Mockingjay ~ by Suzanne Collins

Dark...brutal...violent......

AWESOME!

The third installment in the Hunger Games trilogy is not for the faint of heart. But, if you're willing to dive into some pretty heavy, dark stuff, you won't be disappointed...other than in the fact that the series is done!

I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that this triliogy now tops my list of favourites...and the fact that all TEN copies of The Hunger Games are signed out right now is not at all suprising to me. And, if you haven't yet added your name to our hold list for Mockingjay, you'd better hurry...the list is getting longer by the minute.

Heist Society ~ Ally Carter

What a fun book - I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one! If I were a movie producer, I'd snap up the rights to Heist Society immediately (what a cool job THAT would be!).

I was hooked from the beginning...where the author, Ally Carter, gives you just enough descriptive clues that you know Katarina Bishop (Kat) is no ordinary student: she's always scoping out the situation ("Kat was used to looking at a room and seeing all the angles"); you glimpse inklings of her past ("Every nerve in her body seemed to stand on end as she realized that somehow, in the last three months, she had become someone who wore squeaky shoes").

Kat's father has been framed for the theft of some extremely valuable art...and unless she can prove her father's innocence - or recover the art - some very dangerous men are going to be very unhappy.

This Teens' Top Ten nominee gets high marks in my book. Heist Society reads like a wonderful crime caper - not unlike the Oceans 11 movie. It has lots of action and suspense, but also doesn't take itself too seriously. It's a quick read, perfect for the end of summer or a weekend...and I'm going to keep my eyes open to see if it gets made into its own movie - I've already mentally started casting it. Once you've read it, let me know who you think should be part of Kat's crew!

Graceling/Fire ~ Kristin Cashore

Only a few more weeks of summer (although I'm already back at school!) so I'd better get moving on all the Top Ten Nominees!!

Kristine Cashore's Fire is on the list, but I wanted to start by reading her first novel, Graceling. The 2 books are related to each other by one character, but you can read Fire without having read Graceling (although I'm glad I read them in the order I did!).

Let me just start off by saying that I LOVED Graceling. Five out of five, for sure, on the Rez Recommends scale. I reminded me quite a lot of The Hunger Games, which I also loved: feisty heroine, great adventure, amazing characters, a little bit of romance, political intrigue...all around great!

Graceling Plot summary: Katsa is a Graceling - which means she has special powers...in her case, the extraordinary fighting skills: she can take down an entire room of soldiers all on her own, and barely break a sweat. Her uncle, the power-hungry King Randa, takes advantage of these powers and uses her as a hired thug. Katsa's tired of bullying people and starts to defy her uncle. During a secret rescue mission, she meets Po, another Graceling (you can tell a Graceling by their eyes - each eye is a different colour - but they each have different skills/Graces). She's immediately drawn to him, but can't quite figure him out...the chemistry between the two of them is refreshing - there's clearly a romantic attraction, but it's not the over-the-top, swooning that seems to be quite popular these days. Anyway, the two of them uncover a plot to overthrow all Seven Kingdoms...let the action begin!! (Actually, the action starts right in the first few pages - I dare you not to get sucked in!). Overall, I LOVED it...I was thrilled to find a book that I enjoyed as much as The Hunger Games and couldn't wait to start the next book, Fire.

Fire Plot Summary: Once again, the hero of the story is female. This time, Fire, is part human, part monster...she is stunningly beautiful and has the ability to control the minds of anyone she meets. But this gift comes at a price...people obviously fear her, and that fear often leads to hate so she's always in danger - from humans and monsters. When Prince Bringan brings her to King City to try and uncover a treasonous plot, she must use this gift to try and save the kingdom. Maybe because I had such high expections after enjoying Graceling so much, I was a little disappointed in Fire. It took much longer for me to get engrossed in the story...it was like the author got a bit bogged down in the mythology/background story. Or maybe there were just more characters that I was trying to keep track of. It started off really well - the Prologue, which links the 2 books together, was fantastic. And then it seems to slow down for a while. But, if you stick with it, it's definitely worth the effort...similar elements make it a great great: adventure/suspense, a little bit of romance, great characters. Overall, Fire gets 4 out of 5 on the Rez Recommends scale. And again I should say, maybe my impression was skewed because I read it so closely after I finished Graceling.

