The Midnight Zoo

Title: The Midnight Zoo
Author: Sonya Hartnett
Publisher: Walker Books
Publication date: November 1st 2010
Age group: Middle Grade
Genre: Historical Fiction
Cover rating: 2/5
Content rating: 4/5

Description via Goodreads:

World War II, Eastern Europe: Tomas and his younger brother, Andrej, have fled their Romany encampment which has been besieged by the Germans; they carry Wilma, their baby sister, in a sack. In an abandoned, bombed-out town, the children discover a zoo. In it are a wolf and an eagle, a monkey, bear, lioness, seal, chamois and llama. The animals tell their stories to the children as they try to begin to understand what has become of their lives and, when they try to figure out a way to release the animals, what it means to be free.

My thoughts:


I really enjoyed this. I thought it might be too short, but it turned out to be okay. It follows three gypsy kids on the run during WW2. It's very interesting to see the two boys take on the role of their parents and provide for their younger sister- despite how annoying they find her. Andrej and Tomas end up in a zoo in a ruined village, and try to piece together what's happening to the world. It was different than anything I've read before, and a very unique tale. I enjoyed it a lot, but I found the ending a bit flimsy.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Title: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Author: Lisa See

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing 

Publication date: January 1st 2005 

Age group: Adult 

Genre: Historical Fiction 

Cover rating: 3/5

Content rating:  5/5

Description via Goodreads: 

In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, old same, in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan on which she painted a poem in nu shu, a unique language that Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the influence of men. As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

My thoughts:

This book is set in China, during a time when a woman's worth is based solely on the size of her feet, which is determined by footbinding. If she has small feet, she will marry well. If the footbinding goes wrong, or doesn't happen at all, the girl will be subjected to a life of slavery. The process of footbinding was horrific, and I found it very difficult to read about. The story follows two girls- Lily and Snow Flower- who are bound to each other from the age of seven. We see them grow up together, and face all the challenges woman of that time faced. The women in this book had no freedom, and were seen as nothing more than a means of producing sons. At times, I found the culture hard to grasp, and found myself disliking a lot of the characters for the way they acted- but that was just the way it was. Overall, I found the book compelling, and extremely interesting.   

Fallen Grace

 Title: Fallen Grace

Author: Mary Hooper

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing 

Publication date: June 7th 2010 

Age group: Young Adult 

Genre: Historical Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Mystery 

Cover rating: 4/5

Overall rating: 4/5 

Description via Goodreads: 

Grace Parkes has just had to do a terrible thing. Having given birth to an illegitimate child, she has travelled to the famed Brookwood Cemetery to place her small infant's body in a rich lady's coffin. 

Following the advice of a kindly midwife, this is the only way that Grace can think of to give something at least to the little baby who died at birth, and to avoid the ignominy of a pauper's grave. Distraught and weeping, Grace meets two people at the cemetery: Mrs Emmeline Unwin and Mr James Solent. These two characters will have a profound affect upon Grace's life. But Grace doesn't know that yet. For now, she has to suppress her grief and get on with the business of living: scraping together enough pennies selling watercress for rent and food; looking after her older sister, who is incapable of caring for herself; thwarting the manipulative and conscience-free Unwin family, who are as capable of running a lucrative funeral business as they are of defrauding a young woman of her fortune. 

My thoughts:

I really enjoyed this one. I wasn't all that intrigued by the premise but the story actually turned out to be really good. I found Grace to be an incredibly lovable character and I found myself really caring about what was going to happen to her and her sister, Lily. The story is really interesting and the corrupt nature of London's rich added a shocking element to it. I was quite annoyed that Hooper put in that small chapter about the baby at the start... it took away any twist at the end when Grace found out the truth. It would have been nice to have been as surprised as Grace was, instead of knowing it all along. Overall though, it was a nice book, well written and full of excellently developed characters.

Goodreads Choice Awards 2011: WINNERS!

Today Goodreads announced the winners of their Goodreads Choice Awards. The books were voted for by Goodreads members over the past few weeks. The winners are as follows!

Young Adult Fiction winner is Where She Went by Gayle Forman:

Favourite book of 2011 is Divergent by Veronica Roth : 

The winner of the Fiction category is  1Q84 by Haruki Murakami :

Mystery and Thriller winner is Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich:

Historical Fiction winner is The Paris Wife by Paula McLain:

Fantasy Winner is A Dance With Dragons by George R.R Martin:

Paranormal Fantasy winner is Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning

Science Fiction winner is 11/22/63 by Stephen King 

Horror winner is Graveminder by Melissa Marr

Other categories:

Romance Winner is Lover Unleashed by J.R. Ward

Humour Winner is Bossypants by Tina Fey

Nonfiction Winner is The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth by Alexandra Robbins

History and Biography winner is Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Memoir and Autobiography winner is Two Kisses for Maddy by Matthew Logelin 

Food and Cooking Winner is My Father's Daughter by Gwenyth Paltrow 

Travel and Outdoors winner is Little Princes by Conor Grennan

Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction winner is Divergent by Veronica Roth

Middlegrade and Children's winner is The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

Picture Books winner is When I Grow Up by Al Yankovic

Graphic Novels and Comics winner is Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead 

Poetry Winner is Horoscopes for the Dead by Billy Collins

And the Goodreads Author of the year is...

Cassandra Clare 

Unfortunately the only book I've read from the list is Divergent and Cassandra Clare's books! I was really hoping A Monster Calls would win in the Middle Grace category and I'm quite disappointed that it didn't! How about you?