Earth Abides

A virus suddenly kills off most of the human population. Isherwood Williams is a young scientist who manages to survive, but now he must attempt to rebuild civilization with the few people who made it through the Great Disaster alive. This is a big, sweeping book spanning many years, basically Ish's lifetime. It addresses some of the fundamental aspects of humanity and human society. How would we rebuild our world if we could start from scratch? Ish is a very sympathetic character, the only human left with any real sense of intelligence and foresight. His struggles with nature and his fellow survivors are both dramatic and believable. The book was written in 1949, so sometimes the writing style is a little hokey and old-fashioned, but this is a landmark book. What's great is that I had never even heard of it until someone clued me in after reading my other post-apocalyptic entries on this blog!

Slam

Sam is a fifteen year-old skateboarding slacker from England who finally sees his life falling into place. Unfortunately, one mistake with his new girlfriend Alicia and his life starts falling apart. Who can Sam turn to for help? Tony Hawk, apparently. On the one hand, this book is funny and insightful. On the other hand, it took me a long time to finish and I wasn't buying Sam's supernatural relationship with Tony Hawk. Hornby has had great success as an adult author (High Fidelity, About a Boy) and his strength is in nailing the voice of his protagonists. You really get to know Sam, and for a clueless fifteen year-old kid, Sam sure knows how to describe some complicated human emotions. He also nails the every-day stuff, kind of like Jerry Seinfeld used to do. It's a light-hearted book about a serious subject, and I think it will help some young men out there.

They Came From Below

Emily and her friend Reece are looking forward to finally meeting some cool guys this summer at Cape Cod. They do, but Steve and Dave aren't normal guys. They live on the bottom of the ocean and know how to communicate with every living thing on earth. This book is a nice mix of genres: teen comedy/romance, action/adventure, science fiction/fantasy, and all of it wrapped around a good environmental theme. In my opinion, the theme alone makes it worth reading: humans are messing up the oceans and something must be done about it. There's a great sequence where Emily gets to experience firsthand how connected all life on earth is. While Nelson makes some very deep and insightful observations about the state of the planet and the universe in general, I think he tries a little too hard to catch the authentic voice of teenage girls, overdoing it a bit. And though the fast-paced plot kept me turning the pages, I found the ending a little predictable and vague.

Criss Cross

Debbie and her friends do some growing up in a small town during the summer. Boring! I think everything I needed to get from the book could have been compressed into a short story or one of Hector's songs. Hector is a friend of Debbie's just learning to play the guitar. He and Debbie and the other characters are realizing that they aren't little kids anymore, but the absence of any real plot made me more frustrated than interested. There are many scenes and passages which serve no discernible purpose. The only things saving the story from total failure are a few good observations about adolescence and some cool illustrations by the author, Lynne Rae Perkins. The sense of nostalgia and fleeting innocence reminds me of Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury. Maybe this is that book for girls, and maybe that's why I didn't get it.

Mister B. Gone

THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR KIDS! There are some gruesome and violent scenes. Jakabok Botch is a demon trapped within the book you are reading. He wants you to burn the book, and he will try many methods to get you to do this. He will scare you with threats and seduce you with rewards. He is a sneaky little devil. Jakabok is an interesting character, both sympathetic and despicable. The way that he constantly addresses you, the reader, is completely original and very scary. He gets inside your head. Rarely have I so looked forward to the ending of a book, in this case to see if Clive Barker could pull off the promise of the premise. Does he succeed? Almost. For kids who want to read something by Clive Barker, I recommend Abarat.

Twilight

Isabella Swam moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona to rainy Forks, Washington, where she falls in love with a dashing vampire named Edward. Though warned by Edward that falling in love with a vampire is risky business, Isabella willingly enters a world more fantastic and dangerous than she ever could have imagined. Everyone seems to be talking about this book and series lately, though maybe that's because it's set in the Northwest and that's where I live. On that level, Stephanie Meyer has done a fine job capturing our gloomy winter weather, lush forests, and rugged beaches. Her vampires and the lifestyles they lead are realistic and original, not to mention likeable and enviable. I think the book could be shorter. In going for a big, moody, gothic novel, Meyer occasionally lost my attention and interest. Many of the characters and events from the first half of the book barely mean anything in the second half, and though the story's intensity did pick up nicely at the end, a little too much was left for the sequels, which I doubt I'll ever read.

The Kite Rider

Haoyou and his family face hard times in 12th century China, and his gambling great-uncle Bo isn't helping matters. Through his love of kites, Haoyou and his cousin Mipeng end up joining a travelling circus where Haoyou becomes the star attraction, soaring through the sky on his homemade kite and performing for the great Kublai Khan. Everything works well in this book. It's a cool historical setting, both familiar and foreign to the modern reader. The characters, with the exception of two slightly overdone antagonists, are believable and likeable. The plot has more twists and turns than you might expect, and the concept of kite flight is pretty catchy - it makes me want to get up the guts to try hang-gliding! I also liked how McCaughrean interwove the ancient Chinese beliefs in ancestor spirits with Haoyou and Mipeng's more modern reasoning abilities.