Naruto Vol. 1 by Masashi Kishimoto

A guest review from Teen Room Staff Brandon!

Lots of kids are shunned by their classmates, but how many can say they are shunned by the entire town? Naruto, a young upstart ninja from the Konohagakure village, the village hidden in the leaves, is determined to succeed, despite his dark past, one which he didn’t choose. As an infant, Naruto was chosen as the host for the nine-tailed fox demon that was ravaging the village, but was defeated by the first hokage. Naruto has bigger plans than just acceptance from the village. He is determined to become the hokage, the greatest ninja his entire village. The book opens to show how Naruto is shunned by the village, except for a few people. He learns of one of those people very quickly, his teacher, Iruka, when Iruka protects him from the evil Mizuchi. Iruka is injured protecting Naruto, so the tables turn and Naruto has to protect Iruka. After Naruto defeats Mizuchi, Iruka gives Naruto a leaf-village headband, and recognizes him as a full-fledged ninja. After becoming a ninja, Naruto is put into a team with Sasuke and Sakura, fellow ninja. Sasuke is set on revenge for the murder of his clan, and Sakura is more concerned with love than ninjutsu. Team chemistry is not very high, and thus at first the team does not perform well; especially with the difficult Master Kakashi as their sensei. The book ends with a test given by Master Kakashi to determine whether or not the team is ready for missions; and he determined…they fail…

What will volume 2 have in store? Is this the end for the three ninja? Simply put….no. Kishimoto weaves an intricate tale with his first volume, which transcends beautifully into a complete series of over 40 volumes. Naruto is a very intriguing tale of Naruto’s journey to become hokage, Sasuke’s quest for vengeance, and Sakura’s ongoing search for a path in life.


--Brandon

***

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

A guest review from Teen Room Staff Jeremy!

In this short but very powerful novel Randy Pausch discusses the time leading up to and during his final lecture at Carnegie Mellon. He talks about the hardships he has overcome, such as finding out he had ten tumors in his liver, and the ways he overcame them, through writing this lecture, for example. His incredibly upbeat and positive attitude goes against all preconceived ideas of how terminal cancer patients act.

I would recommend this book to anyone, and I mean ANYONE. The sheer optimism of Randy up to his final days is nearly overwhelming. It's too bad he's not with us anymore, but wherever he is I'm sure he's having fun.

--Jeremy

P.S. This is a summer reading book for Seniors at Waupaca High School!

***

Castration Celebration by Jake Wizner

A guest review from Teen Room Staff Brandon!

For Max, summer arts camp at Yale University is another opportunity to hone his acting skills, both on the stage and with the ladies. For Olivia, it is an opportunity to escape her home life and write her musical, based on her current hatred of men, thanks to her father, who she walked in on while he was fooling around with one of his students. A true ladies man with a plan of conquest for summer camp, and a young woman who has sworn off men for the summer? These two have to run into each other; and they do, quite literally. Max and Olivia meet on the train to summer camp, when Max accidentally runs into Olivia. He falls in love, and she figures she’ll never see him again.

Once they arrive at camp, they meet their roommates, for Max, the eccentric guitar-playing Zeke; and for Olivia, (who is staying in a suite) Mimi, Callie, and Trish. As it turns out, Zeke and Trish are from the same town, so the guys end up spending quite a bit of time with the girls, and Max uses it to try to get to know Olivia better.

As the story progresses, so does Olivia’s musical. Her musical, Castration Celebration, is strikingly similar to the events of real life, and no one but her knows until she asks Zeke to write the music for it. While Zeke has Olivia’s manuscript, Max reads it and realizes that Olivia has feelings for him. As the summer ends, Olivia accepts her feelings for Max and they get together. They continue a short correspondence via email, but that’s were book leaves the story, and their relationship, up in the air.

Castration Celebration was a hysterical novel. It employed two separate stories, the novel, and the musical being written by Olivia (which was distinguished by a different font), and wove them together nicely. I thoroughly enjoyed C.C., but I do believe it is a title geared towards older teens; with many sexual innuendos and jokes more appropriate for older ages.

--Brandon

***

A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

Helen is a ghost who has haunted for many lifetimes. She has attached herself to several different hosts over the years, and can’t figure out what is holding her to Earth while her hosts have all moved on when they passed away. Her current host is an English teacher named Mr. Brown. She discovers that for the first time in her entire time as a ghost, there is someone who can see her. Helen soon realizes that Billy, Mr. Brown’s student, is not the one who can see her, but it is James, another ghost who has taken over Billy’s body.

