Rutabaga's Reads 2014: Part 5

The school year will close in less than two months, yet this is the first “Part Scholastic” post I’ve put together during the 2013-2014 academic year! I want to reiterate that I am in no way associated with anyone at +Scholastic. I am simply a strong supporter of the Scholastic brand!

Origin (Sept. 4, 2012) by Jessica Khoury.

Life is easy for Pia. All she’s wanted to do is become a scientist at Little Cambridge, which works well for her, as that is what she’s been trained to become since she was a toddler. Every few months she takes another Wickham test, and every single time she passes. So why isn’t she a scientist yet? Why doesn’t she know how to create Immortis? It is, after all, the sole reason she is what she is at all. Immortal.

            Perfect, immortal Pia. Tapumiri. Indestructible Pia who’s never left the gates of Little Cam to explore the rainforest beyond. Uncle Paolo has kept her in the dark about the outside world. Pia has a perfect memory and can proudly recite the scientific names and facts of plants. She can tell you all the parts of a paramecium. But she’s going to feel jealousy when she discovers that seven-year-old Ami knows more about the world than she does. And she may find what it means to love someone and struggle with logic (science) versus emotion (love). Because what Eio and the Ai’oan villagers know about Pia’s origin tells a truth story that Pia may not be able to handle. But if she can’t handle their stories, can she handle what Uncle Paolo and the other scientists at Little Cam have in store for her? What is her origin?

            The wonderfully smart and artistic thing about this book is that it appeals to a range of audiences. It’s part science fiction and part romance. It’s strict and sterile (Little Cam), open and free (Ai’oa). In one way, Pia is an impossibility – genetically bred to be immortal – but she’s also a believable teenager: totally naïve of the outside world, and her inner struggles reflect this. This page-turning novel of survival, truth and discovery is adventurous and satisfying, though the story isn’t without turmoil and death. The scientists are mainly one-dimensional, but the contrast of her settings – the sterile labs of Little Cam and the lushness of the rainforest – are terrific. Pick up this YA story if you want a reprieve from the usual (e.g. vampires).

Princess Academy: Palace of Stone (Aug. 21, 2012) by Shannon Hale.

For the mountain girls who attended the Princess Academy, the opportunity to visit Asland, the capital of the kingdom of Danland, is the chance of a lifetime. No longer are they just Mount Eskel girls, they are now nobles as Ladies of the Princess. Miri Larendaughter even gets to attend Queen’s Castle, the university. She is one part awed and excited for this opportunity, and one part overwhelmed. The weight of learning is on her shoulders, and she feels it. One of her friends even says to her, “Go learn for all of us.” Those are heavy words, even when it’s meant in kindness. Her best friend – will he be her betrothed? – Peter Doterson, is also in Asland working as an apprentice. And she meets a fellow scholar, a good-looking boy named Timon Skarpson (a potential suitor?).

            But alas, life doesn’t just revolve around boys or even school in Asland. There are murmurings of a revolution amongst the commoners. Unfair tributes and starving people, and Miri in the middle. She’s torn between her loyalty to the princess, one of her good friends, and to her new, Aslandian friends with their daring and their will to help “the shoeless.”

            This middle-grade story is a satisfying sequel to “Princess Academy.” I thoroughly enjoyed Hale’s world-building of Asland. She was descriptive enough for me to create a picture in my head of the land and the palace with its king’s wing of linder (think quarry speech) without bogging the book down with too many details. Hale’s writing is smart and vivid and makes the reader think. She focuses on ethics in this book -- how life is generally not just black or white, yet we have to make decisions which may be life-altering anyway. And those decisions make Miri a subtle hero. She may use quarry speech, but never outright violence. She’s much better at using intellect and bravery, which is a good lesson for us all.

            Book One: Princess Academy

Pulse (Feb. 26, 2013) by Patrick Carman.

Do you have a pulse? (Of course you do, you think. You can feel it right now in your neck or at your wrist.) But I’m not talking about that pulse, I’m talking about the pulse. It’s the year 2051, and Faith Daniels is going to discover that she has a telekinetic ability. This is called a pulse. A handsome and mysterious boy named Dylan Gilmore, a classmate, also has this ability, but that might not be all. Faith, Dylan and their classmates are being herded closer and closer to the Western State (there’s also an Eastern State). They live on the outside, and those outside of them, which we might consider homeless, are called Drifters. Some other classmates include Faith’s best friend, Liz Brinn, new friend/tech genius Hawk, and seemingly-perfect-in-all-ways siblings Wade and Clara Quinn. Faith doesn’t know it yet, but they’re preparing for a war. A war that needs her pulse and Dylan’s pulse, because, unfortunately, the other side has pulses, too.

            Dystopian fiction is still a common theme, and one of the things I found most intriguing is that the author set this just 37 years from now. Not 600 years or 300 or even 100. 37. The California coast slides into the ocean in 2025, along with three million people. A few years later, New Orleans gets swallowed up, as do another million people. There’s a global drought, and portions of Japan and China get swallowed up by the ocean, and then there’s a huge earthquake in 2029. That’s mentioned in passing when describing the route to the Eastern and Western States. “Pulse” is a fast-paced YA story. Though dystopian fiction is as common these days as vampires and witches, this story is fresh and original. There isn’t a lot of world-building, but the story scoots along swiftly enough that the lack of world-building shouldn’t visibly negate the suspense and action of the story. I would have liked; however, for Faith to learn about her ability earlier. Gaining knowledge approximately 185 pages in was too drawn out, I thought, but I still found the story to be a fascinating read. “Pulse” is the first book in a planned trilogy.