Television show review: Dead Like Me (Season One)

Title: Dead Like Me (Season One)
Main actors: Ellen Muth, Mandy Patinkin, Callum Blue, Jasmine Guy, Cynthia Stevenson, Christine Willis
Creator: Bryan Fuller
Release date: 27 June, 2003 (Canada)
Age range: 16 – no upper limit
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5

Plot Summary: George (Georgia, actually) is an 18 year-old girl who met an accidental death after dropping out of college. Her mother pushes her to get a job and move out; during her lunch break on her first day at a temp agency George is hit by a flying object from space and killed. After she dies she finds out that a select few people become ‘reapers’ – responsible for removing people’s souls before they suffer a violent death. The system is in place to minimize the trauma souls experience. Most ordinary deaths don’t require a reaper’s assistance. Georgia becomes a reaper, but she has trouble obeying the rules, and a lot of trouble coping with her own sudden death when she hadn’t accomplished much in her young life.

Rube is the boss, and he hands out yellow Post-Its every day with a name, location, and estimated time of death. Georgia and her fellow reapers are responsible for being there at the right time to touch the person about to die and then help the soul find their way to the bright lights of heaven. Each of the group of five reapers who meet every morning over waffles and coffee at the same diner has their own backstory and well-developed personality. They all died in different eras so there are occasional flashbacks to explain how their first brushes with death came to pass. Georgia is the youngest in terms of her age at her death, and she is constantly pushing the boundaries and questioning why she can’t save other people who are scheduled to die, or otherwise shirk her responsibilities. Meanwhile her family moves on and she has to deal with observing that process as well, and being outside of it, yet the subject of their mourning.

Comments: This series is full of humor and also the thoughtful treatment of death. Each of the reapers has to find some way to support themselves even in death, as they need a place to live and money for food. So a lot of the action has to do with working dead-end (so to speak) jobs (Georgia goes back to the temp agency even after her disastrous first experience!) and squatting in the no-longer-needed apartments of the recently deceased. Georgia is full of disgust for her predicament, and she’s grumpy most of the time. She also can’t let go of her family even though while she was alive she didn’t get along with her mother or her younger sister at all. Now she visits them secretly and wishes she had made more of her life while she was alive. The reason I would recommend this for older teens is that in the DVD version at least, there is strong language and some sexual content, mostly in conversations. This is a great series, very inventive, and it’s a shame it was canceled after only two seasons. I’m now waiting for HPL's copy of season two!

Date Viewed: 27 February – 8 March

Magazine review – Cosmo Girl

Magazine: Cosmo Girl
Cover Story: Mila Kunis
Publication Date: October 2008
Age Range: 14 - 19
Genre: Fashion / Celebrities / Makeup
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5

Comments: This magazine is chock-full of makeup tips and advertisements for fashion items out of most teen’s budgets. Designer ads for perfume, makeup, and shoes are peppered throughout. There is a bit of discussion of social issues like drinking and smoking marijuana which are age-appropriate conversations to be having, and the magazine writers are clearly of the opinion that teens don’t need to be preached to, but that encouragement to use one’s best judgment is a good thing. There is also a two page spread of a follow-up story about a group of overweight teens who went through a special program to lose weight and improve their confidence about their bodies. Although it is great to see at least a few images of teens who are not slender with perfect skin, they are presented as part of a program to get thinner, which doesn’t seem like an ideal message to impart.

For the most part, this is simply Cosmopolitan magazine, minus the sex life tips, with a bit of information about universities in the US added, and repackaged for teenagers. Instructions for five steps to getting your fake eyelashes on correctly seem a bit over the top. The two highlighted fashion trends include ‘black magic’ - with everything in black or shades of gray from a black wig to glossy ‘patent’ black lipstick, and ‘circus showtime’ - with bright pinks and yellow eye makeup, frothy hairstyles and voluminous multi-layered ball gowns. Both photoshoots are over the top and extreme! Teens might find one aspect of one look they’d like to try, though, so the photos would certainly appeal to a teen who is experimenting with fashion as part of body image.

