FINISHED:
Martel, Yann. (2001). Life of Pi. New York: Harcourt.

[.]


STARTED:
Fairlie, Emily. (2012).  The lost treasure of Tuckernuck.  New York: Katherine Tegan/HarperCollins.

[Reviewing for ACL...]

*

FINISHED:
Meloy, Colin. (2012). Under Wildwood. New York: Balzer + Bray.


[Prue and Curtis are reunited in this sequel to Meloy’s own Wildwood (Balzer + Bray, 2011), with Prue being drawn back to Wildwood by the voices of the vegetation there (a newly-discovered ability that she has), and Curtis having become a full-fledged Wildwood bandit-in-training.  The two of them embark on a quest to unite a fractured land by finding a just and rightful leader for Wildwood, along the way finding themselves underground and assisting mole people in a war to regain their throne from an usurper.  Meanwhile, Curtis’s parents leave his two sisters at an orphanage to watch the girls while they are away in Istanbul, having received a tip that Curtis may have been spotted there.  In typical fashion, the orphanage turns out to be a factory sweatshop run by a faded Russian movie starlet and her inventor boyfriend who is obsessed with finding a way into the Impassable Wilderness, sure that it’s potential as an industrial site is untapped.  There’s A LOT going on here, and it’s not until 400 pages into the novel that things begin to overlap and you understand how all of the storylines are related, but the language is rich and it does flesh out the woods more, exploring new terrain and expanding upon the world-building in the first book.  In addition, as with the previous tome, this one comes with fanciful and striking spot art illustrations (as well as a couple of full page, color plates) by Meloy’s wife, Carson Ellis. One of the major storylines deals with the topical issue of the growing economic disparity in the world and rise of rampant corporate growth:  after the Russian starlet Desdemona sees The 1% Journal on a desk, Meloy writes, “She didn’t understand the industrialist sensibility…  She’d fallen in with the crowd because she’d been attracted to the money… though she understood now that there was more to success and satisfaction than just blindly following the money.”  Whereas the first book could work as a contained story on its own, this one feels like a “middle book” – a bridge between stories – which, at the end, leaves all of the characters with things left to do and concludes with, “Their daily struggle, the tenuousness of their lives in the vacuum of power that has remained in the wake of a revolution, can wait until tomorrow.  Winter is passing.  A Spring will soon arrive.”  And the next installment can’t come soon enough.]

STARTED & FINISHED:
Kibuishi, Kazu. (2012). Prince of the elves [Amulet: Book 5]. New York: Graphix/Scholastic.


[.]


STARTED:
Martel, Yann. (2001). Life of Pi. New York: Harcourt.

[Re-reading before the film is released.  One of my favorites, so I'm glad to read it again...]

*

FINISHED:
Hunter, Erin. (2012). Survivors: the empty city. New York: HarperCollins.

[After surviving a catastrophic natural event that has left the city in ruins and caused all humans (a.k.a. longpaws) to evacuate leaving the city desolate, Lucky escapes from the cage in the “Trap House” where he found himself and sets out to fend for food and shelter.  Lucky eventually comes across, and grudgingly agrees to “lead”, a diverse pack of wayward dogs who were all pets before The Big Growl and now don’t know how to survive on their own, and ends up training his long-lost sister to become the leader of the group.  In this dystopian dog story (dystopian stories aren’t just for humans anymore!), the Erin Hunter consortium (in this case, Gillian Philip) turns its eye to canines after its success with cats (Warriors) and bears (Seekers).  This one continues to spread the messages of Earth preservation and spirituality found in the other series, but the plot wanders as aimlessly as the pack of dogs, a lot is left unexplained (What caused The Big growl?  How did all of the human evacuate so quickly?  Why was Lucky in the the “Trap House” to begin with?), and there are some ridiculous exchanges between the pups.  For instance, when one of the dogs suggests putting the food they have scavenged into the cold river and calling it a “cold-box”, one of the other dogs remarks, “But can we call it our ‘river-store’?  Instead of a cold-box?”  The first replies, “Well, I don’t see why not.  That’s a much better name anyway.  More… more doggish.”  Sure, because it seems more “doggish” for an animal to have a complicated system of bartering goods than to be able to recognize a basic sensation and a simple shape…  That said, it is interesting to get to see Lucky turn from staunch loner to reluctant leader over the course of his journeys (as seems to be par for the course for Hunter’s protagonists) and ultimately try to get the former “pet dogs” to be self-sufficient.  A cliffhanger ending ensures that Hunter enthusiasts will pick up the next installment when it is released this coming spring.]

STARTED:
Meloy, Colin. (2012). Under Wildwood. New York: Balzer + Bray.

[Reviewing for ACL... but this doubles as a pleasure read because I loved the first book...]

*

FINISHED:
Burns, John. (2005). The many adventures of Pengey Penguin. San Francisco: San Francisco Story Works.

[.]

STARTED:
Hunter, Erin. (2012). Survivors: the empty city. New York: HarperCollins.

[The Erin Hunter machine tries its hand at dogs (I kind of enjoy the bear ones...).]

*

FINISHED:
Schmidt, Gary D. (2012). What came from the stars. Boston: Clarion.

[.]


STARTED:
Burns, John. (2005). The many adventures of Pengey Penguin. San Francisco: San Francisco Story Works.

[A patron wrote it...]

*

FINISHED:
Dashner, James. (2012). The kill order. New York: Delacorte.


[.]

STARTED:
Schmidt, Gary D. (2012). What came from the stars. Boston: Clarion.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Hartman, Rachel. (2012). Seraphina. New York: Random House.



[.]


STARTED:
Dashner, James. (2012). The kill order. New York: Delacorte.


[The Maze Runner and its followup novels have been some of my absolute favorites from the past few years...]

*

FINISHED:
Lin, Grace. (2012). Starry river of the sky. New York: Little, Brown and Company.


[.]

STARTED:
Hartman,  Rachel.  (2012). Seraphina.  New York: Random House.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Spratt, R.A. (2012). Nanny Piggins and the Wicked Plan. New York: Little, Brown.


[.]

STARTED:
Lin, Grace. (2012). Starry river of the sky. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Fasick, Adele M. (2011). From boardbook to Facebook. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.


[.]

STARTED:
Spratt, R.A. (2012). Nanny Piggins and the Wicked Plan. New York: Little, Brown.

[.]

*