Can assigned reading ever be fun? Or, you know, at least tolerable?

Wow. First Monday back at the YA 5. Check out these new digs! And all of last week's spooktacular fun! I hope everyone has their ear to the ground, as the giveaways are still open for a few more days! Mad props to Georgia for organizing the fab madness!

It's been a hot summer here in Texas. Throughout the sweltering weeks fellow Austinite and YA-5-er K.A. Holt and I have occasionally peeled ourselves off of our respective sofas and meandered to a coffee shop where we "work" on "writing" and exchange critique and argue about what makes a good apocalypse. This week she and her kids even turned me into a unicorn with her fancy iPhone app.

Of course, this leads to book comparisons and the eventual recommendation of titles. Such as THE ROAD. Kari made me read it. She said it was for my own good. And I finished it about ten minutes ago and of course it was wonderful and I'm so glad I read it (even if I whined the whole time) and by the end of the book I was just completely engrossed.

Now I know this isn't a YA title. Cormac McCarthy writes for adults. But THE ROAD is often assigned to high school English classes, here in Austin, and while I was reading, I kept wondering a) OMG if I am struggling to read the first fifty pages of this book, how does a high school kid who also has to do, like, calculus and chemistry and stuff get through it? and b) if I am so engrossed by this book as an adult, would I have been into it enough as a teen to actually read it for class?

Let's face it: assigned reading bears the burden of being assigned. You HAVE to read it to make the grade, and if you're anything like me, you feel that anything you HAVE to do isn't fun. I mean, I'm supposedly a grown-up, and if someone tells me I HAVE to get dressed I'm going to sit around in my pajamas for hours just to show them I don't HAVE to do anything.Maybe I should have my grown-up card revoked.

Anyway, a) yes, teenagers are ridiculously smart. So smart that there's no doubt that they can read THE ROAD and other literary books with tough topics and big words (Cormac McCarthy uses a lot of words that I have to look up). But how do they find the time? This book took me WEEKS to read, and I don't have French homework or soccer practice. So, I would like to give props to the Texas teens who read this book as part of their curriculum. You are heroes.

And b) confession time: I only did about 10% of my assigned reading. And knowing that my former English teacher Mrs. Ryder sometimes reads my posts I AM SORRY REALLY I AM but sophomore year I still read most of the stuff. I mean I loved LORD OF THE FLIES and I memorized that solioquy from MACBETH and I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS is still one of my favorite books ever, so, cut me some slack. Mrs. Ryder, I bet I read more of your assignments than my dad did when he was in your class, okay? Okay.

But by senior year I was drowning in college applications and a boyfriend from another school (didn't so much mind that bit...) and the last thing I needed in my life was Herman Melville. I know some of you out there read MOBY DICK and cherish it and are making voodoo dolls of me right now. And maybe you aren't the type of person who gets an assignment and thinks that someone is trying to kill your spirit. Heck no I wasn't going to watch APOCALYPSE NOW in class. I was going to take a nap. And I can't even remember if I "read" THE GRAPES OF WRATH or THE GREAT GATSBY and the only reason I get those books confused is that the two English classes were assigned them at the same time and my BFF was in the other class. I did read THE SCARLET LETTER that year, though. Do I get points?


I am a horrible influence. I'm kind of bad at this whole role model thing. Woops.

Anyway, I have to wonder, if I'd been assigned THE ROAD in high school -- and part of me wants to call up my old high school and find out what they're reading these days...creepy? -- would I have read it? Or would it have become a book that, to this day, I can't pick up and enjoy (SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, for example) because it was once one of those dreadfully assigned novels.

How do you all feel about assigned reading? August is almost here and y'all are probably getting ready to cram several weeks worth of summer assignments into a blessed few days while hooked up to an IV drip of cola hoping not to nod out. Because, you know, that's how I got through THE THINGS THEY CARRIED. I hear it's a good book. Maybe I'll pick it up and actually read it for pleasure someday.

WHITE CAT Review

When Holly Black's WHITE CAT arrived I must admit, I didn't know what to expect. I'm not one of those people who actually enjoys reading review copies. I don't enjoy the pressure of feeling like I have to like the book. Honestly, I expected it to be good.

When I read the synopsis of WHITE CAT on the official website, I figured this was no ordinary YA book. This was something I hadn't seen before--something smart, engaging and fun. I figured this was going to be exactly the kind of book that I was going to fall in love with. I was right.

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

WHITE CAT reads like a thriller, family-saga, crime drama and coming of age YA all rolled into one. Cassel is the perfect main character even with all of his flaws and we love to cheer him on even as he gets into trouble, makes bad choices and shows us his imperfections.

The relationship between Cassel and his family is one of the more interesting I've seen in YA. Everyone has an angle. Mother, brothers and grandfather all there with some sort of influence--good or bad. I'm looking forward to seeing how things play out with the mother in the next book.

In WHITE CAT, nothing is truly as it seems and yet, everything has a wonderfully reasonable explanation--well--in the world of curse magic--that is. The world Black has built is completely compelling and alluring and only slightly unlike that of our own. It is those minor yet incredible differences that make Cassel's world so amazingly intriguing.

The book has a very cinematic flow from opening to ending. I could easily visualize every scene as I read. The intricacy of the world in which the characters lived was so well developed--that you almost forget that their existence is not normal.

I finished the book in a day and a half and am genuinely disappointed that I will have to wait so long for the sequel. WHITE CAT is the best book I've read this year. I challenge you to come up a book that is as original, evenly paced, well put together and solid overall in terms of a YA offering. It will appeal to boys and girls as well as those interested in both contemporary and paranormal content. With a little romance sprinkled in, it has something for everyone.

Simon and Schuster says the book works for ages fourteen and up. There is some some under age drinking but it's done well. I highly recommend WHITE CAT. I can't say enough great things about it. I may even be gushing.

Visit the WHITE CAT official website here.

Visit Holly Black's official website.

visit Simon and Schuster.

Visit our wonderful tour hosts, MundieMoms.