The Journal of Curious Letters

by James Dashner

One of the things that most drew me to this book was actually the acknowledgement at the beginning. The author writes how he always thought that was a stupid part of a book and why should he give a "flying patooty" what it says. The whole 2 pages of the acknowledgment was laugh-out-loud funny, and I thought that if the intro could be that funny that I had to see what the actual book was like.

The Journal of Curious Letters in the first entry in the series titled, The 13th Reality. There were a few funny moments throughout, but mostly the book took on a more serious/mysterious tone. The first part of the book is consumed by the mystery of the letters and solving of riddles. The second part focuses on a battle soon to take place.

Atticus Higginbottom is a 13-year-old science nerd who starts receiving mysterious letters in the mail. These letters ask him to perform a certain task on a certain date in a certain place. In order to figure out the correct task/date/place Atticus (Tick for short) must solve a series of riddles. I enjoyed reading and solving the riddles along with Tick. In fact, I read this book slower that I usually do because I had to stop at each riddle and try to figure it out before I got to the part where Tick figures it out!

After Tick solves the riddles and the fateful day arrives the story completely shifts. Tick learns that he lives in "Reality Prime" and that there are alternate realities that exist apart from his own. In some Realities the people are exceptionally advanced in technology. In other, the human race is abnormally tall. In yet another, humans have grown to be short and round. Now Tick and the other kids who solved the puzzles must work together to save the Realities from being destroyed.

The larger section of the book is devoted to the solving of the riddles. And while it takes nearly 6 months in book time for Tick and the others to solve the riddles, and the final battle takes place over a time of only 3 days, it still felt that too much of the book was dedicated to the riddles and not enough to the "action."

I also found the other kids to be terribly annoying! Tick becomes friend with Sofia and Paul while solving the riddles. Sofia is a sarcastic know-it-all, and Paul is a ridiculous surfer-dude. Paul was such a flat character and I found myself wondering why anyone liked Sofia. She needed to be taken down a few pegs in my opinion. I found myself thinking of Hermione, from the Harry Potter books, who is a bit of a know-it-all as well. The difference is that Hermione has a heart and acts likes she really cares about people when it counts. I don't think Sofia cared about anyone but herself.

On the plus side, in this book our main character actually turns to his dad for help. It's so common in kids' books to find the kids doing everything on their own, either because the adults wouldn't believe in the magic, or that they're just plain stupid. In this book Tick goes to his dad for help and his dad actually helps him. They trust each other, with was a nice element to the book as a whole.

Still not sure if I'm interested enough to read the next book, but there were definitely some good things about it. I didn't hate it, but there were some parts I wasn't crazy about.

The Girl Who Could Fly

by Victoria Forester

I have to admit I'm not sure if I would have paid much attention to this book if I'd just seen it on the shelf. The cover and title just seem to hint at a rather simple story. Not sure why I thought that, but I did. However, this book was recommended by Stephenie Meyer (author of the Twilight series) on her website. The last book Ms. Meyer recommended on her site was The Hunger Games which I absolutely adored and for which I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel. Meyer described this book as "the oddest/sweetest mix of Little House oh the Prairie and X-Men." I found this to be a very true description of the book, although I also was reminded of Harry Potter and The Golden Compass at certain parts as well.

This is a particularly difficult book to describe without giving away the entire plot, but I will say that it is equal parts joy and sadness - filled with people who you're never sure if you should trust or if they are about to turn around and betray everyone. At only 328 pages I found myself wishing it was longer, so the individual characters could be more fleshed-out. I also felt like I had to remind myself frequently that the main characters were supposed to be young - the oldest being 11. Seemed to me liked they behaved in a way that was much older than that a lot of the time. I had a hard time not picturing them as 15- and 16-year olds. I actual think it would be interesting if the author did a sequel to this book when the charcters were that age.

Dandelion Fire

by N. D. Wilson

After much waiting (okay, so it was only 5 days after the release date, but for book-freaks like myself that is a long time to wait to be in possession of a book you want!) I was able to purchase and start reading the second book in the 100 Cupboards series, which I started reading last month.

I just love the cover of these books! And I wish you could see the back of it in this picture! The raggant has got to be the cutest thing ever!

Dandelion Fire (which, by the way, has got to be one of the coolest book titles over!) is a delightful addition to the story begun in 100 Cupboards. Dandelion Fire is faster paced, and seems to me to have a stronger edge of magic to it. One of the things I loved so much about 100 Cupboards was the way the book resolved enough, but left you with this great teaser of an ending that left you with chills and the rampant desire to read more! Dandelion Fire, while filled with action and twists and turns lacked this little element. The ending felt very neatly resolved. However, upon closer reflection I began to mentally list things that were in fact, left unresolved (spoilers contained):

- What happens to Nimiane? Is she dead? Wounded? Will she come back (oh, she better! She's such a delightful villain!)

