Red Queen

I recently read Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. This new young adult series is about a girl named Mare Barrow. She is a poor thief from the Stilts, dreading her upcoming conscription on her 18th birthday. For over a hundred years Red soldiers have fought a Silver war, spilling their common red blood to protect their gifted, silver-blooded kings. Mare's story is one of bravery and courage. She stands up for what she believes in and will do anything for the people she loves. That's why it is so important for her to avoid being sent to war. For Mare's people, war means death.

You see, there are two kinds of people in the Kingdom of Norta. There are Silvers (Kings, Queens, Lords and Ladies) who have money, power, summer palaces and winter palaces. And there's everyone else, Reds like Mare, whose only purpose in life is to serve the Silvers. They are forced to be laborers, working hard for very little pay. The Reds outnumber the Silvers so why don't they fight back? Silver blood comes with supernatural abilities, powers that Reds don't have. Magnetrons can control metal, shadows can bend light, nymphs can control water, and strongarms have immense strength. But these are only a few of the amazing abilities silvers possess. 

Their blood is a threat, a warning, a promise. We are not the same and never will be. This is the true division between Silvers and Reds: the color of our blood. This simple difference somehow makes them stronger, smarter, better than us. (page 9) 

One day, Mare discovers that despite her Red blood she has a superior Silver ability, an ability that could save her or doom her. Of course Mare makes this discovery in front of the entire Silver community where all eyes were on her! No one can know of her Red blood, so she must turn her back on everything she has ever know, anyone she's ever loved, and lie to the world. Pretending to be a Silver princess, Mare is forced to hide her true identity. 

She has only one choice to make... 

...play along or join the rising Red rebellion. 

No spoilers here! You'll have to grab a copy of Red Queen to find out!

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good fantasy novel. Victoria Aveyard expertly creates a world where anything seems possible. She makes the Kingdom of Norta feel like it's the town right next door. Best of all, Mare's story does not end here! After devouring Red Queen, check out the sequel Glass Sword and the novella Cruel Crown. (The action and suspense really builds in Glass Sword!) Aveyard is still writing the third book in the trilogy and I cannot wait to see where Mare's journey ends!

This book would make a great addition to your middle/high school classroom library. The Accelerated Reader level is 5.2 and the content is not too mature for your advanced middle school readers (no need to worry about language or sexual themes in this series). I put 2 copies of this out in my 5-6th grade classroom and they were snatched up right away. My students are making great connections between Mare and Katniss (Hunger Games). One student even said that "Red Queen helped to fill the void left behind when she finished the Hunger Games Trilogy!"

I looked UP

Sometimes books evoke a strong reaction from the reader.

I threw this book onto the other side of the couch with a WTF that was a little too loud for 10:30pm and sleeping children in the house!

I just finished reading We All Looked Up, by Tommy Wallach. This book had been on my radar for a while, stuck in the never ending queue of my Barnes and Noble cart. However when I came across it at Target during a recent grocery shopping trip I couldn't resist.

First of all, the cover is minimalistically beautiful and so soft to the touch. One look and I knew it had to be mine!

I binge read this book, polishing it off in less than a week (while also being a full-time working mommy of 3 little ones). Wallach's clean, clear writing reads effortlessly, making it possible to loose yourself within his pages for hours. This part below, was so good that I stuck it up on my classroom wall:

The best books, they don't talk about things you never thought about before. They talk about things you'd always thought about, but that you didn't think anyone else had thought about. You read them, and suddenly you're a little bit less alone in the world.

The story follows four teenagers as their lives intertwine while awaiting the arrival of an asteroid that has a 66.6% chance of wiping out the Earth. The characters see this as an opportunity to shed the labels that have controlled their young lives; the athlete, the slacker, the overachiever, and the promiscuous girl. It's like the Breakfast Club except that impending doom is all that is waiting on the other side of the library doors.

Challenges plague each character as they try to achieve their end of the world goals. Controlling parents, distant parents, partying, riots, and even a stint in prison doesn't break their spirit. Wallach makes you care deeply for each character. SO deeply in fact that the ending will leave you speechless. Then, when the words finally do come, you will find yourself venting to your husband as he's trying to fall asleep. The real reason why your blood pressure skyrockets at the end....

Spoiler alert!!!
I REALLY don't want to ruin this book for you, however the author spoils the end on his website too, so I figured it was ok for me to do the same here.

The book just ends.

It's the day that the asteroid is expected to hit, the characters are together, they "all look up", and then it ends. Does the asteroid hit or not?!?!!

At first I was furious. How could he end the story here? I flipped the last few pages back and forth, over and over again, thinking that maybe I had missed something that would suddenly appear. But then, after processing it for a few moments, I realized that the ending was perfect. It was too expected to go for the "happy everyone lives" ending and if he went with the "tragic everyone dies" ending then there would be no narrator left to tell the story. Ending it where he did leaves our beloved characters still intact and our minds racing with possibilities. What more could you ask for?

Recommendation: Must read! While I discussed some details of this book with my 5th - 6th grade students, I will not be releasing it into general population in my classroom. The concept of this book and the mature themes (teenage partying, sex, drugs) make it more suitable for the high school crowd. This book will live on my mature readers shelf where any brave soul who borrows from there knows they need parental permission first.

Sequel Saturday

There is nothing like finishing a good book
& finding out it has a sequel! 

Even better if it's part of a series!

Sequel Saturday celebrates second place,
the books that come behind great books.

So grab a cup of coffee, cozy up on the couch,
& read on about your favorite book's younger siblings.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Welcome to the first post in my Sequel Saturday series!

