First Lines: "My name is Erdemoglu Selim. I was once a lieutenant in the Turkish Janissary Army. I abandoned that life, however, for this one. The sort of life where I had been tasked with creating a distraction."
This is the second book in a delightful series. In this one, Delilah (adventurer, skilled swordswoman, righter-of-wrongs) discovers a British officer spying for the French and must go to London to expose him. While there she returns to her childhood home and, as Alexandra Nichols, must deal with her mother who wants her to resume her identity as an English gentlewoman. There are themes of identity and expectation, but what will grab the attention of your readers is the rollicking adventure storyline and the clear and exciting way that Tony Cliff shows fight sequences and depicts intrigue so that the reader is rarely confused.
This could be ideal for fourth-graders and up. There is almost nothing that is offensive, except a reference on page 64, where a character identifies someone who is acting foolish with a term normally reserved for donkeys and posteriors. This book would be an excellent addition to your classroom library.
Hicks, Faith Erin(2016) The Nameless City New York: First Second
Opening lines: "...on the 34th day of our journey down the River of Lives, we came to the great City, Daidu. But something was amiss, for the City was not called Daidu by those we spoke to at the gates."
Kaidu is the son of Adren, the general of the conquering armies that have taken control of the Nameless City. In the City he meets a street urchin named Rat. She shows him how to run across the rooftops. As a city person, she hates the conquering Dao armies. Kaidu has seen the scorn the soldiers have for the people of the city. Kaidu and Rat develop an unlikely friendship and together help to convince the various leaders of the city to meet for peace talks.
That summary doesn't do justice to what is an amazing experience. Hicks has built a fascinating world and the illustrations invite us into that world. The details are magnificent, the characters interesting, and the story believable. I can imagine walking in her city.
There is some violence in this story, but nothing excessive. This would be excellent as a classroom library book for about fourth grade and older. It might also be worth undertaking as a language arts text. Excellent stuff.
Hicks, Faith Erin (2017) The Nameless City: The Stone Heart. New York: First Second.
Opening Lines: "On our eighth day in the Nameless City, my travelling companion happened upon some of his people, far from their homelands. They had travelled miles to buy and sell in the City. It was a common story, repeated many we spoke to. The Nameless City is different from many cities we passed through in our journey down the River of Life. The City does not have a single population. Rather it is filled with many different people from many different nations. I had to ask: Who does the city belong to? Who are its rightful people?"
The story of the Nameless City continues in this second volume. We learn that Rat's parents were killed by the Dao, Kaidu's people. We also learn that Kaidu's dad, the general, is working on a peace plan in which the city would be governed by a city council, with every tribe having a seat, to break the cycle of invasion and subjugation. As the peace plan gets closer though, it becomes clear that the enemies of peace -- those who wish to hold on to power, are willing to go to great lengths to ensure that the peace plan is never realized -- and those great lengths will change everything for Rat and Kaidu and present them with their greatest challenge ever. This is a wonderful story of sudden twists and turns punctuated by moments of great beauty.
You need to read this, seriously. It is one of the finest graphic novels stories I have read in a long time. Good for fourth or fifth grade and older. Great for your classroom library. Especially good for English or History classes. (Obviously this is a work of fiction -- but it raises some interesting questions of tribal conflict and democratic governments -- when it isn't moving at breakneck speed toward the next plot twist.) I loved this book.
Wooding, Chris; Diaz, Cassandra (2012) Pandemonium. New York: Scholastic.
Opening Lines: "Let's play skullball! And it's a great catch by Seifer Tombchewer, captain of the home team!"
Okay, I'll admit, when I saw the cover and read the first couple of lines, I figured this was going to be another run-of-the -mill manga-style vampire story. Turns out, every assumption I made was wrong. The story begins when Siefer (pictured on the cover), son of the chief of a little town in the middle of nowhere is kidnapped and taken to the great city. It turns out his is a dead ringer for the prince of the realm, who is missing. Siefer's job is to act as a decoy and rule in his stead until the Prince is found and the culprits captured. But Siefer knows nothing of how to govern, and nothing of magic, which the prince is known for. throw in the fact that the Prince is engaged to be married and his fiancee is coming for a vist soon, and add a girl is age who comes to the castle to plead her case and ends up teaching him how to do magic and you have a story that is not only engaging, but actually quite funny at times.
This is the first book in a series, and like the first Harry Potter book, there is not a ton here in terms of teachable themes, but it is a book that your students will enjoy. I am going to guess middle school and up with this one, mostly because the romantic intrigues might fly over the heads of younger kids. Well worth getting a hold of.
Westerfeld, Scott; Puvilland, Alex (2017) Spill Zone. New York: First Second
Opening Lines: "Whenever I go in planning to shoot, I always come out with more pictures of the playground. A hundred years ago, Victorians thought that cameras captured glimpses of the spirit world. They thought the fugitive wisps of light in their photos meant something. But frankly, they just had shitty cameras back then. It doesn't matter what I shoot with, digital, infrared, even old school chemical film, nothing ever shows up on the swing. People think there is something hidden in the Spill, fairies in those wisps of light. They're wrong. The spill zone shows everything. My guess is Hell does too. "
Addison lives with her little sister, Lexi ever since the Spill that claimed her parents' lives. No one quite knows what the Spill was -- nanotech gone bad, aliens, extra-dimensional invaders, all they know is that within the Spill site, things get really weird. Addie makes her living sneaking into the Spill Zone and taking pictures of the weird and frightening creatures there. When a customer offers her a fortune -- enough to get her and Lexi away from the Spill Zone forever -- to retrieve an artifact from a hospital within the Zone, Addie agrees. But the law keeps getting closer to figuring out that she is the one sneaking in there, and the artifact has some disturbing properties on its own. And of course, there are the creatures within the Zone. For Addie to get in and out one more time will not be easy.
Westerfeld and Puvilland have crafted a convincing and frightening world and a gripping and entertaining story. There isn't much thematically here for a literature class, but it would be a good addition to a high school classroom library. Lexi has a doll who has been animated by the Spill that is rather disconcerting, and the rest of the story is also frightening from time to time. There is also some sparing use of vulgar words, but there is nothing here any worse than a typical Steven King novel.
It was a good story. I am looking forward to the sequel. If you like your adventure stories with a touch of horror, you should pick this one up.
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