2013 YA Mythology Challenge

I've decided to join this challenge. It should be pretty easy. All you have to do is read 10 books off of a list on Goodreads in 2013. It should be fun.

Al Capone Shines My Shoes - 2012 Book #21

Al Capone Shines My Shoes is the sequel to Gennifer Choldenko's Al Capone Does My Shirts. The story is once again told by Moose Flannagan about his life on Alcatraz Island. His sister Natalie goes off to school, and Moose finally learns what it feels like to have his mother's undivided attention. He's made friends both at school off the island and on the island. Life is good. But then, he receives a message that he thinks is from the convict Al Capone. It says, "Your turn." Moose thinks it's a message telling him that now it's his turn to do a favor for Al Capone in return for the favor Moose thinks Al Capone did for him. Moose's friend Annie finds out and gets mad when Moose refuses to tell his parents. Moose doesn't want his dad to get fired or anything, so he doesn't want to tell. It seems that everyone gets mad at Moose for something. Jimmy seems to be mad, because Moose's friend Scout makes fun of his baseball skills; Piper's mad because Theresa catches her and Moose about to kiss; Natalie's mad, because she's been away from Moose; Annie's mad, because Moose won't tell about Al Capone; and Scout's mad, because Moose tells him to stay away from Piper. Moose is just trying to please everyone, but it seems that trying to please everyone isn't as easy as it seems. On top of all that, it seems that someone off the island is trying to help the convicts escape, and it seems as though they are trying to pin the blame on Moose's family. He was just starting to like his life on Alcatraz Island and doesn't want his dad to lose his job, so he must do everything he can to stop that from happening.

This book is a great sequel to Al Capone Does My Shirts. It's fairly fast-paced, keeping the reader interested. It has real historical facts scattered throughout the book, and the story is based off of events that actually happened on Alcatraz Island during that time period. The author includes a section in the back of the book that explains all the historical details that the book was based off of. This was a great read.

Murder by the Book - 2012 Book #20

Murder by the Book was written by LDS author Betsy Brannon Green. The story is told by the main character, Kennedy Killingsworth, a young librarian in the small town of Midway. After an older man in the town comes in to the library and signs up for a library card, she hears of his supposed suicide that same day and doesn't really believe that he would do that. Why sign up for a library card if you're planning on killing yourself? She expresses her concern to the local sheriff who allows her to help with an investigation of his death as long as she works with the deputy Cade, her ex-husband. She agrees to this in her eagerness to find out what really happened. Cade takes this as a sign that she might want to get back together with him and tries to keep asking her out.

During her investigations, she also attracts the attention of some other young men in the town: Luke Scoggins, the nephew of the man who died; Drake Langston, the rich man who was waiting on the dead man for a land deal in his new development project; and Sloan, the head of Drake's construction team. The only problem is, she's not sure if she can trust any of them as they are all suspects. What starts out as something exiting that Kennedy's only read about in the books she loves, suddenly becomes very real when she finds out that her life could be in danger if she keeps digging to find the truth about what really happened to Luke's uncle.

This book is written very well, with lots of action and unpredictable events happening. I was a little disappointed with the ending. It wrapped up the story and answered all the questions of what happened with the mysterious death, but it leaves what happens in the future open to question, which is okay but makes me wish there was more. Overall, it was a very good read.

The Book of Wonders - 2012 Book #19

The Book of Wonders by Jasmine Richards is a fun, engaging read. It tells the story of Zardi, a young girl who just turned thirteen, the age of womanhood. She is now old enough to be taken by the sultan as his praisemaker. The praisemaker has to shout the sultan's praises from a tower for three months, and then they are hunted and killed by the sultan himself. The only way to escape the sultan is if she gets married. Her nonna tells her that she has a great destiny to fulfill. Zardi doesn't know what this is.

Zardi's sister is about to get married when she is taken by the sultan to be the new praisemaker. Her father stands up to the sultan, demanding that his daughter be released. Instead, the sultan takes him prisoner as well, promising that once he's through with Zardi's sister, Zubeyda, he's coming back for Zardi. Zardi decides that this is her destiny: to save her sister and father from the sultan.

Earlier that day, she and her friend Rhidan had seen the great sailor, Sinbad. She had heard that Sinbad was setting out for a nearby city where there where rumors of the rightful prince still being alive. She decides to disguise herself as a boy and go find Sinbad to help her. Her friend Rhidan comes along not only to help her but to find out more about who he is and where he's from. Earlier, Sinbad had made a comment about seeing other people like Rhidan, and Rhidan hopes that Sinbad can help him find his family.

So Zardi and Rhidan set off an adventure involving pirates, brass giants, sorcerers, fortune tellers, djinnis, magic amulets, and evil serpents.

This book is very engaging and keeps the reader wanting to know more right up to the last page. The story ends, making it very clear that the story is not over; there must be a sequel in mind for this book, because Zardi's and Rhidan's adventures are not finished. Unfortunately, that sequel has not been written yet.

