Concentr8 by William Sutcliffe

Drugs are bad, mmkay?

Near-future London has been devoured by riots. The culprits? Out of control teens labelled "feral" by the media and the police.

Huge swaths of misbehaving students have been put on a new wonder drug called Concentr8. It's like Ritalin on steroids. Wait, that might be confusing, it's like Super-Ritalin. There, that's better.

Concentr8 has been "proven" by the medical community, often backed by pharmaceutical companies, to reduce criminality in youth suffering from ADHD.

Then, out of the blue, the program is stopped cold. The teens, suddenly deprived of their precious drug, go all Dee Snider and decide that they "Ain't Gonna Take It," hence the riots.

The novel focuses on a young gang, although they wouldn't call themselves that. It's made up of Blaze, Troy, Lee, Femi & Karen. They've been on Concentr8 for many years and decide to wander out into the city and see if they can capitalize on the rioting.

Stormstruck by John Macfarlane

All through junior high and high school I was a member of a Boy Scout troop- A Sea Scout troop to be precise. We learned a lot about knots, basic navigation, clouds and we bonded through camps and other adventures. More than anything though, the life lessons have stuck with me all through life. There is something about leaving the confines of land in a small craft at the mercy of the elements that builds teamwork, character and camaraderie.

Stormstruck is written by John Macfarlane, an ex-Navy serviceman. In it a headstrong boy called Sam determines to save his faithful pooch Pogo from a certain death by making a sea journey. As you would expect. things soon go awry and they have to help each other survive. There are other elements to the story as well- Sam constantly references the wise sayings of his older brother Steve and later  in the novel we discover why.

 I remember reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in college and the line "twas water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink" has always stuck with me as being perhaps the worst thing about being lost at sea. The book is told in a first person viewpoint and on more than one occasion the search for water and his burning thirst are Sam's major predicaments.

Macfarlane's knowledge of sea survival is astounding and he is able to transmit that through Sam's voice. Sam, for his part is a very capable young seaman. As you would expect there are lots of twists and turns in the story and just when we think he is safe some other calamity befalls him making for a compelling read indeed.

This story has echoes of classic survival reads such as The Call of the Wild and The Old Man and the Sea but with a youthful exuberance of books such as Down the Yukon by Will Hobbs. I recommend it for ages 9+.

For more reviews like this one check out my personal blog here.

APOLLO: The Brilliant One by George O'Connor

Narrated by the nine muses (who tell segments of Apollo's story), O'Connor introduces Apollo with stories of his origin and some of his adventures - like killing a giant python as a way of seeking revenge for a time when the serpent pursued his (and his twin Artemis's) mother during pregnancy. You can check two of the spreads related to that story line below.

Illuminae: The Illuminae Files_01 by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Like many of you, I spent some time over the holidays in a galaxy far, far away, swept up in the story of an epic war between rebel forces and an evil empire, a story filled with interstellar strife and futuristic technologies. But I have yet to see the new Star Wars movie; instead, I read the pulsing Illuminae: The Illuminae Files_01 by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.

A STEP TOWARD FALLING by Cammie McGovern

Emily and Lucas only have one thing in common.  They were both at the wrong place at the right time, and they both reacted in the same way.  They chose to look the other way.

The cover of A STEP TOWARD FALLING states, "Sometimes the worst thing you can do is nothing at all."  That's what Emily did the night she saw Belinda under the bleachers.  She knew something bad was happening, but when she saw Lucas was also watching, she made the decision to let him deal with it.  Later, she learned that Lucas felt the same way, and no one stepped in to help the helpless Belinda.

Emily and Lucas have the same punishment for their thoughtless inaction.  They are required to put in volunteer time at the Life-Long Learning Center that serves adults with disabilities.  Their assignment is a class called Boundaries and Relationships in which the young adults are given instruction on dating and other social interactions.  It is quite an eye-opener for Emily and Lucas as they learn to work with disabled people just like Belinda.

Old-School Wizard School

A few years ago, when my family returned to our urban home from a long spring vacation, we were greeted by a dozen or so young owls frolicking on the roof. Surprised and delighted, I couldn't help posting on facebook, "Either there's a nest nearby or one of the kids got accepted to Hogwarts."

Harry Potter has become such a part of the cultural milieu that he springs instantly to mind every time a train arrives or an owl flutters by your window or an iPhone 6s snapshot moves a little bit. Sometimes it's hard to remember that Harry was neither the first nor last fictional wizard to struggle through a program of rigorous magical instruction.

