The Mysterious Benedict Society

Today, I bring you one of the greatest series of books that I've had the pleasure to encounter since reading Harry Potter.  I originally found the first in the series, and quickly discovered that it continued for two more novels, and included a prequel written after the fact.  I was so enamored with the first book that I found all four of them at the library and devoured them betwixt teenage angst and crappity crap crap.  This series really kept me going.  I mostly look for the transcendentals in the books that I read, and they've been sorely lacking in the material I've had to endure lately.  The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart has been a shining beacon of light in a world obsessed with darkness and misery.  They seriously need to consider making this into a movie.

The format for this post is going to be a bit different than usual.  I'll put the back cover summary and my initial reaction to each book first, and then continue on in a general fashion from there.

The Mysterious Benedict Society
485 pages

Back cover reads: ”Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?”  When this peculiar ad appears in the newspaper, dozens of children enroll to take a series of mysterious, mind-bending tests.  (And you, dear reader, can test your wits right alongside them.)  But in the end just four very special children will succeed.  Their challenge: to go on a secret mission that only the most intelligent and resourceful children could complete.  With their newfound friendship at stake, will they be able to pass the most important test of all?  Welcome to the Mysterious Benedict Society.

My Initial Reaction (Spoiler Alert!)
This book is fabulous.  It's about these super smart kids who are really crafty.  They think outside of the box.  They're invited to take a series of tests by a mysterious company.  Our protagonist's name is Reynie Muldoon (it's written 3rd person from his pov), but he's paired up with 3 other kids: Kate Weatherall, George "Sticky" Washington, and Constance Contraire.  Each is about 10-12 years old, except for Constance, who's age difference is in stark contrast to the other three.  The thing that won me over about this book was the initial "test" that Reynie takes and his reaction to it.  There is a question about whether or not he likes or watches television.  He decides to answer truthfully that he does not watch or like television much, and it's better to tell the truth than to go with what other people want.  I instantly loved the book.  The storyline is a great page turner in this first installment.  The kids are undercover spies for Mr. Benedict.  They end up at an institution for children run by Benedict's brother, who is trying to control the world by broadcasting subliminal messages via television.  I really love how it is so anti-television and so pro-book and intelligence.  Anyways.  The kids end up saving the day and it all ends happily.  The first book could stand on its own.  It is well written, has excellent vocabulary, word-play, and it makes you want to be smart!  Lee also focuses on developing each of the characters: their personalities, their gifts, and how they work together as a team by being uniquely themselves.  I also have a sneaking suspicion that each character represents one of the four temperaments: Reynie= Melancholic, Kate= Sanguine, Sticky=Phlegmatic, and Constance=Choleric, and having an equal balance of all four is what's best!  The search for TRUTH, the quest for knowledge, and the overwhelming urge to do what is right and GOOD in this book are just amazing and BEAUTIFUL.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey

440 pages

Back cover reads:  -Children you must not come STOP Dangerous- The Mysterious Benedict Society is back with a new mission: a mind-bending international scavenger hunt designed to test their individual talents.  As they search for all the clues and riddles Mr. Benedict has hidden for them, Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance face an unexpected challenge that will reinforce the reasons they were brought together in the first place and require them to fight for the very namesake that united them.



My Initial Reaction:
First of all, the book came to me like this, so you know it's well loved:

The book is as well written as the first novel, but it does drag on a little bit.  The Mysterious Benedict Society meets up at Kate's house, where a surprise is waiting for them.  They're told that they're going on a secret and mysterious journey under Mr. Benedict's direction.  Well, that doesn't happen, and he ends up getting captured again by his brother, Ledroptha Curtain.  The kids venture out on a quest by themselves to save the day.  It is a bit of a slower read than the first book.  The action starts to really pick up around page 300.  It's just as charming as the first novel, and Lee does an excellent job developing his characters even more.  They are stunning in their own humanity: each has his or her own gifts, but they start comparing themselves to one another, forgetting that their gifts matter just as much to the team.  These books are just inundated with virtue and overcoming the human condition.  They teach the reader that, yes, it's awful when evil/bad things happen, but good may come out of the situation if we just take the time to look at it that way.  The characters go through very real situations, and we experience the emotional turmoil that they do.  Each of them overcomes the challenges in very valiant (and different) ways.  The book ends on a really hopeful note and makes the reader look forward to the final installment.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilema
440 pages

Back cover reads:  By the time they had reached the balmy third floor and filed into the appropriate hallway, Constance's steps had grown noticeably slower and oddly deliberate, as if she were trudging through deep snow.  It was a perfectly familiar hallway, with familiar bookshelves lining the walls and several familiar doorways--the holding rooms on the left, the chamber door on the right-- and the chamber guards were familiar, too.  Yet with every step Constance took, the stranger and creepier everything seemed; even the light had a harsh and sinister cast.  Her spirits, so high before, had now plunged equally low, for the truth had begun to sing kin: She had an appointment with the Whisperer.

