Giving Up the Ghost by Sheri Sinykin

Pages: 227

Ages: 12+

Publication: Already Available

When thirteen-year-old Davia goes with her parents to Louisiana to help care for dying Aunt Mari she discovers a world that her parents can't see.  In forming a tentative friendship with Aunt Mari, Davia learns about family history, life on a southern plantation, and that Aunt Mari can see ghosts.  Ghosts of her family members from generations ago, that is.  Mari has only one request for Davia--help her die in peace by helping the ghost of Emilie find her own peace.  

Davia begins a journey into a world that she isn't even sure she believes in, but she is determined to help her Aunt Mari.  When Emilie does finally appear, she and Davia don't get along so well.  As the two get to know each other and Davia finds out about the past (from Emilie and Mari), the two begin to work through their problems.  Through Emilie, Davia begins to see the "ghosts" which she's been holding on to and Emilie finally tells Davia the truth about her death and why she insists on haunting the plantation.  But will Davia and Emilie finally give up their ghosts in time to let Aunt Mari give up her own ghost?

This story is beautifully written and perpetuates the often-used older woman-younger woman friendship through storytelling.  While Sinykin sets her story in post-Katrina Louisiana, the plot does not revolve around disasters that happened during or after the storm.  In fact, the mention of Katrina serves as a metaphor for Davia's life in the past few years (her mother has cancer).  Just as Louisiana is slowly healing (with a few parts still in shambles), so is Davia and her family.

The characters in this story are archetypes at best.  For the most part, Davia, her mother, her father, and Emilie are just shells of real people.  Only Aunt Mari, the dying one, is full of life and personality.  However, in a literary kind of way the lack of "character" and the "shell-ness" of the other people in the story is a reflection of their hardships-they are simply going through the motions.  

The scenes in which Emilie and Davia converse seem strange and too young for the girls.  They seem to play a game of secrecy more like 10 year-olds than 13 year-olds, which makes for a frustrating and unproductive story line.  The girls fight like sisters (they are related!), but don't really seem to have a good enough relationship for what happens in their last encounter to be plausible.  

I applaud Sinykin for the scene in which Aunt Mari "gives up her ghost." It is beautifully written with a quiet calm that isn't often seen in books with death scenes.  Everyone should be so lucky as Aunt Mari.  The description of Davia's emotions in this scene is enough to make even the most sensitive of readers smile and the most calloused readers feel the warmth and freedom of letting go. Of the many death scenes that I've read, this will be one that stays with me for a long, long time.

This is a quick and heartfelt read that will have readers engrossed from the very beginning.

Rating 4 and a half pages

Death Mountaion by Sherry Shahan

Pages : 198

Ages: 12+

Publication: Already Available

When Erin skips out on her trip to see her estranged mother and opts to hitchhike, she comes across Mae and Levi (Mae's brother), who are going to hike up the mountains and swim. Erin quickly decides that Mae and Levi would make for a much better trip than the emotional reunion with her mother will bring.

As Erin, Mae, and Levi arrive at the mountain, they find that there are search parties for a missing ranger. Erin, ignoring the foreboding feeling she has, decides to go ahead and climb the mountain with Mae, Levi, and some people from a search party. However, when the mountain unleashes its fury in a lightning and thunderstorm, the girls are separated from the group and must survive in the wilderness of the mountain for days.

Shahan creates a survival story that will have readers feeling time creep, exhaustion set in, and cold night air blast into their bodies. The descriptions in this book are very realistic, especially when it comes to the terrifying and beautiful storms that the girls are forced to endure. Through her descriptions, Shahan creates a violent natural world, but one that is not overly "gory," even when the girls happen upon a dead body. I applaud the author for excellent use of description in that respect.

However, there are parts of the book that are so detailed and descriptive about things that seem somewhat unimportant that the movement of the story is dragged down. In a way, the slowness of the plot at these points echoes that of the creeping time the girls experience, but the reader might get a little bored with the floundering plot.

Along the same lines, the dialogue between Erin and Mae gets tedious and a little redundant while they are finding a way back to civilization. I'm wondering if this isn't a product of the slow moving plot during the "Wilderness Trek." What can two girls really talk about when survival is the utmost important thing on their minds? The dialogue lull I will dismiss as circumstantial, since dialogue before and after the girls are alone is spot-on with humor, story movement, and characterization.

While I have to admit this book was not really my pace (I was trying something new!), I did enjoy reading it. The suspense of the girls' journey and the contrast between home and wilderness proved to be a good combination. I also like that Shahan has the subplot of the estranged mother that is resolved, but leaves room for a sequel that further explores some of the ideas that are hinted toward and linger at the conclusion of the book. I would like to know what happens to Erin after she has been home for a while.

