World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

World War Z by Max Brooks

Zombie fans will adore this book, as it’s an account of the recent fictitious  zombie war told through first-hand accounts of those who experienced it up close and personal.  Those who enjoyed Brooks’ tongue in cheek Zombie Survival Guide (2003) will find this volume a good companion to it.  The narrator works for a government commission and has collected accounts from various participants in the devastating zombie war.  Each “chapter” of the book is an interview with another person, some of whom are essential, like the Chinese doctor who treated “patient zero,” the first case of zombie infection.  Other chapter feature the stories of lesser-known people, but whose perspective fleshes (pardon the pun) out the whole picture for the readers.

The Little Princes by Conner Grennan

The Little Prince: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Boys of Nepal by Conner Grennan

Connor Grennan never realized how the three months he would spend at an children’s home in Nepal would change the direction of his entire life.  He just thought it looked like a way to justify traveling around the world for a year between jobs.  Little did he know that he would fall in love with the eighteen children at the Little Princes Children’s Home, and return a year later with the goal of reuniting them with their families in the faraway province of Humla.  His story is heartfelt, often humorous and sometimes tragic.  Because he kept journals during his entire time in Nepal, Grennan is able to recapture the children’s playful personalities in addition to their ability to survive basically be  stolen from their parents by a child trafficker.

I really enjoyed this book, although it could have been about a third shorter.  I recommend to readers who liked Sold, A Long Way Gone, and modern stories about families making their way in war torn countries.

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes

When Waino Mellas joined the Marine Reserves, the United States wasn’t involved in Vietnam.  He saw the reserves as a straight-forward way to help pay for his Ivy League education.  But when he graduated from college, he felt compelled to keep his “promise” to Uncle Sam and ends up as a second lieutenant leading a platoon in Bravo Company in the deep jungle of the Quang-Tri Province of Vietnam, near the Laos border.  The book is told through his eyes as his company fights not only the North Vietnamese Army, but also the heat, monsoons, malaria, thirst, hunger, leeches, trench foot, jungle rot,Agent Orange and land mines, and an enemy who sometimes feels like unrelenting apparition.  Bravo Company is charged with taking the hill the army has named Matterhorn, and after a bloody, devastating campaign, they are ordered to build an outpost there, only to be told to abandon it almost immediately after completion for a new mission. Thanks to new technology, the war is being directed by a lt. colonel and his second-in-command, who are stationed safely away from the bloody and horrific battlefields.  Not only Simpson drink too much, his motives are often suspect and he misses reports that leaves the company stranded without food, water or ammunition.

It took Karl Marlantes, a decorated marine who did serve in Vietnam, over thirty years to write this book.  At 600 pages, it’s certainly not a quick read, but for readers who want to know what the war was like for the regular grunts, it feels spot-on real, showing the life-affirming camaraderie between the soldiers,  as well as the violent and unyielding horrors of guerrilla warfare.  Although it’s almost more a character study than a plot-driven novel, readers will find it impossible to put down, once immersed into the lives of Mellas and Bravo company.  To aid the reader, Marlantes has added chart of the main characters and a  map of the fictional area around Matterhorn to the front of the book.  In the back, he has included an invaluable glossary of military terms, slang and jargon.  I especially appreciated this because his characters and plot could be authentic, without making me feel lost as a civilian reader.

This is not a decent book about the Vietnam War, it is a great book!  It has been compared to Tim O’Brien’s classic The Things They Carried, and in my opinion may just be a better book.  This vividly told book dropped me into the middle of the war, right along with Mellas.  The combat sequences were authentic and engaging, even while difficult to endure.  I felt his frustration and pain when he lost soldiers; or was told, no, there won’t be any resupply today because the military can’t take the risk of losing its choppers worth millions of dollars just to bring your troops food and water.  When the racial tension between soldier bubbled over into dangerous territory,  the reader feels as afraid for the men as Mellas does.  This compelling novel may become the Catch 22 for this war.  Especially now as the United States continues its part in the was in the Middle East, this book should be assigned reading for all officers to remind them of the mistakes we’ve made in the recent past so we don’t repeat them again.