Initial reaction:  Excellent conclusion to an amazing trilogy.  This one does not drag, it keeps moving.  The kids encounter similar trials as in the first two novels, but now they're a little older, more experienced, and know how to work and value approaching things as a team.  The vocabulary is absolutely stunning in this one.



This series also has a prequel, but I'd like to review that separately next week.  I'm about half way into it, and I think it can stand on its own.

Onward to the review!

Promote Virtue?  Indubitably

Transcendentals? Yes, a thousand times yes!

Overcome human condition?  Yes, each kid overcomes certain tendencies (anger, weakness, selfishness, etc) for the greater good.

Attitude toward Catholicism?  Not applicable, but there's a riddle about the "monk building."

Paganry?  Nope!

Swearing?  Nope!

Violence?  Yes.  There are fights, but they're more of the swashbuckling type.  Nothing gets gory at all.

Appropriate age? 5th grade+  It is kind of a slow read.  It might have been faster if I hadn't been reading all the other things at the same time.  The whole series (including prequel) took me about a month and a half.  If I just focused on these, though, I'd probably take me about 2-3 weeks.

Writing Style:  I'm blown away by Lee's style.  His vocabulary is absolutely resplendent, and it just gets better and more elevated with each book.  His writing is adventuresome and page-turnnig without being redundant.  We really get into the heads of the characters and get to know who they are.  It's great to see the internal struggles of the four protagonists; it makes the reader relate to them.   I want to read everything by Trenton Lee Stewart!  He has a great way of getting kids to love books and the truth by sharing his love of them.

Great words:  Too many to count, but sesquipedalian, cacophony, meticulous, and quibble, just to name a few.  Puns, cleverness, word-nerddom, and riddles galore!

Some more general thoughts:

Being the Catholic nerd that I am who LOVES the St. Benedict Medal,

I had an inkling that Trenton Lee Stewart might be Catholic.  His profile is pretty inconclusive.  He went to a Methodist college, and it says nothing else about his upbringing.  However, one of the first things that he ever wrote is titled The Black Madonna Shrine and Grotto and other stories, which is available online for free here.  I have yet to read it, so I can't say either way, but his work is just so good and virtuous that I would love it even more if he is Catholic!

So, I’m 34 pages into The Perilous Journey book, and this little nugget happens:

“The fact that Sticky had briefly had a girlfriend, for instance, until she broke up with him for remarking upon her pulchritude. (“She didn’t believe me when I told her it meant ‘beauty,’” Sticky said.  Kate shook her head.  “It’s always best to stick to small words.  If you’d said that to me, I’d have punched you.”)”

Some more excellent character development here:

“Kate looked at him cockeyed.  “Are you kidding?  These guys are monsters!  If that one fell into the water (and drowned) it would serve him right!”

“You might think you mean that,” said Milligan.  “But you’d feel differently if it were to happen and you were responsible.  We’re not like them, Kate.  That’s the entire point of trying to stop them.  […]  I assure you.  I don’t  ‘just let them get away.’  But neither do I risk killing someone—not even a Ten Man—if I can think of a better option” (255).

“You mean….?” Said the guard, his eyes widening.  “You mean if we let them have this bunch”—he waved his hand to indicate Mr. Benedict, Number Two, and the children—“they’ll leave the rest of us alone?”

The children caught their breath.  Mr. Benedict raised an eyebrow.

Captain Noland spun on the guard, fixing him with a steely gaze.  “On this ship,” he said through clenched teeth, “we do not sacrifice the innocent to save our own skins” (420-21).

“Kate was in perfect position.  It would be so easy to stop them.  A well-placed throw---and Kate was nothing if not a good shot—and the calculator (bomb) would land directly in the Salamander’s path.  The explosion would wreck it.  Sure, it might kill the wicked men inside, but those men had had no qualms about such matters when they’d stuck the explosive on the security hold door, had they?  If anyone deserved to be sent sky-high with their own evil contraption, it was these men, and no doubt about it.

Kate saw Garrotte flick his wrist.  She leaped to the left—a razor-sharp pencil whistled past her shoulder.  You just made it even easier, she thought, cocking her arm to throw.  The men in the Salamander, powerless to do anything else, bent down and shielded their heads with their arms.  They were sitting ducks.  This would be the easiest thing in the world…

Except that Milligan was right.

