looking for jj by Anne Cassidy

Looking for jj explores the interesting topic of a juvenile offender attempting to reintegrate into society. Told in the voice of the offender, the story is divided into four parts, each focusing on a segment in her life.

The first part of the novel is set in the present. Alice Tully reads everything she can about Jennifer Jones, the girl who has served six years for the murder of another girl. The newspapers are all about Jennifer being released after serving her sentence. Alice is obsessed because Alice is Jennifer. Jennifer was in fact released six months earlier and set up with a new identity and a job. Now living under the name of Alice Tully, and working at a coffee shop, she lives with a social worker named Rosie Sutherland in Croydon. Only three people know that Jennifer Jones is now Alice Tully and that she was paroled early; Rosie, Patricia Coffey who is director of Monksgrove where Alice was incarcerated, and Jill Newton, her probation officer.

But it's not long before the hunt is on for Jennifer Jones. One day Alice notices that a stranger has been frequenting the coffee shop. When he leaves the shop forgetting some papers on the table, Alice discovers that he has written down the names of the three girls involved long ago in the event that ended in the murder of one of them. For Alice this is more than coincidental. Panicked, Alice leaves her job, and races home. However, Rosie encourages her to go back to work, telling Alice it is impossible that anyone could know where she is. But Alice knows that the private detective is there because of the birthday card she sent her mom a few weeks ago. Rose, Patricia, and Jill don't know about the card but do eventually find out and they realize that the private detective is someone hired by "Alice's" mother to locate her.

In an attempt to throw off the detective they create a diversion but ultimately this proves unsuccessful because Alice is found out by someone her mentor and her probation officer never suspected; someone who is working undercover. This person essentially forces Alice to consent to an in-depth interview.

In this part of the book, through a series of flashbacks, Jennifer's life up until she commits murder at the age of ten is revealed. Her mom is a beautiful woman who works as a model. But as she ages, Carol Jones finds it increasingly difficult to gain employment. As a result, Carol gradually abandons Jennifer, first leaving her alone in their flat when she is only six years old. Eventually over the years Jennifer is either left alone, left to live with her grandmother, or comes to live at home for short periods of time with her mother. Jennifer is desperate to be with her mother but she is too busy trying to eke out a life as a model. As Jennifer's anger at being abandoned grows, she begins to act out becoming increasingly violent.

The second part of the novel focuses on the year when Jennifer and her mother move to Berwick Waters, when she is ten years old. Jennifer forms a friendship with two girls in the complex where she lives; Michelle Livingstone and the younger, vulnerable Lucy Bussell. The three girls have a complex relationship in which Lucy is often bullied by the two older girls, while Michelle and Jennifer often fight. One day when the three girls go on a walk to the reservoir in Berwick Waters, to hunt out Lucy's brother's "den", the strained relationship between them comes to a head. An unexpected discovery enrages Jennifer and she almost causes one friend to drown. But a second provocation isn't so innocent and of the three girls that went to the reservoir that day, only two return. It is a day that forever changes their lives.

The third part of the book returns to the present and picks up the story of Alice. as she takes her boyfriend, Frankie, up on his offer to spend some time at his house in Brighton. Once there Alice tries to settle in, but the specter of doing the interview places an overwhelming shadow over her. When the story is unexpectedly leaked to the press, Alice must confront Frankie and the realization that her current life is probably over. She will have to start anew with yet another identity. This new identity is briefly covered in part four of the book. It is also revealed through flashbacks, the rest of what happened that fateful day in Berwick Waters.

Discussion

Looking for jj is a well written novel that explores the thorny issue of children who commit violent crimes. Cassidy builds a believable backstory of abandonment and emotional neglect that leads a ten-year-old girl to commit murder. Jennifer's progression to an increasingly violent and disturbed child is accurately portrayed, from her cruelty towards her grandmother's pet to an assault on a classmate, to her impulsive actions with her friends. Yet this is juxtaposed with Jennifer's innate kindness towards the smaller, timid Lucy, and her innocence at what her mother is doing to earn money. The author creates a situation where it is impossible not to empathize with Jennifer who admires her mother and who so desperately wants to be with her. Jennifer is a solid, realistic character with a complex personality. She is still struggling to come to terms with what happened six years ago and doesn't believe she deserves to have any sort of happiness.

Equally well developed is the character of Jennifer's mother, Carol Jones, a young mother who slips from catalogue modelling into pornography and prostitution. Carol not only neglects Jennifer but eventually decides to use her daughter in an act of ultimate betrayal. Even when Jennifer is at Monksgrove, she manipulates her for her own gain. This pattern of betrayal continues into the present, making Jennifer realize she cannot let her mother back into her life, despite her desperate need for a mother's love.  In contrast to Carol Jones, is the loveable, stable Rosie, who cares for Jennifer and offers her protection and a chance to start over. Rosie offers Jennifer the first real home she has ever had.

The novel asks readers to consider some fairly heavy questions such as whether or not children who commit serious crimes such as murder can be rehabilitated, whether the public has a right to know when they are released and where they live and whether they have the right to privacy?

Looking for jj was first published in 2004 and won both the Carnegie Medal in 2005 and the Whitbread Children's Book Award in 2004. Cassidy specializes in writing crime novels and thrillers for teens. This is a good novel, with an interesting and unique topic.

Book Details:
Looking for jj by Anne Cassidy
Toronto: Scholastic Press    304 pp.

The Princess and the Packet of Frozen Peas by Tony Wilson

Imagine the difficulty of finding the right princess to marry. Especially if you want a princess that is a little different from the average princess. That is exactly the predicament Prince Henrik finds himself in. He just wants someone who likes the same things he does, namely hockey and camping.

When he asks his brother for advice, Prince Hans tells him that a real princess is very beautiful and very sensitive, just like his wife, Princess Eva. But observing Princess Eva causes Prince Henrik to wonder. Perhaps he just needs a princess who is like him? When Prince Henrik tests his potential princess' mettle, and finds them lacking, he is pleasantly surprised by an old friend, Pippa, who drops by for a visit.

Tony Wilson's unusual variation on the Princess and the Pea fairytale is uniquely illustrated with the quirky but delightful drawings of Sue deGennaro. The illustrations are done in gouache, pencil as well as collage, and help to convey the message in an amusing manner,  that being true to yourself is often the best path in life.

Unbelievably, deGennaro once worked as a circus aerialist and was a member of an all girl flying trapeze group!  And Wilson got the idea for this picture book from an essay he wrote about meeting his wife, Tamsin. Wilson never liked the original Princess and the Pea story where the prince falls in love with a princess after she demonstrates great sensitivity in being able to detect a pea under twenty mattresses.

Book Details:
The Princess and the Packet of Frozen Peas by Tony Wilson
Atlanta, Georgia: Peachtree Publishers 2012

The Truth About Style by Stacy London

"If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people."

                                                                                                      Virginia Woolf

Those who love Stacy London will once again enjoy reading her latest book about finding your style niche and how style can heal your inner self. The Truth About Style is a more personal go-around this time, part-bio and part style health care. Style is something personal, a reflection of our intimate selves. The clothes we wear are a statement of who we are and comprise our "style".

"Trust me when I way that it is always better to wear what works, what feels organic to you, than to force yourself into a current trend that simply feels wrong. Dress for yourself and what suits your lifestyle, and you will always look good."

In an interesting few pages at the beginning of the book, Stacy London defines what she believes style is and why it is important for women (and men) to develop their own style. Style, as she notes, ends with an E, for emotion. Emotion is what we feel about ourselves and how we feel about ourselves often determines how we dress. This sort of interplay became very evident in the show she co-hosts, What Not to Wear. It was easy to see that many people who dressed terribly had body issues or self-esteem issues. For some, clothing was a way to blend in or hide themselves. And this is precisely what London does in this book; she takes a close look at a few specifically chosen women to see what might be causing their style problems. 