In all, I think this book will stand up to other survival stories out there. And props to Shahan for writing a wilderness survival book about two intelligent and strong young women!

Rating: 4 Pages

Emily the Strange: the Lost Days by Rob Reger and Jessica Gruner

I have to say, I’ve never been a big “counterculture” fan, but this newest installment of Emily the Strange is quite good. I like Emily, even if she is a little creepy.

In this new book, Emily has a tough case of memory loss. Now she’s on a mission to figure out why she has the memory loss, who did it to her, and what she needs to do in order to fulfill her duty. Emily awakes in a town where she’s never been (or so she thinks) and sets out on an adventure to solve the mystery of her amnesia. When clues lead to something bigger than herself, Emily must figure out how to defeat her enemy and save the day. Can she do it in time, or will the unnamed enemy win and send her packing without answers?

Emily is one of the strongest and best developed characters I have read lately. I imagine her slightly deadpan, but even that has a biting sense of humor to it. It is also to the writers’ credit that Emily is a strong, smart, independent, fearless girl who loves science, technology, and solving mysteries. It is rare that all those qualities can be found in the character of a young girl of today’s literature.

The plot of the book was interesting and gave enough clues to guessing, but not too many that the mystery was “easy” to solve. The missing pages of the diary are affixed at the end, so the readers can fill in the gaps that Emily can’t fill herself (or perhaps she can, since she reads them too). There were so may set-ups and pay-offs right at the end, that it seemed almost like the readers had amnesia right along with Emily. Who could have known that Raven was good at driving AND taking impossible dares? Readers find out what Emily knows when Emily knows, thus the genius of the book. However, readers are likely to see all the clues add up before the dénouement if they think of the book in retrospect: clever.

Emily the Strange: the Lost Days will keep readers interested with its mystery, oddball characters (and I don’t mean Emily!), strange science, and witty commentary done in diary style. This will be a must-read for fans and newcomers alike.

Rating 4 and a half pages

Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez

Publication Date: June 2009
Ages: 8-12
194 Pages

Newcomer Diana Lopez colors the tween scene with her debut novel about a normal Latina girl who loves socks, sports, and science. If only Lina’s life were actually that simple.

Apolonia “Lina” is a girl with a lot on her plate. Still smarting from her mother’s death a year ago, Lina and her father can’t seem to find a comfortable place in which to exist with one another. Lina thinks her father is too interested in stories and Lina’s father thinks she is too interested in anything but.

As an added bonus, Lina’s best friend, Vanessa, has begun using her to secretly date a new boyfriend and Lina’s current crush doesn’t seem to like her “that way.” Oh, and Lina’s English grade has dipped so low that she can’t play sports and her teacher has sent her to the school counselor.

Lopez does a smashing job of portraying an all-American character that doesn’t fit neatly into the all-American mold. Lina is Latina and lives in Texas, but she seems to easily transition between the two cultures in which she frequently finds herself. I really like that Lopez makes Lina’s dual world normal and does not focus too much on one culture or the other. In fact, there are dichos disguised as chapter headings in Spanish and English, as well as a healthy smattering of un-translated Spanish throughout the text.

I think this duality will ultimately be to the book’s advantage because both cultures are very real, but neither is shown to be better or dominate, they simply co-exist. The book does not become a culture “war,” but rather a story about a girl finding her place in a world where both cultures exist. Lina does not have to choose one over the other—she can have both. And so can readers.

The character of Lina is vivid and real. She is quirky, smart, tenacious, and unabashedly pursues her unique passions. However, other characters in the story seen a little flat. Vanessa seems to be the all too often used “flakey friend,” Lina’s dad is the clichéd unavailable brooding widower, and Vanessa’s mom is the very epitome of a man-hater. Bleah. While the story is largely about Lina and her struggles, the overall effect of the novel would have been greater if these characters were more developed and didn’t seem purely incidental to the plot.

For the most part, this bildungsroman unfolds as one might expect. However, it is to Lopez’s credit that the novel ends on a positive note, but does not have a syrupy sweet perfect ending. The sense at the end of the book is that things are looking up, but Lina still has some hardships to overcome. The ending is realistic, yet hopeful; but not overdone.

Lopez sends a clear (but subtle) message to her readers: listen to the wisdom of the ages; be who you are, not who you think you should be; and when life hits bottom, there is nowhere to go but up! Lopez reiterates a message that can’t seem to be delivered enough.

Rating: 3 and a half pages

Movie Review: 17 Again

17 Again, starring Zac Efron and Matthew Perry as Mike O’Donnell at 17 and 37, uses conventional methods to tell a conventional story. A man, unhappy with is life, is given a chance to do it all over again and maybe make the right choices this time.

