Post number twelve is for Trenton Lee Stewart's The Mysterious Benedict Society, a book I had never heard of until it showed up on Amazon under "customers who bought x also bought". And WOW am I glad it did! I really REALLY enjoyed this book.
What follows contains spoilers, so please avoid if you're so inclined.
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First of all, this book grabbed me from the instant I started reading it. It's so rare to find a book that does this that it's kind of an exhilarating feeling. From the first word I was totally engrossed in the story. I loved the characters: Reynie, Sticky, Kate and Constance, Mr. Benedict, Number Two and Rhonda, Milligan - they were all just fabulously done. There were mysteries to solve on every page and I LOVED how you felt like you had to solve them, just like the characters in the story. I loved the quizzes at the beginning, the strange tasks the kids had to complete. I loved Kate and her bucket, and Constance and her stubbornness, and Sticky and his magical mind, and Reynie was the best possible narrator I've read in a long time. The entire book was really well done and I couldn't stop reading. I actually wanted my kids to stop bothering me at work so I could keep reading (yes, I'll admit it, I was reading on the job, and I can't even say we were slow; there was plenty to be done. But I just. couldn't. put it down. LOVE!), and when I got home from work I immediately curled up with my iPod and the book and read until the end.
There were two big surprises for me at the end. They're meant to be big surprises so I'm not sure if I should put them on here or not. But, I DID warn for spoilers, so ... here they are.
LOOK AWAY IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED BIG-TIME!
...
Ready?
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START OF MAJOR SPOILERS: Two things that got me: Milligan being Kate's father and Constance only being two years old! I was wondering why she was so cranky and stubborn and OMG she was a TODDLER! Of COURSE she'd be cranky! I LOVED IT! I literally sat up straight on both accounts and even went, "OH!" They were light bulb moments for sure. Who'd have thought?[/SPOILERS]
Anyway, I highly HIGHLY recommend this one. It was seriously fabulous. I haven't had so much trouble putting down a book since I read The Battle of the Labyrinth, and I desperately want the second book. May have to make a run to the bookstore....
Post number eleven is for Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden, which I finished reading today. I'd been working on this book for over a week. It was a little more difficult to read due to the language and phrases used. Several of the characters spoke in "broad Yorkshire" and dialects always take a bit of getting used to when you're trying to read them - reading, I actually felt much like Mary did upon hearing the Yorkshire dialect, so was glad she often asked for clarification in the beginning. :))
What follows does contain spoilers not only for the book but for the film version, too, as I want to note down the differences for my own curiosity's sake.
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This was a book that's been on my to-read list for several years. In fact, if you look at this year's list, it has a (3) next to it, so I'm happy that I've finally gotten another title off that list. I also really enjoyed the book, although I had to keep putting it down in the last couple of chapters because it made me slightly weepy, and I didn't want my kids at school asking me what was wrong. :-P
Things I Liked:
Watching Mary's transformation
Mary's handling of Colin's tantrum (I loved how she got right in his face and screamed back at him and stomped her feet. Just what the spoiled brat needed!)
Dickon (LOVE!)
Martha (MORE LOVE!)
The description of the garden itself, especially while it was in bloom
One thing I have a quibble about (and it's kind of what the whole book is based on, so it was a rather big deal, I think, in the grand scheme of the story) was that Archibald Craven basically disliked his son because his birth took away his mother. I've seen this used in several other stories (although this one probably came first, so who's to say that the other stories didn't steal this from The Secret Garden in the first place?), most notably for me in Heaven by V.C. Andrews (I know, I know). In that story, Heaven is the eldest child of a very poor family. Her mother was a beauty who fell in love with her father. She became pregnant and died shortly after Heaven's birth. Her father always blamed Heaven for her mother's death. He later remarries and has a ton more kids with her stepmother (Sarah? I can't remember), but always treats Heaven rather cruelly. When her stepmother dies, the father decides to send the rest of his kids off to live with various other families, as he doesn't have the money to provide for them, but more truthfully, just doesn't want to deal with them. Heaven gets a choice between an older couple and a young, hip couple. She chooses the young couple, which her father was hoping for, and is subjected to absolute cruelty and hatred by the "mother", because she had been in love with Heaven's father and hated the fact that he'd chose Heaven's mother over her, and took her dislike of that out on Heaven herself.