There are a lot of connections to current films and television series, especially those that promote brand name fashion, glamorous lifestyles, and dating cute guys. Considering the timing of the issue there is minimal Twilight coverage – a mere two page spread of three of the central male actors: Robert Pattinson (Edward), Taylor Lautner (Jacob), and Kellan Lutz (Emmett). Of course the “boys of Twilight” merit a mention at the very top of the cover, however!

Dates Read: 28 - 29 March

Bloody Jack – L. A. Meyer

Author: L. A. Meyer
Title: Bloody Jack
Publisher: Harcourt
Publication Date: 2002
Age range: 12 - 16
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5

Plot summary: Mary “Jacky” Faber lives the life of an early 19th century London street urchin following the death of her entire family due to a nasty plague. Accustomed to keeping her wits about her and surviving on beggar’s earnings, Mary finds a new family and friendship with a gang of similar orphans. They all live in fear of a man named Muck who collects corpses to sell to medical students and doctors for dissection. When the leader of their orphan gang is killed, Mary grabs her chance to escape London, dons the boy’s clothes, and volunteers as a ship’s boy on the HMS Dolphin. Calling herself “Jacky,” she assists the ship’s tutor, as she possesses the valuable skill of being able to read. The smallest of the ship’s boys, no one suspects she is a teenage girl, and she takes great pains to reinforce what she calls ‘the Deception.’ She can’t help but fall for Jaimy, though, the only one of the ship’s boys with any breeding and manners.

The new gang of friends bond over anchor tattoos, shore leave, and their plans to move up the ranks of the sailors as they grow bigger and stronger. But Jacky has trouble staying out of harm’s way and keeping her head down. She makes enemies of sailors who believe they have the right to abuse ship’s boys as the lowest of the low on board, and has to fend off the advances of one or two men with unsavory inclinations toward helpless young boys. When Jaimy finds out that Jacky is actually a boy she is thrilled to no longer keep up the deception with him – and he is smitten with her. Unfortunately they are separated when the ship nearly sinks after a battle with pirates – Jacky just can’t seem to catch a break!

Comments: Jacky is quite the character – confident and self-reliant yet always getting herself into trouble and wishing her life would contain just a little less adventure! This book is very funny – Jacky thinks she is dying when she starts menstruating for the first time because she has never had a female role model to tell her what is going on. The lengths that Jacky must go to to hide her gender range from hacking off her hair as short as possible to rolling up some fabric and sewing it into her underwear to create the right sort of silhouette. She distinguishes herself with her sewing skills and desire to better herself, recognizing that education and observation are the keys to a better life. Jacky can get a bit carried away trying to show off, with music and dancing skills, and it always gets her into trouble to attract so much attention, but she can’t seem to help it! I look forward to continuing to read this series, as Jacky is enrolled at a finishing school in Boston after she helps recover a shipload of pirate treasure. Will she and Jaimy be separated forever?

Dates Read: 22 – 28 March

Magazine review – Faze

Magazine: Faze
Cover Story: The White Stripes
Publication Date: Spring 2006
Age Range: 13 - 18
Genre: Music / Celebrities / Current Events
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5

Comments: This is a Canadian magazine out of Toronto and directed towards teens. Faze claims to be Canada's #1 Teen Magazine. The vibe is very positive and enthusiastic, plus it deals with a number of topics rather than focusing just on music or beauty, as a number of magazines do. I feel like this magazine has something for everyone. There is a focus on music, investing, getting a job, the successes of other teens, and even prom. The graphics are engaging and the amount of text is not overwhelming, with varied fonts and sizes of text. Overall the magazine leans a bit toward female readers, with a section toward the back about makeup and accessories for prom, plus horoscopes. But it’s not a super-girly magazine.

The current events that are highlighted tend to be bizarre and unusual, like “Malaysian girl killed by lightning – while answering her cell phone” - very attention-grabbing! The news is presented in small snippets rather than full articles. The cover story about The White Stripes focuses on how Jack and Meg White have remained true to their artistic vision and their own personalities even though they’ve become very successful. Mentions of celebrities tend to focus on positive things they are doing, like founding charities or contributing to society in a meaningful way. A lot of the content comes from teens, who have been interviewed or surveyed for their opinions about what makes a great best friend, or how sex education should be handled in schools. The overall message is that everyone is unique and should value themselves for their own qualities rather then try to be thinner or different in some way.

