Dreamland Book Blog: September 2011

Saturday, September 17, 2011 No comments

Matt is in serious danger on the streets of Chicago after he makes a bad decision. His mom sends him away to Aunt LeeNell, but South Texas is the last place Matt wants to be for the summer. He has to survive the local toughs while he somehow finds a way to get back hom. Things begin to look up when he meets Maria. That only leads to more trouble, as her brothers do not trust Anglos. Matt does his best to dodge trouble and get to know Maria. He meets an eccentric beekeeper, who lives out in the mesquite brush, and gets his first job helping out the old man.

Matt is about to learn far more about life than he imagines in a summer that changes him forever

I picked out this book hoping to read about a romance story like in the Simone Elkeles books, after all there's a Latino and a white:) However, there should not be any comparison between both, because BUZZ is unique in it's own way.

Judge a book by its cover.

I got to admit, the first thing that attracted me to this book is its adorable cover and the cute name. Then after a friend of mine put in a great word for it, I wanted to read it so bad, hoping to (like I mentioned before) get a dose of teen romance.

Matt never fit in much back in Chicago, he was a troubled teen who got involved in the gang and was quite distant with his mom at home. After a drug deal gone wrong, he was sent to stay with his aunt LeeNell in South Texas (in the middle of nowhere). Matt had a tough time adapting to the desert, and his situation did not improved when he made a cowboy enemy just as he arrived. But there he met Maria and who knew an eccentric beekeeper could change his life forever?

What is BUZZ?

Buzz is a walking philosopher, a life changer, an angel sent in a form of a beekeeper. (Okay, I'm being exaggerative) Truth to be told, I rarely feel close to a character whose age is beyond 40, but hell, I like Buzz a lot, and I always looked forward to what he has to say. On the other hand, Matt is a character that most teenagers could relate to, and by reading BUZZ we learned and see how Matt have grown throughout the story. He met Maria, whose brothers' hated Anglos and her people was discriminized. Yet they fell in love and went through all the obstacles that was thrown to them. I like Matt's maturity.

The story was very well written, although in my opinion there are parts of the story which I hope will be elaborated more, however I laughed at the jokes, giggled at their reactions, touched by the warmth between family and friends and angered at the unfairness of it all. And that was all it takes for me to love it.

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Saturday, September 17, 2011 No comments

Song: Emily - From First to last

Cass/Cassie is a social misfit, a person who everyone hates and fears, and someone who could see ghosts.

Being Cass has not been easy, she has no friends after her former best friend Danielle turned the whole school against her four years ago, and her social life dwindled even more with the death of her sister, Paige and how suddenly she found herself being able to commune with the dead.

Cass has ghosts as friends and she doesn't do well with the living, in fact, the people hated her because she seemed to know every secret they possessed, and so they saw her as a freak, a threat. Yet, Cass was okay with that. When Tim, one of the VP started to talk to her and seek for her help, they both changed in the process of developing a friendship.

It might be because of the song, or because I was emotional that day, I was bawling through the chapters. Cass seemed like a normal teenager with a special gift, I don't see her as a freak everyone thought she was, or even considering her to be an emo (she doesn't actually 'preach' about death nor was she suicidal), I respected her for her maturity and her sense of seeking out justice, although telling on people was not really the best way. I enjoyed reading from her perspective although I, as a reader could only experience her turmoil and her emotions from the sidelines, yet I felt like I relate to her well.

Megan did a great job in describing Cass' family problems, it was a bonus that she never left out family values. And I praised her for making sense, it made so much sense that I cried. Weird huh? I also appreciated the fact that what Tim and Cass had was nothing romantic, it was about two friends who cared about each other (although I can't deny that I silently hoped they grow into something more, a sequel perhaps?). On that note, I also wanted to praise Megan for coming up with such humorous jokes, and oh, the lists.

The only thing I hoped for was for Megan to elaborate more on certain parts of the story, the only complain I had for the entire story was that it was sort of short and there were several parts I think should be given more effort. Overall, the writing was smooth and easy to read, plus, I had a wonderful time being Cass.

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