Chris Howard's Writing & Art

Reviews by Chloe: The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong

The Summoning (Darkest Powers, Book 1)
by Kelley Armstrong
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins (July 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061662690
ISBN-13: 978-0061662690

Chloe's Rating: 

The Summoning is about Chloe Sanders, who, after freaking out in school and having to be sedated, ends up at the Lyle house (the nut house). They tell her she's schizophrenic, but she knows she’s not.   No, it turns out she's a Necromancer, someone who can raise and communicate with the dead, and Chloe didn’t simply freak out at her school.  After not seeing ghosts for years, Chloe is shocked to see the ghost of a janitor who was burned to death at the school almost 50 years before.  At the Lyle House, Chloe befriends several inmates, including Liz who has a poltergeist bothering her.   Chloe tries to help her but they're caught and they're told that Liz has been sent to another hospital.  At least that’s what everyone thinks until Chloe talks to the ghost of Liz who doesn't seem to know she's dead.  With suspicions rising, it's time to get out of Lyle House, and fast, so Chloe, Simon, Derek, and Rae, all Lyle House inmates with "mental illnesses"--they call themselves "supernaturals"--must plan to escape. Will they get away or will they get caught?  Read The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong to find out.

I loved this story because Armstrong made the characters very real, like you could just meet them walking down the street or at school, people with the same plans and hopes and doubts as you or me.  For example, Chloe was sent to Lyle House and is told she has schizophrenia by the doctors, but her friends tell her she's not insane.  They convince her that she's a necromancer, but this is done very skillfully, and you feel Chloe's initial doubt. 

I was really pulled in by Armstrong's descriptions and real dialogue between teenage characters.   I think any teen reader (or older!) who likes fantasy will enjoy this book.  It was a suspenseful scary story that I just couldn’t stop reading.

Buy it:

Amazon.com  |  Barnes & Noble  |  BookSense (now IndieBound, which doesn't seem to work).

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Chloe Howard is an almost 14-year-old who reads almost as much as she breathes air, and often does both at the same time.  (Chloe's my daughter).

See more of my reviews

Chloe loves Little Brother

I do too.  We're talking about Cory Doctorow's latest novel, Little Brother, about Marcus (w1n5t0n), coolly subversive, hacker of high school surveillance systems, good guy, who--along with his friends--finds himself in deep sh*t with the DHS after a terrorist attack on San Francisco.

Look for a review from Chloe.

We have the print edition, but you can download it here:
http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/

So does Pablo Defendini--so much so that he created a new cover for the book  (via Irene Gallo's blog)

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Off to WFC 2007

I'm taking my camera.  I'll post when I can.  Hope to see you at World Fantasy 2007!  I'll see if I can get Chloe to write something about her first con experience.

http://www.lastsfa.org/wfc2007/

Reviews by Chloe: Vampire Island by Adele Griffin

Vampire Island 
by Adele Griffin
Publisher: G. P. Putnam’s Sons
ISBN-10: 0399237852
ISBN-13: 978-0399237850

The Livingstone's are vegetarians. They're vampires, and they live in Manhattan.  You just know it's not going to be a walk in the park—Central Park, that is.

Adele Griffin's Vampire Island takes us into the world of Lexie, Maddy and Hudson, a world where vampires and humans live together, but not all vampires are fruit-bat hybrids.  I really enjoyed following Lexie through her boy problems, Maddy spying on the neighbors, and Hudson setting out to save the world.

Hudson has a small language problem.  He uses old world words (like "yewn," "O’ Happy Day" and "whilst") in a new world.  He wants to help save the planet from global warming, so he makes people write on both sides of the paper, use the least amount of electricity possible, and sometimes has his sister Maddy scare kids into not using as much throw-away paper or plastic at lunch. By night he loves to fly through Central Park, talking to bat friends.  By day he talks to the animals his parent's pet sit.

Lexie can do things only bats can do, echo-sounding, super-fast reflexes (I liked the coin catching trick), double-jointed knees.  These attract the attention of the hottest guy in school, Dylan Easterby.  Dylan happens to be the same age as Lexie (her human age anyway).  Lexie runs into trouble because Mina, the most popular girl in school, also happens to want Dylan. 