Kat was not like Mr. Curtain and his nasty associates.  Not at all.  Back on that rooftop in Thernbaakagen Milligan had told her as much, and she saw now what he had meant.  Seeing those men there, helpless to stop her from doing what they themselves would never hesitate to do, Kate realized—with a certain degree of disappointment but also a degree of pride—that she could never do it, could never do something that would make her more like her enemy and less like her father.  And so, instead of throwing the calculator into the Salamander’s path, she flung it out over the bay, where it splashed into the water” (423-24).

“Still, we have reasons to be encouraged. […]  Aren’t they a fine example of how even scurrilous behavior may lead to some good, if only we’re clever enough to take advantage?”

After some hesitation, the children said they supposed this was true.

“And I realize there’s no shortage of wickedness in the world,” said Mr. Benedict, with a significant look at Reynie, “but is it not heartening to know that so many are willing to fight for the good?  Think of that young librarian, Sophie, who made certain you escaped.  Think of S.Q., who risked my brother’s wrath to make me more comfortable.  Think of Captain Noland, and Joe Shooter, and all the others—even strangers—who were prepared to sacrifice their safety, perhaps even their lives, on our behalf.  That’s something, is it not?”

None of the children could argue with this, not even Constance, who could argue with anything.  It was something, after all” (439-440).

This series is virtuous, adventurous, shows real internal struggle, it is pro-life, pro-book, and just OUTSTANDING.  I can't wait to read more by this guy!

This one wins the EXTRA LARGE WORD NERD SEAL OF APPROVAL.  It is SPEC.TAC.U.LAR., and I can't wait to read it to my kids someday.  Aloud.

Telgemeier

Happy early Thanksgiving, gentle readers!  Be sure to boycott stores that start their Black Fridays on THURSDAY.  Sheesh!

I continue to be exasperated by the amount of graphic novels that are out there.  I really feel like these books do nothing to challenge kids.  They’re simply picture books for 4th grade plus.  Today, I write about 4 different graphic novels by best-selling author Raina Telgemeier.  I'm not even going to waste more of my time using my typical format.

First two on the chopping block are related: Smile and Sisters.

Again, like this piece of crap, these book are not novels.  They’re short stories with pictures.  While it’s much more appropriate for grades 4-8 than Anya’s Ghost, there is absolutely nothing in this book that challenges the reader to participate.  The characters are shallow and static, they deal with every-day issues that barely scratch the surface, and we really don’t get inside their heads, despite all of the “think” bubbles used in the series.  Both Smile and Sisters present short, shallow plotlines accompanied by comic-book graphics intended to entertain the reader instead of challenge.

Smile (2010), to sum up, is 213 pages that span 4 years of the protagonist’s (Raina) life after she tripped and knocked her two front teeth loose.  She has to have dental work done and survive middle/the beginning of high school while she’s at it.

Sisters (2014) is a 197 page companion to Smile.  It features the same family (semi-autobiographical), and the ho-hum that happens during a cross country road trip with Raina’s mom and younger brother and sister.  This graphic novel is filled with flashbacks, so we do get a sense of the history and a tiny bit more about the characters, but it’s not much.

These books are such a let down.  They teach kids to love drama (which, consequently, is the title of her 3rd graphic novel).  There is no depth, no real adventure, no heroic virtue.  It’s just a plain old every-day kid who deals with plain old every-day problems in a bratty and selfish way.  Props to the author for using her talents to tell about her life, but there’s really nothing exciting about it.  It’s just there to entertain and breed the seeds of drama in young lives.  I really wanted more from this.  I finished reading with a feeling of “that’s it?”  What has this book offering to teach us?  Nothing.  How am I becoming a better person because I’ve read it?  I’m not.  It’s teaching kids to settle for mediocrity.

They do nothing but further convince me that we’ll never have graphic novels in our home library.  Ever.  Compilations of comic strips like Foxtrot or Pearls Before Swine are a little bit different.  You’re looking for a punch line.  You’re looking for entertainment and clever wit.  You’re not looking for a novel.


UGH.  I’m glad I only WASTED about an hour reading each of these books.

