Short and Simple Printz Reviews: Dig, Skellig, & Damsel

This is a place for books that I didn't fully review.

Maybe I listed my likes and dislikes, had a little short paragraph, or a few sentences to convey my feelings on the book, but whatever the "review" is, all of them are short and simple. (hence the clever name)

Today I have some short reviews for Printz award winners (including honor books)! I have made it a goal of mine to read every Printz award winner. The main reason why I decided to do this is because the Printz award is for literary excellence in YA literature, which I am familiar with, but it also pushes me a little bit out of my comfort zone to books I would not normally pick up. 

So far I have read 48 Printz books. These three books are some of the ones I've read recently.

The Shoveler, the Freak, CanIHelpYou?, Loretta the Flea-Circus Ring Mistress, and First-Class Malcolm. These are the five teenagers lost in the Hemmings family's maze of tangled secrets. Only a generation removed from being simple Pennsylvania potato farmers, Gottfried and Marla Hemmings managed to trade digging spuds for developing subdivisions and now sit atop a seven-figure bank account, wealth they've declined to pass on to their adult children or their teenage grand children.

"Because we want them to thrive," Marla always says.

What does thriving look like? Like carrying a snow shovel everywhere. Like selling pot at the Arby's drive-thru window. Like a first class ticket to Jamaica between cancer treatments. Like a flea-circus in a doublewide. Like the GPS coordinates to a mound of dirt in a New Jersey forest.

As the rot just beneath the surface of the Hemmings precious white suburban respectability begins to spread, the far flung grand children gradually find their ways back to each other, just in time to uncover the terrible cost of maintaining the family name.

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Review

I have mixed feelings for this book. It took me a while to even get into this book. We follow multiple characters, some of which without names, and we only see bits and pieces of their lives. I was confused and I just couldn't fully get into the writing. Once I got into the book, I did start to appreciate the writing style. I loved how each character had their own distinct voice, I loved the different imagery throughout, and I loved the weirdness. I was just waiting for everything to come together and when it did I was slightly disappointed. I think it came down to the ending being a little too preachy. There are literal capital letters spelling things out for us and for a book full of interesting symbols to spell things out instead of simply hinting, it just read oddly.

I hereby give this book

3 Stars

Meaning: I liked it

Ten-year-old Michael was looking forward to moving into a new house. But now his baby sister is ill, his parents are frantic, and Doctor Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless. Then he steps into the crumbling garage. . . . What is this thing beneath the spiders' webs and dead flies? A human being, or a strange kind of beast never before seen? The only person Michael can confide in is his new friend, Mina. Together, they carry the creature out into the light, and Michael's world changes forever. . . 

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Review

I mostly read this one audio, although I finished this by ebook. I liked that the audiobook was narrated by the author, although I sometimes felt lost because he does have a thick accent (at least to me). The writing was beautiful and I loved the touches of magical realism. Not much seemed to happen in the story at times, which is one of the reasons why I couldn't rate this a full four stars. Even now, as I am writing this review, I cannot recall much of the story and it's only been two months since I've read the book. Still, I can see why this book was nominated for the Printz Award (unlike other books *cough* Why We Broke Up *cough*). The book itself was also highly creative and different from many other books I've read. There is a sort of prequel, My Name is Mina, but I don't think I will be reading that one. Though the author has written another book on the Printz list, so I will be reading more from him.

I hereby give this book

3.5 Stars

Meaning: It was almost amazing, but not quite

The rite has existed for as long as anyone can remember: when the prince-who-will-be-king comes of age, he must venture out into the gray lands, slay a fierce dragon, and rescue a damsel to be his bride. This is the way things have always been.

When Ama wakes in the arms of Prince Emory, however, she knows none of this. She has no memory of what came before she was captured by the dragon, or what horrors she has faced in its lair. She knows only this handsome prince, the story he tells of her rescue, and her destiny to sit on the throne beside him. Ama comes with Emory back to the kingdom of Harding, hailed as the new princess, welcomed to the court.

However, as soon as her first night falls, she begins to realize that not all is as it seems, that there is more to the legends of the dragons and the damsels than anyone knows–and that the greatest threats to her life may not be behind her, but here, in front of her.

