Ruth Kaye Owen https://ruthkayeowen.com Author and Editor Sun, 07 Jun 2020 20:47:33 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.3.4 87322093 Review: Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/review-tristan-strong-punches-a-hole-in-the-sky-by-kwame-mbalia/ https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/review-tristan-strong-punches-a-hole-in-the-sky-by-kwame-mbalia/#respond Thu, 18 Jun 2020 20:33:00 +0000 https://ruthkayeowen.com/?p=1338 read more

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4 stars (I really liked it).

Tristan Strong cover (link to Goodreads)

Out of all the books I’ve read in the kid-finds-out-the-myths-are-real subgenre, including the Fablehaven, Percy Jackson, and Aru Shah books, Tristan Strong might be my favorite. I have a soft spot for Fablehaven too, admittedly. But Tristan is consistently a surprising character, and the cast of characters he encounters is interesting, funny, and cool. There’s Tar Baby, John Henry, Brer Rabbit (and his cohorts, Bear and Fox), the Bone Ships, Anansi, and more, each with an interesting spin that makes this more than just a tour through the tales.

The book is action packed. It’s definitely a book for kids, not the type of book adults want kids to read to better themselves, though I think it does that too. I plan on reading the sequels.

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Review: Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/review-forget-me-not-by-ellie-terry/ https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/review-forget-me-not-by-ellie-terry/#respond Mon, 15 Jun 2020 20:14:00 +0000 https://ruthkayeowen.com/?p=1336 read more

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4 stars (I really liked it).

I sometimes wonder why books in verse are converted to audiobook. There’s just so much you miss listening to a poem. Perhaps if the narrator paused at the ends of lines and did a dramatic reading, it would work okay. I somehow got all the way to the end of this not realizing it had been in verse (much like Other Words for Home). I do listen to my audiobooks at 2x speed, so maybe it’s my own fault. At any rate, go get a physical copy of this one.

This is a weird little story about an unusual girl, and it grew on me. It doesn’t go to the predictable places, in a good way. The main character, Calli, has multiple problems that get in the way of her making friends: she has Tourette’s syndrome, her mom has a bad habit of moving frequently and suddenly, she’s an astronomy nerd, and she dresses a few decades out of date. Watching her make friends was incredibly satisfying eventually, but it was uncomfortable being in her head for a lot of the book because I have known kids like her, who struggle to find any friends at all.

Heck, I’ve been a kid like her. Not the Tourette’s. Anyway, I liked it. Beautifully written, and I think it’s important for kids to realize what it’s like to be the kid that everyone picks on because they’re so strange. I’m surprised this book didn’t win awards, honestly. It seems like the type of book that should.

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Review: Flora & Ulysses, by Kate DiCamillo https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/review-flora-ulysses-by-kate-dicamillo/ https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/review-flora-ulysses-by-kate-dicamillo/#respond Wed, 10 Jun 2020 20:02:00 +0000 https://ruthkayeowen.com/?p=1334 read more

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2 stars (It was okay).

Flora & Ulysses cover (link to Goodreads)

This is the sort of book a six-year-old would probably love. It’s absolutely bonkers silly. None of it makes any sense. It’s precious and cute and zany.

I’m talking: Flora’s mother ignores her, focusing instead on her romance writing career. Her father, separated from her mother, is loving but a pushover. One day, Flora sees her neighbor vacuum up a squirrel in her back yard. The squirrel survives and develops the power to fly and write poetry. Hijinks ensue.

I barely got through it. If it had been longer, I would have given up. There were moments I liked, and I generally liked the main character, but I absolutely didn’t “get” it. My favorite parts involved William Spiver and Flora’s dad. There are cute pictures and very short chapters, so I’d recommend this for an emerging reader, around the same time they might be reading Junie B. Jones or My Weird School.

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Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/echo-by-pam-munoz-ryan/ https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/echo-by-pam-munoz-ryan/#respond Sun, 07 Jun 2020 20:02:21 +0000 https://ruthkayeowen.com/?p=1332 read more

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3 stars (I liked it).

Echo cover (link to Goodreads)

This book had a very interesting format. There are really four stories in this book: the framing “fairy tale” story and then three stories with three different main characters in three different historical settings, one in Nazi Germany, one in an orphanage in Pennsylvania, and one in California during Japanese internment. All are tied together with one magical harmonica and with musical themes.

