My new favorite author

I've been enjoying the Heralds of Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey for several years now. I've been picking them up at used book stores, the library, and online. I own about half the series now, and have read all but 3 of the books. I am completely enthralled with them. This may be the first time I've ever (well, since Harry Potter came out anyway) read through a series and then just started over again. And again. The Valdemar universe books are generally written as trilogies and occur at different times in their history. Chronologically, the first trilogy set in this universe takes place several thousand years before the rest of them begin, which I find very interesting. Not many authors take the time to go back and tell you the history of "where all this really began" and make it just as great as the rest of the series.

The title of this post though is that Lackey is becoming one of my all-time favorite authors, and that's because I've recently discovered how many other things she's written. I knew about the 500 Kingdoms series, but just yesterday saw a list of how many books she's written and realized that I have a lot of reading to do. Over the last 20 years, she's published over a hundred books. I would have a hard time publishing 1 book a year. I can't imagine writing 5 - much less have them turn out to be any good, and hers are amazing! I'm very impressed by that.

Okay, so about the 500 Kingdoms. These books are based on fairy tales, and are hilariously fun to read. The first book, "The Fairy Godmother" is a Cinderella story - only the prince in this kingdom is only 11 years old, so what's a girl to do? Well, clearly the only choice is to become the fairy godmother! "One Good Knight" is your classic rescue-the-princess-from-the-dragon story - but what if the knight turns out to be a girl? I will add a caution that there was one scene in "The Fairy Godmother" that I thought was unnecessary (though it wasn't explicit, and I've never read anything in Lackey's books that has been), but overall these are great books.

The other series I've just begun reading is "The Elemental Masters" which are also loosely based on fairy tales, though you may have to look hard to find them. I've only read one so far, "The Serpent's Shadow", and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was set in London in the early 1900's and weaved together several things that I appreciated. The heroine is half-Indian, her father having married an Indian while in the military, and is a doctor in a time when women were just beginning the suffrage movement - which also plays a role in the book. Obviously, it's fiction, but I enjoyed the way Lackey used those plot points to make the book seem that much more realistic.

So it's been awhile...

A long, long while. In December 2009 we found out we were expecting our second child, but I miscarried in January so I went on hiatus from blogging and somehow never made it back. However, I have been reading - though not from the library shelves so much. (Due to a miscommunication with my husband, the books I had checked out at the time didn't get back for...oh...several months and incurred a rather hefty fine. I've been a little embarrassed to go back, though we have helped them purchase several new books now.) A friend of mine introduced me to the library's online lending and I've become obsessed. The teen fiction category has almost 5500 books - quite a few more than our library can boast. I'll let you know how my progress through that monstrous stack of books goes, and in the meantime try to catch you up on what I've been reading over the last year.

Anderson, M.T.

Feed

Do not let your kids check out this book. I admit to not having read it entirely. Actually, I only read the first 3 paragraphs and found 3 curse words, one semi-curse word, and a reference to playing with electrical outlets for fun. I decided at that point to save my mind by not reading any more, and recommend you do the same.

Andersonn, Laurie Halse

A word of warning: this author's books are very good, but tend toward depressing, so don't read them all at once like I did!

Chains is the story of a young slave girl during the Revolutionary War. Her mistress had written in her will that Isabel and her younger sister Ruth were to be freed upon her death, but the lawyer who wrote the will has run for safety and Isabel and Ruth end up being sold to a couple from New York. Their new owners are Tories, and Isabel is soon asked to spy on them for the Patriot Army. This stirring tale follows Isabel's attempts to find her own personal freedom in the midst of the greater struggle for American Independence. It was awarded the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, which I think was well earned. I look forward to the sequel which is hopefully coming soon!

Catalyst is one of the more difficult reads. It's the story of Kate Malone, a high school senior who has hedged all her bets on going to MIT. That's where her mother went, and it's all Kate wants. When she doesn't get in, she feels completely lost until her family gets caught up in the troubles of their next-door neighbors. The girl next door, Tori, is Kate's polar opposite - a thief and loner with a huge chip on her shoulder. When Tori's house burns down, she moves in with Kate and the next few weeks change both of their lives forever. Some of the issues dealt with in this book are pretty tough, so I would only recommend it to older teens, and there are great discussion points that parents and teens could search out together.

