It's All About Perspective--Jumped Book Review

Three girls, three voices, three perspectives.

Dominique is an all-ball girl who's been benched because her grades are too low; she doesn't like anyone getting in her space and everyone knows not to mess with her. Trina is a peppy artist who loves to flaunt her stuff. All it takes is one word, "hey," to send Dominique over the edge. Leticia is stuck attending zero-hour classes to make up for the subjects she failed last term. She overhears Dominuqe's plan to jump Trina at the end of the day--only she questions whether she really understood what she overheard.

Sometimes, what you don't do has more of an impact than what you do. With very little interaction among them at first, Dominique, Leticia, and Trina's lives will change forever as their paths intersect. For these girls, intent is not everything.

Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia is a fast-paced, gripping novel told from the perspective of three distinct and realistic voices. Your eyes will be glued to the page as you read about how decisions, actions, and words can change a person's life.

The Hunger Games Movie

There's good news and there's bad news. The good news is, according to an article on Entertainment Weekly's website, Suzanne Collins has written the first draft to the screenplay for Hunger Games motion picture. I love the idea of the author writing the screenplay since she'll have a clearer idea of what can be edited and adjusted for the big screen. The bad news is, the movie won't be out until 2012, which seems so far away! For more info read the article here.

Girl in Translation Book Review

The Statue of Liberty, bright lights, and skyscrapers--these are quintessential landmarks of New York City. This is what 11-year-old ah-Kim (aka Kimberly) Chang is looking forward to when she and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to the U.S. Instead, she finds herself living in a broken down area of Brooklyn in a small apartment with no heat in the freezing winters and no air to cool them from the sweltering heat. The apartment also has many nightly visitors, such as giant roaches and rats. Despite her harsh living conditions, Kimberly has to balance school, which luckily, she has a great talent for, and helping her mother at the sweatshop in Chinatown. Faced with endless struggles, Kimberly continues to shape her own destiny and fights to create a better life for her and her mother.

Kwok’s debut coming-of-age novel about the life of a Chinese-American immigrant girl from adolescence to adulthood is engaging, thought-provoking, and heartwarming; it provides a glimpse into the lives and repressed hardships many immigrants faced, while expressing the universal struggle of holding onto your own identity while striving to fit in.

Rosebush Book Review

Someone tried to murder Jane. And it seems like they aren't going to stop until she is good and dead. In Michele Jaffe's pyschological thriller, Rosebush, popular girl Jane wakes up in a hospital bed paralyzed. Jane learns that she's been the victim of a vicious hit and run accident - only this was no accident. As Jane is layed up in bed, she begins to discover that it may have been one of her friends who tried to murder her. Is it her best friend Kate, beautiful and perfect but whose feelings for Jane may not be what they seem? Or is it Ollie, her boyfriend's best friend who has never hid his dislike for Jane and has been known to secretly video tape people? Or could it even be David, Jane's "perfect" boyfriend who was caught in a compromising position with another girl at a party on the night of the attack? Could it be her "secret admirer" who keeps sending creepy gifts to Jane? Or could this all just be Jane's heavily medicated mind playing tricks on her? As Jane's memories of the evening slowly come in to focus the suspense mounts and the killer just may be lurking in the shadows.

Nominate Your Favorite Steampunk Book

Steampunk is a fascinating subgenre that takes place (mostly, but not always) in the Victorian era. Yet, characters in this alternate time line have advanced technology, mostly made of steam. Steampunk is reflected in fiction and has also made its way into fashion. For anyone who enjoys Steampunk, visit this website to nominate your favorite Steampunk novel for "Steampunk.com's Best Book of 2010 Award." New to Steampunk? Not a problem! This website also provides great information about what it is, what some classic titles are, etc.

http://www.steampunk.com/pick-the-steampunk-book-of-the-year/

'The Person Just for Me'--Review of Girl Parts

Girl Parts by John Cusick begins with a young girl overdosing in front of her computer; the webcam has its eyes on her and hundreds of viewers are glued to their screens, watching her die. After being confronted for watching the suicide by his computer-tycoon father, seventeen-year-old David Sun is diagnosed with “dissociative disorder”… and he’s not the only one. What’s the cure? For David, the cure for his disorder is to pick out his perfect ‘companion’ from the well-known Japanese Company Sokora Solutions who specializes in creating custom made fem-bots to help males around the world.

Beautiful, red-headed Rose is everything David could ever want in a woman. Yet, David needs to learn to keep control, seeing as her intimacy clock is specifically designed to keep David in line and train him to form proper connections with females. This is done by sending him mild electric shocks to try and condition his behavior. And when the time finally does come for them to be completely intimate, David and Rose find out that despite Rose’s life-like looks and attitude, she’s still not a human girl. David and his lonely classmate Charlie both become emotionally involved with this unique girl, while Rose slowly learns what it’s like to truly be human.

From the very first page, to its disconcerting ending, Girl Parts addresses our growing reliance on technology and the importance of feeling connected to others. The book explores themes of humanity, artificial intelligence, and the role of the Internet in our lives. The concept is intriguing, combining science fiction with the real world. While it takes place in the present, technology is more advanced than it is today: students sit in front of computers all day for ‘school,’ and research in artificial intelligence is thriving. Though the story takes a while to build up and tends to drag in certain places, Girl Parts is a fun, quick read.

Fans of anime and manga will recognize these themes from numerous popular series, particularly Chobits, by Clamp. It was for Girl Parts’ striking resemblance to Chobits that I was attracted to this book. Artificial intelligence creatures desiring to be human and questioning their role in society is not a new concept, but Girl Parts does a good job at setting itself from the mainstream in an interesting and unique way.

The Replacement Book Review

Welcome to the town Gentry, where there is great fortune and prosperity, the direct result of an ancient pact made between two worlds. But deep down, there's a dark secret that no one will admit to: every seven years a human baby is taken as a sacrifice and replaced with a baby from the underworld. Most of the time the Changling dies, unloved by the family it tore apart--all except Macky Doyle. Macky just wanted to fit in; instead, his coloring is a little too pale, his eyes darker than normal, and he gets sick anytime he's overexposed to anything with iron in it. Macky wants to go on dates and kiss the girl of his dreams, even though she has a metal tongue ring that would poison him. He lives his life knowing it isn't his, knowing he isn't the real Macky Doyle, despite the ongoing love and support from his sister. But, when Macky's friend's sister gets Taken, he must return to where he came from and decide where his loyalties lie.

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff is a unique take on the popular topic of faeries in YA fiction. Yovanoff's engaging characters, beautiful language, and haunting tone alongside an eerie backdrop make her first novel a must read. For fans of Tim Burton, Irish and Norse mythology, faeries, horror, and unlikely heroes, this book is for you.