Of all the vampire children, Maddy has the most trouble adapting to the vegan diet, but she's willing to try some interesting new foods. She drinks hot pomegranate juice every morning, pretending it's blood.  She eats mosquitoes and ticks to get the blood they have taken from others.  She also has a keen sense for uncovering and hunting down pureblood vampires.  When two move in across the street from the Livingstone’s, she is not about to let them hurt her family.  She's an awful cook, but that doesn't stop her from making cookies with garlic and holy water.  She can also be bossy.  She gets Hudson, her younger brother, to dress up as a girl elf scout, and has him sell the special cookies to the vampires.  She's also disappointed that her brother looks better in her elf scout uniform then she does.

Adele Griffin's Vampire Island is a wonderful, funny, suspenseful story.  I read it cover to cover in one sitting, and I would recommend it for anyone who likes adventure, magic, creatures of the night, and garlic cookies. 

http://www.adelegriffin.net/ | Amazon.com | BookSense.com

Chloe Howard is a seventh-grader who reads everything that gets near her, and will write reviews for books she likes, but sometimes she'll write one for cash or iTunes credit.

See all my reviews.

Reviews by Chloe: Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

Eclipse 
by Stephenie Meyer
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers (August 7, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0316160202
ISBN-13: 978-0316160209

Bella Swan's got trouble.  Her boyfriend Edward Cullen is a vampire who has a problem drinking human blood, and her best friend Jacob is a werewolf.  Werewolves are the mortal enemies of everything that sucks blood, human or not.  Bella's in her senior year, planning for college, but once again she has to worry about her family being killed. 

It all starts with some mysterious killings in Seattle.  Two weeks of strange deaths in the big city has everyone on edge, when Edward informs Bella that a vampire has been in her bedroom.  It only gets worse.  Alice, Edward's future-seeing sister, has figured out that twenty very dangerous and very hungry new born vampires are coming to kill Bella and the Cullens.  For the first time in history, vampires and werewolves unite to destroy the newbie (bad) vampires. 

I love Eclipse.  It is suspenseful with characters I like to follow.  I worried about the Cullens the whole time I was reading.  Stephenie Meyer's Eclipse, the third book in the series that also includes Twilight and New Moon, is a must read for lovers of vampires, werewolves, and anyone who likes suspenseful stories.   

What am I reading right now?  Heather Brewer's Eighth Grade Bites.

http://stepheniemeyer.com/eclipse.html

Chloe Howard is a seventh-grader who reads everything that gets near her, and will write reviews for books she likes, but sometimes she'll write one for cash or iTunes credit.

Reviews by ChloeLittle (Grrl) Lost by Charles de Lint

Tile: Little (Grrl) Lost
Author: Charles de Lint
Publisher: Viking Juvenile, Sept. 2007
Pages: 268
ISBN-10: 0670061441
ISBN-13: 978-0670061440

Rating:       
(5 Wonderful Stars) 

What would you do if your new friend was trouble, a runaway, had blue hair, and was six inches tall?

Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles de Lint is about a girl named T.J. who moves from the country to the “burbs.”  She has no friends.  She’s lost everything she used to have, including her beloved horse Red.  She hears a scratching sound in her bedroom and thinks mice live in the walls.  One night while she is sitting up in the dark waiting to catch whatever is making the noise, a l6 year old girl walks out of a door in the baseboard, yelling at her parents, a girl who is no more than six inches tall.

That’s how T.J. meets Elizabeth, who looks and acts like any other sixteen year old rebel, only she’s a Little.

They become friends and they set out to find out more about Littles and where they come from.  It turns out that there is an author in town who seems to know a lot about Littles, and she is doing a book reading at a local bookstore.  This is their chance.  T.J. hides Elizabeth in an old teddy bear to keep her safe (Elizabeth hates this).  Everything is going fine, and then a group of boys gang up on T.J. and take her stuff, including Elizabeth! T.J. spends the whole day looking for her friend, and although she finds her backpack, it doesn’t contain her wallet, her cell phone, or Elizabeth.

I love the way Charles de Lint created strong girl characters and how he shows their strength with language, especially the words he uses for action, for example, on page 53 when the guy outside the bookstore tries to kidnap T.J.: “Reflexively, before she even realized what she was doing, she kicked him hard in the shin.” I love that.

