The Boy Who Conquered Everest: The Jordan Romero Story
The Boy Who Conquered Everest: The Jordan Romero Story by Katherine Blanc with Jordan Romero
Pages: 72
Ages: 9+
First Published: July 30, 2010
Publisher: Balboa Press
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
Jordan Romero was a regular 9 year old boy.
Acquired: Received a review copy from the book’s publicist.
Reason for Reading: The book sounded inspiring and like something my son would enjoy.
This little book is a treasure and a treat to read! Graphically, the book has been designed in a scrapbook style with each page a pleasing layout of photographs, handwritten and typewritten fonts. The text is minimal at times, presented in chunks at others, and is not a hard read at all but still full of information. This is the story of Jordan Romero, who at 9 years old, wanted to climb the Seven Summits. These are the tallest mountains on each continent, which, of course, includes the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. Jordan’s father and stepmother were amateur mountain climbers, so this goal wasn’t a complete impossibility and with their support and agreement to come along with him his dream became reality. For the next 4 years Jordan trained, gained sponsors and threw fundraisers as he traveled the world completing each summit, until at age 13 he had one left, the tallest, Mount Everest. This climb would make him the youngest person ever to climb the Seven Summits beating the previous holder of the title who completed the climbs at age 17.
An extremely interesting and fascinating story told through text and photographs. Very inspiring and leaves one with a sense of accomplishment and feeling of what one could do oneself. Kids will realize that it is OK to have big dreams and that through hard work one can make dreams, no matter how big or small, come true. A very good, “feel good” story with a positive message for children. The emphasis is on achieving your goals but never does the book lose focus of the hard work and feelings of giving up one must experience to achieve those goals. A good read!
Harmony (Nicola)
Harmony by Project Itoh. Translated by Alexander O. Smith
Pages: 252 pages
First Published: 2008 Japan (July 20, 2010, English Trans.)
Publisher: Haika Soru: Viz Media
Rating: 5/5
First sentence:
I have a story to tell.
Acquired: Received a review copy from Simon & Schuster Canada.
Reason for Reading: I love post-apocalyptic/dystopian novels and at the same time I was very intrigued in reading a Japanese novel in translation. So far my Japanese reading has been confined to manga.
This book won the Japanese Awards: the Seiun Award and the Japan SF Award and is a highly literary piece of work. A brilliant work of dystopia that looks at a future world that is unlike anything I’ve ever read before and is also completely viable. The publisher’s summary does not do justice to the story at all and I was not prepared for the deep philosophical, scientific, ethical, sociological and technological issues that would be covered in this fairly slim volume.
I couldn’t even begin to find the words to describe the plot as it is so intricate and multi-layered nor do I really want to as going into this book without much plot knowledge will only enhance your enjoyment. Instead, let me describe the world. There has been an apocalypse; bombs have dropped and a large portion of the world’s population killed. It is now about 60 years later and the civilized world has no governments, or ruling kingdoms, instead the world is managed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and throughout each country there are thousands of admedistration units catering to small sections of the population. People have been implanted with a medical monitoring device which constantly measures physical and emotional health, sending out modules of medications or enzymes to fix the problem straight away. Thus no one in this world is ever sick, hurts themselves, or becomes mentally unstable. Privacy is the ultimate bad word; one you would whisper and make sure no one else heard you say. Everybody has a health output hovering over their head so all can see how each other is doing, and everyone is kind and thoughtful to others because the most precious resource in this population depleted world is human life. As one walks along in life your implant will shield you from emotional distress, should something come up that would interfere with your specific emotional make-up a filtering process would go into place and you would not even see the offending item: painting, magazine, store, etc. Everyone is in perfect health as your diet is streamlined for your consumption, and the correct foods delivered to your home, within your budget. Menus at restaurants bring up a display telling the nutritional content of the food and what is within your parameters. Food with no nutritional value does not exist anymore. And the list goes on ….
