only of him but also of other children. Alis doesn’t fully like this, but at least she has her blue bird that her Uncle Samuel gave her.

She loses it one day, though, running away from the Indian girl, Kimi. Alis soon she becomes curious about the girl, having no one else her own age and gender to hang out with. Although they don’t speak the same language, they still communicate and have a good time together. 

The Indians are suspicious of the English, considering the war that has just happened. Kimi has lost her own dear sister, and Alis is something of a replacement. The English know nothing about the previous conflict, however, only seeing the dead bodies. The leader of a neighboring tribe, Manteo, tries to bring people together, but no one is sure which side he’s on, even though he’s been given authority by the Queen.

Tensions continue to escalate, with the Indians wanting revenge and the English attacking Manteo’s colony, their ally. There are deaths, but Alis and Kimi are able to help warn each other about their groups’ plans so that nothing catastrophic happens. The English eventually are planning to leave, when Alis gets caught with Kimi. She is seen as a traitor, and her dad loses his honor. She apologizes and says she is wrong, but in the end chooses to leave her family and live with Alis and her family.

Review

This book is very historically accurate, verified by a lot of research on the author’s part. I was able to learn a lot about what happened at Roanoke leading up to the disappearance, none of which I knew before. Some of the characters in the book are actual people, so it is based on the historical record except for the ending where the tribe leaves, which is Caroline’s own theory. 

The verse format is nice, and the author does it very well. We hear the characters talking to us and get to know them well, living the story through their eyes. Verse narration is nice because it allows a sensitivity that is not possible in normal first person narration. The only problem is that some of the details of what is going on are a little blurred because the verse references can be kind of ambiguous about them. Following along with everything was easy while I was reading, but later I didn’t remember the details of what happened much, probably somewhat because it was often not stated directly.

What I really liked about the book is the fact that Alis chooses to abandon her family and live with a people whose language she does not speak, solely based on her friendship with Kimi. That is really awesome and it shows a great courageousness which stems from Alis valuing and choosing what is most important to her, in this case a friendship based on a common human bond whereas her own family and village are in all sorts of confusions and do not trust her.

Blue Birds sets up tensions early and there are plenty of mysteries and unanswered questions to keep readers going through the book. It’s very good that even though the theme of the book is clearly friendship, Caroline knows that intrigue is what keeps kids reading. Nevertheless, original action driven by the main characters does not really take place until the very end of the book.

Overall, this is a good book, but I wish more original stuff had happened in addition to the history. The history is interesting to learn about, but the really important part of a book is what the characters themselves choose to do. At the end Alis makes an awesome decision, and she and Kimi help each other out a bit throughout, but there was opportunity for a lot more action and a lot more excitement instead of merely reading about the girls’ reactions to what is happening around them. Just having a couple of fun side plots to keep the story moving would’ve been really helpful.

I think a lot of girls will like this book anyway. I find it difficult to imagine too many boys reading it, even just based on the cover, although some boys would no doubt enjoy the historical side of the book. It is definitely not for kids who do not read a lot, just because of the lack of character action early on. It has many strengths, however, and middle grade girls who read a lot and are at least somewhat into historical fiction will find this a very worthy read.

This post is part of a week-long blog tour for the book Blue Birds. Author Caroline Starr Rose is giving away a downloadable PDF of this nice Blue Birds quote (created by Annie Barnett of Be Small Studios) for anyone who pre-orders the book from January 12-19. Simply click through to order from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, IndieBound, or Powell’s, then email a copy of your receipt to [email protected] by Monday, January 19. PDFs will be sent out January 20.

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A Very Short Story by Ernest Hemingway Audio and Analysis

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A Very Short Story by Ernest Heminway is just that, a short tale of a man and a woman (Luz) who are madly in love and consider themselves to be married, but whose relationship falls apart in the end after Luz finds another man when her lover is away in America.

The story is very deliberately short to show how even though while it was going on the two “felt as though they were married,” it ended up not turning into anything. Hemingway often wrote about the transiency of romantic relationships, and this is a good example of him reminding that even though they were so close, still within just a few months the romance was over.

He also does not even give us the name of the man, implying that he could be any man, that any man could lose a lover like that. A purely romantic relationship like this one can be tampered off easily, the story shows, and therefore it is presumably best to be aware that attraction to people is not so special as it may seem and can easily be changed and that lasting relationships can be a result of luck, as well as presumably not just a romantic attraction.