Dates Read: 22 – 23 March

The Black Book of Secrets – F.E. Higgins

Author: F.E. Higgins
Title: The Black Book of Secrets
Publisher: Macmillan
Publication Date: 2007
Age range: 10 - 15
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5

Plot summary: Ludlow Fitch is a young thief living in poverty in a horrible smelly urban place called the City, until his petty criminal parents try to sell his teeth to buy more gin – while they’re still in Ludlow’s head. Ludlow takes off and counts himself lucky to have escaped the City. Hitching a ride on a convenient coach, Ludlow finds himself in the small mountain village of Pagus Parvus. He has arrived on the heels of another interesting traveler, Joe Zabbidou. Joe sets up shop as a pawnbroker and takes Ludlow in as an apprentice because he has some rudimentary reading and writing skills. Before long everyone in town realizes that Joe isn’t a traditional pawnbroker; he’s also a Secret Pawnbroker. Gifted with a way of calmly getting people to trust him and tell him their secrets, Joe listens while Ludlow writes it all down in the "Black Book of Secrets." In return, Joe gives the person a bag of coins, and promises that their secret is totally safe. Lightened of a terrible burden, each person feels relieved at telling another their confession, and uses the money to pay off their debts to the one person in town who is not happy at Joe’s presence: Jeremiah Ratchet.

Jeremiah has most of the town in his debt through a combination of outrageous rents and shadowy deals. A number of individual secrets have to do with desperate actions taken to pay Jeremiah back after he has blackmailed the person. Jeremiah is repulsive, a gambler and drinker who treats everyone with contempt even as he takes their money to support his decadent lifestyle. As a community outsider, Joe provides a safe environment for people to tell their stories. As the Black Book fills with secrets, however, the people start to expect more from Joe – some further salvation from their troubles with Jeremiah. Though Joe tells them to be patient, trusting that a peaceful resolution will come eventually, the people take matters into their own hands. They decide that Joe is actually in league with Jeremiah, and that he is not to be trusted with their secrets. Just as Joe is about to be forced out of the village with Ludlow close behind, Jeremiah’s greed and desire to obtain the Black Book prove to be his undoing, and the people realize the error of their ways.

Comments: This is a fast-paced and interesting story of intrigue and an unusual occupation. Mostly told from Ludlow’s point of view, the story splits the action between the City and Pagus Parvus. It is a story of redemption for Ludlow, who has been raised as a common thief and has nearly resigned himself that he’ll hang one day for his misdeeds. Ludlow is actually thankful to his parents for trying to pull out his teeth to sell for drink, as his desire to keep his jaw intact gave him the strength to escape from the City’s clutches. Ludlow identifies Joe clearly as a father figure, let down as he has been by his true parents. He struggles throughout the book to live up to Joe’s trust, and finds it hard to relax into a life where food and warmth can be relied upon. An observant and curious lad, Ludlow sometimes finds it hard to understand how Joe can be so calm in many unnerving situations, but he admires Joe greatly and is amazed when Joe reveals to him the great history of Secret pawning, and his hope that Ludlow will be next to take up the mantle.

Dates Read: 19 – 22 March

Coraline – Neil Gaiman

Author: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Dave McKean
Title: Coraline
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: 2002
Age range: 10 - 16
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5

Plot summary: Coraline Jones has just moved into a new flat with her parents, who never pay any attention to her. Coraline is an active, inquisitive girl and gets bored easily so her father sends her around the flat with a paper and pencil to record how many windows and doors and blue things there are around. One of the doors that Coraline discovers is locked. Her mother finds the key, but behind the door there is only a bricked up wall. The next time Coraline is alone in the flat she tries the door again, using the key – and this time she is able to walk straight through into another room – one that looks exactly like the room she has just left, complete with the same furniture and decorations.

