"Endymion Spring" by Matthew Skelton

(978-0-3857-3456-1)

This is a book that takes place in two different eras...one in the mid 1400's and the other in our modern times.

Blake is a young American living in England while his mother studies at Oxford. He lives with her and his little sister, Duck, often finding himself in libraries. One day, as he is walking by, running his hands along the books on the shelf, rapping them with his knuckles...one of the books hits him back! He looks at his hand and sees blood, and he sees a book laying on the floor; he picks it up and sees that it is a vary old book...but it is blank.

Why would there be a blank book in a library, one that doesn't even look like it belongs there for it is not even cataloged? As he is looking through the blank pages, words start to form...and he reads the name "Endymion Spring."

What does it mean? And why is it that only he can read the words on the paper? Did the book really jump out at him for a reason? Did it choose him?

Legends speak of a a book, a book simply referred to as the Last Book. This book contains all the knowledge of good and evil which tempted Adam and Eve in the garden. All of the past and everything to come in the future...it is all written in this book. "Endymion Spring" is the book that tells where to find the "Last Book." And the Person in Shadow is someone who wants that book more than anything else, and will do anything to get it. "Endymion Spring", you see, is literally a living book...it knows whom it can trust, and it knows the heart of the evil that wants the secret which it holds in its covers!

But who is Endymion Spring?

Endymion Spring is a boy living in 1452...an apprentice to Johannes Gutenberg. Johan Fust is a man who steals something very valuable, the contents are stored in a magnificent chest...but he cannot access the contents, not all of them. Only the blood of an innocent can reveal the contents...and Endymion Spring is the boy who can bring forth the words. But he cannot let Fust get the book stored within the chest, for Fust will use it for evil! So Endymion Spring takes the book with him and runs away...he must protect the book!

What, then, is the connection between Blake in the 21st century and Endymion Spring in the 15th century? Who is the Person in Shadow? Can Blake protect the book?

Read this book to find out!

"Touching Spirit Bear" by Ben Mikaelsen

(ISBN 978-0-3808-0560-0)

How many of you have ever come across someone who is perpetually angry? The kind of person who seems to hate everyone and everything around him...always striking out violently with little or no provocation? Hopefully, you've never come across someone like this, but odds are that you have.

Well this is the kind of person we find in Touching Spirit Bear. Cole Matthews, the main character, is an angry 15-year old, and one day he beats a fellow student so severely that the poor boy is taken to the hospital. While Cole is usually able to get away with light punishment, this time he is in really big trouble. Under threat of going to juvenile hall, he agrees to abide by the judges' ruling that he participate in a Native American ritual known as Circle Justice.

It is decided that what Cole needs is some time of self examination, safely away from other people but not locked away, so he is taken to a remote island off the coast of Alaska, hoping that he will be able to deal with his anger issues; that his experience on the island will lead him to change his destructive behavior.

Cole, however, only agreed to do this so he would not be put in jail, so as soon as he is left alone he burns down his shelter and tries to think of a way to escape from the island. As he wanders about he comes across a huge bear, and because he is so angry (as well as misinformed about bears!), he foolishly attempts to kill the bear; he is, after all, angry at everything!

What do you think happens? Well he grabs the bear by the neck and strangles it to death. Oh wait, that is not actually what happens...

No, the bear is not at all intimidated by Cole, and Cole discovers that it is one thing to beat up fellow students at school and quite another matter to take on a humongous bear with no weapons. Unsurprisingly (except, maybe, to Cole), the bear easily stops him and mauls him, almost killing him.

As he lies there near death, Cole realizes that he does not want to die. He wants to live. But is this desire to live motivated by selfishness or does his experience actually reshape him? Does this awareness of how precious life is make him a better person? The best way to find out is by reading this book! ;-)

"Birth of a Warrior" by Michael Ford

(ISBN 978-0-8027-9794-0)

Birth of a Warrior is the second in the "Spartan Quest" Trilogy by Michael Ford

In this sequel to The Fire of Ares, Lysander has completed has successfully competed in the Festival Games and convinced the helots not to rebel against their Spartan masters, but now he must face his greatest challenge yet...the Ordeal.

At 13, Spartan youth were sent out into the wild with no weapons, no clothing but their loincloth, and no food and water. They were expected to remain in the wild for one whole week and survive by their wits. Many boys did not return, but those who did were accepted as full citizens of Sparta.