Next, Ghosts.  Double UGH.  This is Telgemeier's most recent work (2016).  I polished this one off in about 45 minutes.  Same thing as Smile and Sisters: no depth, no challenge, nothing.  This one, however, deals with a Latino family, el dia de los muertos, the existence of ghosts, and childhood Cystic Fibrosis.  First of all, I immediately would like to denounce this book because of the ridiculous superstition it stirs up.  Catholics, Latino or not, do not want their family members to be ghosts.  Permanent ghosts deny the Resurrection.  A "ghost" may be the soul of someone who is stuck in Purgatory who has no one to pray for them. A "ghost" could also be a demon. No good!  I wouldn’t want the souls of my family members trapped here on earth, I want them to be in Heaven, where they should be.  With the LORD.   While I respect the customs of other cultures, there is a huge difference between remembering loved ones and trying to communicate with spirits.  No good!  There is also a depiction and shoddy explanation of "La Catrina," better known as "santa muerte," which the Catholic Church just denounced.  No good!  This book is full of shallow characters who have sloughed off most of the traditions of their heritage in favor of assimilation.  Wow.  I just don't really know what to say.  I don't expect her writing to get any better (and she has 1 more graphic novel, and 4 adaptations of The Babysitter's Club!).

Lastly, I'd like to talk about Drama (2012).  I've had qualms about even touching this book because it deals with "gender identity."  However, I think I need to at least read it so I know what's in it.  So, here we go.

Not surprised or impressed again with Telgemeier’s crap short-story-paired-with-pictures idea of literature.  This one certainly lives up to the book’s title, and it is, in fact, a double entendre.  The main setting revolves around the middle school’s dramatic production, and the situations that the protagonist encounters are filled with middle school drama (crushes, freak outs, breakups, etc).  I’ve come up with a term for these kinds of books.  I like to call them “crapic” novels, and this one is a  particularly smelly, steaming pile.

One sentence summary:

7th grade girl crushes on jock, falls in love with gay boy, gay boy stands in for female lead during play last minute, kisses male lead in front of everyone, and drama ensues.

Again, I polished this one off in about an hour.  Here are some thoughts.  I really don't want to waste my time with this one, either.

*eye roll*  within the first 12 pages, we learn that the protagonist is in middle school, and she and another boy have been kissing.  Ok.  When you’re in middle school, you’re between the ages of 11 and 13.  What the hell.  Yes, I understand crushes, and yes, I understand that hormones are raging, and yes, even I had a “boyfriend” in 8th grade, which makes me a big hypocrite.  But what the hell is the point at that age?  It's not like you're going to get married by 10th grade.  It's not like either person involved in a middle school relationship is mature enough to handle their own insecurities, let alone those of their significant other.  Just what the heck?!  It’s like these books are encouraging kids to become self-aware on an adult level about their own sexuality (much like they did in Brave New World *shudder*).  They are CHILDREN.  MINORS.  They shouldn’t even be experiencing that kind of stuff.  It's not moral!  Crap like this just makes me weep for the future.  Shortly after, we find out that the protagonist is in 7th grade and the boy she likes is in 8th grade.  So they’re what, 12 and 13?  Ew.  She then meets some twin boys who are really great at singing.  And here it is on page 65.  Jesse, the stereotypical flamboyant outgoing drama boy (not the boy the protagonist kissed) comes out and says he likes boys.  HE IS TWELVE.  What the hell could he possibly know about what love really is?  (Self-sacrifice, trying to get the other person to heaven?).  Gah!  Twelve year olds don't pay bills, don't drive cars, can't manage a household, or do other adult things.  How can we expect them to make such huge decisions regarding their sexuality at such a young age?  In our society, these things are rarely contested, but they're instead celebrated in a frenzied manner.

Due to one of the actors in the play throwing a hissy fit, the understudy not being available (when the heck does that even happen?  Understudies are supposed to be there in case anything happens!), and everyone else freaking out and lacking the ability to pull it all together, Jesse goes out on stage in a dress to sing the girl’s part with West, the male lead in the play, and they eventually kiss.  Barf.  After that, the kids attend their middle school dance.  Callie goes with Jesse, but he eventually abandons her to go talk to West, who is also having gender identity issues.  The book ends and everyone is happy.

I really dislike how casually Telgemeier approaches this issue.  There's no depth, no struggle, nothing past a skimming of the surface.  Typical Telgemeier.  Blarg.  This book is not appropriate for middle-schoolers.  Middle-schoolers are confused enough, they don't need gender identity issues thrown in the mix and celebrated by a comic-book making hack who really doesn't know what it means to write a novel.

I'd like to just say right now that because I dislike this book about gender identity/homosexuality issues does NOT mean that I hate those who are gay or are struggling with identity issues.  As a devout Catholic, I am called to love and respect ALL persons and treat them with dignity.  However, respecting the person does NOT mean that I tolerate or respect that kind of lifestyle or the sinful act itself.

