Unwritten: The Wound

The Unwritten, Vol. 7: The Wound Mike Carey and Peter Gross

We start with the Tinker and Pauly-Rabbit hanging out in a wasteland, encountering streams of fictional refugees, streaming from The Wave.

Then we switch to a detective in Australia, who partners up with Danny--the reader from the last issue in Tommy Taylor and the War of Words--to infiltrate the Tommy Taylor cult. Tom and Richie then go hide out and deal with some very real ghosts in Tom’s past.

This is a good “must set up next plot point” volume, but nothing spectacular. EXCEPT that it introduces us to Danny and Didge (the detective), and they are awesome and great additions. (Also, let’s give a shout to Didge, who’s Aboriginal and dyslexic. Turns out dyslexia is a pretty great defense against Pullman’s freaky fiction hand! Also, she’s generally awesome and literally kicks a lot of ass.)

Book Provided by... my local library

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Artemis the Brave

Artemis the Brave (Goddess Girls) Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

Artemis has never understood her boy-crazy friends (especially Aphrodite) but when she meets Orion, a new exchange student at school, watch out! Suddenly she's ditching her friends and even forgetting archery practice with Apollo just to follow Orion around. The problem is, Orion's an egotistical jerk. Artemis is sick of having to defend him to her friends, and her friends are sick of having to listen to her go on and on about how great he is. But... even when Artemis realizes that Orion does stuff wrong, she can't help like him.

While this is the longest of the Goddess Girl series so far, it ties in the least with actual mythology. In this version, Orion (last name, Starr) is a mortal actor who does things like spray his body with something called "God Bod" to make him shimmer like his immortal classmates. He's not a hunter by any means, nor does he do anything heroic. The closest we come is that the fact he has a dog named Sirius. In another odd mythological quirk, the school play is the story of Eros and Psyche. With Aphrodite playing Psyche. While there is much mention of the "vengeful goddess" who causes all the harm, it never states that the goddess is supposed to be Aphrodite herself, because well, that wouldn't make sense in the context of the Mount Olympus Academy world. Also, let's just mention this-- BOY CRAZY ARTEMIS. What? Artemis?

While the mythology is thin in this one (and, with the school play, strained, and with Artemis chasing boys, laughable) it's still a good addition to the series, and it's a series I've been enjoying quite a bit. It's light and fun, showing good friendships with light romance. It's a good one for early middle grade and I'm very much looking forward to April's release of Athena the Wise and August's release of Aphrodite the Diva.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Series, banned, and work-related...

Last week, I read the very cute Kate Klise books Regarding the FountainRegarding the Sink : Where, Oh Where, Did Waters GoRegarding the Trees : A Splintered Saga Rooted in Secrets

These are children's books, at about a 9-12 year old reading level. They're silly and filled with puns and told entirely in correspondance. In the first one, the principal needs a new drinking fountain and hires someone who designs huge decorative fountains. Misunderstandings ensue and the kids get involved with the planning and it's all silly fun with such characters as Sam N., Wally Russ, Minnie O., Lily, Gil and Tad Pole. (And when the kids in Sam N's class form a band and call themselves the Tune-a-Combo... becoming Sam N.'s Tune-a-Combo...) Hee Hee Hee.

The second two are all along the same lines and are fun and interesting. My only complaint is that in the second one, they make great use of the Chinese province of Sinkiang, assuming it's pronounced Sink-king, even though occasionally they bring up that it is also spelt Xinjiang. And really, it's pronounced Shin-Jee-Ang... ai ya.

Then, the YA librarian knows my love of British Teen Chick-Lit, especially of Angelica Cookson Potts, and when we finally got Cherry Whytock's latest, My Saucy Stuffed Ravioli : The Life of Angelica Cookson Pottsshe handed it straight off to me!!!

This time Angel and friends and family are off to holiday in Italy. Hot guys! Romantic complications! and Oh! The food! More of the same, but ever so much fun! Plus, two nights ago I made the recipie for Spicy Meatballs, and it was super-tasty!
And wow, I used a lot of exclamation points in that review!

I also decided I just couldn't wait and got Narinder Dhami's Bhangra Babes

Also for 9-12 year olds, this is the third installment in the Bindi Babes series, in which Amber, Jazz, and Geena Dhillon get into all sorts of mad Indo-British adventures. Basically, Auntie finally got engaged and is moving out, a new girl and guy start school and are causing havoc and Amber has a hair-brained scheme to solve all their problems. Not only are these fun girly books without being over the top moral OR super girly, but I'm a sucker for fiction that explores the meaning of what it means to be British and/or addresses the post-colonial immigrant experience. And I love that these books do that without intentionally setting out to "Address the post-colonial immigrant experience"...

And finally, I read What My Mother Doesn't Knowby Sonya Sones.

This was one of the ALA's most frequently banned books in 2005, and I'm not entirely sure why...

For some reason, I missed the memo that Sones's books are written in poetry. This collection of poems traces Sophie's relationship with Dylan... and Chazz... and Robin... and explores the teenage emotions that come with being a freshman in looooove. Well written, a good way to get kids to read poetry, I still don't understand why this book was banned (unless it was the poem about her breasts seemingly growing over night, which is about as explicit as that got). I highly recommend and am looking forward to reading her other books!