Throwback Thursday: A Girl's Best Friend - Review of "The Princess and the Hound"

**Originally Posted on August 4, 2011 on cj's bookshelf**

Title: The Princess and the Hound
Author:  Mette Ivie Harrison
Publisher: Eos
Publication Date:  May 1, 2007
Reading Level: 12 and up

Synopsis: (from Goodreads) –
He is a prince, heir to a kingdom threatened on all sides, possessor of the animal magic, which is forbidden by death in the land he'll rule.

She is a princess from a rival kingdom, the daughter her father never wanted, isolated from true human friendship but inseparable from her hound.

Though they think they have little in common, each possesses a secret that must be hidden at all costs. Proud, stubborn, bound to marry for the good of their kingdoms, this prince and princess will steal your heart, but will they fall in love?

My Review:
I picked this book up at a local independent bookstore and I hadn’t heard of it until I saw it there.  It looked interesting – also the synopsis proclaimed it as a retelling of “Beauty and the Beast,” which is one of my favorite fairy tales.

It was a little jarring to find that this book is not told from the Princess’ point of view, despite having her name in the title and a princess on the cover.  Now, it doesn’t always happen, but I figure that the character featured in the title would make an appearance in the first five chapters or so.  Not this time – this book is told from Prince George’s point of view.  The main plot of this story is that George was born with the forbidden animal magic, which just means that he can talk to animals in their own language (think Eliza from “The Wild Thornberrys”).  Having this power is akin to being a leper in this land, so the prince has been forced to keep this ability of his a secret his entire life.  His mother had the animal magic and she was “sent away” when George was a young boy (much the way your favorite pet dog was “sent away” while you were at school one day).

George eventually meets Princess Beatrice and becomes engaged to her as a matter of political advantage.  Beatrice does not go anywhere without her hound, Marit, and the girl has an odd relationship with Marit which reveals itself throughout the story (and had the synopsis not spoiled the plot, I would have been more surprised by that development).

I enjoyed this book a lot – until the story ended about fifteen chapters early.  I thought the main plot had resolved itself, but then was treated to another chunk of story about the political ins and outs of running this fairy tale country where animal magic people are discriminated against.  The developments themselves don’t bother me.  What bothered me is that this story. Takes. So. Long. To. End. I hoped that most of that was appendices or some other thing like that – nope, there was another ninety pages to slog through before the story reached its final conclusion.  And I was annoyed.  Not as much as when I read Uglies (because at least this conclusion made some sense), but enough.  There are two more books after this one and I may pick them up, but I’m not in any hurry to do so.

Throwback Thursday: Courage, Integrity and Conviction - Review of "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

**Originally Posted on cj's bookshelf on July 29, 2011**

Title: The Boy Who Dared: A Novel Based on the True Story of a Hitler Youth 
Author: Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: February 1, 2008
Reading Level: 13 and up

Synopsis: (from Goodreads) –

Just as the Nazis are rising to power, Helmuth Hübener, a German schoolboy, is caught up in all the swashbuckling bravado of his time. The handsome stormtrooper uniforms, the shiny jackboots and armbands, the rousing patriotism all serve to draw him into this bright new world full of promise and hope. In the beginning his patriotism is unwavering. But every day the rights of people all over Germany are diminishing. Jews are threatened and their businesses are being destroyed. The truth has been censored, and danger lurks everywhere. Anybody can turn on you. The world has turned upside down: Patriotism means denouncing others, love means hate, and speaking out means treason. How much longer can Helmuth keep silent? Told in flashback, Newbery Honor Book author Susan Campbell Bartoletti magnificently explores the life of a heroic German youth who dared to stand up against the Nazi regime.

My Review:
Where has this genre been all my life?

Okay, okay – I need to clarify here.  I read plenty of books about World War II and the Holocaust.  I read The Diary of Anne Frank and Number the Stars in school.  I even went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum on a school trip to Washington DC in 8^th grade (which was hands-down the most memorable stop on that trip.  I don’t remember all the quotes from the war memorials or everything from the Smithsonian – but I remember every single minute I was in the Holocaust Museum.  It will haunt you, disgust you and inspire you to be the very best of humanity. Sound weird, but it’s true).  Most of the things I’ve read or heard about the Holocaust come from the Jewish victims with a little flavor of people who helped Jews hide.  But I have rarely read books about Germans in the 1940s who did not agree with the Nazi plan and even risked their lives to oppose Hitler.

Now, however, I've read The Book Thief and The Boy Who Dared – and my heart breaks for those people.

The Book Thief introduced me to the concept that there were Germans who opposed the Nazis (I sort of knew that was the case, but I really hadn’t thought about it very much). Reading The Boy Who Dared drove this point home with me.  Not all Germans were marching in the squares and Heiling Hitler at every turn and corner.  So many of them just wanted to provide for their families and be good people at a time when doing one meant not doing the other.