Per The Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts (not persons) are intrinsically disordered."  They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved. (emphasis and parentheticals mine)

2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition. (emphasis mine)

2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity (just like we all are). By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.  (parenthetical mine).  


I think that most of the time, if we were to take these types of situations as teachable moments to direct kids who are struggling, it might turn out for the better.  Our sexuality is ordered in a very specific and holy way:


I. "Male and Female He Created Them . . ."

2331 "God is love and in himself he lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in his own image . . .. God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion."

"God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them";He blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and multiply";"When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created."

2332 Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others.

2333 Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. the harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out.

2334 "In creating men 'male and female,' God gives man and woman an equal personal dignity.""Man is a person, man and woman equally so, since both were created in the image and likeness of the personal God."

2335 Each of the two sexes is an image of the power and tenderness of God, with equal dignity though in a different way. the union of man and woman in marriage is a way of imitating in the flesh the Creator's generosity and fecundity: "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh."All human generations proceed from this union.

2336 Jesus came to restore creation to the purity of its origins. In the Sermon on the Mount, he interprets God's plan strictly: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.  The tradition of the Church has understood the sixth commandment as encompassing the whole of human sexuality.


Drama does absolutely nothing for no one.  It might incite a few middle schoolers to be more dramatic with their lives.  It might entertain them for a few hours, but it does nothing to challenge.  It simply does nothing more than promote stereotypes of those who are interested in theatre and people who struggle with their sexual identity.  It's a WASTE of paper and time.



Overall, these 4 books by Telgemeier are the same concept: crappy teenage drama that's a waste of time to read.  Her books do nothing to challenge or inform the reader.  Blechk.  I want those 4 hours of my life back.

The Girl Who Could Fly and the Boy Who Knew Everything

Today, I bring you the works of Victoria Forester, her first novel, The Girl Who Could Fly, and it's companion, The Boy Who Knew Everything.

First of all, I'd like to take a look at the evolution of the cover of this book, which I find a bit disturbing.

First edition looks like this.  Seems to be an innocent little girl in her nightgown about ready to leap off of a barn roof.  It's gentle, it's serene, it's quietly appealing.  The girl looks like she'd be about 9 or 10.


Second version.  A little more stylized and compelling.  Now the protagonist is in her school uniform.  She remains a round-faced innocent 9 year old, to my estimation, but now we have a villain clinging to her ankle-sock, mary-jane shoe wearing leg.  I still like this cover, even though it has a bit of shock value in it.



Current version.  Similar compelling depiction of peril and escape, but now we have, at least, the depiction of a 16 year old girl on the front, whose legs are splayed in such a way that her dress is barely a modest covering.  She retains the wild shock of unruly brown hair and blue dress, but she's definitely grown up when compared to the other girls on the previous cover.  This, first and foremost, really pissed me off.  The protagonist is indeed around 10 years old.  What in the hell is going on here?  WHY does this cover depict a 10 year old like this?  GAH.  Anyways.  On to the review.

First reaction:  It took me a while to finish this book, both books actually.  They're really slow to start,  but pick up closer to the end.  Piper comes from a small town where she doesn't particularly fit in.  Her parents are slow-speakin', God-fearin', hard-workin' people who are set in their ways.  At first, I disliked the author's depiction and description of Piper's parents (Joe and Betty).  It seems as though she's poking fun at the faith of people, and drew them as people who have absolute blind faith and that's that.  Piper ends up at a school with other children who have special talents (Kind of like Bird Lady and her Orphanage, but not as creepy.  Way more cool and technologically advanced.)  We meet the Boy who knows everything (who is an enemy at first, but then plots a valiant escape effort), a strong girl, a gal who can use telekinesis, twin boys who can manipulate the weather, a 6 year old boy who can heal people, and a girl who can shrink.  It turns out that the school isn't a school after all, but a detention center designed to drug the kids into submission and get them to forget their special talents.  If that doesn't work, there are torture devices.  The kids eventually escape.  Yay!



The companion to The Girl Who Could Fly is The Boy Who Knew Everything.  First of all, I think that the first novel can stand well enough on its own.  This second installment focuses more on Conrad Harrington (the bully who has a conversion in the first book), his background and his ability.  Again, this book starts off pretty slow, and then the action picks up right around page 200.  While the first book was really about kids with special abilities being oppressed, this one is more about a team of the same kids saving the world and defeating evil.  It was really hard to keep reading this book.  I was glad that it finally took off.  This sequel focuses more on the fantastic and unbelievable.