And that was a rather long ramble about something that doesn't have anything to do with this, but that's what I kept remembering during this story, especially when Archibald Craven is having his epiphany about how badly he handled Colin's birth and growing-up. I understand feeling lost and rather hopeless after losing the love of your life, but it just doesn't give you an excuse to treat your children badly. And while Colin had everything materialistic he could ask for, what he really needed was a *parent* - someone to provide him with love and to give him boundaries, of which he had none. Which is what made his and Mary's arguments so much fun to read, because she, too, never had any boundaries or had to do anything for herself.
In the film, it's mentioned that Mary and Colin's mothers were twins - they are not - and that there's a semi-love triangle between Colin, Mary and Dickon towards the end - which there also is not. Colin's mother died in the film after falling off the swing in the garden (there is no swing in the book - she fell when the branch she was sitting on broke) and having to endure a difficult delivery. Mary finds an ivory elephant that was a match to her mother's that she broke in the film, whereas in the book, she finds a room with several ivory elephants in it (she dubs it "The Indian Room") and spends an afternoon playing there. Then there's the basic, Mary-is-blonde in the book vs. Mary-is-brunette in the film, but that's really more a matter of the casting. Obviously the girl they found played the part so well that they didn't care what color her hair was.
I think the ending was a bit abrupt. The servants are staring out the window at Mr. Craven and, "by his side with his head up in the air and his eyes full of laughter walked as strongly and steadily as any boy in Yorkshire-- Master Colin!" Er, okay. I would have liked to have a little bit more than just that, especially since the book up to that point was really about Mary, and she's not even mentioned. Then again, maybe the book was really about transformations in general, as opposed to just Mary's or just Colin's. I dunno. Still felt abrupt.
I also think there were some things that could have been cut out or changed. For instance, I thought it was kind of silly to read from the robin's point of view, as he mentioned things like safe deposit boxes and whatnot which no bird would know anything about. But quibbles, quibbles - I can let it slide. I loved Colin's slightly unrealistic statement of, "I'm going to live forever and ever!" and the effect it had on his father, even though Colin - and Mr. Craven - weren't aware of it. I also loved Dickon and Martha's mother, and her letter to Mr. Craven: I think your lady would ask you to come if she was here.
But best of all was this quote:
A thistle cannot grow.
A nice statement for everyone to pay attention to, don't you think?
Post number ten for 2009 is Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl, another book from the school library. I had heard a lot about this one from my time spent working at Barnes & Noble and always meant to pick it up. I really enjoyed this book and will probably purchase it at some point - in fact, I'm going to add it to my Amazon Wish List right now.
What follows contains spoilers, as usual, so here is the usual spoiler space.
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Stargirl is a story about individuality and how that's not always the acceptable or done thing. The story opens at a high school in Mica, Arizona. Leo, a typical highschool junior, is just one of the crowd. His best friend is Kevin, with whom he produces the school's TV show called "Hot Seat" that is televised on a local cable access channel. Leo is friends with an old man, Archie, who used to be a college professor out east. Leo is just one of several kids who meet weekly with Archie in a club called the Loyal Order of the Stone Bone. Archie's an odd bird - he collects fossils and is rather infatuated with the past. And he's full of helpful advice, although it's not always worded in a way that the kids understand.
One day at school, a new girl shows up. She calls herself Stargirl, although we later find out her real name is Susan, and she's been homeschooled for the previous years. She's totally different from everyone else: she dresses strangely, occasionally wearing Indian buckskins and flapper costumes, or old pioneer dresses. She carries a bag with a sunflower painted on it, in which she carries her pet rat, Cinnamon. She decorates her desk in each class with an empty vase and a flower, and a tablecloth. And, best of all, she carries a ukelele and serenades the students on their birthdays, or gives the kids in her homeroom presents.
At first the kids don't know what to think of her. Then they start to enjoy her antics, and start to imitate her. (Imitation, after all, is the sincerest form of flattery.) They invite her to join the cheerleading team. They cheer her on as she presents her speech and gets picked to perform it at the annual Arizona state competition. They start hanging around her, wanting to be friends with her. All except for one person, Hillari Kimble. Hillari doesn't like Stargirl. She feels she's stealing her thunder, as Hillari used to be the most popular girl in school. When the time comes from Hillari's birthday, she tells Stargirl in no uncertain terms that she's not to sing to her. Stargirl says she won't.
