5-star Favorite Books!

Occasionally I run this feature called "Memory Lane," where I look back at whatever I was reading approximately one year ago (or sometimes two).

This time, though, I wanted to take a look at all the 5-star "fangirly" reviews I've written in the past twelve months, April-to-now.

The Dark Divine - Bree DespainEyes Like Stars - Lisa MantchevThe Hunger Games - Suzanne CollinsJellicoe Road - Melina MarchettaThe Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick NessNevermore - Kelly CreaghSabriel - Garth NixShiver - Maggie StiefvaterTyger Tyger - Kersten HamiltonUglies - Scott WesterfeldWildwood Dancing - Juliet MarillierWondrous Strange - Lesley Livingston

I guess you could say that these (and some 4-star rated books I've read) are my favorites.
So...yes, I do use the 5-star rating, though the most common rating I give out is 4-star (which is still really good!). Just wanted to showcase these fangirly reviews from the past year.
:)

Food-for-thought-question:
Does rating a book 5 stars mean that you liked every single sentence? Can you still rate a book 5 stars overall, even if there were parts of the plot you wish had been done differently?
Because that's true for me with pretty much all of those...still loved them overall!

Review - PLAGUE

Plague (Gone, #4) - Michael Grant
Genre: YA Speculative Fiction/Science Fiction/Dystopian
# of pages: 492 (ARC)
Publisher: Harper Collins
Recommended for: 14+

Pretty much because if you're like me and you've read/enjoyed the previous three books in the Gone series, *not* continuing would not be an option. We're all way too invested in the FAYZ at this point.
For the most part, Plague was just as entertaining and action-packed as its predecessors.
To be honest, though, I'm starting to have an issue with the determined length of this series.
You see, I kind of wish this series would only be 5 books, instead of, like, 6. Knowing that there are (at least) two more books to go before any kind of resolution hits is rather exhausting.
I loved Gone and thought Hunger was very well-done, but starting with Lies, the series started to take on an almost soap-opera element: there were so many characters to keep track of, and they all seemed to develop sudden, arbitrary fights with each other. And while I initially loved Sam and Astrid (the series' main couple), I hate to say that now it's difficult to read their segments, because they're always fighting. For no reason. At the beginning of the book, Sam does something really stupid, and Astrid seems to have developed this nasty, crabby personality.
I understand why the characters are portrayed this way - at least, I think I do. It's like the author's trying to add drama with character interactions, but having characters who don't get along and act incredibly immature is not the way to maintain intrigue. At least, I don't think it is.
To be fair, this was a quick book to read, mainly because the plot was very absorbing. Grant has always done a great job giving readers excitement and lots of action. However, there really wasn't anything new that happened in Plague. That's one of the reasons I'm getting a little bored with this series: it just seems like everything's been done already and in many ways, Plague's storylines were just like those in Hunger and Lies. There really wasn't anything new here.
I think series books should progress and move on towards the big climax of the overarching story, but that doesn't seem to happen here. Instead, Plague just kind of meanders along, biding time until the next installment.
I spent the last week trying to figure out how to word this review. In truth, I read Plague back in February, so my thoughts have congealed since then. I still enjoyed Plague and since I'm already hooked on the series, I'll definitely be reading the next installments. If you haven't read the series, I'd still put it on your 'to-do' list, because the concept (what would a society made up of kids 15 and younger look like?) is really intriguing, but this series is starting to take a repetitive path...

Final Rating

5 Reasons Why I Love MG/MG-YA Novels!

1. More exciting/original fantasy stories!
This is definitely a bias of mine, but it really seems to me that some of the most well-though-out fantasy storyworlds are in the MG books/series and the MG-to-YA crossovers. One of the kids I know said it's because "kids believe more stuff and don't need a lot of convincing."

2. The awesomeness of Rite-of-Passage
I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely love watching characters grow and mature.
I like being able to see them grow up as the greater, overarching story goes along.
A lot of times in Young Adult, the series timeline doesn't last longer than a year, or a few years at the most. Characters who begin as teenagers are usually still teens (though perhaps older) at the story's conclusion. What's cool about a series like Harry Potter is being able to see the main characters grow up.

