Countdown by Deborah Wiles
The Sixties Trilogy, Book One

Pages: 388 pages
Ages: 11+
First Published: May 1, 2010
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

I am eleven years old, and I am invisible.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Scholastic Canada.

Reason for Reading: I enjoy historical fiction but the amount of photographs and media images in the book was what intrigued me the most.

If anybody had told me I was going to absolutely love a book that’s main historical setting was the Cuban Missile Crisis I would have said “Sorry, I don’t even read that kind of political book” then the next thing I’d say would be “BTW, what is the Cuban Missile Crisis?”

The book takes place over the last few weeks in October, 1962 and is somewhat autobiographical using the author’s personal life and memories to tell the story of growing up in the sixties. Taking the author’s place is Franny Chapman, an ordinary girl with a little brother who can do no wrong in her parents’ eyes. It’s the story of Franny’s life; her best friend is starting to avoid her and becoming friends with a girl whose mother is divorced who Franny is not allowed to have anything to do with. Her uncle, great uncle really, lives with them as he raised her father, but he is slipping into dementia, calls everyone soldier and is embarrassing the whole family to the neighbourhood. Franny’s father is in the Air Force and always going off on trips seeming never to be there when the worst family crises arise. Franny’s older sister, who is in college, is up to something mysterious, something she has disagreed with their mother about, and then one night she just doesn’t come back home.

The background is the height of the cold war. The children are inundated with the “duck and cover” routine should a nuclear bomb hit. They have practice drills and watch in class movies to make sure that instinctively they know what to do. The Bay of Pigs has ended and there is talk of the Russians attacking with a nuclear bomb. Then President Kennedy comes on the TV and explains the situation in Cuba involving the Russians and nuclear missiles aimed at the United States. The media quickly label this the Cuban Missile Crisis. Also spread throughout the book are the rumblings of the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. As the book ends, I believe the set up has been made that the background of the second book will be Civil Rights.

The story is just simply fantastic. I read the book in a day as I just couldn’t put it down. The relationships between all the children were very real and the attitudes and lifestyle of the sixties shone through making the story very authentic. A very unique aspect of this book, which has been called a “documentary novel” is that in the middle of the ongoing story it will suddenly turn to a non-fiction essay on a person who has been mentioned. These are very interesting and flow right along with the story feeling perfectly natural in their placement. We learn of both Jack and Jackie Kennedy this way, along with Harry S. Truman, Pete Seeger, Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer and others.

What makes this book truly amazing though is the combination of text with photographs and graphic media. Every so often, there is a graphic section which enhances the story telling through photographs, quotes, headlines, cartoons, posters, song lyrics and much more. These follow the storyline and political events are introduced through the graphic media before it becomes a part of the textual story which really enhances and makes clear the understanding of otherwise potentially difficult topics. But the photos also just immerse you in the culture and era with sports events, space accomplishments, popular singers and stark photos of reality.

I’ve never read anything quite like this before and think the combination of text and media has been put together brilliantly and with a compelling, well-written story this is a fantastic book. I am eagerly await the second book!

Manifest by Artist Arthur
Mystyx series, book 1

Pages: 248
Ages: 13+
First Published: Aug 1, 2010
Publisher: Kimani Tru
Rating: 3.5/5

First sentence:

“I can’t hear you. I can’t hear you,” I repeat, talking to myself.

Acquired: Received a review copy from the book’s publicist.

Reason for Reading: The sounds of a Paranormal YA Ghost Whisperer with an added twist plot was enough to make me want to read it.

This is a book that I enjoyed more the further I got into it. I find that while I’m reading I often rate a book as I go along. This was a two at the beginning, a solid three by the middle and pushing a four and a half by the end so to sum it all off I’ve gone with an overall three and a half. Krystal can see dead people, hear them, have conversations with them and now they are asking her for help. Ricky Watson, a very cute boy, for a ghost, wants Krystal to find out who killed him and he won’t stop pestering her until she agrees to help him. Two other kids at school are trying to corner Krystal into meeting them somewhere secret when they find out Krystal has the mysterious ‘M’ birthmark that both of them also have. This may all be very exciting to some but not Krystal as she is in the middle of glooming over her parents divorce, her mother’s moving her from NYC to hicktown Connecticut and her subsequent marriage to Gerald who seems to hate Krystal almost as much as she hates him.