Speak was probably the hardest book for me to read. Melinda Sordino was a popular, well-liked girl...last year. At the end of last year, she attended her first ever "real" high school party. She ended up calling the cops, and is now the school outcast. The only friend she has is the new girl who hasn't found her group yet - and who ends up ditching Melinda when she does. Melinda's grades have dropped dramatically, her parents are upset, and she won't talk to anyone. She finally finds her solace in art and begins to express her pain and anger through sculpture, and is eventually able to talk again. Again, this book deals with very tough issues - Melinda was raped at the party, which she doesn't say until near the end, but the discerning reader will pick up on quite a bit sooner. I have to say again that this book would not be appropriate for younger readers, and would be a good one for a mother-daughter discussion.

Prom was a much more light-hearted book. Ashley Hannigan has no interest in the prom whatsoever - and frankly has too many detentions to ever begin to get them done before then. However, when their math teacher steals the prom money, her friends come to her desperate for help and she ends up planning - and attending! - the cheapest, coolest prom her high school has ever put on! Her family is hilarious, and her best friend's Russian grandmother's pranks (swimming in the baptistry of a local church, for one) take the cake. This book was written for "normal kids" because apparently some had complained to Ms. Anderson that no one wrote books about them - this is it.

Fever 1793 is about a young girl who lived through the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia. In the summer of 1793, 10 percent of Philadelphia's population died from yellow fever. Anderson tells the story of that summer through the eyes of Mattie Cook, a young girl who works in a coffehouse with her mother and grandfather. It's a fabulous piece of historical fiction, and a great way to spark an interest in an historical study of that time.

Anderson, Kevin J. and Moesta, Rebecca

So, no, I didn't give up reading for the holiday season, just haven't found time for blogging. I've been reading a lot of things, which I may tell you about, but next on the library shelf was the Young Jedi Knight series by Kevin Anderson and his wife Rebecca Moesta. The only bad thing I have to say about reading these books was that 2 of them were missing. Otherwise, I loved them. I had read the Shadow Academy series before but not the rest of them, and I was very happy to remedy that fault. If you have a young Star Wars fan in your house, these books are the perfect Christmas gift - they are clean, fun, and even have Boba Fett in them. It doesn't get better than that.

The series follows the adventures of Jacen and Jaina Solo, the twin children of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo. They are studying at the Jedi Academy under Luke Skywalker, but they actually spend more time away from the Academy than actually there. Along with their friends Lowbacca (Chewbacca's nephew) and Tenel Ka (the heir to the Dathomir and Hapes systems) they have incredible adventures all over the galaxy that no parent would actually allow a 15-year-old to experience but which make for great reading. I highly recommend this series to all Star Wars fans, and particularly to the young ones. These books would make an excellent choice for parents who aren't quite ready to let their children watch the movies yet and who get asked every day when that decision will change. :)

Aguiar, Nadia

The Lost Island of Tamarind

First, I think this book is meant to be the beginning of a series because the story was not finished completely at the end. It was just published last year, so hopefully a sequel is coming. At 436 pages, I wouldn't recommend it for beginning readers, but older elementary and up to high school students should find it entertaining. It's about three siblings who are cast away upon an island not found on any maps, and which most people cannot reach. Tamarind is reminiscent of Never-Never-Land, and the children have a great adventure while trying to find their parents and escape the island (something that has rarely, if ever, been done).

Things parents should be aware of:
a woman who steals children to make them work in mines (they escape and free the other kids)
pirates
man-eating vines

If you think your kids can handle those things, they will enjoy this book very much. It was only mildly frightening in the scariest parts, and those were few. There is a lot of mystery and adventure, which I found very enjoyable.

Anderson, Jodi Lynn

Love and Peaches

Unfortunately, this is once again the last book of a series and the only book the library has. I enjoyed it, but wish I could have read the first two books. As far as what the book is about - set Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in Georgia and you've got it. Not a terribly original book, but enjoyable nonetheless.