For most of my life – indeed, for many in my generation, World War II seems like such a distant time in history.  You learn about it the same way you learn about the pilgrims, the American Revolution, the Civil War and the Great Depression.  They are just dates and names in the history book that don’t mean much.  I thought so too – until I realized that my parents were born not even fifteen years after the war was over.  And then I thought that fifteen years really isn’t that long of a time period.  It felt that way when I was a kid, but I’m older now.  And it gives me chills.

I've often wondered how the Holocaust was allowed to happen.  Even after all my study and learning how the yellow Stars of David and mandatory curfews and segregated schools slowly became the concentrations camps, it still baffles me how this could happen.  I'll be honest, it scares me to death. You have a country hurting because of an economy that is completely and totally in the sewers because of losing a war, the entire nation was humiliated and they got desperate enough to let Hitler and his guys come in and hijack a country for their own power and personal gain and call it patriotism.

I just realized this review hasn’t talked much about The Boy Who Dared, but I think that’s because I just finished this book and it’s got me thinking about this.  For me, that is a sign of a magnificent piece of writing – that you don’t necessarily notice the writing style or the characters, but the content of the story.  Helmuth Hubener is a fantastic character.  I hesitate to call him a “character” because he was an actual person and these things really happened, but Bartoletti’s characterization of him is so wonderful and I enjoyed reading his thought processes and how he came to do what he did.  This is a seventeen-year-old kid who is illegally tuning into the BBC radio broadcasts and distributing fliers with news of the war from his radio.  But he didn’t just wake up one morning and think “Gosh, I’d really like to get arrested by the Gestapo, so I’m going to print up anti-Nazi pamphlets and really cheese them off.”  Everything he did was driven by the fact that he was taught to respect others and see people as sons and daughters of God and that patriotism does not mean demonizing an entire group of people just because they’re a convenient scapegoat.

The fact that this was written for the YA set – that you would trust teens enough to understand something like this (well, I would anyway) – speaks volumes to the importance of the topic and the reverence that people like Helmuth Hubener deserve.  Anyone even remotely interested in human history owes it to themselves to read this book.

Throwback Thursday: "What Angel Wakes Me from My Flowery Bed?" - Review of "The Faerie Path"

**Originally Posted on cj's bookshelf on July 23, 2011**

Title: The Faerie Path
Author: Frewin Jones
Publisher: Eos
Publication Date: February 1, 2007
Reading Level: 15 and up

Synopsis: (from Goodreads) –
Swept away into a court of magic and beauty, she discovers she is Tania, the lost princess of Faerie: the youngest daughter of Oberon and Titania. Since Tania's mysterious disappearance on the eve of her wedding five hundred years before, Faerie has been sunk in darkness and gloom. The courtly Lord Gabriel Drake, who Tania was once to marry, has found her and brought her back.

With Tania's return, Faerie comes alive again as a land of winged children, glittering balls, and fantastic delights. But Tania can't forget Anita's world, or the boy she loved there.

Torn between two loves and between two worlds, Tania slowly comes to discover why she disappeared so long ago. She possesses a singular magical ability and she must use it to stop a sinister plan that threatens the entire world of Faerie.

My Review:
I picked this book up after a patron came to the library looking for the second book in the series. I haven’t had much luck with faerie stories in the past, but this one looked good so I thought I’d give it a try. My main complaint about faerie stories is that the faerie characters are often written as these smug, arrogant, perfect people that I really can’t bring myself to like (note that I did not use a certain phrase that starts with “M” and rhymes with “ary Sue” because that term has been thrown around so much that it really doesn’t mean anything anymore). The best I can compare it to is that I was never that fond of Tolkien’s Elves – they just always seemed so uppity and (quite frankly) boring. Give me a battle sequence involving the handsome, rugged, mortal, fallible Men any day of the week. Or even the hobbits – with their cute little hobbit feet and constant questioning of their place in Middle Earth and their meaning to the Bigger Picture. Much more interesting.

Back to faeries - As faerie stories go, this one isn’t too bad. It helps that the main character, Tania (initially Anita), has spent the first sixteen years of her life as a human. She is then pulled into the realm of Faerie where she learns that she is the seventh daughter of King Oberon and Queen Titania (mad props for the use of everyone’s favorite Shakespearean mischief makers – though, they really aren’t that mischievous in this book. Sorry to disappoint you). Because she is the seventh daughter, Tania has the ability to travel back forth between the Mortal World and the Faerie Realm. And there’s some stuff about a prophecy and a reclusive older sister and the queen’s been presumed dead for five hundred years (which, coincidentally is the same amount of time Princess Tania has been missing in the mortal world).

If you’re looking for a light little fantasy story, this could be an option for you. There are six books in this series (and it has been finished). It wasn’t terribly gripping, but it was decent enough (the “thee” and “thou” and “mayhap” royal language the faeries used made my eyes gloss over a little bit and I missed important plot points, but that’s just me). And if you’re a fan of faerie stories, this would be a good one to add to your list.

"If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear."