3. Cute love stories
If love stories are even part of the overall plot (and in a lot of MG series, they are not), they seem to be much sweeter: boy seems nicer to girl, girl seems nicer to boy, there's less likely to be elements such as love triangles (though this may loose some, I love it!). I really think a lot of the dialogue is better: my two favorite literary couples of all time happen to be from MG/MG-YA crossover series: Percy & Annabeth (Percy Jackson series) and Taran & Eilonwy (Chronicles of Prydain). There's also less of an overall focus on the love story part of the plot, and a bigger focus on ACTION!

4. BOYS!
A librarian once told me that in elementary and middle school, boys (overall) read more than girls, but by high school, girls read more than boys. The majority of true "YA" novels are either narrated by a girl, or have a girl as the main character. As a girl, I kind of like this, but I also love that younger boys have an incredible amount of options available to them: Septimus Heap, Artemis Fowl, Percy Jackson, Greg the "Wimpy Kid," Harry Potter, Eragon, Thomas (Wardstone Chronicles), Josh Newman (Secrets of Nicolas Flamel), etc.

5. "Seed Books"
Many, if not most, of modern books targeted at the "middle grade" audience can be enjoyed and devoured by older readers. And I definitely believe that there are more quality books out there being written and targeted specifically at young readers than when I was a kid.
I know that for me, my love of reading really took root when I was in the "middle-grade" age.
And I continued into the more teen-oriented branch of Young Adult Fiction (which I never outgrew). So I thank you, middle-grade novels and MG-YA crossovers, for being the "seed" books that really get kids invested in reading. Those teens (and older) who read YA, I'm willing to bet, started out with you!


*MG/YA Crossover is my own vocabulary term for books that fall, I'd say, into both genres - "middle grade" because technically the characters may begin in that age group (11-13) - but gradually get over and become teens as the series progresses. The Harry Potter and Percy Jackson series are the examples that immediately come to mind.

6 Weeks Till BEA - WHO'S GOING??

Hey all!
I calculate about 6 weeks until Book Expo America 2011!!!And I am super pumped because, if all goes well and there aren't any hiccups, I'll be in New York to attend. It was my family's graduation gift to me, and I seriously cannot wait! Like I said, unless anything unexpected happens, I'm planning on being there.

Is anybody else going to BEA this year? Has anybody been before? If so, do share your experiences!! Is there any bit of advice that you'd like to pass on?This is apparently what it looks like!!

I Love You Too, 3rd Person Narrative

Did you know that third-person narration is the most common narrative mode in literature?

As someone who mostly reads MG & YA literature, I found that surprising. It's my observation that a lot (maybe not 'most,' but a lot) of YA books these days are written in first person. And we like that. First persons have "authentic" voices, they make the characters seem more real, and they're more interesting than third-person narratives. Supposedly.

Third-persons, on the other hand, can be limiting. I've seen a lot of reviews where the chief reason for not liking a book is because the story was told in a 3rd person narrative. And that's fine, if that's your prerogative. I guess I don't need a book to be told in 1st person only in order to relate to the characters, or in order for them to seem real to me. It's kind of a bummer when I see this narrative mode dismissed for not being as cool-sounding or authentic as first-person. And as someone whose MS is written in third-person format, I'd hate to think that my story may be passed aside because my "character's voice" isn't strong enough or authentic-sounding. But that's a writing point. As a reader, I have to say that I usually love third-person narratives and am a little "iffy" on 1st persons.
A first-person narrative can be amazing and add a whole new dimension to a story, if the reader likes the narrator's voice. My favorite narrative voice to this day is Percy Jackson of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. On the other hand, the deciding factor between loving a book and...not exactly loving, has often been the voice of narrators not quite so endearing, like my personal experience with Katniss from the Hunger Games series (especially Mockingjay), Lily from Forgive My Fins, Bella from the Twilight series, and (though I liked the book as a whole), Ari from Darkness Becomes Her. In all of these cases, I got a little *too much* character attitude that, perhaps, a third-person style would have quelled. This is all my opinion.

So what is the real purpose of this random, meandering post? To declare my love and admiration for this popular and classic storytelling mode, and to offer up some of my favorite/well-known examples of effective, non-limiting books (that still managed to have three-dimensional characters!)

