My summer reading program

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to travel the U.S. via YA novel.

The folks at Epic Reads were kind enough to put this together.

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

My current obsession is Twitter.  It's not for everyone, but it provides me hours of entertainment and endless examples for class.  Seriously, Twitter? It rocks.

This guy will play Magnus Bane
in The Mortal Instruments movie
released in August.

ANYWAY, on Twitter, I follow author Maureen Johnson (@maureenjohnson) who is HILARIOUS.  She's also an amazingly talented author. Amy reviewed Maureen's 13 Little Blue Envelopes at The Family Addiction. (You can read it here.)  Earlier this year, Maureen was hinting at a major new project coming in in conjunction with Sarah Rees Brennan (@sarahreesbrenna) and Cassandra Clare (@cassieclare).  Finally, after many teasing tweets, the secret was revealed.  Cassandra, Sarah and Maureen would collaborate to write The Bane Chronicles, an e-serialization focused on Magnus Bane, a character from two other YA series written by Cassandra Clare.


I wanted to check out the new e-serial, but I'm a true book nerd, so I knew I needed to backtrack and read the first two series before I started The Bane Chronicles.  And that leads me Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare.  It's the first series that mentions Magnus Bane.


Clockwork Angel is the story of Tessa Gray, a young woman who leaves the U.S. to meet her brother in Victorian England.  From the very moment she steps on the ship, nothing goes quite as planned.  Her brother is missing, and Tessa is held captive by two strange sisters who are convinced Tessa has the ability to "change".  Tessa is eventually rescued by the Shadowhunters, a group as unknown to her as her supposed ability.  The Shadowhunters  promise to help her find her brother.  That, too, doesn't go quite as planned.  The Shadowhunters' world and the trouble that Tessa's brother has discovered is enough to make any 16-year-old girl's head spin.

Tessa is brave, and she has new friends to help her adapt, but there is actual danger in this society of vampires, hunters, warlocks, demons, and Tessa--whatever she might really be.  There is also complicated romantic distraction because her new friends are two young men as dedicated to each other as they are to the Shadowhunter cause.  Jem and Will both see the brave, smart and beautiful woman that Tessa will become, but they both have their reasons for keeping her at arm's length.

There's a lot to absorb in Clockwork Angel, but it was a great read.  It wasn't always an easy read,  but that's fair because being a teenager never is--even without magic, danger and betrayal.  I highly recommend this Infernal Devices series (Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince, Clockwork Princess) and I mean to read The Mortal Instruments series as well.   I would rate the series with a PG-13.  The characters are 16 and older with typical teenage hormonal distractions.  There is violence and death as well. The books all end with a resolution, but it wouldn't be confused with a shallow happily-ever-after.  If you can gear yourself up for the emotional roller coaster, you should read Clockwork Angel.

Ungifted by Gordon Korman

While one of my twin boys is determinedly making his way through the Lord of the Rings series, the other has been devouring many diverse books since the holidays. He keeps recommending them to me, so I have a few new books in the pile for review!

First up is Ungifted by Gordon Korman. Korman is a prolific writer whose books my sons have enjoyed in the past. I hadn't read any of his novels except the volumes that he wrote for the 39 Clues series, which I enjoyed.

Donovan Curtis is an 8th grader with some, um, behavioral issues. He's not a bad kid, but he has a serious lack of impulse control. In one of his "I wonder what would happen if I..." moments, egged on by his friends, the Two Daniels, he causes a rather major incident at his school, and, sadly, more or less right in front of the superintendent of the district. He is hauled into the office, but Dr. Schulz has to go deal with the aftermath of the incident, and accidentally jots down Donovan's name onto a list of kids who'd passed a test to attend the town's Academy of Scholastic Distinction. 

Donovan realizes, eventually, what has happened, and knows that Dr. Schulz hasn't been able to find him again - so ASD is the perfect place to hide out, right? :)

He realizes pretty quickly that he's in way far over his head at ASD, and he doesn't have the greatest opinion of the "nerds" who inhabit the school. And, of course, they have pretty much no use for him. Except...

I don't want to spoil it, so we'll leave it there. Throw in Donovan's hugely pregnant sister, her soldier husband's dying dog, and Tin Man the robot, and you've got a really funny book.

Tin Man's area of expertise

The book is told from nearly every character's point of view, chapter by chapter. The chapter headings let you know who's talking, and while I sometimes find this device choppy, Korman did a really nice job with it. I thought he did a superior job of describing Donnie's impulses - as a substitute teacher, it made me think a bit more about those kids whom I sometimes wonder about. ;) The story is funny and entertaining, but also does a really nice job examining the true meaning of friendship, as well as maybe making you wonder what the word "gifted" should really mean.

I highly recommend this one!

Rated: PG, grades 5 and up. No language or romance issues, but the kids are, after all, in 8th grade and the situations and overall theme of the book might not relate well to a younger crowd. However, the vocab and such are not too hard for the younger middle school ages, and was a pretty quick read for both my son and I.