The Renaissance of Marikin's Blog

Hello to all my readers who have been patiently awaiting an update of my blog. I appologize for the wait, so to make up for it, I am posting not one, not two, not even four, but FIVE Featured Books for you to vote for your favorite. These are a few of my favorite reads (channeling The Sound of Music on that one) that I have been wanting to Feature but couldn't decide. Take a look and make sure to vote for your favorite!

The Girl Who Could Fly- Victoria Forrester
Piper McCloud's ability to fly sets her apart from the other kids, so her mother sends her to an exclusive school for children with exceptional abilities, but even there she does not fit in with the other students. A novel for fans of The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman, with a super powered twist!

An Egg On Three Sticks- Jackie Moyer Fischer
In the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1970s, twelve-year-old Abby watches her mother fall apart and must take on the burden of holding her family together. A great coming of age debut filled with dark humor and brilliant sarcasm.

A Mango Shaped Space- Wendy Mass
Afraid that she is crazy, thirteen-year-old Mia, who sees a special color with every letter, number, and sound, keeps this a secret until she becomes overwhelmed by school, changing relationships, and the death of her beloved cat, Mango. This book, by the author of Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, makes you wish that you had the ability to see colors with letters and sounds like Mia does!

Bloody Jack- L.A. Meyer
Reduced to begging and thievery in the streets of London, thirteen-year-old orphan Jacky Faber disguises herself as a boy and connives her way onto a British warship set for high sea adventure in search of pirates. Jacky takes the British Navy by storm with her clever plans and Cockney ways. First book of an amazing and adventurous series.

Scrambled Eggs at Midnight- Brad Barkley and Heather Helper
Calliope and Eliot, two fifteen-year-olds in Asheville, North Carolina, begin to acknowledge some unpleasant truths about their parents and form their own ideas about love. When Cal and Elliot meet by chance, they feel an immediate connection. Together they must face their isolation, the threat of yet another move, and the deepening of Eliot’s father's obsession. In their case, love just might be everything it's cracked up to be.

Please vote for your favorite title to be Next Week's Featured Book. See you next week!

100 Summer Reads

Okay, as you all know, I have been way behind on Featured Books. This is because I have been super busy, and because I am compiling, at this very moment, a list of 100 books to keep you busy over the summer!!!! I know its a lot, but when I was younger, I was scrambling to find something to read during summer break. So, voila!! A list to create zero reading boredom! I shall have this posted by late May to early June. You may find some repeats from Featured Books, but this is sure to feed your need to read! (Hey, that rhymes!) I'll keep you posted!
-Marikin

The Last Two Week's Featured Books

Hey-
Sorry about the last two weeks! Life has been crazy, and books and blogs had been put on hold. I'm sorry about getting behind on the Featured Books! This week's book will be posted shortly. Sorry loyal followers! Keep posted!
-Marikin

This Week's Featured Book-3/16-3/22

For this week's Featured Book, I chose Coraline by Neil Gaiman. This was recently made into a movie, so I decided to read it. Here's what this novel is about:

Coraline moves into an apartment building with her mum and dad who both love work more than her (or so she thinks). She finds her self becoming bored without anything to do and no one to play with. Her neighbors are strange and they always call her Caroline when her name is Coraline. One day, she finds a locked door in her apartment. Her mother opens it for Coraline only to reveal a wall of bricks. The next day while her parents are out, Coraline gets the key to the door and opens it. There she finds a hall which leads her to her "other" mother in a parallel universe. Coraline loves it there and comes back the next day to her "other" mother, until her "other" mother begins to change. She's no longer the nice mother she used to be. She wants to keep Coraline forever. With the help of a cat, Coraline must escape before its too late.

A great, yet somewhat creepy read! I enjoyed it a lot! Keep posted and don't forget to vote in the poll! Coraline is one of them!