When I first started reading I really did not like the character of Krystal. She was full of angst, self-importance, rude to her mother and everyone else for that matter, whiny and basically a grating narrative voice to have to read. Krystal’s attitude remains the same for a good part of the book but fortunately the plot was exciting enough to keep me reading. There is a mystery to solve and the three teens set out to solve who killed Ricky; popular belief is that the crew he hung with had something to do with it but Ricky wants their names cleared and the real killer found. The story becomes more involved when Krystal meets another ghost in the boiler room, a crying girl who has had her head bashed in and thinks there may be a connection to Ricky’s death.

The plot was a fun read and I ended up reading the book in an afternoon. Little bits of information are leaked as the book progresses though I knew who the culprit was early on. This plot line is closed by the end of the book. In amongst the solving of the mystery, is a plot line where the teens found out about their birthmarks and powers, this, again, is an intriguing story arc and one that will continue through the series. They learn enough in this volume but there are many more questions to ask and so much more to know. The dynamics of the group of three who are from very different backgrounds is also explored and grows.

Krystal’s home life is an ongoing issue through the book and it just plain annoyed me. I’m not cold-hearted. I appreciate the drama of the situation, but it is one of those things where if everybody had just told the truth at the beginning there would not have been all this hatred and misery for so long. Toward the end there is some kind of resolution, and Krystal seems to lose her angst and bad attitude but we’ll have to wait until book two to find out for sure. Because Krystal aside I really liked all the other characters, especially Sasha and I’m quite excited to find out what the next book will bring.

Celtic Treasure: Unearthing the Riches of Celtic Spirituality by Liz Babbs

Pages: 80 pages
First Published: Sept 1, 2009
Publisher: Lion Hudson
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

I keep a box of ‘treasures’ in my attic.

Reason for Reading: I am Catholic and am interested in the early Church, especially the Saints.

Well, honestly, I didn’t know what to expect from this book. What was Celtic Spirituality? Was it some new age thing or Christian? Upon opening the little book I was immediately met with Scripture and St. Patrick’s Breastplate along with stunning photography of Christian ruins from the 1st millenium in Ireland and Scotland. This is a lovely, hand-sized gift book printed on quality paper. A delight to read and look at. The book is about the history of the Celtic Christians in the first millennium and though it is never mentioned this is, in other words, the early history of the Catholic Church in Ireland and Scotland. Everything that is mentioned, the history, the saints, the prayers, the places, the way of life are all from the beginnings of the Church in this part of the world, when the Celts were converted to Christianity. The book is full of scripture and Saint’s prayer’s (my favourite part), and even quotes from C.S. Lewis and Chesterton. The author herself has written her own prayers and poems which are very nice and full of Christian love. A nice book.

When I was finished I googled one of the modern day communities mentioned in the book that practiced Celtic Spirituality, just to know what it was. It’s not something I’m interested in but I’m happy we share the same history. My church is decorated with Celtic crosses on it’s outside architecture as our patron saint is Saint Patrick and we have his Breastplate inside the church.

Pages: 297
Ages: 11+
First Published: May 1, 2010
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

I peered into the deep-sea canyon,hoping to spot a toppled skyscraper. Maybe even the Statue of Liberty.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Scholastic Canada.

Reason for Reading: I’ve read a couple of other books about permanent settlements on the sea floor and find the concept quite interesting.

It is the future and an experimental colony on the sea bottom is flourishing. Ty was the first child born sub-sea and it’s the only life he knows. When Gemma comes from Topside looking for her brother she joins him in a journey to safe the colony from a force that seems to be out to get the pioneers. A band of Outlaws are attacking pioneer homes, killing their livestock, invading their homes and deflating them, plus Ty and Gemma have evidence they might have killed someone. Things are taken to such a point that Ty and other sub-sea children must reveal a dark secret they have been keeping.