In this journey, Lysander is joined by his nemesis from the first book, his barracks mate Demaratos. They are to be guided by a savage 18 year old named Agesilaus. What kind of man is Agesilaus? Well when he was younger, he and his brother were opponents at a barracks tournament. They fought savagely until Agesilaus managed to get his brother Nisos into a choke-hold and wold not let go until the referee forced him to. His brother was left "lying face down on the ground...[w]hen they turned him over, there was a lot of blood. The vessels in his nose and eyes had burst. He died there in the dirt. Agesilaus turned away from his brother and went to accept his prize...after Niso had been carried away...Agesilaus' father approached his son, his face unreadable. Many thought he would slay his son on the spot. He looked down at Nisos' blood in the dust, and then placed his hands on either side of Agesilaus' face to look him in the eye...He said, "I see I have raised at least one good son." (from pages 30-31)

This is the person who will guide Lysander and Demaratos! It is soon apparent, however, that Agesilaus has more in mind than his normal cruelty, for he is a candidate for the dreaded Krypteia. The Krypteia are Spartan warriors who by night carry out assassinations of troublesome helots. In order to join, a candidate must carry out three assassinations of random helots. In the mountains, Demaratos and Lysander find that they must put their differences aside and face a common enemy.

This novel is a worthy sequel to The Fire of Ares and includes a number of exciting battle scenes. Also, Lysander must deal with the consequences of some of his actions in the first novel, and he comes to appreciate the value of shared experiences and the value of a true friend. Without spoiling one of the key scenes, we find that Lysander must also do some horrible things in order to prevent even more horrible things from occurring. All in all a great and satisfying read! My only disappointment is that the third in the series is not available in any of our consortium libraries...which means I'm going to have to order it through ILL or, more likely, recommend we purchase it! ;-)

"The Fire of Ares" by Michael Ford

(ISBN 978-0-8027-9827-5)

The Fire of Ares is the first in the "Spartan Quest" Trilogy by Michael Ford.

Most boys enjoy a good war book, and with the recent interest in Greek history and mythology sparked by the Percy Jackson books, this book is sure to captivate most middle and high school boys! The Fire of Ares is the story of a young 13 year old boy named Lysander. He is a helot in ancient Sparta, born to a brutal life of slavery to the warrior citizens of the powerful city state of Sparta. In Sparta, all males were expected to be warriors. Deformed or weak babies were left to die and at age 7 all males were taken from their families and placed in military barracks where they endured rough training intended to transform them into the warriors needed by Sparta.

When heading off to battle, Spartan women are reported to have told their sons and husbands to return with their shields, or on them. Spartan shields were large and intended for the savage phalanx warfare at which Spartans excelled; it was impossible to run away from a battle without dropping the shield, hence the directive from the women of Sparta. It is into this society that Lysander is born, a slave whose life can be taken at the mere whim of any Spartan, regardless of what age. He dreams of one day leading a rebellion against the Spartans and freeing his people.

While helots are not allowed to own any property, Lysander has one possession which he keeps hidden; a red stone amulet. His mother has told him he must never allow anyone to know he has it, and so he hides its existence from all people, including his best friend Timeon. Well one day Lysander is unfortunate enough to face off with a group of Spartan boys his age, he interrupts them while they are about to beat up on a younger helot and they decide that he will be their victim instead. As it happens, although his amulet is stolen soon after, it is seen by an older Spartan who it turns out is an Ephor of Sparta, one of five men who served as an overseer to the Spartan kings...a very powerful position. The ephors were also the ones in Spartan society who annually declared ritual warfare against the helots, vowing to keep them enslaved.

This ephor summons Lysander the next day and it turns out that the amulet he has kept hidden all these years is known as the Fire of Ares and has been passed down by generations of Spartan warriors, father to son. Lysander's father, it turns out, was a Spartan warrior who died in battle and gave the amulet to his own brother to give to his unborn son...Lysander! What is more, the ephor is Lysander's grandfather! Well immediately Lysander is officially recognized as a Spartan citizen...and enrolled into the agoge, the barracks for Spartan boys. He is to be trained as a Spartan warrior.