I recommend this book to all readers and can’t rate it highly enough.  For fans of Tim O’Brien’s books and anyone interested in what really went on with the foot soldiers in this war, this is a must read.

The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt

The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt

“I used to love my brother.

Now I’m not so sure.”

So begins this book, told to us in the first person perspective by seventeen-year-old Levi.  His older brother Boaz has just returned from serving in the Marine Corps for three years, fighting somewhere in the Middle East, in what Levi calls “some desert country half a world away.”  Levi’s Israeli-American family realize rather quickly that something’s wrong with Boaz, when he locks himself up in his room without even coming downstairs to eat.  Although the military screened Boaz when he finished his service and said he was fine, the family knows different and Levi refuses to just go along with everyone, knowing something is terribly wrong with his brother and wanting the sibling he knows back.

When Boaz takes off on a hiking journey, he will no longer ride in cars for some mysterious reason, Levi follows him, using a map the older brother has written notes on as a guide.  As they visit veterans and families on their  way to Washington, DC, Levi slowly learns the trauma Boaz has gone through in the Middle East.

I really loved this book.  It helped me understand what our troops overseas are going through and how some of them respond when they return.  It reminded me a little of the movie called The Messenger that came out last year.  I would recommend this to readers who like O’Brien’s Things They Carried, Walter Dean Myers’ Sunrise Over Fallujah or Fallen Angels, and Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick.

Tomorrow When the War Began

Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden

Imagine that you’re in high school and on a camping trip with a bunch of your friends.  You have a great time, but when you return to town, you discover that all the houses have been abandoned; all the people, including your own families, seem to have vanished into thin air.  This is what happens to Ellie and her six friends in this suspenseful story set in Australia.  The kids begin to investigate and slower figure out that their country has been invaded and most of the citizens from their small town are being held prisoners at the county fairgrounds.  As the brutal reality of their situation sinks in, and the teenagers are forced to make a life and death choice: Should they go back and hide in the secret area they discovered while on their camping trip, or should they try to be heroes and rescue their families and townspeople?

This fast-paced, gripping story is a must read for fans of dystopia and apocalyptic fiction.  It’s a very easy and fast read, maybe perfect for that last minute book project!  I highly recommend it to fans of Little Brother, Hunger Games, and Margaret Atwood.

For those of you series fans, this is the first in a series of seven, all of which have been published.  It’s called The Tomorrow series, and has been super popular here and in Australia.  In fact, it’s so loved there that it’s often one of the books kids read as a whole class in school.

This is not a new title (1995), but a movie based on it will be premiering sometime this fall.  Here’s a link to the trailer on YouTube–a little cheesy but the movie looks fun!  As a longtime fan of these books, I can’t wait!

Anne Frank

PBS television, channel 9 around here, premiered a new movie version of The Diary of Anne Frank on Sunday, April 11.  This British version is two hours long and is also viewable online from April 12 – May 11, 2010 at the MasterPiece Theatre Anne Frank homepage.

The BHS library has a number of books about Anne Frank:

Anne Frank remembered : the story of the woman who helped to hide the Frank family

Anne Frank’s Tales from the secret annex

Anne Frank, beyond the diary : a photographic remembrance

Crusaders for freedom

The diary of a young girl

Searching for Anne Frank : letters from Amsterdam to Iowa

Shadow life : a portrait of Anne Frank and her family

A tribute to Anne Frank

Genghis: Birth of an Empire

Genghis: Birth of an Empire by Conn Iggulden

Genghis is the story of how Temujin, a young and disadvantaged Mongol boy, eventually rises to become Genghis Khan, the greatest conqueror in the history of mankind.  Taking place in the 12th century, Temujin was born as the second son of the “Khan” of his clan, and therefore held royal blood.  However, the Khan dies due to a wound given by men hired to assassinate him from a rival tribe, and Temujin as well as the rest of his family (mother, three brothers, and baby sister) get kicked out his native tribe, and are forced to make due on their own in the cold and harsh plains of Mongolia.   It is then that Temujin realizes that he must overcome his struggles, avenge his father’s death, and eventually unite all of the tribes as one people.
The book was written by Conn Iggulden, an author who has written many historical fiction novels before Genghis.   It was a fairly exciting read in my opinion, with many tales of death and war. It also is effective in engaging the reader into Temujin’s emotions, making me cheer for him and want to continue reading.   I would, on a scale of 1-10, give the book a 7, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in history at all, adventure fans, and even fantasy readers.