This was a fun read. I read the book in a day and carried it with me everywhere. The descriptions of underwater life sound plausible to this layman. The way the community is set up is very intriguing and makes one want to visit such a place. I’ve always thought that underwater living would make a much more sensible next step than colonization of another planet. Ty has a whole family who play a part in the book’s plot but Gemma is the one who brings the popular orphan theme into play. I found Ty to be a bit of a whiner, disrespectful to his parents and authority so I never particularly liked him but, nevertheless, the book did have an easy to read, pleasant narrative with a sense of humour. The plot becomes quite involved as we have Ty and Gemma searching for the Outlaws, the Outlaws running amok with the pioneers and the government eventually gets involved leaving the colonists in a worse situation than before. Be prepared as the secrets are revealed make this a compelling read.

Pages: 364 pages
First Published: May 13, 2010
Publisher: Viking
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

“Are you Mary Sutter?” Hours had passed since James Blevens had called for the midwife.

Reason for Reading: I’m very interested in this time period especially involving stories of women. The doctor angle grabbed me right away.

Mary Sutter is a twenty-ish young woman who is an experienced midwife. She comes from a long line of maternal midwives. Her twin sister was trained for a while too but she was pretty, flighty and not interested in midwifery while Mary, on the hand, was not satisfied with midwifery. She wanted more, she didn’t want to nurse, she wanted to be a doctor and was determined to become one, no matter what. Medical schools would not accept her application, she could find no doctor to apprentice her. Then the Civil War happened and she snuck onto a train full of male “nurses” (really any volunteer who would go, mostly drunks) being sent to the front. Thus begins Mary’s apprenticeship and journey from charwoman to doctor.

The historical setting is wonderfully done. It is genuine yet the war aspect, meaning the political/tactical aspects of war are kept to a minimum. We’re given enough information to know and understand what is going on but not bored to tears with a “war book”. Medicine is the focus of this book. For the first part of the book we experience childbirth in the 1860s. The complete use of midwives for this situation unless something horrible goes wrong and then a doctor is called in with his dreadful chloroform and forceps. Mary is known as the best midwife in Albany, even better than her mother, now that she’s grown older. Then we see how a doctor (a male) gets his license as a surgeon: a year of apprenticeship with another doctor and then 6 months of courses at a college where he would be lucky if he even got close enough to a body to touch it.

Women of course were not doctors at this time. In fact, only certain kinds of women, would be nurses. No self-respecting girl from a reputable home would become a nurse. When Dorothea Dix put out her first call for nurses wanted during the Civil War she was only allowed by the government once her call described the type of woman wanted as over thirty, hard working, plain looking, wearing black or brown with no jewelry, sober and “can exercise entire self-control”.

The history of medicine as it grows through the War is fascinating as they know little of diseases and infections. There is one surgeon who gets laid up by having his hands burnt who is already a proponent of microscopy who goes around collecting samples so he can perhaps learn more from this tragedy. The descriptions of the wounded, the unsanitary conditions in the makeshift hospitals and non-stop amputations is sickening.

Mary is a determined figure who sets out to do what she wants to do. But at what price? She has many decisions to make along the way. What we want to do and feel compelled to do may not always be the right thing to do and Mary often has to look back on her past decisions and wonder. This makes Mary a real, flawed character who though she is an admirable woman of her time fighting for her rights and those of women everywhere is also someone who has to make choices, some right, some wrong, to get where she wanted to go and she ruminates upon this often.

The final component of the story is a love triangle involving three men with Mary at the centre. Plain, tall, certainly not attractive Mary, has three men in love with her. Mary knows she is plain, her mother knows she is plain and each of her suitors definitely mentions she is plain but there is something that attracts them to her, especially her determination and loving nature. Which of the three she ends up with may be a surprise but I was overjoyed.

A fabulous read, compelling, hard to put down. I did find it somewhat of a slow read, not for any bad reason, but simply I had to slow down my natural reading pace to simply take it all in. Riveting!