No word yet on whether there's another book on the horizon, but I certainly hope so.

Now, I'm on to Teens' Top Ten nominee, Heist Society by Ally Carter. I'm only a few chapters in, but I'm loving it so far...I'll let you know when I'm done!

Twenty Boy Summer ~ Sarah Ockler

So, I've been doing quite a bit of reading this summer (including the first 3 books in Michael Grant's Gone series...wow!!!) and finally finished one of the Teens' Top Ten nominees - Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler. And I LOVED it!

I have to admit, based on the book's title and the cover, I thought it was going to be a slightly fluffy, but fun, romance novel. And although it definitely had romance, it was so much better than I was expecting.

Anna and Frankie are best friends. The summer before, Frankie's older brother dies - and we learn, right at the beginning of the book, that Anna had secretly started dating Matt just before he died...and promised Matt that she'd let him tell Frankie - which he never had a chance to do. The 2 best friends head off to Frankie's family cottage for the summer where Frankie is convinced to move on with her life, and drag Anna along with her, by embarking on the Twenty Boy Summer.

The author is just so good at describing things in a completely honest, real way. Grief, friendship, love. The two friends - and the way they deal with Matt's death - are so believable and real. How do you get over such a loss? Is it possible to move forward?

It earns a 5/5 from me on the Rez Recommends scale!

Rez Recommends 2009-2010

Check out this year's Rez Recommends list - these are your favourites from the 2009-2010 school year! (The titles with an * asterisk are on the Rez Recommends list for the 2nd year in a row). These books will all be on display when you come back in September. Click here for full book descriptions and comments from students!

In the meantime, check out your local library...and keep watching for new posts as I read my way through the nominations for the Teens' Top Ten.

Vampire/Supernatural:

• All Hallows’ Eve ~ Vivian Vande Velde
• Fell ~ David Clement-Davies
• *House of Night series ~ P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast
• *Mortal Instruments series ~ Cassandra Clare
• Shiver ~ Maggie Stiefvater
• *Vampire Academy series ~ Richelle Mead
• Vampire Diaries series ~ L. J. Smith

Mystery/Action/Suspense/Thriller:

• Angels & Demons ~ Dan Brown
• Black: the birth of evil ~ Ted Dekker
• Catching Fire ~ Suzanne Collins
• Daughter of the Flames ~ Zoe Marriott
• *The Hunger Games ~ Suzanne Collins
• The Lovely Bones ~ Alice Sebold
• Silence of the Lambs ~ Ted Harris

Science Fiction/Dystopia:

• Caretaker Trilogy ~ David Klaas
• *Elsewhere ~ Gabrielle Zevin
• Fray ~ Joss Whedon
• Gone ~ Michael Grant

Realistic Fiction:

• Audrey, Wait! ~ Robin Benway
• Before I Die ~ Jenny Downham
• Chanda’s Secrets/Chanda’s War ~ Allan Stratton
• Crank/Glass ~ Ellen Hopkins
• Fat Cat ~ Robin Brande
• Head Case ~ Sarah Aronson
• The Juvie Three ~ Gordon Korman
• *Looking for Alaska ~ John Green
• Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac ~ Gabrielle Zevin
• Nineteen Minutes ~ Jodi Picoult
• Peace Like a River ~ Leif Enger
• Saving Zoe ~ Alyson Noel
• Scorpions ~ Walter Dean Myers
• *Suckerpunch ~ David Hernandez
• The Truth About Forever ~ Sarah Dessen
• Waves ~ Sharon Dogar

Non-Fiction (True Stories):

• Kiss Off: poems to set you free
• Night ~ Elie Wiesel

Rez Reads...for the summer!

Get a head start on Rez Reads 2010!

Check out the YALSA Teens' Top Ten nominations below (for book descriptions, click here)- this will be the first Rez Reads list for 2010-2011. And don't forget, you can review the books you read for a chance to win some cool prizes - just fill out at Rez Recommends book form and email it to Ms. Martin.

And check back soon for our 2009-2010 Rez Recommends list!

• Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
• Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
• Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce (sequel to Terrier)
• By the Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead by Julie Ann Peters
• Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (book 3, Mockingjay, will be published in August!!!!)
• City of Fire by Laurence Yep (first in a planned trilogy)
• City of Glass by Cassandra Clare (final book in the Mortal Instruments trilogy)
• Dragonfly by Julia Golding
• Fire by Kristin Cashore
• Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd edited by Holly Black & Cecil Castellucci
• Hate List by Jennifer Brown
• Heist Society by Ally Carter
• hush, hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
• I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb
• If I Stay by Gayle Forman
• Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
• Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
• The Melancholy of Harushi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa (for our list, we'll read volume 1 of the manga series)
• The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks
• The Roar by Emma Clayton
• Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
• Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow (first in the series)
• Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
• Watersmeet by Ellen Jensen Abbott
• Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Witch and Wizard by James Patterson (first in a series)

Semester 1 Rez Recommends...

Have you read a book this semester that you totally loved?

Or maybe one that was so bad that you want to save anyone else from the pain and suffering you endured?!

Fill out a Rez Recommends form and tell your fellow students about the book…and YOU could win some fantastic prizes!

Prizes include:

• Chapters gift certificates
• Free Scholastic books
• movie passes

Submit your Rez Recommends forms to Ms. Martin by Friday January 30th to qualify for this semester’s draw!

Best of 2009!

With the new year upon us, it’s time to reflect on 2009! Here are some of this year’s award winners...

(unless otherwise indicated, all book descriptions are taken from NoveList Plus)

Michael L. Printz award ~ for excellence in Young Adult (YA) literature (one of my favourite awards...the books that have won have ALWAYS been amazing reads)

• Winner! Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
  Abandoned by her drug-addicted mother at the age of eleven, high school student Taylor Markham struggles with her identity and family history at a boarding school in Australia.
  
  “This roller coaster ride of a novel grabs you from the first sentence and doesn’t let go. You may not be sure where the ride will take you, but every detail—from the complexities of the dual narrative to the pangs of first love—is pitch perfect,” said Printz Award Committee Chair Mary Arnold.
  
  Honor Books:
  
• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, volume 2 by M.T. Andersen
  When he and his tutor escape to British-occupied Boston, Octavian learns of Lord Dunmore's proclamation offering freedom to slaves who join the counterrevolutionary forces.


• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
  Sophomore Frankie starts dating senior Matthew Livingston, but when he refuses to talk about the all-male secret society that he and his friends belong to, Frankie infiltrates the society in order to enliven their mediocre pranks.


• Nation by Terry Pratchett
  After a devastating tsunami destroys all that they have ever known, Mau, an island boy, and Daphne, an aristocratic English girl, together with a small band of refugees, set about rebuilding their community and all the things that are important in their lives.


• Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
  A young woman who has endured unspeakable cruelties is magically granted a safe haven apart from the real world and allowed to raise her two daughters in this alternate reality, until the barrier between her world and the real one begins to break down.

~~~~~

Teens Top 10 ~ teens nominate & choose their favourites; from the Young Adult Library Association

1. Paper Towns by John Green
   One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears.


2. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
   The final volume in the Twilight series.


3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
   In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.


4. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
   Sixteen-year-old Clary continues trying to make sense of the swiftly changing events and relationships in her life as she becomes further involved with the Shadowhunters and their pursuit of demons and discovers some terrifying truths about her parents, her brother Jace, and her boyfriend Simon. Book 2 in the Mortal Instruments series.


5. Identical by Ellen Hopkins
   Sixteen-year-old identical twin daughters of a district court judge and a candidate for the United States House of Representatives, Kaeleigh and Raeanne Gardella desperately struggle with secrets that have already torn them and their family apart.


6. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
   Playing off the theme of The Jungle Book, Gaiman spins a clever and inventive tale about a young boy who is adopted by the occupants of a graveyard after being orphaned by the death of his parents. Likable for all ages, this is a hard-to-categorize, commanding tale.


7. Wake by Lisa McMann
   Ever since she was eight years old, high school student Janie Hannagan has been uncontrollably drawn into other people's dreams, but it is not until she befriends an elderly nursing home patient and becomes involved with an enigmatic fellow-student that she discovers her true power.
   
8. Untamed by P.C. and Kristin Cast
   Zoey's life at vampyre training school takes a turn for the worse as she loses most of her group of friends and all three of her potential boyfriends and the High Priestess Neferet plans a war on humans that Zoey knows is wrong.
   
9. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
   (see description above)
   
10. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
    In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