Written by Spencer  Class of 2010

Night

Our first student review of the year!  Whoo hoo!

Night by Ellie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel’s first-hand account of the Holocaust is a must-read for all students in World Literature and it is an important topic in World History. We learn through the eyes of a boy just how inhumane humans can behave towards each other. The story begins in a small village in Romanian where Elizer Wiesel lives with his mother, father and three sisters. They are devote Ortotodox Jews and Elie is dedicated to his study of the Talmud. He is also curious of Kabbalah and asks a lot of questions to the caretaker at the local temple. The whole village is in complete denial that Jewish people are in danger and should leave Romania. They eventually are rounded-up like animals and forced in cattle cars though a horrible journey to their destruction. Many watch their loved ones be tortured and killed while others become slaves at warehouses, factories and along the railroad. Elie loses all his faith in God and begins to wish death for his father who becomes a burden. Elie travels through four concentration camps before he arrives in Buchenwald, Germany. I would truly recommend that this be read to any student in high school. It is important for the world to remember how destructive Hitler was to the innocent Jewish people.

Written by Darius

Daniel Half Human and the Good Nazi

Daniel Half Human : and the Good Nazi by David Chotjewitz

This book is a California Young Reader Medal nominee for 2008-2009.  It is an interesting addition to what most of us call Holocaust Literature, the book tells the story from an unusual perspective, a teenager who never realized that he’s half Jewish until the Nazis were in full control of Germany.  In fact, he tried to join the Hitler Youth, but his parents refused to sign the papers.  When he finds out that his mother is Jewish, his universe turns upside down–suddenly he is the  “half-human,” the outcast, the one who is kicked off the soccer team and whispered about behind his back.

The “good Nazi” in the title refers to Daniel’s best friend, Armin.  He does join the Hitler Youth behind his father’s back, and eventually finds himself faced with the choice of being loyal to his friend, or following orders from his superiors.  Read Daniel Half Human to learn the unexpected ending to this unusual story.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Sunsby Khaled Hosseini

If you read and loved Kite Runner like so many of us did, this has got to be your next book. Set in Afghanistan over the last thirty years, this book tells the story of two women who are thrown together by war and other tragic and devastating events. Basically, it is the story of two women trying to survive the Soviet invasion, takeover by the Taliban, and an abusive husband. I couldn’t keep myself from being drawn in to the problems of these two very different women. Although it feels like a realistic portrayal of life in Kabul during this time period, I wish there had been more positive portrayals of men in the story, as they come off very negatively.

I cried so many times while reading this story (which is a compliment from me), but thankfully was left hopeful by its final conclusion.

A Long Way Gone

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

If you saw the movie Blood Diamond and were shocked by the way the military was using young children as soldiers, this is the book for you. It’s the true story of how a twelve-year-old boy from Sierra Leone gets caught up in his country’s civil war and is literally forced to become a soldier. The story begins when he and his friends are entering hip-hop dance contests, but changes quickly when his village is attacked by rebel forces. He and his friends are lucky enough to get away, but then spend months wandering from village to village, foraging for food and hiding from both the rebel and national armies. Beah is eventually captured and made a part of the national army. His training there converts him into a mindless killing machine. His days consist of killing with his AK-47, eating 60 second meals, and using drugs ranging from marijuana to brown brown, a cocaine-gun powder concoction.

He is eventually rescued by United Nations emmisaries, but the road back to a normal life is anything but easy. Read this short, gripping biography to find out how Beah eventually became a scholar at Oberlin College and a spokesman for child soldiers everywhere.