I can’t wait to read more about T.J. and Elizabeth.  I would recommend Little (Grrl) Lost to anyone who likes adventure, fantasy, and blue haired girls.

Amazon.com pre-order link:
http://www.amazon.com/Little-Grrl-Lost-Charles-Lint/dp/0670061441/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-6961007-3199049?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1181493882&sr=1-1

More: http://www.sfsite.com/charlesdelint/littlegrrl-desc01.htm

Chloe Howard is a sixth-grader who reads everything that gets near her.   She has even been in trouble for reading. . .in school!  (Probably while she was supposed to be doing math).  Little (Grrl) Lost is her favorite book from BEA 2007.

Reviews by ChloeABADAZAD by J.M. DeMatteis, drawings by Mike Ploog, colors by Nick Bell

ABADAZAD
The Road To Inconceivable
by J.M. DeMatteis, drawings by Mike Ploog, colors by Nick Bell
Hyperion Books, 2006, ages 8 and up
ISBN: 1-4231-0062X
http://abadazad.com/

Fourteen-year-old malcontent, Kate Jameson, started out with a normal life—if you can count as normal having a mother who is a bit crazy.  (Wait a minute.  That is normal, right?)  Her little brother, Matt, vanishes into thin air while riding his favorite ride at a traveling street fair.  After five years of mourning, Kate discovers that Matt was captured by the really gross, six-armed Lanky Man.

I don't always like Kate, but she has some good qualities.  She speaks her mind, she's independent, she has a weird sense of humor (I really like that).  She likes having a little brother when it always seems that older sisters hate their kid brothers.

I like Queen Ija.  She seems kind.  She is incredibly powerful with magic.  She's beautiful—as only a blue three-eyed person can be.  She has a lot of heart, and takes time to help Kate.

Abadazad is part written diary part graphic diary, although in the story the graphic part (with the comic book layout) is a movie, sort of an enchanted version of Kate's words, some of Queen Ija's better work.  Kate finally manages to get to Abadazad, meets the queen and has some cool adventures.

The Road to Inconceivable (Book 1 in the series) ends with a lot of the story hanging, including Matt's continued disappearance, the Lanky Man is still a problem, and Kate still has not figured out how to save her little brother—or even where to go to save him. 
I will be reviewing the second in the ABADAZAD series, The Dream Thief next time, and I am looking forward to getting The Puppet, the Professor, and the Prophet when it hits the stores.

Chloe Howard is a sixth-grader who reads everything that gets near her.   Yes, she has even been in trouble for reading. . .in school!  (Probably while she was supposed to be doing math).

Reviews by ChloeThe Prophecy of the Stones by Flavia Bujor

The Prophecy of the Stones by Flavia Bujor
Miramax Books
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 398 pages
Publisher: Miramax (April 6, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN: 0786818352

Chloe's Rating:

So it is written by Néophileus:

...One will discover the gift
One will recognize the King
One will convince the other two to die...

The Prophecy of the Stones is about three girls, Opal, Jade and Amber, each born clutching the stone for which they are named.  The prophecy tells us of three girls who would bring peace to the world and reunite fairyland with this world at age fourteen. They are supposed to obtain help from "the chosen one."  Without him they cannot lead the army of light to victory.  With a lot of luck, they recognize him just in time. They go on to fight the army of darkness.

I love sophisticated young adult books, but when I first read The Prophecy in 2004, I did not understand some of it.  In the last couple years, I have been reading stories with deeper characters and intricate plots like The Wee Free Men by Terry Prattchet, Lewis' Narnia, Wilder's Little House series, Harry Potter and many others.  Eleven year-olds and up will really like this story.

I think The Prophecy is very well written for a thirteen year-old, and I enjoyed following the story of Opal, Jade and Amber.  I would have liked a little more humor, which adds so much to fantasies like Harry Potter and Pratchett's Discworld books. Prophecies are a common mythical element, but Bujor has done an excellent job of creating a fresh approach and a captivating story centered on the events foretold by ancient Néophileus.

Flavia Bujor wrote The Prophecy of the Stones when she was thirteen.  She's now in high school, "living her own fairy tale in Paris," and working on her second novel.