young adult

My Top Books of 2011

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It’s that time of the year when everyone is putting together their top books of the year lists.  In my library, Christchurch City Libraries, we’ve recently put together a Holiday Reading List, which gathers together the top books for children and young adults of 2011, as chosen by us librarians.  If you’d like to take a look just head to the Christchurch City Libraries website.

Reviewing books all year around makes me remember all the great books I’ve read during the year, as I can just go back through my blog to jog my memory.  So here are my Top 10 of 2011 lists:

Picture Books

  1. Don’t Worry Douglas – David Melling
  2. Marmaduke Duck and Bernadette Bear – Juliette MacIvor (NZ)
  3. Moon Cow – Kyle Mewburn (NZ)
  4. Bruiser – Gavin Bishop (NZ)
  5. Poo Bum – Stephanie
  6. Otto the Book Bear – Katie Cleminson
  7. Hester and Lester – Kyle Mewburn (NZ)
  8. Stuck – Oliver Jeffers
  9. Fancy Dress Farmyard – Nick Sharrat
  10. Press Here – Herve Tullet

Younger Readers (Top 5)

  1. Earwig and the Witch – Diana Wynne Jones
  2. Little Manfred – Michael Morpurgo
  3. T-wreck-asaurus – Kyle Mewburn (NZ)
  4. Sophie and the Shadow Woods – Linda Chapman and Lee Weatherly
  5. Do Not Push – Kyle Mewburn (NZ)

Older Readers

  1. Wonderstruck – Brian Selznick
  2. Death Bringer (Skulduggery Pleasant Book 6) – Derek Landy
  3. Northwood – Brian Falkner
  4. Not Bad for a Bad Lad – Michael Morpurgo
  5. Wolf in the Wardrobe – Susan Brocker
  6. Case of the Deadly Desperados – Caroline Lawrence
  7. Emerald Atlas – John Stephens
  8. AngelCreek– Sally Rippin
  9. Super Finn – Leonie Agnew
  10. Liesl and Po – Lauren Oliver

Young Adults

  1. Across the Universe – Beth Revis
  2. Divergent – Veronica Roth
  3. A Monster Calls – Patrick Ness
  4. Mask of Destiny – Richard Newsome
  5. My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece – Annabel Pitcher
  6. You Against Me – Jenny Downham
  7. Department 19 – Will Hill
  8. Yes – Deborah Burnside
  9. Heart of Danger – Fleur Beale (NZ)
  10.  Shelter – Harlan Coben

Guest Post: New Zealand author Deborah Burnside

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Deborah Burnside

The question was; Do you want to write a guest blog?

I said, YES…

I say yes to a lot of things because it makes life interesting and gives you things to write about.

Yes, I’d like to learn to belly dance and derby skate, yes I’d like to see the pilots flying the plane, yes I’d like to buy a ticket, yes I’ll get up extra early to take the special Colosseum tour (even though I am NOT a morning person).

You can see a theme here I hope?

That writers are spontaneous, curious and explorative people who may or may not write about all of the things they do, see or experience, but will likely always be doing interesting things that they could write about.

Although sometimes it’s the thing a writer hasn’t been able to do that turns up in their stories.

I live on a large rural block with my lovely husband, Malamute Blaze, three sons, their assorted friends, some sheep and cattle, various migratory birds, pesky rabbits and a wild, white cat with no ears.  A long time ago I said I wanted to turn our paddock into a maize maze – at the time we were leasing the land to a cropper who had planted maize and our son got lost in the maize.  While that was a terrifying experience, it made me think it would have been a whole lot easier to find him if there were paths through the maize.

“Then the cropper wouldn’t make any money, Deb.”  Said the lovely man.

“I know, but you could charge money to walk through the maize maze instead, before you harvested,” I said.

“Nobody would pay to do that.”  Said the lovely man.

“I think they would, I think we should do it here.”

The lovely man didn’t agree, “You are raising kids, singing, dancing, acting in Les Miserables, building a house and running a waste and recycling company…I think you are too busy to grow and operate a maize maze.”

