Same Book, Different Era?

Last time, I wrote about a marvelous new book by Cassandra Clare called Clockwork Angel. Well, I found a better book by the same author: City of Bones, the first book of the Mortal Instruments trilogy.  Not only was this book better, but it was set in modern-day New York City instead of Victorian London.  With slight modifications of characters and relationships, the story is basically built on the same skeleton as the newer book.

Currently, I'm reading the second book of the Mortal Instrument trilogy, City of Ashes, which develops the theme from the first book.  I just hope that the sequel to Clockwork Angel isn't a re-telling of City of Ashes. Otherwise, I'll have to assume that we have an author of young adult books following in the footsteps of Danielle Steel: same basic story, different cities, different names, different occupations, but bottom line, the same plot.  Don't get me wrong--I must have read at least eight of Steel's books before I stopped.  The entire time I was hoping to see something novel, but no such luck.  For YAs, I suspect the better readers will spot the sameness right away, leaving an unread and forgotten book under the bed, gathering dust balls and essence of dirty clothes.  Or maybe not.

Let me tell you a bit about City of Bones. This book introduces the Nephilim, or Shadowhunters, that half human, half Angel warrior race that protects humankind (called mundanes by all other races) from invasion by the demon world.  Clary, the 15-year-old heroine, is in a teen night club with her best friend (but not boyfriend), Simon.  Out of the corner of her eye, she spots a beautiful girl disappear into a doorway marked "No Admittance."  After a few seconds, two young men whose handsomeness matches her beauty ease through the same door.  Clary decides to investigate, and comes face to face with her very first other-worldly creature, who is promptly dispatched by the trio she saw entering the room.  Interestingly, Clary should not have been able to see the trio or the monster, as they were using a glamor to hide from human eyes.

Clary returns to Simon, whom she had abandoned without explanation about her hasty exit.  Suddenly, she gets a frantic call from her mother to stay away from home--to go anywhere but home.  This, of course, makes Clary all the more anxious to get home and help her mother from whatever it was that brought an end to the call with her mother screaming.  Clary runs home to find a strange-looking monster in the apartment.  It had torn apart every room in the apartment except for her own bedroom.  Now it seems interested in having Clary for a snack.  It corners her and knocks her down.  She hears it talking: "Tasty."  Without knowing what she is doing, she manages to shove a cellphone-like device into the creature's mouth.  Clary had forgotten to return the device to its Nephilim owner, Jace, and now it seems to be getting hot in her pocket.  Maybe it will explode.  But no. The monster begins to choke instead.  Clary manages to get out from under its weight and runs from the house, not knowing where to go next.  She does not want to go to Simon's home, because the monster or others might follow her. She tries calling her mother's best friend, Luke, who often stays with her or has her stay with him if her mother is away for an art show.  Luke is not picking up.  Suddenly, Jace appears.  So the adventures begin.

In not too long, we discover that Jace and his partners, brother and sister pair Alec and Isabelle, came by because of a reported demon sighting.  After checking the apartment for more monsters, the three suggest that Clary spend the night at their home, a stone manor magically disguised as a church.  From there, the story is much the same as in Clockwork Angel, but with better monsters, a somewhat better "understory," and interesting twists of the screw.  Before long, the Shadowhunter teens and Clary discover that they are looking for a magic chalice which they must keep away from a middle-aged Nephilim-turned-evil, Valentine, whose main interest is to rule the world.

Needless to say, Clary and Jace have an attraction for each other.  Simon, Clary's best friend, is meanwhile trying to tell her that he is in love with her.  For a little while it seems that Isabelle is interested in Simon, and Clary is not sure how she feels about that.  While all this life is going on, the teens are racing to find the chalice before Valentine can find it.  And near the end of the book, surprising information comes out that not only affects the outcome of this book, but sets up a tension for the second book.  This is a well-engineered series so far.

I am almost finished with the second book of the Mortal Instruments trilogy, City of Ashes.  It, too, is a good read--even better than City of Bones, perhaps because the characters are developed further as the new quest is completed.

Happy reading!!

New YA SF/Fantasy novel: Clockwork Angel

Clockwork Angel. What a great young adult science fiction/fantasy novel! Another Bestseller for Cassandra Clare. I don't know where these wonderful YA novelists are coming from, but this is another one destined to become a household name.

Clockwork Angel is the beginning of a new series called The Infernal Devices-- Book 1 of ... another trilogy? A longer series? Two? No clue on the dust jacket, but maybe Cassandra Clare's website can give us more clues (cassandraclare.com). I just don't have the time to check it out this week, what with all the mandatory reading I'm doing because of teaching and taking classes myself. But I always make time to get fun reading in, and this book did not disappoint.

