Val Muller

This is the story of a boy named Caleb who was given up for adoption as a baby. He is raised at a horrible orphanage until he’s rescued by a relative who opens his eyes to an entire world of magic that exists. He is taken to Elemental in order to catch up on his training (it took many years for Caleb to be found, and he is late in starting his training). When he arrives, things get heated quickly, with the magical world being attacked by enemies.

For me, the story began with tension in the very first pages—a father having to give up his boy for adoption at an orphanage he knew was not ideal (or else risk the infant dying). It was a poignant chapter and had me cheering for the characters to succeed. This scene was very effective: it slowed the action down to provide indirect characterization of the father, the orphanage staff, and even the baby.

But the plot quickly sped up and turned “happy” with Caleb being adopted a few years later and the orphanage being punished and reformed for its terrible treatment of children. (Tension could have been increased by focusing on how he made it through all those years, making the reader more desperate to see the orphanage punished). The tension for me was then lost until halfway through the book, when the attacks on Elemental began. In the middle part prior to the attack, too many happy things were happening, and there was always description of all the types of food the children were being served for meals. Trying to put myself back into my childhood days, food was not a primary interest, but I would definitely have pondered other details, such as the appearance of the magical creatures, arriving in a new world, etc.

I enjoyed the plot of this tale, but a problem I have with any books about wizarding or magic schools is that I can’t help comparing them to Harry Potter. This is no fault of any of the authors—just something that can’t be helped. That said, my main suggestion for this book would be to focus more on showing rather than telling. The book is told from a largely omniscient perspective, which makes it easy for us to understand the whole story. But at times I longed for a more limited point of view, especially from Caleb’s perspective. I wanted to experience the story from a child’s point of view. There would obviously be so many complex feelings involved in being adopted, discovering a family, discovering magic, and discovering latent abilities—and having to confront hidden memories from a forgotten past. Because of the omniscient perspective, I felt that Caleb accepted things too readily, and the story happened too quickly.

What I enjoyed the most was the message woven throughout the text. The people of Elemental, while not overtly religious, have strong faith in the world, a higher power, whatever you want to call it. This faith helps them know themselves and understand their place in the world and beyond it. This contrasts sharply with the enemies Caleb encounters, who have a selfish and confused view of the world that leaves them lost. I enjoyed this message, as I believe all fantasy stories ultimately come down to a discussion over philosophy of life, with magic and other elements helping us to metaphorically understand ourselves better.

The author clearly has a great imagination. I would suggest slowing down the plot to let us experience things from Caleb’s perspective. Still, this was a fast, imaginative read with a  great message.

As a freedom lover myself, I absolutely adored this book! Yes, I know I just ended that sentence with an exclamation mark, but this book deserves it. This is a futuristic/dystopian novel set in a future civilization that loosely follows the traditions of the earth we know. The book follows Matty, a seventeen-year-old living in this futuristic society, as he is tested by the king to solve the mystery of “What was January Black?”

It’s going to be hard to provide much summary of this book. Since the whole thing is a mystery, anything I include is likely to spoil the fun of solving the mystery yourself. But I’ll give you a few important points: Matty is somewhat rebellious and is ashamed to have his father hold the rank of commandant. He prefers living freely, not under the watchful eye of the government, which his father only helps condone and enforce. Matty finds himself becoming friends with the king (and from the start, you will wonder about this. The king seems overly nice to Matty. Is there something up with that? Is Matty being set up? What are the king’s motives? You will wonder this, but you won’t find it out completely until the end).

Throughout the novel, there are references to artifacts and snippets of items from the Old World that have been all but lost: a snippet of Patrick Henry’s famous speech. A “Don’t Tread on Me” flag. Aging books in a world of e-readers. Matty seems naturally drawn to these artifacts of the Old World, and the king’s challenge only pushes him further into his obsession with books and research.

