Death Games on Planet Boy: Book Review of Maze Runner

 

The Maze Runner by James Dashner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In The Maze Runner, James Dashner’s YA dystopian novel, Thomas wakes with no memory to find himself in a self-sufficient community of boys. The boys have organized themselves and each has a job, from cooking to cleaning to growing crops to raising livestock, each boy has his role—the most dangerous of which is maze running.

The area the boys live in is surrounded by a maze, and the maze runners wake early and return just before sunset, spending their days running through the maze, memorizing turns in order to make maps and look for some kind of escape.

Doesn’t sound so bad, right? Better than slaughtering animals. It would be, if it weren’t for the grievers, mechanical monsters that mostly come out at night, but have also been known to haunt the maze during daylight hours, as well.

Thomas’s arrival is like a slice of pizza from a still hot pie—the cheese pulls and pulls, uncovering the other slices. Any safety the boys thought they had is gone. Any chance of survival relies on solving the maze, and Thomas might be the key the boys need to escape.

As a dystopian novel, the story is very stylized, especially in terms of the all-boy society that has arisen. In many ways, the boys are not stereotypical at all—they get along well and rarely fight. They are totally responsible and no one seems to slack off at their jobs. They are even pretty nice to each other. The Gladers, as they call themselves, are almost the antithesis to Lord of the Flies. As they say, “Sucks to your auntie.”

Would I teach this book? James Dashner does an excellent job of creating a suspenseful and exciting plot that brings up questions such as: Should we sacrifice some for the good of all? What are the limits humans will go to save themselves? What happens when you give children power?

Coincidentally, The Maze Runner is one choice in the dystopian book club based on Units of Study that I am currently teaching. Several of my students are reading the book and seem to be enjoying it so far. I am also enjoying the connections that the Units of Study asks students to make as well as offering students a variety of book choices at different ability levels. So, yes, thumbs up on teaching the book in a middle school class. Keep in mind that there’s a lot of violence, so those who are sensitive might not enjoy it as much. There is also a whole lot of boy, so if you are looking for heroines, you won’t find them here.

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Everyone Has a Cinderella II: Review of Stephen King's Gwendy's Button Box.

 

Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Gwendy’s Button Box , written with Richard Chizmar, is not Stephen King’s finest—in part because it is so short. For a work by Stephen King it feels truncated. Not like a short story—his short stories are generally full and do not feel lacking—but as though someone had said keep this one short, and perhaps they did.

During the summer before middle school, Gwendy is approached by a strange man in a bowler hat who wants to talk. He has no designs on Gwendy, but he does have a proposition for her—take the button box, enjoy its power, but don’t abuse it. Gwendy appreciates what the levers do—one produces silver coins and one produces magical chocolate animals that act like a drug to soothe the body and elevate the mind. The different colored buttons across the top represent areas of the world, and to push one would bring disaster to that place. The black button, the cancer button, as Gwendy thinks of it, will bring a particular kind of violence.

As Gwendy grows older, she finds that the box has a curious affect on her: she becomes a natural winner, seemingly good at everything. Though she tries not to call attention to her new gifts, sometimes they call attention to themselves--and not always in a positive way.

Would I teach this book? Being that it is not my favorite, I doubt it. However, it is an entertaining book and would probably be enjoyable for many high schoolers. I might recommend it as a pleasure read. It is not, however, the substantial read that is the typical Stephen King book. In fact, I might call it King Light.

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Holly Gibney Gets Her Due: Book Review of Holly by Stephen King

 

Holly by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Holly is Stephen King’s homage to Holly Gibney, the meek character introduced in Mr. Mercedes. When we first met Holly, she was a strange bird grieving her aunt and thrown together with ex-cop Bill Hodges and high school kid Jerome to find the sadistic killer who stole her great aunt’s car and used it to plow into a line of people waiting for a job fair. Holly becomes a hero in Mr. Mercedes, and under Bill’s tutelage and throughout the books, she becomes a great detective. She’s also delightfully quirky and easy to cheer on as she grows more comfortable with the outside world.

In Holly, she is now grieving her mother, who even in denying the existence of Covid, died on a ventilator while being treated for Corona.