~~~

White Pine award ~ from the Ontario Library Association - Canadian YA fiction

• Winner! Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
  After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.

~~~

2009 Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults ~ chosen by YALSA committee

• Baby by Joseph Monninger
  Fifteen-year-old Baby's last chance at foster care is with the Potters, and while she likes them and enjoys learning to race their sled dogs, she feels she should go back on the streets with her boyfriend if she cannot find the mother who has deserted her again.
  
• Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd
  In 1981, the height of Ireland's "Troubles," eighteen-year-old Fergus is distracted from his upcoming A-level exams by his imprisoned brother's hunger strike, the stress of being a courier for Sinn Fein, and dreams of a murdered girl whose body he discovered in a bog.
  
• The Brothers Torres by Coert Voorhees
  Sophomore Frankie finally finds the courage to ask his long-term friend, Rebecca, to the Homecoming dance, which ultimately leads to a face-off between a tough senior whose family owns most of their small, New Mexico town, and Frankie's soccer-star olderbrother and his gang-member friends.
  
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
  (see description above)
  
• It's Complicated: The American Teenager by Robin Bowman
  Presents a collection of interviews and photographs of American teenagers in which they describe their lives.
  
• Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Pena
  Sixteen-year-old Danny searches for his identity amidst the confusion of being half-Mexican and half-white while spending a summer with his cousin and new friends on the baseball fields and back alleys of San Diego County, California.
  
• Nation by Terry Pratchett
  (see description above)
  
• Skim words by Mariko Tamaki ; drawings by Jillian Tamaki [graphic novel]
  Presents the whole gamut of tortured teen life--friends, love, depression, suicide, and cliques--through the eyes of Skim, a.k.a. Kimberly Keiko Cameron, a would-be Wiccan goth at a girls' academy in Toronto during the 1990s.
  
• Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher
  In 1940s Chicago, fifteen-year-old Ruby hopes to escape poverty by becoming a taxi dancer in a nightclub, but the work has unforeseen dangers and hiding the truth from her family and friends becomes increasingly difficult.
  
• Waiting for Normal by Leslie Conner
  Twelve-year-old Addie tries to cope with her mother's erratic behavior and being separated from her beloved stepfather and half-sisters when she and her mother go to live in a small trailer by the railroad tracks on the outskirts of Schenectady, New York.

Young Adult Canadian Book Award ~ from the Canadian Library Association

• Winner! Chanda's Wars by Allan Stratton
  Chandra Kabelo, a teenaged African girl, must save her younger siblings after they are kidnapped and forced to serve as child soldiers in General Mandiki's rebel army.

Margaret A. Edwards ~ for lifetime achievement in YA literature

• Winner! Laurie Halse Anderson ~ author of Speak, Catalyst, Wintergirls, and many more

Giller Prize ~ best in Canadian adult fiction

• Winner! The Bishop’s Man by Linden MacIntyre
  From an award-winning writer and one of Canada’s foremost broadcast journalists, comes a deeply wise and moving novel that explores the guilty minds and spiritual evasions of Catholic priests. Father Duncan MacAskill has spent most of his priesthood as the “Exorcist” — an enforcer employed by his bishop to discipline wayward priests and suppress potential scandal. He knows all the devious ways that lonely priests persuade themselves that their needs trump their vows, but he’s about to be sorely tested himself. While sequestered by his bishop in a small rural parish to avoid an impending public controversy, Duncan must confront the consequences of past cover-ups and the suppression of his own human needs. Pushed to the breaking point by loneliness, tragedy and sudden self-knowledge, Duncan discovers how hidden obsessions and guilty secrets either find their way to the light of understanding, or poison any chance we have for love and spiritual peace. (exerpt used from amazon.ca)

Governor General Awards ~ for Canadian Literature, Fiction category

• Winner! The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger
  Lady Duff Gordon is the toast of Victorian London. But when her debilitating tuberculosis means exile, she and her devoted lady's maid, Sally, set sail for Egypt. It is Sally who describes, with a mixture of wonder and trepidation, the odd menage marshalled by the resourceful Omar, which travels down the Nile to a new life in Luxor.

Many of these books are available here in the library @ Rez. If you don't see one you're looking for, ask me!