Road Out of Winter by Alison Stine

 

Reviewed by Kristin

After a long cold winter, what if spring never came? As March, April, May, and even June rolled around, what if the sky stayed overcast and the sun shone dimly? What if this continued and became known as the year with no summer, but people held out hope for the next year? With such a poor growing season, shortages would become obvious, food would become scarce, and people would start to go hungry. And what would happen when the next year nothing changed?

Wylodine (Wil) is living alone on her family farm in southern Ohio. Her mother and stepfather Lobo decided to head to California to see if any better conditions exist. Lobo was always known in their small town for his ability to grow weed. Wil has the green thumb required too, even though she would rather that Lobo left them long ago. Like it or not, Wil is known as the girl who can make things grow.

Wil’s best friend is Lisbeth, and she is all caught up in The Church. Lisbeth’s parents have brought her up to believe, and now that the summers are not returning, the religious fervor of The Church has created a cult-like following. The Church decides they must leave Ohio to find a new promised land, one with sun and hope and strict obedience to the leaders.

Wil tries to keep going—she really does. But as the days and nights get colder and colder, she decides to attempt the trip to California to find her mother. She has an address, and a tiny house that she can haul with her truck. Wil sets out, picking up strays along the way. They hit many obstacles, some figurative and some literal, but Wil and her little entourage keep moving.

The tone of the novel could be called bleak, but there is something about Wil which keeps hope alive. She is brutally honest, refusing to loot convenience stores or to steal fuel from abandoned gas stations. She and her little group take what they need, but she always leaves cash in exchange. Wil hopes that she will see her mother again, and maintains a protective attitude about those who need protecting. She knows that they will keep moving until they reach California, or until they find a good place to be, a right time to give up the increasingly difficult travel across a landscape frozen into place. Wil may have at least temporarily lost contact with her mother, but she builds a family with her traveling companions.

Alison Stine books are hard to recommend enthusiastically because they are full of characters going through extreme hardships and they don’t always (or ever?) end up with a bright, happy ending. I read and reviewed Trashlands a couple of months ago. While these are both hard books to talk up, I find Stine’s take on the world to be both contemplative and well worth reading.

Cross My Path by Clea Simon

 Reviewed by Jeanne

In a bleak, dystopian world, a young woman and her black cat seek to eke out a living by, as the girl puts it, “I find things. Do the needful. Locate that which is lost.  Right the wrongs, the ones I can.” It’s the mantra of her mentor, an old man who disappeared some time ago.  This time, the girl Care and the cat Blackie are approached by a man who is looking for his companion, who may have been pressed into a dangerous service, and by a woman who seeks a token left for her by Care’s mentor.  She claims he was her brother, though Care never recalled him mentioning a sister.

Blackie, our narrator, views the situation with unease. He’s a cat, but has vague memories of once being a man. Now he experiences the world through a cat’s heightened senses but that advantage is muted because of the things he’s lost: he can no longer read the papers Care pores over, for example, nor can he communicate his concerns. As far as Care knows, Blackie is an ordinary cat. He can’t tell her that he feels there’s something wrong in these new cases that she has taken on, and that he and his beloved Care may be falling into a trap.

This is the third in the Blackie and Care Feline Mystery series and presents a bit of a problem. As a reader, I found the book to be especially significant as there are some intriguing revelations about Blackie’s past; as a reviewer, I am leery of giving away anything that would lessen another reader’s enjoyment.  I think this book could be read and appreciated by someone who hadn’t read any other books in the series but those who have read the first two will find this entry to be very gratifying indeed.

There is a slight shift in tone for me. Care has been pretty much isolated from close and lasting human relationships in the previous books except for the boy she calls Tick whom she considers a younger brother and struggles to protect. There are a few other acquaintances who show up but there are no strong connections.  This time there are more points of contact, more possible friends and allies, which gave the story a more hopeful feel. Blackie is less sure that these people are to be trusted, but Care seems willing to take a leap of faith.

Also, Care has gone from being a small, insignificant waif – one street urchin of many—to a resourceful young woman whose investigations are bringing her into conflict with the larger social machine, one with a vested interest in keeping the population hooked on the addictive drug scat and willing to do anything to earn coin. Care isn’t out to bring down this remote, dark authority, but she is determined to save those she can from being trampled to death.

While each book has its own mysteries from start to finish, it’s obvious in this entry that Simon has a larger story arc going on, one more epic in scope. It’s possible that there is a specific ending in mind already, but let us hope that is far in the future.

Mockingjay: Book and Film

 Reviewed by Meygan 

Spoiler Warning!  This review assumes you have read or seen The Hunger Games and Catching Fire.

