Pirate and the Penguin by Patricia Storms

This story is (as you might have guessed) about a pirate and a penguin. The pirate lives a life on the seas plundering, pillaging, and the like, but as it turns out, this pirate is getting a bit sick of the whole 'pirate thing' and begins wishing for a quieter life. In the antarctic there's this penguin, and just by looking at him you can tell he's out of place. He's wearing a sweater because he's cold all the time, and instead of sliding around on the ice like the other penguins, he dreams of adventure and travel. So the penguin and the pirate each decide to leave their homes to find a place where they can fulfill their desires and end up where the other left.

This story is a 'you can be anything you want' kind of book, as one could assume from reading the first couple of pages. The penguin wants what the pirate has and vice versa, and the story comes to a close with them switching places and being happy. It sounds like it would be a rehashing of a cheesy, over-played plot that's been so watered down by politically correct sentiments that it's lost any value whatsoever as a decent story... but surprisingly this is not the case. The story telling is fresh and fun and the illustrations are colourful and animated. It's a fun read with a nice little moral.

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

This book was so adorable! I read it in a couple of hours, I was hooked from the first page.

It's the story about two kids, a girl and a boy, and how they feel about each other as they grow older. It was decently written and was more complex than I initially assumed it would be. At first glance this looks like your typical story of unrequited love, girl loves boy, boy wants nothing to do with girl. But the story is actually much more than this. The girl, Julie, is a headstrong, genuine person who lives her life with conviction. Hearing a summary of the book you would assume that she is some spineless, wilting heroine who feels like she needs a boy to know who she is, but she's just the opposite. The reason she goes after Bryce the way that she does is because she puts 150% into everything she does. She's a dreamer and an activist, one of those people who you meet only once in a lifetime.. if you're lucky. Bryce comes to realize this, and by getting to know her, comes to see how prejudiced and superficial he is.

The story is told by both Bryce and Julie, and they take turns telling the reader what happened chapter by chapter. And, as one might assume, the story starts off with the girl being obsessed with the boy and the boy wanting nothing to do with the girl. Since this is a romance of sorts I would assume that you would be able to fabricate the basic plot line from that information, so I won't 'spoil' it for you.

The characters go through self discovery and heartbreak. There is a theme of 'breaking free of one's old mentality' and embracing a passion for life and the main characters emphasize this transition (or the state of being if not the actual transition itself... though the moving from one state to the other is the most fascinating aspect and would be the crux of the story).

I really love finding stories like this. It's a sweet, innocent romance (in the actual sense of the word, not in the smutty sense), but with some depth to it which makes the story all the more real and palpable. You get to watch these kids grow into the people they will be. Julie is such a free spirit, though you don't quite expect this right away as Bryce starts off the first chapter, I really enjoyed her character. and Bryce gets an inner strength as he grows older that represents a real struggle for the individual's own self awareness.

The ending was somewhat unsatisfying because it kind of left the reader hanging... and it was excellent because of that. this isn't a story about dating, it's about before that happens, when you first discover love. You can tell the author did an excellent job with this because you're left wanting more, you want to know how it will end. We as the western audience we are crave the 'honeymoon' phase, even if it means destroying true love just to have somewhere to start all over again. This book gives the reader hints of the honeymoon phase, but doesn't go into it, leaves the reader at the cusp of what could be.

Much more amazing than I initially assumed it would be, this book is great and I recommend it.

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

I was in a minor state of depression after reading this book. It only took me an hour to read, and for about an hour after I was lamenting having read it...but not in a this book was horrible' way, but more in appreciation of the horror.

We have all heard about those sick cases where some pedophile man abducts a young girl and has his way with her, whether it was an adult warning you as a child or a story in the news, we all know it exists, and if you heard about it in the news you know that it's more than a ghost story. This book is told from the perspective of a girl who was taken and who has had to live with her captor for 5 years while he raped, starved and abused her every day for that five years. The book isn't very graphic as to the details of these events, it's a book for teens, but the reader knows what's going on.

The telling of the story is very distant and choppy and the story sporadically alternates between the present, the past, and the girl's thoughts, which effectively allows the reader to loose track of the days as well as to get a sense of the state of mind the girl is in as she tells you her story.