When Stacy was doing poorly in grade 10 trigonometry, her father told her "You limit your options every time you don't try your best." Applying this to style, London says that poor style limits our choices and control. It's a rather obvious connection, yet one that is often missed (as is evidenced repeatedly on What Not To Wear). Because when we don't present ourselves well, what we offer are poor first impressions. We influence all the other possibilities in our lives by the image we project -- something many people either ignore or don't understand.

"Style is about creating possibility. It's taking passionate, strategic control of your image -- not just to dress for a job you may not even have known your were going to want but for oodles of other things you can't predict for your future."

As a result of this, London chose nine women from the stories she received on social media with whom to work with on their style disconnect, as she terms it. She chose these nine women because their issues were common to many women and because she could identify with them. The women came to New York for "start-overs" which are a sort of style reboot based on what each woman wants/needs for her life.

The first person Stacy tackles is herself because as she writes, she too has gone through this process. With plenty of cute and interesting pictures of herself way back when, Stacy tells about her struggle with psoriasis, a skin condition that can make life truly miserable. Stacy's battle with psoriasis continued until she was in grade seven at which point she found a cream that worked. From this point on, Stacy started to heal from the emotional and physical scars of dealing with a condition that made her want to hide her body. Stacy could wear the clothes she really wanted to - she could choose the skin she wanted to present to the world. She could finally be herself.

Woven between the rest of her personal story which includes anorexia and self-esteem issues are the stories and "start-overs" of the nine women. For each there is a picture of the outfit they wore to New York, followed by some commentary on each woman's story and how Stacy can relate their particular situation to her own life. It's a personal encounter both ways and the end result for each woman Stacy meets are, not surprisingly, fantastic. For fans of her show, The Truth About Style offers a wonderful opportunity to get to know Stacy London on a more personal level and to see how she sleuths out the style disconnect for each woman. At the end of all this, as London writes, "Style is a form of self-expression and aspiration."

Discussion

The Truth About Style is engaging, well written and is organized in such a way as to allow readers to choose where to start. The chapters on the individual women are engaging, but Stacy's story is no less interesting. Fans may not know that Stacy worked at Vogue and her anecdote about catching an elevator with Anna Wintour was quite humorous. 

Stacy London's direct manner, her obvious gift for style and her ability to uncover a person's style disconnect with compassion and humour shine through in The Truth About Style. She offers an empathetic and revealing opportunity to people, allowing them to understand why they dress the way they do and then offering them a way to be true to themselves.

Book Review:
The Truth About Style by Stacy London
Viking Penguin:   2012
216pp.

Movie Review: Les Miserables

One of the most anticipated movies in 2012 was the musical drama, Les Miserables which is based on Victor Hugo's novel of the same title. First published in 1862, the novel is a story about the redemption of a man, Jean Valjean, convicted for stealing a loaf of bread for his sister's starving family. Valjean is sentenced to five years of hard labour for the theft and another fourteen years for attempting to escape.

In this musical adaptation of the novel, the story begins in the year of 1815 when Valjean has been released from prison but must carry with him at all times, papers identifying himself as an ex-convict. Bitter and railing against God, Valjean tries to find work only to be repeatedly turned away. Arriving in the village of Digne, hungry and exhausted, Valjean is taken in by Bishop Myriel who invites him to supper and offers him a clean bed. During the night, Valjean steals the good bishop's silverware and leaves, only to be caught by the police. When they inform the bishop that Valjean has robbed him of his silverware, Bishop Myriel tells the police that in fact, he gave Valjean the silver as a gift. After the police leave, Myriel tells Valjean that he has been given a second chance and to become an honest man.

Valjean manages to reinvent himself as Monsieur Madelaine, a wealthy factory owner who is also Mayor of the small village where he lives. In his factory he employs Fantine, who is a single mother working to pay for the care of her daughter, Cosette. Cosette lives with Madame and Monsieur Thenardier who use her as a slave. When gossip about Fantine being single with a child surfaces, she is thrown out of Monseiur Madelaine's factory by his foreman without his knowledge.


At this point Inspector Jalvert, a fanatical and rigid police inspector comes to Montreuil sur Mer. Jalvert was a guard when Valjean served his time and he remembers the ex-convict for his amazing strength. Valjean has simply vanished and Jalvert has not been able to find any trace of him for the past six years. At first he thinks he recognizes Madelaine as Valjean, but quickly apologizes when Madelaine appears upset. However, when a worker named Fauchelevant becomes trapped under the wheels of a heavy cart and Madelaine frees him, Jalvert, witnessing this show of strength, is certain that Monsieur Madelaine is in fact, the missing Valjean.

Meanwhile, Fantine, who is without any means to support herself or her child, turns to prostitution. When she assaults a man who has come to use a prostitute, Jalvert tries to arrest her but is prevented from doing so by Monseiur Madelaine. Upon learning how she came to work on the streets, Madelaine takes her to the nuns to be cared for and promises to find her daughter Cosette and take care of her.

At this point Jalvert confronts Valjean and tells him that he has reported his whereabouts and identity to the police but that he realizes that he must be in error because the authorities have arrested a man whom they claim is the real Jean Valjean. Monsieur Madelaine decides he cannot allow an innocent man to suffer and he travels to the trial to reveal that he is the real Jean Valjean.

Fantine dies without seeing her daughter Cosette, and Jalvert confronts Valjean in the hospital. Valjean asks Jalvert to give him three days to locate Cosette and jumps out of window into the water, escaping. Days later he manages to locate Cosette while she is in the woods getting water. Valjean takes Cosette from the Thenardiers and they move to Paris and go into hiding. They are happy for some time until one day Jalvert discovers their hiding place. With the help of Fauchelevant a gardener at the convent of Petit-Picpus, they flee into hiding at the convent. Cosette grows up in the safety of the convent.

Eight years later, revolution is now brewing in Paris. French students have organized to begin another revolution and one of the students involved in Marius Pontmercy, who lives with his wealthy grandfather, Monsieur Gillenormand. One day while walking in Paris, Marius sees Cosette, and is instantly infatuated with her. When she vanishes from sight after an altercation with the Thenardier's who are now destitute and living in Paris, Marius asks his friend, Eponine, who loves him, to find out where Cosette lives.

Cosette and Marius meet at the entrance to her home at Rue Plumet but when Jalvert also discovers where they are living, Valjean decides that he and Cosette must flee to Britain. Cosette manages to get a note to Marius, who is now in the middle of planning to set up barricades throughout Paris as the launch to the revolution.

As the revolt begins, Marius and the leader of the revolt, Enjolras manage at first to keep the soldiers at bay. Jalvert has infiltrated the revolution but when he returns from a trip outside the barricades, Gavroche tells the revolutionaries that he is really a soldier. Jalvert is taken aside to be executed but Valjean, who has learned of Cosette's love for Marius and has come to take him with them to England, tells Enjolras he will deal with him. Instead, Valjean refuses to murder Jalvert, sets him free, and tells him that he no longer hates him. In reply, Jalvert says he will continue to hunt down Valjean to the very end and bring him to justice saying, once a thief, always a thief.

When the barricades are rushed in one final attack, Marius is seriously wounded. Valjean, rescues him, carrying him through the sewers of Paris, to his grandfather's home where he is tended. Meanwhile Jalvert cannot abide the fact that he is in debt to a thief and he commits suicide. As Marius heals, Valjean realizes that he cannot hold onto Cosette forever. He gives his blessing for their marriage. Valjean retreats to the convent where he eventually dies. Cosette and Marius visit him just before his death and Fantine returns as a spirit to take him to heaven. Les Miserables ends with a rousing version of "Do you hear the people sing?" which includes all the cast, and provides a spectacular finale to the movie.