Promote Virtue?  Yes.  Piper is always trying to do what is good and right.  She even sacrifices her own happiness (and physical well being whilst being tortured) to help save her friends.

Transcendentals?  Goodness and truth.  Some of the descriptions are beautiful, but there's not an overabundance of it.

Overcome human condition?  Meh

Attitude toward Catholicism? N/A

Paganry?  Nope

Swearing?  Nope

Violence?   Yes.  A frightening amount.  It's really very mental in a this could happen sort of way.  Kids are drugged, kids are tortured, kids are convinced that their talents are not useful but instead hurt others.  The actual amount of gore is minimal.  However, the horror of "this could really happen (at least the torturing and drugging kids part)" is overwhelming.

Appropriate age? 11+

Writing Style- great.  It's very descriptive.  Forester does a great job creating scenery, tone, and believable characters.  The vocabulary is alright.

Other notes: I'd classify the second book as fantasy, and the first one as science fiction.  I wasn't particularly in love with the characters or the plot of either book, but there are good things about each one.  I guess I was more frustrated with the fact that it took so long for things to be discovered.  Some of the depictions in both books are quite terrifying.  Piper is tortured, and all of the kids are drugged in the first book to "break" them of their talents.  The second book is tied to the first via a tidy prophecy.  There are characters that cross over to the next story, and some aren't given full attention.  Overall, I think I like the first book better than the second, but neither of them really excite me.  I was just glad to be done with them.

Overall, the book is just ok.  It's not terrible, but it' really doesn't whip me into a verbal frenzy.  I'm also not liking the fact that a lot of books these days are written in a series.  I feel like I have to read all the books in the series (which is why I'm waiting on the Mysterious Benedict Society books) before I review them.

Also, anything that's been reviewed by the author of The Twilight Series does not automatically gain credibility in my estimation.

Therefore:

Birdwoman and Her Orphanage of Sideshow Freaks

 This post pretty much fits my mood about voting in this election.  

And now, gentle reader, we return to the world of the macabre for young adults with an incredible bildungsroman story of adventure, familial love, and psychological warfare: Birdwoman and Her Orphanage of Sideshow Freaks.  

Whoops, I mean Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs.

348 Pages

A mysterious island.  An abandoned orphanage.  A strange collection of very peculiar photographs.  It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience.  As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen year old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.  As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that Miss Peregrine’s children were more than just peculiar.  They may have been dangerous.  They may have been quarantined on a desert island for good reason.  And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.  A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

My Response:

Initial reaction:  Well, I knew that there was more than one book in the series, and I started to read it, but I really dreaded finishing it.  I got through about 5 pages.  Blechk.

Sentence Summary:  Angsty teenage grocery store heir witnesses his grandfather's murder by ghoulish monstrosity, investigates further, time travels, meets bizarre children and bird woman, tries to save the world, and leaves us hanging.

This book is so full of teenage angst and crappy writing that it makes me want to revert to my 14 year old attitude, rolling my eyes and sneering "Whatever" every five seconds.  Riggs is at least a moderate storyteller- it is kind of a page turner.  The vocabulary is there, the action is there, but there's just something missing:

Beauty.  Goodness.

This entire book is fraught with an obsession of all things dark, dreary, and bizarre.  The story is coupled with bizzare antique photographs that are, in two words, interestingly creepy.   Riggs describes the pictures so you are compelled and curious enough to turn the page.  I think he did an ok job pairing up the photographs to the story, but they really don't do much for it.  

The most disappointing thing about this book is that it's cover will attract 6-8th graders.  While I might say that it's ok for 8th grade, the protagonist is 16.  There's some foul language and some emotional problems that are quite a bit advanced for any middle schooler to understand.

On the whole, I do not think that this book promotes virtue.  It promotes selfishness.  The main character, Jacob, is trying to find out what happened in his grandfather's past after he hears the cryptic last words of the old man.  The rest of the plot is just so completely convenient that I really don't want to describe it anymore.  

Transcendentals?  This book seriously lacks goodness and beauty, but the search for truth is apparent.  However, we harken back to biblical times and are constantly asking "what is truth?"  What is true for Jacob and the peculiar children is not true for everyone else, and vice versa.   It's not at all pleasant.

Overcome human condition?

Attitude toward Catholicism?  There really is none.  Jacob is Jewish, and he doesn't practice.  His grandfather escaped the Nazis.  Jacob and his dad stay at an Inn called the "Priest Hole," and we find out the significance of the name was due to the fact that they used to hide priests in cellar-type spots during anti-Catholic raids.

