04
May 2009

Malarkey by Keith Gray

By 3 Comments

It’s already bad enough worrying about grades and exams during high school without having to add peer pressure and other juvenile issues like bullying and picking on new kids. Have you ever been the new kid in a new school before? How did your school treat the new ones? Were your classmates nice or nasty to them?

16-year-old John Malarkey is the new kid in town and in school, Brook High. He and his mom have just moved to this new town and his mom decides to open a store selling second hand books. (Wouldn’t I like to live near that one!)

Before this, I have never come across the word ‘malarkey’ before. On the cover of this book, the definition given for the word is ‘bullshit’. Yikes! Imagine having such a name! But I also just looked up Answers.com and it also means ‘exaggerated or foolish talk, usually intended to deceive’, which in short means ‘bullshit’. Returning to the book, it suits well as the title and the name of the boy. John Malarkey did more than once tried to talk himself out of trouble.

So one day, a beautiful classmate speaks to John and points him out to two other boys who decide to nab his school bag and run away with it. He naturally chases the boys to try to get his bag back. He failed to catch them but needn’t worry because his bag showed up on his desk in his next class. With a stolen teacher’s wallet in it. John is then accused of stealing.

With John taking the blame for a couple of thefts in school, a shady group called the Tailors who loves to wear Adidas shoes, runs the school like never before. They sell stuff like cigarettes and drugs at the tuck shop but the teachers know nothing about it. They also sell signed report cards without teachers’ comments – meaning the students can be their own teacher and write out their own comments!

They don’t even spare the smart kids out of their cunning schemes. The brainy ones make up the Homework Club and they’re forced to do the Tailors’ assignments with no time to concentrate on their own. John then tries to enlist one of the Homework Club kids’ help. What he plans to do is to clear his name as a thief and also to bring down the Tailors. Both in less than 24 hours.

Malarkey is quite an exciting read and felt suspenseful. I also didn’t realize that a few hours in school could feel like a few days! The first 89 pages were focused on what John did after having his bag stolen by the Tailor boys. I thought it went on for days but it’s only hours actually.

You can say that John’s the high school James Bond. A group of trouble makers pick on him, he comes up with plans and tactics, faces the leader of the pack and then figures out on how to proceed from there. Pick up this book to read about how a new kid fights off the bullies in his new school.

Other Reviews: Chicklish

Popularity: 8%

Categories: Authors G, Genre - YA Fiction, Titles M
24
Apr 2009

The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg

By 4 Comments

I’m beginning to adore graphic novels and this book is to blame for it. I bought it at a bookstore in Giant for only RM16.90. What an awesome bargain!

It begins with Jane who had to move to suburbia Kent Waters. She and her parents were living in Metro City until an unexpected bomb exploded in a café in the city. Jane was strolling past the café when it happened. She wasn’t hurt but she didn’t look forward to entering cafés anymore.

She was surrounded by dead bodies but she managed to save a young man’s life. He’s known as John Doe throughout most of the story and is in a coma. Jane tries to visit him often and tells him stories of her everyday life. John Doe appears to be an artist since he had a sketch book with him. As Jane is also an artistic person, she keeps the sketch book with her and fills it with her own sketchings.

Afraid that another bomb would explode or some other disturbing event would occur in the city, Jane’s parents moved the family to peaceful Kent Waters. Jane attends the school over there and awkwardly befriends the reject group of girls: Jane, Jayne and Polly Jane. That’s how Jane got the idea for P.L.A.I.N.

The three Janes only allowed Jane into the group after she suggested a seemingly brilliant idea that’ll somehow make their voices be heard. They were the rejects in high school and it was thrilling to leave eccentric messages for the people in an anonymous way. It’s as if they weren’t that invisible after all. Soon, they go on to leave their P.L.A.I.N. marks all around their neighbourhood. P.L.A.I.N. stands for People Loving Art In Neighbourhoods.

I don’t want to give away too much of the story now. There are only around 100+ pages of the story with great graphics and great storyline. I was simply hooked till the last page. The sequel to this book is Janes in Love! I’m definitely looking out for that.

A few graphic novel titles such as Re-Gifters, Clubbing and Good As Lily were advertised on the final pages of this book and they do seem fun to read. If you’ve read them before, please tell me all about it!

You can check out the preview for this book here.

