Tuesday 24 March 2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Teen Book Revisits


Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they post a new topic that the participants come up with a top ten list for.

This week's topic is: Top 10 Books From My Teen Years That I Would Love To Revisit.


I may or may not have had to remind myself that I am no longer a teenager anymore. It still feels weird somewhat weird... but I'm happy. Besides, maybe some of these books will help me reminisce over the good times from my past so here we go.


W.i.t.c.h. Series by Elisabetta Gnome

Beautiful artwork, stories about a group of girls who gain magical powers to save the world in secret, finding a world that only exists beyond their world, and a friend mysteriously disappearing with no word or contact. It's a long series, and a huge commitment- a series that I have yet to finish- but I absolutely loved this. Wish I could have made some sort of closure with this series. Maybe I can now since I believe the series has now been completed for a while. One day.







The Prophecy of the Stones by Flavia Bujor

In a magical realm, three teenage girls--Jade, Opal, and Amber--are chosen to fulfill an ancient prophecy. On the day of their fourteenth birthdays, they set out on a quest that will require them to leave their homes and families face fierce enemies in a land called Fairytale, where magic reigns and evil is unknown. Although they meet as strangers, they must learn to trust one another with their lives as they embark on this epic journey, armed only with magical stones.

At the same time, in a parallel world, a young girl named Joa fights for her life in a hospital in Paris. While she is dreaming, she is transported to the magical realm where the three young heroines fight a spectacular battle. Their success or failure will determine the fate of Fairytale ...


Alright, what kind of teenager wouldn't find it inspiring that a teenager actually managed to get her book published at a young age? Best writing ever? Nah, probably not. But if she made it... why can't I? And a magical, creative, book at that. I still love this book cover. I still own this book. I don't ever want to let my copy go.

 
Magyk (Septimus Heap #1) by Angie Sage

The seventh son of the seventh son, aptly named Septimus Heap, is stolen the night he is born by a midwife who pronounces him dead. That same night, the baby's father, Silas Heap, comes across a bundle in the snow containing a new born girl with violet eyes. The Heaps take this helpless newborn into their home, name her Jenna, and raise her as their own. But who is this mysterious baby girl, and what really happened to their beloved son Septimus?

The first book in this enthralling new series by Angie Sage leads readers on a fantastic journey filled with quirky characters and magykal charms, potions, and spells. Magyk is an original story of lost and rediscovered identities, rich with humor and heart.


... I confess, I only picked it up because at my bookstore there were signs up stating that, while I was waiting for the next Harry Potter book, I should pick up this book. I don't know if it's still any good like I thought it was when I was younger but... it wouldn't hurt. Right? 



The Two Princess of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine

Twelve-year-old Addie admires her older sister Meryl, who aspires to rid the kingdom of Bamarre of gryphons, specters, and ogres. Addie, on the other hand, is fearful even of spiders and depends on Meryl for courage and protection. Waving her sword Bloodbiter, the older girl declaims in the garden from the heroic epic of Drualt to a thrilled audience of Addie, their governess, and the young sorcerer Rhys.

But when Meryl falls ill with the dreaded Gray Death, Addie must gather her courage and set off alone on a quest to find the cure and save her beloved sister. Addie takes the seven-league boots and magic spyglass left to her by her mother and the enchanted tablecloth and cloak given to her by Rhys - along with a shy declaration of his love. She prevails in encounters with tricky specters (spiders too) and outwits a wickedly personable dragon in adventures touched with romance and a bittersweet ending.


My first ever book that I've ever read from Gail. I think it might have been because of Ella Enchanted... or I fell in love with the cover and the story. Still, it was a good book.




Inkheart (Inkworld #1) by Cornelia Funke

Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can "read" fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service.

Characters from books literally leap off the page in this engrossing fantasy. Meggie has had her father to herself since her mother went away when she was young. Mo taught her to read when she was five, and the two share a mutual love of books. He can "read" characters out of books. When she was three, he read aloud from a book called Inkheart and released characters into the real world. At the same time, Meggie's mother disappeared into the story. This "story within a story" will delight not just fantasy fans, but all readers who like an exciting plot with larger-than-life characters.


Read the book. I don't care that it's one of the longest middle grade books in... ever. You should read this. Don't watch the movie, though, it doesn't give it justice at all. D:


Uglies (Uglies #1) by Scott Westerfeld

Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that?

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license - for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all.

The choice Tally makes changes her world forever...


I believe this is my first ever dystopian book... and I loved it! Highly recommended.




Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.

I read this book because it was an English assignment when I was in... I believe tenth grade if I recall. Normally I don't like these sort of books but... it really spoke to me. I was also introduced to Kristen Stewart via the movie as well which I'm grateful for. I'm glad I got to see her in an indie movie before all the Twilight movies, heh. But.. I digress...




Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs, all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations, where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his
distress...

Huxley's ingenious fantasy of the future sheds a blazing light on the present and is considered to be his most enduring masterpiece.


This was another book assignment I was given but, this time, it was for a twelfth grade summer reading assignment. I chose it because, honestly, it was the most interesting one out of the whole list. And, besides, of course I'm going to love an assignment that involves books and looking through a bookstore to look at... lots of books. I regret nothing. I didn't think I would love it so much.




Celeste (Gemini #1) by V.C. Andrews

He was her mirror image. Now the mirror has cracked.
 
Celeste and her twin brother, Noble, are as close as can be -- until a tragic accident takes Noble's life. It's a loss that pushes their mother, a woman obsessed with New Age superstitions, over the edge....
 

Desperate to keep her son "alive," Celeste's mother forces her to cut her hair, wear boys' clothes, and take on Noble's identity. Celeste has virtually disappeared -- until a handsome boy moves in next door, and Celeste will risk her mother's wrath to let herself come back to life.

The first book I've ever read that involved something incredibly tragic... and, well, totally not appropriate for a teenager in 8th/ 9th grade? I can't recall. This was also the first book where I picked it up because of the book cover. I'm still a bit nervous to pick up any more books by this author... or, by the person who now writes under her name, I should say...


So You Want to Be A Wizard (Young Wizards #1) by Diane Duane

Nita Callahan is at the end of her rope because of the bullies who've been hounding her at school... until she discovers a mysterious library book that promises her the chance to become a wizard. But she has no idea of the difference that taking the Wizard's Oath is going to make in her life. Shortly, in company with fellow beginner-wizard Kit Rodriguez, Nita's catapulted into what will be the adventure of a lifetime -- if she and Kit can both live through it. For every wizard's career starts with an Ordeal in which he or she must challenge the one power in the universe that hates wizardry more than anything else: the Lone Power that invented death and turned it loose in the worlds. Plunged into a dark and deadly alternate New York full of the Lone One's creatures, Kit and Nita must venture into the very heart of darkness to find the stolen, legendary Book of Night with Moon. Only with the dangerous power of the wizardly Book do they have a chance to save not just their own lives, but their world...  

What can I say? I loved wizards and magic. I love this cover. I just... loved this!


Yay! That was a fun blast to the past. :D Find anything new? Find anything that you read too? Maybe these books gave a little glimpse of how I was when I was a teenager... maybe. Pfft.



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