The Wild Robot

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown, 279 pages

Roz, a robot, activates on an island after a shipwreck.  She learns to adapt to life on the island, learning the language that the animals speak.  At first, the animals are afraid of her and think she is a monster, but slowly, Roz gains their trust and even friendship, especially after she adopts an orphaned goose.  This was a sweet story and completely awesome.  It had a lot of pictures and fairly short chapters, besides a captivating story, making it a good choice for reluctant readers, despite its slightly longer length.  

Island of Legends

Island of Legends by Lisa McMann, 478 pages

Now that the magical land of Artime has been restored it is time for Alex to focus on other things, such as rescuing Sky's mother, and defending Artime borders once again. In the meantime he practices honing his skills and and using his magic to create life as mentor used to, and to send a rescue expedition to the underwater Pirate Island. In Quill High Priest Aaron works rebuild the divide between his people and and Artime by rebuilding the wall between the two and spreading rumors of an impending attack by the former unwanteds that live there. He also discovers a hidden jungle filled with dangerous secrets that he plans to use to increase his power and cement his control over the rest of the island.

The first three books of this series were fairly good, but I was a little disappointed in this fourth book. To me some of the decisions the characters make seem questionable. This book also jumped around a fair amount with lots of characters which can make it a little hard to read at times. While not as good as some of the previous books it wasn't actually bad, there was a lot of character development, and expansion of the world that the characters inhabit. 

The Shore

The Shore by Sara Taylor  303 pages

 

I’m not sure how to classify Sara Taylor’s debut novel, The Shore. It’s part contemporary fiction, part historical fiction, and part futuristic fiction. Maybe this is one of those times that literary fiction fits the bill. as I was reading, it did remind me of Sherwood Anderson’s classic Winesburg, Ohio.

 

Told in related vignettes, these are the stories of those who live on a remote group of three islands off the coast of Virginia.  At times, the islands have a significant population and at times the population is so low it’s not worth counting. The population makes up three classes of people: the wealthy vacationers, those who work on the mainland, and those who are so poor that those who inhabit the Appalachian Mountains seem rich. However, Taylor focuses her stories on that lowest rung.

 

At the beginning, there is a complicated genealogy chart that became easier to decipher as I read. The first story is about Chloe and Renee. It’s a heartbreaking tale of abuse, poverty, and childhood. Chloe narrates this episode that has a shocking conclusion.

 

After the first narrative, I found it difficult to figure who exactly who was narrating, but usually by the time I read each chapter’s end, I could figure it out. However, (there’s that troublesome word again) in the chapters where the characters did not fit into the family tree, I had no idea who was talking.

 

I will admit that I only read about 10 pages of the last story. It takes place in 2143, and I couldn’t out how the characters fit in; they are not listed on the chart. I don’t feel like I missed anything by passing on the final few pages. 

 

I have mixed feelings about this novel. At times at I LOVED it; at times I HATED it.  That’s why I give The Shore 3 out of 5 stars.

 

 I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.