book review: Swipe by Evan Angler

Title: Swipe
Author: Evan Angler
Publisher: Thomas Nelson, May 2012,  Kindle & paperback, 288 pages
Reading Level: Ages 8 and up

• ISBN-10: 140031836X
• ISBN-13: 978-1400318360

Evan Angler’s middle-grade novel Swipe takes place at a future time when society has been through ecological upheaval, shortages, plague, and war. But leaders General Lamson and Chancellor Cylis have remedied all that with many innovations including the mark, a nano-dust arm tattoo every 13-year-old gets on his or her birthday. This makes each a full member of society, able to get a job, earn money, shop, bank, and vote.

For Logan Langly and his family, life goes along smoothly in the small town of Spokie until the day Logan’s older sister Lily goes to get her mark and never returns. Now Logan’s 13th is just around the corner and he’s jumpy. What if the same thing happens to him? Add to that the fact that he feels like he’s being watched and things in his room get moved while he’s out. Despite his obsessive checking of the whole house morning and night, he never catches the culprit.

Enter Erin, the new girl from Beacon City. Her dad works for Dome, the futuristic equivalent of the CIA. She hates it that she had to leave her mom and home because of Dad’s job. She snoops through his stuff with a view to helping him solve his case in Spokie speedily so her family can be together again. With her code-cracking, internet savvy smarts, she’s soon up to her neck in mystery as she joins Logan in his quest to find out if there truly is someone following him, why, and whether Lily’s disappearance was sinister or just an explainable mark intolerance.

I loved the book’s setting which gives us Angler’s answers to questions like, What if fuel runs out? What if land is at a premium? What if all the trees are dead? What if paper is rare to non-existent? What if people are discouraged from thinking for themselves?

Main character Logan is sympathetic and likeable, though a little wimpy. Strong girl Erin makes this a PC book that will help it pass muster with the feminists (and their mothers) in the crowd. The book’s intended middle-grade audience will relate well, I think, to the dynamics between characters at school and in social settings, like a futuristic rock concert complete with wailing mitts.

The boyfriend-girlfriend angle is played up too. The book probably portrays that aspect of tween to early teen relationships realistically, though given the fact that kids as young as Grade 3 (“ages 8 and up”) will probably read this book, some of the scenes seemed more appropriate to YA than mid-grade fiction (kids fantasizing about relationships with the opposite sex, hugging and kissing with attendant thrills described, time spent alone in bedrooms with someone they ‘like,’ though nothing happens and the “dates” are not much more than long walks).

The mark is an obvious reference to the Mark of the Beast from the Bible (Revelation 13:16-18), but other references to faith or a specific religion are pretty much absent. The book does explore themes of conformity, family, secrets, courage, loyalty, truth, and what the future could be like.

There’s lots to like in Angler’s lively and quirky writing style. For example:

“But Erin was worked up. And for no good reason she thought of bedtime reading and Shakespeare in pajamas, and then her heart broke in two and it sank and burned in little pieces in the acid of her stomach and suddenly she was very worked up and she said, ‘Are either of you even trying anymore?” (Kindle Location 998).

and:

“Peck assumed the look of a man choosing his words so carefully that none came out” (KL 4298).

and:

“He’d never walked so deep into a building so big and so swallowing” (KL 4637).

For a surprise-filled adventure set in a futuristic world with realistic, likeable characters, Swipe is a good choice. It releases May 1st with an ending that sets readers firmly on the path to Sneak, Book 2 in the Swipe series, due out in the fall of 2012.

Read a  sample

Author's website

Swipe trailer

(I received this book as a gift from the publisher for the purpose of writing a review. This review was first published at Blogcritics.org)

This book is included in Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books - April 21st edition. Go visit, for links to lots more reviews.

new kidlit blog

UPDATE - Monday, May 18.

Though the Book Brew blog below is only one week old, I've already moved it.