Coraline is astonished to find a parallel universe on the other side of the mysterious doorway, and she is greeted by her “other” mother and her “other” father. Instead of looking completely human, they have shiny black buttons for eyes. Her other mother clearly runs the show, and tells Coraline she wants to love her and give her everything she wants, if only she’ll stay forever. At first Coraline enjoys the delicious food and fascinating toys in this other world. But something doesn’t feel quite right to Coraline. She stays for a little while and then chooses to return to her normal world. But now her parents have gone missing, and Coraline realizes that her other mother has kidnapped them. She sets out to rescue them, and must find a way to challenge the other mother in a way that will save her parents, herself, and also the trapped souls of three other children who have fallen victim to the other mother’s twisted parental instincts. Coraline’s only ally is a black cat who can also travel between the two worlds, and conspire with her to bring an end to the other mother’s cruelty.

Comments: Gaiman has a wonderful way of writing an engaging story with an undeniably dark side, but which will appeal to multiple ages. Younger teens and ‘tweens’ may be taken with Coraline’s adventurousness and resourcefulness, as well as her boredom and unhappiness when her parents tell her to go away. Older teens may see the darker side of the story, with creepy spider-themed symbolism and the sinister way the other mother tries to entice Coraline to stay in her world. My favorite part is at the end when Coraline uses the dolls of her childhood to trap the piece of the other mother than has crossed over into Coraline’s real world. My only fear is that one day the other mother’s right hand might get out of the well – and now it has the key. Gaiman does a great job of wrapping up the story – but also leaving the possibility open that Coraline’s problems are not completely finished.

Dates Read: 16 – 18 March

The House of the Scorpion – Nancy Farmer

Author: Nancy Farmer
Title: The House of the Scorpion
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: 2002
Age range: 13 – no upper limit
Genre: Science Fiction / Award Winner
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5

Plot summary: Matteo Alacrán is a clone of El Patrón, drug magnate in a small country called Opium, sandwiched between the southern border of the United States and Aztlán, the land that we call Mexico today. This story takes place at some point in the future when hovercrafts are a normal mode of transportation, and cloning and brain implantations are commonplace. Opium, however, is frozen in time for the most part, with few modern amenities, as El Patrón prefers being reminded of the simple life of his childhood. In the book he reaches his 148th birthday. Such extended old age is only possible through morally dubious surgeries and organ transplants. Matt is El Patrón’s ninth clone.

Matt has been copied from El Patrón’s DNA, and though El Patrón grants him a happy childhood, a more sinister reason for bringing a clone into existence eventually becomes clear to Matt. El Patrón has allowed Matt to become educated and musically skilled only to keep him content and docile until his body parts are needed. El Patrón doesn’t count on Matt’s allies, however: Celia the cook, who raised Matt as a little boy, and Tam Lin, the Scottish bodyguard who loathes El Patrón’s way of life and gives Matt the clues and tools he needs to escape to Aztlán and avoid certain death. Until his escape, Matt is treated by most people as worse than livestock; they don’t believe that clones are human. The opium workers and other servants around El Patrón’s fabulous drug-financed residence are people with a chip implanted in their brains to render them able to do single tasks only, zombie-like. Mistreated himself by everyone except El Patrón, Celia, Tam Lin, and María, the kind-hearted daughter of a crooked US Senator, Matt feels a natural empathy for these ‘eejits’, as they’re called. The ‘eejits’ are generally people who have been caught trying to cross from the US to Aztlán or vice versa.

Finally able to escape to Aztlán, Matt is once again enslaved and forced to work in an orphanage of sorts where the boys are all forced to cultivate plankton and recite certain Socialist-minded slogans ad nauseum. A smart boy who has been encouraged to think and learn about the business of running a drug empire, Matt cannot stomach the hypocrisy he observes in the adults’ treatment of himself and the boys in the plankton factory. He becomes friends with several of the boys, and when they are mistreated they stand up for each other, to the disgust of the men in charge. Matt and his friend Chacho are left to die in the salty desert, but the boys band together to escape. They are able to make it to the small town where María attends school in a convent, and Matt is drawn into a plan by certain government powers of both Aztlán and the US to bring down Opium and shut down El Patrón’s empire. Matt is only too happy to free the ‘eejits’ and end the unequal treatment he sees in Opium; through his own suffering he has developed a deep sense of empathy for those considered to be undeserving of happiness.