I loved the musical aspect, and there were some really beautiful thoughts expressed, but I didn’t really find that each individual story caught me as much as I wanted it to. Some parts seemed far-fetched or confusing. I kind of hated how each story ended, and the very end of the book fell flat for me.

That said, the book kept my attention all the way through, and the last section (the one about a girl whose Japanese neighbors are taken away by the government) was my favorite. I loved the brave heroine.

Overall I liked it. You probably will too.

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The DNFs for 2019: On to 2020 books! https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/the-dnfs-for-2019-on-to-2020-books/ https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/the-dnfs-for-2019-on-to-2020-books/#respond Thu, 07 May 2020 23:23:00 +0000 https://ruthkayeowen.com/?p=1327 read more

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I am finally done reviewing books read in 2019. Not to worry, though! I have read 15 books so far this year and am reading two others. It’s been a little harder to listen to audiobooks due to COVID-19, since now we’re all in closer quarters, and I don’t want to bug my family. I still listen when I’m in the car, when I’m in a room by myself doing dishes or folding laundry, or when I’m out in my garden pulling weeds.

I have said before that I generally don’t review books that I don’t finish, since I don’t feel like I’ve given them a fair shake. But sometimes I have so many thoughts about a book, or I think it’s good but not for me, that I have to share them anyway.

Two books that fit in this category are Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief and The Light between Worlds.

The Lightning Thief cover (link to Goodreads)

First, Percy Jackson. It’s so popular that I felt obligated to give it a try, at least so I could know what it was all about. From the beginning I knew exactly what it was that kids liked about it. Percy’s voice is snarky, funny, perfectly middle grade. The plot clipped along, and Percy was always an active player in it. So far so good.

But there were things about it that MAJORLY annoyed me, to the point where even though I was mostly enjoying the book, I had to put it down. One was the premise that Olympus moves to where the center of human advancement is. This really rubbed me the wrong way, to say that Greece was the pinnacle of humanity at the time, when China, Egypt, and the Mayans gave the Greeks a run for their money in 800-700 BC.

I was also annoyed with the fact that Percy was dealt a HUGE blow early in the book and then got swept up in mysteries and adventures and barely processed it for more than a few pages. That rang false to me.

And when all the adults in Percy’s life basically told him, “Yeah, we have big secrets, but we’re not going to tell you for reasons,” I got bored.

Abandoned a little over a quarter of the way in.

The Light Between Worlds cover (link to Goodreads)

The Light Between Worlds is an entirely different story. The premise is that two sisters have come back from a world like Narnia and are adapting to normal life, each in her own way. One sister is really, really struggling. Nothing seems to matter. She can’t connect with people who don’t know what she’s been through, and she lives in memory most of the time. The other sister is doing better but almost going too far the other direction, with university, makeup, young men, etc.

Honestly, it was beautifully written. But I read it in the fall, and I tend to struggle with seasonal blues in the fall, and it was just so, so depressing. I think that’s what Laura Weymouth was going for (an honest look at depression). But I couldn’t do it at that time. Abandoned at about the 2/3 mark.

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Review: Pi in the Sky by Wendy Mass https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/review-pi-in-the-sky-by-wendy-mass/ https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/review-pi-in-the-sky-by-wendy-mass/#comments Mon, 04 May 2020 23:13:00 +0000 https://ruthkayeowen.com/?p=1322 read more

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2 stars (It was okay)

Okay, I kind of lied. I put this book on my read-in-2019 list because I started reading it around Christmas, and I figured, hey, it’s a short book. I’ll finish it by the new year for sure.

I didn’t. Honestly, while I didn’t mind reading it while I was doing so, I never got sucked in. This surprised me. My oldest son (now 14) loved this book, so I bought it for his birthday a few years ago, and then my second son (soon to be 12) read it and liked it too, so I thought I would. Plus, I’ve read other books by Wendy Mass that I’ve liked.

Maybe it’s the sort of book that adults just don’t get. It was zany. It was bizarre. Every sentence seemed to be crafted to surprise you with its weirdness. There are quotes about the universe and about quantum physics at the beginning of each chapter, and then there are houses that change shape, girls who need to be encased in a bubble of water to breathe, pies that contain gravity–I mean, it’s weird.

I couldn’t really relate to the main character because he was just so other. But my boys liked it, so yours might too.

I probably would have rated this one star, except the ending redeemed it a little.

