Freakling

Krumwiede, Lana. Freakling. Book 1 of the Psi Chronicles series. 2012. 309p. ISBN 0-7636-5937-1. Available at FIC KRU on the library shelves.

The city and countryside of Deliverance has lived at peace ever since its people, led by Nathan, removed themselves from the Republic and sought shelter behind an impassable chain of mountains. Persecuted for their abilities to manipulate their environment through psionics powers, specifically telekinesis, psy wielders found rest and created a new society. That society is now in danger, however, as the priesthood seeks to gain control of psy weapons and enter in an alliance with the Republic against its enemies.

Twelve-year-old Taemon has never known any other world. He uses psi to eat, dress, wash, open locks and turn on the lights. His older brother, Yens, hopes to become a psi ball professional player so he can escape the fate of becoming a religious teacher like his father. For Taemon, however, he still has a year left before he needs to make a decision. When the head priest, Elder Naseph, announces that the True Son prophesized by Nathan has arrived, all eyes turn to Yens, who demonstrates an understanding of psi beyond his years.

However Yens is evil. He attempts to kill Taemon by throwing him over a cliff, and only Taemon’s clairvoyance saves him from drowning. In the process, he loses access to his telekinetic abilities. Having to fake your way through life without the ability to manipulate the environment through his mind, Taemon is soon discovered to be psi-less, and is sent to the Colony, a space reserved for those people who do not have psi.

There Taemon discovers people who do things the old fashioned way: with their hands. He begins a new trade, and makes new friends, including Amma, a beautiful girl. But even in the Colony there are secrets. Why is there a door hidden in Amma’s house that is locked by psi when no one has any here? Why are people disappearing in Deliverance? As secrets are revealed, Taemon must decide if he is willing help his people, knowing that this help will come at a deadly price.

Buddha Boy

Koja, Kathe. Buddha Boy. 2003. 128p. ISBN 9780142402092. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

When Justin first sees Michael, he finds him rather odd. Not wearing a coat in winter, and begging for food in the cafeteria, Michael, who goes by the name Jinsen but who is mocked and called Buddha Boy by the other students, approaches life with the thoughts of being at peace with the universe. Justin doesn’t get it. Why is Jinsen always smiling, despite the insults and physical abuse other students hurl at him?

Then the worst happens. Justin is paired with Jinsen during economics. They are to work together on a game. Jinsen invites Justin over to his house to work on their project, and Justin discovers that Jinsen lives in a nice house and owns more art supplies than Justin has ever seen. Very artistic, Jinsen designs the visual elements of the game, while Justin creates the paper. Impressed by Jinsen’s art, Justin tells him he should join art class. Jinsen does so, and joins Justin’s table, much to the dismay of his friends.

As Justin gets to know Jinsen, he realizes that the boy is both talented and deeply committed to his faith. Justin begins to question himself on the value of faith and belief. He witnesses Jinsen being abused by other students on more than one occasion, but Jinsen always keeps a smile on his face. However, every instance of bullying challenges Justin to be more than a bystander. With his friendship with Jinsen deepening, Justin finds himself having to make a tough decision. Should he continue to remain quiet so he better fit in the social structure of his school, or should he stand up for someone who is so different but whose personality is such a ray of warm sunshine in an otherwise dreary life?

Friends and faith mix really well in this beautifully written book about the power of one individual to change the lives of many people. Fans of realistic fiction will enjoy exploring the world of Justin’s high school and the drama that Jinsen refuses to participate in.

Riders

Rossi, Veronica. Riders. Book 1 of the Riders duology. 2016. 384p. ISBN 9780765382542. 658 mins. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Gideon Blake’s father has always been his role model, A soldier in the U.S. Army, his father instilled in him discipline and a logical mind. But when his father suffered a heart attack and died while on the roof of a house they were working on, Gideon lost his compass and direction. Graduating from high school, he decides to join the Army like his father and, following basic training, enters the U.S. Army Ranger school. During his fifth parachute jump, Gideon’s main parachute does not open, nor does the emergency parachute. The odds of this happening are millions to one. Gideon manages to deploy his emergency parachute, but it is too late to avoid crashing down to the ground. Gideon hits the ground so hard that he dies from the impact.

He is revived by paramedics and transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he is told he will never be a Ranger due to the gravity of his injuries. He is informed that it will take at least six months for him to heal. Transported back home to California to recuperate, he notices a strange metal bracelet on his arm, and no one seems to know where it came from. He also heals very quickly. It’s only been a day back home and he can already walk without a crutch. Gideon wonders what happened to him.

A day later, at a party hosted by his sister at her residence on the university campus, he meets Daryn, an intriguing girl who begs him to leave with her at once. Puzzled, Gideon refuses. The party is crashed by three people itching for a fight, and when Gideon perceives that his sister is threatened he fights back, only to realize that his opponents are not humans, and one of them can even control his thoughts. Chasing after them, Gideon stumbles upon Daryn who had fled the party and is hiding in his Jeep. She reveals to him that he is War, the embodiment of one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, and that he must help save the world from the Kindred, demons who joined Satan in his rebellion against God but then eventually rebelled against Satan too. This Kindred seek to open a gateway to control a new world and escape their hunters. Daryn, as a Seeker, has that key. Armed with a cool sword and a fiery horse, Gideon and Daryn must now travel the world and find the other horsemen before the Kindred closes in.