Leo, meanwhile, is totally obsessed with her. He follows her around, he watches her, but he won't speak to her. Kevin keeps bothering him to put her on the Hot Seat, but Leo refuses, wanting to protect her, although he doesn't really understand why.
When Hillari's birthday comes around, Stargirl keeps her word. She doesn't sing to Hillari - she sings the song to Leo, although she does say Hillari's name. Leo is totally embarrassed and when Kevin asks why him, she tweaks his ear and says, "He's cute."
And that's the beginning. Leo falls head over heels in love with Stargirl. He goes to her house one night, but when she sees him, he hides behind her parents' car. She comes outside and talks to him, and introduces him to Cinnamon. They start hanging around outside of school, going to the mall, taking walks in the desert. And she teaches him to laugh. She takes him home to meet her parents and she shows him her room. She tells him how she watches everyone and gives them special gifts. (She actually mailed Leo a porcupine necktie for his birthday several years earlier, even though she didn't actually know him.) She shows him her happy wagon, a little wooden wagon that sits on her shelf in her room. She places stones in the wagon to show how happy or unhappy she is. When she first shows Leo, she's got seventeen stones in her wagon, and actually puts another one in while he's sitting there. She explains that he's why she's so happy, and they share a kiss on her front step.
Kevin finally persuades Leo to put Stargirl on the Hot Seat. They schedule her interview for February 13th. Leo still doesn't think it's a good idea, but he's in love and not really caring too terribly much about anything else.
Stargirl's popularity is going downhill, however. And then the day of the interview arrives. She's questioned by the "jury" and it's apparent from the beginning that things are not going to go well. Leo is unable to stop the questions, which consist of things like, "why did you change your name?" and "why did you stop being homeschooled?" Her answer is "because I wanted to make friends," which really broke my heart, because it's clear that everyone doesn't like her and she just honestly cannot figure out why. They cut the Hot Seat short and end up never airing it, but everyone hears about it anyway and her popularity becomes zero.
Because they can't deal with her differences, they make life pretty miserable for her, although she seems pretty oblivious to it. Everyone blames her for the basketball team's loss in the playoffs because she cheers for both teams. And her eccentric personality and style is off-putting. So when Leo and her openly start dating, they're shunned. And Leo doesn't like it. This is exacerbated when Stargirl pins up a huge sign on the school bulletin board that says, "Stargirl loves Leo."
Totally embarrassed, Leo convinces Stargirl to be more normal, so she becomes Susan. She stops wearing the strange clothes, carries her books in her arms like everyone else, and leaves her rat at home. When she goes to compete in the speech competition, she has this high hope that she'll win and come home to a hero's welcome. Everyone will love her, and she'll once again be friends with everyone. When Leo peeks into her room during this time, he sees that she's only got two stones in her wagon, but is convinced that it's the way things have to be.
Susan wins the speech competition just like she'd said she would. However, when they return to Mica, there's no crowd waiting. No cheering, no confetti, no nothing. And that Monday, Stargirl returns. Leo is humiliated, and shuns her. He refuses to talk to her at school and stops hanging out with her. She confronts him and they talk briefly. Leo urges her to return back to being Susan. He asks her if she thinks she's maybe coming on a little too strong. She says, "Because we live in a world of them, right? You told me that once." Leo doesn't have a response, so she kisses him on the cheek and says, "I know you're not going to ask me to the Ocotillo Ball. It's okay." And she leaves, giving him a sympathetic smile. In in that brief moment, he hates her.
The book ends with Leo talking about the Ocotillo Ball (he didn't attend). Stargirl had shown up in a strapless buttercup yellow dress and wowed everyone. She even got people to dance with her, and took most of the school around the golf course doing the Bunny Hop. Hillari Kimble gets angry and exclaims, "You always ruin everything." And she slaps her. In response, Stargirl kisses her on the cheek and leaves the Ball. And that's the last time anyone sees her. When Leo goes by her house that summer, he sees a "For Sale" sign in the yard, and realizes what he's done. He goes to talk to Archie about her, and Archie says, "She liked you, boy." Leo agrees, and he continues, "She did it for you, you know. ... Gave up her self, for a while there. She loved you that much. What an incredibly lucky kid you were." And Leo knows it's true, and can't stand it.
Fifteen years later he still thinks about her. He hears her laugh in the wind and feels her watching him. And that year, the day before his birthday, he receives another porcupine necktie in the mail.