I was feeling very out of my element in WordPress (though it's an excellent blogging platform with some nice features). So I've moved Book Brew to blogger. You can now find it here.

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I've gone and done something I never thought I'd do - started yet another blog! Am I crazy or what?! It's all Twitter's fault. Here's how it came about:

1. As I said, I joined Twitter a few weeks ago.

2. In my search to find kindred spirits to follow, last Friday I discovered a slew of people who write for children on one of those twitter directories.

3. I signed up to follow @susanwrites.

4. One of her first tweets was the children’s writers’ Poetry Friday roundup here.

5. This brought me face to face with the KidLitosphere – kids’ writers and book lovers galore, bound together by the love of children’s literature. One of the main things they do is review children’s books.

6. Besides Poetry Friday, they also have a weekly blog roundup called Nonfiction Monday.

7. My first thought: I want to play too!

And so I began my Book Brew blog, because in order to participate, you have to have a blog that’s devoted to books for young adults and children. And I’m so fine with that


Now I’ll have a place to post only about children’s writing! Whoo hoo!!

book review: The Cake Thief by Sally O. Lee

Title: The Cake Thief
Author: Sally O. Lee
Publisher: BookSurge, 2007
Genre: Children's Picture Book
ISBN: 1419683926

Clarence is a little boy who steals cakes from everyone in town. But his life changes the day he finds something that isn’t a cake under the cover of a cake stand.

In her book The Cake Thief, author and illustrator Sally O. Lee shows how Clarence is transformed when someone offers him unexpected kindness.

The author never tells us the reason for Clarence’s stealing. This may be a good thing because the open-endedness could lead to discussions about why children misbehave in general and steal in particular. Other subjects that might come up are ways to treat kids who don’t fit in and how a sense of belonging can change someone for the better.

The vivid illustrations are oil paintings on paper. There are several that fill entire pages and the bright colors add playfulness. The illustrations also help interpret the story, as we see Clarence at the end minus the eye mask which he never takes off in his thieving days.

The text of this 34-page book is simple, short and to the point. It should hold the attention of even busy little people when it’s read to them. Competent early elementary readers will be able to read it themselves. Children ages two to six years will enjoy The Cake Thief.

book review: On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson

Title: On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness
Author: Andrew Peterson
Publisher: Waterbrook Press, 2008
Genre: Children, Fantasy
ISBN: 1400073849

It is night and in the distance Janner Igiby hears the sound of the Black Carriage. Will it turn into the lane of Igiby Cottage? Is it coming for him? The frightening words of a Skree nursery rhyme sing-song in his head:

“Lo, beyond the River Blapp
The Carriage comes, the Carriage Black…”

Welcome to the Igiby Cottage and Andrew Peterson’s fantasy novel On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness – a tale of danger, mystery, imagination, and humor.

The Igiby cottage, just outside the village of Glipwood in the land of Skree, is the home of 12-year-old Janner, 11-year-old Tink and their little sister Leeli who live there with their mother Nia and ex-pirate grandfather Podo.

Though things really are cozy and safe enough in the Igiby’s home, the same can’t be said for Glipwood. Indeed, all of the land of Skree is under a shadow. Some years ago the Fangs of Dang – those creatures which would exactly resemble humans if it weren’t for their greenish scales, lizard snouts and fangs jutting from snarling mouths – conquered Skree. Now their menacing presence makes even a trip to Books and Crannies a perilous venture.

This night the Black Carriage never arrives and Janner finally gets back to sleep. He awakens to a much brighter world and the happy thought that this is the best day of the whole year – the Dragon Day Festival.

Festival day in Glipwood goes just fine until sundown when the Glipfolk begin heading for the beach. Then Janner and Tink realize Leeli is missing. In the distance they hear her screams and find her at last in a back alley, cornered by two fangs. This is only the children’s first of many encounters with these evil creatures which escalate finally to where even their snug little cottage is no longer safe.

