Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer
I read this book a few weeks ago, but am just getting around to writing about it (or maybe just putting forth the energy to write about it). Like I've said before, I'm a big Picoult fan. However...this one wasn't anything like her adult books, and I daresay YA isn't her forte. It'd be unfair of me to say it was a read that tweens and teens wouldn't enjoy, but as an adult, I thought it kind of dragged in some areas, and I wasn't really grabbed by the action in the plot.
Delilah is a teen girl who doesn't particularly care for school, even though she loves to read. The book she's currently infatuated with, Between the Lines, is a fairy tale about a prince on a quest to rescue a princess. It's when the prince begins speaking to Delilah that the story introduces its conflict--how can Delilah rescue a prince from living a repetitive life within the pages of a book?
The number of times Delilah unsuccessfully tries to help the prince escape is what makes this book seem to drag. I thought she could have left out a time or two for the story's sake. It was becoming blatantly obvious that the task was hard. As in most modern fairy tales, there's a happy ending, and readers pretty much know what that ending will be.
Okay, so even though I didn't thoroughly enjoy this book, I can give kudos to the authors for writing a YA novel that is clean. There's no sex, no vulgar language, no inappropriate themes. Despite lacking the topics and language that run amok in today's YA lit, I can say that young girls will enjoy reading this book. It has a happy ending. It has the girl-meets-boy story that infatuates them. It even has color illustrations, which don't come around often in a novel of its length.
So even though I wouldn't recommend it for older readers, if you have a classroom, a library, or a teenage daughter of your own, I'd say it'd be worth it for them to read.
Target age range: 11-15 years
Showing posts with label jodi picoult. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jodi picoult. Show all posts
Monday, July 30, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Lone Wolf
Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult
Without a doubt, Jodi Picoult has been one of my favorite writers for years. See? An entire shelf dedicated to all of her books back in our office.
Granted, since she has published a book a year the past few years, I'm going to need to start a new shelf after next year. Despite having the ability to purchase her books digitally now, I can't do it. I need to own hard copies. Actually (if we're being 100% honest, and please don't tell Amazon), I really need to own hard copies of all my books. Hence why when I'm rich (or at least in my own home and not this apartment, whichever comes first), I'm going to have to have wall-to-wall bookcases. :p
But I digress. Which, in case you couldn't tell, isn't that unusual sometimes.
Picoult's novels tend to take places in court rooms and hospitals. I really enjoy the court cases, and she goes to lengths to research facts and statistics to support a realistic legal drama.
Luke Warren has lived with the wolves--literally. He left his wife and two children for two years to live in the Canadian wild and assimilate himself into a pack. Successful, he returns to the human world after realizing if he doesn't make a clean break and return, he won't. Skip forward a few years, and Luke has divorced his wife, and his son has moved to Thailand to escape him. His daughter, Cara, now lives with Luke, since his ex-wife has remarried and given birth to more children. Skip forward four more years, and Luke is lying in a hospital bed in a coma after a terrible car accident.
This is the start of the story. Luke and Cara have survived the crash, but to what extent? Cara is hurt and needs surgery, but is otherwise fine. Luke, however, is in a comatose state that doesn't bode well for his future. Georgie, Luke's ex-wife, calls and beckons their son, Edward, to return home, as the prognosis on his father is not good.
Cara is none too pleased to have Edward back in the picture at this point in Luke's life; she still blames her brother's disappearance as the cause of her parents' divorce. Her anger only grows after Edward decides to terminate their father's life support and donate his organs. Cara manages to object to the procedure in enough time to prevent the cessation of life sustaining measures, but this only leads to a court battle to decide who ultimately gets to make the decision regarding Luke's life. Cara hopes beyond hope that her father can recover, despite facts and claims from doctors and her brother. However, she is holding back a secret about the accident that requires her to hold onto the idea that he will regain consciousness.
Edward, too, has a secret regarding why he left home in the first place. He must work out his own negative feelings towards his father in order to make the decision that his father would want--and in a way that will convince his sister he is acting out of love and not hate. In the meantime, he finds himself in jail and facing other charges after infuriating his sister and an opportunistic attorney.
Chapters are divided with excerpts from Luke's experiences with the wolves. These have happened in the wild or within the wolf enclosures where he worked. Seemingly, they added a bit of science/Animal Planet to the plot, but the themes among the wolves and the pack always linked themselves to the themes in the main storyline.
As I've said, I love Picoult. A few years ago, I was pretty disappointed with the ending of Handle with Care (especially since that came right after Change of Heart, which was one of my faves), but the past few books have redeemed the resolution to that novel. Lone Wolf is a read for any one who appreciates a good drama, and f you're an animal lover, all the more reason to read.
Target age range: Adult
Without a doubt, Jodi Picoult has been one of my favorite writers for years. See? An entire shelf dedicated to all of her books back in our office.
Granted, since she has published a book a year the past few years, I'm going to need to start a new shelf after next year. Despite having the ability to purchase her books digitally now, I can't do it. I need to own hard copies. Actually (if we're being 100% honest, and please don't tell Amazon), I really need to own hard copies of all my books. Hence why when I'm rich (or at least in my own home and not this apartment, whichever comes first), I'm going to have to have wall-to-wall bookcases. :p
But I digress. Which, in case you couldn't tell, isn't that unusual sometimes.
Picoult's novels tend to take places in court rooms and hospitals. I really enjoy the court cases, and she goes to lengths to research facts and statistics to support a realistic legal drama.
Luke Warren has lived with the wolves--literally. He left his wife and two children for two years to live in the Canadian wild and assimilate himself into a pack. Successful, he returns to the human world after realizing if he doesn't make a clean break and return, he won't. Skip forward a few years, and Luke has divorced his wife, and his son has moved to Thailand to escape him. His daughter, Cara, now lives with Luke, since his ex-wife has remarried and given birth to more children. Skip forward four more years, and Luke is lying in a hospital bed in a coma after a terrible car accident.
This is the start of the story. Luke and Cara have survived the crash, but to what extent? Cara is hurt and needs surgery, but is otherwise fine. Luke, however, is in a comatose state that doesn't bode well for his future. Georgie, Luke's ex-wife, calls and beckons their son, Edward, to return home, as the prognosis on his father is not good.
Cara is none too pleased to have Edward back in the picture at this point in Luke's life; she still blames her brother's disappearance as the cause of her parents' divorce. Her anger only grows after Edward decides to terminate their father's life support and donate his organs. Cara manages to object to the procedure in enough time to prevent the cessation of life sustaining measures, but this only leads to a court battle to decide who ultimately gets to make the decision regarding Luke's life. Cara hopes beyond hope that her father can recover, despite facts and claims from doctors and her brother. However, she is holding back a secret about the accident that requires her to hold onto the idea that he will regain consciousness.
Edward, too, has a secret regarding why he left home in the first place. He must work out his own negative feelings towards his father in order to make the decision that his father would want--and in a way that will convince his sister he is acting out of love and not hate. In the meantime, he finds himself in jail and facing other charges after infuriating his sister and an opportunistic attorney.
Chapters are divided with excerpts from Luke's experiences with the wolves. These have happened in the wild or within the wolf enclosures where he worked. Seemingly, they added a bit of science/Animal Planet to the plot, but the themes among the wolves and the pack always linked themselves to the themes in the main storyline.
As I've said, I love Picoult. A few years ago, I was pretty disappointed with the ending of Handle with Care (especially since that came right after Change of Heart, which was one of my faves), but the past few books have redeemed the resolution to that novel. Lone Wolf is a read for any one who appreciates a good drama, and f you're an animal lover, all the more reason to read.
Target age range: Adult
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