In Holly’s grief, she is contacted by a mother whose daughter is missing. As the world is still in the thick of Covid and newly vaccinated (at least those who are willing) she decides to take the job, in part to keep herself occupied. The deeper Holly investigates, the more she begins to suspect a serial killer.

In an alternate thread, Emily and Rodney Harris are an older academic couple who have begun to abduct people and then eat them for medicinal purposes. They eat different body parts in the belief that it will relieve them of the many ails of aging.

Holly must catch the killers, but they have on their side the disguise of their advanced age and no motive visible to the outside world.

Barbara, Jerome’s younger sister, plays a big role in this book, too. We follow her story of her budding gifts as a poet.

As with many of King’s books, I enjoyed Holly very much. She is a curious character who keeps returning and who grows in each iteration. King’s ability to create characters shines in this book, where the goodness of Jerome and Barbara lights Holly up, and the lack of humanity of the Harris’s and their diabolical selfishness simmers.

Would I teach this book? Holly is a book that can stand alone or be taught as a study of a minor character developed through a series into a major character. It is also a good study in using current events (Covid and the political discussions that followed) and is plenty creepy. Perhaps the best way to teach Holly would be to study how both plot and characters are developed, without either suffering.

 

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Teach Banned Books, Teach Students How to Deal IRL: Book Review of Ender's Game

 

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game has been on reading lists for years. Why? What’s the appeal of a prepubescent boy leading Earth in a war against an alien enemy? A good question, as more recently we see series such as Hunger Games and Divergent with enormous popularity. Many are disturbed by the violence and have concern for the children who read such books. Isn’t it harmful for adolescents to read about other adolescents committing terrible atrocities against each other? What possible benefit could a thirteen year old receive from reading about six year old Ender brutally beating his bully? Or by his being threatened by the school bully and his cruel older brother, Peter?

Ender’s Game is set in a future world that suffered two wars against aliens that have been named Buggers due to their likeness to Earth insects. During the first war, the aliens took humans by surprise. During the second, the humans barely won. Now, an international alliance wants to beat the aliens once and for all, using a team of specially trained children to do it.

Enter Ender, whose existence as a rare third child was allowed after his older brother and sister showed military promise. Peter was too eager to do violence, their sister Valentine, too kind-hearted, but by allowing Ender’s birth, they hope to find in a comfortable middle—willing to apply necessary force, but not eager to do so. Ender is chosen to go to battle school, which is located in outer space, so that students can learn to fight in lowered gravity.

In some ways, battle school is like a boarding school—children live together, away from their parents, and go to classes and learn. In one very important way, it is different: the games are everything. The games are battles between child armies, made up mostly of boys, in which they fight in simulated outer space to raise their ranks.

Ender is immediately set apart from the other boys, made to be isolated as well as envied. He is moved through the ranks quickly, which helps him to become better at warfare, but does little for his mental health and growth. Interspersed throughout the story are bodiless conversations between the high-ranking officers in charge, who often discuss the impact of their manipulations on Ender.

Most people, especially educators, agree that reading is especially important for brain development and literacy. Therefore, one argument for books like Ender’s Game is that such a book gets kids to read, and the story is intense and exciting and the ending packs a big bang.
Valid, but is that enough to encourage kids to read about children fighting society’s battles?

In Ender, readers recognize the hero, the one who is extra compared to the best. He has more pressure upon him than any other character, and he is given little choice but to train to fight the war that was begun long before his birth. In many ways, is that not an analogy for childhood? Placed in the middle of inherited structures and asked to succeed without all of the right tools.

 

The violence is also part of an internal struggle for Ender—he must protect himself against the violence of others, which often requires him to use significant force, as he seeks not just to prevent one beating but to convince the rest of the bullies to leave him alone. However, Ender feels great guilt and self loathing for hurting others, and yet does not see any other options that would guarantee his safety. It is a decision that many of us have to make in our youth—how will we respond to those who would hurt us? Especially those who seek to cause great harm?

It is not about what our children read, it is more about helping them to process and think about what they have read. If books like Ender’s Game are not pushed past an initial understanding of plot, if children are not asked to consider Ender’s plight, then the violence and all the ideas within the book have been lost. When people connect to a book, usually it is more than an exciting plot—they want to think and feel, as this is part of the entertainment—yes, using your brain is entertaining. People--including young people--like to feel smart when they catch onto subtleties in a book.