Paganry?  No, but a serious obsession with dark things.  Each of the peculiar children have a "gift."  One of them is super strong, the other can manipulate fire, another can make plants grow, one boy has bees that live inside him, and one can resurrect the dead for a time.  This character is probably the most disturbing.  Enoch's peculiar "gift" of "resurrection" is disgusting and horrifying.  The first time we meet him, he's sitting on the ground with several clay figurines that he's fashioned.  We learned that he's taken the hearts out of mice and put them into these figurines to animate them.  WTH?!?

Swearing?  A bit

Violence?  garden variety but nothing too gory (if you think that using four sheep hearts to resurrect a full-grown man for a time isn't gory).

Appropriate age?  Angsty teenagers

Notable Quoteables:  I like this particular quotation because it's bearing the light of truth.  

"I had acute stress and nightmares and was sitting alone in a falling-down house and crying hot, stupid tears all over my shirt.  All because of a seventy-year-old hurt that had somehow been passed down to me like some poisonous heirloom, and monsters I couldn't fight because they were all dead, beyond killing or punishing or any kind of reckoning" (104).


In other news, the movie for this book just came out.  I am quite excited to see it, actually, because (content aside) the entire thing looks so hopeful and good.  Also, Tim Burton is at the helm of it, so that also makes me happy.  He's good at being dark and beautiful at the same time.  We'll have to see.

Check out this preview:

So, this book has allowed me to come up with my other award. I now have four:  Word Nerd Approved, So Close, Meh, and WASTE.  We already know about WNA and WASTE.  So Close is a book that could be approved if it weren't for a few minor details.  Meh will be awarded to those books that are not WASTE, but not really great, either.  Meh books do have purpose, and they might even have merit, but they don't excite me or make me want to continue reading the series.  So, congratulations, Birdwoman!  You're the first recipient of Meh!

Update:  So me and the husband saw the movie a few weeks ago.  While it was beautifully shot and had a pretty compelling score, the plot was weak, the characters weaker, and there were quite a few things that they added that weren't in the book.  The entire movie felt rushed and shallow.  However, it wasn't quite as dark as the book.  I'd also give the movie a "Meh" rating.  

Serafina

Morning, gentle reader!  Happy Feast of All Souls!  

Today, I bring you a sweet relief in mysterious and terrifying form: the Serafina books, perfect for this time of year!

These have such cool and beautiful covers, they were high on the list to read first.  I'm absolutely thrilled that they weren't dark, depressing, and pointless like the DMD series.  These books are full of imagination, wonder, genuine mystery, and some deliciously terrifying description on the part of the author. More on all of that later!  On to the books!   SPOILER ALERT in my response!

Serafina and the Black Cloak

293 pages

Serafina has never had a reason to disobey her pa and venture beyond the grounds of Biltmore Estate.  There’s plenty to explore in her grand home, although she must take care to never be seen.  None of the rich folk upstairs know that Serafina exists; she and her pa, the estate’s maintenance man, have secretly lived in the basement for as long as Serafina can remember.
But when children at the estate start disappearing, only Serafina knows who the culprit is: a terrifying man in a black cloak who stalks Biltmore’s corridors at night.  Following her own harrowing escape, Serafina risks everything by joining forces with Braeden Vanderbilt, the young nephew of Biltmore’s owners.  Braeden and Serafina must uncover the Man in the Black Cloak’s true identity…. Before all of the children vanish one by one.  Serafina’s hunt leads her into the very forest that she has been taught to fear.  There she discovers a forgotten legacy of magic, one that is bound to her own identity.  In order to save the children of Biltmore, Serafina must seek the answers that will unlock the puzzle of her past.



Serafina and the Twisted Staff
370 pages

Serafina’s defeat of the man in the black cloak has brought her out of the shadows and into the daylight realm of her home, Biltmore Estate.  Every night she visits her mother in the forest, eager to learn the ways of the catamount.  But Serafina finds herself caught between her two worlds: she’s too wild for Biltmore’s beautifully dressed ladies and formal customs, and too human to fully join her kin.  Late on night, Serafina encounters a strange and terrifying figure in the forest, and is attacked by the vicious wolfhounds that seem to be under his control.  Even worse, she’s convinced that the stranger was not alone, that he has sent his accomplice in to Biltmore in disguise. Someone is wreaking havoc at the estate.  A mysterious series of attack test Serafina’s role as Bilmore’s protector, culminating in a tragedy that tears Serafina’s best friend and only ally, Braeden Vanderbilt, from her side.  Heartbroken, she flees.  Deep in the forest, Serafina comes face-to-face with the evil infecting Biltmore—and discovers its reach is far greater than she’d ever imagined.  All the humans and creatures of the Blue Ridge Mountains are in terrible danger.  For Serafina to defeat this new evil before it engulfs her beloved home, she must search deep inside herself and embrace the destiny that has always awaited her.  

