The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest)

Millennium Trilogy Book Information

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Penguin Canada, 2009.

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson. Penguin Canada, 2010.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson. Viking Canada, 2010.

My Summary and Review

In an isolated area of Sweden, Mikael Blomkvist, a high ranking investigative journalist, teams up with a stubborn, secretive, and socially awkward computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander, to solve an old case of a missing teenager from an elite Swedish family. As the series progresses, dangerous individuals from Salander's past start to emerge, and terrifying events from Salander's past must be resolved.

Stieg Larsson has created a resourceful, tattooed, anti-heroine in Lisbeth Salander. Characterized by silence, secrecy, and a horrifying childhood, Lisbeth Salander often seems to be a real paradox, and her action/decisionmaking processes are gripping. 

Larsson draws on a wealth of experience in journalism in the character of Mikael Blomkvist. Though Blomkvist is never settled in his intimate relationships with women, his unflagging support for Salander, his keen mind for research, and his perceptive abilities add to this series' general appeal.

My Notes

This is one of the rare ocasions where I actually bought the second book in the series to read while waiting for the third, since I just couldn't wait! It's easy to see why the books in this series are bestsellers. I recommend this series highly, even though the first book takes a while to get started. I also advise that these books contain mature subject matter in the form of explicit sexual abuse. 

Witch Week by Diana Wynne-Jones

My Review/Summary

"Someone in this class is a witch," begins Diana Wynne-Jones' Witch Week. This book can be read on its own, or as part of Diana Wynne-Jones' magical Chrestomanci series. Diana Wynne-Jones' boarding school novel explores a world in which witchcraft is forbidden, and where witches are burned. In class 6B, there are a few witches, each of whom has different talents and abilities, but no one wants to be identified! Diana Wynne-Jones creatively touches on many different themes in this book, including the dangers of being careless and joking around with something serious, the idea that one action has many possible consequences that could alter history, as well as the importance of including people, and not punishing others based on differences. A thrilling read for fun or for a school project.

The Shepherd's Granddaughter

The Shepherd's Granddaughter by Anne Laurel Carter. Groundwood Books. 2008.

My Review

The Shepherd's Granddaughter, a novel for children by Anne Laurel Carter, deals sensitively with the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflicts. It focuses on the emotional upheaval that this conflict causes a young Palestinian girl and her family.

Throughout her book, Carter highlights the importance of cooperation, and of discussion. Carter's book is anti-extremist. Although Amani's brother frequently mentions extreme, terrorist solutions to their situation, these are always dismissed in favour of more peaceable conflict resolution methods. Admirably, Carter aptly portrays a pro-Palestinian story without being overtly anti-Semitic. The Jewish characters in this book (the settler's son and the rabbi) are kind and helpful. Each goes out of his way to help the family survive together.

This children's book should be read widely by older children as a means for discussing current conflicts and their impacts on the lives of innocent civilians.

Taken by Edward Bloor

Summary

It's 2036, and there are two major industries in the United States: domestic service and kidnapping children. Charity Meyers wakes up on New Year's, 2036, to find that she has been abducted. Her parents have 12 hours to pay the ransom that should save her life. Charity spends her last terrifying hours locked into an ambulance with Dessi, a young kidnapper, who challenges her perceptions of domestic servants and the underprivileged. It soon becomes clear that, in Charity's world, all is not what it seems. Will she ever escape, and will life (as she knows it) return to normal?

Book Information
Taken by Edward Bloor. 2007. Tennessee: Random House.

My Review
Critically acclaimed author Edward Bloor takes suspense to the next level in his novel Taken. Charity Meyers is an easily likeably, naive, upright young girl who has been uprooted from her life by kidnappers, and who is already emotionally estranged from her parents. Also endearing is her captor Dessi, who becomes sympathetic during the story. The only point where this novel suffers is the ending, which is so startling and abrupt that it seems entirely implausible. On all other points, this novel is a fun, breezy read.