My Summer Reading List

This summer I have actually had time to R-E-A-D real B-O-O-K-S!!!! It's been great... I also live very close to the library and to not use it would be a crime! So, here are the books I've read and some of my thoughts on them (mind you, most are 5th grade- jr. high level...).

1.) Spirits That Walk In Shadows by: Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Very odd and kind of stretches the thinking, but I enjoyed it.

Plot: Young witch leaves her town to go to college with "normal" people. Meets her roomie who has an evil spirit hanging around her. Witch and friends figure out how to deal with evil spirit.

2.) The Thief Lord by: Cornelia Caroline Funke

This story was very creative and I loved how the characters interacted and flowed like real children. It was easy to see these characters as real people.

Plot: Group of homeless kids ban together with one leader who provides for them. Follows their adventures as they try to avoid going to an orphanage.

3.) The Princesses Diaries by: Meg Cabot

This was the first book in the series. I admit to seeing the movie first and so I could compare the two. The book has many more elements that the movie left out and I would say the book tells a deeper story.

Plot: Young high school girl finds out that she is really a princesses. She tries to hide it from her school mates so her life can stay normal while taking "princesses lessons" from her grandmother who is the queen.

4.) Inkheart by: Cornelia Caroline Funke

A book about books. This one was hard for me to get into. I was about half way when the story started to take a turn for the best. It speeds up towards the end and then leaves you hanging. I liked the main characters and found that they had a lot of personality as the book progressed. The books by this author are translated from German.

Plot: Young girl who lives alone with dad who is a book binder finds out that he has a very special gift. They are hunted for his gift and a book that is the last one of it's kind. They get some help from some very odd friends as they go along.

5.) The Named by: Marianne Curley

I LOVED THIS BOOK! In fact, I loved it so much that I went out and bought it and the rest of the trilogy. I loved how real the characters were and how much emotion I felt reading it. I love books that make you feel like the characters do at that time. I also loved how the author changes point of view ever chapter. That way we as readers know what both characters are feeling and what they are thinking. It's a great writing style that we don't see enough of.

Plot: This story follows Ethan who is "named". He is a guardian of time and he must tell Isabel that she is "named" as well. They are fighting against the goddess of chaos. Isabel must learn to use her gifts to help preserve time and keep history the way it was meant to be.

6.) Flora Segunda by: Ysabeau S. Wilce

Too weird! Read it, but didn't enjoy it (no, I don't usually stop reading once I don't like it because I might start to enjoy it at some point.). Characters were not all together and seemed very flat.

Plot: Young girl finds her family has many secrets and tries to help by unlocking them. In doing so she creates a big mess and endangers the life of her family and her self. Dad is crazy and mom is a general in the army and is never there. No one knows what is happing to her except her best friend who is more worried about his fashion than her life.

7.) Inkspell by: Cornelia Caroline Funke

Sequel to Inkheart. This book was fantastic! I loved how quick it moved and the characters seemed more life like. The same characters are here from the first book with the addition of new villains and heroes.

Plot: Meggie finds herself drawn back to the book that caused so much trouble for her family. She uses her gifts to try and set things right but only to "read" herself and her friend into the book's story. Now she has the task of getting back out of the book and saving her family in the process.

8.) Sabriel by: Garth Nix

This book explores death in a odd way. I enjoyed reading the whole trilogy and though that it was fun and imaginative.

Plot: Sabriel learns that she is now the binder of the dead once her father passes. With some guidance from a spirit trapped as a cat she must stop evil from spreading into her homeland by walking in death.

9.) Lirael by: Garth Nix

Sequel to Sabriel. I thought this was also well written.

Plot: 14 years after Sabriel stops evil from spreading Lirael learns that she must now carry on the find out who she really is. She teams up with an unlikly prince to save his friend from spreading evil.

10.) Abhorsen by: Garth Nix

Final book in the series. Moves at a fast pace and never lets go.

Plot: Lirael and the Prince are racing against time to save his friend. Evil is starting to spread and brake though the barrier of death.

11.) The Invention of Hugo Carbret by: Brian Selznick

Get this book even if it's only for the pictures! It's like reading an old black and white movie... pictures then text to explain what you just saw. This format is awesome!! The author blends the illustrations so artistically with the words.