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Review: Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/review-wundersmith-the-calling-of-morrigan-crow-by-jessica-townsend/ https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/review-wundersmith-the-calling-of-morrigan-crow-by-jessica-townsend/#comments Fri, 01 May 2020 02:59:00 +0000 https://ruthkayeowen.com/?p=1318 read more

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5 stars (It was amazing!)

Wundersmith cover (link to Goodreads)

I honestly liked this one even better than the first in the series, which I also loved enough to put it right into the hands of my 11yo son. It has just as much magic, wonder, and fun as the first, but it starts asking some important questions about destiny, good and evil, the obligation to teach someone who might be dangerous, loyalty, etc.

I continue to love the giant talking cat, and the supporting characters just keep getting more interesting. Really, really good series. I can’t wait to read the third.

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Review: Liesl and Po by Lauren Oliver https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/review-liesl-and-po-by-lauren-oliver/ https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/review-liesl-and-po-by-lauren-oliver/#respond Tue, 28 Apr 2020 00:56:00 +0000 https://ruthkayeowen.com/?p=1313 read more

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4 stars (I really liked it).

Liesl & Po cover (link to Goodreads)

I don’t know if any of you have seen the movie The Box Trolls, but this reminded me of it in ways. Mainly the setting and the feel: vaguely Victorian England, where almost all the adults are horrid, almost everything is bleak and gray and depressing, but the children are bright lights in all of it, plucky and courageous and smart and wise.

Liesl is a little girl who is locked in her room by her evil stepmother. Po is the ghost who haunts and then befriends her. Meanwhile, an alchemist’s apprentice, who is being terribly abused as well, makes a big mistake, and things start to unravel for all of them. It’s twisty and darkly humorous and well written, and I did enjoy it a lot. This isn’t my favorite setting, honestly, but the story sucked me in despite that.

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Planet Earth is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/planet-earth-is-blue-by-nicole-panteleakos/ https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/planet-earth-is-blue-by-nicole-panteleakos/#comments Fri, 24 Apr 2020 23:34:00 +0000 https://ruthkayeowen.com/?p=1309 read more

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5 stars (This was amazing!)

Planet Earth Is Blue cover (link to Goodreads)

I’d seen this book in lots of “Best of” lists and had it on my wish list in my library app already when a friend of mine, Heather Clark, was chosen to be Nicole’s Pitch Wars mentor. Pitch Wars is a contest on Twitter where aspiring authors submit their books to mentors–usually other published or agented authors. The mentors may get dozens or even hundreds of submissions, and they pick one person to work with for two months to help them get their book as close to perfect as possible.

I’ve read Heather’s book, Lemon Drop Falls, and it’s amazing. I was not surprised it was picked. But when I found out Nicole was her mentor, I knew I had to bump Planet Earth Is Blue to the top of my to-read pile. I’m SO glad I did. This book is unlike anything else I’ve ever read. The main character is utterly unique. She’s almost nonverbal, for one. She’s severely autistic. But her thoughts are beautiful and utterly engaging.

Nova is obsessed with space and knows lots about it, and there are sciency facts dropped throughout, which was fun. She’s looking forward to watching the Challenger launch with her sister, who has promised she’ll be back by then.

The book is funny, heartwarming, sad, hopeful, eye-opening, and overall magical. I’d compare it to books like Wonder and Out of My Mind, but it’s better than either (even though I also rated Wonder 5 stars), so I can’t compare them. My 11 year old son is reading it and enjoying it too.

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Review: Best Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/review-best-friends-by-shannon-hale-and-leuyen-pham/ https://ruthkayeowen.com/blog/review-best-friends-by-shannon-hale-and-leuyen-pham/#comments Wed, 22 Apr 2020 23:32:25 +0000 https://ruthkayeowen.com/?p=1305 read more

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4 stars (I really liked it)

Best Friends cover (link to Goodreads)

This one didn’t make me cry, so I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing or just a me thing. But it had more of the same things I adored in the first book, only for junior high: the drama of having boys (or girls) who like you or who you think you might like but aren’t sure or who you think you’re supposed to like but you’ve never really thought about it. It’s got navigating the pressure to be cool and to fit in, which I personally didn’t relate with because I was the direct opposite of cool in junior high, but it’s just so well done, and the art is emotional and adorable and relatable, and I loved watching Shannon as a baby novelist.

These books are important. They are for everyone who is a kid, who was a kid, or who knows a kid. Really. Go read them if you haven’t. It’ll only take an hour or two per book.

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