The Westing Game

Hey, two days in a row. It is really a miracle! Still no word on info from our good friend Neal Shusterman. I'm really hoping I'll be able to figure it out soon. But if not, don't worry. I will still review Unwind very soon. And if you have already read Unwind, check out the Coming Soon page for the date for the sequel, Unwholly, which I am very much looking forward to. Also, I hope everyone is excited for the release of Insurgent which comes out so very soon! I can't wait to get my hands on a copy. Divergent was amazing!
Anyway, as promised, here is my review for The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. This is a mystery, so I won't summerize too much. In fact, I am just going to quote the blurb from Goodreads.com because it says exactly enough, in my opinion: "When an eccentric millionaire dies mysteriously, sixteen very unlikely people are gathered together for the reading of the will...and what a will it is!" 
This is one of my favorite mysteries. I grew up reading Nancy Drew and this is just the perfect book to read if you enjoyed those, and even if you didn't. It is a perfect mystery, one of the few I couldn't figure out until the end when Ellen Raskin finally revealed the truth! It says in the introduction of the copy I read that Ellen Raskin didn't plan out how this book would turn out because she thought that was no fun. She wanted to be just as surprised as the reader. This astounds me even more because this book has a complex mystery I would have had a hard time writing, even if I had known how it was going to end.

This book is read by many younger audiences and adored, so be warned, this isn't Agatha Christie mystery writing. You won't have to read the book twice to understand and enjoy it - which was my experience with Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. Good book, by the way. This book is still simple enough to be read by younger children but complex enough and fun and creative enough to be enjoyed by generations. And by the way, people, I would love to have this book on my shelf. My birthday is only, well, 11 months away.... But Christmas is coming up! Actually that is still 9 months away.... Well, hopefully I can have my own copy someday. Read it!

Rating: 4/5

Been A While

Oh wow, I haven't posted in a while. I forgot to even mention that I was going to meet an author I particularly admire, Neal Shusterman who wrote the Everlost books and Unwind, to name the ones that I have read. I'm really hoping to read a few of his other books because they all sound amazing. I wanted to review his book Unwind as well as include a few quotes from the interview we got (over Skype, not in person) but I am still waiting on permission for that. Any who, I'm going to try to get through as many books as possible to catch up.Firstly, to go along with my post on fairy tale retellings, I want to quickly go over a couple of books that I put on my "to-read" list. Cloaked in Red by Vivian Vande Velde is the first. This book is small and simple, in fact in only took me about 2 hours to read the book. It is just a collection of 8 short stories, all different retellings of Little Red Riding Hood. Each story is told from a different perspective, and each brings a little more to the story then we have ever heard before. If you have seen the movie Hoodwinked, this is your kind of book.
The Author's Note at the beginning of the book had me rolling on the floor in tears it was so funny, and all of my friends reacted the same exact way when they read it. Unfortunately, the author's note was so well written and hilarious it lessened the greatness of the rest of the book. I enjoyed the first 5 stories, but I wasn't knocked off my feet. The real magic didn't come back until the last 3 stories, which were all fantastic. They were clever and fun and I'm so glad to have read those views of the story. Really fun, but it doesn't live up to the wonderful promise of the author's note.

Rating: 3/5


Next comes Wild Orchid, A Retelling of "The Ballad of Mulan" by Cameron Dokey, part of the Once Upon A Time series. If you love the movie Mulan, warning, this is very very different. But I adored it! It still wasn't a particularly well-written book, but it was better than the other Once Upon A Time books that I have read. Especially the ones from Cameron Dokey. I will warn you that the story line that makes the story, Mulan heading to war in her father's place, is a long time coming. This story is a lot of exposition, because the beginning of Mulan's story is very different from the Disney movie. It is much more sad.
I read this in no time at all because, again, it is just a short book. A lot of retellings are (except for East by Edith Pattou, which is just a beautiful book) very short. But this book had a lot of heart. I connected with the characters so much because of this struggle that doesn't exist in the story I have known growing up. I really loved this book, but I will warn you, I cried on multiple occasions. Then again, I am a crier, so there's that. Hope you enjoy!


Rating: 4/5



P.S. Look forward to my reviews on Unwind by Neal Shusterman and The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. Both great books which I really meant to review sooner....