Nick of Time by Ted Bell. Illustrations by Russ Kramer
Nick McIver, book 1

Pages: 434 pages
Ages: 11+
First Published: Sept. 1, 2009
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

“Hard a’lee, me boys!” shouted Nick McIver over the wind, “or be smashed to smithereens in the jaws of Gravestone Rock!”

Reason for Reading: I have the second book, but thought I had better read the first book, well … first. I read this aloud to my son, as he loves seafaring adventures.

Set in 1939, just before war is declared, on the smallest of the Channel Islands. Nick’s father is lighthouse keeper and a secret spy for politician Winston Churchill reporting back any German U-Boat activity in the Channel waters. A strange man called Billy Blood kidnaps Nick’s dog Jipper and thus starts a seafaring adventure that will cross time. Billy Blood is a pirate of Admiral Lord Nelson’s time and not only has he taken Nick’s dog, he has also kidnapped Lord Hawke’s two children. Lord Hawke, Nick and his friend Gunner go back in time with a time machine device of Hawke’s which Blood just happens to have the only other existing one. While there they must help Nelson’s fleet out of a dangerous situation that only Nick can guide them through. Meanwhile, back at home, Nick’s younger sister, Kate, has been left with Commander Hobbes to take some vital information about a special U-Boat to England unbeknownst that said U-Boat is hot on their trail.

Rip-roaring adventure from beginning to end in the fashion of “Treasure Island” and in the same vein the illustrations are a handful of full-page drawings as one would find illustrative plates in an old copy of “Treasure Island”. A gripping story with Nick certainly in the lead as main character. He is an independent twelve-year-old, though respectful to his parents, who was born with the sea in his blood. He spends as much time as possible out in his boat sailing the waters in good and bad weather, even mapping a route through a dangerous coral reef into a cove. His hero is Admiral Lord Nelson and he thinks of him every time he starts to feel discouraged in life. His sister, Kate, is only seven and maintains her position well, despite being cute and funny she is smart as a tack and manages to save the situation at the last minute many times.

We both loved this book. The story is engaging and the shared time between the two time periods is very exciting. The chapters alternate with one set of characters in 1805 then back to the present with the Nazis in 1939. All of the main characters are likable and each has a sense of humour which adds a light tone in between the action scenes. The story is realistic and the battles scenes in 1805 are not for the very young or sensitive as battle wounds are described in full, and blood and violence are shown in their proper place in war, though never unnecessarily or gratuitously. The pirates, and well most adults, do use a small amount of language using the British curse words bloody/bleeding frequently and taking the Lord’s name in vain quite often. Since I was reading aloud, I was able to say the words about half the time as they applied, something really was bloody in the battle and I spoke the Lord’s name in a way that the character was now calling upon Him rather than swearing, the other half of the time I edited it out. But these are two small complaints in a book aimed at this age group.

I just love finding books that are definitely aimed at boys, there are of course many girls who enjoy this type of action and they have the character of Kate to identify with, but I appreciate when the male/female characters are brother/sister thus eliminating the awkward love angle or the even more annoying battle of the sexes angle. Kate and Nick are especially a nice team as they are loving family members, far enough apart in age that Nick is Kate’s parent-in-absentia figure and Kate adores her big brother.

A wonderful book with family values, adventure, really bad guys (pirates and Nazis) and an edge of your seat action set in exciting historical times. Looking forward to Book 2 in the series.

Pages: 415 pages
First Published: Feb 4, 2010 (UK)
Publisher: Bantam Press
Rating: 3/5

First sentence:

Detective Inspector Jack Caffery of Bristol’s Major Crime Investigation Unit spent ten minutes in the centre of Frome looking at the crime scene.

Reason for Reading: Mo Hayder … new book … nothing more to say.

