Review: The Island of the Blue Dolphin - Scott O'Dell

Genre: YA Fiction
ISBN: 0440439884
Pages: 181
Format: Trade Paperback
Rating: 3/5 Stars

I know I may have rated it different if I were reading this and was a fourth grader. I just couldn't really fully enjoy myself. I like the writing and I like the way O'Dell captured Karana and this beautiful island. I could see what he was talking about but most of the time I also felt like I was reading a "how-to" guide. I know now what I would do if I were stuck on an island but I don't even think I would survive as long as she did but I am a city girl and that's where she grew up. Another reason why I didn't love this book was because the story was about her really and I felt no connection to her just the island in itself. Maybe that is what O'Dell had in mind? Or maybe not. I dunno I just rating it as I saw fit.

The Art of Devotion - Samantha Bruce-Benjamin

Genre: Fiction
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 378
ISBN: 9781439153949
Rating 3.5 Stars

I was one of the lucky ones who received this book for free from the author on The Next Best Book Club (TNBBC). This book not only has one of the most beautiful covers I have ever saw but it s filled will poetry, drama, scandals, twists, turns, and just plain ol' creepy-remarkable. It is told in 4 different voices; Sophie, who is the mother of Adora and Sebastian, Adora, who is the main center of attention who everyone seems to love but is crazy in her own poetic way, Miranda who I did feel sorry for in the beginning but grew to seriously hate her, she was the mother of Gigi and the former lover of Sebastian, and then the last voice was of Gigi who used to stay at the home of Adora on a Mediterranean island every summer. It gets confusing in the beginning to remember who is who and who does what but after the 30 or so pages you start to get the hang of it. There is so much melodramatic tragedies and so much scandal that it is amazing. No characters are really likable but I like that about the story. I rooted for no one. The closest person that I liked was Gigi only because I felt bad for her to be trapped in such a world with such people who really only cared about themselves or who were obsessed with something that they could not control.

There is so much going on in this book that it would take me all day to try to explain but it was a good read. This is definitely what people may call a good "beach read". I recall many times when I was reading this that my mouth was hanging open and people on the subway probably thought I was crazy or just plain ol' slow. I think that in every "chapter" I felt like "OH MY GOD, REALLY???" and I think that causes for a good book. I gave it 3.5 stars only because of being so much drama and no happy moments. I know that there were times when I wished for something and then when it happened I was mad. I never, or very rarely, do I give 5 stars and 4 stars bring it very close to 5 so I think 3.5 is a very good rating and I would recommend it to others.

Lily's Crossing - Patricia Reilly Giff

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Pages: 180

Format: Softcover

ISBN: 0440474539

Rating;: 4/5

Okay I have to admit this is not the best book and I rated it mainly on the fact that I was born and raised in the main town, Rockaway. I love to see it all in my head and I try to picture it many years ago. The book is set during WWII so even my parents weren't born then but I know of the shops and the places they spoke of and it brought me back to my childhood and of the beach and our innocence and it was comforting but it was also very sad because what isn't during wars? But all in all I gave it 4 of 5 stars solely on the basis of innocence and Rockaway. I will read on to Willow Run because it the "companion" book of Lily's Crossing.