Well, put like that I had to agree, because what the lovely man didn’t know was that I was also harbouring a secret desire to write books.

It was that seed of truth, that personal desire to grow a maize maze that made me give that thing to Marty in YES.

I love that YES, my new young adult book, is titled YES, because so many great things have happened in my life simply by saying YES.  It’s also an acronym for the Young Enterprise Scheme, something the characters in the book take part in and which is something I wish had been in High Schools when I was at school, as I cold started a business when I was 21.  I encourage anyone given the chance to participate in YES at their school to give it a go.

And all those other things I mentioned… well since 9/11 you can no longer visit pilots in cockpits.  The Colosseum  closed the lower levels in October this year indefinitely and they’d not been opened since the 1930s.  Learning to Belly Dance was fun, I met great people, got to perform at lots of public events and it gave me an idea for a scene in, On A Good Day.  Buying the wrong bus ticket in Turkey led me on an amazing (sometimes slightly hair-raising) adventure and personal tour of Istanbul by a local, which may yet end up in a book.  And Roller Derby has me loving bruises, blisters, grazes and speed and leaves me with the conundrum of what to call my skating alter ego.  I wanted Princess Slayer (Princess Leia – star wars) because my Mum used to put my hair in two buns when I was little, but thanks to the movie, Whip It that name is taken.

I’ll take some time thinking about my Derby name the same as I do when I name characters in stories… because I like names and words that mean more than one thing and I like my characters to be true to their names.

The newest character I am writing about is Cartograph, he takes a while to get his name, I’m not quite sure exactly what is happening in his story,  I know where it is and when it is and who is in it, but the rest is just a fabulous rollercoaster ride as I sit at the computer and say YES – today I’m writing.  How lucky am I?

Deborah Burnside

Sequel to This is Shyness coming in 2012

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One of my favourite books of 2010 was a Young Adult book called This is Shyness by Australian author, Leanne Hall (read my review here).  I’ve known for a while that Leanne has been writing a sequel and was excited to discover on the Text Publishing website yesterday that it’s called Queen of the Night and is being released in February 2012.  If you haven’t read it but love quirky YA books you really should rush out and get hold of a copy.  Leanne was the winner of the Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing in 2009.

To whet your appetite, here’s the blurb for Queen of the Night:

“The dark is dangerous. So is the past. So are your dreams.

For six months Nia—Wildgirl—has tried to forget Wolfboy, the mysterious boy she spent one night with in Shyness—the boy who said he’d call but didn’t.

Then Wolfboy calls. The things he tells her pull her back to the suburb of Shyness, where the sun doesn’t rise and dreams and reality are difficult to separate. There, Doctor Gregory has seemingly disappeared, the Darkness is changing and Wolfboy’s friend is in trouble. And Nia decides to become Wildgirl once more.

The sequel to the 2009 Text Prize-winning This Is Shyness is about the difficulty of recreating the past—about how the Darkness no longer sets Wolfboy and Wildgirl free.”

You can pre-order Queen of the Night on the Text Publishing website now.  Text are a Melbourne based publisher and are one of my favourites.  They always publish really interesting and original titles, especially for Young Adults.

Yes by Deborah Burnside

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Every now and again you read a book that you really connect with.  Something about it, whether the characters or the story, strike a chord with you.  You get to the end of the book and you just sit there for a while thinking about it, with a smile on your face but with a sense of loss because it’s over.  Deborah Burnside’s latest book, Yes, is one of those books.

Marty (AKA M & M) has trouble reading people, organizing things and pleasing his father.  His brain isn’t wired the same as other people so it takes him longer to figure things out, but he’s as normal as any other teenager on the outside.  Luke spends his time hanging out with his best mate Luke (AKA Legless) and his ‘chick-mate’ Francesca, who he’s had a crush on for ages.  Luke’s always trying to get Marty into all sorts of crazy ventures, and when he attempts to get him involved in YES (the Young Enterprise Scheme) it’s futile to resist.  Marty doesn’t know what to expect, but the last thing he thought he would be doing was making crochet hats and being mentored by his dad.  Will their business succeed or will it all fall apart?

