I was born into a family of readers, and it has really paid off over the years. Book recommendations are always forthcoming, leading me to authors I love much sooner in life as well as those I'd never have discovered myself. It's how I ended up loving Louisa May Alcott when I was still pretty young (thanks Aunt K), how I found authors like Nelson DeMille and Robin Cook (thanks Dad), and even how I ended up tearing through VC Andrews novels throughout high school and into college (thanks Mom.)
I continue to love having people in my life who are big readers, people with whom I pass book suggestions back and forth each time we get together. The question, "So, what you are reading?" comes up more often than most others and it's wonderful.
My daughter, who's eight, is just getting to that stage where books are grabbing her attention. More than anything I want to help expose her to great reads. So far, I'm struggling due to her love of graphic novels, which didn't exist when I was a kid and isn't something I read very often. She doesn't fully trust my suggestions when I hand her a book that's solely text. Pippi Longstocking was tossed aside with disdain when I offered it up, but she really liked it when read by her second grade teacher. I know the love for books is there, so I'm working on getting caught up on YA content.
My desire to be somewhat of a book resource for my kids has made me realize I need to know about YA titles published this century. Not just Hunger Games and Harry Potter, but other books that will appeal to a younger reader. As a result, I try to read YA books I wouldn't typically pick up. This is what drew me to the first descendants novel.
I've seen the moves on Disney, but wanted to know if the books stacked up as a possible referral to my daughter.
I have no idea if my kids will be into these, we don't watch a lot of Disney princess movies, but after finishing the first book, I'm looking forward to the second. The writing is definitely geared toward a younger audience, but the story is developed enough to entertain an adult reader. Unlike the movies, the first book is only about the children of villains as they try to live up to parental expectations and fight off feelings of inadequacy. They also learn about friendship even though it goes against their villainous nature. Isle of the Lost is a strong combination of adventure and age-appropriate life lessons good for young readers.
I honestly can't recommend you add this book to your To Read list unless you're a parent who, like me, wants to have an arsenal of books at the ready for when your children come complaining, "I don't know what to read next...."
Let me just preface this review by saying A Wrinkle in Time was the quintessential book of my childhood. My mom would take me to the library on a regular basis in elementary school and I would only check out one of two, or both, books, and this was one of them. I have no idea how many times I've read it, but it opened the door into sci-fi and fantasy books for me and taught me that smart stories could be the most entertaining.
It was very appealing to me to see this story adapted into a graphic novel because I felt that it would bring the story to a whole other world of readers, namely my almost eight-year-old daughter, who prefers graphic novels to traditional novels at this stage. Of course, I had to read it first. I hope that one day she picks it up herself and falls as much in love with Meg and this story as I did (and then maybe wants to read the other three books related to the family.)
I found the art to be perfectly complimentary to the story. Pitting a simple, two-color design, against a story riddled with complex emotions, advanced physics, and the idea of time travel brought an added level of accessibility into the story that would have probably been beneficial to my childhood self the very first time I read the book. There is a lot of abstract thinking required to get through L'Engle books, so illustrations definitely help. I really enjoyed seeing the characters and experiencing their emotions through the pictures as well as through the text.
For anyone unfamiliar with the story, I'm just going to tell you to read the book. It doesn't matter how old you are, this is an exciting and powerful story, rooted in family and devotion and the power of the personal connection. It honors people who are a little different, feel a little out of place in a unique and significant way, and it makes science and math accessible.
The only thing would drive me to suggest the full novel over the graphic version is how the ending plays out. Possibly due to the format of a graphic novel, the ending of the story felt less powerful reading it in this version. That could easily just be a result of my familiarity with the story overall, but, in my opinion, everything builds up a little higher in the novel. That isn't to say you get any less story in this version though, and the quickness of a graphic novel read is always nice, so really the choice of where to go to get into this story is up to you, but don't miss out and do more than just watch the movie.
Overall, this was a really unique conclusion for a dystopian YA series. Rather than have her heroine overcome some huge obstacle to discover the worldly corruption being hidden from society, Condie lets Cassia learn a simple, universal, life lesson. Of course, it's brought to her as society crumbles under a deadly plague that the Rising is trying to cure. Basically, there's no loss of action or urgency even with a more ambiguous ending.
This third book finally presents a scenario where Cassia, Ky, and Xander can be with each other. They've intertwined as a functioning love triangle where their friendships with each other overshadow the awkwardness of mismatched love. They come together to literally save the world. A plague everyone thought was under control has mutated and a cure must be found. Cassia, the sorter, can calculate outcomes with data. She can see how long before the mutated plague does significant damage. She can guess at potential cures through a subset of the community that is immune. Xander, the medic, can build and administer a cure once its compounds are known. Ky, unfortunately, serves as the test subject in this struggle. He eventually falls ill to the plague. Each of the characters though are integral to the process, not only for the job they take on but for the emotional motivation they provide for each other. Solving this puzzle is personal.
These books read really fast. Condie doles out new bits to the plot at just the right face to fully engage the reader, and her unique angle to dystopia keeps it interesting. I really appreciated that through all the action, the three main characters still remain anonymous to the larger community. They don't become emblems of salvation for either side in this battle, they just work at what they do best to save the world so everyone can then work to bring the community back together in the right way (the way that works best for everyone.) The big win here is that each individual gets back the right to choose - a worth cause to fight for in any instance.