Now in custody of the U.S. government, Gideon must convince the powers that be that they have to release him before it is too late. But how do you convince someone that you are one of the standard bearers of the Bible’s last chapter before it is too late?

The Inferno

Alighieri, Dante. The Inferno. 2002. 694p. ISBN 0-385-49698-2. Available at 458 DAN or as an audiobook on Overdrive.

The poet Dante wrote the Divine Comedy over 700 years ago, and this trip of salvation from the depths of Hell to Paradise has struck the imagination ever since. The vivid descriptions of Hell, present in The Inferno, the first part of the Divine Comedy, have illustrated the Christian world’s understanding of the life of a sinner and the consequences of unrepentance.

Lost in the forest on the eve of Good Friday, Dante meets the ghost of Virgil, sent to guide him through Hell then on to Paradise so he can write about his experience and let his contemporary know the power of God. The gates of Hell are clearly labeled “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Dante and Virgil travel through the nine circles of Hell and confront  limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery, before encountering Satan himself and departing out of Hell.

An allegory of sin, Dante’s Inferno continues to promote debate about the meaning of Hell and its place in today’s secular societies.

Burned

Hopkins, Ellen. Burned. 2006. 532p. ISBN 1-44249461-1. Available at FIC HOP on the library shelves.

Pattyn Von Stratten has always been a good Mormon girl. The eldest of seven girls, she’s been helping her mother raise her sisters, and has often questioned the purpose God has for her. But when she has her first sex dream about a boy at her school, Pattyn suddenly finds herself moving away from God and the teachings of the Church of Latter Day Saints. It doesn’t help that her father is a violently abusive and alcoholic husband.

As she begins to experience love, Pattyn starts neglecting her familial duties and experiences a crisis of faith. Caught in a compromising position with a boy named Derek, her father sends Patty away to live with his sister for the summer. Aunt Jeannette and her father had a major disagreement when they were young. He had threatened to kill both her and her boyfriend at the time. Jeannette lives in rural Nevada hours away from a city. There, Pattyn meets Ethan, and soon the two are lovers.

Pattyn’s happiness soon collides with reality. Her mother is pregnant again, and about to deliver. Pattyn must return home to help her, but at the same time she will be returning to be tormented by her abuser. Is Ethan’s love strong enough to allow Pattyn to endure her situation until she turns eighteen?

This book is another great e. lockhart novel. If you enjoyed it, be sure to read We Were Liars by the same author.

Persian Myths

Sarkhosh Curtis, Vesta. Persian Myths. 1998. 80p. ISBN 0-292-71158-1. Available at 299 CUR on the library shelves.

Occupying a strategic between India and China to the East and the Mediterranean world to the West, Iran has always been a land of conflict and contrast. Like other great civilizations before, the Iranians have foundational myths that explain the rise of the nation and the battles it had to fight to secure its existence. Traditional tales feature confrontation between holy kings and mighty heroes against armies led by evil men, demons and dragons. Supernatural creatures such as Simergh, a magical bird from the tallest mountain, or Rakhsh, the mightest horse of the hero Rustam, populate these tales and attempt to explain the world as it was.

The arrival of Islam in the seventh century saw a shift from Zoroastrianism to Islam, but the myths and legends of ancient Iran were too powerful to disappear and were instead coopted by the new religion. These tales, which include the original Thousands and One Night, were distributed orally through minstrels, storytellers and religious leaders, but were eventually documented in several books such as the Avesta, the holy book of the Zoroastrians, as well as the Shahnameh, the Book of Kings.

These myths and legends fueled Iranian art over more than six centuries and continue to provide inspiration for modern adaptations. Fans of myths will enjoy reading familiar tales of good versus evil in an unfamiliar setting, and will appreciate the rich culture of ancient Iran.

Siddhartha

Hesse, Herman. Siddhartha. 2010. 326 mins. 170p. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

Raised in a rich family, young Siddhartha has always questioned the purpose of life. Wishing to discover himself and his reason for living, he argues with his father that he must depart the religious caste he was born in so that he can pursue enlightenment. With his friend Govinda, he decides to abandon society and join the Shramanas, a group of aesthetics who live a simple life and neither own nor owe anything. After three years, however, Siddhartha still does not feel any closer to enlightenment. Hearing that the Buddha is speaking in a neighboring district, the two companions leave the Shramanas.

Convinced of the just cause of Buddha, Govinda readily joins as a monk, but Siddhartha cannot. He speaks with Buddha, and reveals that what he seeks is not a teacher who will tell him, but the experiences necessary to reach self-awareness and the true meaning of himself. He wanders through the forest, and meets a simple ferryman who appreciates the river for what it is. Siddhartha promises the ferryman he will one day return.