Deborah Burnside has created a memorable character with an authentic voice.  As Yes is told in the first person, we really get inside Marty’s head and we get the sense of how difficult it is for Marty to read people and make sense of the world.  Even though his brain is wired differently, Marty is still such a typical teenage boy.  He’s got a crush on his ‘chick-mate,’ his dad’s an embarrassment and Marty never seems to live up to his expectations, and he has an obsession with sex.  It’s a sign of a great story when you can picture yourself in the same situations, in places that you know – I kept thinking of myself and my best mate from high school as Marty and Luke.  One of the things I liked most about Yes is that Deborah can have you laughing out loud one moment, then in tears, and leave you with a smile on your face by the end of the story.

I can’t recommend Yes highly enough.  It’s my favourite New Zealand book of 2011 and I’ll be surprised if it’s not a finalist in the 2012 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards.

Death Cure by James Dashner

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James Dashner’s Maze Runner, the first in the Maze Runner trilogy, is one of my all-time favourite books (you can read my review on the Christchurch Kids Blog).  It’s one of those books that is stuck in my head and I just couldn’t put down.  There are only a handful of books that have totally blown me away and The Maze Runner is one of them.  I’ve eagerly awaited the next books in the trilogy, The Scorch Trials, and finally, The Death Cure.  I honestly can’t tell you much about the plot for fear of spoiling the trilogy for those who haven’t read it, but here is the blurb:

“Thomas knows that Wicked can’t be trusted, but they say the time for lies is over, that they’ve collected all they can from the Trials and now must rely on the Gladers, with full memories restored, to help them with their ultimate mission. It’s up to the Gladers to complete the blueprint for the cure to the Flare with a final voluntary test.
What Wicked doesn’t know is that something’s happened that no Trial or Variable could have foreseen. Thomas has remembered far more than they think. And he knows that he can’t believe a word of what Wicked says.
The time for lies is over. But the truth is more dangerous than Thomas could ever imagine.
Will anyone survive the Death Cure? “

All I can say is that The Death Cure is the perfect finale to an amazing series.  Thomas and the Gladers have come through this terrifying ordeal and the group are completely changed by the end.  James Dashner has managed to keep the suspense going throughout each book and keep us hanging out for The Death Cure to discover the truth.  If you’re a fan of dystopian or post-apocalyptic worlds, like those from Hunger Games and Divergent, you need to read The Maze Runner Trilogy.  You won’t regret it.

To get a taster of what to expect, watch this amazing book trailer:

Brother/Sister by Sean Olin

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Some books you can only read when you feel in the right mood, and other books have the power to affect your mood.  Sean Olin’s latest book, Brother/Sister got so inside my head that it started to affect my mood.  It has to be one of the darkest, most disturbing Young Adult books that I’ve read in a long time

The brother and sister of the title are Will and Ashley and each chapter alternates between their points of view.  Sean Olin grabs you from the first paragraph,

“How many times do I have to say it?  Yes, I see the picture.  You’ve been shoving it in my face for, like, the past forty-five minutes.  And, yes, I understand what it is.  It’s a body, obviously.  It’s a dead body.  I’m not blind, okay?”

Both Will and Asheley are being interviewed by the police and it’s clear that they have something to do with the dead body.  Through their interviews we hear about their lives and their decisions that have lead them to this point.  Their parents have never been good role models.  Their mum has mental health problems which have lead to drink and drugs so she’s always in and out of rehab centres.  Their dad decided he couldn’t handle their mum and just up and left one day.  For a while now they’ve only had each other to look out for them and Will is the protective older brother.  He loves his sister and he’ll do anything to protect her.  When Asheley’s boyfriend forces himself on her, Will lashes out and does the unthinkable.   Asheley struggles to keep it together and Will really starts to spiral out of control, believing that people will find out what he’s done and try to take Asheley from him.  But at what stage does Will’s love for his sister cross the line?