This is an all-nighter police procedural that has Jack Caffery on the case of a supposed carjacker who takes a car with a girl in the back seat. The girl is not found and the realization is made that he didn’t want the car but the girl. Then it happens again. Another car, another girl, this time much younger. With statistics showing that child abductors kill their victims sooner than later, the team is on a race against time. Flea comes to Caffery and tells him about two previous unsuccessful attempts that are identical and this helps the team start to put together a case. Separately, the book focuses of Flea, as an individual and how the events from the previous book “Skin” have affected her emotionally and on the job as she tries to put herself together but she also notices Jack’s complete change in manner towards her.

The story is clever. There are turns that move the plot in different directions but guessing the identity of the culprit wasn’t exactly hard, though Hayder does keep you with a tiny seed of doubt until the final reveal. A thoroughly enjoyable police procedural. But also very much tied to previous books, especially “Skin“, so should not be read out of order or at least not before “Skin”, since Skin’s whole shocker is outed in “Gone”.

Why do I give the book a rating of three if it’s a clever, enjoyable police procedural? Because when I read Mo Hayder I am expecting a whole lot more than enjoyable. I have read all her books and am a huge fan. Words I usually use to describe her books are gruesome, disturbing, weird, roller-coaster ride, heart-thumping, breath-holding, twists and turns, a shocker! This book had none of those elements, aside from a few turns (only turns, no twists) and I was disappointed. Her books The Treatment and The Devil of Nanking have made me hold Hayder above other thriller writers and this one felt more like one of the crowd. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good and kept me up into the wee hours but I wasn’t satisfied that I’d read a Mo Hayder. Not her best, by far. Another thing that got to me was what was with the happy-happy ending, Hayder’s books do not have happy endings. Perhaps this is a sign that the Jack Caffery series is over.

Pages: 375 pages
First Published: Sept. 28, 2010
Publisher: Mira Books
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

She walks down a deserted hallway of the psychiatric hospital, her heels tapping a short staccato on the disinfected floor.

Reason for Reading: One of the book’s main characters is described as having Asperger’s and since I, myself have Asperger’s I was immediately interested. But the book’s plot and setting of a psychiatric hospital also had me eager to read the book.

The book opens with Danielle, the mother of Max, entering a patient’s room and finding him brutally murdered while huddled on the floor nearby, unconscious, is her son, Max, with the murder weapon in his hand. Danielle is a lawyer and her son, Max, has Asperger’s. Max is about 16 and has become very moody and suddenly started to show violent tendencies. His doctor recommends that it is time Max go to a psychiatric hospital for a full evaluation. When he enters, Danielle is advised to go home but she is determined to stay until he is ready to come home but the doctor will only allow her short visits in the morning and afternoon. Max’s behaviour reportedly deteriorates and he becomes extremely violent, has to be sedated and restrained. After the murder occurs Max is arrested as is Danielle as an accessory. Danielle does everything in her power to prove her son’s innocence and this takes her along two very different paths, both with a deviant and horrifying end.

This was a fantastic mystery! A page-turner book that I couldn’t put down until I’d finished it. The supposed Asperger’s theme is not very prevalent. At the beginning we meet a teenage boy with AS and learn some small details of the condition but the story soon morphs into a whole different set of circumstances where the Asperger’s can no longer be recognized. At the end, it is addressed again and Max’s original problem is dealt with nicely. But this is not a book to read to find out about Asperger’s. It simply contains a character who has AS in the same way one would read a book where a character was blind but one would not read it to find out all about blindness.

The story is superb. I love reading books that take place is psychiatric institutions; it is such a private, secluded world that the potential for evil to be taking place with in its walls is perfectly plausible in one’s imagination, and of course with the deplorable history of asylums and loony bins not *that* far away in the past it doesn’t take a great leap of imagination.

Max is a wonderful character and though he is hard to get to know for most of the book because he’s often sedated there does come a time when his true person comes through. It is at this point that some of the benefits of his Asperger’s personality come into play (his intelligence and obsessiveness)and he helps vitally with his case. The mystery leaves a wonderful trail of suspense as it unravels. I admit I figured out whodunit quite early and why but the details were still disturbing as they were unearthed.

A totally engrossing psychological suspense. The author’s website states that she is working on another book that will once again feature a character with a psychiatric disorder and I am most emphatically looking forward to its release.