  - opening of Puck's epilogue, "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

*The title of this post came from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."  You didn't think I'd pass up the chance to quote from this play in a review, did you?*

Throwback Thursday: "Pure" by Terra Elan McVoy

**Originally posted on cj's bookshelf on June 3, 2011**

Title: Pure
Author: Terra Elan McVoy
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Date of Publication: 2009
Reading Level: Ages 14 and up

Synopsis: (from Goodreads) –

Tabitha and her four best friends all wear purity rings, symbols of the virginity-until-marriage pledge they made years ago. Now Tab is fifteen, and her ring has come to mean so much more. It's a symbol of who she is and what she believes—a reminder of her promises to herself, and her bond to her friends. But when Tab meets a boy whose kisses make her knees go weak, everything suddenly seems a lot more complicated. Tab's best friend, Morgan, is far from supportive, and for the first time, Tabitha is forced to keep secrets from the one person with whom she's always shared everything. When one of those secrets breaks to the surface, Tab finds herself at the center of an unthinkable betrayal that splits her friends apart. As Tab's entire world comes crashing down around her, she's forced to re-examine her friendships, her faith, and what exactly it means to be pure.

My Review:
This was a very interesting read. I’m not a real fan of Christian fiction in general because the authors are sometimes a bit heavy-handed about the point they’re trying to make and that gets in the way of the actual story. Even though I consider myself a religious person, I sometimes feel like the characters and the stories in religious fiction are often blown out of proportion. The genre is not how I would want religious people to be portrayed, but that’s what the stereotype has become. So, I was a little nervous about reading this book, but it turned out not to be the typical Christian fiction.

When they were twelve, Tabitha, Cara, Morgan, Naeomi and Priah all made promises to themselves and to God to keep themselves pure and abstain from sex until marriage. They all wear purity rings to symbolize this promise. Three years after making that promise, things have changed in each girl’s life, but they are still committed to their promise. However, when Cara breaks her promise and has sex with her boyfriend, Michael, that’s when things spiral out of control.

Tabitha is the narrator of the book and she is easily my favorite character. Tabitha finds great strength in her faith and loves going to church, even though her parents are overly religious, though they still support her. Her relationship with God is a very personal one and she doesn't like to make a big deal about her faith in public. When Cara tells Tabitha that she broke her promise, Tabitha is the one that’s the most supportive and caring toward Cara. Morgan and Naeomi completely shun Cara for her actions to the point where Morgan (whom Tabitha describes as her very best friend) even shuns Tabitha for still being friends with Cara. In the meantime, Tabitha meets Jake at a church function and they start dating and their relationship starts getting really serious. It makes her take a look at her own promise and what she’s going to do about it.

There is a lot to love about this book and I could probably gush about it on and on, but I want to focus on one scene in particular – after Morgan finds out about Cara, she starts protesting outside the school and calling for prayer circles in defense of purity. Tabitha is completely embarrassed for Morgan because Morgan’s display is very over-the-top and people start laughing at her. Other groups start to protest for various reasons (some for a joke, but some are actually serious) and it gets so out of hand that the principal has to ban all protesting in front of the school because it disrupts regular school activities. Later, Tabitha’s dad starts ranting about how there’s no place for conservative Christian views in public school, which Tabitha does not take kindly to. She gives one of the best lines in the book when she says:

“…[T]hey made her [Morgan] stop. Made everybody stop. And besides, it didn’t work. You don’t have to worry. The world is still safe from too many stupid Jesus freaks. There are still plenty of nonbelievers out there. Your ability to have an intelligent conversation with someone is still intact… I know what you think, Dad. That people who believe in God are just idiot brainwashed zombies. But to some of us, it actually does mean something: Something really special and important we can’t talk about except in certain places and with certain people, because otherwise everyone thinks we’re freaks who’re all out to recruit more zombies into our coven. So go ahead and call the school… but when you do, thank them. Because in spite of what Morgan tried to do, she got stopped. She can’t do it anymore. And neither, for that matter, can anybody else, whether they believe in Allah or the Purple Donkey from Kathmandu… Now nobody can talk about religion at school at all.”

I love Tabitha’s response because it is so realistic in that she stands up to her dad when he starts insulting her faith. Tabitha is a great representation of how most Christian teens really are. She struggles with her own faith, the choices her friends make, how other people (including her parents) react to her faith and she does it in a very non-preachy way. In fact, religion in this story is treated as just one more aspect of Tabitha’s life – it’s not the only thing that she does. God is referred to in a very matter-of-fact way – without the subject being overblown. The story makes it quite clear that being judgmental of other people because of their choices is not right, but that it is good to stand up for your own beliefs. Tabitha continues to love Cara and Morgan even though she doesn't agree with what they've done. In the course of the story, Tabitha grows in her relationship with God and learns a great deal about herself and what she wants in her own life.

This is a fantastic book for any Christian teen no matter the denomination. Tabitha especially sticks up for her beliefs, but she is not the caricature of the prudish and holier-than-thou Christian teen that gets mocked in popular culture. The story takes a realistic look at what it’s like to be a person of faith and hold on to those beliefs when people around you aren't and, especially, how to get along with everyone no matter their convictions. This is a very refreshing take on the subject and it’s something I think many teens would benefit from reading.