Discussion

Unlike the musicals produced by Rogers and Hammerstein in the 1950's and '60's, in which the music we hear during the film is polished vocals recorded in a studio prior to filming, the actors in Les Miserables sing on camera. Instead of miming their singing during filming, in Les Miserables, the actors gave live performances on camera while using an ear piece which allowed them to hear a piano played offstage. This allowed the cast to concentrate on their acting, capturing the emotions of the moment in the vocal performance and works very well, even though not all of the actors in the film are strong vocalists. Another way in which this musical is different from say The Sound of Music or Oklahoma is that the film is sung through with very little added dialogue.

There are many excellent vocal performances by broadway veteran, Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, by Anne Hathaway as Fantine, Amanda Seyfried as Cosette, Eddie Redmayne as Marius, and Daniel Huttlestone as Gavroche.

Jackman brilliantly transitions from the gaunt, angry ex-convict to the sacrificial, heroic Monsieur Madelaine. Anne Hathaway's performance of I dreamed a dream is unforgettable - deeply moving, easily conveying the profoundly tragic situation of Fantine. Redmayne with his rich vocals was absolutely superb as Marius, a revolutionary in love with Cosette.

Russell Crowe is physically well cast as Jalvert, with his imposing physique, but his vocal performance is only adequate. His singing simply lacks the power one might expect from the character of Jalvert. Daniel Huttlestone is wonderful as Gavroche, his singing fresh and his performance, endearing. Both Helen Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen come within a hairs breadth of stealing the show with their comedic portrayal of the thieving, conniving Thenardiers. They provide the much needed comic relief in the movie especially with their hilariously ribald rendition of "Master of the House". And who knew Sasha Baron Cohen could sing?!

The cinematography in the movie offers incredible camera shots of the moon in the night scenes. When Valjean is released and is walking through the countryside at night, the moon glowing down upon him serves to emphasize his isolation and hopelessness. When Jalvert stands on the ramparts and sings "Stars" under the glow of a brilliant moon we sense his intensity and determination. However, in some scenes, the extreme close-ups of certain characters while they were singing is off-putting. A good example is when Eddie Redmayne sings "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" - a poignant ballad expressing his longing for Cosette, but somewhat marred by the close camera.

This musical offers several nods to the Broadway version of Les Miserables. The death of Enjolras in this version is similar to that in the play; he is shot and falls backwards out the window hanging upside down. The barricades constructed by the revolutionaries are also almost identical to those in the stage production.  One enjoyable and rather humorous scene was that of all types of furniture being thrown out of windows as the students call for help in constructing the barricades.

Directed by Tom Hooper, Les Miserables was filmed on location in France and England and also at Pinewood Studios. Overall, Les Miserables is a wonderful production that effectively tells the story and conveys the some of the many themes of the novel including those of forgiveness, redemption, sacrificial love, justice, and mercy. 

Anything But Ordinary by Lara Avery

Anything But Ordinary is a book filled with much promise but which ultimately will leave readers disappointed.

Seventeen year old Bryce Graham is a promising diver who suffers a devastating, coma-inducing brain injury during an Olympic trials dive competition. Anything But Ordinary opens when Bryce awakens five years later in Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Her younger sister, Sydney, is now seventeen, her father's hair is grayer and things have changed immensely as Bryce is about to learn. She has missed graduating from Hilwood High and four years of college. Bryce wonders about what has happened to her best friends and teammates, Greg and Gabby.

In the days immediately after awakening from the coma, Bryce makes a remarkable recovery. She can talk, use her hands and use a wheelchair. She is even beginning to stand and take a few steps. This makes her recovery all the more astounding and of interest to researchers in neurology. Although Bryce's recovery appears to be going well. However she is having strange visions accompanied by intense pain. While most of the visions are of events that have already happened, Bryce does have a vision of the future as well. She decides that she will not tell anyone about what is happening, despite being asked about her memory by her doctor, Dr. Warren.

Dr. Warren, who suspects Bryce isn't being truthful about what's going on, wants Bryce to remain in hospital for several more weeks to undergo tests, but Bryce wants to leave as soon as possible. Anxious to get on with her life, Bryce is allowed to go home. At home though, Bryce discovers that life for her family has changed a great deal. Her parents argue and are no longer close. Her father has quit coaching and stopped working on the airplane he was building. And her sister Sydney is a party animal, often getting drunk and staying out late at night to party.

As she begins to take her life back and heal from her brain injury, Bryce feels trapped by her past and the years she has missed. While she has been in a coma, life has gone on for Gabby and Greg, both of whom went to Stanford instead of Vanderbuilt which they received scholarships for.  Bryce's world is further turned upside down when she learns that Gabby and Greg are engaged to be married and that they are moving to D.C where Gabby will study law. Greg was Bryce's boyfriend before her accident and now she must come to terms with the fact that he is marrying her best friend. This is even more difficult because Gabby seems oblivious to the effect this has on Bryce whom she has asked to be her maid of honour.

When Bryce returns to Vanderbilt for a CAT scan, she has a vision while undergoing the scan. The results puzzle her doctors but she refuses to stay in hospital and has her new friend, Carter, who is a second year medical student drive her home. Bryce continues to prepare for Gabby and Greg's wedding, by agreeing to be Gabby's maid of honour and going shopping for dresses. Greg, however, is having second thoughts about the wedding and tells Bryce he is still in love with her. He begins to see her behind Gabby's back and although Bryce tries to discourage him and continually walks away from him, she does become involved with him again, while also beginning a relationship with Carter.

Bryce tries to encourage her parents to reclaim their lives again and to develop a life outside of looking after her. She eventually manages to talk to Sydney and come to an understanding of what her younger sister's life must have been like while she was in a coma for five years and her parent's life revolved around keeping watch at the hospital. It takes Sydney to help Bryce come to the realization that her relationship with Greg belongs in the past. At the rehearsal dinner when Greg once again confronts Bryce about his marriage to Gabby, Bryce asks him what he really wants in life and tells him that this is something he alone must determine. At this time, Carter reveals to Bryce the result of the earlier CAT scan and the true state of her health.

Discussion

While the concept behind Anything But Ordinary was interesting, the novel succeeds on some levels and not on others. Lara Avery does a great job of portraying the difficulties a young person might encounter after being sidelined for just long enough to make a substantial difference. Bryce is physically twenty-two years old but still emotionally only seventeen-years-old. While her friends have finished university and are socially more mature, Bryce is still very much a teen. She's also dealing with the trauma of being in a coma for so long. The author also does a good job of capturing the emotional toll of Bryce's injury on her family. For example, Sydney who feels abandoned by both her parents as they focus on Bryce, rebels with her goth clothing and acting out.

Because Bryce's physical abilities return so quickly (she is walking within a matter of days) that aspect of her recovery takes a second hand to the relationships in her life - especially her friends from high school.  In fact, the relationship between Gabby, Greg and Bryce dominates the storyline. Rather than focusing on her recovery, Bryce becomes completely focused on Greg and Gabby, who have developed a life together but which gradually unwinds after Bryce comes back into their lives. Bryce seems unable to come to terms with their relationship and to recognize the blossoming interest of her new friend Carter, who has more than a passing interest in her. She repeatedly tells Greg that she doesn't want to meet him again, yet continues to do so.