Fairy Tales

Because yesterday's post was so successful, I am going to go one more day without a review. Today I am going to list my favorite Fairy Tales! Well, sort of. Fairy Tale re-tellings, as I said in my review titled Once Upon A Time, have become really really popular lately. And that isn't just limited to the book world! But for now, I will only list the BOOKS that are fairy tale retellings, those that I love and those that I have heard were great! The link above will go to my review of numbers 3 and 14 on the list below. Remember, this is just retellings, not fantasy, so I will maybe write my favorite fantasy later in the year. Oh, and be sure to get your hands on Grimms Fairy Tales, because those stories are the ones that started it all.

Favorite Re-Tellings

1. Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine (just one of my all time favorite books)
2. Belle, A Retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" - Cameron Dokey
3. Golden, A Retelling of "Rapunzel" - Cameron Dokey (Review
4. Just Ella - Margaret Peterson Haddix
5. The Goose Girl (Books of Bayern #1) - Shannon Hale
6. East - Edith Pattou
7. A Kiss in Time - Alex Flinn
8. Beastly - Alex Flinn (my favorite of the three companion novels, but all of them are very good)
9. Cloaked - Alex Flinn
10. The Looking Glass Wars - Frank Beddor
11. Reckless - Cornelia Funke (I don't think this counts, but it does contain a lot of much darker takes on some fairy tales. Plus, I had to include one Cornelia Funke book on this list)
12. Peter and the Starcatchers - Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry (More of an origin story than a retelling, but these books are all great)
13. Fairest - Gail Carson Levine
14. Snow, A Retelling of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" - Tracy Lynn
15. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales - Jon Skiezka (These are just illustrated kids books, but they are very fun and started me on the track of retellings when I was just a kid)

Retellings I've Heard Are Good

1. Beauty - Robin McKinley
2. Princess of the Midnight Ball - Jessica Day George (check out her Dragon Slippers books, very fun)
3. Briar Rose, A Novel of the Fairy Tale Series - Jane Yolen
4. The Storyteller's Daughter, A Retelling of "The Arabian Nights" - Cameron Dokey
5. The Frog Princess - E.D. Baker (This sounds quite similar to the movie Princess and the Frog, but since it came out first, I will give it the benefit of the doubt)
6. Before Midnight, A Retelling of "Cinderella" - Cameron Dokey
7. Cinderellis and the Glass Hill - Gail Carson Levine
8. Beast - Donna Jo Napoli
9. Midnight Pearls, A Retelling of "The Little Mermaid" - Debbie Viguié
10. The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold - Francesca Lia Block
11. The Night Dance, A Retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" - Suzanne Weyn
12. Sisters Red - Jackson Pearce
13. The Rumpelstiltskin Problem - Vivian Valde Veld (What a name)
14. Beauty Sleep, A Retelling of "Sleeping Beauty" - Cameron Dokey (Apparently this woman only writes retellings!)
15. Scarlet Moon, A Retelling of "Little Red Riding Hood" - Debbie Viguié
16. Spirited, A Retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" - Nancy Holder (Yes, another Beauty and the Beast. It's very popular)
17. Water Song, A Retelling of "The Frog Prince" - Suzanne Weyn
18. The Crimson Thread, A Retelling of "Rumpelstiltskin" - Suzanne Weyn
19. The Wild Orchid, A Retelling of "The Ballad of Mulan" - Cameron Dokey
20. The Diamond Secret, A Retelling of "Anastasia" - Suzanne Weyn
21. The World Above, A Retelling of "Jack and the Beanstalk" - Cameron Dokey

Believe it or not, there are still many more. The books on these lists with the title of the book and then what story it is retelling are part of a set called the Once Upon A Time book. They are a group of books with a few different authors, all retellings of classic stories. I actually did not include ALL of the Once Upon A Time books! But beware, these Once Upon A Time books are quite... fluffy. They make you feel all warm inside, but they aren't exactly Newberry quality, if you know what I mean. I just thought I would warn you!
Hope you enjoy all of my Retelling suggestions, and feel free to make more if I left any of your favorites off of my list! I'm always excited to get more book ideas.