Pages: 197 pages
Ages: 10+
First Published: Jul. 14, 2009
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Rating: 3/5

First sentence:

So Mom got the postcard today.

Reason for Reading: I’m working my way through reviewing all the Newbery winners.

Miranda has been best friends with Sal since they were in diapers, but one day Sal gets punched walking home from school and their friendship ends. Miranda starts running into the boy who punched him, Marcus, and they become acquaintances. Miranda loves the book A Wrinkle in Time and reads it over and over and over. Nobody can get her to try a different book and Marcus starts talking to her about the science behind the time-space travel component of the book. On Miranda’s block there is a strange homeless man who talks about strange things, yells things out, talks to her, calls her “smart girl” and every now and then kicks his leg out into the street. He also sleeps with his head wedged under a mailbox. Oh, and Miranda also receives strange messages from an unknown person asking her to do things but most specifically to write the sender a letter. It isn’t until the end of the book that all these elements come together and make perfect sense to Miranda.

An enjoyable book. The science fiction element is light and comes into play towards the end to explain all the strange events. The book also explores friendships as Miranda has relationships with a boy she’s known from being a baby, a bully, a friendly neighbourhood woman, a crotchety old man, a girl who is made fun of at school, and a girl who has been dumped by the snooty popular girl, as well as the snooty girl herself. All of these people at some point Miranda befriends and she learns a lot about how appearances can be deceiving and to get to know the inside person before making judgments. Though sometimes a person’s true self can a disappointment.

I thought the story was well-written, the characters likable and interesting. I read the book quickly and thought the ending was clever. The story never went past good, fine or ok with me though. From a Newbery winner I expect more.

Broken by Karin Slaughter
Grant County, Book 7

Pages: 402 pages
First Published: Jun. 22, 2010
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Rating: 3/5

First sentence:

Allison Spooner wanted to leave town for the holiday, but there was nowhere to go.

Reason for Reading: I read the author’s newest book every year.

After an anonymous tip, police find an apparent suicide weighted down in the local lake. It doesn’t take long before the suicide is proven to be a murder and when police go back to her house they find a masked man inside who flees, seriously stabbing an officer before he is caught. The man turns out to be a 19-year-old mentally challenged local whom everyone knows to be a gentle soul. Sarah Linton is in town visiting her family for Thanksgiving, the first time back since the death of her husband. She becomes involved when the 19-year-old begs to see her as she used to be his doctor. Special Agent Will Trent is called in to the case and works with Lena Adams, knowing something is going on at the police station that someone is covering up, while Sarah is bound and determined to prove that it is Lena who has screwed up once again and this time she’ll make sure she pays for it.

This is not a serial killer mystery, but the number of bodies does pile up a bit and the reason behind the murders is a reveal as much as who the killer is. Slaughter keeps the identity of who the killer is closely guarded, not giving many clues, which could annoy some readers. I was able to figure out the killer’s profession but couldn’t for the life of me remember having met such a character, so while I didn’t completely solve it I wasn’t surprised when it was finally revealed but I realized how difficult it would have been to have figured it out before the reveal.

It’s a good mystery. I read the book over two days. It was not a page-turner but Karin Slaughter at her worst would still be a good read. The killings were interesting, though not Slaughter’s best work. A good story and worth the read.

My problems come in with the characters. Slaughter’s books are so character driven. If one has read all her Grant County and Will Trent books to date, one knows there is a whole personal history behind each and every one of the fixed characters. It was obvious in the last book that there is an attraction between Will and Sarah, I’m not impressed with that, and it continues on in this book. I don’t particularly like Sarah as a character, never have, right from the beginning I’ve always preferred Lena Adams. Lena Adams as a character has grown tremendously, especially in this book, and yet it feels like she has been put out to pasture. As it also feels like this is the last Grant County book as there is no one left to write about. I somehow find it doubtful, but I do hope the author considers continuing to write about Lena Adams. Perhaps her move is not an ending but a new beginning. I can only hope, as we see what Slaughter has in store for us readers in the future.