Hold Tight Don’t Let Go by Laura Rose Wagner

I am a rag doll throttled in a dog’s mouth. The earth lurches back and forth and back again, and then it shudders in violent waves. I can’t keep my balance, and I fall to my knees. I see the house fall. I know I should be afraid, but I feel nothing but numbness.

Published by Amulet Books in January 2015

Pages - 250

Hold Tight, Don’t Let Go follows the vivid story of two teenage cousins, raised as sisters, who survive the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti. After losing the woman who raised them in the tragedy, Magdalie and Nadine must fend for themselves in the aftermath of the quake. The girls are inseparable, making the best of their new circumstances in a refugee camp with an affectionate, lively camaraderie, until Nadine, whose father lives in Miami, sends for her but not Magdalie. As she leaves, Nadine makes a promise she cannot keep: to bring Magdalie to Miami, too. Resourceful Magdalie focuses her efforts on a reunion with Nadine until she realizes her life is in Haiti, and that she must embrace its possibilities for love, friendship, and a future.

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This book is a fictional representation of a real life catastrophe. This book’s publication coincides with the fifth anniversary of the Haiti earthquake which devastated the country, killing so many people and left a society in such unbelievable sorrow.

It isn’t an easy read, as you journey through the actual event and the days that followed it. This is a deeply personalised account, so you really are hit deeply by Magdalie’s thoughts and feelings as she tries to come to terms with the loss of her aunt who has always been like a mother to her. Not to mention the drastic change in living conditions. When you see events like this on television, you are shocked by the devastation, but you are at a distance from it. However I found  reading about it and hearing what day to day life was like really hit home and upset me a lot.

Not only is this a story about the aftermath of the disaster, but it is also a coming of age story. Magdalie and Nadine have always felt like sisters and begin their journey through the events together. However when Nadine’s estranged father sends her a plane ticket  to take her to live in America, Magdalie is devastated. She is left to cope alone and the loneliness really is awful for her. You can see a heavy blanket of depression dropping down on her, almost suffocating the life out of her. Thankfully a trip to where her aunt came from, gives her the space and the perspective to change her future.

I think this is a beautifully written book. I really felt the author captured the devastation but dealt with it sympathetically. This book shows how resilient the human race really is. When we fall down, we jump back up stronger. The last chapter really brought a tear to my eye. Set in 2020 and written by the main character, it is really is a hope for the future. I could imagine many of the inhabitants of Haiti hoping and praying for this type of future.

Top Ten Robots

To celebrate the publication of Frank Einstein by Jon Scieszka, I have been asked to write a post about my top ten robots. Now I am an 80’s child, so you are going to have forgive me if you don’t know some of chosen robots. So here goes - my top ten robots!

1) Bicentennial Man

In the wake of the suicide of Robin Williams, this film has been on my mind a lot, so I thought it was only fitting that Bicentennial Man should take the Number 1 spot. This is one of my favourite films and the character’s quest to be human is simply heart breaking.

2) Metal Mickey

Metal Mickey was a TV series from the early 80’s and one I remember fondly. Every Saturday night, I would also sit down before dinner to watch the hilarious antics of this robot, who lived with a perfectly English family, after their son created Mickey to help him around the house.

3) C3PO

I love the Star Wars films. I don’t know how many times I have watched them. So C3PO most definitely had to be on this list.

4) R2D2

And you can’t have C3PO on the list without having his sidekick, R2D2.

5) Twiki

Twiki from Buck Rogers was definitely one of my favourite robots growing up. He used to make me laugh with his ‘Bedeep bedeep bedeep’ as he shook his head.

6) KITT

Now who didn’t want a car like KITT from Knight Rider? With a computer module set in an extremely advanced car, he was the most intelligent robotic automobile around at the time.

7) Transformers.

And then the Transformers stole his crown - alien robots that turn themselves into every day machinery

8)C.H.E.E.S.E

Being a huge Friends fan, I couldn’t resist this one. Who could forget the episode with Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E where Joey auditions for a new show with a rather difficult sidekick?