Clockwork Angel has everything--magic, vampires, warlocks, demons, goblins, and other Downworlders. And a race new to Goth and Fantasy readers--the Nephilim, who protect mankind from all the evil races of the world. There is our 15 or 16-year-old heroine, Tessa Gray, who is...something else again. As in The Twilight Saga and the Hunger Games Trilogy, Tessa is a strong female character who becomes torn between loving two young gentlemen, Will Herondale and Jem Carstairs--although Tess questions just how gentlemanly Will really is. And then there's her beloved brother, Nate, who had sent her the first-class steamship ticket to come to London after their aunt died in New York City home.

Within the first several pages of the prologue, we learn something about the clockwork angel, which Tessa wears as a pendant. It is the only token she has of her mother, who died, along with her father, when Tessa and Nate were very young. That was when Aunt Harriet became their guardian. Aunt had loved them and had worked day and night at sewing and other jobs to maintain their New York apartment. They had been poor, but they were happy. Despite their poverty, Aunt never tried to sell Tessa's clockwork angel. Aunt had been very kind-hearted, and so made do in other ways. When he was old enough, Nate left New York for London under the invitation of their father's old employer. Nate sent Aunt and Tessa all sorts of little luxuries like chocolates from London until Aunt Harriet had died. Then he sent Tessa the first-class steamship ticket that brought her from America to England.

The setting of Clockwork Angel is Victorian London, and all Victorian principles apply. Tessa is a displaced American and an orphan searching for her brother. She was abducted from the dock when her ship landed in England by Mrs. Dark and Mrs. Black. She managed to escape the clutches of the two warlock sisters who force-taught her about the magical abilities Tessa did not know she possessed--the ability to Change into a person by holding an article they owned. The warlocks also had been preparing her, it turned out, to become the Magister's wife. Tessa didn't know anything about the Magister--or of his clockwork automatons that the sisters discissed--and she did not want to be imprisoned long enough to find out. After the escape, in part with Will's intervention and Jem's, Tessa meets the Nephilim and the real adventures start. This, an early chapter of the novel, is when it became difficult for me to put down the book.

Even though Ms. Clare beautifully portrays Victorian London, at the end of Clockwork Angel she thoughtfully notes the real and the conjured in the book's Victorian London setting. This is a nice touch and a great enticement for her readers to look up maps of old London and uncover where the changes are. Her website, linked above, has videos, extras, and exclusives--all the things that teens thrive on--about Clockwork Angel and Ms. Clare's other teen books, according to the publisher. Talk about inducement to read...

There is one other aspect of Clockwork Angel that I want to note: It can be read by 'tweens and neo-teens who have good vocabulary, because there is no sex--plenty of violence and gore, but no sex. In a few places in the book, sex is alluded to as assignations or trysts, but it is not among the youth in the book. Rather, it is the Downworlders who mostly involve themselves in the most debauched of such events--and it is not described. As I said earlier, Victorian principles apply. Charlotte Bronte would have been proud.

How often does a novel come out that is aimed at teens, has just enough romance but no sex (very Jane Eyre), and is still a great read for adults?


Next on my reading list: The Mortal Instruments Trilogy, by Cassandra Clare. What can I tell you--trilogies seem to be my thing!! :)

The Hunger Games Trilogy Leave Me Hungry for More

In my last post, I raved about the first book in this trilogy, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. Well, over the past two days, I finished the other two books: Catching Fire, which came out in 2009, and the newest one that just came out, Mockingjay. The first two were on the New York Times Bestsellers List; and the final book, which has only been out for a week or so, is already on the list. It already made number 3 in the Los Angeles Times Bestsellers List

Normally, I don't read a book a day. I do have other things that occupy my time. But having the second and third book of the trilogy on hand turned out to be a good thing, as I don't think I could have waited a year for the next one to come out. The Hunger Games Trilogy is some of the best writing I've come across in a long time, no matter who the intended audience was. These books are amazing, with a strong yet conflicted and tragic heroine, lots of action peppered with introspection, self-doubt, fire, and strong moral fiber.

To say more about these books will give away too much of their content. I will say that the content of the first book caused both me and, according to the dust jacket, Stephanie Meyer (author of the Twilight Saga) to dine with the first book. I even warned my husband to bring reading material with him so I wouldn't have to keep the book under the table. By the second book, I just sequestered myself and left him to fend for himself. Last night, I hated the fact that I was exhausted and fell asleep in the middle of the action.