Comments: Farmer tells an amazing story and envisions a disturbing alternate reality. The characters are detailed and emotions run strong as the reader cannot help but be disgusted by the way Matt is treated and the hypocrisy that runs rampant through the story. Matt’s own behavior is far from perfect, as he is encouraged early on to be a perfect little copy of El Patrón. Matt perfects El Patrón’s cold way of dealing with his underlings, and believes that the old man loves him. He is truly torn when he discovers that after all the time and money invested in his education and upbringing, El Patrón does in fact mean to use him for spare parts. Matt can’t help but still love the old man as he loves himself, even though El Patrón is so cold-hearted.

The supporting characters are detailed and very consistent. Each has their own back-story, and Farmer does a wonderful job of weaving these finer points in with Matt’s own story. It is chilling to read about Matt’s treatment at the hands of people who see clones as less than human. It is equally satisfying to read about Matt growing up to become self-reliant, recognizing the dignity with which all people should be treated, and finally finding friendship with his peers.

Dates Read: 10 – 15 March

Skybreaker – Kenneth Oppel

Author: Kenneth Oppel
Title: Skybreaker
Publisher: Harper Trophy Canada
Publication Date: 2005
Age range: 10 - 16
Genre: Fantasy / Canadian Author / Series Fiction
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5

Plot summary: The second in the Airborn series, Oppel delivers another page-turning adventure. Matt Cruse is now enrolled in the Airship Academy in Paris, and at the start of the book he has been shipped out for a turn as a navigator's assistant on the Flotsam, an airship of much lower class than the Aurora where Matt got his start as a cabin boy. Caught in a storm and captained by a reckless pilot, the Flotsam ascends to heights it was not designed for – and all aboard catch a glimpse of the long-lost Hyperion. The Hyperion has been adrift at uncharted heights for forty years, and only Matt recalls the coordinates she was sighted at, as the rest of the crew were suffering from oxygen deprivation. No one knows how the Hyperion met her fate.

Back in Paris, Matt's fellow adventurer Kate de Vries is enrolled at the Sorbonne, and is learning to fly as well. Her craft of choice is an ornithopter, a small machine capable of holding one or two people and used for taxiing people around. Kate is well aware that the owner of the Hyperion, famous inventor and collector Theodore Grunel, had amassed a remarkable number of artifacts and taxidermy. She convinces Matt to join her in attempting to find the Hyperion once again, though they are not alone in wanting to track down the ghost ship and plunder her treasures. Kate dreams of more undiscovered species, while Matt wishes for enough gold to set up his family comfortably. They are joined by Nadira, who turns out to the daughter of the pirate Spirzglas, who fell overboard in Airborn while trying to kill Matt. Although Nadira turns out be to as daring and adventurous as her father, she wants to find gold to avoid an arranged marriage and give herself the freedom to live the life she wants. Nadira is also a trustworthy ally.

In order to reach the Hyperion, drifting aimlessly at frigid heights, a special kind of ship is needed: a skybreaker. Kate makes friends with Hal, the dashing captain of just such a ship. Matt gets a bit jealous, as well as confused, feeling so drawn to Kate and yet attracted to Nadira – and also suspicious that Kate has a thing for Hal! The four make their way to the Hyperion but they are pursued and attacked by others who would get Grunel's treasures, and must rely on luck as well as their wits to survive the experience.

Comments: This is a fantastic follow-up to Airborn! Matt and Kate are a bit more mature, and the surrounding cast of characters is just as exciting as in the first novel, even though most of them have changed. I particularly enjoyed a cameo from Chef Vlad early on in the book; he was the chef abroad the Aurorain book one but now plies his trade in a very upscale restaurant halfway up the Eiffel Tower. Kate gets to discover more new species, this time high in the sky. Remarkably consistent and thoroughly entertaining, I did not want to put this book down.