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Review

I have conflicting feelings towards this book. It really belongs in the "I don't know what to think of this" category.
This book has an interesting plot, but I guessed a major plot-point within the first chapter [highlight to view spoiler]that the girls are dragons [end of spoiler], but that was never resolved until the second to last page. So, I spent so much of the book just waiting for the reveal. This book doesn't pull punches and discusses a lot of difficult subjects, within a fantasy setting. I think this was a different way to talk about these subjects, but I felt like I was forcing myself to read this book. To put it lightly, this is not a fun book, and I knew that going in.
The ending was a bit of a let-down. The climax is the second to last page, so there is really no falling action. It is just a REALLY HUGE MOMENT WITH LOTS OF REVEALS then its THE END.
Overall, I do think this book has an interesting premise. The writing was fantastic and there were many well-written scenes, but there were also scenes that pulled me out of the book and I often felt like the book was going nowhere.

I hereby give this book

??? 

Meaning: I'm not sure how to rate this one

REVIEW: Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

I'm telling you why we broke up, Ed. I'm writing it in this letter, the whole truth of why it happened.

Min Green and Ed Slaterton are breaking up, so Min is writing Ed a letter and giving him a box. Inside the box is why they broke up. Two bottle caps, a movie ticket, a folded note, a box of matches, a protractor, books, a toy truck, a pair of ugly earrings, a comb from a motel room, and every other item collected over the course of a giddy, intimate, heartbreaking relationship. Item after item is illustrated and accounted for, and then the box, like a girlfriend, will be dumped.

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MY THOUGHTS
I'm trying to make my way through the Printz award list so I decided to pick this book up. I've read mixed reviews on the books and it seems that most people either love it or hate it. I, for one, found it to be very disappointing.

Min and Ed were together, were being the keyword here. Fed up, Min writes a letter to Ed, detailing their relationship, and boxes up all of the items that remind her of their relationship. She'll drop the box on Ed's doorstep, and then she will be done.

This book seems more for people who are somewhat nostalgic for high school relationships rather than actual teenagers. I mainly get that from the praise on the book which is entirely just comments from authors about their own high school relationships, or reviews that claim this book "will remind you of your own heartbreak". I've never been in a relationship and never want to, so that aspect of the book completely disinterested me. The relationship in this book just annoyed me. I couldn't understand why Min was in this relationship in the first place. Yes, they're teenagers so logic isn't always there when it comes to relationships, but it just felt like a superficial relationship from the get-go. The conversations between Ed and Min just felt awkward rather than sweet or just fun.

The book is supposedly written like a letter from Min to Ed, but it never felt like a letter. It's in 2nd person, but we are supposed to believe that Min wrote over 300 pages on the way to Ed's house? And just happened to include dialogue as well? It just wasn't believable as a letter, which is disappointing because I was excited about that aspect. I thought the book was going to be a mix of files, a bunch of letters from their relationship bound together (Maybe I thought it was going to be like the Illuminae files but contemporary), but no that wasn't what it was. There were illustrations of objects from the relationship and the illustrations were great, but it did not add much to the story.

I switched between reading this in hardcover and listening to it on audio. I actually preferred the audio to the hardcover. It was much more theatrical at times and it also made the dialogue more interesting. The dialogue on page barely had any tags so it grew confusing when there were long conversations.

As far as characters, I did not like any of them. Ed is just not a great guy. He kind of fell under a lot of stereotypes, like the jock that is too obsessed with sports to care about anything else. We aren't really supposed to like Ed because this is a break-up letter and of course we are hearing Min's side, not Ed's. But I would've expected that he would have at least been likable in the beginning, but no. He's shown as a jerk. He makes a lot of homophobic comments. Everything that came out of his mouth was just cringy. I couldn't see why Min even liked him in the first place. I guess he was supposedly attractive? But his personality sure wasn't.

As for Min, we are supposed to like Min. We are supposed to feel sorry for her. But she really just annoyed me. I get that she's a teen, so she's bound to have flaws, but my biggest issue with her is that she claims that she has grown when she hasn't. She is "not like other girls" and that is clear from her attitude. She constantly gets called "different" and "arty" from people. She constantly references movies that no one else has heard of and she's a little quirky. Throughout the book, it was clear that she felt superior to her other classmates because she's not like them. She doesn't like sports and she doesn't like parties. Oh boy, isn't she different?! We do find out that she hates being called different because she feels average. She doesn't feel like she is anything more than a girl that likes movies BUT when she has this realization, she still puts others down. She still claims she's not like her classmates.