Some people are perfectly content with this Utopian society of perfect health, peace and kindness. Never having to make uncomfortable choices and feeling as though they are truly being a valuable resource of society. Others realize this for the totalitarian society that it is and there are a few countries that have not joined the WHO, mainly Russia and then small scattered countries in Africa and the Middle East, which continue to resist. But there are others on the inside who want out, they’ve read books and found out what life was like before the Maelstorm and recognize individual freedom is missing from their society. Three teenage girls become a part of this resistance when they realize the only way to hurt the establishment is to hurt the most precious commodity, their human life. So they make a pact to commit suicide together. This is only the beginning, though. What will become at risk is the very essence that makes human beings human.
The book is written in a back and forth flow as the main character tells her story now as she works as an agent and flashes back to her childhood and early adult years as she was one of those girls who promised to commit suicide but obviously failed. The book is also written within a sort of HTML code called “Emotional-in-Text Markup Language” and the text is contained within the coded tags and within the text will be other tags with directions, sort of like a play. It’s strange at first, but you get used to it as a reader and when you find out it’s purpose on the last page … well it is stunning.
This book really deserves more publicity on this continent. It is one of the best dystopian novels I’ve read of late and so very different from the other stuff being written today which often has an environmental political agenda behind its cause of the apocalypse. I think I would put this up there with Brave New World, completely different stories mind, but equal in literary merit and psychological impact and thought.
I would like to mention that the very beginning pages do contain some quite vulgar language (which had me thinking I wouldn’t be reading the book much further) but it is mostly contained to those pages. Of course, there are expletives here and there throughout the book but don’t let the first pages put you off, if language is of a concern to you.
Ghostopolis (Nicola)
Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel
Pages: 268
Ages: 12+
First Published: July 1, 2010
Publisher: Graphix
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
Ladies and gentlemen, we’re having a little engine trouble.
Acquired: Received a review copy from Scholastic Canada.
Reason for Reading: I’m always intrigued by stories that take place in the “afterlife”.
Frank Gallows is a ghost wrangler. He hunts down ghosts who’ve escaped the afterlife and sends them back but after 30 years on the job he’s losing his touch, bored and plain grumpy with life. Sent to track down a night mare, the skeletal horse is on the run. As she goes through a wall, Frank shackles her and hit’s the send button. Problem: on the other side of the wall the skeletal mare had en-caged a human boy, Garth, and he ends up in the afterlife with her. As headquarters sets up a team to rescue him, Frank and his ex-girlfriend, a ghost, go after him themselves. They find Ghostopolis, the city centre of the afterlife, greatly changed and dominated by Vaugner, an evil, powerful human-type being. Garth, Frank and Claire must find a way back to the mortal world and since Vaugner is trying to stop them at every turn they must first stop him.
I found the story a little hard to get into as it starts right away with the action and it takes a bit to figure out what is going on. Plus the artwork was a little startling, the artist’s depiction of people are on the ugly side of ugly. Once the plot became clearer, I started to enjoy the book and once the artist had the opportunity to add action scenes with non-human characters to the illustrations, I became more comfortable with the style and even enjoyed it by book’s end.
The story has several layers to it: a grown man with the behaviour of a child learns to grow up on the inside, a man who can’t express his love outwardly makes the ultimate sacrifice to earn the love he craved and power and the begetting of power for power’s sake can only lead to evil in the end, to name a few. Then there is the basic plot which is both exciting and fun. The book is quite dark though, death being the main theme here; my 10yo certainly couldn’t handle it. Along the way Garth and company meet killer insects, skeletal armies, zombies, mummies and some other very strange characters. There is humour added to lighten up the darkness mostly in the form of sarcasm and wit, though there is some outright grossness to make you laugh (or cringe) too such as the delicacy of tarantula on a stick and an ancient fortune telling wolf who is blind and tells the future through smells and happens to “toot”.
At well over 200 pages there is a lot of story and characterization to be found in this simple story of good vs. evil and redemption for those who seek it.
Revolver (Nicola)
Revolver by Matt Kindt
Pages: 192
Ages: 18+
First Published: Jul. 20, 2010
Publisher: Vertigo
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
I do the same thing every morning.