My enthusiasm for The Hunger Games Trilogy is pushing at me to tell all about the second and third books. The action is so tightly woven throughout the books that to tell a little results in an inadequate presentation of the content, and to tell just a little more results in sharing too much of the story. This trilogy is a must read for young adults and many freedom-loving not-so-young adults. Read these books and see what I mean. You will not be disappointed.

The Hunger Games

Only a few minutes ago, I finished reading The Hunger Games, the first book of a fairly new trilogy for young adults. I purchased the book because Time Magazine praised the book highly. Some of the commentary should have made me realize I was purchasing a book meant for teens, but it was not until I was almost one-quarter of the way into the action that the intended audience hit me--not because of wording or content, but because the major characters were mostly sixteen years old and younger.



Like Twilight, the first book of the Twilight Saga (the blasted subject of my last post), The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, is a book with a teen girl as the main protagonist. As does Bella in the Twilight Saga, Katniss finds herself in a strange triangle in which she loves one boy but believes she may be in love with another--she is not sure because...well, because she does not know where their strong friendship is going. This is where the similarity between the two books ends.

The Hunger Games is one of the best Science Fiction books for young adults that I have read in a long time. It is the first book of a trilogy, which I have not yet finished reading. In this first book, Katniss faces the challenges of day-to-day survival for herself and her family in a post-apocalyptic country, Panem, within the boundaries of current-day America. The country had been divided into thirteen districts around a central city that was the seat of government. Many years earlier, the districts rose up against the central government, but the Capitol had located itself in the center of the Rocky Mountains and was both well protected from attack and exceedingly well provisioned with raw materials from the districts. During the revolt, one of the districts had been completely annihilated, and the smoldering and uninhabitable land was left as a reminder to the remaining districts that the Capitol was not defeatable and would mercilessly squelch all rebellion.

As one of the strongest reminders of the districts' lowly places in the social order of Panem, an annual lottery is held in each district to select "tributes" to participate in the year's Hunger Games. The names of a boy and a girl between the ages of twelve and seventeen are randomly drawn in each district lottery to participate in the annual games. The same name may be entered multiple times if a young person wishes to earn extra food rations for his or her family. The games, mandatory televised watching throughout Panem, allow a single victor to emerge each year. The victor is the last survivor of the games.

In District 12, the poorest of them all and whose chief industry is coal mining, Katniss waits for the girl's name to be drawn. Her name appears many times in the lottery pool, as she has been the primary provider in her family since her father's death in a mining accident. She knows her chance of selection is good. The draw is made and the name announced: It is not Katniss' name, but that of her younger sister who became eligible for the lottery only this year. Katniss had forbidden Prim to sign up for extra rations; she wanted to minimize her young sister's chances of selection. Knowing Prim has no chance to survive the games, Katniss volunteers to take Prim's place, and the substitution is accepted by the monitors.

The story takes twists and turns, involves politics, greed, and shaky alliances among tributes, and tests the mettle of each participant. Katniss, mentored to form a bond with the boy from her district, finds herself genuinely caring for Peeta, and this complicates her own survival. Two traits dominate Katniss' emergence as a finalist: her illegally-practiced hunting prowess, and her moral fiber.

Half-way through the book, I found myself so involved with the characters that the book went out to dinner with me: I read while my dining partner was ignored. By the final chapters, I was barely aware of my surroundings. Young adult book? This book is for ALL adults, not just the young ones.

Out of the Twilight Zone

The incredible popularity of the books in the Twilight Series amazed me to no end. To me, the books were Harlequin Romances for teens and 'tweens. No great or enduring literature here. The premise that Vampires can be almost undifferentiated from humans is such a violation of all the rules of "vampirism" that the books are really about humans and very-long-lived humans. Aside from the longevity, the only difference between humans and this series' vampires is that most humans don't subsist on blood--human or animal. Vampires do not walk in daylight without a good explanation, as Anne Rice gave Lestat in her series--he had to trade blood with the mother of all vampires to begin to develop some immunity to the sun's effect. Vampires certainly may try to avoid human blood and attempt to subsist on that of other mammals, but even contemporary literature's strongest vampires were unable to resist the occasional human (hence, Tru Blood needed to be invented). In no other literary place will you find that fog cover keeps the sun's rays from destroying vampires. Scientifically, we all know that the sun's destructive rays make it through those clouds, albeit less strongly; but if humans can get badly sunburned on an overcast day, how can a vampire without the blood of the vampire queen survive a cloudy day unscathed?