The movie unabashedly flaunts its already-been-done-to-death plot in a scene where Ned (the best friend) and Mike (recently 17 again) pour over hundreds of comic books, myths, and other literature in order to find answers for Mike’s transformation. While this scene was slightly amusing, the admission of guilt on the writers’ parts made me roll my eyes and groan.

The movie opens to a high school and a basketball court in which a game is about to take place. Gee, Zac Efron as the big shot basketball player, hum where have I seen that before… I almost thought I’d misread the theater signs and walked into High School Musical (1, 2, or 3, it really doesn’t matter).

Another thing that bothers me is: I think some people failed to do the math. The opening sequence shows Mike O’Donnell dancing to Young M C’s "Bust A Move." While the song did come out in September of 1989, Mike would have had to dance to it in early to mid year as he graduated in 1989. The song just wouldn’t be out yet.

Also, Mike learns that his girlfriend is pregnant at the beginning of the movie and twenty years later his daughter is still in high school. I’m no math genius, but 20 years minus nine months equals over 19. Hum… Sure the film’s release date was pushed back, but if it is billed as 20 years later, people will assume the movie is taking place in 2009 and dates adjusted accordingly.

I won’t even get started on the scene where 17-year-old Mike and his son have lunch on Mike’s first day of school (just watch Mr. Efron’s burger) or the other scenes that were blatantly incongruent/ lacking continuity.

With all that said, the movie does have a certain “everyone” appeal. Teens and tweens will want to see Efron, parents might be fans of Perry, action lovers will get plenty of light saber fights, and romantics will fall for the honey sweet ending. There are a few funny bits throughout the plot (that aren’t completely predictable), mostly found in the antics of Ned in his enthusiasm for wooing and courting the school’s principal.

I found myself rooting for Mike as he began to connect with his children in a way he couldn’t before. Mike’s reconnection with is children is where the movie shines, proving that parents were once kids too and they might know more than kids could imagine.

I was won over by Efron’s portrayal of a teenaged father with teenaged children and I found that at times ( but not during the obvious lectures) I could see both the teenager and the father in his soul; a mighty feat of acting, if you ask me.

Overall, the movie was sweet, easy to predict, and occasionally funny as Mike navigated his way from 17 to 37 to 17 to 37 again. The movie offers a few philosophical moments for the more cerebral audience, but ultimately feels average. Nothing in the plot or writing particularly wowed me and the acting was fine, just not great. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. I might even watch it again someday.

Rating: 3 Pages

Dork Diaries

Ages: 9-13
Tentative Publication Date: June, 2009

Rachel Renee Russell answers Jeff Kenny’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid with a girl-power punch in Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life. The book is written in diary fashion, complete with manga-esque illustrations and comic strips which tell a story within a story.

Nikki Maxwell, the diary’s author, seems like an ordinary girl trying to make a place for herself in her new private school. But when she is assigned a locker next to MacKenzie, the most popular girl in school, trouble ensues. Nikki has to endure the snide remarks of MacKenzie’s CCP (Cool, Cute&Popular) friends, fight the crowd around her locker, try to make friends, find ways to interact with her crush, and keep up with school all at the same time!

The story is filled with comical and realistic situations which Nikki negotiates to the best of her ability. From getting stuck with shelving dusty books during fifth period to listening to the Itsy Bitsy Spider (Rihanna style) courtesy of her little sister, Nikki’s life seems to be getting worse by the day. However, Nikki does manage to make a few friends and begins to see that maybe she doesn’t have it so bad after all.

Russell seems to fully understand and accurately portray the thoughts, feelings, and world of a 14-year-old girl. The imagery of the “love roller coaster” is funny and when Nikki describes the term "butterflies" as an inadequate description of love, I’m sure many readers will agree. There is even a bit of a “gross factor” left in the text to accommodate those readers who still find snot and other bodily secretions funny (but Nikki rewrites the scene with sanitation in mind).

At times it seems as though Russell tries a little too hard to insert pop culture and lingo into Nikki’s diary. Yet, others times the diary seems to be a little out of sync (Michael Jackson and Prince William are both mentioned, but the younger readers might fear Jackson and crush on Prince Harry). What seems like name-dropping to older readers might be a younger reader’s way of connecting to a larger world, but it still limits the time frame in which Dork Diaries can be considered current.


Readers will fall for this clumsy and sometimes socially awkward girl who just can’t seem to achieve her perfect life. The intended audience will laugh, feel embarrassed, think about crushes, and fight the evil forces of middle school right along with the characters as they recognize themselves in the pages of Nikki’s diary.

Rating: 4 Pages