Brother/Sister is a dark and disturbing story about the relationship between a brother and sister and the lengths they will go to to look out for each other.  Sean Olin takes the reader to some dark places and just when you think the character’s situation couldn’t get worse, it does.  Sean does an amazing job of getting inside his character’s heads and showing the reader the different sides of these characters.  Both Will and Asheley have authentic voices and, even when Will was at his most unstable, I still empathised with him.  Although I found the story disturbing in parts, Sean’s writing style made me want to keep reading to see how it would end.  If you enjoyed Jenny Downham’s You Against Me, try Sean Olin’s different take on the brother/sister relationship.

The Mask of Destiny by Richard Newsome

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Two years ago we were introduced to Gerald Wilkins, the boy who inherited 20 billion pounds from his aunt Geraldine.  In The Billionaire’s Curse Gerald found out that his aunt Geraldine had been murdered and that she wanted Gerald to track down her killer.  In the second book, The Emerald Casket, Gerald and his friends, Ruby and Sam traveled to India on holiday, only to get mixed up with a mysterious and deadly cult.  The final book in the trilogy, The Mask of Destiny brings Gerald’s story to a thrilling conclusion.

Gerald’s foe, Sir Mason Green has been arrested and Gerald has to act as a witness in the trial.  Disaster strikes at the trial when Mason Green collapses and is pronounced dead.  Gerald thinks this is the end of their problems and he can finally enjoy his billions, but the police come calling and want to arrest Gerald for the murder of Mason Green.  With Mr Fry’s help, Gerald goes on the run with his ever faithful friends, Ruby and Sam.  They head to the island of Mont-Saint-Michel in France hoping to uncover the truth of Gerald’s ancestors and clear Gerald’s name along the way. Their search takes them from France to Italy and Greece, to the heart of an ancient city that has been buried for centuries.

The Mask of Destiny is the perfect finale to this amazing series from Richard Newsome.  The story speeds along like a train out of control and just when you think you know what’s going to happen there’s a twist.  Gerald, Sam and Ruby are incredibly brave and courageous and I was amazed at how they found their way around Europe by themselves.  My favourite thing about the series are the characters Richard Newsome has created.  The clumsy, pigeon-loving Constable Lethbridge makes me laugh every time and my favourite from this book would have to be Walter, the life coach that Gerald’s mother hires.  He’s creepily nice and Gerald knows there’s something not quite right about him.  If you’ve read the other books in the trilogy you’ll love The Mask of Destiny.  If you haven’t discovered this fantastic series full of mystery, action, adventure, family secrets and sinister villains, go straight to your library or bookshop and get reading them now.

Recommended for 9+    10 out of 10

Shelter by Harlan Coben

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I’m always a bit skeptical when adult authors try their hand at writing children’s or young adult’s books.  Some authors get it spot on and write a fantastic story that will hold the attention of children or teenagers, but others get it horribly wrong.  I’ve never read a Harlan Coben book before so I can’t compare it to his adult books, but he’s one of those authors that have got it spot on.  Shelter is an engrossing read that hooks you right from the first sentence and doesn’t let go.

The main character, Mickey Bolitar, is the nephew of Myron Bolitar, the protagonist in his adult novels.  The story starts off with a bang, when the neighbourhood crazy, the Bat Lady, reveals to Mickey that his father isn’t dead as he believed.  Mickey doesn’t understand how this is possible when he watched him die.  When Mickey tries discover what the Bat Lady knows, the mystery just seems to deepen.  Who is the Bat Lady and how does she know so much about him?  Then there’s the mystery of his girlfriend’s disappearance.  One day Ashley is there and the next she has vanished without a trace – no note, no text, nothing.  Mickey follows Ashley’s trail into a seedy underworld that reveals that she wasn’t the girl he thought he knew.