This Week's Featured Book-3/8-3/15

This week's book is one I stumbled on while in the library. It's called Jumping the Scratch by Sarah Weeks, author of So B. It. This is one of my all time favorites! Here's what it's about:

Jamie Reardon has always heard that bad things come in threes. So after his cat, Mister, dies, his father leaves, and his aunt Sapphy has an accident that causes her memory to develop a skip, Jamie hopes his life will go back to being as normal as cornflakes (a phrase in the book). But unfortunately there's one more bad thing in store for Jamie -- something he'd give anything to be able to forget -- and this one leaves him feeling like a stranger to himself. Jamie tries in vain to find the magic trigger that will help Sapphy's memory jump the scratch, like the needle on her favorite Frank Sinatra record, but in the end it's Aunt Sapphy who, along with a curious girl named Audrey Krouch, helps Jamie unravel the mysteries of memory and jump the scratch in his own life.

I love this one! A great read for everyone! Keep posted for next week's book! Don't Forget to Vote in the poll! It's your favorite book-turned-movie, so please vote! Thanks!

This Week's Featured Book-3/1-3/8

This week's pick is a book that I really enjoyed. It's called Dancer by Lori Hewett. As the title suggests, this book is about a ballet dancer, and as the cover suggests, she is African American. I'm a dancer as well, (not ballet, though), and there are many dance terms in this book that I recognized. Here's a summary of Dancer:
Stephanie is a dancer. Ballet classes six days a week leave little time for anything else, but Stephanie doesn't care; ballet is all she's ever wanted to do. When a new girl beats out Stephanie for the lead in the class performance of Sleeping Beauty, she begins to question her chances for success. Will there always be a better dancer? How many African American ballerinas win major roles anyway? Then Miss Winnie, a glamorous, retired African American ballerina, takes Stephanie on as a pupil and gives her the encouragement she needs. Stephanie's own parents, however, don't understand her total dedication to dance, worrying about such an insecure future. In perfect counter-position is the incredibly talented dancer Vance, who is being pushed into a ballet career by his Aunt Winnie but who wants to make music videos instead. Conflict with her parents, the competition of ballet school, and her first social experiences begin to get to Stephanie as she learns what life is about.

A great read. I really enjoyed this one. As always, I am open to book suggestions, and I don't have a book planned for next week, so if you can drop me a line, that'd be great! Sorry about posting so late, but I was busy with dance!:) See you next week!

This Week's Featured Book-2/23-3/1

For this week's book, I chose A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz. This was a great book club read that I couldn't put down! Here's a synopsis:

Maud Flynn is not the ideal adoption candidate at the Barbary Asylum for Female Orphans. Miss Kitteridge, the superintendent of the orphanage, considers Maud to be an eleven-year-old troublemaker, yet Hyacinth Hawthorne is set on adopting Maud to live with the three Hawthorne sisters. Maud is awed by the new clothing, tasty treats, and home, and she is especially drawn by Hyacinth's attention to her. Hyacinth refers to Maud as the Hawthorne sisters' "secret child" and there are mysterious rules to follow. Maud will not be attending school and she is not to be seen nor heard when there are guests in the house. Once the Hawthorne sisters trust Maud, they let her into the family business—holding seances. Early in the story Maud is mesmerized by her new life, especially with Hyacinth, but as she begins to understand more about the secrets, Maud sees things from a different perspective. The story unfolds, including a friendship with the deaf housekeeper, Muffet, with intriguing twists and turns as the reader follows Maud and her life in the Hawthorne household and business.

A great book! The author really makes you feel like you're actually there! Stay tuned for next week's pick!

This Week's Featured Book-2/16-2/22

For this week's book, I chose Spelldown by Karon Luddy. I loved this book, and since I recently participated in my school spellng bee, this book was even better! Here's what it's about:
Thirteen-year-old Karlene Bridges is the best speller in her family, her hometown, and maybe even all of Shirley County, South Carolina. The trouble is, every time she makes it to the final round of a spelling bee, she chokes. But when Mrs. Harrison, the new Latin teacher, offers to coach her, Karlene's spelling jinx miraculously disappears. The year 1969 is turning out to be her best ever, especially since she develops a surprising crush on her best friend, Billy Ray. But as soon as Karlene aims to compete in the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D. C., her father's drinking begins to spell trouble. How is a girl supposed to hold her family together, savor her first kiss, and become the best speller in America before the end of eighth grade?

