Sent

Ever since I finished Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix I have been anxiously awaiting the next installment in her Missing series. In Found, Haddix introduced Jonah, a thirteen-year-old boy, who was adopted as a baby. He and his friend, Chip, receive letters telling them that each one of them is one of the missing and that someone is coming for them. They are then invited to a retreat for children who were adopted–that’s when the real action begins! Found was an exciting, action-packed introduction to the series as a whole. It was full of mystery and introduced a lot of characters. The ending was such a cliffhanger, and I couldn’t wait to read the next book!

But then I waited and waited and waited for sixteen months for Sent to be published (and another four months for me to get a chance to read it). Sent starts off just seconds after Found ends. This would have been a great place to start if I had more than a faint recollection of what I read in the first book over a year ago. I had forgotten so much of Found that I had to go back and research what happened in it to be able to enjoy and understand Sent.

The main premise of the book is that Jonah and three other children are trying to right time. They go back in time to course correct and make sure that history does not get changed (at least not dramatically changed). In this series Haddix is exploring her own theories of time travel, a really tricky concept. I think the master of fictional time travel theories is J.J. Abrams. Lost is perhaps one of the most intriguing shows on television and his Star Trek movie was one of the best films I have seen in a long time. As my husband says, “Nobody does time travel like J.J. Abrams.” I feel that Abrams has somewhat spoiled me when it comes to time travel. While watching his creations, I never feel “lost” (ha ha)–his time travel makes sense to me. Haddix’s version of time travel confused me.

I will give the third book in the series a try. According to what I saw at Amazon, it will be out this August. I do like the relationship that is developing between Jonah and Katherine, his sister who was not adopted. And I am curious to learn who Jonah’s birth parents were and from what time period he was snatched.

Until then, I’m really looking forward to starting the 2010 Debut Author challenge! I think I’ll check on which book on my list comes out first!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

For something completely different, I read Diary of  a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney. Several students warned me that it was not as good as the first three, but I threw caution to the wind and bought it anyway. My students were right: it was not as good as the first three, but that did not mean that it was unenjoyable. On the contrary, the humor was still there (the book’s hero, Greg Heffley, has no idea how hilarious he is!) and the illustrations (as always) added so much to the written comedy.

But the book wasn’t just funny, it was timely. Kinney was able to address our current economic situation in a way that children and adults can relate to: to save money, Greg’s family skipped their summer vacation and stayed home. (Having not been on a summer vacation for the past two years, I could totally relate. Hang in there, Greg!) They find other ways to cut costs (all quite humorous).

My only complaint about this volume is that the plot was not as solid as the ones from the previous three books in the series. But the book had loads of laugh-out-loud moments and a good message, both of which kept me happily reading until the end.

I’m really looking forward to the fifth book (arriving in 2010) and learning more about the movie which is coming out on April 2, 2010. Steve Zahn plays the dad–perfect casting choice!

Beautiful Creatures

We got snowed in here on the east coast yesterday and I spent much of the day finishing Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. What a treat! I read the book out of a curiosity that grew from reading a review of the book by The Story Siren. The teaser drew me in:

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that’s what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she’s struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Based on that, I had no idea what to expect. What I got was phenomenal. My friend who loaned me the book before she even read it (good friend!) asked what it was about when I was about 100 pages into it. “I’m not really sure,” I confessed, “but I really like it.” And I did. The writing was so vivid; I have never been able to so easily visualize characters and settings. It was clear to me why the movie rights to this book were snatched up during its first month of publication.

I do not want to give anything away. For those readers who want to know more, you can of course find any and everything you want to know about the book on the internet. Personally, I liked that I went into the book knowing nothing so everything was a surprise to me. I’m looking forward to getting my own copy for Christmas and slowly rereading it again, taking more time to savor the authors’ writing style.

The fact that Beautiful Creatures is Garcia and Stohl’s first book gives me such hope for the 2010 Debut Author Challenge. If the books on my reading list are even half as good as Beautiful Creatures, I’m in for a very enjoyable 2010!

2010 Debut Author Challenge

I’m making my first New Year’s Resolution in ages: to read at least 12 novels from authors of young adult fiction who are publishing their first novel in 2010. The gauntlet was thrown down by The Story Siren. If you would like more information on the 2010 Debut Author Challenge or wish to join the challenge please go here.

I am in the process of researching my list of YA reads now, but here are more than a few titles to get me started:

The Prophecy of Days Book One: The Daykeeper’s Grimoire by Christy Raedeke

Far From Normal by Mara Purhagen

Skin and Bones by Dawn Metcalf

The Snowball Effect by Holly Nicole Hoxter

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

The Cinderella Society by Kay Cassidy

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Palace Beautiful by Sarah Deford Williams

The Reinvention of Edison Thomas by Jacqueline Houtman

The Life and Opinions of Amy Finawitz Eighth Grader by Laura Toffler-Corrie

The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson, Book One: A Most Improper Magick by Stephanie Burgis

The Line by Teri Hall

The Deathday Letter by Shaun David Hutchinson

Birthmarked by Caragh O’Brien

Three Rivers Rising: A Novel of the Johnstown Flood by Jame Richards

Inconvenient by Margie Gelbwasser

Nice and Mean by Jessica Leader

The Clockwork Three by Matthew Kirby

The Mark by Jen Nadol

The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard

Plain Kate by Erin Bow