Do I find any redeeming qualities in these books? Yes. The heroine is definitely a strong figure and, for the most part, a great role model for teenage girls who, for one reason or another, do not see college in their futures. Bella is assertive, forthright, virginal, conflicted--in short, everything most of us adults think of as the perfect teenage daughter, despite the fact that there is no such person.

Come to think about it, none of the characters in the book are normal. The teens and other characters are either perfectly good or perfectly evil. It is as if the rest of the world cannot be part of the saga of Bella and Edward. Interestingly, now that movies on some of the books are out, I've noticed that the book sales are declining. Realistically, as young girls enter their 'tweens, they should develop a sudden interest in the Twilight Series. But that does not seem to be happening. And why should it? As a teen, I watched the movie instead of reading the book as often as I could get away with it. It was a definite time-savings to spend two hours in front of the TV compared to the numerous evenings that a book took to read. So the decreasing sales must mean...that the books are not destined to be classics--cult classics, maybe; but not classics. The story lines are overall too trite, and the writing itself is, at best, mediocre.

The Twilight Series books are the type of books that, as either a mother or an educator, I would look upon as a passing fancy. I would neither encourage nor discourage the reading of the books. Reading is, after all, something we want our teens to do more. However, I would read and recommend the books selected by the panels of the committees for the Caldecott Medal Award, the John Newbery Medal Award, the Coretta Scott King Book Award, the Golden Duck Award, and award committees that honor children's literature. (See this link for more children's and YA book awards: http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/lit_resources/awards/nat_awards.html .) Even though the intended target of these books is children (and Young Adults), they can easily be enjoyed by adults as well. They have excellent plots and plot development, the conflicts are those that any of us can relate to, the questions are timeless, and the books roll around in our minds for a long time. These are the books that will endure and that should be considered classic. Some of them are tied very closely to the era in which they were written; some may take on a different meaning in a different era; one or two may have lost relevance. But it is easy to see why the books have staying power. They send powerful messages or ask powerful questions. The language in these books is of a higher level than that found in fad books. The plot development and conflicts are mature, addressing the very issues young people care about--personal self-image and development, social issues, interpersonal problems.

With relief, I watch the slow and steady decline of sales of the Twilight Series books. Now I can get back to reading young adult and children's books that have social value...

So much to read...

For weeks now, I've been trying to get back to the children's books from which I used to teach not only literature, but also behavior. Then there are the books I got for my grandchildren and nieces and nephews. So many books! So many activities! Where does one start? Clearly, I can use some help.

What would you like to see me write about? Do you have a favorite book for which you would like activities? Is there something you want to discuss with children, but feel like you need a conversation starter--like a book that can be used to introduce the idea? Is there an age group for which you would like book suggestions?

As an example of what I mean, I decided to read some books that my granddaughter asked for several years ago--the Junie B. Jones series. As is my usual method, I decided to start with the first book in the series. That meant the first book I read was Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. Before I go any further, I have to say that Barbara Park, the author, clearly has the ability to see things from the vantage point of a young child. Junie B. is everthing that our mothers love and all they try to socialize out of us: she is assertive, inquisitive, brave, resourceful, caring, sensitive, brash, loud, petulant, lovable--everything a young child can be and more. She's larger than life and familiar as our memories. In this book, it is the first day of school and Junie B. starts kindergarten, which is not what she expected. (Continued below.)




Older children can read this book to remind them of their first day of school--adventures and misadventures--and the excitement that went with it. It can be used with pre-schoolders to introduce the idea of classroom in a larger school building. It can be used purely to entertain children.

Almost each chapter suggests to me an activity that can help a child preparing for that first day of school. For a child having problems socializing with a particular individual, the book suggests ways to make friends or influence enemies. The chapters are short, and are readily discussable--both for funny events and for problematic situations. For example, the day before school starts, Junie B. visits the school to meet her teacher and see the classroom.  Junie B. chooses a red chair that she will sit in when she comes tomorrow. But the next day, Junie B. finds someone else sitting in the chair, and that girl has no intention of giving it up.  Junie B. backs down and looks for another seat. By then, Junie B. is stuck with a yellow chair that reminds her of the stupid smelly bus. Questions that naturally flow from this event are: Did Junie B. do the right thing in not pursuing an argument? Might the girl have given up the chair if Junie B. had acted differently? What else chould one do in a similar situation?

So, Dear Reader, what would you like to see? Please let me know!!