Matt is a character easy to empathize with for both males and females, I think. He is up for a challenge, but also has those moments of indecision and self-doubt that most readers will recognize as normal in any person. Matt is fiercely loyal, and wants to make life more comfortable for those he loves. A new facet to his character in this book is his struggle with his studies; though he knows perfectly how to serve as a cabin boy and how to perform most duties aboard a ship, he doesn’t intuitively understand the physics and mathematics behind flying. One of the things that makes Matt such a great character is that he recognizes his imperfections and tries to overcome them, no matter how difficult.

Dates Read: 4 – 9 March

The Hemingway Tradition – Kristin Butcher

Author: Kristin Butcher
Title: The Hemingway Tradition
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Publication Date: 2002
Age range: 14 - 19
Genre: Hi/Lo / Realistic Fiction
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5

Plot summary: Shaw and his mother move from Vancouver to Winnipeg after Shaw's father, a successful writer, commits suicide. Shaw, who used to enjoy writing and talking about writing with his father, feels betrayed because his father revealed before his death that he was gay and could no longer go on in his current life. Starting over at a new school, Shaw finds solace in playing volleyball on the competitive school team and keeping active, until the volleyball season ends and he comes across a particularly poorly written article in the school newspaper. Shaw starts writing again, this time determined to defend his friend Jai who is demeaned by some for not being white. Tess, an adamant supporter of and reporter for the school paper, is thrilled when Shaw starts contributing, especially on weighty social issues. Meanwhile, Shaw's mother gives him his father's journal when she thinks he is ready to learn more about what his father was going through before his death. Shaw comes to terms with his father through reading the journal, realizing that the relationship father and son had was equally important to both of them. Shaw no longer feels abandoned and can forgive his dad.

Comments: This captivating book is simply written but contains a compelling story. There are so many elements that will appeal to all readers, including those with low vocabulary who need stories that draw the reader in. Shaw has to deal with homosexuality, prejudice, and the death of a parent. He becomes a new student and has to try to fit in. Shaw challenges himself by joining a new sports team and working very hard to succeed, then shows that a good athlete can also take school and writing seriously, as he gets involved with the school newspaper. Tess is a friend but perhaps something more in the future, and Jai is a great friend who is supportive of Shaw and also teases him like a sibling. By working with his own strengths and allowing himself some time to heal, Shaw gets through a very challenging period of his life. I think all readers can find an issue to relate to here, and the emotional growth that Shaw goes through is inspiring.

Dates Read: 3 – 4 March

Zel – Donna Jo Napoli

Author: Donna Jo Napoli
Title: Zel
Publisher: Dutton Children's Books
Publication Date:1996
Age range: 10 - 16
Genre: Revised Fairytale
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5

Plot summary: Zel is a joyous, innocent girl on the cusp of womanhood. She has grown up on a peaceful and beautiful Swiss farm with just one person for companionship: Mother. More than anything, Zel wishes she could talk to animals and understand them. Mother has a gift of her own – a way with plants. She can manipulate them to serve her purposes, growing trees and shrinking vines, raising all sorts of vegetables and fruits. It turns out that Mother is a barren witch who traded her soul for a child when she could not bear her own.

Zel looks forward to their twice-yearly visits to the town market, where she can interact with all sorts of people. Mother looks forward to the time when Zel will have to make the choice between leaving the farm to start her own family, or staying with Mother forever. Mother could not bear it if Zel were to leave the farm, and pours her heart into making Zel happy. On their latest visit to the market, however, Zel encounters a young man, Konrad. Konrad sees Zel's sweet way with animals and her unusual manners, and is enchanted with her. When Zel calms Konrad's horse while the blacksmith removes a tick from the horse's ear, Konrad asks how he can repay her. Having no desire for money, Zel thinks of a solitary goose at the farm – she sits on a nest of rocks because she cannot have her own goslings. Zel asks for a goose egg, hoping to persuade the goose it is her own egg. Konrad is amazed at the request but takes the dark-eyed girl seriously and begins hunting for a goose egg.

