Cover Craving...Sweet Legacy!!

Sweet Legacy

by Tera Lynn Childs

Sweet Venom, book three

 

Publication date: September 3, 2013

 

I LOVE both this series and the great covers for them! This one is a perfect compliment to the first two and I cannot wait to hold a copy in my hands...



Hokey Pokey

Hokey Pokey

by Jerry Spinelli

Welcome to Hokey Pokey. A place and a time, when childhood is at its best: games to play, bikes to ride, experiences to be had. There are no adults in Hokey Pokey, just kids, and the laws governing Hokey Pokey are simple and finite. But when one of the biggest kids, Jack, has his beloved bike stolen—and by a girl, no less—his entire world, and the world of Hokey Pokey, turns to chaos. Without his bike, Jack feels like everything has started to go wrong. He feels different, not like himself, and he knows something is about to change. And even more troubling he alone hears a faint train whistle. But that's impossible: every kid knows there no trains in Hokey Pokey, only tracks. (description from Amazon.com)

I had a really hard time with this book. When you start reading it, it's as if you are waking up and have entered a dream. Nothing is explained very well and Spinelli reveals the way things work veerrrryyyy slowly.

At first I really had no idea what Hokey Pokey was supposed to be - why were the kids there, what IS this place? I was SO confused. It took until more than halfway through the book for me to understand enough to realize that Hokey Pokey was a metaphor for the land of childhood!

 

I had an inkling, but it took a long time for that theme to really develop itself.  I found so many things confusing, and in the audio book version, there is no map of Hokey Pokey, so that was a little disorienting and the words "Hokey Pokey" are also used by Spinelli for four different things...not at all confusing to listen to!

 

Overall, I found that the concept of this book has been explored better in other books. I found the writing style (almost stream of consciousness) to be disorienting, and I just never really felt at all invested in the characters.  In fact, I found myself mostly pissed off at the author listening, because every time I tried to like a character, they did something stereotypical or gender specific that just made me aggravated all over again. 

 

I almost want to write to Spinelli and ask why he felt the need to have boys and girls feel they need to be at war with one another constantly? Why they can't like the same things?  Why they had separate sections of Hokey Pokey to enjoy?

Not the book for me. :/

 

Full disclosure: Audio book received to review for SLJ

Eye of the Storm

Eye of the Storm

by Kate Messner

In the not-too-distant future, huge tornadoes and monster storms have become a part of everyday life. Sent to spend the summer in the heart of storm country with her meteorological engineer father, Jaden Meggs is surprised at the strides her father's company StormSafe, has made with custom shelters that keep her family safe in even the worst of storms. At her exclusive summer science camp, Eye On Tomorrow, Jaden meets Alex, a boy whose passion for science matches hers. Together, they discover that her father's company is steering storms away from the expensive neighborhoods and toward the organic farming communities that are in competition with his bio-engineered food company, NatureMade. Jaden must confront her father, but when she does, she uncovers a terrifying family secret and must call on both her scientific knowledge and her faith to save the people she loves most from one of her father's monster storms. (description from Amazon.com)

Show more

Show less

This was a really cool science fiction thriller. Messner was able to give readers a good amount of weather based information without starting to sound at all like you were sitting in class. The action just kept coming!

The storms that Jaden, her friends, and family have to face in this book were downright scary! I was a little terrified to look out the windows as I read, for fear of seeing a funnel cloud forming... The idea that that weather might be being controlled...the possibilities were creepy.

I was on the edge of my seat for most of this book and found that I read it much faster than I'd expected! It was quick and interesting. Something different. :)

Full disclosure: Borrowed from my library