Greg is confused and behaves in a very dishonorable way by refusing to acknowledge that he is be unfaithful to Gabby, as he meets Bryce and pursues a physical relationship with Bryce. And Gabby doesn't seem to recognize Greg's interest in Bryce. This strange triangle is frustrating and yet predictable. Readers will surmise that Greg is probably going to call off the wedding and when he does, it's really no surprise.

Bryce's recovery was not portrayed in a realistic manner. She received little help in terms of psychological counselling to help her pick up the pieces of her life. She was simply allowed to sign out of the hospital because she was legally an adult and she refused to return for check-ups. This was ostensibly due to the visions which Bryce wanted to keep secret, but this wasn't believable.  The visions were never really explained and while most were of events that happened while Bryce was in a coma, one inexplicably was of a future event that allowed Bryce to save her sister. It's likely this was done because the focus of the novel was on the love triangle that forms the main plot of the novel.

Near the end of the novel, Bryce finally confronts Sydney, who has suddenly "burnt out" from her bad behaviour and now appears to be open to talking to her sister. Bryce learns what life has been like for Sydney for the past five years. This was a very interesting scene and it was unfortunate their relationship wasn't explored in more depth the book. The ending of the novel is shocking and disappointing, considering the actions of Bryce.

Anything But Ordinary had much potential, but lots of loose ends and characters with little depth.  A great cover and an interesting opening chapter will draw readers in. They will stay to find out what happens but will be left with lots of questions.

Book Details:
Anything But Ordinary by Lara Avery
New York: Hyperion       2012
327 pp.

The Bar Code Prophecy by Suzanne Weyn

The final book in the bar code trilogy tells the story of Grace Morrow and her friend Eric Chaca, who is the son of barcode resistance fighter and native spiritualist, Eutonah. Eric is Native American; half Irish and Cherokee and Hopi. Grace knows Eric from the rock climbing center, where she is learning to climb. She works as a part-time receptionist at GlobalHelix, the genetics division of the multinational Global-1 corporation. Grace's father, Albert works at GlobalHelix in maintenance.

Grace learns that Eric is part of Decode, a group working to destroy the practice of branding citizens with the bar code. She is warned by Eric not to get bar coded on her seventeenth birthday but Grace ignores his advice and does so anyways. After getting her tattoo she is warned by Dr. Harriman to leave at once and go home. Harriman invented the bar code in 2012 and in thirteen years it has spread all over the world, first in Asia and Africa and then to Europe and America.

When Grace arrives near her home, she sees that Global police have staked out the house waiting for her and possibly her parents. Her capture is prevented by Eric and by Mfumbe Taylor and Katie who have shown up with a tractor-trailer to scoop her away from the Global-1 police. Eventually, Grace meets the most important of the Decode resistors who have been keeping a watchful eye on her. They know that Global-1 wants Grace but they are not sure exactly why. They know that Grace is the daughter of Dr. Jonathan Harriman, designer of the bar code tattoo and that her file in Global-1 is deeply encrypted.

Grace and Eric learn from Eutonah (who is Eric's mother) that the Native Americans have been meeting to discuss the future of the planet. The ecological balance of Earth has been deeply disturbed by the mining efforts of Global-1, particularly on Hopi lands. The Hopi consider their sacred lands to be the center of the universe and as a result, such disturbances are believed to have profound affects on Earth. Grace is told that the Hopi have prophecies which have correctly predicted past events. However, an unknown tenth prophecy has been discovered. This prophecy is incomplete and refers to both Grace, her father and Eric. Grace, along with members of Decode are in a race against time to discover the prophecy and what it means for Earth.

Discussion

As with the other two books in this trilogy, The Bar Code Prophecy is entirely action driven with little character development. Events are conveniently contrived to further the plot and the discovery of the prophecy seems to have little bearing on the outcome which happens independently of the prophecy anyways.

These short novels are recommended for younger, reluctant readers, aged 9 to 12, who enjoy science fiction, are less likely to question some of the more flimsy coincidences, and an innocent touch of romance. It's really a shame that these novels were written in such a superficial way. The idea of tattooing everyone with a bar code, encoding their genetics and using nanotechnology to track and even control people is an interesting concept that deserves a more in-depth and mature treatment. This is not so unbelievable and the implications are far-reaching.

Book Details:
The Bar Code Prophecy by Suzanne Weyn
New York: Scholastic Press 2012
202 pp.

Reached by Ally Condie

This final novel in the Matched series by Ally Condie alternates between the narratives of Xander, Cassia, and Ky.

Reached opens with Xander who is now an Official working in the physic division of the medical center for the Society. His job is to oversee aspects of the medical centers, including the Welcoming Day ceremonies in which new babies are named and inoculated. Still in love with Cassia, Xander hopes some day to make her fall in love with him. 

Xander along with two other Officials attend the Welcoming Ceremony in Camas City and administer a red pill which is a kind of inoculation against disease. Xander reveals that the Rising has been gradually substituting the red pills for their own, which not only make the children immune to disease but also to the red pills which the Society forces people to take when they don't want them to remember certain events. The pills also include some unknown ingredient as well.

When the older sibling of the child being named falls ill with the plague, Xander reveals that this is a sign that the Rising (or rebellion against the Society) is beginning. Xander is taken along with the family and his fellow Officials to a quarantine center where he begins working as a medic taking care of the sick. The plague manifests itself as a rash with the patient eventually going unconscious or "still". Xander isn't worried because he knows the Rising has a cure and that they will survive.

Meanwhile, Cassia has been sent by the Rising to work as a sorter in the capital of Central. She has been told to look for some unusual type of data and to sort it incorrectly. Cassia, who believes she is immune to the red pill, continues to rebel against the Society in her own personal way by trading poems and wearing a bright red dress under her official clothing. On the day she is supposed to meet Ky, Cassia is called into work unexpectedly to sort and that is when the data she has been waiting for appears. She sorts the data incorrectly as the Rising wanted her to, while expecting to be caught, but nothing happens. At the end of her work shift, all sorters in the facility are forced to take the red pill to lose their memories. Cassia discovers that she is not immune to the red pills and she cannot remember why she was at work that day. She wonders what she has lost both now and in the past.

Having missed her meeting with Ky, Cassia becomes involved with the Archivists who are trading in artifacts and relics from before The Society. Since the Society banned all forms of creativity, this is Cassia's main form of rebellion. Like her grandfather who saved poems, Cassia trades in poems and memorizes them. Eventually she starts a Gallery where people can post poems and artwork that they have created. Cassia continues to trade poems and other artifacts with the Archivists who have been preserving artifacts from the society that existed before the current one, while wondering how to find Ky and Xander.

Ky is situated in the Borders, in Camas, where he has been training as a pilot. Unexpectedly, he and Indie, along with all the other pilots, are ordered to fly missions. During the flight, the Pilot who is leader of the revolution, broadcasts to the rebels telling them that the Rising has begun with the onslaught of the plague in the Cities and the Boroughs throughout the Provinces. It just so happens that the Society created the plague in an attempt to poison the Enemy, which they ultimately destroyed. They never let the citizens of the Society know this and instead begin wiping out the Anomalies and Aberrations. Although the Society had a cure for the plague, they didn't have enough for a pandemic. Now the plague has sickened so many that the Match Banquets have collapsed, with sorters (such as Cassia) disrupting the creation of matches. The Rising must now step in, taking cures to people, and hoping to win them to their side.

However, as in any rebellion, just when the Rising seems to have won and has the upper hand, a mutation occurs in the virus, and a deadly form re-emerges to overwhelm both the Society and the Rising. Everyone who was immunized with the first version of the plague but was exposed to that version is immune to the mutation. This amounts to very few people. The race is now on to find a vaccine for the mutated form.

