Audiobook Awesomeness: Heist Society by Ally Carter

It has been awhile, hasn’t it my peeps? Even though this month flew by so fast, it has been an eternity since I wrote a post.  I finally write to you today because Summer Reading Program (SRP) is officially done! Now I can go back to my normal schedule and spend every night relaxing and reading at home; not exhausted, grumpy, or irritable. I am so far behind on the Reading Challenge, stuck on Kentucky. Before I can even start that book I have two more books for fun summer reading.  Oh man, there is just not enough time! I knew I needed to post something and then remembered that I borrowed the audiobook of Heist Society by Ally Carter for my long commutes.

This story is a thrill ride. If you loved the Ocean’s Eleven movies, then you will love this series because it is pretty much the exact same thing. Of course, there are differences. We have a female lead, all the main con artists are teenagers, and there is a mystery element surrounding the infamous Visily Romani. All in all, the story is very much the second movie, Ocean’s Twelve. I’ll explain below.

Katarina Bishop (Kat) thought she had walked away from a life of thievery to start a fresh life in prep school.  She had walked away for only a few months when an old family friend, W. W. Hale V (Hale for short), springs her from school for a job.  See, Kat’s father has been accused of stealing priceless art pieces from an Italian mobster. This mobster is powerful and dangerous as well as determined. He gives Kat and her father two weeks to bring him back his paintings or he will be forced to take drastic measures. This leads Kat on a trail to track down the paintings and steal them back. This is pretty much the opening to Ocean’s Twelve isn’t it?

Kat; however, isn’t the only thief out there who is trying to get the paintings. The mysterious Visiliy Romani (think the Nightfox from Ocean’s Twelve) was the real culprit behind the mobster’s paintings and he has hidden them away in the crème-de-la-crème of museums.  Now Kat and her team of six teenagers, the best junior thieves in the world, must come up with a strategy to get the paintings back. I will have to find the sequel as the mystery did not fully wrap up at the end of this book.

Kat is a great character. Strong female characters are at times hard to come by, but Kat is a gem.  She runs her own op and has a real knack for leadership and authority. She is also quite clever.  Even though her situation is most certainly not the norm, I still find Kat to be relatable.  She is “one of the boys”, has aspirations for a normal life, and comes to accept herself with all her strengths and flaws by the end of the novel. Love her!

This is a great mystery and spy novel. It is a fun and quick read; therefore, really useful for the “high interest, low reading level” demographic. I enjoyed the narrator immensely as she did some excellent European accents. If those aren’t enough reasons to get it for your collection, then also think of this: Heist Society was the 3^rd highest voted title in YALSA’s Teen’s Top 10 from 2010. Since teens voted this title as one of their favorites, then you need to consider Heist Society for your YA collection.

Other recommended titles for YA mystery and spy lovers:

Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard

Stormbreaker series by Anthony Horowitz

Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter

Bad kitty by Michele Jaffe

Among the Hidden series by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Audiobook Awesomeness: WWII Historical Fiction

SUBTITLE: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Peeps, it has been a tiresome few weeks of SRP and yet I still have a few more weeks to go. It is even hard now to concentrate on what exactly I have accomplished in terms of reading and listening. In the midst of all these programs, I traveled for a short weekend trip to the tiny colonial town of New Bern, NC. During this trip, I listened to two audiobooks to help the pass the time.

Theoretically, I “read” The Book Thief in graduate school for my Young Adult Literature class, but I use the term READ very loosely.  That’s what I get for waiting to the end of the semester to start my reading! I heard so many great things about this novel and all of my classmates seemed to like it, but with it being my last semester I just could not find time to finish it.  Now with the awesome technology of CDs I listened to it three years later and I have to agree with my colleagues that this is a great novel.

First, The Book Thief is told through Death’s perspective, who is an interesting narrator. Death's voice is pretty powerful given the fact that the story takes place during the bloodiest years of World War II. I enjoyed that Death characterized battles and souls based on colors that he saw at the time. While out and about being Death in Nazi Germany, he/she/it? remembers meeting a young undereducated girl, Liesel Meminger.  Liesel is at the funeral of her little brother, who died on their way to Molching, Germany to live with foster parents.  Death notices that Liesel steals a book from the grave diggers and throughout the rest of her time in Germany he runs into her. During one of these encounters, he takes a book that she wrote for herself and shares it with us, the audience.  Death gives us a girl’s perspective of growing in Nazi Germany and her dealing with bombings, Hitler Youth, book burnings, and the Jews. 

Markus Zusak, gives us a wonderful tangled tale of characters and an amazing story. From the protagonists to supporting characters, I felt a connection with each one as Zusak spent time developing each character’s own story. The ending is enough to make you cry. I see this book being a great companion for high schoolers studying WWII. I think English teachers would be missing out on a great teaching opportunity by not using this book congruently with History. As an audiobook, this was fantastic as the narrator was amazing. He did great voices and kept me engaged the entire drive. I highly recommend this story for historical fiction fans.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry is a shorter story about the occupation of Denmark during WWII and is a Newberry Medal winner. I have known about Lois Lowry (my best friend is in love with The Giver), but I have not had an opportunity to read any of her works. Closing in on finishing The Book Thief, I decided before my little vacay to grab Number the Stars as a backup.

The story is about Annemarie Johansen who is living in Copenhagen with her family during Nazi Occupation. The Nazis are starting to round up those of Jewish faith, which includes Annemarie’s neighbor and best friend Ellen Rosen. During a part of the story, the Johansens pretend that Ellen is their eldest daughter, Lise, who had died earlier during the war as part of the Danish Resistance. With the help of the Danes, the Rosens and many other Jewish families are smuggled out of Denmark to Sweden before they can be rounded up by the Nazis. There are of course many close encounters with the Nazis, but the Johansens are able to help the Rosens sneak away.

What is impressive about this book is the amount of research Lowry put into the story. She travelled to Copenhagen to look at archives and perform interviews in order to be as true as possible. Apparently, the napkin Annemarie slips to her Uncle Henrik was legitimately used during WWII as a way to thwart human-sniffing dogs. This book is definitely more elementary school friendly than The Book Thief and is a great companion to a section about Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel. The audiobook was done nicely and I enjoyed the narrator doing the range of voices.

Again, audiobooks are coming through for me. I have been able to listen and learn more classics than I would by reading. Many children suffer as reluctant readers and adults for that matter.  Alternative mediums such as audiobooks or graphic novels are perfect ways to get kids interested in a variety of subjects. Also, if you have a family vacation coming up, audiobooks can keep your children occupied on the long drive. Heck, they keep me engaged in the car to and from work. 

Other recommended titles for fans of this genre via Novelist:

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

Night by Elie Weisel

Run, boy, run by Uri Orlev

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

Ashes by Kathryn Lasky