This story was a good one to follow up The Hundred Dresses because it is one again about bullying. Maybe not in the same way, as Stargirl readily ignores everyone around her and doesn't care a whit about what they think (until Leo makes her). But Leo's dislike of being an outcast causes her pain, and she starts to feel the shunning. She even says to him at one point, "They still don't like me." And that starts to affect her happiness, as witnessed with her happy wagon. She was much better off being who she was and not conforming to what everyone else wanted her to be. But Leo couldn't deal with that: once she returned to being Stargirl, he left her. This was more because Leo himself wasn't ready to not be accepted by his peers. It was Leo who didn't like standing out, didn't like the negative attention. And in the end (and even while he's still dating her) he realizes it was all his fault, and his pride that drove them apart, his unwillingness to put aside his own self for her.
Archie asks him at one point, "Whose affection do you value more, hers or the others?" In the end it's apparent that it was the others. And I'm sure Leo is still kicking himself for that to this day.
There is apparently a sequel to this book called, Love, Stargirl which apparently picks up after the Ocotillo Ball from Stargirl's point of view when her family moves away. I read a bit about it on Wikipedia, though, and I don't know if I'll read it or not. I kind of like how this one ended, and don't necessarily want to read more in the universe unless there's some sort of resolution between Stargirl and Leo. But then again, maybe the porcupine tie in the mail is enough.
Post number nine is for Eleanor Estes' The Hundred Dresses, yet another book that I found in my school library (and a book that also was a Newbery Honor Book in 1945). What follows contains spoilers, so please avoid if you feel it necessary.
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This book is basically about bullying. Wanda Petronski, a girl who lives with her Polish father and brother in a bad part of a small town sometime in the past, wears the same faded blue dress to school every day. It's always clean, but you can tell it's never been "properly ironed" and hangs wrong on her body. One day another girl in the classroom, Cecille, gets a brand new red dress that she wears to school. The girls are all crowded around her to admire the dress, including Wanda, who is painfully shy and never speaks to anyone. While they're all standing around Cecille, Wanda turns to her neighbor, Peggy, and says, "I got a hundred dresses in my closet," and in doing so, becomes the butt of Peggy's jokes for the remainder of her time in school.
This book, however, isn't really about Wanda. It's about Maddie, Peggy's friend, who simply stands there each day as Peggy asks Wanda, "How many dresses did you say you have in your closet?" and then prompts Wanda to describe each one. Maddie feels badly for Wanda but doesn't speak up - she doesn't want to become the butt of Peggy's jokes instead, as Maddie herself comes from a poor family (and she's actually wearing many of Peggy's old dresses that Maddie's mom has fixed up). One day, Wanda doesn't show up for school. She's absent for several days, during which time the winner of the dress design contest is announced: The winner is Wanda, who has drawn pictures of one hundred dresses.
A few days later the teacher receives a note from Wanda's father, explaining that they've moved away to the city where no one will make fun of their strange last name or yell, "Stupid Polack" at them. This makes Maddie feel even worse, and even Peggy starts to regret her earlier behavior toward Wanda. The girls walk up to Wanda's house, hoping they'll still be there, but they find the house empty, and no one knows their new address. The girls decide to write Wanda a letter to tell her she's won the contest, and they write "Please forward" on it, hoping she'll receive it. They also decide that from them on, they'll stand up to bullying and be more thoughtful and kind themselves. Wanda sends the class a letter a few months later, explaining that she wants Maddie and Peggy to each have one of the drawings of her hundred dresses. In doing this, the girls realize that she forgives them, and this is further realized when Maddie sees that the girl wearing the blue dress in the picture looks a lot like her, and the girl in the green dress with the red sash looks like Peggy, showing that Wanda possibly always liked them from the beginning.
This was an interesting book in that the character who the book is referencing isn't actually in it at all. We only see Wanda through Maddie's recollections. The book is actually more about the feelings of the person who stands by and watches someone else be bullied. It shows a nice transformation of Maddie's character (I'm not convinced that Peggy is as changed, but let's hope so), but in doing so makes you somewhat sympathetic towards the bulliers. Maybe that was the author's goal - to let you see through the perpetrator's eyes. In the end Maddie's realization of the pain she caused was nice to see - it's a shame more people can't go through the same transformations.