Indie comes to get Cassia from Central and take her to Camas City. There, Indie also brings Xander and eventually Ky on board. Once on the ship, they discover that the Pilot will be flying the three of them out of Camas City to the mountains. Xander is wanted by the Pilot to help with a cure and Indie is attempting to reunite Cassia and Ky so they can eventually flee to the Otherlands. The Pilot however, doesn't trust the three of them whom he claims have been behaving suspiciously and have been present when many suspicious events have occurred. During the flight to a village in the mountains, they discover that Cassia and Xander have the mark on their backs that means they are immune to the plague mutation but Ky does not.

The Pilot takes them to Endstone, the last in a line of stone villages to help him find a cure. Without a cure, the Rising will fail. The people in Endstone are Anomalies who are are immune to the plague but it is not known why. It is believed that some environmental or dietary factor is involved in their immunity. Those living in the villages have agreed to help the Pilot find a cure in exchange for being flown out to the Otherlands, where they believe they can live in peace and in freedom.

When Ky becomes "still", Xander and Cassia know their search for a cure has become much more personal. Xander works with Oker, an elderly man who escaped his Final Banquet at aged eighty and is now ninety years old. Oker is a researcher who discovered a cure for Alzheimer's Disease and who was partly responsible for creating the first plague virus. Because of this, he has a keen interest in stopping the mutant plague. The villagers distrust Xander and Cassia and have them locked in the prison when they are not working. Can they find a cure in time to save Ky and what remains of the Society? And with what is left, who will be in charge? Will they have the freedom to choose their own path in life? Will people be able to create, to heal and to lead?

Discussion

Overall, Reached was a somewhat meandering and very lengthy conclusion to the series. It's always challenging telling a story with three narrators. With three voices the trick is to try to make each voice unique and Condie doesn't fully accomplish this. She does with Xander and Cassia, but Ky's voice just never quite evolves into something distinct. And Ky being removed from the narration part way through doesn't help either. The three narrators also makes it difficult for the reader to keep track of the complicated storyline, the vast number of locations,  and especially in the case of this third novel, the numerous details about almost every aspect of the story. Some of these details might have been better presented and developed in the weaker second novel. A good example of this is the back story to the Rising.

Much of the back story to the Rising and it's relation to the Society is revealed as well as the function of the coloured pills and how the Rising attempted to subvert their use by the Society. We learn more about the Pilot - the leader of the rebellion. For example, the Pilot was one of many in a long line of "pilots". Cassia's great-grandmother was a Pilot, leading her grandfather to naturally resist the status quo of the Society. The current Pilot was from Camas and was one of the pilots who flew people to the Otherlands - a place from which no one has ever returned. The Pilot would run people who wanted to escape the Society out to the last stone village. Unfortunately, readers never learn who the Pilot is or what happens to him - a major disappointment since this enigmatic character piques the readers' interest throughout the other novels! Readers also never find out who ends up controlling the new order; the Anomalies represented by Anna, the Society, or the Rising. All we end up knowing is that the people are allowed a vote on who will govern them.

The best book was Matched, which promised an interesting look into a world where everything was decided for the individual from birth to death and where creativity was completely prohibited - to the point where citizens weren't even taught to write.   Reached attempted to explore some of these themes through Cassia's narrative but never fully succeeded. Many of the themes like the right to self expression, the right to life, the right to self-determination, and the right to choose a life partner got lost in the details of the world and the large cast of characters.

Condie did do a great job though of exploring the idea of creativity and how its loss had affected the people of the Society. Cassia at first believes that trading is the way to that expression of creativity but she eventually realizes that the creative process involves sharing and giving. It's another way of communicating ourselves to others. "I realize all over again, that we don't need to trade our art -- we could give, or share. Someone could bring a poem, someone else a painting. Even if we took nothing away, we would all have more, having looked on something beautiful or heard something true."

Reached was predictable, especially with regards to the love triangle. Condie set up an interesting love triangle in which forbidden love played a major part. The tension that existed between Xander and Ky was largely diffused as a result of the plague - unfortunate because it played such a large part of the first novel. Instead the third novel focused on the race for a cure and perhaps would have been more aptly titled, Plague.

Because Condie's world in the Matched trilogy was so complex, a map showing the cities, the Boroughs, the Provinces, the Outer Provinces, the location of the stone villages, the Otherlands, the Carving and the Enemy territory would have been very helpful to the reader. These maps could have been developed and added to with novel. It would have been nice to see a copy of the map that Cassia saw in Oria, in Matched. A list of characters would  have been useful too.

Book Details:
Reached by Ally Condie
New York: Dutton Books 2012
512 pp.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Hazel Grace Lancaster was diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer that has metastasized into her lungs when she was thirteen-years-old. After surgery, radiation and chemo, Hazel's lungs began filling with fluid. By the time she was fourteen, Hazel was preparing to die. But a new (fictional) anti-cancer drug, Phalanxifor, resulted in a miraculous reprieve. Now sixteen-years-old and still considered  a terminal case, Hazel's damaged lungs require extra oxygen to help her breathe, so she lives life attached to a small oxygen tank. She doesn't attend school but Hazel does go to a cancer support group and it is at this group that she meets a handsome boy named Augustus (Gus) Waters.

It turns out that seventeen-year-old Augustus Waters has osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer which has resulted in the amputation of his right leg above the knee. Augustus has been told he has an eighty-five percent chance of remaining cancer free but as he says, he's "on a roller coaster that only goes up".

Attracted to Hazel, who looks astonishingly like his former girlfriend who died of a brain tumour, Gus asks her to come back to his house to watch the movie, "V for Vendetta". Hazel meets Gus's parents and learns about his family and discovers that  before cancer he was a good basketball athlete.

Hazel challenges Gus to read her favourite book, An Imperial Affliction by Peter Van Houten. Hazel is obsessed with this book which she feels contains some truisms about her life. "It wasn't even that the book was so good or anything; it was just that the author, Peter Van Houten, seemed to understand me in weird and impossible ways. An Imperial Affliction was my book, in the way my  body was my body, and my thoughts were my thoughts." In return, Gus challenges Hazel to read something different too; his favourite book, The Price of Dawn which is a novelization of his favourite video game starring Staff Sergeant Max Mayhem.

They read the books but it is Hazel's book that focuses their interest. An Imperial Affliction is a book about a girl named Anna dying of cancer that has a hanging ending and Hazel has always wanted to know what happened to the characters in the novel. When Gus reads the novel, he feels the same way. Gus is able to contact Van Houten via email despite Hazel's prior insistence that he is unreachable. After reading the email sent by Van Houten's assistant,  Lidewij Vliegenthart, Hazel also writes him begging him to tell her what happens to the characters in the novel. The response she receives is that Van Houten cannot respond to her request because his answers might constitute a sequel and therefore violate copyright. The unsuspecting Van Houten invites Hazel to visit him should she ever find herself in Amsterdam, of course knowing full well that she likely won't ever be able to.

But life has its twists and turns and in a strange turn, Hazel and Gus are able to travel to Amsterdam to meet Van Houten.  However, nothing turns out as they quite anticipated. There are no brilliant answers from Van Houten, because as they later learn, he too is searching for answers for a similar tragedy in his own life. Hazel and Gus exprience blossoming love for each other as well as a stunning revelation that tips their already upside down world.

Discussion  

Told in the past tense voice of Hazel, The Fault in Our Stars is about living life in the best way possible in the time we are given. This is especially good advice for those with a serious, or terminal illness, as in the case of Hazel and Gus. Hazel and Gus live their lives as most of us do, with a mixture of good and bad. The only difference is they have less time to do it in. The message of this novel, about living well in the time we are given, and especially for those who are suffering from a serious illness has been in Green's mind for a long time. Green worked as a chaplain at a children's hospital ministering to the families of children who were dying or who had died from serious illnesses. Expecting to become a minister, Green's experience as a student chaplain changed him and ultimately his choice of vocation.

