Tantalize

Author: Cynthia Leitich Smith
Year: 2007
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Supernatural fantasy

Plot Summary: 17 and orphaned, Quincie Morris is overseeing the renovation of her family's Italian restaurant as it becomes the vampire-themed Sanguini's. After the head chef (and family friend) is brutally murdered, Quincie finds his replacement in the unassuming but talented Henry Johnson. Meanwhile Quincie's best friend (and would-be love interest) Kieren, a hybrid werewolf, is under suspicion for murder. Life gets increasingly stranger as Sanguini's opening night draws closer...

Red Flags: teenage drinking, some gore, moderate language, mild sexual content, general weirdness

My Rating: C. This book just got weirder and weirder. I thought it would be more Twilight-y (which, for some reason, I wanted) and it wasn't at all. I thought hot werewolf Kieren would actually be in the book, but he hardly was. Also, this book was strange and in the end, what was the point? The characters were bland. The setting was Austin but too undefined for me to get a grip on. Also, I hate it when characters aren't described (Kieren! I don't know what you look like! I only know that you're hot!).

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Author: Brian Selznick
Year: 2007
Age Level: Intermediate
Genre: Mystery, illustrated

Plot Summary: Hugo Cabret is a young boy living in the hidden areas of the train station in Paris, France, 1931. He winds and repairs all the clocks in the station, keeping out of sight and stealing the necessities of life. His real project, however, is a mysterious "mechanical man" who, when fixed, will write what Hugo hopes is a message from his dead father. In his quest to repair the automaton, Hugo gets involved in a larger mystery that involves drawings, necklaces and dreams.

The inclusion of 284 pages of illustrations make this an exceptionally entertaining book, one that Brian Selznick describes as "not exactly a novel, not quite a picture book, not really a graphic novel, or a flip book or a movie, but a combination of all these things."

Award/s: 2008 Caldecott Medal,

Memorable quotes: "I like to imagine the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too." --page 378

My rating: A. I hemmed and hawed about this one, mainly because the resolution and mystery were so entirely not what I expected. I did love the atmosphere of the book though, the illustrations are really, really lovely and the characters are quite charming. Hence the A.