Books for all Kinds

I've got 4 book recommendations for you today.  Two are historical fiction, one is a futuristic fairy tale re-make, and one is heart-wrenching fantasy.

Let's start with the heart-wrenching fantasy.  If your remember, last year I raved about Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking series (The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask & the Answer, & Monsters of Men).  It was a no brainer that I wanted to read A Monster Calls, a stand alone title about a British boy named Conor.  Conor has a terrible nightmare many nights about a horrible monster, and one night a monster comes to his room.  This isn't the same monster from his nightmare, but he says Conor has called him.  The monster will tell Conor three stories, then Conor must tell the monster his story.  In the meantime, Conor's life is in turmoil.  His mom is going through cancer treatments, his dad is in America with a new family, and he is forced to move in with his grandma.  This story was not what I expected - I expected horror, blood, & guts. And though it wasn't what I expected, I was not disappointed.  It turned out to be a story that pulls on your emotions and makes you feel the hurt that Conor is experiencing.  This was a fantastic story & I highly recommend it!

I read 2 historical fiction books from my shelf at school.  If you want to be on the list to borrow either one, let me know!  First, I read Jefferson's Sons, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.  This story was fascinating and inspired me look into the historical facts of the story after I read it.  The story is completely made up, but based on events that are believed to be true.  It is the story of Thomas Jefferson's illegitimate children that he had with his slave, Sally Hemings.  The four children, Beverly, Harriet, Madison, & Eston lived as slaves on Jefferson's estate (this is documented as true) and this story tells what life might have been like for these children growing up.  They were all eventually freed by their father, though not formally acknowledged as his children.  This story takes you through life in the early 1800's through the eyes of the children.

I also finally read Prisoner B-3087, by Alan Gratz.  This is again historical fiction, but based on true events that occurred in the life of Jack Gruener from the years of 1939-1945.  Young Jack, or Yanek, as he was known at the time, was a Jewish boy living in Poland when Hitler invaded his country.  It tells his story of living in the ghetto of his city to the 10 different concentration camps he survived.  The basic events are true, but the story has been fictionalized and embellished by the author.  This was a hard book to put down.  I find reading about the Holocaust to always be fascinating.  This year, we'll read Night, by Elie Wiesel, which is a Holocaust memoir.  I think reading anything you can about the Holocaust will give you some great background before we study it in more detail this year.

I just finished reading Cinder, by Marissa Meyer this morning.  This is another one I pulled off my shelf from school.  This is the first book of the Lunar Chronicles series and I'm already itching to read the second book, Scarlet.  Cinder is a futuristic retelling of Cinderella.  The main character, whose name is Cinder, is a cyborg (she's human, but after a horrible accident was rebuilt with mechanical parts) mechanic living in New Beijing somewhere in the future.  She was adopted by a man, who died shortly after adopting her, leaving her with his wife and 2 daughters.  With the exception of the youngest sister, the family wants nothing to do with Cinder and use her job as a mechanic to support their family.  Right before the annual ball, a couple of important things happen, Prince Kai seeks her help as a mechanic to repair an android from the palace, and Cinder's younger step-sister Peony contracts Letumosis, a plague that has no cure.  In trying to help find a cure for Peony, Cinder discovers that she is immune to the plague and there is a lot about herself that she did not know.  There is also the threat of a war with the people of Luna, who live on the moon and whose queen wants to take over the earth.  There's a lot going on in this story and it keeps you interested from start to finish.  If you like futuristic, science-fiction type stories and don't mind the fairy tale twist, you'll definitely want to borrow Cinder from me.

So, are you counting down the days until school starts?  I hope to see many of you on Thursday at registration!  This may be my last post before you start school...we'll see how much I get to read between now and then.  See you all soon!