Post number eight is for a little poetry anthology-type book called Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz. It reminded me a little of what I've read of The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer (and, if you read the bibliography in the back, it seems she used that book - among many others - when creating this one), in that the book is made up of narratives by different teenage members of Medieval society. It was originally created for her students (she's a librarian) to perform, and she later decided to publish it.
What follows does contain spoilers, although if you're familiar with Medieval life you probably already know the gist. I'll go ahead and do the usual spoiler space anyway, though.
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There are 21 stories in this book. Some of them are intertwined, by which I mean they refer to different characters in the book (for instance, Jack is Mogg's brother, Edgar is the son of the falconer for Simon's family, etc). This is to be expected, though, because of how Medieval life worked. You had your Lord (in this case, Hugo's uncle) and then all the different people who worked for the Lord (the villein, the shepherdess, the miller, etcetcetc). The book also used a few terms that I wasn't familiar with, so I got to learn a few new things, which is always nice. :)
My favorite story was probably that of Mariot and Maud, the glassblower's daughters. The girls' father has decided that his apprentice (Piers, whose story you hear just before the girls') will inherit his glassblowing shop after he dies. In order to do this, Piers will have to marry one of the girls. Maud is totally opposed to this - she goes so far as to say, "I'd rather have plague, I'd rather have leprosy. I would rather be dead than wed Piers." She is of the opinion that Mariot shares her views on Piers. But Mariot, who is the older daughter, is much more gentle in nature. She thinks she should befriend Piers, that she should talk to him when she sees him. She feels that Piers is just shy and lonely, whereas Maud thinks he's stuck up. Mariot's final words are, "To marry a man is a matter of weight. You share your whole life, your children, your workdays, your sorrows, your pleasures, your ale and your bread, even your bed. I must think over clearly what Father has said. If I have to be wed, then, when all's done and said - I'll wed Piers." I like this one because it does showcase how I myself would feel if I were told who I'd be marrying (Maud). But I also like Mariot's view - that if she has to be married, she might as well marry someone she sort of knows.
Another story I enjoyed was that of Taggot, the blacksmith's daughter. She's very large for a girl of this time, and is extremely shy. It's May Day, and the Lord's nephew, Hugo, makes a visit to the shop because there's something wrong with his horse's hoof. Taggot is the only one there, and at first Hugo is surprised that a girl can help him. But Taggot has been studying at her father's side and knows just what to do. She's got a crush on Hugo, but she's too shy to say anything to him. He tries to pay her for her help, but she pushes the money away. Touching him makes her blush madly, so she rushes into the house and hides until he leaves. When she comes back out, she notices that he left behind his sprig of hawthorn that he'd been wearing while he went a-Maying. She says, "If 'twere on the ground, it might have fallen - but it was on the anvil. I picked it up as if it was holy. I couldn't stop smiling. He left it for me." <333
All in all I think this is basically a simpler version of The Canterbury Tales, which is probably not exactly accurate, but, in my opinion, a fair assessment. I'm planning on reading The Canterbury Tales at some point this year and it will be interesting to compare the two more thoroughly. We'll see if my opinion changes or stays the same regarding this book once I do.
Post number seven is for L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, which is a book I've been meaning to read for ages but never did. I've been using it to pass the slow times in the library at work for the past week and a half or so, and just finished it today. I was surprised to see how different it was from the film, which was previously my only exposure to the story. (Edit: I did read Wicked, but it's so skewed from the original that I don't really count it.)
As usual, what follows will contain spoilers not only for the book but the film version as well. I'm also going to make mentions of Gregory Maguire's Wicked, so please avoid if you feel it necessary.
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First of all, let me list the major differences between the film and the book. 1) Glinda was not the witch that greeted Dorothy after her house killed the Wicked Witch of the East. It was instead the witch of the north - Glinda is the witch of the south. 2) The shoes were actually silver, not red. (I knew this.) 3) Dorothy and Co. went through many more dangerous tasks before reaching the Emerald City. 4) The Emerald City was actually green in the film, not green-induced due to the green spectacles that the Wizard made everyone wear. 5) Dorothy's path home was just as full of adventure as her trip to the Emerald City, all of which was cut from the film.