Shelter draws you in and doesn’t let you go, even after the cliff-hanger finale.  Harlan Coben keeps you in suspense the whole way and you have to keep reading to see how it ends. You immediately route for Mickey and hope that he’ll get out alive and you want Spoon and Ema to be your friends too.  Both Spoon and Ema are great characters and added humour to the story right when it was needed.  They’re both incredibly loyal and willing to do anything they can to help Mickey in his hunt for the truth.  Harlan Coben said in an interview that he wanted to create a ‘Lost’ type mythology in the series and this is something I loved about Shelter.  I felt that it was a very similar type of story to John Connolly’s Charlie Parker novels because of this dark, almost supernatural vibe.  I also thought that it was a very similar story to John Green’s Paper Towns, because of the search for his girlfriend and the supporting characters.  The very last line is, as Harlan Coben has said, a real kick to the guts.  It’s such a cliff-hanger and made me want to read the second book straight away.  Unfortunately I’ll probably have to wait a year to get my hands on it.   One thing’s for sure, I’ll get it as soon as it’s released and in the mean time, I’ll try some of his Myron Bolitar novels.

Heart of Danger by Fleur Beale

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We were first introduced to Juno and the people of Taris in Juno of Taris, what would become the first in a trilogy.  I picked up Juno of Taris on a recommendation of another children’s librarian that I worked with and was blown away by the community that Fleur Beale had created.  For those of you who haven’t read the first book, it’s best to start at the beginning, but one of the great things about the subsequent books in the trilogy is that you get a summary of the story so far before you start.  I don’t know if this was an idea of the publisher, Random House New Zealand, or Fleur herself, but I think it’s something that all trilogies/series should have, especially when the books come out a year apart.

Heart of Danger starts off exactly where Fierce September ended, with Juno and her family arriving at their new home.  It’s not long before Juno’s sister, Hera senses danger and they decide to move back to New Plymouth and Fairlands School, where they have the protection of Willem.  Juno is reluctant to move back to Fairlands, where Hilto’s son, Thomas goes to school.  There’s also the handsome Ivor, whose advances make Juno uncomfortable.  Her feelings for Ivor are confusing and she’s not sure how to deal with them on the outside world.  When Hera is taken by mysterious strangers who mean to do her harm, Juno must use her special mind powers to help her save her sister.  But will this be enough to save them both from the Children of the Coming Dawn?

Heart of Danger is the perfect conclusion to this brilliant trilogy.  There is a sense of impending doom from the opening chapter which builds to a thrilling climax, but there are also alot of questions answered about the establishment of Taris, the extent of Juno’s powers, and Juno’s biological family.  The climax of the story comes just over halfway through the book and I was wondering how it would finish, but it left plenty of time for Fleur Beale to wrap up the story of the people of Taris and end on a positive note.  I’ve really enjoyed seeing how Juno has developed over the series and how the people of Taris have adapted to the outside world.  I loved how they all managed to hold onto little aspects of life on Taris, while becoming citizens of Aotearoa.  I know I’ll miss Juno, her family and her friends, but I’ll enjoy starting from the beginning again and taking that journey with them once more.  In the mean time, I’ll go to www.randomhouse.co.nz/heartofdanger to read Nash’s Story, an extra short story that Fleur Beale has written, to be read after Heart of Danger.

Recommended for 12+    10 out of 10

 

The Bridge by Jane Higgins book trailer

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The Bridge is the brilliant new dystopian thriller by New Zealand author, Jane Higgins.  It is the very deserving winner of the 2010 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing.  I’m currently in the middle of it and don’t want to put it down.  My review will be posted later this week.

In the mean time, here’s the blurb:

The City is divided. The bridges gated. In Southside, the hostiles live in squalor and desperation, waiting for a chance to overrun the residents of Cityside.

Nik is still in high school but destined for a great career with the Internal Security and Intelligence Services, the brains behind the war. But when ISIS comes recruiting, everyone is shocked when he isn’t chosen. There must be an explanation, but no one will talk about it. Then the school is bombed and the hostiles take the bridges. Buildings are burning, kids are dead, and the hostiles have kidnapped Sol. Now ISIS is hunting for Nik.

But Nik is on the run, with Sol’s sister Fyffe and ISIS hot on their trail. They cross the bridge in search of Sol, and Nik finds answers to questions he’d never dared to ask.