- The Willis house is not back in Kansas. It's still in the alternate world. Will they find a way to bring it back to Kansas?

- The cupboards! Even without the arrow, the cupboards are still functional (at least we know some of them are) - N.D. Wilson gives us a story with 100 cupboards and we have only learned the destination or purpose of like 6 of them! Surely there must be more stories contained in the other 94!

- What about Henry's family? We only barely met his mom, dad, and sisters. Still have yet to learn more about the brothers.

- What about Henry's adoptive parents? Won't they be looking for them? And isn't the town of Henry going to wonder what happened to the family and the house?

- Now that Magdalene has the arrow back, can she use it to restore FitzFaeren?

- Oh yes, and what about the couple in Byzanthamum (can't remember their names right this second) who saved Henry? Will we hear more from them?

So yes, there is much yet to be explored! On N.D. Wilson's site I see a book listed with the title, "Chestnut King" - another brilliant title I must say - I'm hoping that this will be the next book in the series, and not the last either!

Dandelions are magic!

Ironhand

by Charlie Fletcher

Let's see...Ironhand is the sequel to Stoneheart. It was a lot more intense and darker than first book. In this edition, our three main characters, the Gunner, George and Edie all get separated and most of the book is spent jumping from one character's story to another's. Usually though this isn't confusing since the author makes it clear who's talking each time. It is frustrating though when the chapter ends with one character in some sort of peril and you have to wait 3 to 4 more chapters to find out what happens! That's a good kind of frustrating though - means you're interested.

The final book in this trilogy come out in April and is called Silvertongue.

Stoneheart

by Charlie Fletcher

Another one of Dani's and my spot-it-on-the-bookstore-shelves find, Stoneheart is the story of George, a boy who, in an angry moment, broke the head off a statue outside a museum in London. In doing so he slips into an alternate London, and un-London where the statues come to life. And many of these statues are bent on his destruction. George finds help in some unlikely places. Together they run all over the city trying to find a way for George to make amends for his act of anger. The problem is, George holds no fondness for his old life, while his love for his new friends grow. If George makes amends, will he lose them forever? If he doesn't, how can he hope to escape from the murderous statues who will continue to hunt him down?

I really enjoyed this book (the start of a series). It was unlike anything I've read before. At the end of the book the author states that all the statues in the story are real - they actually exist in the city of London. It makes me really want to see them in person! Then ending teases at more mysteries yet to come which will undoubtedly be explored in the next book, Ironhand. I'm eager for more!

The Midnight Twins

by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Don't have a lot to say about this book. I never really was sure where it was going - it felt very aimless to me. I had a hard time keeping the main characters apart - twins names Mallory (Mally) and Meredith (Merry). I still can hardly remember which is which, who did what, and if it actually matters. The evil character seemed very cardboard - simply evil for no reason whatsoever. I want the evil characters to have a past or trait that makes them act the way they do. This one was just all of a sudden a "bad guy" - in fact, a very twisted character with absolutely no explanation as to what his story was. Also, the girls are supposed to be 13 in this story, but read more like 16-year-olds to me. I found myself confused a lot. This is supposed to be the beginning to a new series (trilogy I believe) but it wasn't fun or intriguing enough to make me interested in the sequels.

100 Cupboards

by N. D. Wilson

This is one of those rare books that within the first 5 pages I just KNEW it was going to be good.

I'm not even sure how to explain this book! 100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson starts out seeming like a fairly straight-forward fantasy where a young boy uncovers a slew of magical cupboards in his bedroom that lead to other worlds. The first half of the book is taken up by character introductions and development as well as painting the backdrop in which the story takes place. While I would normally consider this to be too large of a portion of the book to be devoted to this before fully diving into the story, the wonderful word pictures Wilson creates never make you feel disappointed. For example, at one point the main character Henry is remembering a prank he played on his cousins' cat as a child: "Suddenly the memory appeared vividly in the foreground of his mind and danced an emphatic jig."

Another particularly lovely passage is this: " The wind scratched its back along the side of the barn. The stars swung slowly across the roof of this world, and the grass swayed and grew, content to be the world's carpet but still desiring to be taller."

These sections along with others give this book a richness that you don't always find in books targeted at children.

But back to the story - eventually the events surrounding the cupboards start to unfold and you soon realize that there is a lot more to this story than first meets the eye. There is a complexity to the workings of the portals, there is a history that stretches back into the distant past that is hinted at, but not yet fully explored, and there is an ancient evil that threatens to destroy not only Henry, but his family and friends as well. Even Henry, and in fact his Aunt and Uncle are not exactly what they seem.

This book sets itself up perfectly for a sequel while not giving a terrible cliff-hanger ending like some series are prone to do. It has a resolution of sorts, although I cannot imagine quitting there! I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment - due out on February 24th!