This is one of those books that I have the opportunity to read every now and again that I really cherish. My favorite books in the young adult genre are those that delve into the difficult, real-life experiences of teens placed into impossible circumstances. I also love learning about these other cultures and the truth behind what has been happening around the world. It’s unfortunate that all too often here in America, we don’t care enough about the world outside of our own country to pay it much mind. The entire story is happening during my lifetime, and I had no idea that there was such strong oppression in Laos until after reading this book.

As for the text itself, Manivong narrates the story in a way that creates an excellent balance between the plot and characters and the description of the world. I could have used a bit more, actually, of the description of the awful circumstances in which our main characters have found themselves. Overall, it’s a compelling story with beautiful narration and an educational journey that is good for American audiences. I recommend it to readers 12+.

Critique

Unlike many of the books I read and review in the young adult arena, I was not able to skip through this text quickly. I found myself reading a few chapters and then pondering on the implications of the text and the honesty it forced me to face in my own life. Marcelo has this way of relating experiences in their most simplistic form, breaking things down from the complexity that we often try to shroud our interaction and thought process with in order to pursue negative and destructive behavior that we ultimately know is wrong and bad for us and others.

It caused me to question why we interact with each other in certain ways, and what prohibits us from being living in honesty and decency. It reminds me of many of the conversations I have around ‘sharing’ music, a term we use to defend something that it, in reality, is nothing but stealing. We have many methods we use to doublespeak ourselves into believing that this kind of behavior in all aspects of our lives is not only ‘ok’ but should actually be ‘encouraged.’ Through our selfishness, we create our own systems of misery and suffering, and I believe that a character like Marcelo has the capability to help us refocus and put it all back into perspective—cause and effect, action and consequence.

As for the story itself, it’s beautifully written, and I enjoyed every last word. It reads as if Stork truly took the time to create a rich, engaging, and educational experience for his audience. It’s been several days since I’ve finished, and although I’m in the midst of other books, this text has stuck with me as I continue to process through my priorities and the way I live my life in general. Marcelo is a believable character who goes through a painful transition and an arc that is riddled with sadness and joy. I think, in many ways, his journey helps to remind us that the ‘real world’ is more complicated than we’d like it to be, but that we often create that drama for ourselves. I recommend this to all readers 13+.

Critique

What can I say about Boys Without Names? It is such an amazing book, that I’m not sure describing it, or just using words like ‘moving,’ ‘poignant,’ and ‘beautifully painful’ really do it justice. It’s a simple yet profound story that everyone in America should read, not just teens. It’s important that we as a culture understand that many of the nice things that we want at a cheap price often come at an incredibly high price for someone else. Including becoming a slave.

Read it! Expand your worldview. Change your perspective on what it truly, tangibly means to have your clothes made in sweatshops in poorer countries around the world. Our rampant materialism is an oppressor to people in other nations, and we should have to account for it.

Other than the message Sheth so profoundly communicates, the world she creates is beautiful. I can feel the heat, smell all the amazing smells, and learn a great deal about Indian culture. I feel as if I am also one of those boys without names, working in the sweatshop, and through their experience of creating family and bonds, and reminded fondly of my own childhood. All the more reason that I want to step into the story and save these children from injustice, and punish those who are responsible for it.

It was everything I was hoping for and more, and I recommend that everyone read it.

Critique

Attention – this review contains spoilers. Typically, I don’t give away the surprises throughout the story, but I have to for this review. If you want things to be a surprise, which I recommend, don’t read this review and read the book based off of my recommendation.

The Maze Runner was exactly what I was hoping it would be. The world that Dashner has created is the perfect type of dystopian society that science fiction books are typically known for. However, what makes it particularly unique, is that this dystopian world is a world within a world.

The world that Thomas wakes up in with his memory lost is a Lord of the Flies type of scenario. The maze world is populated only by teenage boys, and each has particular tasks that they’re in charge of performing in order to make sure that their little world can continue working. The other world is the outside world, that some of them seem to have some faint memories of, and when they go through the Changing, they remember that their world is not a world worth going back to. However, they still hold out hope that there must be something better than what they have now, and so they attempt to solve the maze

What Dashner has cleverly done to avoid the boys fighting amongst each other is given them something to hope for, something to work toward. They channel all of their respective energies into solving the maze and finding freedom rather than fighting against each other. In that way, it’s unique from Lord of the Flies or many of the other dystopian science fiction novels.

There is a good balance between the death of the boys, and the difficult situation they’ve found themselves in, and the hope they retain for discovering freedom, coupled with their intelligent pursuit of that goal. They crack codes, which is an interesting discovery process as well for the reader.

Lastly, the ending is perfect for the way the setting and plot slowly reveals itself to the reader throughout the novel. You don’t know any more than the characters do themselves, and that’s part of the adventure. In addition, the fake murder of the scientists, and the false hope they’ve placed these characters within yet again makes for a tantalizing next novel. Often with follow up books, they are rarely as good as the first because everything has already been revealed, and there is no mystery. I recommend this book to all readers 13+.

Critique

Two things to note on this one: First—Amazing; Second: Not a kids book by any means. Normally I wouldn’t review a book that was clearly more for adults than for tweens or teens, but there was something particularly special about Palmer’s imaginative world. There were Godzillas, Cyclops, people running around in full-body space suit things, and tons more.

So this is why I chose to review it here, other than that it was awesome: it reminds me of when I was a kid, playing with toys and imagining worlds for them—minus the sex and swearing. I’m sure there are many who will second that sentiment, and if for nothing else, I thought I would review it here specifically to recommend it to more mature readers who will appreciate that element.

