[BOOK REVIEW] East by Edith Pattou

Title:  East

Author: Edith Pattou

Genre: Fantasy

Year Published: 2003

Number of Pages: 498 pages

Date Read: 12/2/2010

Series: East #1

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers  

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 13+ (Some Intense Scenes)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

I never would have thought that there could be a whole chapter book retelling of a classic fairy tale other than Shannon Hale’s “The Goose Girl.”  Well, I have just recently stumbled upon this book called “East” that happens to be a great retelling of a classic fairy tale!  “East” is a retelling of a classic Scandinavian folktale called “East of the Sun West of the Moon” by Edith Pattou and anyone who is a huge fan of fairy tales will definitely get a kick out of this book!

Rose is the youngest child of seven children and because she was a born a North born child, according to her mother, she always loved exploring her homeland Njord and getting into trouble.  One day, however, a mysterious white bear comes in and promises Rose’s family that he will make them rich if they agree to let Rose come away with him to his cave.  At first, Rose’s family did not want her to leave with the white bear, but Rose decided to go with the white bear to save her family and so she and the white bear traveled for days until they reached the white bear’s magnificent cave where Rose lived for many years.  During her years with the white bear, Rose realizes that a mysterious stranger has been sleeping in bed next to her and when she discovers the stranger’s true identity, she embarks on a journey to save her true love from a terrible curse!

Beautiful! Simply Beautiful!  I never would have thought that I would have read a retelling of a popular folktale that was written so beautifully!  Edith Pattou has certainly done an excellent job at retelling the ancient Scandinavian folktale.  I loved the way that Edith Pattou added more elements to this story such as adding background information about each character in the book, especially Rose and we actually get to read about the other point of views of each character associated with Rose’s life like her father, her brother Neddy, the White Bear and the Troll Queen.  What I loved the most about this book is that each chapter is split up into a different character’s point of view.  Like for example, you have one chapter entitled “Rose” and the chapter is narrated by Rose herself and her point of view on the situation she is thrown into and then another chapter would be entitled “White Bear” and the white bear is narrating the chapter, and I really love this setup because you can actually get a feel of what each character is thinking about the situation at hand.  Another thing that I loved about this book was the relationships between all the characters in this book, especially between Rose, Neddy and her father.  I loved the way that Neddy and Rose’s father cared so much about Rose that they were willing to put their lives at stake in order to rescue her from any kind of danger.  I also loved the fairy tale elements in this story, especially since this story is based off of “East of the Sun West of the Moon” and I am a huge fan of many fairy tales and folktales, so the fairy tale elements in this story (enchantment, epic journey) are always relaxing to me.  I also think many people would enjoy this story if they enjoyed “The Golden Compass” since this book does have a similar element to “The Golden Compass” which is a girl riding a white bear on her journey.

Now the reason why I gave this book a four and a half star rating instead of a five star rating is because the story tends to drag on too long in certain scenes such as during the scenes where Rose is exploring the cave of the white bear and she is describing every single item she comes across.  It is alright to describe some items that have significance to the story, but to describe every other item that has nothing to do with the main point of the story does become tiresome really fast.

Overall “East” is truly an absolute masterpiece in its own right as it is filled with drama, fantasy and romance that anyone who is a huge fan of fairy tales will instantly take a liking to.

* 2004 Michigan Library Association Thumbs Up! Award Nominee
* 2008 Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award Nominee

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• Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

• The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

• Alice by Christina Henry

[BOOK REVIEW] Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Title:  Caraval

Author:  Stephanie Garber

Genre: Fantasy

Year Published: 2017

Number of Pages: 407 pages

Date Read: 10/11/2017

Series: Caraval #1

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 15+ (Themes of Child Abuse and Deaths)

Trigger Warnings:  Child Abuse

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

“Every person has the power to change their fate if they are brave enough to fight for what they desire more than anything.” 

2017 is the year of new releases that are full of books that contain adventure, romance, horror and excitement and I happened to stumble upon a new release for this year called “Caraval” by Stephanie Garber and I was seriously blown away by this book!