There are plenty of cultural references (Swedish hip hop, America's Next Top Model, Anne Frank) in the book. The Fault in Our Stars can be read as just a simple, enjoyable read or the reader can go deeper and consider the many metaphors and symbols in the novel and enjoy those too. Just a few examples will do. Water is a big metaphor in the book. Green states that he wanted to show how often times things that are of benefit can also bring harm. For example, we need water to live but too much water, as in Hazel's case where her lungs continue to fill with water, is deadly. Gus' last name is Waters. And, key events in the book take place in Amsterdam, a city of dykes and canals that are used to keep back the sea, in the same way that her doctor, Maria is trying to keep the water in Hazel's lungs at bay too.

There is plenty of foreshadowing in the novel too. For example, Gus's death is foreshadowed when he and Hazel are watching movies on the flight over to Amsterdam and Gus' movie begins before Hazel's (he is older!) and ends sooner than hers, hinting that his life will end sooner like his movie does. Another example of foreshadowing is that of Gus always hanging up the phone first when he is talking to Hazel, suggesting that he will be gone sooner that Hazel.

Green makes interesting use of the novel An Imperial Affliction. Hazel is focused on this novel because the circumstances of Anna's life mirror her own life. Hazel wants to find out what happens to the characters, particularly Anna's mother, in An Imperial Affliction. This is important to her because as a person with a terminal illness she feels like she is "a grenade". Grenades explode and kill people and Hazel expects her eventual death will similarly cause great hurt and devastation to her parents. It is important to her that her mother continues to live her life since Hazel will one day not be there. Hazel wants to minimize the impact her death will have on her parents. Similarly she doesn't want to fall in love with Augustus for the same reason. For Gus however, this is a risk he is willing to take.

One of the most appealing aspects of this novel and one of the reasons for writing it (according to the author) is the realistic portrayal teenagers with a terminal illness. Green portrays how Hazel's life has been affected by cancer when Hazel's best friend, Kaitlyn takes her shopping. The shopping episode demonstrates what Hazel's life was once like and how different Hazel's life is now. But it also shows that Hazel is a teen with cancer who still likes to shop. Young people with cancer, are still young people, with aspirations and interests. Despite living in a world often filled with hospitals, medical procedures, pain and missed opportunities, they have dreams and desires just like everyone else. And not every ending is a happy one.

Green's use of sarcasm in Hazel's narration makes the two main characters, for whom day to day living is a struggle, very realistic. This realistic portrayal continues throughout the book. Hazel is concerned how her illness will affect others including her parents and Augustus. Gus and Hazel fall in love, just like many teenagers all over the world. When Augustus is dying he is no longer the nice guy he was at the beginning of the novel demonstrating that people who die of a terminal illness are human beings, not saints. Death is the final struggle and most of the time it is not a pretty or even a heroic one.

The novel takes its title from a quote in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in which Cassius says, "The fault dear Brutus, is in not our stars/But in ourselves" suggesting that Hazel and Gus's illnesses are not due to fate but just a part of the human condition. The Fault In Our Stars is a great read and if you haven't had the time this year, do so.

Book Details:
The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
New York: Dutton Group    2012
318 pp.

Movie Review: Anna Karenina

Set in Imperial Russia in 1875, Anna Karenina tells the story of a forbidden love affair that destroys the lives of all involved. 

The movie adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel of the same name is directed by Joe Wright who uses the vehicle of a stage play within a movie to tell the story. 

The film is chock full of actresses from the many British period dramas. Anna is played by Kiera Knightley, while Oblonsky, Anna's brother is played by Matthew Macfayden. Other well known faces include Emily Watson (Oranges and Sunshine's Margaret Humphreys), Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary Crawley in Downton Abbey and Erminia Whtye in Cranford), Thomas Howes (William Mason in Downton Abbey) and Ruth Wilson (Jane Eyre 2006 version).

Anna is married to Count Alexi Alexandrovich Karenin, a government official, who is twenty years older than her. They have a son, Sergei, whom Anna loves but her marriage to Alexi is an unhappy one. Anna takes the train from her home in St. Petersburg to Moscow to try to help save her brother, Prince Stepan Oblonsky's marriage. Stepan, known as Stiva, is a womanizer and has been caught in an affair with the family's governess. His wife Darya known as Dolly, is expecting another child and wishes to divorce him. When Anna arrives, their household is in chaos but she urges Dolly to forgive her brother. It is a foreshadowing of her own situation soon to come.

While taking the train to Moscow, Anna has a chance encounter with Countess Vronskya, who is a widow who had many affairs both during and after her marriage - another foreshadowing of the future. Upon leaving the train, Anna meets the Countess' son, Count Alexi Vronsky. Vronsky, a cavalry officer is immediately infatuated with the beautiful, aristocratic Anna. It is at this time that a coal worker on the train meets with a terrible accident and is killed - another foreshadowing of death to come. Anna is horrified, but impressed when Vronsky gives money to the stationmaster for his widow.

There is a second storyline that is followed throughout the movie and it is that of Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin, a shy, but devout man. Levin arrives in Moscow the same time as Anna, with the purpose to propose to Dolly's younger sister, Princess Ekaterina "Kitty" Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya. Levin, unlike many aristocrats prefers living on his country estate and working with his tenants. Kitty is a debutante and having a successful first "season". She has attracted the attention of the handsome Vronsky. She turns down Levin's shy proposal believing that Vronsky will propose to her. But at a ball, Vronsky shocks everyone by dancing with Anna, humiliating and devastating Kitty.

As Vronsky continues to pursue Anna, she begs him to leave her alone but when she returns to her home in St. Petersburg, she finds that she is no longer attracted to her religious and legalistic husband. In St. Petersburg, Anna begins to socialize with Vronsky's cousin, Princess Elizaveta, known as Betsy. This association causes a stir in the St. Petersburg social circles with rumours swirling about Anna. Karenin continues to insist upon his wife's honour but he is concerned about their reputation. Evenutally Karenin is told about the affair by Anna and she also tells him she is pregnant with Vronsky's child.

Karenin decides to divorce Anna but changes his mind when he learns that Anna is dying after giving birth to her daughter. He forgives Anna and Vronsky and tells him that he will look after Anna for the rest of her life. However, Anna cannot live with her husband and decides to elope with Vronsky to Europe. Meanwhile, Levin and Kitty reconcile and marry. Their marriage is a happy one for the most part, with the couple living a simple life on Levin's country estate. Kitty eventually gives birth to a son.

Anna with her husband

 As time passes, Anna and Vronsky's relationship begins to deteriorate. They argue and Vronsky seems bored and unhappy. They return to Russia but Anna is now shunned in the aristocratic social circles she once frequented while Vronsky is not. Anna becomes increasingly paranoid and believes that Vronsky is flirting with other women. She commits suicide by throwing herself in front of a train. Karenin is left to raise Anna's daughter and their son Sergei, as Vronsky is sent away by his mother to fight a war.

Discussion

For those who have read the book, the movie will be easy to follow. Nevertheless, Joe Wright's adaptation is uniquely brilliant and also easily conveys the three major story lines within the novel, Anna Karenina. The concept of telling the story as a play within a movie is one that will either appeal to viewers or not. 

The movie opens as though the viewer is watching a play, set in an abandoned theatre. However because this is cinema, beautiful stage sets morph into scenes one after another with doors opening and closing onto new scenes and situations. Some of the initial sets are quite amazing. The lower classes of society are seen below the stage and at other times the actors are looking down upon a scene from the catwalks which provides a unique perspective. However, the use of the stage becomes less apparent as the movie moves along. Of course, Tom Stoppard who wrote the screenplay, is another reason why this worked so well.