Plot: A young boy lives alone in the French train stations trying to rebuild an automaton that his father had been working on. He uncovers a secret that the old toy maker in the station has been hiding from his family for many year.

12.) Terrier: A Tortall Legend by Tamoria Pierce

A good story about a girl coming of age in a slum as a rookie police officer. I loved the use of language in this book and how it created a mystery that only this girl was able to see and think about solving.

Plot: The newest "puppy" in the police force (they are called "dogs") is assigned to the veterans who want nothing to do with a puppy. She has to prove to herself and her doubting family that this is where she belongs as she works to solve a mystery about strange killings and expensive goods gone missing.

13.) Eclipse by: Stephine Meyer

The third book in the Twilight series. LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!!!!! I bought Twilight on a whim and made my hubby read it when I finished. Hubby insisted that I get New Moon when it came out. We loved both... this one is great!!!!!!!!!! I love this story of ill fated love and a new look at vampires and werewolves! WONDERFUL!! BUY THIS BOOK!!!!

Plot: Bella Swan is still being hunted by an evil vampire. She now has the allies of both her beloved's family of vampires and her best friend's pack of werewolves. She is torn on how to live in both worlds and how to keep everyone happy while not getting eaten by the evil Victoria.

14.) The Dark by: Marianne Curley

The second book in the Guardians of Time trilogy. Again the author uses the one chapter for one character and the next for another. New characters are now part of the story as well as the ones that were in the first book.

Plot: The named have to travel into the underworld to rescue one of their own that was captured to stop the named from keep time in order.

15.) The Key by Marianne Curley

The final book in the Guardians of Time. The ending is a bit far out there, but over all, great trilogy!

Plot: The final battle of all time. One of the named becomes a king to fulfill the prophecy.

16.) The Great Tree Of Avalon: Child of the Dark Prophecy by: T.A. Barron

Fun book about elves, fairies and people all trying to live in the world in harmony.

Plot: The dark prophecy says that a child will be born who will tear apart the peace in this world. An evil has entered that is trying to find the child of the prophecy to use them to help their evil plan.

17.) The Great Tree of Avalon: Shadow on the Stars by: T.A. Barron

The second book in the series. I liked this one a bit more than the first since now that the prophecy has come to pass the small unlike friends have to still battle evil and save their homeland.

Plot: The ban of friends must split up so that one party can go to relight the stars while the other finds the source of evil in their world.

18.) Endymion Spring by: Matthew Skelton

I liked this book to show what might have happened back in the day when the printing press was invented.

Plot: This book is split into two parts. The one part is in the past and the other is now. It follows the lives of two boys. The one boy is Gutenberg’s apprentice while the other is being home schooled in England while his mother researches about old books. The home schooler finds a blank book in the library and then trouble starts to follow him and his family while he tried to solve the mystery of this book.

19.) Shiva's Fire by: Suzanne Fisher Staples

I liked this as a look at India's past culture and how important their past is to them.

Plot: A young girl is chosen to go to a special school to learn how to dance the traditional way. She learns how to be disciplined and what it means to her family to have her there at school. She meets a boy and starts to question what is important to her.

20.) Song of the Magdalene by: Donna Jo Napoli

A good tale about what Mary Magdalene’s might have been like before she met Jesus.

Plot: Mary is a young girl who falls in love with a crippled boy and marries him. Her life turns upside down when he becomes sick and passes away.

21.) Sirena by: Donna Jo Napoli

Greek mythology told from a mermaid's point of view.

Plot: To gain immortally a mermaid and her sisters will sing to lurn in men. After witnessing a tragic death Sirena leaves her sisters to find her own way to immortally.

22.) I Was A Teenage Fairy by: Francesca Lia Block

Very dark tale about two teenagers who share a secret of abuse. Not recommended for younger readers.

Plot: A forceful mom wanting her daughter to be a model forces her to go to different agents to see how to get her to the top. In that the girl gets abused and has to work though it an how to help other who have been abused.

23.) Feed by: M.T. Anderson

I love this book! It gives a grim look at the future if we depend only on technology and not looking at the Earth around us.

Plot: One boy's life is turned upside down when a girl he meets challenged him to think about how much he relies on technology and not seeing that the Earth is dying in front of their eyes.