I first want to say that the film version of The Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite films. I like the songs, I like the actors, I like the scenery. Pretty much everything is wonderful in my opinion. However, I think I actually like the book version of Oz more. There are more people (and now I see where Gregory Maguire got the various people that populated his book Wicked), more dangers, more adventures. And I am all about adventures! Some of my favorites were the impromptu journey down the river (and I was ever so glad that they rescued the poor scarecrow from his perch in the water), the land of the china people, and an explanation for the winged monkeys, which previously I thought were just the Wicked Witch of the West's slaves, like the Winkies. (I certainly like the explanation much more than the idea in Wicked that Elphaba sewed on their wings. Yikes!) I liked the queen of the field mice, and the fact that once Glinda used the magic hat to send the Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Man back to where they wanted to go, that she gave the monkeys the hat back so that no one could command them any longer. (I think it was her kingdom's fault that the hat was created in the first place, right? Or did I misunderstand that?)
One thing that always struck me even with the film is how the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion are so bothered by what they think they don't have that they can't see that they already possess it. The fact that the Tin Man cries is a sign of his compassion, i.e. his heart. The Scarecrow came up with some absolutely brilliant ideas, hence his brain. And the Lion, even though he was terribly frightened, still went into his "battles" (for lack of a better word) and fought for Dorothy and everyone else, hence his courage. In the book, the continued statements of "I'd think you had a brain" or "but I don't have a heart, so..." were kind of eyeroll-inducing because they *did* have all those things they were wanting the Wizard to grant them and were simply too stupid to see. :-P The only one with a legitimate problem was Dorothy herself, and the only reason she had so much trouble was that no one bothered to tell her how the silver shoes worked. (Do you think the old witch at the beginning - the witch of the North - knew how the shoes worked? Glinda did, and the Wicked Witch of the West certainly did, so why didn't the other witch? Of course, had she simply told her we wouldn't have much of a story, and Dorothy wouldn't have ever met her friends and helped them achieve their goals, so I suppose it's a moot point. But the question is still there.)
I think I'm going to read the next book in this series. I don't know if they continue to be as enjoyable or not, and I have a ton of other things to read (including The Time Traveler's Wife, which I really hope to finish by the end of next week) so it's not a high priority, but I would like to eventually read it. And possibly the one after that, and the one after that, etc. If I do continue to find them likable, I'll probably stick to the ones that Baum wrote himself, and not the ones written in the same universe by other authors. But we'll see how it goes. Right now I have a few things actively in progress, and one other book I've been working on for over a year, so I need to get all of those finished up first. And then possibly stick to just two or three in-progress books in the future because it's way to difficult juggling all these different things at one time. :))
Post number six for 2009 is Jeanne DuPrau's The People of Sparks. It was serving as my lunchtime reading book, but since I only had a few pages left after today's lunch break, I went ahead and finished it when I got home.
What follows contains the usual spoilery blather, so if you don't want to know what happens in the book, please avoid. Here's the usual spoiler space.
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The People of Sparks picks up right where The City of Ember left off. Doon and Lina have made their way out of Ember. Mrs. Murdo picked up their note that they dropped, and informed everyone about the way out. After some chaotic moments (including the Mayor and Looper falling into the river and drowning), the Emberites have made their way above-ground. Led by Doon and Lina, they begin a walk across the Empty Lands.
Torren, a boy from the town of Sparks, spots the Emberites coming down a hill and runs and informs the townspeople. After a bit of a discussion, the three town leaders decide the Emberites can stay in Sparks for a period of six months. And that's where the trouble begins.
See, the Sparks citizens are concerned that, by feeding the Emberites, they're going to run out of food for themselves, and Sparks was just starting to prosper. The Emberites are totally unused to anything - the sun, the wind, the heat - it's all foreign to them. And worse, they don't know how to *do* anything useful, so they have to be taught from scratch. Lina and Mrs. Murdo move in with the town doctor (who also has Torren living with her) because Poppy, Lina's little sister, is ill. They help her around the house. However, Torren doesn't like Lina or anyone else from Ember. All he wants to do is join his brother Caspar, who is a roamer.
Doon and his father (and the other Emberites) in the meantime move into the Pioneer Hotel, which used to be a grand place indeed prior to the Disaster (i.e. the Apocalypse). They are assigned to a Sparks' family, which provides food for them, and in return the people of Ember help out with the chores and jobs around Sparks, with the ultimate goal of learning enough that they can build their own town somewhere that is not Sparks. However, as time goes on, their portions of food become smaller and smaller, and the Emberites become disgruntled. This is helped along by Tick, someone new from Ember we're introduced to, who likes to stir up trouble (even though the citizens of Ember don't realize it at first).