Would I teach this book? Ender’s Game has a compelling plot and a lot to dig into. A middle school student can easily handle the writing style and content. Do not underestimate their imagination and depth. Even those who hate the book have a lot to say about it. If anything, the book does not teach students to glorify violence, but to consider the deep personal and social repercussions of it.

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Queer Representation, Knights, and Shapeshifting: Book Review of Nimona

 

Nimona by N.D. Stevenson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In Nimona, by ND Stevenson, Nimona shows up at Lord Ballister Blackheart’s evil lair unexpected, claiming that she has been sent to be his new sidekick. Ballister at first dismisses the girl, uninterested in her offer, until he learns that she is a shapeshifter. And quite the shapeshifter indeed, as she can be a dragon, a cat, an old lady, whatever she chooses to be. She is also eager to attack The Syndicate and Sir Goldenloin, Ballister’s arch nemesis. Ballister’s backstory shows that he has been forced into villany and that Goldenloin is to blame. He does not wish to destroy human lives without regard, nor does he lack compassion for others. However, as Ballister soon discovers, Nimona does not play by the same rules as Ballister, nor does she live by the same principles.

The world that Nimona and Ballister live in has knights and magic, but also science and modern technology. The juxtaposition adds to the humor and play in the story. Swords and bio weapons in the same volume--yes, please.

Even as Nimona takes a wrong turn, it is clear that we should love this broken-hearted child. She may look and act like a dragon at times, but she is still a vulnerable child who acts out as a result of trauma. Trauma, trust, and power are important conversations in the book.

Would I teach Nimona? Yes. Nimona is darkly hilarious and the main character is charming as well as dangerous. Ballister, as de facto mentor, parent, and boss is also morally complicated. I love graphic novels, and I love that there is a queer plotline. Representation in literature is so important.

 

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Messing with Your Mind: Book Review of ReInception

 

ReInception by Sarena Straus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to StoryGraph and Sarena Straus for the review copy of ReInception by Sarena Straus, which I received with the expectation of a fair and honest review.

ReInception begins with Leandrea’s twentieth birthday, the age when she no longer needs her parents’ consent to modify herself through ReInception, a technique that alters the brain in order to change habits. Originally designed to help addicts rid themselves of the craving for substances, ReInception is now used for everything from snacking too much to altering criminals to avoid incarceration. For Leandrea’s birthday, she has chosen to go to a Prole bar--a place the lower class of society frequents, far different from the places she and her university pals inhabit--and then to a protest against ReInception.

When violence erupts at the protest, Leandrea’s life changes forever and she finds herself needing to decide if she will stay in her naive but relatively safe world or go in search of the truth.

Okay, I am going to be honest. I read a lot of books, for teaching, for pleasure, and for the purpose of reviewing ARCs. When I began reviewing books from Goodreads FirstReads (it is now Goodreads Giveaways), I thought, hey, free books. The way that Goodreads runs the program is that you enter a free raffle on their site, then winners’ names are drawn to receive physical or Kindle copies of the books that the publisher or author has offered. ReInception is the first book I have received from StoryGraph giveaways, a reading website and app that has some important differences from Goodreads, such as more clearly tracking pages read. Many of the books are ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) and many of them are quite good. Astoundingly good, in fact. However, many of them are clunkers. It is not in my nature not to finish a book--once I start, I am committed. There are very few books I have not finished--usually overdue library books I could not renew again. Now that I have more responsibilities--family, etc, etc, and less dispensable time, I find it more important to use my time where I can potentially have an impact. I hope that by reading and reviewing books, I will help other authors by getting the word out about their work.  (Yes, I know that I read a fair number of books that are not ARCs and are written by dead, famous authors who don’t need any help from me. As I said, I read books for other purposes, too.) This is all just to say, I am happy when books surprise me and appeal to my tastes. ReInception is one of those books that was even more enjoyable than I expected.  