Lists

Ok, no review today. Instead, I'm going to give you a list of my favorite dystopian books, and the dystopian books I still have on my list to read. I will do my level best to review all of these dystopian books at some point, because they have all been great, but you have read them already, take a look at the coming soon page, because many of these books have sequels coming within the next couple of years.
Dystopian Favorites

1. The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
2. The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger - Lois Lowry
3. Matched, Crossed - Ally Condie
4. Uglies, Pretties, Specials - Scott Westerfeld
5. 1984 - George Orwell (Really didn't like this one, but it is the beginning of dystopian literature and everyone should probably read it to appreciate dystopian literature now. Warning: some mature content.)
6. The City of Ember, The People of Sparks, The Prophet of Yonwood, The Diamond of Darkhold - Jeanne DuPrau
7. The Long Walk - Stephen King (Check out my review Here)
8. Gone, Hunger, Lies, Plague - Michael Scott (not sure if this one counts, but it's still good. Review Here)
9. Blood Red Road - Moira Young
10. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
11. Divergent - Veronica Roth (Review Here)
12. Ashes - Ilsa J. Bick (Review Here)
13. The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm - Nancy Farmer
14. Among the Hidden - Margaret Peterson Haddix
15. The House of The Scorpion - Nancy Farmer (Review Here)
16. The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure - James Dashner (Maze Runner review Here)
17. Unwind - Neal Shusterman

Dystopian Books I've Heard are Great

1. Delirium - Lauren Oliver
2. Legend - Marie Lu
3. The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness
4. Life as We Knew It - Susan Beth Pfeffer
5. Shatter Me -Tahereh Mafi
6. Under the Never Sky - Veronica Rossi
7. Enclave - Ann Aguirre
8. Incarnate - Jodi Meadows
9. The Forest of Hands and Teeth - Carrie Ryan
10. Across the Universe - Beth Revis
11. Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
12. Bumped - Meagan McCafferty
13. The Declaration - Gemma Malley
14. Feed - M. T. Anderson
15. Genesis - Bernard Beckett
16. The Sky Inside - Claire B. Dunkle
17. The Enemy - Charlie Higson (reading now)

Goodreads is down right now, so I think this is the complete list, but I might be missing one or two. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the ones I've already said are great, and please let me know if these ones on the second list are good or bad!

The DaVinci Code for Kids?

Some have nicknamed Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett The DaVinci Code for kids. I don't know that it applies. This book is about art, sure, and it has mystery, but I don't know that that alone qualifies it to be called The DaVinci Code for kids. I had better start at the beginning, because right now I am just ranting and you most likely have no idea what I am talking about. Maybe you do, but I doubt it. This isn't a super popular book... Sorry, ranting again. Let's start from where you might understand.Chasing Vermeer is about 2 fifth graders named Calder and Petra. They are in the same class, but don't know each other. Each kid is odd in their own way. Petra is obsessed with reading, and knows just about everything, and Calder has an obsession with pentagrams, shapes that fit together to form rectangles. Calder and Petra are suddenly brought together after an incident at a museum field trip. They discover their mutual love of art, love of their fantastic teacher, and love of little blue M&M's. This small connection is strengthened greatly when a painting by Vermeer is stolen in their home town en route to another museum. The thief has put clues in the newspaper, and apparently some people have received special letters with clues inside them to help locate the missing painting. Petra and Calder are on the hunt! With the help of Calder's pentagrams and a special book about art, can these kids solve a mystery no one else seems to be able to put together?
This book was... fine. It wasn't my favorite. The characters were nice enough, and I liked the idea of the story, and I even enjoyed solving a few puzzles throughout the book, but the problem was, the book was simply forgettable. It held no special charm, and it didn't catch my interest in any real way. Plus, books where the kids involved get off on crazy stunts that are utterly impossible and then get no consequences bother me. It always makes me want to yell, "Where are the parents in all of this?" Some of the lack of parental presence was explained, but I wasn't satisfied with it. Overall, it was a fine book, but it belongs nowhere near the nickname The DaVinci Code for kids.

Rating: 3/5

P.S. For those of you who don't know, the shapes that appear in the artwork on the front cover of this books are some of the shapes of pentagrams. Each pentagram represents a specific letter, which is actually a major plotpoint in this book. There should also be sequel, I believe, called The Wright Three.

