TITLE:
Grimpow: the Invisible Road
AUTHOR: Rafael Ábalos
GENRE: fantasy, historical fiction
RATING: 3 stars (out of 5)
SUMMARY: Grimpow, a young petty theif, discovers a body in the forest. He finds a magical stone in the dead man's hand, and takes it. The stone leads Grimpow on a journey to uncover the secrets of the Knights of Templar, and he and his friends must dodge the Spanish Inquisition along the way.
REVIEW: Grimpow was your typical dashing young troublemaker with a good heart. The book was very obnoxiously slow getting started (it took like 9 chapters for anything interesting to happen), but once it did it was fascinating. As a history lover, I very much enjoyed all of the conspiracy theories and mystery surrounding the Knights of Templar in this book. It was originally published in Spanish, so some of the figurative language is a bit oddly placed and awkward because of the trasnslation. Overall it was relatively well-translated and well-told, though a bit slow and boring at times.
TITLE:
Ten Things I Hate About Me
AUTHOR: Randa Abdel-Fattah
GENRE: teen drama
RATING: 3.5 stars
SUMMARY: Jamilah, or Jamie, as she likes to be called, is a Lebanese-Muslim girl living in Australia. She is surrounded by racist people in her school and her society, and her insecurity about her heritage drives her to hide it from her friends at school. She dyes her hair blonde, wears blue contacts, and Anglicizes her name in order to come across as "a true Aussie." Conflict strikes when a band she is in through her after-school Islam youth group gets recruited to play at her school's formal. Jamie must learn to accept herself and her heritage with the help of an anonymous e-mail buddy and friends she didn't even realize she had.
REVIEW: Sometimes during this book I found myself wanting to grab Jamilah by the shoulders, shake her, and scream at her to quit worrying about what others think. I've read Abdel-Fattah's work before, and it is quite fascinating how she portrays the modern Muslim teenager. She does a great job of helping you put yourself in the shoes of someone who comes from a completely different background than you, and really helped me to slough away the pre-conceived notions I had about the Islamic community. This book was eye-opening in its cultural aspect, but the plot line was also sprinkled with bits of teenage humor and drama that connects the story to its intended audience. Overall, a good quick read for someone wanting a splash of culture.
TITLE: Defining Dulcie
AUTHOR: Paul Acampora
GENRE: teen drama
RATING: 3 stars
SUMMARY: After her dad dies, Dulcie's mother forces her to move with her to California, leaving behind her beloved grandfather and the school that her father and grandfather were janitors of. So she steals her dad's old pickup and drives all the way back to Connecticut. There she is reunited with her grandfather, and finds a friend in a rough-around-the-edges girl with domestic abuse problems at home. Dulcie learns that perhaps life could be worse than hers is and helps get her friend out of her abusive mother's hands. And they all live happily ever after.
REVIEW: Cute story. It was pretty short, and pretty average. Dulcie was a good, relatively well-developed character, and her struggles with her dad's death are very realistic and easy to relate to.
TITLE: Spy Force
AUTHOR: Deborah Abela
GENRE: kids' adventure
RATING: 2.5 stars
SUMMARY: Max is sent to live with her aunt and uncle for the summer on their farm in the middle of nowhere. But it turns out they are scientists who used to work for the British government. They were working on developing a matter transmitting device, but quit when Uncle Ben and Aunt Eleanor have a fight with Ben's brother, who was also their coworker. Uncle Ben manages to continue his research on their isolated farm, and finally invents a device that will transmit matter to wherever you want it to! So she and her friend Linden use it to travel to London and track down Uncle Ben's brother, but along the way they get mixed up with the evil Dr. Blue, who's after them and Uncle Ben's matter machine! When they've escaped from Dr. Blue's clutches and returned the matter transmitter to safety, they receive a message from a secret spy agency called Spy Force inviting them to join!
REVIEW: Honestly, this was a kids' book. It was kinda boring for me. It was okay as far as 100-page "chapter books" go. Keeping in mind that it was geared towards kids, it was pretty intriguing, complete with futuristic technology, cool scientist families, alter egos, and evil masterminds. I'd recommend it to people like 10 and under.