I love the self-contained universe Peterson has created. It comes complete with its own calendar, plants (totatoes, sugarberries), creatures (toothy cows, horned dogs, ridgerunners), foods (maggot loaf, ratbadger tail salad), folklore, songs, history, even writers (Bahbert Pembrick, Rumpole Bloge and others – with quotes from their writings all footnoted as proof they really do exist).

The characters are colorful. Of the Igiby family we get to know Janner the best as we work with him through his struggles of growing up. Elegant Nia and short-fused Podo are also interesting and complex. Another intriguing player is Peet the Sock Man, who gets his twords all wisted, lives in a surprise-filled treehouse and wears socks on his hands. Of course the fangs are thoroughly evil and as loathsome as a bad smell.

Peterson’s entertaining story-telling style recommends the book as an excellent read-aloud. The book contains several entire songs (Peterson, after all, is a lyricist in his day job), as well as maps and a couple of line drawings to make it an altogether convincing other-world adventure – not to speak of the sly and kid-friendly humor that brings on many a case of titters (booger gruel and snot wax candles indeed!).

But though the story is entertaining, the themes are serious. Good and evil thread through the book. Character development gets front page billing as Janner faces his selfishness, fear and jealousy. The children learn about loyalty, responsibility, respect, courage, forgiveness, and the importance of serving. And there is lots of scope to read a Narnia-style message into the characters and events.

Some of the questions about the world of Aeriwar, the jewels of Anniera, and the Igiby children’s father are answered by the end of book. But the loose ends that are left ensure that readers old and young will eagerly anticipate Book 2 of The Wingfeather Saga. Book 1 – On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness – is due out mid-March.

3 pigs at Christmas

book review: The Subtle Knife

If you read here regularly, you will have seen mention of The Golden Compass, a movie that's slated to be released in theatres December 7th. It's based on a book of the same name, written by Philip Pullman, an outspoken atheist.

Though the anti-Christian message in The Golden Compass movie has supposedly been toned down from how in-your-face it is in the book, it's well known that movies spawn interest in the books from which they were taken.

The Golden Compass is the first in a trilogy of books - His Dark Materials - by Philip Pullman. The second book is The Subtle Knife. Hollywood is planning a movie about it too. Below is a review of The Subtle Knife, written by Ken Kilback, a local Kindergarten teacher. He first posted it in a forum to which we both belong. He has given permission for me to post it here. (Thanks so much, Ken!)


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Title: The Subtle Knife
Author: Philip Pullman
Publisher: Scholastic, 1998
Genre: Fantasy
ISBN: 0590112899

I mentioned last week during the previous discussion that I had just started The Subtle Knife, the second book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, of which The Golden Compass is the first book in the series.

Well, I finished the second book today, and as someone else mentioned before, it was definitely much darker and much more disturbing than the first book.

In the series, there are multiple earths with doorways, both natural and human-made, that connect them with one another. The title of the book refers to a knife that humans on one earth created, not knowing that it can slice through anything, including the fabric of space and the smallest of elementary particles.

We also find out that the dark matter of the universe is not only conscious and sentient, but is/are also the rebel angels of the original Fall. The boy, Will, has become the new knife-bearer and he is also given a new task by a number of characters, including angels, and that task is to kill the authority, God. the girl Lyra, is also part of the plan and she is now being referred to as the new Eve, the one who disobeys and brings new life.

The first book in the series speaks a lot against the church in particular and Christianity in general, focusing a lot on all the evil things that have been done in the name of God. What makes this second book in the series so disturbing is the value it places on disobedience.

All the characters that we meet, in addition to the boy and girl, are being called to the side of the rebel angels -- to what is being referred to as "the right side" in the book -- and the direction in which the book is pointing is that a great war is coming (in the next book) and this time "the right side4 will win."

As one character in the book points out to another, the war is "...between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit." The emphasis in this book is the need for humans to take control of their own destiny and not allow God to "dictate" what he thinks their destiny should be.