In Mockingjay, the third book in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games series, Katniss Everdeen, better known as the Girl on Fire, has destroyed the games. Never again will she or anyone else have to compete in the terrifying, horrific games created by President Snow. However, Katniss is not in the clear. Peeta, Joanna, and Annie are being held hostage by the Capital. Meanwhile, Snow uses Peeta to deliver televised messages, knowing that Katniss will be watching and plotting.  In the messages, Peeta urges Katniss not to start a revolution and says that war doesn’t help anything. Katniss is confused by Peeta’s requests. How can he ask her not to fight after everything they have been through? Katniss is asked by Plutarch and Madame President to be the Mockingjay, the living symbol of the rebellion. At first, Katniss is reluctant because she feels like she can’t. However, Katniss is motivated to take down the Capital, but nothing comes before saving Peeta. 

Mockingjay was my least favorite book in the series. The Hunger Games was fantastic, Catching Fire was pretty good, and Mockingjay was meh. I thought the beginning chapters were a snooze and I wasn’t “hooked” into finishing the book until I was halfway through the story. I liked the ending though. I wasn’t enthralled, but I certainly wasn’t displeased. One good thing is that the love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale is finally resolved! 

When it comes to books into movies, one question that comes up frequently is, “Will I understand the movie if I have not read the book?” The answer in this case is no, you do not have to have read the book first. However, I do recommend reading the books for gaining a better perspective of the characters and descriptions. 

As for the movie, Mockingjay Part 1 has received mixed reviews. The movie had a very, very slow beginning but this was to be expected since the book took a while to get to the action. I was hoping that the movie would pick up the pace and bring the action to us sooner.  I remember asking how much time was left of the movie because if anything exciting was going to happen then there wasn’t much time for it. However, the ending was fantastic. I think the movie ended in a great place for fans to pick up next year when Mockingjay Part 2 is released. The movie actually did a good job of staying on track with the book. As far as I can remember, nothing major was left out and nothing new was added.  Jennifer Lawrence did a superb job of playing Katniss, and everyone else was on top of it.

Since this movie only covers the first half of the book, movie goers will have to wait a whole year before the franchise releases Mockingjay Part 2. Personally, I would have rather Mockingjay been one movie instead of two movies divided. I could have easily picked out 30-45 minutes in Mockingjay Part 1 to cut out. That way, more action could have been provided and all the director had to do was tack on another hour and voila! The whole movie is complete. But no, my wish wasn’t granted and because of that I will have to wait another year to see the good part of Mockingjay.  

Pam Neal's Book Talk: Divergent

Interview by Kristin

Pam Neal is our young adult librarian extraordinaire.  Pam is known for her ability to match people, especially teens, to books.  This is the first of several blogs devoted to the popular world of young adult literature.  For the uninitiated, here’s a quick blurb on Divergent:

The world has changed.  After a catastrophic war, the surviving leaders made a decision to restructure society.  All individuals were placed into factions, societal groups which put their talents to the best use.  The Abnegation are the Selfless—they live a plain lifestyle and are also trusted to govern the entire society.  The Erudite are the Intelligent—those who seek knowledge to support the betterment of the world.  The Candor are the Honest—seeing everything in black and white, seeking openness to promote a perfect society.  The Amity are the Peaceful—working together and farming to feed the population.  The Dauntless are the Brave—the protectors of the city.  In this society all 16 year olds are given an aptitude test on a certain day of the year, and then choose their faction in a ceremony the next day.  Most stay with the faction they were born into, but some feel the call of another group.  There is a training period for all initiates and they must pass through the challenges before they are full-fledged members of their faction.  If they fail, they live factionless on the outskirts of society, a fate almost worse than death.

Abnegation-born Beatrice (Tris) is 16 years old, and it’s time for her choice of a lifetime.

Kristin:  Thank you for talking to me about Divergent.  I know Divergent is such a popular book right now and that your teen group has really liked it.

Pam:  All of my teen groups have read it.  From tweens all the way up.  That’s why when I took the kids to the movie, there were 59 of them.

Kristin:  You are a brave woman.

Pam:  Well I had other parents!  It’s good to make the comparisons between the books and the movies.  And when you take kids to the movies that have read these books, they’re going to let you know if they don’t like something.

Kristin:  What makes this one special and why is it worth reading?

Pam:  I liked it and I think my kids liked it because it’s dystopian and in this world in the future you have to live in these factions.  You have to live within that faction and you cannot go outside of that realm, or you become “Divergent”.  Divergents threaten the system because they don’t want you have to have a mind of your own.  The faction aspect made this one a lot different.  Now there was some violence, but not nearly what you had in some of the others.  So I think the concept of the factions kind of set it apart.  Of course all these  future dystopians are so negative.  I mean, it’s a negative world!

Kristin:  It seems like founders of the society were trying to set it up as a utopia, but obviously it didn’t work.

Pam:  Right, and so it’s everything just negative, negative, negative in their world.  And I liked the relationships between the kids.

Kristin:  How do you think that your teens related to the “faction before blood” thing?  Is that part of striking out and finding their own identities?

