The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod by Heather Brewer

Vladimir Tod is a vampire hybrid living among the people of Bathory. His best friend Henry and his surrogate mom Nelly are the only ones who know. Since the death of his parents, Vlad has been on his own. But his father's legacy seems only to bring him trouble. It seems Vlad's father took something the vampires want back, and they'll do anything to get it....

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REVIEW: I absolutely loved this book. It's a gripping tale of a child struggling to live where he doesn't feel he belongs. A tale of friendship, courage, and most of all, family. A marvelous read. 10/10

Caught Between the Pages by Marlene Carvell

PJ Barnes is a high school slacker on the fast-track to nowhere. Everyone is on his case about getting his life in shape, specifically his English teacher Mrs. Jordan. After a mix-up with some papers, PJ ends up with Mrs. Jordan's personal notebook. He reads the journal, hoping to an easy A in his English class. What he finds startles him more than he anticipates, connecting him and Mrs. Jordan like PJ never expected.

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REVIEW: The book was a good example of a confused teenager trying to sort things out. Despite his torn apart family, PJ desires to do the right thing. I found the book an entertaining read and recommend if you are looking for a little something to pass the time. 6/10

More thoughts on The Book Thief

I stated before that this was and is one of the best fiction books I'd read in a while, and I stand by that. There were several things that struck me about this book; I want to talk about them a little bit here.

First, Death as narrator. An interesting idea, and one that I thought Zusak pulled off well. Death was quite a sympathetic character; one who didn't necessarily love his job, but didn't loathe it, either. I thought it interesting that when it came to adults, he would just as easily sling the soul over his shoulder to carry them, but children he always carried lovingly in his arms. It's not often to find an author that can portray Death as an interesting character; only two others spring to mind, actually. Piers Anthony did it well (and interestingly) in On A Pale Horse, and Neil Gaiman's portrayal of Death as a perky (yet at times insightful and downright snarky) goth chick in his Sandman stories/mythos certainly is one not to be missed.

The theme of the power of words really hit home with me, though perhaps I'm a little biased, being an English teacher and all. I found it interesting that Liesel's first act of thievery occurs when she is illiterate and dreams of meeting Hitler, yet as the book progresses and she becomes increasinly literate and intellectually driven, her understanding of Hitler's words grows and she begins to loathe him and the effects his words have on her immediate world and the world at large, reflective of Hitler's difficulties with (and loathing of) intellectuals of his time.

Anyone else? I've got more, but let's hear you first!

The Book Thief

A few weeks ago, I was sent a copy of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief for consideration for the book club. I spoke with the students about it, and we've agreed that it will be the featured book for the month of January, with the goal of having it read by January 16, so we can attend the Boulder Bookstore's Teen Book club meeting on January 16. I decided to cheat a little and read it over the holiday break; I finished it today.

The Book Thief is one of the best fiction books I've read in a while... it's absolutely worth the praise it's been given. I don't want to say a lot more about it yet because I don't want to ruin it for the students and staff who might read the book with us, but I will definitely post my comments up soon. For now, I'll just say that if you haven't read this book yet, I heartily recommend it... it's nothing short of amazing.

New books... thanks, Boulder Bookstore!

Last night a few of us attended the bookclub event at the Boulder Bookstore last night after dinner together at Chipotle. We had a pretty good time; it was cool to hear what other clubs were reading and how they ran things. It was a little disappointing to not see other teens there, but we still had a great time. Best of all, we all left with two new books, courtesy of the bookstore. (Woohoo!!). In my goodie bag was a copy of Margaret Coel's Killing Raven, and at the end of the night, we were all able to choose books that had been set out on a table, and I chose The Emotional Lives of Animals by Marc Bekoff. It's been a long time since I've read a mystery novel, so having the opportunity to read Coel will be fun, and the Bekoff book is something I'm definitely interested in, and I'm planning to read it shortly before or after I read my copy of Animals Matter, so that will be a nice pairing of concepts, particularly since Bekoff wrote both of them.

Our next bookclub meeting is (tentatively) scheduled for Wednesday, December 3rd. If that changes, I'll post it up, but that is the day for us to give further thoughts and reflections on The Graveyard Book and we'll be talking about our choice(s) for our next book.

I've noticed that quite a lot of Gaiman's work focuses on the theme of the outsider trying to fit in, or at least get by, in a society they don't necessarily understand, and The Graveyard Book is no exception. I would like to make that a part of the discussion, which we can start here, of course.

Finished!

I finished with The Graveyard Book on Tuesday. A very enjoyable read, for sure. My favorite Gaiman books are still Good Omens and American Gods, but this was a good, fun book and worth picking up and adding to anyone's collection.

Almost done

Once again I find myself in the paradoxically unenviable position of nearly being done with a Neil Gaiman book. Though it's considered a "young adult" book (who makes up these labels?), it's one I've found quite enjoyable. Gaiman's wry sense of humor pervades the book and keeps it on an even keel.

The students I've spoken with have raved about it, which of course, makes me fairly happy since it was my recommendation for our first book.

More favorite quotes, this one occurs when Bod is talking with Nehemiah Trot about revenge (Trot chose to write only for himself and not publish his work, instead having his work buried with him over 200 years ago and then to later be dug up and have his work published after posterity had realized its mistake):

"And after you died, they dug you up, and they printed the poems?" (Bod)
"Not yet, no. But there is still plenty of time. Posterity is vast."

Heh.