The Humming Room (ARC) by Ellen Potter

February 28th, 2012, Feiwel & Friends
288 Pages, Advanced Reader Copy
Received from Publisher
Middle Grade Fiction

Hiding is Roo Fanshaw's special skill. Living in a frighteningly unstable family, she often needs to disappear at a moment's notice. When her parents are murdered, it's her special hiding place under the trailer that saves her life.
As it turns out, Roo, much to her surprise, has a wealthy if eccentric uncle, who has agreed to take her into his home on Cough Rock Island. Once a tuberculosis sanitarium for children of the rich, the strange house is teeming with ghost stories and secrets. Roo doesn't believe in ghosts or fairy stories, but what are those eerie noises she keeps hearing? And who is that strange wild boy who lives on the river? People are lying to her, and Roo becomes determined to find the truth.
Despite the best efforts of her uncle's assistants, Roo discovers the house's hidden room--a garden with a tragic secret.
Inspired by The Secret Garden, this tale full of unusual characters and mysterious secrets is a story that only Ellen Potter could write.

Memorable Quote:

“Just doodads, little this-and-that’s I find at the dollar store. I leave them out for her.  She wouldn’t take them if I gave them to her.  Too proud.”

Opinion:

That quote above should give you a good and thorough idea of the character Roo’s personality.  She is stubborn and strong willed.  I see her as a little fearless survivor.  The way she is described both physically and how she seems to come alive over the course of her stay on the island was well done.  I love that it takes place in such a wonderful location – it adds more of a sense of isolation and loneliness to certain parts of the story.  Now, Jack is mysterious and just as I imagined though I wish we could have gotten to know him more. 

While I adored this short sweet story I felt that the line on the front “inspired by Secret Garden” should have read more like “a retelling of the Secret Garden”.   Because of that line I had expected there to be more differences between the stories than there were.  Yes, it was in a unique location and during a different time period but to me the plot lines were essentially the same.

I enjoyed the book and loved Ellen’s writing style and I have already ordered a copy of her book The Kneebone Boy which I am really looking forward to reading.

Rating: 3.5/5

Pabkins

Countess of Crazy, Insane babbler, Giver of the Evil Eye, Walking Hazard Zone, Maker of Monsters, but above all Lover of a Zombie and those things that are creepy crawly. Step in to my library my pretties…

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Return to Exile by E.J. Patten

September 6th 2011 by Simon & Schuster
512 pages, ARC Paperback
Won from Goodreads, First Reads Contest
First in Hunter Chronicles
Middle-Grade Fiction

ONE BOY. UNTOLD ENEMIES. A WHOLE WORLD TO SAVE. TIME IS RUNNING OUT.

Eleven years ago, a shattered band of ancient hunters captured an unimaginable evil and Phineas T. Pimiscule rescued his nephew, Sky, from the wreckage of that great battle. For eleven years, Sky Weathers has studied traps, puzzles, science, and the secret lore of the Hunters of Legend, believing it all a game. For eleven years, Sky and his family have hidden from dark enemies while, unbeknownst to Sky, his uncle Phineas sacrificed everything to protect them. For eleven years, Sky Weathers has known nothing of that day. But on the eve of Sky’s twelfth birthday and his family’s long-awaited return to Exile, everything changes. Phineas has disappeared, and Sky finds himself forced to confront the mysterious secrets he’s denied for so long: why did his family leave Exile on that day so long ago? What, exactly, has Phineas been preparing him for? And, the biggest mystery of all, who is Sky really and why does everyone want to kill him?!

Opinion:

I won this ARC from a First Reads, Goodreads contest shortly after I started using my Goodreads account more actively.  Oddly this is the same time I found out about the book blogging world.  It took quite some time for the ARC to arrive – in fact it arrived just one week before the actual book was to be released.   Given how fat this book is for middle-grade fiction, it took me quite some time to finish it – 20 days infact.  Now normally 500 pages wouldn’t phase me, but I was in one of my moods of wanting to craft rather than read and I didn’t fancy the idea of a “children’s” book at the moment. 

So my thoughts on this book – I enjoyed it, I really did.  There was plenty of mystery, action, riddles to solve, snarky humor and my favorite thing – MONSTERS!  Who doesn’t love a good bit of monster action?  I know I do – heck I collect them!  Plus it’s so nice when a book keeps you guessing right til the very en- d.

  There were often moments when I couldn’t get at all what might happen next.  It was full of plenty of unexpected moments and had just enough hints here and there for you to have those “ah hahs” and know that the scene is being set up for later on and that perhaps that bit you ought to hang onto and remember.  I really liked that and I think the younger audience will enjoy that.  It helps you to get into the story and think you are solving the puzzles right along with the main character.

Now with all that said - I didn’t really start enjoying it thoroughly until one third of the way in.  I think I was turned off to the fact that it was so thick for the genre it is aimed at.  I kept thinking while reading it that its target age group didn’t seem to fit quite right.  I have two twin nephews that are 9 years old – I don’t think they could pick this hefty book up until they were at least 14 which is the tail end of the age range it is categorized in.  Though I do think they would enjoy it if I read it aloud to them (accompanied with all the funny voices of course). 

One concern I had was I don’t think the mental images of most of the characters were built well enough.  I could only successfully conjure up mental pictures of three of the characters.  A few times I went back to the physical descriptions of the children so I could better get a mental grip of them again.  The small bits of backstory you got on each character helped add mystery to the story but I often wished there were a bit more by the time the book ended.  One in particular I felt lacked in background so much so that it made it difficult for me to latch onto her emotionally (Crystal). 

In the end, I would definitely recommend this book to readers that enjoyed the Harry Potter series.  I really like the main character Sky a lot as well as his supporting cast and think he was a well rounded out character.  He had a good balance of redeeming qualities and flaws which made him very endearing.  I definitely plan to read the next one in this series!

Rating:

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Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

June 28th 2005, Miramax re: Disney
375 pages, Hardcover
Borrowed from the Library
First in the Percy Jackson series
Middle-Grade Fiction

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.
Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves. With cover art from the major motion picture, this first installment of Rick Riordan's best-selling series is a non-stop thrill-ride and a classic of mythic proportions.

Opinion:

I had no interest in this book until I watched the movie recently. As I’ve mentioned briefly before I’m reluctant to read books written by men.  (I’m trying to change this and am challenging myself to read books written by men.) What I found inside the book was nothing like the movie, but it was equally enjoyable if not more so.

I had qualms about reading a book with such a young hero, but he was mature, brave, and heroic without ever becoming arrogant. His love for his mother and friends lead him to be courageous in the face of incredible odds.

Annabeth and Grover were great sidekicks. Annabeth is intelligent, maternal, and one of the best secondary characters I’ve had the pleasure to read about. Athena should be lucky to have such a daughter. Grover kinda annoys me, but I have faith that if we see him later on he will be more mature after going on this quest and any future quests he will have to endure alone.

The action within this book was never-ending. When you thought the coast was clear was exactly when a new monster would appear.

This mixed with mythology that is more detailed than any other mythological books I have read thus far barring the ancient classics by Homer, made this one book that I will return to time and again.

Rating:

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