fairywhispers's "Books I Recommend for Tweens and Teens"

Mummies: Unwrapping the Past is short, but it manages to cover a lot of ground. Punctuated throughout with pictures and photographs, this book explains what mummies are, various mummification processes (and the reasons behind it) and the scientific techniques used to study mummies. Written in language simple enough for the layman to understand, this is the perfect introduction for teaching children about the world of mummies.

Wow. That’s all I could think when I finished this story. Wow. The language was just beautiful. The themes that played out in the old man’s mind, and in his struggle with the sea, are ones that resonate with all of us. Courage in the face f adversity, the struggle to tame nature or to simply to survive and the determination to succeed are all themes we can relate to. As is the spectre of our aging bodies being unequal to the tasks at hand. The Old Man and the Sea is a sad story that will easily withstand the ravages of time.

Seven Little Australians is a charming Australian children’s classic that is just as appealing to adults as it is to children. It is refreshing to read a book that doesn’t moralise the way many children’s books of the era did. This is an entertaining and uniquely Australian story, with a highly unexpected ending, and it deserves a place in everyone’s reading list.

Originally two separate books (Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale My Father Bleeds History, Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began), The Complete Maus contains both books in one volume. I don’t normally read graphic novels, and I probably wouldn’t have had hubby borrow this if I’d known that’s what it was. Since it was in the house, however, I decided to give it a go – and I wasn’t disappointed. Having grown up on stories of the Holocaust, I am somewhat jaded and de-sensitised, but even I found this account of a father relaying his experiences to his son moving. In fact, I was unable to put it down, and wound up reading the entire book in one sitting. Easier to read than most comics (there is no trouble knowing which bit to read next) and with a subject matter that holds your attention, I highly recommend this book.

I began this novel with great trepidation, but I was pleasantly surprised. I loved how Marsden added a bit of background to some of characters (Horatio is a good example of this). I also liked how he left the time ambiguous. Hamlet could be any teenager in any time going through a very trying experience.

The beautiful language of Shakespeare is absent, of course, though Marsden has made an effort to use some of the original lines. At least part of Ophelia’s mad soliloquy is intact (I haven’t compared it to my copy of Hamlet yet, but I recognised some of the lines) and the more famous lines (‘To be or not to be’ & ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark’ for example) are included. Hamlet: a novel is definitely worth reading, and is a great way to introduce tweens to wonderful world of Shakespeare.

Wow. This book was way better than the movie. I can definitely see why it has gone down as a classic. Written in a quaint language and style, which serves to add to the adventure feel of the story, The Three Musketeers is an enthralling and entertaining read. The general feel of this novel is that of the fairy tales and adventure stories of childhood, yet it is interesting enough to hold the attention of an adult. Despite already knowing the general storyline, I found I was unable to tear my eyes from the pages of this book. I didn’t even put it down for meals! I would love to obtain a copy of this story for my permanent collection, and I would highly recommend it to everyone.

This is the third Jodi Picoult book I have read and I was not disappointed. I love the way Jodi writes in first person, jumping from character to character and from past to present. This can be confusing for those unused to her style, but life is rarely linear and the different perspectives enhance our understanding of the story, allowing us to empathise with different characters and preventing us from pre-judging behaviour.

Nineteen Minutes is an emotional look at the lead up and aftermath of a columbine-style school shooting. Picoult, however, has her shooter survive, allowing us to explore the effect of this event on the lives of the shooter and his family as well as those of the victims. It is often easy to lay blame when such a tragedy occurs, so easy to forget that the shooters family are as much victims as anyone else.

I found this book very scary. We cannot protect our children from being bullied, and we cannot always know what they are thinking or feeling. It is frightening to think that our children could have been any one of the characters in this book – the bullies, picking on those more sensitive than themselves; the girl pretending to be someone she is not, in order to fit in; the shooter himself – and we would be none the wiser.

I definitely recommend this book to parents, teens and anyone who finds themselves quick to judge on the basis of a news story alone…

This was one of my favourite books as a child and I loved it just as much as an adult. I highly recommend it – you will not be bored for a second. If you read it to your kids, I guarantee Pigs Might Fly will have everyone in fits of laughter!

The Dead and the Gone tells the story of how a family in the city cope with the events described in Susan Pfeffer’s Life As We Knew It. I loved Life As We Knew It and while I did enjoy this book, I did not feel it was as good. It was interesting to read the different ways the people in the city were affected as opposed to those in the country, and how the residents dealt with it. This is a good book to read but it simply doesn’t have the urgency of the first one.

Written in diary form, Life As We Knew It tells of one family’s struggle to survive while the world collapses around them. Told from the point of view of sixteen-year-old Miranda, this story brings home just how reliant we are on all the modern conveniences. How would you survive if you were suddenly without electricity, natural gas, air-con, phones, running water? If gas and food were no longer being transported? If medicines were running out? It’s a scary prospect for us as adults, how much scarier for children and teenagers?

This is an apocalyptic novel that is all the more frightening for it’s feasibility.