The Artemis Fowl series - Eoin Colfer
The Books of Bayern - Shannon Hale
The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis*
The Chronicles of Prydain - Lloyd Alexander*
The Great Tree of Avalon series - T.A. Barron
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
Holes - Louis Sachar
The Hollow Kingdom - Clare Dunkle
The Keys to the Kingdom series - Garth Nix
The Looking Glass Wars trilogy - Frank Beddor
The Mortal Instruments series - Cassandra Clare
The Redwall series - Brian Jacques
Sabriel - Garth Nix
The Septimus Heap series - Angie Sage
The Theatre Iluminata trilogy - Lisa Mantchev
Uglies - Scott Westerfeld
The Wondrous Strange trilogy - Lesley Livingston**
A very recent debut,
Nevermore - Kelly Creagh
And lest we forget,
The Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling

I tend to think, light-heartedly of course, that if third-person narratives were a good enough storytelling mode for J.K. Rowling to use, they're good enough for any future writer! Or reader.
So live on, third-person, whether limited or omniscient. There's just something enticing about your style.
Your fan,
Amelia :D

Progress Report: MATCHED

I started Matched about two months ago, and as of right now I just hit page 100.
I think I'm going to have to put this one back on my shelf and come back to it after a little while.
It's a bummer that I can't seem to concentrate on it, but in all honesty it hasn't really been holding my interest, and I've had to read about 10 or so pages at a time, every once in awhile. I don't want to get really specific, just because this isn't technically a review and I don't want to say anything "official" sounding without having finished the book first.

I will try and get back to it in the summer time, after I've read through the books I have to review and all the upcoming sequels that are about to be released!

What did you guys think of Matched? Yay or nay?
And has there ever been a book you've had to put down and revist later?

Review - THE YEAR WE WERE FAMOUS

The Year We Were Famous - Carole Estby Dagg
Genre: YA Historical Fiction
# of pages: 243 (ARC)
Published by Clarion, Harcourt
Releases TODAY!

With their family home facing foreclosure, seventeen-year-old Clara Estby and her mother, Helga, need to raise a lot of money fast—no easy feat for two women in 1896. Helga wants to tackle the problem with her usual loud and flashy style, while Clara favors a less showy approach. Together they come up with a plan to walk the 4,600 miles from Mica Creek, Washington, to New York City—and if they can do it in only seven months, a publisher has agreed to give them $10,000. Based on the true story of the author’s great-aunt and great-grandmother, this is a fast-paced historical adventure that sets the drama of Around the World in Eighty Days against an American backdrop during the time of the suffragist movement, the 1896 presidential campaign, and the changing perception of “a woman’s place” in society.

Fabulous YA historical fiction! The Year We Were Famous has a lot to offer readers - fun, original story (that just so happens to be a *true story*), thoroughly interesting characters, and highly intriguing chunks of American history and geography. The story is based on the real-life experiences of the author's great-grandmother and great-aunt, who, in 1896, trekked clear across the country (Washington state to NYC) by themselves. The book is set against the backdrop of the American suffragette movement and the famous Bryan-McKinley presidential campaigns.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I began this story - I knew it was a historical fiction, but I wasn't sure how much history would play a part in the story. The further I got into the story, the more riveting it became! I admit to having a Google Images browser up for every place the characters mentioned. I seriously cannot imagine walking over lava fields in Idaho, crossing the Snake River, or braving through blizzards, much less doing it in the late 19th century, with no hotel reservations or ATM machines or, you know, Mapquest. Clara was an especially endearing character to follow, and her mom will charm and entertain you with her wit and determination, though I did find her a little strong and kind of overwhelming, and she seemed almost out-of-place, out-of-setting with her "New Woman" speeches. But still, both characters were well-rounded, and their interactions were entertaining and heart-felt.
I do wish the story could have been a little longer. I know it's not feasible to give each day/location out of their seven-month excursion its own chapter, but Estby Dagg has such a knack for bringing not only history but rich American places to life, I was left feeling full but still wanting more! The passages dealing with the Suffrage movement were thoroughly interesting, and I especially liked them because they reminded me of what I learned in my American West class last year - for example, that women were way more successful getting the vote in western states and territories than in the more "civilized" east, and that Wyoming was the first to grant women the right to vote (Utah had given them the vote, but that was edited out of their constitution when they were admitted to statehood, as a matter of fact).

If you consider yourself even a slight fan of Historical Fiction, or if you just like to keep up with the newest, coolest YA releases, you'll not want to miss The Year We Were Famous!

Final Rating

Check out my interview with the author!
Click here to view the trailer!