Pam:  I think they had a hard time with the factions at first.  Before all of them read the books, we took the faction quiz to see what faction they would be in.  I gave that to every one of my kids, and of course most of them would find out that they’re not clear cut in a faction, that they are divergent.  When the factions start unraveling, I think they kind of expected that.  But the concept was interesting to them because I don’t think they’d ever thought of that before.  I’d never thought of that before, “Hmmm, let’s put us into a category.”  Because I’ve never fallen into a category!  So I thought the categories were interesting.  Abnegation the selfless, Erudite the intelligent, Dauntless the brave-- Dauntless really caught their attention-- then Amity, the peaceful, which is, if you look at it, the hippies of the sixties.  And Candor, everything’s black or white.  I like the way that in the movie they dressed everybody according to their faction.

Kristin:  And that was described in the book.

Pam:  I liked the way they did that.  I thought it was neat and the kids thought it was too.

Kristin:  So obviously we don’t want to give too much away, but Beatrice, or Tris, and her brother Caleb were both born into Abnegation, and it’s pretty obvious early on that Tris is drawn to Dauntless.

Pam:  It’s really funny when kids read the books—I’m older, but I was never drawn to Dauntless.  There would be no way I would be Dauntless, absolutely none.  Watching some of these kids read it, I would see which way they were drawn to certain things.  Of course I know they painted Dauntless (so that readers would) to be drawn to Dauntless.  I was never drawn to Dauntless, but Tris is, and her brother is drawn to Erudite.  I thought it was interesting how the parents came from different factions too.  I think Four is a very interesting character.

Kristin:  And of course he’s very attractive, in print and in the movie.

Pam:  Yes, I thought the two of them together did an excellent job.

Kristin:  Once you know a little bit more about where he came from, it makes sense that they’d have that attraction to each other.

Kristin:  Will the teens read the rest of the trilogy, Insurgent and Allegiant, in book club?

Pam:  We’ll go to the movies, but this series takes a big turn.  Insurgent—very popular.  Allegiant—very controversial, especially for a young adult series.  I thought Insurgent took Divergent to another level and I enjoyed it.  Then you hit Allegiant which really hits the controversial level.  I liked Divergent better than The Hunger Games because I liked Tris’ character.  I liked Divergent also because it just keeps moving.  Mainly though, I like Tris and Four.

Kristin:  So the characters?

Pam:  I thought it was very character driven.  I was a little bit disappointed in the movie because they didn’t develop the other characters as well.  They left out Uriah, who was one of my favorite characters.  But he’ll have to be in the second movie.  I think Veronica Roth hits Tris’s growing stage.  Tris grows from this little girl, very cowardly in a way, to what she wants to be and I think she does a very good job at that.

Kristin:  Right, because she’s really been groomed to be selfless and only allowed to look in the mirror once every six months. I liked that they carried that over to the movie.

Pam:  I do too.  I liked Katniss in the Hunger Games, but Katniss, to me, she was always right there, always fearless.

Kristin:  She was more of a born leader and was already going out there to provide for her family so it wasn’t as much of a change.

Pam:  But for Tris there was a huge change.  And I think that the kids like that.  I think it’s one of the very few books that I’ve done with all the groups.  It never ceases to amaze me: 43, 44 years I’ve been a librarian with teenagers, boy if they don’t like something, they don’t like it, and they tell you.

Kristin:  It’s good that you’ve got them talking to you.  What other series would you recommend?

Pam:  The Giver by Lois Lowry.  The Giver set the stage for a lot of these dystopians.  It won the Newbery prize.  I did The Giver with kids, and I did A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle because that sets the stage for a lot of these dystopians also.  See, the kids today don’t realize that The Hunger Games was not the first dystopian.  You had Brave New World and you had 1984.  You had quite a few.

Kristin:  It’s all new to them, it’s their generation.

Pam:  The movie I’m interested to see next is The Fault in our Stars by John Green.  Oh, I love that book.  So I’ve decided to alter my whole summer to have a John Green summer.  Except for my tweens—they want to do Neal Shusterman’s Unwind.  Unwind is phenomenal.  And you talk about bringing up a lot of questions!  I just loved The Fault in our Stars.

Kristin:  That should be a good movie though.  I think the writing was very good.

Pam:  Being a librarian for as long as I have, that’s probably one of the best books I’ve read for kids.  I’m glad young adult literature is huge now.  It’s at its peak because lots of adults are reading it.

Kristin:  It is appealing because they tend to be shorter, and they get to the point faster.

Pam:  And they are building good characters that you can identify with.  So it’s really good.  Legend by Marie Lu is another series. The books are Legend, Prodigy, and Champion.  Those characters are good.  Another good one is The Maze Runner by James Dashner.  I did that with my tweens.  The Maze Runner is a modern day Lord of the Flies.  It is excellent—it’ll grab you.

Kristin:  Thank you for talking to me today—it’s always enjoyable to hear you talk about books.