Scarlett Dragna has lived on a tiny island for most of her life, along with her little sister Donatella Dragna and her cruel and powerful father Governor Dragna.  One day, Scarlett’s father has decided to arrange a marriage between Scarlett and a Lord that she does not know and even though Scarlett believes that this would be the only way to escape her miserable life on the island and her abusive father, Scarlett still thinks that something is missing from her life.  It wasn’t until that very day that Scarlett meets a roguish and mysterious sailor named Julian who offered Scarlet the chance to visit the place of Scarlett’s deepest dreams:  CARAVAL!  Even though Scarlett was unsure about going to Caraval because she feared that her father will punish her severely for her disobedience, Scarlett decided to leave the island once she finds out that her sister Donatella had suddenly vanished from the island.  So, Scarlett and Julian set out to the mysterious island of Caraval to find Donatella; but once Scarlet gets to Caraval, she will soon discover that her sister Donatella is a part of some sort of sadistic game where whoever finds Donatella will be able to receive a wish from the legendary magician Legend himself!  So, Scarlett and Julian try to compete in the game in order to find Donatella before it is too late!

Wow!  Stephanie Garber has truly woven a truly magical and intense story about the importance of sibling love while also exploring the importance of true love!  Stephanie Garber has done a brilliant job at detailing the magical world of Caraval as the concept of this world is that everyone is doing a performance for the people and you have to decide what is real and what is not real in order to survive the game!  I loved the fact that this book focuses on a carnival theme as it is rare for me to read a young adult book that involves carnivals and games as a major plot of the story.  I loved the way that Stephanie Garber focused on the sisterly relationship between Scarlett and Donatella as it is also rare that I had read young adult books that focuses mostly on the relationship between siblings and I loved the fact that Scarlett truly does care about her sister Donatella and is willing to put her life on the line in order to protect Donatella from any kind of danger in the world of Caraval.  But what I loved the most in this book was the relationship shared between Julian and Scarlett!  When I went into this book, I actually thought that this book was just going to be about the sisterly relationship between Scarlett and Donatella and while that was a major part of the plot, it was Julian and Scarlett’s relationship with each other that really sold me!  I loved the fact that Julian and Scarlett both brought out the positive aspects in each other, such as Julian bringing out the bravery in Scarlett that she has held back due to her father instilling fear in her and Scarlett bringing out a softer side to Julian who was introduced as being aloof and not caring about who he hurts to get what he wants until he met Scarlett.  Even though their romantic bantering was downplayed in this book, it was still interesting seeing how different these two are from each other and yet, they become quite a compatible pair!

 

For anyone who does not like some language in this book, there is some language in this book, although it is not as strong as some other young adult books.  Also, this book deals with the subject of child abuse as both Scarlett and Donatella are beaten up by their father for various reasons and that might be uncomfortable for some readers to handle.

***SPOILER WARNING!!!***

This is a bit of a small nitpick for me, but the fact that it turned out that Donatella put her own sister through the game and tricking her into thinking that she died to prove Scarlett’s love for her kind of rubbed me the wrong way.  This made me see Donatella as being a bit manipulative towards Scarlett in making a deal with Legend without telling Scarlett and it made me question about whether or not Donatella actually cared about Scarlett’s feelings during the whole ordeal.

***SPOILER WARNING!!!***

Overall, “Caraval” is a wonderful book about the importance of sisterly love and anyone who loves reading books about siblings will surely enjoy this book!  I will definitely be checking out the second book as soon as it is released!

You might also like: 

• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

• Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

• Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

[BOOK REVIEW] Swimmy by Leo Lionni

Title:  Swimmy

Author:  Leo Lionni

Genre:  Animals / Drama / Family / Danger

Year Published: 1963

Year Read:  2010

Publisher:  Alfred A. Knopf

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 5+ (Some Scary Scenes and Death of a Family Member)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository

I have have heard works from Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak, Marc Brown and David Wiesner, but I have finally stumbled upon some works that came from my childhood a long time ago and those works consist of Leo Lionni!  “Swimmy” is a Caldecott Honor book by Leo Lionni and it is about how an unusual little fish named Swimmy, who survives a giant fish attack, tries to find another family to live with.  “Swimmy” may have an intense scene with the big fish that might frighten small children, but I am pretty sure that most children will easily enjoy this book!

Once there lived a happy school of small fish who were all red except for one fish was black and his name was Swimmy.  One terrible day however, a huge tuna fish came by and swallowed up all of the red fish except for Swimmy who had escape from the huge tuna.  Swimmy, now the sole survivor of a tuna attack, then swims around in the deep watery world by himself in order to find a new family to be in.

Will Swimmy find a new family?

Read this book to find out!