I don't know if this story is based on real life events or if this character was just imagined, but by reading this I could better understand how a person could be convinced to stay in such a circumstance. Typically when confronted with a case like this you ask yourself 'Why didn't she just leave? Why would she stay in that situation and not try to escape?' and more terrifying, you think that in a similar situation you would never act the victim. But the way this story is presented allows the reader to sympathize with the girl's position, and not just take note of the suffering she's undergone. There's one part where the girl is watching a talk show with people who had undergone abuse on it. the host asks the woman why she stayed with whoever was abusing her and the audience all yells that she should have done something about it and the woman nervously concedes the point. At this the girl points out to the readers that the woman is still the broken shell of a person she was when she was being abused because she meekly gives the audience what they want (as she most likely gave in to whoever abused her) and says that yes she probably should have done something. The audience yells out to the girl because they can see that she is weak and that they are in a position of power, and would not want that power taken away so almost blame the woman for what happened to her. That part of the book is where I think the author is speaking directly to the reader, telling you to reassess your initial impressions because these people who have undergone this abuse do not think like you do while you're sitting on your couch casually passing judgements on how these people could have avoided this abuse (as if it was their fault) ... And yet, even though you are not undergoing the severity of abuse that this person has suffered, you too play with whatever power you have at the expense of others in order to ensure your own comfort. This sentiment is found throughout story.

As for the plot itself, I won't go into too much detail as you probably can guess they story before you read it.. it's a living nightmare we can only imagine. The story begins after approximately five years of this girl's captivity, though she reminisces for you every now and again so that you know how she got to be where she is. Her captor's name is Ray and he named her Alice. He had an abusive childhood himself so is sort of messed up and wants Alice to be an eternal child, therefore he starves her to keep her thin. He also sleeps with her almost every night. When this first happened in the book, I was sort of taken aback because I didn't think the story would go that way.. or at least not so suddenly, but Alice was very calm. Her recounting of the events in the story always sound sort of calm, detached almost,  because she's grown accustomed to her situation. That is not to say that she likes her situation, many times she tells us how she's tried to suffocate or drown herself or how she wishes for death. She hates where she is, but has come to know it as her reality. An odd testament to the resilience of human beings.

I've always been somewhat critical of girls who pay too much attention to their looks and to boys and such, but after reading this, that's exactly what I wanted this girl to become, or had the chance to become. A girl just like every other girl who has nothing more important to worry about than her hair or her nail polish. What she might have become if she hadn't been abducted.

This book hooked me from the first page, and thank goodness it was only 100 something pages because once you start reading it, you have to get to the ending. Overall this was a thought provoking book about the power relations you have with others. What 'power' actually is and the potential effect exerting that power over others might have. This story was like an emotional bludgeon. It will leave you wanting more while making you wish you knew less. A horrifying journey through the life and thoughts of a girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey

This is a great book about a girl with passion for music. The story takes place in a fictional land called Pern. McCaffrey has fully developed this world in a whole series of books, this is only one series of many that take place in this land, but a lot of them are adult novels as opposed to this one which is meant for kids. The book focuses on this girl named Menolly, who lives in a very conservative fishing village; in a time before modern technology and in a world where dragons exist. Menolly loves music, but it is frowned upon for women to participate in music in any significant way, AKA singing in a chorus is OK, but it is unheard of for a woman to play instruments or compose music. To be a 'harper' which is a person treated almost like a scholar or a priest. Men with talent go off to study in a harper school and to be a harper is a very prestigious position. Every little town is sent their own harper to teach the children songs and to preside over the music at ceremonies and events.

So this girl Menolly is very talented and loves music, but because of the society she lives in, she can't enjoy her gift. The old harper in her village recognized her talent and fostered her gift, and because she was a child her parents allowed this, but as the story opens we find that this old harper is dead and the town (of which her father is the chief) has requested for a new harper. Before the old harper died, he had sent off some songs Menolly had written to the master harper, who is the most important harper of all. He really liked these and told the new harper to find this (thought to be male) prodigy. and this is where we walk into the story.

Menolly then goes through some trials, one of which is cutting her hand while gutting fish. This is particularly tragic because she is told that she can no longer play music. She already feels useless because she's taller and stronger than 'a girl should be' and she has no interest in what she should be doing. Her parents, especially her father, are against her playing music. Her father even beats her when he finds her absentmindedly strumming a guitar after he forbid her to make any music, as he doesn't want her to shame their village when the new harper comes. Because of this she makes herself scarce and eventually runs away to live on a cliff with these little dragons called fire lizards. Will she ever play music again?

This is the first in a trilogy and is a great story for both budding fantasy lovers as well as for veterans. It's a quick read, but has memorable characters and a fast-paced plot. Fun for all ages.