Leandrea, the main character, does not come from the most affluent and influential family, but they belong to the upper class and have jobs as political liaisons. They have wisely chosen not to modify their daughter, but by not modifying her, they have effectively made her an outsider. She does, however, have communication implants, which are basically standard for the time, like having a smartphone is today. In part, the book seems to be discussing capitalism, the role of government in an individual’s ability to make their own decisions, and the influence of companies over human behavior and the government. Another discussion, which is in many ways more interesting, is the conversation about privilege. As we struggle in our own society to address the question of racial privilege, part of the question is about what role the privileged should play in righting the wrongs of inequality. Who should be able to make decisions? Who should lead the movement for change? Who, ultimately, should be in charge of the changes made to society and the government?

Would I teach this book? ReInception would be a good fit in a literature or creating writing class focused on science fiction. The novel follows several of the trends in science fiction: technology ruled world, government overreach, and a blurred line between corporations and the government. The female main character, which has become more common, and a learning of the truth that has been hidden from the rest of society are also common themes.

In considering the character of Leandrea, she is the typical outsider/individual who is driven out of society, though in this case, Leandrea seems more driven not towards the truth, but in concern for social equality. Her carelessness in some of her actions, as mentioned earlier, including her assumption that she would be welcomed at a Prole bar and not seen as a tourist, her romanticization of the freedom of the Prole class, and her assumptions about their lives make clear how problematic her interest is. That, and Straus’s incredible world building, are what make this book most stand out.

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Happily Ever After--It's Kind of Complex (Book Review of Happily: A Personal History with Fairy Tales by Sabrina Orah Mark)

 

Happily: A Personal History-with Fairy Tales by Sabrina Orah Mark
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to Random House Book Club and Goodreads Giveaways for the review copy of Happily: A Personal History—with Fairy Tales by Sabrina Orah Mark, which I received in exchange for a fair and honest review.

In Happily, Mark uses fairytales to discuss personal experiences and public concerns. She considers characters and retellings, gender roles, and the lessons the stories are meant to teach.

While Mark uses fairytales to discuss many different topics, the subject she returns to the most often is family. Her mother enters as a voice on the telephone, her children have the wisdom of youth, her husband as the intonation of support and affection. However, Mark also discusses her struggles as a third wife and stepmother. Knowing that your beloved has had lives before you is always a haint in the background, but ex partners and children make for much noisier ghosts, especially when their history is more complicated than your own.

Happily, for all the difficult and weighty topics it discusses, is not overly heavy, in part because the book chapters are so short. Each chapter is an essay that’s scarcely a breath.

The essays make use of a lot of tactics that poetry uses: allusions, layering of stories, repetition, and bringing together disparate pieces. Her essays are beautiful collages.

Would I teach Happily? Yes. The essays are excellent instruction of what essays can do and how they can disrupt a typical narrative structure.

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Where Are We Going with This? Book Review of The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

 

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, we are given an insight into what being a grunt in Vietnam looked like. We learn stories of death and horror and desensitization and survival. We learn how it felt to kill and how it felt to be wounded. We learn how the men supported each other and sometimes failed each other.

The title story of The Things They Carried is widely taught and anthologized, and for good reason. In “The Things They Carried,” the driving force behind the story is the anaphoric phrase, “the things they carried” followed by the literal and figurative things that the soldiers schlepped with them as they traveled through Vietnam. The story is poetic and lyrical, in large part because of the repeated phrase, but also because of the attention to rhythm and detail. For example, the story begins with First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, who is leading the men, and who is carrying letters from a young woman as well as her pictures. The bigger weight is his love and desire for her, which is unrequited.

The opening story begins the juxtaposition of men who are not emotionally prepared for the violence, hatred, and indifference of war. None seem to be career military, just men who were drafted and heeded the call. They are united by their fear of death, their desire to live, and their methods of staying sane.

The stories in the book are all clearly linked, and more than once, a story is followed by a metafiction account of what was changed to make it a story and why. The narrator does not figure as a character in the opening story, but as the book continues, his status as character grows and wanes, but his importance as author to the stories certainly grows. He is the one who remembers for all of those young men, who extends their mortality by writing about them, and who alters the stories to make them into stories and to create justice, explore emotions, and to just give the experiences meaning. Has the truth been altered? Yes. Has the Truth been altered? O’Brien takes pains to help us think not.