Caspar shows up with a partner, Maddy, which ticks Torren off. Lina steals away on Caspar and Maddy's "truck" (a truck minus the engine that's pulled by oxen - the knowledge of engines and gasoline has been lost in the Disaster, along with the notion of electricity) when she hears that they're going to the city. Lina thinks it's the city from her drawings in Ember, and thinks that maybe the Emberites can rebuild it and make it their own.
While Lina is gone things spiral out of control. Torren is angry about Lina disappearing with Caspar (he thinks Caspar took her willingly) and heads out into the fields, where he destroys to crates of tomatoes. The next morning he points the finger at Doon, and the people of Sparks easily believe this. The Sparks town leaders decide the people of Ember are on a short leash. Things get even harder, especially for Doon, and everything finally blows up. Hateful words are written in mud in the plaza, and then on the Pioneer Hotel. Poison oak, which the Emberites know nothing about, is left in the entryway, and everyone breaks out in the rash when they help with the cleanup. It creates a riot in the plaza, where Tick urges people to steal food from the storeroom because they "deserve" it.
Lina, meanwhile, arrives at the city with Maddy and Caspar only to find it utterly destroyed. Caspar has an idea that there's some sort of fabulous treasure in the city, and by using all the songs he's overheard about the city he's come up with a "calculation" as to where the treasure lies. It becomes obvious to Lina that Caspar is crazy, so she and Maddy sneak away on the bicycles that Casper had on his truck and make their way back to Sparks.
They arrive just in time for the big showdown. The Sparks' town leaders have told the Emberites that they'll be leaving in one day and, if they won't go, they will use the Weapon on them. The weapon turns out to be an old machine gun. However, the machine gun malfunctions and explodes, starting a fire. The fire starts raging out of control when Lina, grabbing her courage and realizing what she needs to do to reverse the damage that's been done, races across the plaza and joins the fire line. She's quickly joined by Doon and Clary and Mrs. Murdo, and tons of others. Tick, the person who riled them all up in the first place, and a few of his men simply stand to the side yelling out, "Traitor."
It soon comes to light that Tick was actually the one who'd written the hateful words on the hotel and put the poison oak in the entryway. Torren retracts his statement that he saw Doon destroy the tomatoes (Doon saved Torren from the fire), and the leaders of Sparks realize that they have to let the Emberites stay and that, even though it will be difficult, they will manage, and thrive again.
Overall I think I enjoyed this book just as much as the first one. There was a great sense of urgency, and a big moment where you realized things had to resolve themselves. One thing I liked in particular was when Maddy and Lina found another roamer, who told them of the songs that were sung about the city, which Caspar supposedly used to make his calculations.
Remember, remember from times of old.
What's hidden will come to light again.
It's far more precious than diamonds and gold.
and
Remember the city, the city remember.
Where treasure is hidden under the ground.
The city, the city, always remember.
That's where the treasure will be found.
When Lina realized that it was actually, "Remember the city, the city of Ember," I actually got tears in my eyes. When she's explaining that the reason the treasure underground was more important than jewels was because they thought the Emberites would be the only people left, and that they didn't want people to forget about Ember, it literally made me tear up. Because people are the most important part of the world, you know? The world wouldn't exist without us.
I also liked the big to-do with the fire, and the conversations between Doon and Lina about what they should do and how they could stop a war once it had gotten started - by doing something good instead of something bad, even though it was hard. Maddy's statement that being good was loads harder than being bad is so true; sometimes people just want the easy way out, but that's not the best way to fix the problems at hand.
I also liked that the people of Sparks came to the Emberites at the end for the meeting. Previously it had been all about bringing the Emberites to them - they were never willing to reverse that. But this way it showed a bit more equality, and I liked that. I did, however, roll my eyes at Ben's "apology". 8-|
Another thing that made me tear up was when Mary said, "We will no longer speak of 'the people of Sparks' and 'the people of Ember'. From now on, we are all the people of Sparks." <333
I like that Maddy is going to stay in Sparks and help Clary with her gardening, and that old Edward Pocket is going to become the librarian (which he was doing on the sly), and that new houses were going to be built for the Emberites. And, even though food might run out, there'd be plenty of pickles. :))
So now I'm looking forward to reading the next book, which I wasn't originally planning on reading because I really haven't heard all that many great things about this series. But thus far books one and two haven't disappointed. Let's hope number three continues in this same vein.
