There You'll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones

                                                              There You’ll Find Me

Jenny B. Jones

Meira.Elena

Ages: 14-17

Lexile: HL560L

 

Finley Sinclair is a tough, sarcastic, and grieving young woman. She’s determined to get into the Manhattan School of Music, but since her brother Will died, she’s lost her creativity.  In There You’ll Find Me, Finley’s come to her ancestral homeland of Ireland to find the passion for life Will raved about in his travel journal. But of course, things are never as easy as we want them to be.  And with annoyingly handsome and world-famous actor Beckett Rush intrigued by the one girl NOT obsessed with him, life can get a little challenging.

 

                I read this book in two hours, it was so freaking good! The descriptions and imagery made me feel that I was right there in Ireland—a place I've wanted to go to for a while! —and I could practically feel the wind and rain and sun on my skin!

               The characters were well developed and they each grew over the course of the novel—a sure sign of good writing! Finley’s relationship with Beckett, her brother, her host family, her new community, and herself grew and changed throughout the book so that by the end, her entire outlook was different. This is real life—when you lose someone and you go looking for answers, you don't retain the same perspective as you did before. Each year, each month, each day, we change as individuals, and each loss of a loved one changes us in even more profound ways. This book portrays this needed emotional change in a way audiences will find quite easy to relate to.

              This story is great for anyone who loves emotional, heartening, and spiritual romances centered around imperfect, healing people. Join Finley in the beautiful Irish countryside as she searches for the perfect ending to her audition composition. With every page turned, you’ll find yourself admiring Finley more and more.

Silverfin by Charlie Higson

                                                                           Silverfin

Charlie Higson

Meira.Elena

Age: High School+

Lexile: 900L

        Don’t you just love spy novels? That thrilling, mysterious feeling creeping up your spine as you turn page after page. The shock and the fear as the heroes become even more daring and reckless? Mostly, when we think of spies, we think of “Bond. James Bond”. Well, he started off as a child too, didn’t he? A thrilling start to a prequal series to Ian Fleming’s world-famous spy series, you’ll love this new insight into young Bond’s life. Where did he get these spy skills, and what happened to his parents? How did he become the suave 007 we all know and love?

 

             In Silverfin, James Bond has just started his first year at Eton, the famous boarding school for the rich and noble in England. With strict teachers, old-fashioned rules, cold dorms, and weird clothes, Bond has got to get into some sort of trouble! When the people snooping around a new, secluded American household start to disappear, you can bet curious Bond will be in the thick of it.

              The setting and descriptions are very well-done—the language proving a challenge but not a deterrence to the enjoyment of the book for younger readers. It fits right in with the time—remember, in the original novels, Bond was born in the 1920s, meaning the prequel series must take place in the mid-1930s, just before the outbreak of WWII. The setting in post-WWI London is beautifully described, while the deeper economic and regional aspects are well-developed and explained for an unaware audience.

               Bond's young character is strong, brave, and he might have a "saving people thing" like other well-loved characters such as J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson. Bond, however, is more than just brawn and luck- he's intelligent, quick-thinking, and daring. Clearly his skills as a spy were already inherent in his character and were later developed with training as an adult.

               This series is thrilling, captivating, daring, and even a little humorous- you won't want to put it down! I recommend it for readers high school and up!

13 Reasons Why, Jay Asher

      

13 Reasons Why

Jay Asher

Meira.Elena

Age: 12-16

Lexile: HL550L

Written by Jay Asher and published by a section of the Penguin Young Readers Group, this 13 Reasons Why is more than just a few pages of words bound together with a painted cover. This book inspires awareness for anti-bullying and suicide across the United States, and it's easy to see why. Hannah Baker might have committed suicide, but she lives on in the seven tapes she mailed out, each to a different person whom she blames for her decision to die. I guarantee, you will not have a dry eye by the time you are through with this book. It was not only captivating, but it taught a valuable lesson. However, I do feel that there is something to take from this book and refute.

      Throughout the story, Clay Jensen, the alternate narrator to Hannah, learns of the thirteen reasons and twelve people to blame for Hannah's death. The character development is sound, the author bringing to life each little detail as well-crafted and carefully as the previous. Clay starts off confident in who he is, his hometown, and the impact he has on others. By the end of the story, Clay barely recognizes the faces of people he has known for most of his life. He learns that the world is not always black and white, and that people are capable of things we would never have expected of them. Despite being one of the people Hannah blames for her death, readers can't help but sympathize with this good-hearted character. He isn't inherently bad- he is actually a rather good person, especially compared to the other characters in the novel. 