The stories are dark and terrible, as you would assume. They are uncomfortable to read. But the book is just as much about writing as it is about war.

Would I teach this book? Short answer, yes. Longer answer, if reading the entire book of short stories, it seems more appropriate for a higher level literature course in which the students could appreciate the technical beauty and sophistication of the stories. As stated previously, the book is as much a collection of short stories as it is a discussion of writing and the process of transforming life into art.

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I Love You to a Black Hole and Back: Book Review of Under Alien Skies

 

Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer's Guide to the Universe by Philip Plait
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank you to W. W. Norton and GoodReads Giveaways, from whom I received an ARC of Dr. Philip Plait’s Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe in exchange for a fair and honest review.

In Under Alien Skies, Plait takes us across the universe, exploring our solar system, galaxy, and beyond. He helps the reader imagine being a tourist in many different places--from the moon to a dwarf star to a black hole. Each adventure has corresponding evidence and history of how we know what we know. There is much to learn from this book, especially for someone like me, who has not learned about space since middle school. I didn’t have astronomy in high school or college, so that is the case for me.

In the second person sections which describe the different trips throughout the universe, Plait creates the experience of being on a spaceship and describing both the sensations and what you might see. There is a captain, of course, and moments when everyone on board is viewing together. There is some discussion of the travel it takes to get there, and admissions from the author when things would have been fudged to make the impossible (as we know it) possible.

The majority of the book, however, is dedicated to science, discussing the composition of planets and stars, the effect of gravity in different places, the possibility of humans traveling to or living in different places. The tone is chatty and the language is not complicated, though it introduces the reader to a lot of vocabulary. This book is clearly written for the common person, and not someone who knows a whole lot about space. There is a lot of information, and if you are looking for a good science writing book, here it is.

Would I teach this book? Well--probably not. I can see that this is a good book. That’s obvious. But it was a little too dense to be entertaining to me. It took me a while to read and I found it to be--well--not to my taste. So, while there might be a lot in the book for my students to learn, it would not be enjoyable for me. And I cannot say that a lot of the information stuck with me. I found my mind drifting in several places. So. while I might recommend this to others who enjoy science writing, especially astronomy, I would not assign it for my class.

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Fantasy Island: Book Review of Relics of Youth

 

Relics of Youth: Volume 1 by Chad Rebmann
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thank you, Fort Vancouver Regional Library, for sending the bookmobile out to the rural school where I teach and enabling me to check out Relics of Youth by Matt Nicholas, Chad Rebmann, Skylar Patridge, and Vladimir Popov.

In Relics of Youth, Nat Rodriguez has gathered five other teenagers to journey together and find the island that has mysteriously appeared as a tattoo on all of them. There is the rich boy, the former child star, the goody-two-shoes, the tight-laced boy who’s about to join the military, the boy going through chemo, and Nat, who is an orphaned misfit. Not all the teens are so excited about the trip, as they are quite skeptical. The rich boy, Garrett, is taking them all out on his massive yacht and almost immediately there are squabbles. Once on the island, they discover that they have been followed by villains, and in order to stay alive, they must stick together--especially after strange things start to happen. The crew needs to solve the mystery of the island that summoned them before their pursuers can take them down.

Relics of Youth sets itself up as a current day story based on myths. The main characters are clearly stereotypes and it is just as clear that the six will pair off into three couples, though to my taste, I would have preferred less obvious coupling . It feels almost as though the comic was dreaming itself as a movie. A little more subtlety all the way around would have done the plot wonders.

It seemed that the volume was set up to be the beginning of a series, but I could not find any additional volumes, and this one came out in 2020. It may have been another endeavor that crumbled due to Covid or perhaps this volume did not sell enough to follow up. In any case, though I was a bit underwhelmed by the first volume, I was interested in reading a second volume--though if the library did not have it, I doubt that I would have purchased it.

Would I teach this book? I doubt it. Relics of Youth seems recursive of Runaways and Teen Titans. If I were teaching a graphic novel class, I would be more likely to teach one of those series than Relics of Youth, as these characters did not grab me as much and it seems nearly unfathomable that their parents would be okay with their teenaged children traveling without them or another chaperone. There’s fantasy and then there’s fantasy.

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