James and Helen are drawn together, and decide to find a body for Helen to possess too. They find a girl who goes to the same school, and Helen is able to inhabit her vacated body. Complications arise as James and Helen realize that they cannot simply begin their life together, but have to continue to pretend to be Billy and Jenny. That also means that they need to deal with the issues that caused Billy and Jenny to vacate their lives. As James begins to help Billy overcome his problems with drugs, an abusive father, and a strained relationship with his brother, Helen sees that he has started to deal with the issue that hasn’t allowed him to move on. Following James’ example, Helen helps Jenny solve her issues, and she begins to realize why she can’t move on.

Overall, I felt that the writing was fairly average. The unique plot is the piece that kept this book from being ordinary. Perhaps because I listened to the audio version, I was much more aware of phrases that were overused, for example, the narrator continually said “I was shocked.” I also felt that the narrator, Helen, did not have views towards relationships and intimacy that were consistent to the time period in which she died. I felt that the author didn’t stay true to the idea of history that she had been trying to infuse into the character.

Not my favorite book, but a very interesting concept--give it a try!

***

Battle Angel Alita by Yukiro Kishiro

A guest review from Teen Room Staff Brandon!

In a futuristic society, humans, androids, and cyborgs have learned how to coexist, Daisuke Ido is a mechanic just trying to scratch out a living while pursuing his hobby of finding scraps in the junkyard to invent new things. While out scavenging, Ido stumbles upon the destroyed body of a female cyborg, with the brain still intact, in a state of hibernation. He brings the head back to his shop, and fixes the girl up. He re-awakens her brain, but cannot recover her lost memory, and takes her under his wing as a daughter; his first act as her “father” is to name her Alita.

Daisuke creates a new body for Alita, and soon she is following in his footsteps. Soon she finds out that Daisuke has a night job as well as his mechanic profession; he is a hunter-warrior, a futuristic bounty hunter. As soon as Alita discovers his true profession, she decides she wants to be a hunter- warrior as well. She goes against Daisuke’s wishes and registers to become a hunter herself. In her first bounty hunt, with Daisuke watching, she discovers she knows the Panzer Kunst, a fighting technique developed for cyborgs centuries ago.

After Alita loses a battle against Makaku, the biggest bounty around, Daisuke outfits her with a berserker body, a cyborg body used in the wars many years ago. With it she gains great power, and chooses to go after Makaku again. Using her new body, she is able to use the Panzer Kunst to defeat Makaku.

I enjoyed Battle Angel Alita, with its snappy art style and witty dialogue, along with some great action-fight scenes. It is a manga, but follows the American layout of left to right reading.

--Brandon

***

Beast by Donna Jo Napoli

A guest review from Teen Room Staff Lydia!

In light of the recent musical by the Waupaca Community Theater, I decided to read a book with a “Beauty and the Beast” theme.

Orasmyn is the prince of Persia and lives in the lap of luxury until he makes one poor decision and is transformed into a lion, with his only hope of salvation the love of a woman. He travels first to India and eventually to France, where he finds an abandoned castle and cultivates a beautiful rose garden in the hopes of luring a woman to the castle and earning her love.

The first half of the book takes place in Persia and is littered with Persian and Arabic words which seem to add nothing to the story. This part of the book drags as Orasmyn is adapting to his lionine instincts and circumstances. In the much shorter second part of the book, Belle and the Beast’s romance happens much too fast for believability, especially since the Beast lacks the power of speech, and culminates in an extremely abrupt ending. The author’s note, however, is especially interesting and reveals the author’s intent to combine the many versions of “Beauty and the Beast.” The note explains the parts of the story which may seem odd to those of us who are used to the Disney version.

I give this book Three Stars!

--Lydia

***

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

17 year-old Ginny receives a packet of thirteen little blue envelopes from her favorite aunt, which are numbered. The first contains instructions to go to New York to pick up a package, get on a plane, and fly to England, where her aunt lived. Through the rules outlined in the first letter, Ginny realizes that she must follow the instructions on the first before opening any of the other envelopes. She can’t bring money, guide books, or any electronic devices including laptops, phones, or cameras. The only major problem with following this plan created by her aunt is that her aunt has been dead for three months. Aunt Peg was a wanderer and an artist, and completely unpredictable. The letters from Peg take Ginny all over Europe tracing a path that Peg once took. Ginny meets old friends, heroes, and employers of Peg’s, and does things she never thought she, Ginny, could or would do—she even asks an Italian stranger out for cake! She also becomes the patron of a one-man play performed by an English boy named Keith. In Greece, Ginny’s backpack is stolen, and she must return to London without completing the final mission. Or does she?

I enjoyed the format in the book, which consists of letters from Peg to Ginny in a handwritten font, and chapters in a different font and a standard form. Ginny is able to travel as a single, female teenager without social constraints, and the experiences she has are extraordinary and require her to develop great independence. There’s also a potential love interest. I would recommend it, especially to anyone suffering from a travel bug!

***