Anna and Vronsky dancing.

Wright also uses the actors in ways that suggest themes. For example, when Anna attends the ball in Moscow where she dances with Vronsky many times, all of the dancers perform a balletic choreography. But when Vronsky and Anna do this, it suggests their increasing entanglement with one another. When we first see Princess Kitty, she is part of a set that has beautiful white clouds, suggesting her innocence and virginity, so attractive to the altruistic Levin.

Performances by Jude Law as Alexi Karenin (ironic since Law himself committed adultery with his children's nanny) and Kiera Knightley as Anna Karenina were exceptional. Law was perfect as the stoic, devout, thin-lipped older Karenin, who tries repeatedly to warn his wife about her behaviour and who tries to save her from herself, all the while concealing his intense pain. Kiera Knightley with her regal beauty, effectively portrays Anna's descent into passion and paranoia as she breaks all the rules 19th-century society imposes upon women and reaps all the consequences reserved exclusively for women.

Alicia Vikander's Princess Kitty was another brilliant performance; innocence and naive when she meets the careless Vronsky but more mature and grounded when she returns to Levin. Vikander's expressive performance conveyed Kitty's devastation when she realizes Vronsky is only interested in Anna. Vikander manages to convey Kitty's sense of innocence and purity, after suffering rejection and betrayal, that is so attractive to Levin.

However,  Aaron Taylor-Johnson's performance as Count Vronsky was lacking the passion and charisma necessary to entice an aristocratic woman like Anna to abandon all for love. Anna was stepping off a precipice for the chance to find a meaningful love, and Vronsky's passion and pursuit was what motivated her to do so. Somehow this characteristic one would expect of Vronsky was never really conveyed to the audience by the actor.

Overall this adaptation was quite well done, unique and very visually appealing with the aforementioned beautiful sets, and the gorgeous costuming. The haunting, lyrical score which was composed by Dario Marianelli whose work is easily recognizable as similar to that Jane Eyre (2011) and Pride and Prejudice (2005). Viewers are encouraged to read the novel, Anna Karenina. It was considered by Tolstoy to be his greatest work and his only true novel. This epic novel deals with the themes of love, betrayal, forgiveness, the purpose of life, and the place of women in society.

Image credits:

Anna and Karenin: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/31/rereading-anna-karenina-james-meek

Anna and Vronsky: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/anna-karenina-12a-8113951.html

The Barcode Rebellion by Suzanne Weyn

The Bar Code Rebellion is the second book of the trilogy by Weyn which explores a futuristic society where an attempt has been made to control people by their DNA.
The novel opens with Kayla and Mfumbe Taylor have left the Adirondacks and are on their way to the barcode resistance march on the Capital, Washington, D.C. They are protesting the now mandatory barcode tattooing of everyone seventeen and older. Senator David Young plans to challenge President Loudon Waters over the constitutionality of the barcode which infringes on the personal freedom of US citizens. He also wants the President to admit that the barcode is being used to store "other unknown information" about a person.

While waiting outside the White House for President Loudon to appear, Kayla and Mfumbe meet up with August Sanchez who is also a barcode resister and who was part of a fringe group attempting to contact aliens via their thoughts. The protest turns deadly however, when the jets and Global-1 forces attack the protestors and begin arresting them. Mfumbe is captured but Kayla is rescued by the long haul trucker, Katie, whom Kayla met in the first book. Katie is now going by the name of Dusa. Kayla learns that many of the barcode resisters were arrested and tattooed against their will. Dusa and her friends, Francis and Nate, believe that Gene Drake, Kayla's neighbour who was killed trying to destroy a barcode facility discovered that the tattoos contain more than just a person's genetic information.

Kayla, with the help of Dusa, manages to rescue Mfumbe who is badly injured. After leaving him at his parent's home, Kayla and Dusa head west. When they arrive in St. Louis, a chance encounter brings Kayla face to face with a girl named Kara, who looks identical to her. Kayla learns that in fact there are at least four others who look like her

Kayla and Dusa travel to the Great Basin Desert where they meet up with other resisters, called the Drakians, hiding out in the limestone caves.There the mystery about Kayla's origins begins to deepen. From the stolen personal files the resistance uses to make fake barcodes, Dusa has come across Kayla's grandmother's file. She learns that her grandmother had not only a son - Kayla's father, but another child named Kayla M1-6. And from a third girl named Kendra, who is also a Kayla look-alike, she learns that all of the Kayla's have the same barcode.Eventually Kayla discovers that her grandmother gave birth to sextuplet clones of which Kayla is one.

While in the desert Kayla meets a genius computer hacker, Jake who has designed a special kind of hovercraft which he calls a "swing-lo". Kayla and Jake decide that they need to contact Allyson, Kayla's friend and former Decode member who is now doing nanobot research at CalTech. They travel there to enlist Allyson's help in solving the mystery of Kayla and also the barcodes. What they learn is far more sinister than they could ever have imagined.

Discussion

The Bar Code Rebellion is a short novel that might appeal to younger readers. As the second novel in the trilogy, The Bar Code Rebellion is entirely plot driven with little character development and a bit of romance. The idea behind the novels, that a multinational corporation uses nanotechnology to control the citizens of a country is an interesting idea but is poorly developed with large plot holes. For example, we learn that Kayla is actually one of six clones who were created from Kathryn Reed and implanted in Ashely Reed who was married to Kathryn's son, Joey. This means that Kayla is actually a clone of Joey's mother and her father is not her father, but her son. The clones were part of a transgenic experiment, with each clone getting a bit more bird DNA than the next. Joey and Ashley got the first clone, Kayla, who had the least amount of avian DNA. Yet when Kayla's "mother" Ashley is ranting against the barcode in the first book, she never mentions to Kayla or even hints that she is a clone - surely an important fact she would want her to know, given the dire situation that is developing. Another glaring inconsistency: GlobalHelix which created the six transgenic clones loses them - highly unlikely in a corporation which excels in controlling each and every citizen.

The writing is poor, with many coincidences that are just too convenient. As an example,  Amber who has run away from her crazy Aunt Emily wakes up one morning to find a maniacal clone of Kayla in her tent, in the middle of the desert. And she just accepts this? Mostly the plotline is predictable with everything easily and quickly resolved. It's a shame because the concept with its inherent themes of identity, privacy, control, and ethics of research and consent are important in our highly internet-based society.

It will be interesting to see how Weyn can possibly write a third novel after all the ends were wrapped up in the second.

Book Details:
The Bar Code Rebellion by Suzanne Weyn
Scholastic       2006
265 pp.

Movie: Lincoln

"One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war...Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether"

                                                                Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address
                                                                          Washington, D.C. April 4 1865

The movie, Lincoln is a brilliant biopic about a president uniquely fitted to the challenging period in a young country's history as it battled not only for its very survival but for the soul of its people. Lincoln is partly based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography, Team Of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States and the first to be assassinated. Born in Kentucky in 1809, Abraham Lincoln grew into a very determined, ambitious man who was self-taught (he had only one year of formal schooling). 

Lincoln married Mary Todd and they had four sons. In 1860 he was elected President. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation which stated that all persons held as slaves in the seceded states were free. This proclamation, although not freeing all slaves in the United States, changed the country and the course of the war. Lincoln was re-elected in 1864, a year which saw the Union win many significant battles in the Civil War. Lincoln was assassinated on Good Friday, April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth.