On the literary end, it’s rare to see an author who takes chances in the way a science fiction book is written. Almost all of them are completely linear, showing a dystopian future where the good guys have to fight against the government who takes their rights away and makes everyone be exactly the same—death to creativity, death to beauty and imagination. This novel still has some of that, as any good sci fi book should, but the novel really isn’t about fighting the government as much as it is the human responsibility to protect a world and all its species from total annihilation (sound familiar?). At least that’s one of the main themes.

The others are what makes it such a stellar read, not to mention that Palmer has written it in a somewhat unique and inventive style. The chapters only mark the passage of days as they go by, and every page is interspersed with short snippets of each main/sub main character and their point of view on what’s happening at that exact moment. That tactic allows the reader to empathize with several characters and see everything from many points of view. It’s a great read, and I highly recommend it to all readers 16+.

Critique

Not only is this collection poignant and educational for younger readers, but I believe that it is an absolutely essential read for the youth of America. Too quickly people forget about the past, and these poems are necessary in order that history doesn’t continue to repeat itself. There are so many phenomenal gems by well-known authors and poets throughout the 20th century, and every single one of them is still relevant to our culture today. The list of poets in this anthology is amazing, and it’s an important read for anyone in order to show us a mirror, reflecting the current state of ourselves in hopes that we will grow and expand our understanding of life and humanity.

Critique

Collins has created a gripping epic of a story, which is an arguably darker combination of the already dark stories 1984, Lord of the Flies, and the short story The Lottery. I certainly couldn’t put the book down from beginning to end, however I found myself thinking the text was very dark and not suitable for younger readers. In fact, I was reminded of stories like The Bluest Eye, which is a text involving children as the main characters, but is often banned from various school reading lists and regarded as a book not suitable for kids.

That disclaimer aside, this is one of the better books that I’ve read in a while, and it certainly deserved all the press and awards that it’s received. I’m sure that several production studios will consider it for a film, which is bitter sweet in my opinion. This would make a great movie, but it would be incredibly dark.

On the literary front, this is a perfect example of a dystopian society, which is the best kind of science fiction. Also, what makes any good science fiction novel really good is the subtle or not so subtle hint that all of the terrible things going on in the story are palpable at some level. It seems a little farfetched that our society could turn into this, but it’s not far from where Rome was just before its fall and the degradation of art and culture had reached its limit with rampant incest and duels to the death in the Coliseum. Even now, reality TV is not a far cry from the gladiator games. How long will it be before we want to be entertained by watching people compete by killing each other?

However, what makes this book amazing, in my opinion is that Collins has taken a relatively original idea (possibly pulling from sources like the Japanese film Battle Royale) and really flushed it out in a phenomenal way. The great travesty with science fiction and fantasy books is that many of the authors have great concepts, but are terrible writers, leading them to flood the market with books that have great elevator pitches, but are, in reality, not that great. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t think that Collins has given us a truly original story, but what made Chaucer and Shakespearre so great, among other things, is that they took well-known stories and rewrote them with their literary genius.

The way that Collins writes the story through the eyes of Katniss creates empathy for the reader, and makes the dark world tangible and the characters she’s interacting with three-dimensional. Katniss is always believable in every action and decision, making her a reliable narrator, and therefore, making the other characters reliable as well. In doing so, the story’s underlying messages are communicated clearly and effectively, showing our own society a mirror of itself and what it can become if we don’t start moving in a different direction. I recommend this book to all readers 14+.

The other books in this series so far are Catching Fire (book 2).

Critique

The art and poetry throughout is beautiful, poignant, and contextual to a culture that is mostly foreign to an American audience. Nye is correct regarding the American sentiment of the Middle East and Muslims, and her attempt to ratify that, while somewhat lofty, is still admirable all the same. The poetry collected reveals something about people’s hearts, loves, dreams, hates, and fears that media cannot. Much of the writing is so fiercely honest that one can’t help but to feel drawn into the narrative of the people in a way that bridges the gap of religion, distance, and culture. I recommend this to all readers, because I believe that anyone who reads it will be positively changed by the poetry within, and hopefully the attempts toward peace and understanding will continue to move forward.

Critique

Alexie’s work is both surprisingly delightful with beautiful and hilarious moments and shockingly dark, giving poignant commentary on the current state of a once thriving cross-continental culture. To compare it to some current works, the tone of the narrative is a blend between Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Wednesday Wars, replete with drawings that aid the story and give comic relief and rife with intellectual wit that gives insight into White culture, Native American culture and the growing pains of youth. 

It’s not surprising that this novel won the National Book Award, and it’s rare to see Native American narratives that delve inward to delineate an entire group of people who have lost their dreams and the hope to accomplish them, who’s communal addiction to alcohol steers both their futures and their deaths, and who view themselves as a broken people who pine for the past. I recommend this book to all readers 12+, however, be warned that there are many elements throughout that will make it a good candidate to be banned from reading lists.

Critique

Blundell’s story is enrapturing, and what seems to be a coming of age story about a teenage girl living in New York just after the war is over becomes a heart-wrenching tale about the consequences that arise from the bad choices people make. Evie is a wonderful character to follow, and her self-sacrifice for the good of her family is astounding. This is a story that teaches the consequences of poor choices, the racism the Jews faced during and after WWII, especially in America, and the strength and courage necessary to fight the evil surrounding ones own life. It’s definitely a heavier read aimed for a more mature age group, but I recommend it to all readers 14+.