Tyger, Tyger is the first of the Goblin Wars trilogy by Kersten Hamilton based on  Celtic Folklore or Mythology. It is Chronicles of Narnia meets Hunger Games with creatures scarier and even more mystical. Hamilton pens fear to life and sheds a shadow over a world that while just like ours,  it is awake to the dreamlike and nightmarish creatures that most humans know nothing of. Just as I felt after reading books from the masterminds of  Tolkien and C.S Lewis who created worlds where I that submerged me, Tyger Tyger holds its own in the fantasy arena. Beware though that even as an adult you will find yourself trapped by what awaits you inside these pages.

Hamilton does not shy away from the spiritual implications on either end of the spectrum. I know that could make some people uncomfortable, but it is written as fantasy, in which you will see characters that resemble reality but aren't fully real. Although Kersten Hamilton is a christian, she longs for this book to go out mainstream and minister by way of storytelling, or a parable-like approach to our world. Too often we are afraid to mention the power of darkness, so as not to cause fear, disturb anyone. But as followers of Jesus Christ we strip Him of His power when we don't acknowledge what we are battling in His name.

On an entertainment can-I-put-it-down level, I tore through it, in a day or so. And then I was mad. Why? Because I hated for it to end and now I 'get' to wait a year to read the next and I don't want to (read that in a VERY whinny voice)!! I want to keep reading in that world,to know what happens to Tea and Finn.  I am thinking about it while in the garden, while washing dishes long, LONG after the last page was turned. It is the type of book where I am now spending the evening wandering around looking for another one that could satisfy this craving. I pick one up, look at it and then set it down. Repeat. Repeat.

Have you felt this way about a book? Oh, it is a love hate relationship I have with books that make me do this. I love them, but hate them for ever ending. This is the kind of book that makes reading fun again. This is one of my absolute favourites of the year!!! (It is available on Amazon right now, or wait until the 15th of November and it will be in other bookstores too!!)

I'll leave you with the poem 'The Tyger' by William Blake, which is why this book is titled Tyger Tyger.  In this poem Blake leaves it up to the reader to decide if the creator of the predatory tiger could also make the docile lamb, its victim.

The Tyger

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

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North of Beautiful
by Justina Chen Headley
373 Pages
Young Adult Fiction
Little, Brown and Company
February 2009

We all have things that we would change about ourselves, ears, nose, feet, something. What if you could cover up what haunted that image of perfection that you had? Terra, the heroine of North of Beautiful has always done just that. Beautiful, tall, blond, and incredibly fit, but she will never be good enough-all because of the port wine stain on one half of her face. Her mom has taken her through many painful laser removal treatments that have had no impact on the intensity of the mark on her face. Over the years she has just learned to cover it up and really, what no one knows can't hurt them- or Terra. She is known at school for her jock boyfriend, and that she hangs with the popular crowd and none of them have ever seen her without her mask on.

Through some interesting events Terra meets Jacob, makeup or no make up he has the ability to see right through the image she is trying to live. He seems to know her before she has even said a word. This is disarming to Terra, as not even at home is she able to be honest. Terra's father is verbally abusive, her mother takes the brunt of any mistake the kids make- Terra isn't allowed to be imperfect. Will honesty feel too uncomfortable after so many years in hiding?

I have a HUGE claim to make and maybe to some even preposterous. All that Twilight gets so wrong- North of Beautiful gets just right. This, not Twilight, is the book I think teens should read. Forget the sickly-super-vamps and feeble-minded-females, this Young Adult novel is worth its paper and much more. Justina Chen Headley rocked the world of Young Adult Literature when she typed this one up. I can't say enough about it. The writing is great, the characters are flesh, the truth is true and there are no mind games. This one goes in my 'must keep' pile.

North of Beautiful brings the message to kids that imperfection isn't what we should hide, but what we should be proud of. Beauty comes from security and knowing that you are just as you should be- no matter what way our world goes. Beauty-shmooty...who is the judge of that?

And with easy, relaxed strides it takes my Stellar Five Chicken Award. This is what Young Adult should be like!

Author Justina Chen Headley Links:

Blog: Wordlings by Justina
Website: Justina Chen Headley

The Hunger Games
The Boy in Striped Pajamas
The Invention of Hugo Cabret

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Images courtesy of Penguin Young Readers Group

Paper Towns
by John Green
320 pages
YA Fiction
Dutton Books Publishing

Margo Roth Spiegelmen is the average hip girl at school who seemingly has all that she wants and then some, she has the cool friends, the designer jeans and a boyfriend. Late at night, a couple of months before prom and graduation of her senior year she barges into Quintin Jacobsen's life begging him to do some pranks together (probably because he has access to a car). He is the opposite of cool, he hangs out with geeks, is cautious and is bullied. He has loved her for years and any time spent in her company is a dream. He agrees, they go, it is fun and the Paper Towns goes on from there.