It's been said that Pullman wrote this trilogy in response to the Narnia stories. I read on his website that he admits this. One thing he points out on his website is that he hated the ending of the series. He hated the fact that the children die at the end of Narnia. From his website and from this trilogy it becomes apparent that he blames God for everything bad, not even trying to consider that maybe the bad things that have been done in His name have been done by people making a choice to follow sin rather than God.

I'm not sure whether people are aware of this, but Pullman recently won the Carnegie of Carnegies. The Carnegie is already an important prize for children's literature. The Carnegie of Carnegies means his books were voted the best of children's books in a ten-year period. His books received the first of these Carnegie of Carnegies.

If you were to read his books, though, you would find them completely driven by ideas rather than plot or characters. The plot and character development seem secondary to the idea itself and so the characters have never seemed real to me.

The other thing I've found about his writing is how confusing it is in point of view reference. There is lots of lack of POV consistency, even within the same paragraph and even often within the same sentence.

In nearly every way the book doesn't read as a children's book, at least not for what seems to be the target group. It's much more of an upper YA novel, I think, than anything for younger children and yet it's the younger children who will be reading it and being directed to hate everything associated with God.

And once again, there was no balance in the book either. Everything associated with god is being shown as "impure" and "evil" while everything associated with the rebel angels is shown to be "pure" and "just." It is indeed a very disturbing series.

Ken
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Read also The Golden Compass Has No Moral Compass - a review of the movie by Matt Barber - Canada Free Press.

black & white

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair - Sand sculpture

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: HAPPY (Smiles, Laughter, Hugs, Children, Beautiful Things,...)

'The Golden Compass' - an anti-God flick?

Thought Harry Potter was blasphemous? That was kids' stuff compared to the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, in which God is an imposter, angels are sexually ambiguous and the Church kidnaps, tortures and assassiinates to achieve its goals, one of which is stealing children's souls...

So begins the article on www.mtv.com "'Golden Compass' Film Angering Christian Groups -- Even with its Religious Themes Watered Down."

Apparently there is an email going around, warning unsuspecting parents of this upcoming release. A friend emailed me the Snopes response to that circulating email. This time the claim that the film "The Golden Compass" (starring Nicole Kidman, to be released December 7/07) contains anti-religious themes has a 'true' status.

The film company has apparently watered down the anti-religious tone - at least in this first movie of the planned three-part epic which are based on books by outspoken atheist and secular humanist Phillip Pullman. Despite that, The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights insists that the film is a vehicle for "selling atheism to kids." Focus on the Family's Adam Holz fears the movie will '"plant seeds" to "ultimately encourage some fans to reject God" (mtv article above).

The email expressed the fear that the film would encourage kids to read not only The Golden Compass but sequels The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. The claim is that Pullman becomes more outspoken in his hatred for God with each book.

I guess after the popularity of those anti-God books by Sam Harris et al, we shouldn't be surprised that this movement is gaining momentum and getting ever bolder. Plus they see where their future lies -- in indoctrinating kids.

I haven't read the "His Dark Materials" books. But I have taken a look at the trailer on "The Golden Compass" website. I also checked out some of the tabs on the site. It gets fans interacting with Pullman's imaginative and in-your-face-occultic universe.

Take the Alethiometer (the Alethiometer is the golden compass of the book). The instructions say: "Drag the three red needles to lie over appropriate symbols on the face of the Alethiometer while forming a question in your mind. Click the '?' button and the fourth needle will then respond,swinging over different symbols to form an answer..." Smacks a bit of Oija, doesn't it?

Then there's the Daemons tab (pronounced dē'-mon). The introduction to this section begins: "In Lyra's world, a person's soul lives on the outside of their body, in the form of a daemon -- an animal spirit that accompanies them through life." Clicking on "Discover your own Daemon" leads to twenty questions and the discovery your own daemon (? - I guess so; I didn't do it).

Dark. It sends shivers up my spine!