Never have I read a children's book that has both effective drawings and a heartwarming story at the same time as Leo Lionni has made this book!  Leo Lionni has done an excellent job at both illustrating and writing this book as it details the adventures of a unique black fish named Swimmy.  Leo Lionni's illustrations might look a little bit simplistic, however, they are extremely effective and colorful, especially of the images of the underwater world where it seems that Leo Lionni took a piece of sponge and patted the background with the painted sponge, which really brings out the creativity of the images of the underwater world.  The image that truly stood out the most for me was the image of Swimmy himself as he is shown to be the only black fish among a group of red fishes, who merely look like red outlines of fish.  Leo Lionni has certainly made this book extremely intense yet heartwarming at the same time as I have felt sympathy for Swimmy after he lost his family to a tuna fish and I can understand how many children and adults will also sympathize with Swimmy's predicament, especially if they lost loved ones to an accident.

Parents should know that at the beginning of this book, Swimmy's family is eaten by a giant tuna fish and that might be too upsetting for smaller children to handle.  On a side note, this scene strongly reminds me of a scene in “Finding Nemo” where Marlon's family except Nemo is also eaten by a huge fish and how Marlon has to cope with protecting his only son from anymore danger.  Parents might want to discuss about death of a family member with their children before they read them this book.

Overall, “Swimmy” is a highly emotional and heartwarming book for children who have also lost their family members and how they can still find love among friends and other family members. I personally would recommend this book to anyone who loves Leo Lionni's works and learning about what it takes to be a true family.  I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the scene where the big fish eats all the other fish might scare smaller children.

* 1964 Caldecott Honor

* 1965 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for Bilderbuch

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• Fly Homer Fly by Bill Peet

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[BOOK REVIEW] The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone

Title:  The Gingerbread Boy

Author:  Paul Galdone

Genre:  Food / Fairy Tale / Retelling / Trickery

Year Published: 1975

Year Read:  2017

Publisher: Clarion Books

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 5+ (Some Mischievous Behavior and Death)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

Now, as long as I could remember, I have always heard the stories about everyone’s favorite trouble making food product the “Gingerbread Man” and I had read a couple of children’s books in the past that detailed the Gingerbread Man’s adventures (although it has been years since I had last read a “Gingerbread Man” book).  So, when I found out that Paul Galdone had written his own interpretation of the Gingerbread Man story called “The Gingerbread Boy,” I was a bit surprised to see this edition pop up and I had to check it out!

The story starts off with a little old woman and a little old man not having any children of their own and they decided to make a Gingerbread Boy to make up for it.  When the old woman put the Gingerbread boy in the oven, she went off to go do some chores in the house and it was then that she forgot about the Gingerbread Boy and the oven started to burn.  When the old woman quickly went to open the oven, out jumped the Gingerbread Boy and he ended up running out of the house!  This then causes an escalating adventure for the Gingerbread Boy as he runs away from both the old woman and the old man and most of the villagers, while shouting out:

 “Run! Run! Run!

Catch me if you can!

You can’t catch me!

I’m the Gingerbread Boy,

I am! I am!”

After the Gingerbread Boy outruns everyone in the village, he meets up with a fox and…

Will the fox catch the Gingerbread Boy?

Read this book to find out!

Paul Galdone’s retelling of the “Gingerbread Man” was quite unique and cute to read as I rarely come across many “Gingerbread Man” interpretations where the titular Gingerbread Man is portrayed as a boy (even though there were no hints about the Gingerbread being a boy other than being called a boy).   I also enjoyed the scenes where the Gingerbread Boy ran away from various characters who want to eat him up as it was amusing that the Gingerbread Boy came up with this rhyme to brag about how he can evade any of his pursuers and I found myself repeating the rhymes whenever the Gingerbread Boy escapes from his pursuers.   Paul Galdone’s artwork was fun to look at as all the characters and settings look scratchy as it has an old fashioned feel that made the story great to read through.  I also loved the images of the Gingerbread Boy itself as it truly looks like a baked gingerbread cookie that happens to come to life and run across the pages in happy glee!

The reason why I gave this book a four star rating was because I felt that the Gingerbread Boy’s taunting verses:

“Run! Run! Run!

Catch me if you can!

You can’t catch me!

I’m the Gingerbread Boy,

I am! I am!”

Had started to get a bit tedious after a while, especially since we keep seeing these same verses pop up on every page every time the Gingerbread Boy runs away from his pursuers.  While young children will get enjoyment out of repeating this verse every time the Gingerbread Boy escapes his pursuers, some older readers might find the constant repeatings of this verse to be a bit of a hassle to read through over and over again.

Overall, “The Gingerbread Boy” is a cute book for anyone who is a huge fan of the “Gingerbread Man” stories.  I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the ending of this book might disturb some smaller children.