“And the truth is that I'm not, Ed, is what I wanted to tell you. I'm not arty like everyone says who doesn't know me, I don't paint, I can't draw, I play no instrument, I can't sing. I'm not in plays, I wanted to say, I don't write poems. I can't dance except tipsy at dances. I'm not athletic, I'm not a goth or a cheerleader, I'm not treasurer or co-captain. I'm not gay and out and proud, I'm not that kid from Sri Lanka, not a triplet, a prep, a drunk, a genius, a hippie, a Christian, a slut, not even one of those super-Jewish girls with a yarmulke gang wishing everyone a happy Sukkoth. I'm not anything, this is what I realized ... I like movies, everyone knows I do -- I love them -- but I will never be in charge of one because my ideas are stupid and wrong in my head. There's nothing different about that, nothing fascinating, interesting, worth looking at.”

Even though she claims she's not different and tells us her own self-doubts, she still groups everyone together based on their interests when she is telling us how much she hates being categorized! There's also the fact that the language she uses puts down others, like calling someone a slut. And the way she voices this is almost like she thinks that none of these people have any problems! Do you not think that the "gay and out and proud" teen has any self-doubts too, Min? All of these people have their own struggles and they shouldn't be categorized either! By the end of the book, it still felt like Min saw herself as better than her classmates.

IN CONCLUSION
Overall, this was a very disappointing read. The characters were just unlikeable and I just didn't care about anyone. I don't see why this is a Printz honor book. The only thing interesting was the artwork, but even the narrative style didn't work. Maybe the judges were just nostalgic for their own heartbreak. At Scorpio Races got a Printz Honor the same year. Now that book deserves it.

I hereby give this book

2 Stars

Meaning: It was okay

REVIEW: The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi

In epic YA fantasy about a girl with a special power to communicate with magical beasts and the warring kingdom only she can save.

Elin's family has an important responsibility: caring for the fearsome water serpents that form the core of their kingdom's army. So when some of the beasts mysteriously die, Elin's mother is sentenced to death as punishment. With her last breath she manages to send her daughter to safety.

Alone, far from home, Elin soon discovers that she can talk to both the terrifying water serpents and the majestic flying beasts that guard her queen. This skill gives her great powers, but it also involves her in deadly plots that could cost her life. Can she save herself and prevent her beloved beasts from being used as tools of war? Or is there no way of escaping the terrible battles to come? 

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MY THOUGHTS

I'm trying to read all of the Printz books so when this book was awarded a Printz Honor, I picked it up. I liked the book and think it has some fairly interesting fantasy elements, but it did have trouble keeping my attention.

Elin's mother has the enormous responsibility of caring for the Toda, serpent beasts that make up their kingdom's army. When some Toda die in her mother's care, her mother is sentenced to death. Elin is desperate to save her, but her mother ends up saving Elin instead and Elin is swept away, alone. Through the years, Elin gains a new family in an older man and becomes curious about the animals in the kingdom and learning how to communicate with them. She grows close with the animals, but she learns that there may be a reason why people are not supposed to communicate with the beasts.

This is a very different fantasy book than I am used to reading. I loved that it is a Japanese inspired fantasy that was originally published in Japan. I loved the focus on the animals of the world. The book showcases the politics of this fantasy world, but it mainly focuses on how the animals are used in the politics and the relationship between human and beast. Elin takes care of animals differently than others and is able to form a strong bond. I honestly loved seeing her interact with the Royal Beasts (large, flying creatures that can be extraordinarily dangerous). It was one of my favorite parts of the book.

There was some info-dumping in the book and I did occasionally get lost. I was confused by the relationships between different sectors/kingdoms. I wasn't sure if the groups fighting belonged to different countries or just different parts of the same country. I found myself wishing there was a map. The narrative style is also very distant. It's in third-person narration and while it mostly follows Elin, it does jump between other characters from time to time (oftentimes without scene breaks). The book also takes place in a ten-year time span. It starts when Elin is ten and ends when she is around twenty. This made some awkward time jumps and made the pacing feel odd.

Though the book did remind me of classic YA fantasy books. The narrative style reminded more a little of Alanna and other YA fantasy books from that time period. The book also had no romance which I absolutely loved! Instead, we get the fantastic relationship between Elin and the Royal Beasts (again, I loved the animal focus). Elin is also a very smart and resourceful girl. She was hard to relate to at times, but overall she was a great MC. The further along in the book I got though the more distant I felt from Elin.

I have seen complaints in the reviews about the story Elin keeps telling others. Elin is told of a tragedy that befell her kingdom the last time people thought they could communicate with the beasts. While Elin has good intentions, others don't, and she repeats this story multiple times throughout the book. The problem is that we don't hear the story until the very very end of the book. I understand why that was, likely to add some suspense, but it made me feel like I missed something.