      Of all the lessons that Clay teaches us, my favorite is that it's okay to respectfully disagree. Anytime suicide is mentioned, we immediately feel bad for the one who died. While yes, suicide is a tragic thing and should not be taken lightly, most of the people harming themselves are suffering from depression, a serious mental health illness. This means that their opinions and perceptions of the world are negatively skewed against them, meaning that they cannot see themselves and the world objectively. Whatever the reasons Hannah claimed to assign blame to others, it is alright as Clay, and as the reader, to argue and say that this was not accurate. Many times, people blame themselves for the deaths of their loved ones. But suicide is a choice, and we should not place all the blame on ourselves.

       Throughout the story, we get to know Hannah at her lowest point- we never meet her when she was happier. All we see is her depressed outlook on her current situation. Some might even call her vindictive, taunting her listeners as she places all the blame on others. She does not try to fix her situation- she does not try to talk to someone, let all her emotions out, or even use the tapes to start a healing process. Her creation of these tapes is specifically to torment her listeners by forcing them to understand the pain she went through, without giving them any glimmer of hope that perhaps things could be better. Depression is an extremely difficult mental illness to fight and recover from, but it is made even more difficult when one is fighting alone.

      You don't have to like Hannah. While she is not an evil character, she's not perfect either, a fact that we all come to realize about ourselves and our friends and family at some point in our lives. If you believe she was completely innocent and justified in her actions, then to you she is a wonderful person. If, however, you feel that some of her actions were not completely reasonable, and that she is not as innocent in everything as she claims, that is okay too. Her character, expertly crafted, was designed to be relatable- if she were perfect, none of us could relate to her struggles.

      The writing style is challenging enough for an adult audience to enjoy, but its content resonates more with a younger audience. An audience of the bullied and depressed; those who feel they are on the outside because they aren't like everyone else. This book, above all, teaches us to think for ourselves; to sympathize and try to understand others, but at the end of the day, to realize that the world is a vast mix of dark and light shaded grey.

      This book was truly inspiring, and I highly recommend it to all who enjoy connecting emotionally with their literature. For those of you who put yourself in other character's shoes or are looking for inspiration, this is the book to go to!

For more information on the book, visit http://www.thirteenreasonswhy.com

For more analysis, visit http://www.shmoop.com/thirteen-reasons-why

For Suicide Awareness, visit https://afsp.org/ and https://save.org/

Anatomy of a Single Girl

Anatomy of a Single Girl

 

Written by Daria Snadowsky

Reviewed by Meira.Elena

Age: 14+

Lexile: 810L-1000L

                Anatomy of a Single Girl is the sequel to Anatomy of a Boyfriend. In this story, Dominique is a premed student still recovering from heartbreak. She meets Guy, a cute and nerdy frat boy at the local college, and they spend the summer together. Dominique learns more about romance and letting go than she does about medicine, and when she returns to college in the fall, she is practically a completely new person.

 

                This story is well-written and enticing- especially to high school seniors looking towards college. It answers a lot of our questions and quells some of our nerves as we look towards not only a new physical environment, but a new social one as well. Dominique starts off as a stubborn girl, incapable of letting go and changing. But by the end, she has grown and matured a little more, and is surer of herself and who she is as a person than ever before. The best way to tell if a character is well-developed is through the changes in perspectives the character goes through. Dominique is a relatable character in that she is never perfect, but she grows and gets better as a person.

 

                I had the fortune to interview the author, Ms. Snadowsky.

 

EP: When did you realize that you wanted to be an author?

 

DS: When I finally had some free time. When I was 22 I lost my magazine job, so I started writing to fill the time in between job interviews. I had a full-length manuscript by the time I began law school at age 24.

 

EP: Do you have any habits while you write? (I.e. you drink a lot of tea, you pace, you blast music...)

 

DS: Snacking on dried fruit.

 

EP: Why did you choose this topic to write about?

 

DS: All young couples still in school face a serious dilemma: Either they can try to stay together and see what happens, or else they can break up and get on with their lives with the faith that they’ll get back together when they’re older if they’re really right for each other. Of course the latter option makes a lot more sense … but if you have good chemistry with someone, it’s difficult to imagine breaking up “proactively” even if the timing is bad. And if couples do choose to break up proactively, they face another decision…do they break up right away, or do they stay together and “have fun” until graduation or some other major life event separates them? And will staying together make breaking up even harder? Etc. So I wanted to portray this kind of crossroads in a YA novel.

 

EP: Do you start off on pen and paper or do you go straight to the computer?

 

DS: Computer. My handwriting is illegible, which is a shame. Penmanship is a lost art.

 

EP: Any advice for aspiring authors?

 

DS: Just remember that writing requires a lot of re-writing. I remember being really bummed when my high school teachers returned my papers dripping with red ink (which today I supposed has been replaced with Microsoft Word track changes). I wish I appreciated then that revision is your best friend. Sometimes you’ll “get it right” in the first draft, but most prose benefits from aggressive editing and some time away.