Wicked Will - 2012 Book #18

Wicked Will by Bailey Macdonald was an interesting book to read. It's told in first person by a young actor called Tom who's traveling with a troup of actors with his uncle. Upon their arrival at a small town, they meet a boy named Will, who is the young William Shakespeare. He is really curious about everything the actors do and asks a million questions. Tom is worried about all Will's questions, because Tom is hiding a secret. But Will won't go away. He insists on showing Tom around the town the first day. Later that day, after the sun's gone down, the two boys find a dead body in the river. It's the body of an old man in town whom nobody really likes. Shortly before he was found dead, he had been seen in a bar fighting with Tom's uncle. From this knowledge, Tom's uncle was arrested. Tom, not having any place to stay, goes home with Will to stay at his house. Will is determined to find the real murderer and prove Tom's uncle innocent. He comes up with all sorts of crazy schemes to try to find the culprit. With town drunks, cranky actors, ghosts, twin sons of the victim, and Will's father, staying out of trouble seems to be difficult for Will, and Tom is unsure of whether or not Will is someone to be trusted.

This book is really fun, and it is interesting to read one example of how William Shakespeare might have been when he was younger. The ending of this book, however, doesn't seem to really match the almost lighthearted feel the rest of the book has. This book was engaging with a nice flow. Overall, it was a good read.

Al Capone Does My Shirts - 2012 Book #17

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko was a great read. This book is told by the main character: a twelve-year-old boy named Moose. His dad just got a job as a security guard/electrician at the Alcatraz prison, so his family moved to live on Alcatraz Island. He hates the move, but a lot of the guards' families live on the island, and they also moved so his sister could go to a special school. His sister has some form of autism, and a lot of the story is centered around how his family deals with that, since at that time, nobody really knew anything about autism or how to deal with it. Moose tells about how he and his family deal with that, while he's also going to a new school and trying to make friends and get used to life on the island. Some of the other kids on the island get up to some pretty crazy antics, and Moose has to decide if he's going to join them or not.

One thing that Moose is excited about is baseball. The kids at his school get together to play baseball once  a week, and he feels like he's finally found a place where he fits in at his new school. But then, his sister doesn't get accepted into the school his family had been hoping she could attend, and Moose has to watch his sister every day after school. His mom wants him to take him everywhere that he goes, but he's pretty sure it would be a bad idea to take her when he went to play baseball.

As the book progresses, it's interesting to see how Moose's relationships with the other characters int he book change. This book has some really good character development. One thing that was a little confusing in reading this book was when Moose would start talking about things that had happened in the past. Most of the story is told in present tense, which has always been kind of weird to me in novels, but then Moose talks about things that happened when he was younger, so it's a little confusing occassionally when he's having flashback kind of moments. One thing I really liked though about the format was that at the beginning of each chapter, it has the date, so it's really easy to tell exactly how much time has passed since the last chapter.

This was an easy read, but it also had some good messages and great character development in a well developed story. There is a sequel to this book that I am excited to read.

Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher - 2012 Book #16

Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville is a story about the boy Jeremy Hatcher who unknowingly ends up buying a dragon's egg when he happens upon a magic shop while running away from bullies at school. Once he discovers that it's a dragon's egg he has, he struggles to figure out how to take care of the dragon on top of other things going on at school. At school, there's a girl who likes him and who has declared her intent to kiss him, there are the bullies from the beginning of the story who continue to bother him, and his art teacher seems to hate him. This last one seems particularly hard for Jeremy to deal with since art is his favorite subject, and no matter how hard he tries, his efforts never seem to be good enough to his teacher.

As the dragon grows, it becomes harder and harder to keep it a secret, not just because of the dragon's size, but by how much it eats and also Jeremy wants to tell others about the dragon. His best friend is curious to know what's going on in his life, and Jeremy's not sure that his friend will believe that he's been raising a dragon, especially since the dragon seems to be invisible to everyone but Jeremy.

This book is a fun, easy read and shows the growth in the relationship between Jeremy and his dragon, but it could have been a lot longer and more in depth. The book kind of skims over lots of time and doesn't go into a whole lot of detail about particular aspects of the story. There could be a lot more character development if the book was a little longer with more added scenes in the times that are just skipped over. But overall, it was a good read.

The Education of Bet - 2012 Book #15

The Education of Bet by Lauren Baratz-Logsted was a very good read. I read the whole book in one sitting. This story takes places sometime in the 1800's. The narrator of the story, Elizabeth, was the daughter of a maid. When her mother died along with the master and mistress of the house from typhoid fever, she and their son, Will were taken in by his wealthy uncle, Paul and raised together until they got older. At that point, Paul's relatives were apalled at how he was raising the two children as equals when clearly they were not. Will was sent off to one school after another, while Elizabeth was left home where she lived not as a servant, but not as a member of the family either.

