Teen Read Review: Cinder

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Genre: dystopian, YA

My rating: 4 1/2 stars

Summary from goodreads.com: "Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, the ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . . 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future"

If you know me, then you know that I LOVE dystopian YA, and also that I like fairy tale retellings. Put those two together, and I'm a happy reader. I loved the concept of this book, the characters, the dialogue, the writing, the pacing, the ...well, you get the picture. It was a pretty fabulous book from a debut author. And I must say, I LOVE that this will be a series of four books, each using a different fairy tale in a different location. Genius idea Meyer!  Just in case you're interested, here's the Lunar Chronicles line-up:

1. Cinder.   Based off of Cinderella.  Set in New Beijing.
2. Scarlet.  Based off of Little Red Riding Hood.  Set in France.
3. Cress.  Based off of Rapunzel.  Set on the moon.  (How cool is that?!)
4. Winter.  Based off of Snow White.  Set in the Sahara Desert.

And apparently, the totally awesome Cinder is in all four books.  Whoo hoo!  Oh, and speaking of characters I totally adored Iko, the house robot and her fabulous personality. Where can I get one?!?  She better be in the next books!

So, why couldn't I give this book 5 stars?


Honestly, it's because I found it too predictable. I seemed to always know what was going to happen next, and I don't think because it was based off of Cinderella. This book didn't follow the fairy tale that closely, and honestly I think the series is good enough to stand on its own without the fairy tale foundation. But anyway, I think it was just the twists and turns Meyer took us on were what needed to be done to move the story (and the series) forward, and if she hadn't done what she did, she would have been on the wrong track. Does that make sense?


I highly recommend this book. And I can't wait for the next one to come out!


Anyone else read it or planning on reading it? And what do you think about the idea of a story being predicable because it's what needs to be done to move the story forward?

Creativity in the Classroom?

Do you think students' creativity is being squelched in the classroom?

I used to be a middle school English teacher before I became a stay-at-home mommy and writer and blogger.  The focus drilled into us teachers constantly by principals, vice principals, team meeting leaders, etc was the curriculum.  Teaching students what they needed for the next test and for those standardized tests that would prove to people that their children were not being left behind.

Now, I think it's awesome that we're making sure we're teaching our students what they need to know.  But I fear that in the process, we've taught students how to prepare for tests while putting their ability to think for themselves and to be creative on the back burner.  Not that critical thinking and creativity in the classroom don't exist, but they're not being encouraged as much as they should.

My last year of teaching, I decided to end our fiction unit by letting the students write a story of their own.  I was excited by the creativity that would follow.  I thought they would be excited too.  What I got instead were lots of questions.  "How is this being graded?"  "Why are we doing this, writing isn't on the test, right?"  "How long does it have to be?"  "What does it have to have in it?"

I got frustrated.  I wanted them to just write and be creative.  Without concern about their grade or page length.  Just to write.  And this very situation is what inspired the concept of my manuscript I began working on alongside those students.

Eventually they began to let go of their anxieties.  Those pencils started flowing.  Excitement filled the air.  Even though I told them they'd have plenty of time in class to work on their stories, many went home and worked on it.  I loved seeing them excited about their ideas and their writing.

So, I ask you, what do you think?  Do you think students' creativity is put on the back burner to focus on the curriculum and testing?  Does it depend on the teacher and whether they incorporate creative outlets in their lessons?  Or is creativity flourishing and thriving in schools?

"The Writer's Voice" entry

“The Writer’s Voice” is a contest hosted by Cupid of Cupid’s Literary Connection, Brenda Drake of Brenda Drake Writes, Monica B.W. of Love YA, and Krista Van Dolzer of Mother.Write.(Repeat). 

The contest requires you to post the plot summary from your query letter and first 250 words of a finished manuscript.  So, with some nervousness and great excitement, I share with you:  

The Plot Summary of my YA sci-fi Right State of Mind:

Anyone who could provide humanity with limitless creativity would surely win a Nobel Prize.  Right?  Posing as a high school teacher, a neuroscientist chooses thirty unsuspecting students as his guinea pigs in his simple experiment: use light pulses to stimulate neurons in the right side of the brain and unhindered creativity will follow.  Genius!

Ivy, senior editor of the school newspaper, is the only one to see a dazzling light in the hallway.  Over time, several of her classmates can write, paint, draw, sculpt and design like never before.  And oddly enough, they are completely unaware of what they are doing until after their creation is completed.  While everyone fully embraces the creativity that unfolds, Ivy is convinced the light is not only connected to the new phenomenon she dubs “creative episodes”, but that they could be dangerous.  

Ivy’s popular twin brother, Sage, finds himself not only the captain of the basketball team, but also an artist with detailed drawings and vibrant paintings he doesn't even remember making.  The only one who doesn’t appreciate his new skills is his nerdy sister, whose crazy theories and recent articles are doing nothing to elevate his social status.
  
But then the episodes begin to happen more often.  And then the side effects begin.  One of which kills a classmate.  Terrified, Sage joins his sister to piece together the mystery of the creative episodes and what is behind them before he or someone else gets seriously hurt.

The First 250 Words:

They reminded him of bees.  Swarming around, buzzing excitedly with their friends, their minds focused on their task at hand—lockers, friends, homeroom.  That was always their pattern in the morning, much as a worker bee's pattern was flower, hive, honey comb. The hallways were always a hive of activity that he avoided as much as possible.

He scrutinized them as they joked with each other, crammed things in their lockers, talked about their previous night, about who was going out with whom.  They were on a mission to talk to as many people as possible before slipping into their seats just as class began.  He couldn’t blame them.  Class could be tedious.  But all this drama that they cared about was ridiculous.

          They were oblivious to what was to come.  He would show them what really mattered.

Adrenaline surged through his body.  Today was the day he would launch his great experiment.  If his hypothesis was correct, if the experiment went as planned, he would change these subjects' lives.  He would change education.  He would change neuroscience.  But mostly...he would change the world.

          Everything was set.  He had his experimental group of subjects.  He'd been observing them for the first months of school, meticulously recording data about their habits and personalities.

        All his research would culminate right here in ordinary Kennedy High School.  It was perfect.  Profound.  Nobel Prize worthy.