IN CONCLUSION

Overall, I liked this book. I thought it was a very different fantasy and I loved the focus on animals. Unfortunately, I felt distanced from the characters in the book and the pacing was slow. This made me not enjoy it as much. The book has an open ending, but there will be more published in English. Though I don't think I will continue the series. While I liked this book, I don't feel that immediacy for book two and I just feel like I don't need to know what will happen next.

I hereby give this book

3 Stars

Meaning: I liked it

Short and Simple Printz Reviews: The Poet X, Long Way Down, and Charles & Emma

This is a place for books that I didn't fully review.

Maybe I listed my likes and dislikes, had a little short paragraph, or a few sentences to convey my feelings on the book, but whatever the "review" is, all of them are short and simple. (hence the clever name)

Today I have some short reviews for Printz award winners (including honor books)! I have made it a goal of mine to read every Printz award winner. The main reason why I decided to do this is because the Printz award is for literary excellence in YA literature, which I am familiar with, but it also pushes me a little bit out of my comfort zone to books I would not normally pick up. 

So far I have read 41/94 books. These three books are some of the ones I've read so far this year.

A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. Debut novel of renowned slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.

So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

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Review

When I first saw this book, it did not pique my interest. I'm not sure why, I think I was wary about reading a book in verse talking about poetry. I don't normally read poetry or books in verse. Then I started seeing raving reviews and it got multiple awards, including the Printz award (which I am currently making my way through). So, I decided to pick this book up and I am glad I did. 

This was such a beautiful book. Even in verse, I could clearly hear this story and even more so feel what Xiomara was thinking and feeling. It made me really understand what she as going through and the questions she was asking. Even more so it made me understand how suffocated she felt in her own home. This was such a powerful book and I found that I couldn't put it down. I will definitely read more from Elizabeth Acevedo in the future. I already have With the Fire on High on my to-read list. 

I hereby give this book

5 Stars

Meaning: A new favorite

An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is New York Times bestseller Jason Reynolds’s fiercely stunning novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother.
A cannon. A strap.
A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE
Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.
And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if WILL gets off that elevator.
Told in short, fierce staccato narrative verse, Long Way Down is a fast and furious, dazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violence, as could only be told by Jason Reynolds.   

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Review

So far this year I've rated two new-to-me books 5 stars and both have been in verse, which is surprising because I don't usually read books in verse, but this was such a fantastic book. I listened to it on audio as well which only made it feel so much more impactful. It is so easy to gloss over words when you're reading them at a fast speed, but having the story read to you the way the author intended it to be read (because the audio is narrated by the author himself) was especially impactful.

The book is about a young man, Will, whose brother has been shot. Will intends to take his brother's gun and shoot the person he believes killed his brother. The entirety of this book takes place within sixty seconds as Will rides an elevator down to the lobby of his building. The entire premise is a unique way to discuss such a hard topic and show the reader how much a person can go through in such a short length of time. 

This is a fairly quick read. The audiobook was only about an hour and a half and it included a short discussion with the author which also said a lot about why he wrote this book. I strongly recommend this book. This is a book that deserves the awards it has been given and it is certainly one that will stay in my memory for a while. This is the first book I have read by Jason Reynolds, but I will definitely pick up more books written by him in the future. 

I hereby give this book

5 Stars

Meaning: A new favorite

Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, his revolutionary tract on evolution and the fundamental ideas involved, in 1859. Nearly 150 years later, the theory of evolution continues to create tension between the scientific and religious communities. Challenges about teaching the theory of evolution in schools occur annually all over the country. This same debate raged within Darwin himself, and played an important part in his marriage: his wife, Emma, was quite religious, and her faith gave Charles a lot to think about as he worked on a theory that continues to spark intense debates.

Deborah Heiligman's new biography of Charles Darwin is a thought-provoking account of the man behind evolutionary theory: how his personal life affected his work and vice versa. The end result is an engaging exploration of history, science, and religion for young readers.

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Review

This book was really out of my comfort zone. I don't really read biographies, but I challenged myself to read all of the Printz award winners and this book came recommended by my YA lit teacher a while back. I had to change the way I typically read books because I found when reading this book that I need to take more breaks than when reading fiction. Even though I kind of slugged my way through this book, I ended up finding it interesting. The book focuses a lot more on the Darwins themselves rather than focusing on just Charles Darwin and his research. It was a more personal side to his story and it included the rest of his family in the story. While the book did discuss what he did in terms of science and research, it mainly discussed the normality to what he was doing and showed the reader how his research fit into his family life, rather than the other way around. Overall, it was an interesting read, although I can't say whether I enjoyed it.

I hereby give this book

??? 

Meaning: I'm not sure how to rate this one