When Will comes home after being kicked out of school for the fourth time, Elizabeth gets upset at him. It has always been her dream to go to school and receive an education, and Will's had the opportunity his whole life and has just thrown it away. Will admits it's because what he really wants is to go join the military, but his uncle doesn't approve. Elizabeth, or Bet as Will calls her, comes up with a plan that can help them both do what they want. She convinces Will to help her "become a boy" so she can go to school as him, leaving him free to go join the military. He agrees to her crazy plan and helps her learn how to walk and talk like a boy as well as how to dress and write like a boy. Finally, it's time for her to go start school. The two head off to live their dreams, both not really knowing what they're getting themselves into.

Bet is shocked by what she finds at school. She has had an extremely sheltered life at Will's uncle's house and is totally unprepared for bullies, attractive roommates, and school dances, but she is determined to learn as much as she can while she has the chance for an education. Bet finds it harder sometimes than she thought it would be to hide the fact that she's a girl, but she finds friends she can trust with her secret in unexpected places who agree with her that girls should be able to have an opportunity to gain an education.

The one big problem I had with this book was that it wasn't long enough. It seems to rush through certain parts of the story where there could be some more details and added character building to get to the end of the story. Also, at the end of the book, it simply ends right after revealing some major secrets that were kept hidden throughout the entire book. The ending is decent, but it leaves the reader with a lot to guess at. The reader just has to assume that certain things happen or will happen in the story. But, overall, it's a good read.

Anastasia's Secret - 2012 Book #14

Anastasia's Secret by Susanne Emily Dunlap wasn't quite what I was expecting. It is the story of the duchess Anastasia Romanov told from her perspective. It follows Anastasia from before the start of the world war and Russian Revolution. Anastasia befriends the young guard Sasha that works at the palace. He helps her see that everything in the world isn't as perfect as she thinks it is. This book about Anastasia looks a lot more into reasons behind the revolution that happened in Russia and the causes behind all the trouble for the Romanovs. As Anastasia gets older, her feelings for Sasha get stronger, and she finds that he's her only real friend besides her family. He's also the only one that takes her seriously and the only one that will tell her about what's really going on in Russia. Sasha becomes more and more involved with those heading the revolution as Anastasia gets more worried about what will happen to Sasha and her family.

Since the story is told by Anastasia, it does get a little confusing to know what's going on with the revolution and in Russia in general, since the only things the reader finds out about are the things that Anastasia knows about; and she only knows the things that Sasha tells her, which sometimes he is very vague about as he doesn't want to worry Anastasia any more than he has to.

The story remains engaging throughout, although sometimes it's confusing to the reader how much time has passed between sections of the story. Also, as Anastasia becomes increasingly obsessed with Sasha, the focus of the story changes a lot. The ending of the book is really abrupt. It just ends and then has a note from the author summing up the rest of what happened to Anastasia Romanov and her family and friends.

Flood and Fire - 2012 Book #13

Flood and Fire by Emily Diamand is the sequel to Raider's Ransom. It picks up pretty much right where the first book ends. Lilly Melkum, a fishergirl, is stranded in the middle of the ocean after a major sea battle. Pieces of ships are floating all around her as she tries to get Lexy, the Prime Minister's daughter, safely back to her home. Zeph, the pirate boy, returns home after the battle to find that he won't be able to take over as Boss as easily as he thought he would. His half brother Roba is putting up a fight for the title of Boss. But, to make matters worse, the other pirate clans are mad at the state the Families have been left in after the war that Zeph's father started. They want to make Zeph's entire family into slaves or wipe them out all together. In a moment of desperation, Zeph promises to find Lilly and give her and her computer to the pirates to save his Family. Lilly, meanwhile, is lost on the ocean, struggling to find a way out of the mess left after the sea battle. Her computer, or puter as she calls it, begins to complain of being too wet to work properly. Its battery is also running low, and it threatens to cease working if she is not careful.

In an attempt to reboot her computer, Lilly accidently activates a formerly unknown computer called the National Security Response, a computer that is programmed to restore England to the rightful government in the event of the downfall of the government. It is determined to do this at all costs, even at the cost of human lives. Once the knowledge of this computer is discovered, many people want to find it to use it for their own purposes. Lilly wants to find it to help reboot her computer, the pirates want it to help them win their war against the Pirme Minister, Scotland wants it to study it, and Zeph hopes it can be a way out of his promise to betray his friend. In the search for this computer, friendships are tested, new and old characters make an appearance, and help comes from unexpected places.

Like the first book in the series, the story is told in first person by both Lilly and Zeph. There is still the same confusion at the beginning of each chapter as to who is narrating that section. Also, like the first book, the story is told in present tense, which makes it a little confusing sometimes when they start telling the story at a later point and then tell what happened to get up to that point.

However, despite these points, it is a very engaging read. It has an interesting setting of being in the future but having the feel of being in the past with how people live. There is some advanced technology, but most people don't use and have never seen it. They are certain that it is evil and the cause of all the natural disasters that have happened in the world. It is not super predictable which makes the story interesting to read. Also, it's neat to see how the characters have changed over the course of the story, from the beginning of the first book to the end of the second book. It was a very good read.