Take Ged, from A Wizard of Earthsea, published in 1967 by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Teen Survey: Calvin

It's time for another reader survey! It's all well and good for me to post about a book I've read and enjoyed, but here's some input from an actual teen.

Name: Calvin

Age: 15

Grade: 10th

Books recently read for fun: Fall of Giants by Ken Follett - It took me a while, but it was a fantastic read and ultimately awesome! - and Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell - heart-wrenching, and you really want the main characters to get together.

Books recently read for class: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Books you want to read: Winter of the World and Edge of Eternity, the second and third books in the Century Trilogy by Ken Follett.

Books you read as a kid: Harry Potter! Book of choice; just great. My sister read the 7th book 13 times.

Why you like to read: I can't stop reading; it's a passion, and it takes my mind off school.

Favorite book genres/topics: Sci-fi/historical fantasy. Fantasy books transport me into new worlds (so) it's hard to stop reading.

Favorite authors: Ken Follett

Favorite playwrights and plays: West Side Story

Favorite movies: Airplane! My favorite movie by far. I love comedy movies.

Favorite musicians/music genres: Jazz

Anything else you want to say: Reading is awesome!

Five of my favorite books from 2015 (and six 2016 books I'm looking forward to)

It's that time of year for bloggers to make some lists. So, with the caveat that there are a lot of 2015 books that I haven't gotten to yet, like Thing Explainer, here are my five favorites from this year.

It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War by Lynsey Addario
Lynsey Addario is now an acclaimed, award-winning photojournalist and combat photographer who has worked in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, and Libya (where she and several colleagues were kidnapped). But though she began taking pictures as a teenager, she never considered photography as a career until after graduating from college. At first, photography was something she did to earn money to travel around the world. Then, as she increasingly ventured into dangerous regions despite the risks and the effects on her personal life, it became her job and her calling. It’s What I Do, featuring some of Addario’s photographs, is an eye-opening memoir exploring how she became a photographer and why she continues to venture around the world to document war and injustice.

Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson
Here in the U.S., when we think of 20th century Russia/Soviet Union, things like the fall of the Romanovs, communism, and the Cold War come to mind, not World War II. As M. T. Anderson demonstrates, in order to understand what happened during the war, we do need some understanding of the Romanovs, communism, and the Cold War, but it’s also worth noting what we’re ignoring by overlooking the Soviet role in World War II: it “eventually suffered 95 percent of the military casualties inflicted on the major Allied powers (the U.S., the U.K., and the USSR)—and 90 percent of Germans killed in combat died fighting them.” An estimated 27 million Soviets, both military and civilian, died during the war, over 15% of the USSR’s population. The city of Leningrad (formerly Petrograd, formerly and now once again St. Petersburg) suffered under a German siege lasting 900 days; a million people died, and a million others went to desperate lengths to survive the freezing cold and starvation. It is in this context—the instability of the last days of the Romanovs, the rise of the Communists, then the treacherous consolidation of power by Joseph Stalin, and the suffering of World War II—that the famous composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who was alternately honored and denounced by the authorities, wrote his Seventh Symphony during the siege of Leningrad in honor of his beloved birthplace. (See also Colleen's review from earlier this year.)

The Way Home Looks Now by Wendy Wan-Long Shang

Family and loss are themes that are not usually the themes in jfic books and when one does encounter one such book it is hard not to feel depressed upon completion of the book. This novel is different however, so light is the author's touch (it is no wonder she has won awards for her writing) that the book is a page turner despite the heavy subject matter.

Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker

Elizabeth Grey is a witch hunter. No, she's not chasing down bed knobs and broom sticks, she's the real deal. Her work includes taking down dangerous wizards & necromancers that summon ghouls, impose curses and generally wreck havoc in their city.

One day, after a long shift of crushing evil, Elizabeth and her partner Caleb go for a drink at the local watering hole. One thing leads to another and Elizabeth finds herself disoriented, confused and frightened.

In her delirium, she finds herself in possession of illegal substances and in a cruel twist of irony is accused of witchcraft and sentenced to death.

Waiting to die in a freezing jail cell, abandoned by her friends and sick with fever, Elizabeth is offered salvation from an unlikely source, a notoriously dangerous wizard named Nicholas Perevil.

Saved by the enemy, she's asked to perform a deadly task as payment: Find and destroy the source of the life-draining curse that's been thrust upon Nicholas by an unknown adversary.