*The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Where I Got the Book: I have two copies actually--one pre-ordered from Amazon for Christmas and one from when my husband went Hanklerfishing at Kroger!


In Short: true love on borrowed time, cancer


I hesitated on beginning this book because I had been feeling a little down and so many people talked about how the book made them cry that I didn't want to make my mood worse. Also, right around the time I received my copy a relative of mine died from the cancer infecting his brain.


Hazel is a sixteen year old girl residing in Indiana whose lungs don't work due to the civilization cancer had established with in them. (Gah! I so don't want to type much more than this because I feel like everything past the first chapter would contain spoilers. That's how much I love this book! I view any and all info on it as a spoiler!) Through a forced attendance to a support group she meets Augustus Waters who is in remission--i.e. cancer is gone currently, but we won't say you're really cancer-free unless you stay that way for a few years. From the first support group meeting they click and the romance grows from there.

The obstacles Hazel and Augustus (sometimes called Gus) face are: not being defined by their cancer, fulfilling wishes, and maintaining dignity while the body is doing its best to fall apart. That's all I'm going to say about this because of a previous reason stated within a parenthesis.

I really did love this book and how real all of the characters became to me. I literally started yelling at John Green (who of course wasn't in the room) that such and such COULD NOT happen while caught up in the story. I even stopped reading twice and tweeted at him about two pages that made this not-easily-emotion-invoked reader to cry. (I will not reveal which pages--that is unless you read the tweets.) I will admit that I didn't understand everything within the first read, but that's the point of subsequent readings. You hold the story in your heart, you grow, come back to it again at another time, and then notice things you didn't before or understand something you rushed through earlier in your quest to find out what happens next.

Red Flags: Language. The first curse word you encounter is on the third page of the story and it will not be the last one. I think this book is a pretty realistic representation of teenagers--and yes, a great deal of them use profanity. There is also a depiction of some more-than-kissing displays of affection and implied sex. If you are someone who really can't enjoy a novel because of these red flags, you may not want to try it. But if you're able to accept them, look past them, or not be bothered by them at all I emphatically encourage you to read this book. Seriously.

Grading
Plot: 10/10
Characters: 10/10
Writing: 10/10
Originality: 10/10
Enjoyment: 10/10
Overall: 50/50

Tidbits
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
Original Release Date: January 10, 2012
Two ways to increase the dosage of John Green in your life:

• YouTube Channel
• Important Video to Watch
• Twitter: @realjohngreen

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

Where I Got the Book: My paperback copy is from Barnes and Noble

In Short: idyllic, charming, simple


The Penderwicks is an "it book"--one of those books you hear about all over the place because every prestigious book reviewer in the blogosphere or in review journalism is praising it, talking about it, comparing it to every great classic ever made (for example, I would say The Hunger Games is an "it book". I would like to say that Harry Potter also is one, but I consider it more of a mass phenomenon than simply an "it book". As widespread as The Penderwicks or HG is, I don't think they're quite to the degree that HP is at). Although I've always had a huge fondness for MG books, the real reason I sorely wanted it was because of another book--one that The Penderwicks had been constantly compared to: Half Magic.

As an elementary schooler, I was that kid who was obsessed with Harry Potter, Roald Dahl, and Edward Eager. I had read all of Edward Eager's books and, just as I am with Shannon Hale's novels now, recommended Half Magic to all of my friends (and very few have or did ever read it, if any did). To this day, I still think Eager's books influenced me as a reader in my tastes and as a writer in what I tend to write. So when many of my friends and tons of blogs that I read couldn't stop talking about Jeanne Birdsall's book, I knew I simply had to read this. I hadn't touched an Eager book in years, but I was certain this would be a delight.

I was right...but I think my expectations were a little too high for this book. Or maybe I've just aged. I'm not quite sure which, but I couldn't enjoy it as much as I did an Eager book or an Eleanor Estes novel. The feel, the mood--yes, that was familiar. The plot was vaguely similar, though perhaps with more of the adolescent troubles than would have been found in Half Magic.

The Penderwicks starts off very much like an Eager or Estes book: four sisters--so extremely realistic that they could be your neighbors--go on vacation over the summer with their widower father at a rented cottage called Arundel. Within the time span of three weeks, the sisters, each completely different from the next, undergo various Estes-esque adventures: Rosalind, the eldest, is trying to gain maturity and be more of an adult than she truly is; Skye, second eldest but the Penderwick sister with the quickest tongue of all that she simply can't seem to hold; Jane, the idealistic bookworm always off on literary adventures in her head; and little Batty, whose adorableness and innocence make her exactly your run-of-the-mill Estes "baby of the family". Joining the Penderwick girls in their mad schemes is Jeffrey, a boy whose mother has over-the-top expectations from her son, a kid who really only wants the simple and carefree life (or at least summer) that other children like the Penderwicks have.

A National Book Award winner, The Penderwicks is a fun, light summer read for Eager, Estes, and Nesbit fans, young and old alike. (As a random side note, I think those who will love this will relate wholeheartedly with Jane--she makes so many delightful literary references, and literary references + me = nerding out literary fangirl ;) ). I would definitely give this a shot if you're a fan of any of those authors; it may not be quite as beloved to you as Half Magic, Ginger Pye, or Five Children and It may be, but it's still a nice, quiet read for the interested bookworm. Not a favorite of mine, but I'm still excited to read the next books in this unfolding series.

Red Flags: To add to CSM's warnings, Surprisingly, there was perhaps a thing or two that was very vaguely hinted at, but it will easily fly over young readers' heads and can be very differently interpreted. Nothing to worry about, but a little odd, nonetheless.

Grading
Plot: 9/10 (wavers, just like an Eager or Estes book, but no direct plotline)
Characters: 7/10 (I really wanted to love all of the characters--and I simply love Jane--but Rosalind sometimes got on my nerves)
Writing: 10/10 (the writing style is not bad, and irons out the quirks that I always found odd in Eager's and Estes's works)
Originality: 10/10 (how many books nowadays do you see in the ilk of beloved authors of the fifties and sixties?)

Enjoyment: 9/10
Overall: 45/50

Tidbits
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Juvenile Fiction
Original Release Date: June 14, 2005