9) Lisa from Weird Science

I told you I was an 80’s girl and this was definitely one of my favourite robot films. Inspired by Frankenstein, Lisa, played by Kelly Brook is created when two rather bored teenagers decide to make the perfect woman on their computer.

10) The Terminator.

It would be wrong not to include The Terminator - this cyborg assassin sent back from the future to kill Sarah Connor. I wouldn’t say he was my favourite but I have watched the movies endlessly.

So there you have my top ten robots of all time. If you are following the Frank Einstein blog tour, then make sure you pop over to Library Mice tomorrow for the next installment.

Summary

Frank Einstein loves figuring out how the world works by creating household contraptions that are part science, part imagination, and definitely unusual. After an uneventful experiment in his garage-lab, a lightning storm and flash of electricity bring Frank’s inventions—the robots Klink and Klank—to life! Not exactly the ideal lab partners, the wisecracking Klink and the overly expressive Klank nonetheless help Frank attempt to perfect his Antimatter Motor . . . until Frank’s arch nemesis, T. Edison, steals Klink and Klank for his evil doomsday plan! Using real science, Jon Scieszka has created a unique world of adventure and science fiction—an irresistible chemical reaction for middle-grade readers.

To find out more about Jon Sciezka:

Website

The Icarus Project by Laura Quimby

Image from Goodreads

Review by Sophie Duffy 

Published by Amulet Books, 1st November 2012

293 pages

The computer screen glowed in my dark bedroom like a moon. Mom was late logging on to video-conference with me. My mom was totally into ancient civilisations: Mayans, Incans, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans. She even liked Vikings. Her latest expedition had taken her to the jungles of South America. She had told me that in the jungle nothing dries, that everything stays wet. She said even the moonlight felt damp on her skin, s if she had been bathing in milk.

Good Reads

More than anything, Maya wants to discover something incredible. Her parents are scientists: Her mother spends most of her time in tropical rainforests, uncovering ancient artifacts, and her dad is obsessed with digging up mammoths. When her father gets invited by an eccentric billionaire to lead a team investigating a mammoth’s remains in the Arctic, Maya begs to come along. Upon her arrival at the isolated camp, the mammoth is quickly revealed to be a fake, but there is something hidden in the ice—something unbelievable. Along with a team of international experts, each with his or her own agenda and theory about the mystery in the ice, Maya learns more about this discovery, which will change her life forever.

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Thirteen year old Maya is a spirited, determined character with a passion for books and learning. With her snow-white hair, she has always found herself on the outside. She is desperate to find her own place in the world of science, like her parents, where she will be accepted for what she does, not how she looks. An unexpected expedition to the Arctic with her father is hopefully the start of this journey.

Quimby writes beautifully and the descriptions of the Arctic are both poetic and atmospheric. She builds a believable setting in which the drama can unfold. And unfold it does.

We soon realise nothing is as it seems at the camp. There is no woolly mammoth buried in the ice. It is something quite different. Something that will be life-changing for all involved.

Maya is the first-person narrator and her voice is authentic and inviting. We navigate the new, unknown landscape of snow and ice through her eyes, emotions and thoughts, feeling the biting cold as she does, and sensing the wonder of it all. When she teams up with Kyle, the son of an anthropologist, they become a dynamic duo, intent on uncovering the intrigue that they know is going on. Their friendship is based on fun, discovery and doing what they think is right - no hint of a romance (which is refreshing!). They have no agenda, just empathy with the mysterious creature that comes from the ice.

What I really liked about ‘The Icarus Project’ is the way Quimby makes this world of mythology and fantasy also very real, based in science, and with a believable strong female lead, a girl on the cusp of womanhood, finding her place in society and full of hope for her future and her desire to do good. The fast-paced adventure is balanced satisfyingly by the beautiful language and the emotional depth of Maya.

A fabulous read.