Today I want to share two sequels I'm currently reading and enjoying very much. The first in each of these series prompted a swift detour form my summer reading list and a rushed order from Barnes and Noble :)

The Variant Series by Robison Wells

I found Variant at the Scholastic Warehouse Sale back in May. It is a fast paced story about Benson Fisher, a boy who has spent his life bouncing from foster home to foster home, until he receives a scholarship to Maxfield Academy. Benson thinks this will be the point in his life when things finally start to turn around... boy was he wrong. Now he is trapped in a school determined to teach him nothing useful and monitor his every move. Maxfield Academy has no adults and the students have formed gangs in order to stay alive. Detention = death in this stunning debut novel. Feedback picks up right where Variant leaves off and proves to be equally riveting!

The Eighth Day Series by Dianne K. Salerni

I ordered the Eighth Day from my classroom Scholastic Reading Club flyer at the end of the school year. It's about 13-year old, and newly orphaned, Jax waking up one morning to a world without people. The following day everyone's back and Jax is left feeling crazy. But with the help of his guardian Jax learns that he is part of a select group of people who have the power to experience a magical Eighth Day, an extra 24 hours between Wednesday and Thursday. The story is exciting and rooted in Arthurian legend and magic! It was a big hit in my classroom and I'm sure the sequel will not disappoint!


Check back soon for full reviews on all books featured here!

What are you reading this summer?
Happy reading :)

Book Review: The Slated Trilogy

Have you ever finished reading a really great book and experienced a feeling of anger and frustration? Not because the book was over... but because you wish you had written the book yourself? I LOVED Slated so much I found myself wishing that the story was mine. I wished that story had come from my imagination and flowed through my fingers onto the paper. Teri Terry did a fantastic job creating relatable characters, making you fall for them, and then throwing them (and your emotions) through the ringer. Be careful, just when you think everything is over another surprising plot twist sneaks it's way in!

Slated is set in a futuristic London where student riots have caused the government to go to extreme measures to protect their youth. Kids under the age of 16 who are suspected of committing terrorist acts are sentenced to undergo a procedure known as slating. Their memories and personalities are wiped clean essentially making them a "clean slate". They are assigned to a new family to start their lives over with no memories of who they once were or what they had done to warrant slating.

Kyla has been slated and given a second chance... as long as she plays by the government's rules. She's sent to live with a new family and forced to wear a Levo, a device that monitors her happiness levels. If she drops to low it causes pain, blackouts, and possibly death.

Slated follows Kyla's journey as she tries to find a way to fit into her new life, understand her romantic feelings for Ben, another slated, and put together pieces of her past that keep popping up when she least expects it. Through twists and turns Kyla struggles to know who to trust. A difficult task when she doesn't even know who she is. Be prepared for an adrenaline pumping adventure you won't be able to put down!

This book would be perfect to use for literature circles in upper grades, especially for fans of modern dystopians like Hunger Games, Maze Runner, and Divergent. Slated provides a great opportunity for students to discuss what is ethically right and how much control governments should have. It would also be great paired with Among the Hidden (Haddix). Having one group reading Slated and one reading Among the Hidden would lead to great classroom discussions as both books feature governments abusing their power. (Oh how I wish I taught 8th grade right now!!)

Don't forget to stop by Reading Toward the Stars for...

Happy Reading : )

The Vault of Dreamers

I LOVE a good book! I love when a book transports you to a place completely different from where you are. I love when a book makes you feel as though it's characters are a part of you that you have never explored before. I love when you finish a book and it leaves you feeling invigorated. Your adrenaline courses through you like you've just won the Stanley Cup and your muscles (in this case your brain) tingle with excitement.

I just finished reading The Vault of Dreamers, by Caragh M. O'Brien. Let me first say that I would read ANYTHING she writes. She could write an add for vacuum cleaners and have me hanging on her every word. Last year I read her Birthmarked Trilogy and almost had to lock myself in the bathroom so I could get away from my kids and finish the series in peace and quiet. So you can imagine my excitement when I visited a local second-hand bookstore and found an advance reader's copy of Vault of Dreamers a week before it's scheduled release date! There were several spelling/grammar mistakes in this edition, but the language nerd in me loved finding them (and the teacher in me almost circled them in red pen).

The Vault of Dreamers is psychologically spellbinding and sucks you in from it's concept. The story centers around Rosie, a young teenaged student at the prestigious Forge School of the Arts. Forge is unique as it's students are gifted artisans who have every moment of their life televised as part of a reality show about the school. To help enhance student creativity 12 hours of sleep is induced every night. One night, however, Rosie skips her sleeping pill and notices strange things are happening once Forge's cameras go dark. She discovers that Forge itself might be an experiment with a secret world lurking behind the cameras.

This book is a must for anyone who loves fast paced action with side of budding romance. Rosie meets a boy while at Forge and gets her first experience with love. However this boy, Linus, works in the Forge cafeteria, which leaves Rosie wondering where his loyalties truly lie.

Most of all what I love about Vault of Dreamers, and O'Brien's writing style in general, is her amazing use of descriptive writing. Her pen morphs into a paintbrush creating stunning visuals in the minds of her readers.

A trace of dream clung to me as I surfaced into Tuesday morning, a shadow twin who stretched out from my feet, farther and farther ahead of me along the railroad tracks, until she detached and slipped away. Languorously, I smiled and rolled over. It was the first hint or a dream I'd had since I'd come to the Forge School, and I loved remembering dreams. I'd missed them while I was on the pills. (108)

The final verdict.... This book is a MUST read!

Up next: Mom Made Us Write This in the Summer,  by Ali Maier. I was contacted by a book promotion company asking if I would like a complimentary copy to review for my classroom. YES PLEASE! It's the story of 10 year old twins Maggie and Max, whose mom makes them keep a journal for the summer. The catch... they have to share the same journal and read what each other has written. Brilliant parenting strategy!

Keep Reading ~ Stacie