In the city he meets Kamala, a courtesan, and soon Siddhartha rejoins the ranks of urban dwellers, becomes a merchant, and accumulates a fortune. Unfortunately, this path is also not enough to discover himself, so he drops everything and heads back into the forest, hoping to die. At his lowest moment in life, he is saved by Govinda, who happens to stumble upon him by the river. Vowing to live again, Siddhartha reconnects with the ferryman and learns the secrets of the river, that everything is cyclical and united.

His last encounter with Kamala led to a son, and when Kamala travels through the forest and is bitten by a poisonous snake, she and her son are rescued by Siddhartha. As he raises his son after Kamala’s death, he realizes that the river is right. Just as he needed to leave to find himself, so does his son. Having now achieved wisdom, Siddhartha imparts what he has learned to his old friend Govinda when both of them are old men, that suffering and rejection, peace and tranquility, and wisdom and understanding are all interconnected and dependent on each other. That, according to Siddhartha, is the true enlightenment.

Siddhartha is panned by Tom Henderson in King Dork as being a pompous book that seeks to go against its own understanding, by aiming to teach a mismatch of Buddhists, Taoists, Hinduists and Christian ideas.

Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods

Riordan, Rick. Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods. 2014. 336p. ISBN 978-1423183648. Available at FIC RIO on the library shelves.

When first asked by his editor to write a compendium on the Greek Gods, Percy Jackson is hesitant. After all, as a demi-god himself, he could catch a lot of flak from the Titans and the Olympians. But after thinking it over, he decides that such a book would be very helpful for mere mortals to understand the relationships between the rulers of Olympia.

Told from Percy’s perspective, this book presents a concise history of the twelve Olympians, as well as that Gaea and her children, the Titans. Each God and Goddess gets his or her own profile, including how they came about to be and what they have been up to since, all in the unmistakable voice of a teenager.

Beautifully illustrated, this volume is a must for the lovers of the Percy Jackson series and for those who want a hilarious look at the lives of the Greek Gods.

The Bone Chapel

Gordon, Nick. The Scariest Places on Earth: The Bone Chapel. 2015. 24p. ISBN 978-1-600-14-946-7. Available at 393.1 GOR on the library shelves.

The Bone Chapel is one of the creepiest places on Earth. Found in the small town of Kutná Hora, the Chapel’s interior walls have been decorated with the bones of more than 40,000 people. Built in the 1200, the town became famous when a local monk returned from Jerusalem with dirt from the Holy Land. Suddenly, everyone wanted to be buried here. The Black Death added even more bodies. Eventually, the area became saturated with bones, and as new bodies were buried older ones were taken out, and their bones piled in the Chapel, transforming it in a giant crypt.

In 1870, Frantisek Rint was commissioned to deal with the bones. He created a morbid yet fascinating display of bones throughout the Chapel, with columns, chalices, a coats of arm, and even a chandelier, all made of bones.

Tourists today continue to visit this site, and most report an eery feeling of death but also of calm. You won’t believe the pictures in this book!

Pocket Timeline of Islamic Civilizations

Badcott, Nicholas. Pocket Timeline of Islamic Civilizations. 2009. 48p. ISBN 978-1-56656-758-9. Available at 909 BAD on the library shelves.

Islam has made the news headlines for the past decade, but for most Americans it remains a religion steeped in fear and mystery. This short book by Nicholas Badcott presents the history of Islam and the various dynasties that controlled its growth and spread throughout the world. Each two pages spread shows important events, as well as art, architecture, weapons, science, and coins influenced by Islam. Included in the book is a twelve page pullout with a more specific timeline that can be consulted.

This is an excellent book for a short overview of one of the world’s most followed religions.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Speare, Elizabeth. The Witch of Blackbird Pond. 1978. 256p. ISBN 0440995779. Available as an ebook and an audiobook on Overdrive.

When Katherine Tyler’s grandfather, Sir Francis Tyler, died, she was forced to leave Barbados. Her grandfather, who had been taking care of her since the death of her parents years earlier, left the estate in shambles and with mounting bills. Kit was able to settle all debts, but she had to sell everything. One of the men owed money informed her he would forgive the debt if she married him.

To escape she makes her way to a new community, cold, dreary and puritan New England. She’s never met her mother’s sister, but they exchanged many letters over the years, and aunt Rachel has two daughters near Kit’s age. Arriving in Connecticut Colony in the late 1600s, she finds an unwelcoming community, one used to strict control of thoughts and stricter enforcement of compliance with the rules.

A free spirit, Kit begins to chafe under the rules. Running to hide  in one of the meadows by the river, she comes across Hannah, a Quaker who has been exiled out of the village. They soon become friends, but Kit’s uncle forbids her to go. Kit continues to visit, however, and reconnects with beautiful Nat, who was one of the sailors on the Dolphin, the ship that took her here. She’s also pursued by the richest man in town, and as winter begins to oppress the land Kit feels the full weight of solitude.

When children become sick and begin to die, Hannah is accused of witchcraft. Kit risks her own life and saves her from being caught, getting her aboard the Dolphin. Faced with suspicion and fear since her arrival, Kit is the one who becomes accused of witchcraft, and the penalty is death. Will anyone come to Kit’s defense?

If you liked this book you will enjoy The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place.