A great book for teens that will leave you hungry for more by this promising new author (this was her first novel)! See you next week!

This Week's Featured Book- 2/9-2/15

For this week's book, I picked Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen. Here's what it's about:

Halley has always been close to her mother, a therapist who publishes books about adolescent behavior. But the summer before her junior year of high school, Halley begins to drift farther and farther away from her mother. She and her best friend, Scarlett, start hanging out with Ginny Tabor ("a cheerleader with a wild streak a mile wide and a reputation among the football team for more than her cheers and famous midair splits"); Halley dumps her nerdy boyfriend Noah, (the son of her mother's best friend) and becomes involved with reckless Macon, a boy her parents have forbidden her to see. Then Scarlett discovers she is pregnant two months after her boyfriend Michael is killed in a motorcycle accident. Walking a line between childhood and adulthood, the two girls turn to each other instead of their families for support.

I loved this book, and on a sick day, I devoured this in a matter of hours! A great coming of age story for teens everywhere! See you next week!

This Week's Featured Book-2/2-2/8

For this week's book, I chose The Killing Sea by Richard Lewis. This is a great book about the 2004 tsunami that hit Asia from two different points of view. Here's a summary:
Sarah is an American teenager vacationing with her family in Indonesia. Ruslan is the teenaged son of an Indonesian mechanic, whose father has conveniently required that he learn English. When the 2004 tsunami hits, both are separated from their families: Ruslan's father has gone to another town for work, and Sarah and her brother Peter are separated from their parents when their father is injured and their mother killed attempting to escape the wave. For the first half of the book, the teens' stories are told separately in alternating chapters, as Ruslan travels through Aceh Province to find his father and Sarah searches for a doctor for feverish Peter. When Ruslan and Sarah meet, they agree to help each other, and grow to care deeply for one another despite their cultural differences.
A great book by an author who lived through the tsunami in 2004! See you next week!

This Week's Feautured Book- 1/25-2/2

This week's pick is Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata. This is a great book that received the Newberry Medal. Here's a synopsis:Glittering. That’s how Katie Takeshima’s sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason. And so are people’s eyes. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to the Deep South of Georgia, it’s Lynn who explains to her why people stop them on the street to stare. And it’s Lynn who, with her special way of viewing the world, teaches Katie to look beyond tomorrow. But when Lynn becomes desperately ill, and the whole family begins to fall apart, it is up to Katie to find a way to remind them all that there is always something glittering—kira-kira—in the future. Luminous in its persistence of love and hope, Kira-Kira is Cynthia Kadohata’s stunning debut in middle-grade fiction.
A great read! Sorry about posting late! See you next week!

This Week's Featured Book-1/18-1/24

This Week's pick for the Featured book section is Sweethearts by Sara Zarr. It's a very touching story, telling of two outcasts turned best friends who find friendship in each other, sharing secrets and standing up for eachother. Here's a full summary:

As children, Jennifer Harris and Cameron Quick were both social outcasts. They were also one another's only friend. So when Cameron disappears without warning, Jennifer thinks she's lost the only person who will ever understand her. Now in high school, Jennifer has been transformed. Known as Jenna, she's popular, happy, and dating, everything "Jennifer" couldn't be---but she still can't shake the memory of her long-lost friend.

When Cameron suddenly reappears, they are both confronted with memories of their shared past and the drastically different paths their lives have taken.

From the National Book Award nominated author of Story of a Girl, Sweethearts is a story about the power of memory, the bond of friendship, and the quiet resilience of our childhood hearts.

A must read for teens! See you next week!

P.S. I'm still open for suggestions as to what to feature next, so if you have a favorite, drop me a line in your comments!

This Week's Featured Book: 1/12-1/17

This week's book pick is Hush by Donna Jo Napoli. I recently picked this up from the library, and I couldn't put it down! Here's what its about:

Melkorka is a princess, the first daughter of a magnificent kingdom in medieval Ireland -- but all of this is lost the day she is kidnapped and taken aboard a marauding slave ship. Thrown into a world that she has never known, alongside people that her former country's laws regarded as less than human, Melkorka is forced to learn quickly how to survive. Taking a vow of silence, however, she finds herself an object of fascination to her captors and masters, and soon realizes that any power, no matter how little, can make a difference.