Acquired: Received a Review Copy from the publisher.
Reason for Reading: Pure Plot. I love post-apocalyptic stories.
This is a dark, oppressive story from every angle and will not be for everyone. The art is done with stark, spidery sketches done in blue, black & tan which at first glance were quite different to what I’m used to but as the story progressed I felt they really added to the atmosphere of the plot and contributed to the stark, oppressiveness.
Sam is a lazy guy stuck in a dead end job, who is belittled by his domineering boss and is plagued by his materialistic girlfriend. One morning, on his way to work there is a 9/11 type attack on his office building in Chicago, in fact, airplanes are crashing into major cities all over the US. Later reports of ‘dirty bombs’ are reported and the US goes into a state of post-apocalyptic survival. Sam is busy that day helping others get out of the building and making himself useful ending up with his boss who is in a state of shock. Sam has also found himself capable of viciously standing up for his survival … no matter what. The next day he wakes up back in his regular life where the attack hasn’t happened. And so Sam continues to live opposing days (and whenever he has a nap) one in which he must fight for his life everyday but he feels he has purpose to his life and one in which the world is safe and his life is boring as dirt. He must eventually choose which world to stay in.
I quite enjoyed the story, there is a lot of deep thinking involved, philosophizing and reading between the lines but I enjoyed the brain stretch. The ending is surprising and comes with unsaid but understood conclusions. All 3 characters are cliched, and one could pick on the author for his representation of female characters but when 2 out of 3 characters are female it is unfair to say he chose to especially stereotype the women. However, these stereotypes may have been used on purpose as Sam is not a likable character and the cliched women types bring out his unlikable characteristics purposefully. I think the story is worth reading and quite clever in its eventual climax and ending. One is left with a lot to think about.
The Hundred-Foot Journey (Literary Feline)
I suspect my destiny was written from the very start, my first sensation of life was the smell of machli ka salan, a spicy fish curry, rising through the floorboards to the cot in my parents’ room above the restaurant. To this day I can recall the sensation of those cot bars pressed up coldly against my toddler’s face, my nose poked out as far as possible and searching the air for that aromatic packet of cardamom, fish heads, and palm oil, which, even at that young age, somehow suggested there were unfathomable riches to be discovered and savored in the free world beyond. [pg 3]
The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais
Scribner, 2010
Fiction; 245 pgs
Scribner, 2010
Fiction; 245 pgs
Those of you who know me well, know I am not fond of the kitchen. I like to eat (although lately, not so much), but my tastes are rather simple. Therefore, I am not sure I would feel at home in a high class French restaurant. So what was it that drew me to a book like The Hundred-Foot Journey, a novel about a young Indian boy who pursues his dream of becoming a famous French chef? It certainly wasn’t the elaborate descriptions of food and slaving over a hot stove. I do, however, enjoy an inspiring story about reaching for one’s dreams. And I like going behind the scenes in worlds or lives I am not familiar with, including getting a look inside the workings of a restaurant.
The Hundred-Foot Journey is not a deep novel, nor is it one I would label as a light read. Hassan Haji retells his life story, about his beginnings in the family kitchen in India to his eventual training in a haute cuisine French restaurant in Lumiére, just one hundred feet away from his family’s own Indian restaurant and then onto strike it on his own in Paris. His family is forced to flee India after a tragic event that destroys everything his family worked. The family’s relocation to France is met with some resistance, as is their attempt to establish themselves in the restaurant business there.
There was a distance in the telling of the story, and it made getting to truly know Hassan difficult on some level. However, from what I did learn about him and his life, I liked and admired him. He has a natural talent for cooking and even his chief rival cannot deny it.
Overall, it was an enjoyable book on one hand, but lacking on the other. I really would like to have gotten to know Hassan more. But there was a simplicity to the novel that was quite appealing. I enjoyed reading the behind the scene descriptions of shopping in the market for the freshest foods, the search for the perfect venue, spending time with Hassan’s family, and seeing Hassan go from a young boy still trying to find his way to reaching his dreams.