Other links:

movie synopsis (may contain spoilers)

Wikipedia on His Dark Materials - the Golden Compass

mtv.com article: 'His Dark Materials' Writer Philip Pullman Takes 'Narnia,' 'Lord of the Rings' To Task.

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Added Wednesday - 11/07/07

Mr. Pullman's website

His views on organized religion:

The trouble is that all too often in human history, churches and priesthoods have set themselves up to rule people's lives in the name of some invisible god (and they're all invisible, because they don't exist) – and done terrible damage. In the name of their god, they have burned, hanged, tortured, maimed, robbed, violated, and enslaved millions of their fellow-creatures, and done so with the happy conviction that they were doing the will of God, and they would go to Heaven for it.

That is the religion I hate, and I'm happy to be known as its enemy.

Quoted from his page on religion.

book review - The Precious Teacup

Title: The Precious Teacup
Author: Heather Johnson
Illustrator: Ken Save
Genre: Christian poetry, Children
ISBN: 097398080X

Tea parties and little girls go together. If anyone should know that it’s Heather Johnson, mother to four of them and author of The Precious Teacup.

Heather and her daughters have been inviting their little friends over for tea parties (with a purpose) for a while now. As Heather tells it, the poem that became the text of The Precious Teacup came to her as she prepared for one of those parties.

Now it’s available as a beautifully illustrated 36-page hard cover book. The simple rhyming text compares a little girl to a beautiful tea cup. Each page spread shows the two sides of the comparison with the teacup made, cleaned, bought and filled with tea on one side and the child uniquely designed by God, bought and cleaned by Jesus and then filled with His love on the other. The book ends with a simple prayer.

It can be purchased online through the precious teacup website. Also available there is a free downloadable tea party guide to help you plan your own tea party with a purpose. If you need any more inspiration, check out the photos of one of those parties. It makes me wish my girl was little again and we had a neighborhood full of friends to invite over for sandwiches, cookies, tea and this book, of course, to give us a beautiful segue to the subject of Jesus and His love.

book review: Arthur, the Christmas Elf

Title: Arthur, the Christmas Elf -- A Christmas Adventure
Author: Valerie Connelly
Publisher: Nightengale Press, 2006 - 68 pages
Genre: Children's Fiction, Children's Activities
ISBN: 193344923

Arthur, the Christmas Elf is a story book that will keep on giving long after the read-aloud part is done. Fine-tuned through years of retelling it to her own youngsters, author Valerie Connelly’s tale about two self-absorbed children, a storm and Santa’s elf Arthur will help kids gain a new perspective on Christmas gifts in both the giving and getting departments.

The author-illustrated 43-page story section is only the first part of this two-part book, however. In the second part are instructions on how to make the seven craft projects mentioned in the story. These easy-to-make, family-tested projects use materials most people probably have around the house. The instructions are well-organized, easy to follow and include traceable patterns and photographs that illustrate the projects at various stages of completion.

I can see this dual-purpose and prize-winning book being a great addition to the Christmas of any family with kids up to and including teens. The story will probably become a holiday favorite. And the book may be the catalyst for a new tradition of kids and parents (or older siblings) spending quality time together making things in the days before Christmas, and then giving gifts that come more from the heart than the wallet.

about "My Messiah"

A few years ago when I was department head of the Grade 5 & 6 Sunday School department of our church, I had the idea of getting the kids to do a Christmas newspaper - but as it would have appeared at the time of Jesus’ birth. This meant we had to study those times, so we could put ourselves into the Bethlehem of the nativity. "My Messiah" was my own contribution to that project.

In 2001 I sent it to Essence Publishing, where it was included in the Christmas compilation Celebrating the Season 2001.

Finally, a few weeks ago, I resurrected it to be worked over by an online critique group. They offered many valuable suggestions on how to improve it. I edited it, and sent it to Dave Long’s Christmas fiction contest (webmaster of the faith*in*fiction blog). It appears here as one of a collection of Christmas stories (to which I will post links as soon as I have them).