The novel, then, is about the experiences of Lysander in the barracks, where he must overcome prejudice based on his being a half breed; where he must endure the sadistic barracks master; where he must find his missing amulet! In all of this he is assisted by his faithful friend Timeon, whom he chooses as his personal slave to serve him in the agoge (all Spartan warriors were served by a helot slave). Above all, this novel is about loyalty and fitting in, for Lysander is brought to the point where he must decide where his loyalties lie, and whether he will embrace his Spartan identity or reject it in favor of the people he's known all his life!

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" by John Boyne

(ISBN 978-0-385-75189-6)

"If you start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year old boy named Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you never have to encounter one." -from back cover of book

The nine year old in this book is named Bruno, and he's a young German boy who lives in Berlin with his mom, his dad, and his older sister. His father is a very important man who wears a uniform, and Bruno watches as soldiers come in and out of his house day and night and they salute his father.

His father’s boss is someone that everyone calls the Fury, and the Fury trusts his father so much that he gives him an important job; a job that requires the whole family to move to a place he hears called “Out With.” He assumes this is because the person who worked there before did such a bad job that it was “out with” him and in with his father. To Bruno it really makes no sense at all. What he does know is that now he must go to a new home far away, a place where he is lonely. In Berlin he had lots of friends, but here he is the only boy around, and furthermore, whereas in Berlin he would explore for hours, here he is not permitted to do so, and he does not understand why not.

One thing that Bruno notices is that from his bedroom window he can see people in the distance. They are on the other side of a fence, and curiously enough they are always wearing pajamas! Some of these people come to his house to work, and while Bruno has always been told he must treat his elders respectfully, here he watches as young soldiers speak very disrespectfully to the elderly people wearing pajamas; they call them names he doesn't understand and they even push them around and beat them!

Bruno is very confused, and one day he decides he's going to disobey his father and go exploring! He decides to walk towards the fence...and as he approaches it he notices a shape over by a secluded corner. The shape turns out to be a boy of his own age! He greets the boy, but the boy looks very sad, very hungry, and very pale. Bruno wants to ask him why he looks like this but he knows this would be very rude of him. After chatting with his new friend he finds out that they have the same birthday! "We're like twins!" says Bruno to Shmuel.

When Bruno asks Shmuel if he has any friends, Shmuel tells him he does, but that they fight alot.

"It's so unfair," said Bruno. " I don't see why I have to be stuck over here on this side of the fence where there's no one to talk to and no one to play with and you get to have dozens of friends and are probably playing for hours every day. I'll have to speak to Father about it." - from page 10-11

After finding out that Shmuel is from Poland, Bruno tells him that he thinks Germany is superior to Poland, at which point "Shmuel stared at him but didn't say anything, and Bruno felt a strong desire to change the subject because even as he had said the words, they didn't sound quite right to him and the last thing he wanted was for Shmuel to think that he was being unkind." - from page 11

After talking for a little longer, Shmuel tells him he doesn’t know why he’s in this place wearing pajamas, that he was brought here by mean soldiers, and that only he and his father are there; he doesn’t know what happened to his mother and sisters and has not seen them since they arrived...

Bruno continues to visit his friend as often as he can, sometimes bringing him food…and they want to play together but Shmuel can’t come to his side of the fence. Maybe Bruno can go to the other side? Bruno would like that because he’s jealous of Shmuel, after all, he gets to wear pajamas all day!

There is a scene in the book where Bruno asks his father who the people are...

"Father tilted his head to the left, looking a little confused by the question. 'Soldiers, Bruno,' he said. 'And secretaries. Staff workers. You've seen them all before, of course.'

'No, not them,' said Bruno. 'The people I see from my window. In the huts, in the distance. They're all dressed the same.'

'Ah, those people,' said Father, nodding his head and smiling slightly. 'Those people...well, they're not people at all Bruno.'

'...at least not as we understand the term...[t]hey're nothing to do with you...

'Yes, Father,' said Bruno, unsatisfied by the response.

He opened the door and Father called him back for a moment, standing up and raising an eyebrow as if he'd forgotten something. Bruno remembered the moment his father made the signal, and said the phrase and imitated him exactly.

He pushed his two feet together and shot his right arm into the air before clicking his two heels together and saying in as deep and clear a voice as possible- as much like Father's as he could manage- the words he said every time he left a soldier's presence.

'Heil Hitler,' he said, which he presumed, was another way of saying, 'Well, goodbye for now, have a pleasant afternoon." - from page 52-54

What happens next between Bruno and Shmuel? Will Bruno be able to go to the other side of the fence and play? Do you want to know?

Read the book!