Become a bookAholic

Stories that inspire us, stories that make us cry, stories we want to live and stories we can’t stop reading… A reading list of 2014.

December 25, 2014 03:31 pm | Updated 03:31 pm IST

The Princess in the Opal Mask

The Princess in the Opal Mask

For the book lover in me, this year has been wonderful. I have read some of the best books this year.

The year started on a good note with Wonder by R. J. Palacio. This is the kind of book that makes you want to stop people on the road and tell them about it. August (Auggie) Pullman, the ten-year-old hero of the book, wormed his way into my heart. Life is cruel for a boy born with a rare birth defect that plays havoc with his face. Even after several surgeries to correct the facial anomalies, Auggie is called cruel nicknames like Freak, Freddy Krueger, Gross-out and Lizard face. When August starts his fifth grade at Beecher Prep (he had been home-schooled earlier), most of the students act as though he carries an infectious disease. No one wants to touch him or sit with him. His face looks like it has been burnt because his features look like they have been melted. This book is about one boy’s survival in a cruel world where we are judged by our external appearance.

Every Day by David Levithan is a book I inhaled instead of read. A book that definitely requires a re-read. It’s a story about A — a teen who wakes up in a different body every morning. Things are all right until A wakes up in the body of a boy named Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend Rhiannon. From then on, A breaks all the rules by which he had been living inside other people. Imagine what happens when someone who doesn’t have a body, falls in love.

Travel back in time

Pandora the Curious , a Goddess Girls book written by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams’ is the female version of the Percy Jackson series. The two authors have put an amazing and modern spin on Greek mythology. The book centres on Mount Olympus Academy where an entire army of privileged and pampered god boys and goddess girls study. Throw in a few mortals and there was enough sparkle and sizzle to light up a small city and also my dull day.

The Truth about Verity Sparks by Susan Green transported me to 19th century London with horse-drawn carriages and ladies in hats. Verity, an orphan who worked as an apprentice in a hat shop has an amazing talent — teleagtivism. Though this sounds like a dreadful disease it is actually a wonderful talent. With this talent, Verity can find lost things by simply thinking of them. It’s a gift everyone would love to have, especially when we misplace important objects like keys and glasses. This gift also leads Verity to the truth about her family.

Holes by Louis Sachar was a book I had heard a lot about. The book lived up to its reputation of being called a modern classic. Stanley Yelnats, the protagonist is unjustly sent to a boy’s detention center — Camp Green Lake. Here the boys are made to dig holes: five feet wide and five feet deep, every single day. The school authorities justify this digging of holes as a character building exercise. It’s up to Stanley to find the reason for this digging while carrying the burden of a family curse.

Girl power

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate Dicamillo is about a girl called Opal and her preacher father who move to a trailer park in Naomi, Florida, the U. S. Opal goes to a grocery store for macaroni, cheese and other stuff and returns with a dog who wasn’t on her shopping list. To save the dog from the store manager who wants to send it to the pound, she brings it home claiming it as her own. She names it Winn-Dixie after the store she found it in. The mischievous dog helps the lonely girl settle into her new town and make a whole lot of interesting friends. The book, a hymn to dogs and friendship, has been made into a movie.

The Princess in the Opal Mask by Jenny Lundquist had me gasping in amazement. Written with two points of view: one of Princess Wilha who has been forced to wear a mask from the time of her birth, and the other of an orphan Elara who is in search of her parents and her true identity. I loved the way the two points of views converge and take the story forward. Strange things happen when the Princess meets the commoner and both get a chance to escape their claustrophobic lives.

There were many other books which I liked, but these will be special and close to my heart.==

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