Tag: Adventure

City Spies

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City Spies (March 2020)
by James Ponti

Sara Martinez has been in and out of foster homes her whole life.  But when she hacks the computer network for the juvenile justice system to prove her current “caretakers” are guilty of breaking the law and taking cruel advantage of the system, she catches the attention of a man named Mother.  He recruits her for his team of young secret agents based in Scotland.  There, Sara (now “Brooklyn”) meets her team – Sydney, Paris, Kat, and Rio.  She’s got a very short amount of time to prepare for her first very large mission.  The team will be attending an international youth summit in Paris, trying to protect lives, rig the contest, and solve the mystery of what’s really going on.

This book is like Mysterious Benedict Society meets Alias.  I don’t even remember how it ended up on my library list, but I’m so very grateful it did.  It’s definitely one that grabs you and keeps you reading past bedtime.  I am SOooo excited to see this is a trilogy, and I have the next one sitting on the library hold shelf with my name on it.  Here’s the thing–I’m a genuine wuss about books and movies that involve tense situations, death, murder, and all those things that usually come along with suspenseful, exciting stories like this.  I loved this book, because even though there were some of those elements, they didn’t overwhelm the plot.  It was like the action was there without the ucky parts getting in the way, if that makes sense.  But, I think it would also satisfy those readers who don’t shy away from things the same way I do.  Anyway, definitely a must-read.  If you want to get lost in a book or you have a reluctant reader, read this!

(Some very interesting plot points considering the timing of its release too…)

 

Update:

Read City Spies: Golden Gate (book 2) and it was also great!  Now patiently awaiting the release of Book 3….

Rump

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Rump (2013) by Liesl Shurtliff

Rumpelstiltskin had never been a fairy tale I’d paid much attention to, but in my 20s I read a hilarious books of six short stories by Vivian van Velde called The Rumpelstilskin Problem.  I adapted it into a short play for the class I was teaching at the time, and so this tale has been on my radar ever since.  Rump was published in 2013, but I only just found it.  I think I read two chapters the first night, and then the second night I stayed up waaaay too late so I could finish the whole thing.

In this story of Rumpelstiltskin, ‘Rump’ is an extremely sympathetic character, given only half a name and seemingly trapped by circumstances and fate.  But as Rump finally comes into his inner power at the end of the story, we see the strength and courage he has in creating his own destiny.

I was surprised that the author was able to incorporate all the elements of the well-known tale in ways that flowed with the story.  There are so many bizarre elements to Rumpelstiltskin, so Shurtliff’s cleverness in getting these to connect with Rump were truly impressive.  The book was a page-turner, for sure, and such a pleasure to read.  But it actually wasn’t until the Afterword by the author that I cried.  Names have been on my mind these past years, and her words really touched me.

I’m so eager to read the other three books in this fairy tale series!

Ogre Enchanted

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Ogre Enchanted (2018)
by Gail Carson Levine

Ogre Enchanted tells the story of Evie, a young healer who refuses an unexpected marriage proposal from her best friend.  A meddlesome fairy present at the time of the proposal doesn’t like such disappointments and casts a spell on Evie that turns her into an ogre.  Now Evie has 62 days to secure (and accept) another proposal before she stays an ogre forever.  Through her interactions with giants, ogres, dragons, and humans, Evie fights for her survival and battles between her healer instincts to help and her ogre instincts to harm, as she looks for a true love who can see past her hairy and smelly exterior.

20 years after Ella Enchanted, Ms. Levine has given readers a spirited, page-turning companion book.  Ogre Enchanted‘s story takes place a couple years before the original book, and its epilogue leaves off just months before Ella’s birth.  Fans of Ella will enjoy the references and connections between the two books, although, as these were obviously not written as a set, some forgiveness in details must be present.  (I read one reviewer who was quite upset that Ella Enchanted had left out details that couldn’t have been written before its prequel was penned.)  Ogre Enchanted is definitely for an older audience than Ella Enchanted, with some rather violent bits.  Ms. Levine says her story was inspired by the Portuguese tale of “The False Prince and the True,” although many reviews also compare this book to “Beauty and the Beast.”

After my second read of this book, I really enjoyed doing a re-read of Ella Enchanted and found fun details and connections.  Perhaps they weren’t all intended ones (such as the healer in Char’s group of knights possibly being Evie’s son…?), but I had fun searching, nonetheless.

The Goose Girl

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The Goose Girl (2003)
by Shannon Hale

I love Shannon Hale‘s books.  My first book of hers was The Princess Academy, and I remember the lovely way I felt after reading it and seeing there was this other Shannon Hale book out there called The Goose Girl.  And, for some reason, I resisted looking into it right away.  Unfamiliar with the fairy tale it’s based on, my mind started making up stories about what the book was about before even cracking the cover.  The Goose Girl is an incredible book (of course) and (lucky for the reader) the first of a series of four!

The Goose Girl is based on the Grimm’s fairy tale of the same title.  Doing my best to sum up the novel here– Anidori is a princess in Kildenree, but is arranged to marry a prince from a neighboring kingdom to avoid war.  On her three-month journey to Bayern, she is accompanied by many guards and her lady-in-waiting, Selia.  As they near Bayern, things start to shift.  Selia begins acting strange and a good majority of the soldiers seem to break off into Selia’s “group,” while a small number remain loyal to Princess Ani.  Selia’s plan is to show up in Bayern as the princess, instead of as the lady-in-waiting, since nobody there will know otherwise.  There is a mutiny in the forest, and Ani makes a close escape.  She spends months working as a goose girl in Bayern while she tries to figure out how to convince the king of the truth and stop an impending war based on false information from the false princess.

There is everything in this book–adventure, danger, humor, friendship, romance, courage, and so much more.  It definitely has some “darker” parts, so I’d be cautious of recommending it to too young a reader, but if you or your reader is ready for it, I can’t recommend The Goose Girl highly enough.  This last read of it was a re-read for me, and I could not stop turning pages.  I’m so excited to re-visit the rest of the Bayern books!

Princess in Black series

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Princess in Black series
by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale

Princess Magnolia is prim and proper and everything a typical princess should be.  But she has a secret.  You see, Princess Magnolia is also the fearless Princess in Black who saves goats from the very hungry monsters of Monsterland.  There are six books in the series so far.  With each new book, Princess in Black is gradually joined by other masked heroes who help her in her quest.  The books are technically chapter books, but they are quick reads and so much fun.  They’ve got clever humor, cute stories, a fun rhythm, and a wonderful blend of princesses and masked heroes.

I tried introducing these books a few years ago, and while our daughter did enjoy the first one, it wasn’t until she was five and a half or so that she really became a Princess in Black enthusiast.  For awhile there, we read these books WAY too many times to count each day and evening.  We are eagerly awaiting Book Seven!