Buy The Plain Janes (Minx)


Popularity: 3%

Categories: Authors C, Genre - Comics/Graphic Novels, Titles P
28
Mar 2009

An Ocean Apart, A World Away by Lensey Namioka

By 3 Comments

The synopsis that’s printed at the back cover of the book urged me to buy and read it. It’s about a gutsy 16-year-old Chinese girl from post-Revolution China and she needs to make an important choice. A) Go to medical school to achieve her dream of becoming a doctor. B) Run off with the exciting Liang Baoshu who has confessed his feelings for her.

Yanyan is not a girl who bows down to conformity. She is fascinated by science, the treating of wounds and health improvement. That’s why she wants to study medicine so she can become a doctor and save other people’s lives. Lucky for her, her father fully supports her decision considering it’s 1921 in China where women rarely attend university.

Yanyan’s Eldest Brother is taking martial arts lessons and Liang Baoshu is his classmate. Baoshu and Yanyan got better acquainted while on a trip to Shanghai where she was going to say goodbye to a friend who’s going to work in America. After an unpleasant incident at a dangerous Shanghai alley, Liang Baoshu became even more impressed with Yanyan’s courage.

When he asked her to accompany him on his quest to restore the Manchu’s Qing Dynasty, Yanyan has to decide fast. If she were to follow him, she’d need to ditch her plans of studying medicine. It would also break her parents’ hearts if she went off with Baoshu. Her father has high hopes of seeing his daughter succeed in the sciences and to bring about changes for the development of the country.

She finally made up her mind to refuse Baoshu’s offer and prepared to sail off to America to Cornell University. For her, it’s career first, love put on hold. In America, she managed to make a few new friends who helped her overcome her culture shock.

I found An Ocean Apart, a World Away an entertaining and informational book. It’s a small paperback and cost only RM12 at Popular. I found it at the Bargains’ section. It was indeed a lucky find!

Issues of prejudice and stereotype were also cleverly incorporated into the story. For example, Chinese girls were expected to be good at cooking and embroidery. Well, Yanyan can’t cook a simple dish to save her life. She doesn’t even know how to cut vegetables!

Another assumption is that Western men with big noses can’t speak a word of Mandarin. Yanyan, her Eldest Brother and Baoshu discovered the contrary in an embarrassing situation on the train to Shanghai. Eldest Brother and Baoshu were insulting the Westerner in Mandarin without knowing that he can understand every word they said! Lesson to be learnt: Never speak ill of others in their presence, even if you think that they can’t understand!

I found the ending quite unfinished actually. I’ll have to read Ties That Bind, Ties That Break, which is the companion novel to this one.

Popularity: 8%

Categories: Authors N, Genre - YA Historical Fiction, Titles A
02
Feb 2009

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

By 21 Comments

This is a story of a mousey hero who saves a princess’ life. This is the story of a mouse that was different from the others. This is the tale of Despereaux.

When Despereaux was born, he was the only baby who survived. The other babies that his mom gave birth to did not live. That was why his mom, a French mouse, was also skeptical of his survival rate. He was such a tiny mouse with abnormally large ears.

I find Despereaux’s mom an utterly pessimistic female mouse whose favourite word is ‘disappointment’. Hence, she named the poor fella ‘Despereaux’, symbolizing the tragedy happening around them.

Despereaux grew to be a mouse who could not easily please his family. His brother tried to teach him the art of scurrying in the castle that they lived in. His sister attempted to show him how to nibble paper but he started reading the book instead. That was how he knew his first story of a knight in shining armour who rescues a damsel in distress.

Anyway, Despereaux discovered music and from there, he met the Princess Pea. He immediately fell in love with her. It sounds cute, doesn’t it, a tiny mouse falling in love with a human princess? Or what do you think? I thought it would be a case of unrequited love but one should never stop dreaming and hoping.

The second part of the book introduces us to a rat called Chiaroscuro. It’s an odd name but it’s a new word to learn. In my dictionary, it means ‘the treatment of light and dark parts in a painting, etc’.

All the same, just call the rat ‘Roscuro’. Roscuro is an unusual rat who’s obsessed with light. It is in rats’ nature that they should always be in the dark but not Roscuro. Because he wants to be bathed in light, he ventured into the castle’s banquet hall where the royal family was having a party. Something terrible then happened and it caused Roscuro to be vengeful.