Dust to Dust

I feel like I haven't written in forever! Mostly because everywhere I stayed whilst on vacation had no wifi, and so no blog. I did finish Crossed by Ally Condie, Disney After Dark by Ridley Pearson (reviewed previously) and Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick while I was on the drive, but I'm not going to review Crossed or Crescendo except to say that Crossed was great and Crescendo was not so great. Becca Fitzpatrick isn't my favorite. I just started reading The Enemy by Charlie Higson. Might be good. I think that is all I wanted to cover, so now onto my book of the day.
Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick is book #1 in the Ashes trilogy. Book 2, Shadows, is coming out later this year. Ashes begins with a girl named Alex. She is hiking in the woods, trying to put the memories of her parents to rest, when all of a sudden a pulse hits the earth. The pulse kills every electronic device, knocks out all computerized systems, and kills millions of people. Soon Alex is on the run, trying to find others who survived the pulse. She forms a make-shift family with a small girl named Ellie, whose grandfather was killed by the pulse, and a young soldier named Tom. Together they cross the woods, in search of anyone. But the pulse appears to have done more than just kill. Kids are going mad, or something like it. Alex and Ellie come across a very gruesome display of just what this EMP (as Tom and Alex have named it) has done to the brains of many young people left. How can this family pulled together in a disaster make it through this world wracked with pain and destruction?
Ashes was really fantastic. I adored reading it, and couldn't put it down after I started it. The book was fast, smart, and horrifying. The idea that something as simple as an electromagnetic pulse could wipe out civilization as we know it is a little too real to feel safe as you read it. The characters were very well written and their pasts colliding was one of the better ways I have seen the people-brought-together-by-destruction theme that has been in books lately. Alex was a very complex character, and I felt like I knew her, but I was still in the dark enough to keep it interesting.
Oh, be forewarned, this book is not going to be OK for a few younger audiences. There were, I believe, 3 F-words very near the end of the book, along with some very very Gorey images. One near the very beginning was quit intense, and a little sickening, but it did add to the story. Overall, it was worth it. Very good book, and it's about time we saw the beginning of a dystopian disaster thriller. FINALLY a look at what caused the destruction!

Rating: 4.5/5

When "It's a Small World" Attacks

Over spring break, my family, as usual, is heading for Disneyland. We go every year, sometimes twice a year, and one year we went four times! But this year, in celebration of our annual/semi-annual 14-hour drive to the land of Disney, I decided to read a book about Disney. I have been wanting to read this biography of Walt Disney, but since that book is gigantic, I decided upon a much much easier book. Disney After Dark: The Kingdom Keepers #1 by Ridley Pearson. I really liked Peter and the Starcatchers, a collaboration between Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry, which is a prequel to Peter Pan. No, Dave Barry is not the actual author of Peter Pan. But it was a good book, and the second one was good too. I really will get to books three and four soon...
So, Disney After Dark. The story's main character is a thirteen-year-old boy named Finn, who has recently met fame. With new technology, Disney has created a system of young tour guides to lead you through Disneyworld that are completely holographic. Five children were chosen and their movements and scripts were recorded on a stage and then turned into an advanced, interactive hologram. Finn is learning the deal with the fame of being Disney's newest star when something strange happens. At night, when he falls asleep, he is transported into Disneyworld, after the park has closed. And even stranger, he is the holographic version of himself. An old imagineer, Wayne, who actually knew Walt Disney way back when, says that Finn and the other DHI's (Disney Host Interactives) need to all fall asleep at the same time and meet up in the park. Some dark magic is brewing, and Wayne thinks the characters in the park are behind it!
This sounded like such an amazing plot. I was upset that I hadn't thought of it myself! I went into this book with high hopes, but they weren't really met. The dialogue felt very forced, along with the emotion. The whole time I was reading the book, I felt like Ridley Pearson was writing what he thought the audience would think character's reactions would be, but he didn't really understand the characters himself. I did like the scene in It's a Small World, with all the little dolls attacking the kids, because I've always thought those little dolls were creepy, and I also loved the idea of being at Disneyworld after all of the lights were out. At the end I was a little confused, but I found out that the book has three other books, with a forth on the way, so I'm thinking it will all be explained.
Overall, I have to give Pearson props for keeping me reading. I read this book in one day, and I will pass it on to my younger sister, but I just don't think that it holds up once you are over a certain age. It just doesn't have the Disney magic I wanted. I wanted more characters! Maybe those will be in the other books... I will probably still read book two, because I have a hard time not finishing a series, but if the second is written as poorly as the first, I don't know if I will make it to book three. Oh! And while I was writing this review, I found out that Peter and the Starcatchers has a fifth book out! I really have some catching up to do.

Rating: 2.5/5