Based on an ancient Icelandic saga, award-winning author Donna Jo Napoli has crafted a heartbreaking story of a young girl who must learn to forget all that she knows and carve out a place for herself in a new world -- all without speaking a word.

A great book for historical fiction lovers like me!

***Note: This book contains some violence, gore (especially blood) and inappropriate content for some readers. If you are sensitive to blood, I'd advise you to stay away from Hush.***

This Week's Featured Book-1/5-1/11

This Week's pick is Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. I thouroughly enjoyed this one, and it is a must-read for fantasy-romance lovers like me! Here's a summary of the Newberry Award-winning tale:
Cheerful and witty 14-year-old Miri loves her life on Mount Eskel, home to the quarries filled with the most precious linder stone in the land, though she longs to be big and strong enough to do quarry work like her sister and father. But Miri experiences big changes when the king announces that the prince will choose a potential wife from among the village's eligible girls-and that said girls must attend a new Princess Academy in preparation. Princess training is not all it's cracked up to be for spunky Miri in the isolated school overseen by cruel Tutor Olana. But through education-and the realization that she has the common mountain power to communicate wordlessly via magical "quarry-speech"-Miri and the girls eventually gain confidence and knowledge that helps transform their village.
A great read for girls of all ages! Stay tuned for next week's book!

This Week's Featured Book-12/28-1/4

This week, I chose to feature Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism by Georgia Byng. I read this a while back on a road trip, and since then I have read almost all of the others in the series: Molly Moon Stops the World, Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time-Travel Adventure, and I have yet to finish Molly Moon, Mickey Minus and the Mind Machine. Here's a summary of the first book:

Molly Moon has spent her entire life in a miserable orphanage run by the hairy, snaggletoothed Miss Adderson. But when she finds a mysterious book, Molly discovers an extraordinary talent-she can hypnotize anyone! Accompanied by Petula the pug, Molly hypnotizes her way to New York and Broadway stardom. But hot on her trail is the sinister professor, who is determined to use Molly to stage the crime of the century…

A great book, one of my favorites when I was younger, and I really encourage you to read it. Keep posted for next week's book and the new year!

The Ultimate Teen Book Guide

My friend told me about this awesome book called The Ultimate Teen Book Guide. It contains over 1,000 titles, and its all based on age groups from 12-17. I recently ordered this book and I am planning on using this in future Weekly Featured Books. But even so, if you have any further suggestions on great books to read, please post them in your comments. Thanks!

This Week's Featured Book- 12/21-12/27

For this week's Featured Book, I have selected A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. Here's a quick summary:
It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?

A great book, especially for teens just getting over finishing theTwilight series! The first in the Gemma Doyle series (Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing) Stop by your local library to pick up a copy of this amazing book!

This Week's Featured Book 12/14-12/20

This week's Featured Book is Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevins. Here's a summary:

Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvelous. It’s quiet and peaceful. You can’t get sick or any older. Curious to see new paintings by Picasso? Swing by one of Elsewhere’s museums. Need to talk to someone about your problems? Stop by Marilyn Monroe’s psychiatric practice.
Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver’s license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she’s dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn’t want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?
This moving, often funny book about grief, death, and loss will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

I recommend this book to anyone in search of a good book to read! Keep posted for next week's book. Sorry about the delay!

Weekly Featured Books

Every week, on my blog, there will be a new featured book. I'll have the cover image, a brief anti-spoiler summary, and what I thought of the book. If you are interested, check the book out at your local library, read it, and post your comments under that week's post. Also keep checking for a new poll about that book's characters. Keep posted for a new book each week!

Got Books?

As many of you may have figured out, I am an avid reader. If you have any suggestions as to book recomendations, please put them in your comments! I've read a ton of books, but I'm still looking for books! If you could help me out that would be great!