Title: My Sister's Keeper
Author: Jodi Picoult
Copyright: 2004
Publisher: Washington Square Press
ISBN: 978-0-7434-5452-9
Genre: Adult Drama/Controversy
Stars: (4/5)
Review: This book completely took my breath away immediately in the first part. It is written in the view of each character in the book through their eyes on the situation at hand. My Sister's Keeper is about a young girl named Anna who is taking out a lawsuit against her family because she does not want to donate a kidney to her sister who is diagnosed with leukemia. The book goes through this adolescent girl's thoughts, her delinquent brother, her firefighter father, and worrisome mother as well as her lawyer and his love from the past. The book is more about have the right of choice on one's body when you're a minor and trying to differentiate between what is ethically right and what is morally right. The only thing I did not like about this book was the fact that she kept switching from past to present constantly. Every other paragraph was a memory, while sometimes all the paragraphs were memories. In some parts where the mother is speaking, I got confused on whether it was the past or the present. This book is great if you want to cry twice (for the ones who only cry after strong emotional events) or if cry a thousand times (for those who cry all the time). I enjoyed reading this book so much that I read it in literally 3 days.
Title: The City of Ember
Author: Jeanne DuPrau
Copyright: 2003
Publisher: Yearling (Random House Children's Books)
ISBN: 978-0-375-82274-2
Genre: Children's Fantasy (Independent Reader)
Stars: (5/5)
Review: This book was definitely a page turner! I saw the movie first, and was blown away by the book more than I was by the movie (which was amazing as well). As most children's chapter books are, the plot thickens and provides plenty of foreshadowing to allow for intellectual stimulation and memory. The City of Ember is about a city underground (but they don't know that) that is complete darkness lit only by flood lights powered by a generator that is falling apart. Two young recent school graduates (12 year olds) are trying to find out how to get out of Ember. If you love Harry Potter or the Twilight series, you will love the Book of Ember series. The book is well written and a fast read for anyone of any age. Near the end of the book, the plot thickens so much that I was reading it on the way to the movies today and on my breaks at work. This is definitely a book I would use in my classroom in the future, although the "Builders" believers may offend highly religious people as being a slight against God. People seem to find a way to make anything a slight against God, though.
Title: The People of Sparks
Author: Jeanne DuPrau
Copyright: 2004
Publisher: Yearling (Random House Children's Books)
ISBN: 0-375-82825-7
Genre: Children's Fantasy (Independent Reader)
Stars: (4/5)
Review: This book was the sequel to 1st book of Ember. The book was definitely not as wonderful as the first book in the series, but it was still enjoyable. The book goes into the origin of conflict as well as how to stop it. The people of Ember arrive in this city of Sparks after climbing out of the ground. The people of Sparks agree to allow them to stay for 6 months to learn how to start their own town. Attacks are made by sneaky people who are trying to get the people of Ember out of their town, and resentments are formed. One kid from Ember is trying to get everyone riled up to start a war. He starts projects, but never finishes them and gets people excited about things for short periods of time. You learn more about why the people of Ember lived underground in this book, but you learn the most in the third book (which is a prequel). Overall, this book was alright. I was expecting more considering the first book was amazing, but it was still a great book. You can learn what we take for granted that may not be around in 200 years and how to prevent a great Disaster like the one in the book.
Title: The Prophet of Yonwood
Author: Jeanne DuPrau
Copyright: 2006
Publisher: Yearling (Random House Children's Books)
ISBN: 978-0-440-42124-5
Genre: Children's Fantasy (Independent Reader)
Stars: (1/5)
Review: This book was the prequel to the City of Ember series. I thought it was almost a pointless book. The story line of course was not completely boring, but the connection of it with the City of Ember was almost miniscule. I thought the author could have written the book closer to the beginning of the City of Ember. One of the characters in the book who is 11 years old is mentioned to be connected with the City of Ember as the one of the elders who took care of a young baby in the first years of the underground city. She was in her late 60s or something at that time. So this book was almost no where near the time of City of Ember, which I found disappointing. The book was about good versus evil with a woman who had a vision and another woman taking her mumblings and turning them around to be "the word of God." This book almost really was not as great as I was hoping it to be. I had my hopes up!