The movie, Lincoln, focuses in on a very narrow time period in US history, the month of January 1865 when Lincoln, struggles to get his 13th Amendment to the Constitution which would forever ban slavery in the United States passed by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives. But President Lincoln has before him two choices: an early peace thus dooming his amendment (the southern states will vote against the amendment) or pushing through passage of the amendment ahead of peace so that slavery in the United States is no longer legal when the southern states return to the Union post-Civil War. Lincoln, the consummate politician fought for what he had come to believe in - that all men are created equal before God and ultimately succeeded.

The film focuses on portraying Lincoln as a political strategist while giving us a glimpse into his relationship with his political adversaries and party members as well as his personal life. As is typical of a Spielberg film, there is much attention to historical detail. Although there was a censors warning and there is a bit of spicy language, there isn't much gore and Lincoln's assassination is done offscreen. The most poignant scene in the film is the one where Lincoln leaves for the Ford Theatre and viewers watch, as, along with his black servant as he walks down a long hall.

This is a movie with many fine performances including those by Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln, Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, David Strathairn as William Seward. Tommy Lee Jones almost steals the spotlight as Thaddeus Stevens, a crusty Republican who had worked against slavery for thirty years.  Stevens had a reputation for being witty and sarcastic, a characteristic Tommy Lee Jones brilliantly portrays in the film. Stevens was known to have supported the rights of many different races in the United States but gradually came to focus more and more on slavery. Today we can appreciate his strength of character in promoting and supporting the equality of all men and women before God, at time when most felt white men were deemed by God to be superior to all others.

Despite the focus on only the last four months of Lincoln's life, the film is able to capture the essence of Lincoln as a man and a politician. The movie effectively captures, if only in brief scenes, the bloody conflict and the tremendous loss of life that characterized the Civil War. And John Williams, famous for his Star Wars music, composed the beautiful, soaring musical score for Lincoln.

Those interested in the life of Abraham Lincoln can access an online biography, Abraham Lincoln: A life by Michael Burlingame on the Knox College website:

https://www.knox.edu/academics/research-and-creative-work/lincoln-studies-center/burlingame-abraham-lincoln-a-life 

This online version is the author's original unedited version of his two volume biography which was published in 2008. Each chapter is presented as a separate pdf file. It is "believed by many Lincoln scholars to be the most exhaustively researched and fully documented biography of Abraham Lincoln ever written." Please remember that this work is copyrighted and therefore any use must be accredited to the author.

The Maid of Fairbourne Hall by Julie Klassen

Margaret Elinor Macy lives with her mother and her stepfather, Sterling Benton, in London in 1815. Her mother remarried after the death of Margaret's beloved father and after selling the family's Lime Tree estate, they now live in Sterling's home at Berkely Square. Sterling Benton, is a controlling, manipulative man who has Margaret followed and her mail opened. He refuses to give her any money further increasing his total control over her. Margaret is due to receive a substantial inheritance from her Great Aunt Josephine, when she turns twenty-five. Because of this inheritance, Margaret decided to wait and marry for love or not at all. Not that long ago, Margaret had rejected Nathaniel Upchurch's marriage proposal in the hopes of winning his handsome brother Lewis' heart. But Lewis, although initially interested in Margaret, didn't seem to follow through and Margaret now finds herself in a predicament with her stepfather determined to see her marry his nephew, Marcus Benton.

The novel opens with Margaret attending a masquerade ball where she hopes to once again attract Lewis Upchurch's attention. But Lewis isn't interested in Margaret and her attempt is rebuffed. The ball is marred by a brawl between Lewis and his brother Nathaniel who has unexpectedly returned from the family's sugar plantation in Barbados. To Margaret's surprise, Nathaniel is a much changed man, well muscled, handsome and tanned, and no longer the quiet bespectacled man she brutally rejected a year ago.

The next day Margaret's situation becomes dire when she learns that her stepfather has advised Marcus to "compromise" her if necessary, in order to force her to marry. Margaret decides to flee at once and does so with the help of her maid, Joan Hurdle who has been fired for stealing. Margaret and Joan end up at Joan's sister, Peg Kittleson's home. Peg puts them up for a few days and during their stay, Margaret does a man a good turn by preventing a robbery. This good turn will end up being the salvation of Margaret.

Joan and Margaret manage to flee London, and make their way to Maidstone where they must try to get hired on. Both Joan and Margaret do get hired but to different houses. In a strange twist Margaret finds herself hired by the man she helped in London and even stranger yet, she ends up as a maid in the Upchurch household. Having fled her home in a disguise of a black wig and servant's clothing, Margaret must continue to hide her identity. If she can just hold out until she turns twenty-five in eight months, she will receive her inheritance and be free of Sterling and Marcus Benton. But can she work and live in the Upchurch household without her true identity being discovered? Should she approach Nathaniel or Lewis and divulge who she really is and ask for their help? And can she remain hidden while Sterling Benton frantically searches for the stepdaughter whose wealth he covets?

Discussion

In The Maid of Fairbourne Hall, the author uses a set of contrived conincidences to form the major storyline. Margarent just happens to end up in the home of the man she helped in London as well as working as a maid in the home of the brothers she is interested in! In the 1800's it wouldn't be easy to get hired on as a maid without some kind of reference from a mentor or previous employer. But somehow both women manage this. Nevertheless, it sets the stage for a blossoming romance.

Klassen skillfully portrays the evolution of Margaret's character throughout the novel. Margaret changes from a spoiled, self-absorbed, young woman to one who cares about others. At the beginning of the book she is insensitive to the feelings of Joan, her maid, even when Margaret's theft of Sterling Benton's money causes Joan to lose her position at Margaret's home. But she soon discovers that the life of a servant is a hard one, with little respect and poor pay. And she comes to understand that Joan's situation in a difficult household is directly the result of her actions. She tries as much as her situation will allow to alleviate some of Joan's difficulties and at the end does make reparations to Joan.

Working in the Upchurch's household provides Margaret with a unique chance to learn the truth about both the characters of Lewis and Nathaniel and how appearances can be deceiving. The handsome Lewis is, in reality, messy, dissolute and insincere. On more than one occasion, Margaret catches Lewis returning late at night after some escapade. He has allowed the estate to fall into ruin in his father's absence. Lewis has no qualms about the family's wealth being obtained through the practice of slavery. In contrast, Nathaniel proves to have the character of a true gentlemen. He treats the staff respectfully, and has a strong sense of justice as evidenced by his feelings about the family making a living off of slavery. His experience in Barbados has changed him forever.

Because of both her change in character and her new information about the Upchurch brothers, Margaret begins to deeply regret turning down Nathaniel's marriage proposal and wishes she could apologize for the hurt she caused him.

The Maid of Fairbourne Hall is historical Christian romance at its finest. Although the plot and the ending are predictable, getting there is half the fun. Klassen builds the romantic tension gradually and repeatedly by throwing Margaret and Nathaniel together in countless ways. Added to this is the increasing suspense as Sterling Benton searches for his missing stepdaughter. He shows up at Fairbourne Hall in search of Margaret and later on he tries to flush Margaret out by a carefully planned ruse. The ending is as satisfying as it is romantic.

There is great attention to detail in the lives of the serving class in the 1800's. It is evident that Klassen did much research in order to portray her characters as realistically as possible. The storyline is told from the point of view of both Margaret and Nathaniel, often providing the reader with insight into how each character views a particular event. Each chapter begins with a from servants manuals and guides from the 1800's. Klassen toured the belowstairs and attic servant's quarters of several homes in England as part of her research for this novel. Recommended for fans of historical novels and the series, Downton Abbey.

Book Details:
The Maid of Fairbourne Hall by Julie Klassen
Minneapolis, Minnesota. BethanyHouse Publishers 2011
412 pp.