 

EP: What are the hardest parts of being an author that you have had to face?

 

DS: Making time to write.

 

EP: Where there any events or situations that you wrote originally that ended up being cut?

 

DS: There was one dramatic scene on a beach where Dom meets up with an ex to talk as friends, but then he says something insensitive, and she slaps him and calls him names before running away. I think we’ve all felt that way at one time or another, but it felt too forced and movie-ish.

 

EP: What message, if any, do you want readers to get from your writings?

 

DS: Both Anatomy books are nonjudgmental. They simply present Dom’s thought process and the consequences of her actions so that readers can formulate their own message without being swayed by the author. That being said, I do hope the books empower readers—especially high school girls—to think seriously about what they want out of a relationship and not to compromise on their needs. It’s insidiously easy to “lose yourself” in love or lust, or to settle for something you’d never wish on your own best friend.

 

EP: Do you have a specific writing style, or a signature?

 

DS: I’ve written only two books, so I don’t think I can lay claim to any authorial fingerprint. But my goals in writing the books were to keep the actions and thoughts as realistic as possible so that any reader can find him/herself in the protagonist’s shoes. I hope the books are entertaining and escapist and educational, but mostly I hope they’re a source of empathy.

 

EP: Which books/authors have influenced you the most?

 

DS: Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Forever…were my two bibles growing up. Her ability to tell relatable stories in graphic but not gratuitous detail was the inspirations for both my books.

 

EP: Do you feel any connection to your characters?

 

DS: Definitely. Like Dom, I’m hypersensitive and over-analyze things, and like Amy, I have a bawdy sense of humor, and like Calvin, I know what it’s like to love someone who wants you just as a friend.

 

EP: Do you believe in writer's block? (I was once told it was an illusion, so I'm curious as to what you think.) If so, have you ever experienced it and how do you surpass it?

 

DS: Certainly, there are days when the words don’t come easily. Sometimes things in your personal life make it difficult for you to surrender your anxieties and worries and to escape into the land of make-believe. I find it helps to do something mindless, like taking a walk or running errands, to jostle your brain back into productivity.

 

EP: And finally, vanilla or chocolate pudding?

 

DS: Both, swirled together, and topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again

The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again

J. R. R. Tolkien

Review by Meira.Elena

Age: Children/Teenagers

Lexile: 1000L

 

                The Hobbit (1937), by J. R. R. Tolkien, is the prequel to The Lord of the Rings series- book lovers; you know this as one of the most famous fantasy series of all times. Movie lovers- Orlando Bloom and Ian McKellen. While The Lord of the Rings has one movie for each of the three novels in the trilogy, The Hobbit has three movies on its own. These movies have led to many rediscovering the lands of Middle Earth. So here is a review of the novel that began it all, The Hobbit.

 

                In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins leaves his very comfortable Hobbit-hole—with seven meals a day, a cozy armchair, a beautiful garden, and no nasty adventures—for the ever-dangerous and harsh journey across Middle Earth to help a group of dwarves reclaim their mountainous homeland from the evil dragon Smaug. Led by Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thrain, son of Thror, who is the heir to the Lonely Mountain, twelve dwarves, Bilbo, and the Grey Wizard Gandalf travel across the lands—battling trolls, running from wargs, seeking aid from elves, and creeping through haunted forests to rid the land of the vicious dragon and take back their treasures.

                Tolkien wrote this book post-World War I, bringing his experiences from the war, and his understanding of Germanic folklore, into this classic tale. Tolkien was a soldier in the British army and was later appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Army by Queen Elizabeth II. He was a professor at Oxford University for thirty-four years. He was a close friend of C. S. Lewis, famed author of Alice in Wonderland and The Chronicles of Narnia. Tolkien’s writings have survived several generations as different genres and writing styles come into popularity, and these novels have become accepted additions to canon. After his death, Tolkien’s son published his notes as the Silmarillion.

The Hobbit was a disappointment for me, but maybe that is because I read the book later in life. I was expecting more action and more thrilling moments, and while these exist in the book, they are not as captivating as the Lord of the Rings. No matter how much danger the characters were in, I did not feel at all connected to this danger as a reader, because of how much humor was involved. Knowing that this book was originally written for children, this is understandable, and perhaps I would have enjoyed the novel when I was younger. But I was expecting some level of emotion and enthrallment that I simply did not find.

On a positive note, Tolkien artfully creates a majestic world, painting for us the lands and cultures later found in The Lord of the Rings. The characters are well-developed, and the plot is heavy with potential. It is clearly a well-developed piece of literature.

While very descriptive, the book is a relatively easy read. There are magical creatures, beautiful lands, history, and, of course, the dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch!). While not my favorite book, I would recommend it as a classic, a good read, and a good starter book for those looking to dive deep into fantasy.