My Response

Summary- These two great stories take place in Biltmore, the estate of the famous Vanderbilt family, at the turn of the century.  Serafina is a catamount (half girl, half jaguar), but we don't find that out until the end of the first book.  However, Beatty describes her in a very feral and feline way, so it's easy to believe.  The series starts off with a really terrifying account of a child being abducted, and the game's afoot.  Serafina has to solve the mystery (in both books) of who the villain is and save the day.  She does an admirable job.

Promote Virtue?  Serafina is a bold and strong girl who strives to protect those closest to her.  She wants to do the right thing.  She takes her job as Chief Rat Catcher very seriously.  

Transcendentals?  The language of this book is a delight.  Beatty's descriptions are very realistic and somewhat horrifying at times.  I wouldn't say it points to the beautiful, but it does show us the good and the true, and those are beauty.

Overcome human condition?  Hm.  Yes and no.  There are some issues I have with the character being "half cat, half human," but I mostly think I need to get the hell over myself and realize that this is a children's story full of imagination and wonder.  Serafina is a virtuous character who is always striving to do what is right.  She does hide the truth at the end of the first book, though, which causes problems in the second book.  It's good to see the consequences.

Attitude toward Catholicism?  Grumble grumble.  Creating human-animal hybrids is a grossly immoral and unethical, and it's been given the green light in our culture, and I don't think that anything my child is reading should promote sympathy for this kind of idea.  

There were a few confusing quotes at the beginning of the book, when Serafina's pa is explaining how he found her in the woods:

"I took her to the midwives at the convent (Really?  Why would they need midwives at a convent?  What the heck?) and begged them to help, but they gasped as the sight of her, muttering that she was the devil's work.  They said she was malformed, near to death, and that there was nothing they could do to help her"

"But why?" Seravina cried in outrage.  "That's terrible!  That's so mean!"  Just because something looked different dindn't mean you just threw it away.  She couldn't help but wonder what kind of world it was out there.  The attitude of the midwives almost bothered her more than the idea of a yellow-eyed beast lurking in the night [...] 

"You have to understand the poor little thing had been born with her eyes closed, Sera, ande the nuns said that she would never see.  She'd been born deaf, and they said she would never hear" (53)

"I took that baby away, fearin' them nuns would drown her," he said.

"I hate them nuns," she spat.  "They're terrible!" (54)

The difference between Serafina's pa and the nuns is that he sees something that might look like a baby.  The nuns, if they were midwives, would be super familiar with human babies.  They'd know immediately that the man was not holding a human baby.  But we don't know that it's part human/part cat yet.  The audience just thinks Pa found a recently birthed wild animal in the forest.  We don't know for sure that it's a "human" baby, but that's what we're led to believe- that nuns would slaughter a human baby.  This part just makes me shudder because it's so subversive.  Children's fantasy/imagination or not, you just don't attack nuns and make children believe that they're evil when they are supposed to be a virtuous and holy example of right-judgment.  Ever.   

Paganry?  Yes- magic is used in a bad way, but everyone involved knows that it's bad, and they're trying to defeat it.

Swearing?  Not really.

Violence?  The first two chapters of The Black Cloak are a quite terrifying.  They depict the abduction and disappearance of a little girl.

Appropriate age?  12+

Writing Style- great dialect, colloquialisms, imagery and literary references.  There are so many awesome vocabulary words in  here that I can hardly read the book because I'm writing them all down.

Notable Quoteables:

Great words-  Vermin, timid, heinous, bandy back and forth, glumly, cacophony, scullions, attired, diversion, equestrian, dexterous, coterie, quipped, curmudgeon, camaraderie, vagrant, prattle, turmoil, fiendish, roiling, perturbed, catawampus, mortifying, chastised, reprimand, facade, detested, decrepit, plight, consternation, resplendent, intricate, boscage, eviscerated, cached, raucous, emaciated, apocalyptic, tumultuous, elusive, palpable.There were so many in the first book that I stopped keeping track during the second book!

This one is the bearer of our first So Close award.  It really is a great book, but I can't abide such hostility to nuns.  I guess I would have to ask a kid who reads it what they remember about the nuns or if that particular section had any impact on them.  If pages 53-54 didn't attack nuns, it would definitely be approved.