#37 Kingdom Keepers 4 - Power Play by Ridley Pearson
The Overtakers attempt to take over a power plant.
#38 - Kingdom Keepers 5 - Shell Game by Ridley Pearson
The Keepers join a Disney cruise, only to be in more peril than they ever were on land.
Both books were okay but I'm a bigger fan of the parks, so that's the bigger draw for me. The cruise thing just isn't really doing it for me, although I do enjoy cruising.
#39 - Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
Kira was born with a twisted leg. After her mother dies, the elders in the community she lives in must decide if they will allow her to stay (and live) or be banished to die alone in the wilderness. But Kira has a special gift - her sewing abilities, and for a community that thrives on memories of the past, she is selected to repair the Ceremonial Robe used each year at the retelling of their history.
Book Two in the Giver Quartet. It's by far the least compelling story but the similarities and differences between Kira's community and the one Jonas inhibits in the first book are striking and allow for the book to still be a good, fulfilling read.
#40 Messenger by Lois Lowry
Matty (formerly known as Matt in the previous book) has successfully escaped the community he and Kira once lived in. He's made a new life for himself in a new place - one that welcomes people fleeing from harsh communities and those with disabilities. Here, everyone has a True Name based on their job/skills - like Miller, or Mentor (the teacher), or Leader. Matty, who loves to travel to other places through Forest, hopes to one day become Messenger. But a darkness is brewing and Forest is becoming violent...and Matty must make one final journey through Forest to both collect Kira and to let the other places know that Village will be closing...
A good, solid read that finally begins to weave together the threads of the first two books, bringing both Kira and Jonas into a universe where they coexist and where the reader can now understand why this is a quartet.
#41 Lucas on The Line by Suyi Davies
Lucas Sinclair is about to enter a place more dangerous than the Upside Down - high school. His student mentor convinces him to go and try out for the basketball team, which Lucas does because, hey, the other guy has the same skin tone as he does. As a result, his relationships with his best friends and girlfriend (still mourning the loss of her abusive stepbrother over that summer to the Mind Flayer) suffer. He abandons his love for Dungeons and Dragons, he is snippy and short with his friends, and he completely loses his girlfriend when she breaks up with him. It's only when his teammates posse up to harm Eddie, the high school stoner/D&D master/weirdo/guy who has flunked so badly he's way older than everyone else that Lucas snaps out of his selfishness and actively goes to help his friends.
I wanted to like this book. I liked Robin's story. I liked Max's story. But this one just felt wrong. The author spends 99% of his time brining up race that it's unpleasant and totally out of character for Lucas, who has brought up his skintone so infrequently on Stranger Things that I can probably count it on one hand. If this had been more central to the character, I would have overlooked it and chalked it up to "yeah, that's how he is," but the Lucas presented on the show simply isn't like that. And then there were other rookie missteps - like constantly calling The Mind Flayer the "Spider Monster." It always pulled me straight out of the story and finishing the tale became an unpleasant chore.
#42 Son by Lois Lowry
The 4th and final installment of The Giver. They called her Water Claire. She was a woman who was found at sea, rescued, and brought to live in a rustic community. She was a blank slate, unable to remember much of her past or why she had left the place where she'd grown up. There, she'd been a Vessel. She'd carried and grown a Product in her body. The Product had been ripped from her body and taken away and she'd been cast aside to work in the Fish Hatchery instead, because the difficulty in Producing had ruined her body. She had vowed to find that Product, knowing only that he was her son, not even knowing for sure what the committee had planned to call him.
This one is divided into 3 books - the first focusing on Claire's life back in the community of her birth. It details her Production, her subsequent dismissal and reassignment, her struggle to connect with Newchild she'd borne. Book 2 details her life after leaving the community behind, her amnesia, and her slow to return memories. It focuses on her extreme efforts to escape the easy life she'd come to know and love, in an effort to reconnect with her son, even making a terrible deal to help her on her quest. Book 3 is less about her - now years later - but more about the son she's found but who still doesn't know who she is. But he must come to believe the impossible and with all haste so that he can face the evil that threatens her life.
After The Giver (which is one of my favorite books ever), this is a clear and close second for me. Part of it is just knowing the desperation Claire feels in wanting to find her son. As a mom, I get it and would also go to the ends of the world for my daughters. Part of it is just the adventure of it. But it's my favorite of the sequels and the story by far blows the other two out of the water.