As soon as Mother realizes Zel's thoughts have turned to a certain young man and the unsure way he made her feel, she acts to separate the two before they have a chance to meet again. Spiriting Zel high up into disused tower, Mother feeds Zel special foods to make her hair grow long. At first Mother reaches the tower by making a tree next to it grow and shrink, but eventually Mother can climb up by Zel's hair. Konrad, meanwhile, has been hunting for Zel for two years, obsessed with her and mystified by her disappearance. Zel, locked in her tower prison, starts to lose her mind, keeping secrets from Mother and trying to make friends with the squirrel in the tree and a pigeon that roosts above her cramped quarters. When Konrad finally finds the tower and watches Mother ascend using the golden braids, Konrad is able to use the same trick to get up, as Zel doesn't even realize it is him. When Mother discovers that Konrad has found Zel, she breaks down completely and uses the forest to transport Zel, now pregnant, far away where Konrad has almost no hope of ever finding her again. Mother throws Konrad out the window of the tower but at the last moment shrubs around the base of the tower spring up and cushion his fall, though they scratch out his eyes. Her strength gone, Mother dies. Zel is taken in by villagers who find her at the end of her long strange journey and starts a new life in a new country. Konrad resumes his search, even blind, in this love story for the ages.

Comments: Napoli has done a fantastic job of re-writing the Rapunzel fairy tale. Zel is so full of life and joy in small everyday things, it is tragic to see the way Mother tries to limit her enthusiasm. It is also distressing to read about how much Mother simply wants Zel to love her and to be happy with the quiet country life they have carved out for themselves, but by loving Zel too much she turns Zel against herself. Napoli has written the book from the three different viewpoints of Zel, Mother and Konrad. As Mother's reasoning becomes more flawed and distressed, Zel starts to lose her own mind, cooped up in the tower with only a hour long visit from Mother each day. Konrad, caught up in his obsessive quest to find the beautiful and unique Zel, changes from being a boy to emerging as a man as his search becomes more arduous.

Napoli did a great job of handling the extreme youth of Zel and Konrad. In this type of fairy tale, marriage at a younger age than is now commonly accepted was not unusual. Without remarking on explicit details, Napoli crafts a love story that will appeal to readers of many ages. I will be looking for more of Napoli's revised fairytales in the future.

The Amulet of Samarkand – Jonathan Stroud

Author: Jonathan Stroud
Title: The Amulet of Samarkand – Book One of the Bartimaeus Trilogy
Publisher: Miramax Books
Publication Date: 2003
Age range: 12 - 18
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5

Plot summary: Nathaniel is a young boy in an alternate version of London, England, where magicians run the government and consider themselves above non-magical people. Apprenticed to an unremarkable and sometimes cruel magician, Nathaniel longs to prove himself in a world where being able to do magic earns the respect of other magicians. Magicians actually get their power from being able to summon imps, djinni, and similar magical creatures, and Nathaniel summons a high level demon named Bartimaeus to help him get revenge after a more senior magician from Parliament denigrates Nathaniel and his master stands by, doing nothing. The theft of the Amulet of Samarkand from Lovelace, the more powerful magician gets Nathaniel and Bartimaeus involved in a complex governmental scandal. Lovelace's plot to kill off all the other magicians and take over the government is uncovered by Nathaniel and Bartimaeus and they must act quickly to try to stop the coup

The story alternates between viewpoints, so the reader gets Nathaniel's point of view, which is largely dominated by his desire to show the world the level of his knowledge of magic. He is quite smart and has been trained to be very attentive to detail. Bartimaeus offers a more world-weary viewpoint, and more humor, as he is an ancient entity with many stories to tell and previous run-ins with other demons in the story. Bartimaeus is also fairly proud of his own abilities and misses no opportunity to tell the reader about how talented and wonderful he is. Though he pretends to be interested only in his own well being, Bartimaeus starts to become invested in Nathaniel's fate and cleverly helps the boy to save the lives of most of the Parliamentary ministers at the end of this first volume in the Bartimaeus Trilogy.