As far as everyone in the society knows, January Black is the name of the ship that was used to bring people to Columbia, the land where everyone now resides. But when Matty turns in his report explaining so, the king tells him he is wrong, and Matty spends the rest of the book trying to uncover the hidden truth. There’s an element of romance in the novel as well: Matty falls in love with Iris, a gardener (gardening is not approved for someone of Matty’s high social class, but he defies society and dates her anyway).

Without spoiling any more, I will say that we slowly learn that Matty’s society is a controlling one. Everyone is being tracked by the government, and it’s implied that this first started with “good intentions” such as the government being able to more effectively track citizens for medical reasons benefiting said citizens. But it seems things have swung too far toward a “Big Brother” government. I enjoyed watching Matty discover the hidden truths about his own government (which controls the country’s media content) and about the history of the country and why it is hidden. This is a great read for lovers of freedom and fans of American history. It’s fun but frightening to imagine how easily our world might turn in to Matty’s one day.

Yes, another classic. I’m teaching it again this year, so I thought I’d post a review while I’m thinking about it. This book is among my favorites. Mark Twain’s sense of humor permeates the story, yet there’s a serious underlying issues that he treats with intelligence and grace.

The story follows Huck Finn, a thirteen-year old boy living in Missouri just prior to the Civil War. Tired of being “sivilized” by the widow who has adopted him, yet terrified of his abusive, alcoholic father, Huck fakes his own death and runs away. On his way, he meets Jim, a runaway slave (and friend from Huck’s town) who recently learned he’s going to be sold to a plantation further south—far away from his family. Torn by society’s standards (it’s wrong to help a runaway slave, and the widow already told Huck he might be headed toward “the bad place” when he dies) and his own moral compass (Jim is his friend, and even though he is a slave, he seems strangely like a human being!), Huck decides to help Jim escape.

Using the lens of a thirteen-year old boy, Twain criticizes society of the time, making the statement that people are ignorant and cruel, and morals should be individually-calibrated, not dictated by others.

First, the ugly. This book has a history of being banned, but mostly because people have no common sense. Twain uses the n-word in this book more than two hundred times. As a result, some school districts have banned the teaching of the book. Some have even called the book “racist.” But the most important thing to understand is: this book is an anti-slavery, anti-racist work. Twain was trying to show, through ignorant (though comical) characters, how closed-minded humans can be and how it’s sometimes impossible when living by society’s accepted standards to do the right thing. Kind of ironic to have people boycotting the book and proving Twain’s sad truth about humans right, even over a hundred years later.

But the entire work is praising the anti-slavery movement (in fact, the book was written after the Civil War, but Twain still wanted to show his thoughts about the south, and racism, in general). The n-word in the book is used in a descriptive way, not a derogatory one (though, granted, the word itself has come to have a very derogatory connotation) the same way I might say, “there’s a hairless rat.” A slave is a terrible thing to be (and thus, to be called), but the term in the book is only meant to refer to a slave, not to insult it. On the surface level, the book is an adventure and coming-of-age tale. Huck encounters numerous friends and foes and goes on lots of adventures before everything works out (mostly) well in the end.

On a deeper level, the novel is a satiric look at society. Some key elements: at once point, Huck becomes involved with a family that has been feuding with another for generations. The go so far as to bring guns to church and scold each other for being too slow to arrive with a gun when the threat of their enemies is nigh. In another section of the novel, Huck meets two tricksters who call themselves the Duke and the King. They are despicable, but Twain uses them to illustrate the worst in humanity. At one point, they put on a “fake” Shakespearean play, raking in lots of money for tickets. When half the town is fooled and angered about losing their money, Huck thinks it’s time for the King and Duke to run away before they’re caught. But the King and the Duke know people too well: those who were tricked do not reveal the tricksters; rather, they allow the other half of the town to waste their money on the fake Shakespearean play.

I won’t go into more detail about plot summery—there’s always Sparknotes, as my students like to remind me—but I will say that this novel is humorous and touching, a satirical work with just the right amount of optimism. My favorite part of the book, though, is the ending. Huck returns to society and realizes that he doesn’t want to deal with people after all (a boy after my own heart!), and so he hightails it out West. It’s something I think we’d all like to do at times–even if just metaphorically.