Rating: 
(Good)
For more information about the author and his book, visit his website.
Source: Copy of book provided by publicist/publisher.
Printed with permission by Wendy Runyon (aka Literary Feline); © 2010, Wendy Runyon of Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved.
Terry Fox: A Story of Hope (Nicola)
Terry Fox: A Story of Hope by Maxine TrottierMarathon of Hope 30th Anniversary edition
Pages: 35
Ages: 8+
First Published: July 1, 2010
Publisher: Scholastic Canada
Rating: 5/5
First sentence:
Hope is a quiet thing.
Acquired: Received a review copy from the publisher.
Reason for Reading: It’s been a long time since I read anything about Terry Fox and with the 30th anniversary of his run coming up, I previewed this and will read it to my son for our history curriculum this year.
Terry Fox is a Canadian hero. There is no Canadian school child who does not know who Terry was and the legend he has left behind. Every September all over the country Marathon’s are held in his name, The Marathon of Hope, to raise money for cancer research. Terry was a young man who lost his leg to bone cancer and decided to jog across the country to raise money and awareness for cancer in the early ’80’s. Unfortunately, after starting in the east he made it just as far as Thunderbay, Ontario before the cancer returned, to his lungs this time. Terry’s whole life with cancer was one of hope, determination, and a fighting will to live that he never gave up on but the time came when even he realized he was dying and he rallied forth that the awareness he had created must continue on without him. Before Terry died he knew that a yearly Marathon would continue on in his name.
This is a very well written non-fiction book. The text is narrative and interesting in style as well as emotional. It’s tough to read the beginning learning about the happy, athletically driven child and teenager he was when one knows the tragic end of his life. But it is also inspiring to today’s generation of children to have this kind of young Canadian hero to look up to. The book can’t help but be emotional as it is an emotional story but also uplifting. This 30th anniversary edition has 7 additional pages with extra photographs added to update the information on Fox’s legacy up to and including the 2010 Olympics where his parents were torchbearers.
Salem Brownstone: All Along the Watchtowers (Nicola)
Salem Brownstone: All Along the Watchtowers by John Harris Dunning. Art by Nikhil Singh
Pages: 96 pages
Ages: 15+
First Published: July 13, 2010 US ( Oct. 2009 UK)
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Rating: 4/5
First sentence:
There are those who love the rum and unusual, the uncanny, the macabre.
Acquired: Received a review copy from the publisher.
Reason for Reading: I was immediately taken with the publisher’s eerie plot summary.
This is a beautiful book. Oversized like a large picture book with decorated cloth covered boards, it feels like a treasure in your hands. Upon opening the book, the story grips you right away as if something by Poe. Then turn the page where the artwork starts and immediately Gory comes to mind and the further one gets into the story with the mixture of art and text their is a very strong Tim Burton vibe going and I actually started imaging the story being filmed with Johnny Depp as Salem Brownstone. The artwork is truly masterful. Each frame is so detailed, this book could take many readings and each reading would reveal something you had missed the previous times through. How do I describe the art? Outlandish, eerie, macabre, bizarre and just outright fiendishly freakish (in a good way!).
Salem Brownstone, a grown man, who hasn’t seen his father since he was six receives a telegram that his father has died and left him his mansion and the contents and he must come claim it ASAP that evening at 9pm. Upon arrival Salem finds an old creepy Victorian house and notices a sign announcing a circus nearby. Once inside he discovers his father was a magician and dons the cape, when he hears a noise. As he investigates he happens upon Cassandra Contortionist who has been waiting for him. She has a scrying orb that belonged to his father that she must pass on to him. She takes him down to the circus for further explanation and it is here he learns that he must take over his father’s role in keeping the world safe from the evil creatures of another dimension.
This is a macabre story and certainly not going to be for everyone but if you like Poe or Lovecraft then this will be along your tastes. The atmosphere is very dark and heavy, the story is very creepy and when you think you’ve seen it all something even creepier happens. I was engrossed with the story and the whole book itself. A wonderful Hallowe’en read. From the ending, there are hints that Salem may appear in a sequel.