Filled with high school-esk relationships and issues, from parties to prom, this book is deeper than one would expect from the initial chapters. Yes, it still is about high schoolers, but the themes are deeper and more intense than other feel good YA books. I can't quite nail down why but I really didn't like it as much as I was hoping. I liked the beginning and the end chapters, there was a certain lul in the middle that almost made me give up the reading. I am glad I stuck it out because the nuggets are at the end, but it was a close call several times for me.

It was entertaining, but I just didn't come away feeling like it was that good. It was a Young Adult book that may be just that, designed so perfectly for Young Adults that the rest of us really should keep our noses out.

What did you think of Paper Towns? How did you like Margo?

60/100

If you want some Young Adult book recommendations, here are three of my favourites:

The Hunger Games
The Boy in Striped Pajamas
The Invention of Hugo Cabret

What did you think of Paper Towns? How did you like Margo?

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The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
374 Pages
Survival, Adventure, Fantasy
Scholastic Press

If you have made it past the cover, then you are already further along than I was with this book. If I had only seen it once I would have skipped right over it missing all its scrumptious insides. What a loss! I look at that cover and think sci-fi and borring. The Hunger games is not really a true sci-fi and it  is the complete opposite of boring. I tore through The Hunger Games like I was rabid for my eyes to suck in the words, the meaning, and the story.

The story is violent, harsh and intense. But since I grew up on a diet of Rambo, Rocky, Die Hard and Terminator I managed to make it through easily, as would an average 12-year-old who hasn’t been living in seclusion. As much as The Hunger Games is about a dark time in history, the book does not bring a cloud of murky gloom upon the reader. More than that you’ll be rooting for the girl, the unlikely and diamond in the rough heroine Katniss. Katniss Everdeen, ever since her father died she has become the provider for her family, she has made it her calling  to hunt enough meat to put food on the table and even uses is to purchase other necessities. Her mom did not immediately wish to survive and out of necessity and hunger Katniss took over to feed her sister and protect her.

The basic concept of The Hunger Games is that somehow for some reason which the narrator does not know, the districts owe the Capitol big time. Each year so as to remind the districts who is really boss, and who owns them there is a contest, a contest in which each district must give up two children, a boy and a girl to fight to the death. There are 12 districts in all and that means 24 contestants or, as they are known in The Hunger Games, tributes. They are selected through a lottery system and then taken to the Capitol to get  all glammed up, marketed and trained to be deadly, all to bring awe and importance to the Capitol. They are then all released into the arena, a glass bubble that goes for miles in which the Capitol controls the weather, and the conditions. They are stalked so that their every motion is on screen.  It is a forced reality show, which each district watches glued to the screen for fear their own will not make it much longer.

Just the plot in itself really gives only a slice of the cake for me. I am a reader who loves characters and people and character development. The plot is great, but to me the character development really made be turn the pages at warp speed. The plot would be good without the depth, the depth would be good without the great plot, together it is a bond that you will not escape dissatisfied. This was my local book club pick this month, and all of us loved it. They were screaming at me with a death wish because the sequel Catching Fire isn’t coming out until the fall!

Throw out the Twilight saga, get rid of the sickly  vamps and bring out the real, the tough and the worthwhile YA lit. The Hunger Games will restore what Twilight stole from Young Adult literature, guts. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins will wake you up, and take you to a place in a different time, different and yet so much that we can learn from it, The Hunger Games is an absolute must read! There is no question that this is the most inspiring, the hardest to put down, and the most surprising read for me yet this year! I loved every page and will be reading the sequels when I am able to get my hands on them.

Who else is dying to get the next book in the series? If you aren’t it is because you haven’t read this one!

Anne’s House of Dreams
by Lucy Maud Montgomery
227 Pages
Published in 1917

In this book number five of the Anne of Green Gables classics the reader follows Anne Blythe and Gilbert on to there new home. For years Anne has dreamed of a house, and now she has one, which she calls the House of Dreams. They make many new friends who are just as endearing as the all of Lucy Montgomery’s other human concoctions, and they entranced me the whole way through. Anne and Gilbert have their share of troubles, but rather than allowing it to pull them apart it brings the two lovebirds into a stronger and closer bond than before.

The reader thus far has seen Anne and Gilbert in their childishness, yet in this book the youth of the first four books slips into the past and our dear hero and heroine have grown up. Anne no longer gets into constant trouble, and she has also tamed her temper and her tongue. She is just as sweet and precocious, but now all that is balanced with a good dose of maturity as well.

I loved Anne’s House of Dreams just as much as the books before it, and could relate even more to it because of my age and season in life. I enjoyed Anne when she was a child, but this book felt like the reward for the wait with her relationship with Gilbert. Finally they get to be together. But, just as in all the things we wait for, even dreams aren’t perfect and while they work through their troubles, the characters become even more human and real.

This was another royal performance by Anne, Gilbert, and especially by Lucy Maud Montgomery who dreamed up this beloved character and made her real to me. Loved it! However, I think I am going to stop here for now with Anne. I watched the movies and love them all, but the sequel books aren’t calling my name yet. I want to read them at some point, but not yet.

Where did you stop the Anne-mania? Have you read them all? Which was your favourite Anne of Green Gables book?

Dreadlock Girl Reviews Anne of Green Gables series:
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island

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