Another important character in the book would be Miggery Sow who was sold when she was a child. Her father was poor and traded her for a hen, a red tablecloth and some cigarettes. Poor Mig was sold to a man who kept giving her many “a good clout to the ear”. As a result, she became almost deaf and one would need to shout to her in order to be heard.

All these characters will eventually meet somewhere in the book and I’m not going to tell you how. This book is easy to read and you can finish it in a day. You can also enjoy the beautiful black and white illustrations that accompany the story.

It’s a book meant for children but it’s definitely a book for everyone. I thought the rat rather evil and disturbing, so perhaps you might need to be there to comfort your child if he or she begins having nightmares of menacing rats!

Love, courage, treachery, regrets, dreams and hopes are the themes found in The Tale of Despereaux. Enjoy reading this 2004 Newbery Medal award winner!

Other reviews: Nymeth, Girl Detective

Buy The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread


Popularity: 21%

Categories: Authors D, Genre - Fantasy, Titles T
30
Jan 2009

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

By 19 Comments

Historical England, boarding school, magic and realms, strange creatures, evil forces, and a group of teenage girls: these make up the Gemma Doyle trilogy. The Sweet Far Thing picks up where Rebel Angels left off.

Gemma and friends are back at Spence Academy and under the watchful eyes of their headmistress, Mrs. Nightwing, they learn decent manners, curtsies, and everything else ladylike. Gemma is unable to fit in with the mindless chatter and gossip of the other girls at her school. She feels that there’s more to life than just attending parties and dancing with men.

Now Gemma holds all the magic of the magical realms where she and her friends, Felicity and Ann have been going. She’s expected to share the magic with all the tribes in the realms but not so soon. Since Felicity desperately needs a Lady Markham to sponsor her debut in order to claim her inheritance, she needs some of Gemma’s magic to make it happen. As for Ann, well, she needs some magic to escape from being a miserable governess.

What about the beautiful Pippa who’s stuck to wander in the realms forever? Felicity is always delighted to spend time and play with her best friend. However, Gemma feels that there’s something suspicious about Pippa and that she must be careful around her.

In the meantime, Gemma keeps having dreams/visions of a lady in a lavender dress. The lady seems to be trying to tell her something but no sound comes out from her. Who is she? Is she dead or alive? What is she trying to say? What is the Key and what in the world is the Tree of All Souls? Absolutely mysterious and frustrating!

Gemma also needs to find out why the school is restoring the ruined East Wing now. Many years ago, two girls supposedly perished in a fire that destroyed the East Wing but they survived anyway. One of the girls was Gemma’s mother. The other girl, Circe, became an enemy and murderer. It is also said that the then headmistress, Eugenia Spence, sacrificed herself to the Winterlands. The Winterlands is an evil place, by the way.

Oh no, I did not forget the handsome and elusive Kartik. He returns to stay with the gypsies and occasionally has little secretive chats with Gemma. He keeps telling her that he’ll leave someday which only irritates and saddens her. His old brotherhood, the Rakshana, is also on the lookout for him as he failed to kill Gemma in the previous book.

That’s quite a lot to digest, isn’t it? Well, you can expect much more than that from this 819-page book. There are five acts and there is a quote at the beginning of each act. In truth, I enjoyed reading every page of this book even though it took me more than a month to finish it.

Some things I just didn’t like though. I thought Gemma’s friends selfish, especially Felicity. Most of the time, I felt that Felicity’s only using Gemma to enter the realms so she could be with Pippa. I’m also quite surprised at Ann who eventually leaves Gemma alone in her troubles too. Like Gemma, I thought that perhaps her friends are only her ‘friends’ because she has magic which can reduce or wipe out the unpleasantness in their lives. Well, nobody’s perfect.

Besides her school chums, Gemma has to deal with Kartik, Pippa, Miss McCleethy who’s watching her every move, Fowlson who’s working for the Rakshana, her father who’s addicted to laudanum, and her obnoxious brother, Tom. She definitely has a lot on her plate.

I’m quite sad to see the end of the Gemma Doyle trilogy. It’s been a thrilling journey following Gemma, her friends and their battle against being helpless women in a rigid English society that expects little and yet so much from them.

Other reviews: Debbie, Susan B. Evans, Emily, Em

Popularity: 6%

Categories: Authors B, Genre - YA Historical Fantasy, Titles S Tags:
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