Comments: I was aware of the popularity of this trilogy before picking up the first volume, but I'm not convinced about the series after finishing the book. Nathaniel is a hard character to like; he is obsessed with proving himself and acts in many petty ways, holding grudges against people and behaving poorly to those he considers below himself. He believes that controlling magic is the most important thing he can learn to do, and doesn't understand people who have no magic. This is the prevalent opinion of most of the magicians Nathaniel encounters, so it is easy to see where he learned this concept. There are a couple of small scenes where Nathaniel does reveal his fondness for his art teacher and his master's wife, but for the most part Nathaniel comes across as a very cold boy. Bartimaeus adds some excellent description of the magical world and brings a much-needed dimension of fun to the story.

The writing is good and the story moves along at a smooth pace but I would have liked to see Nathaniel develop more as a character. He does act at the end to save the lives of many government ministers, but he also wants to act against the mastermind of the coup, who has treated Nathaniel badly in the past. Nathaniel is pretty self-interested and precocious for a young boy, and he takes life very seriously. Nathaniel does have to rely on his quick thinking and excellent memory for magical spells, but he possesses a self-confidence that is not entirely believable. I would expect that his character will get more complex in the future volumes, but I don't feel compelled to get my hands on them because I am just convinced that I want to read more about Nathaniel – for now.

Dates Read: 20 February – 3 March

Movie Review: Coraline

Author: (of book) Neil Gaiman
Director / Screenplay: Henry Selick
Title: Coraline
Release date: 13 February, 2009
Age range: 10 – no upper limit
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5

Plot summary: Directed by Henry Selick of A Nightmare before Christmas, Coraline is an eleven year old only child with parents who wish she would leave them alone. They're writers, penning articles about gardening though they don't have any time for flowers themselves. She has a lively imagination and wants to be active. When her parents move to a new apartment building in the country Coraline is left to explore her new environment by herself. While attempting to douse for an old well, Coraline meets the grandson of her new landlord and an odd cat who keeps him company. Taken with her blue hair, the neighbor boy gives Coraline a doll that looks just like her, except for its button eyes. The other tenants in the apartment building seem bizarre but harmless, like the aging circusmaster upstairs who claims he is training a legion of performing mice. Before long Coraline discovers a hidden passageway from her living room, initially only accessible in the dead of night, which opens into a new world: it looks just like the apartment she left, and her parents are there – but they're her 'other' parents. They want her there. Her 'other' mother wants to cook and pamper Coraline, and her 'other' father is a loving goof who maintains a spectacular garden. The circusmaster's mice put on a fantastic show just for Coraline. At first Coraline enjoys the attention, but it isn't long before she realizes that her 'other' life is a bit sinister – her 'other' mother wants her to stay, and to stay she has to get buttons sewn in place of her eyes. When her 'other' mother turns out to be a manipulative witch who will stop at nothing to get Coraline to stay in her 'other' life, Coraline tries to escape. Next the 'other' mother kidnaps Coraline's real parents and Coraline has to use her wits (and the advice of the odd cat, who can travel between the worlds as well) to get them back, and she finally realizes that her real life isn't so bad after all.

Comments: I was lucky enough to see the 3D version of this movie, and it was very well done. Selick has an inimitable style of showing off the wonders of stop action animation and puppetry. There's always a sinister side to his work, and Coraline is no exception. Neil Gaiman is a great match for this style of animation, with his dark take on life and treatment of alternate worlds and possibilities. I think young viewers will relate to Coraline's frustration with her parents who won't pay attention to her, and appreciate how nice it would be to have a whole new family who want to feed you your favorite foods and make fun things happen. But in the end, real family is what is important, and you can't trade the one you have in for a new one. The things that appear too good to be true in the movie definitely are, and that's another of Coraline's realizations that I think young viewers can relate to other stories they are familiar with. After seeing this movie I would say that it would appeal more to younger teenagers than older ones who might consider it to be a bit silly. That said, there are some dark parts that might be a bit scary for tweens, so parents should consider the maturity of their individual child before letting them watch this film.

Date Viewed: 13 February