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...Me! Me!! ME!!!

I'm Prodhi...you can call me Prod.
I'm a YA reader/reviewer/ other than that, I'm a nutcase gone awry. Yes, I'm insane so to speak:) I'd say I'm a girl next door, but I'm much better off without a Pinocchio nose, thank you very much. I'm a pretty fun chica, I guess. I also realize that this About Me section doesn't do the three dimensions of my character justice. Or four. Or five. Or six. Oh shooh!

...Contact moi, Lovelies.

Bloggers and readers, if you have anything to say to me, here: prodhi@live.com. YA authors who would like me to review their books, I'll be more than honoured. Contact me at the same address.

...Book I'm reading now

Not Like You by Deborah Davis


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    Tuesday, July 14, 2009
    WorDissection: Ordinary Me by June Sproat

    Did I like it? Yeah.
    You'll love it if you liked: The Princess Diaries By Meg Cabot, Avalon High by Meg Cabot, All American Girl by Meg Cabot. The book is less girly than Cabot's books, so don't let the Cabot relevance shoo you away.
    Aura: Relaxed and Casual
    Read If: You're looking for a fun, light read with a twist of crime and mystery in it.
    Narration: First Person
    Main Character: Kate Sterns, 15 year old female
    Themes: Ordinary turned popular, Spotlight, Crush, Friendship, Breaking of stereotypes, Criminal breakout.
    Plot: 8.5/10
    Narration: 8/10
    Characterization: 8/10
    Overall: 8.5/10
    Did I get bored anywhere? Nope.
    Did any part confuse me? Nuh. It was a simple plot.
    Line/ Page Skippability: 1.5/5. Just bits where Kate is rambling a lot, but the important parts grasp your attention.
    Writing Style: Long sentences, Informal, Fun and relaxed.
    Uniqueness: 8/10
    Predictability: 3/10
    Favourite Quotes: “If you have an endless night, doesn’t that mean it doesn’t end? So why would you need one hundred of them? Hello!”
    '“He really is quite cute. I’m surprised you were
    able to learn anything,” my mom said. It felt like my face was going up in flames. How could she say that? And what did she know about‘cute boys’, and why was she looking at him? I mean,she’s old!'
    Cover: 8.5/10
    Song(s) to go with book: Supergirl by Superchick, Extraordinary Girl by Green Day, Story of a Girl by Blink-182, Borders by The Sunshine Underground.
    Ending: Satisfying, Everything falls back to place. A tad bit fairytale-ish.
    Reading Priority: Read
    Reading duration: Fast readers-Approx. 4 hours, Slow readers- Approx 6 days.
    Synopsis:
    While behind the wheel during driver's ed, high school sophomore Kate Sterns inadvertently foils an escaped convict's getaway. When her heroic actions land her face on the front page of the Wainscott Gazette, she thinks her life is over, and it is, at least her life as an ordinary anyway. Overnight she is plucked from the ordinaries and plopped into the "in crowd." At first Kate is in denial of her status change, but then she likes it, that is until she's labeled a snob, her locker gets trashed and one other minor thing-- she's being stalked.

    WordVore Prod's Review:
    The one word that pops up the most in my head when thinking of Ordinary Me is:
    Fun.
    Sheer, pure, puts-a-smile-on-your-face fun.
    The book’s plot is centralized on Kate Sterns, a stubborn 15 year old girl who has her self-image issues but nothing too serious, and who avoids spotlight like a plague (this point may not be highlighted all that much but it’s pretty obvious if you read between the lines). She is also someone who would rather comply than go into any sort of confrontation, but inside her head she has an opinion on pretty much everything.
    Read the above lines and you’ll guess the word Kate lives up to: Ordinary.
    At first I thought it was one of those books with the plot “ordinary teen turns popular then gets ditched by real friends for hanging out with the populars”. Lo and behold was I shocked. The book had quite a creative plot with just slight splashes of cliché here and there on the canvas. I loved the way Kate’s inner struggle of finding her true self and coming to terms and recognizing the change she was going through was portrayed deftly amidst the criminal trouble. The way all the relationships were drawn was amazing too—absolutely realistic. Every character has his/her flaws but not so much that you hate them for it. I also liked how stereotypes were thwarted through a “popular” character, Becky, but the same action taken through the character of Steve was a tad bit clichéd. Jodi, Kate’s best friend, is believable but her flaws include being a little less supportive than necessary and stereotyping too much.
    Kate’s awkward yelling at Steve, her crush, was very well-explained. I can relate to her individualistic streak and her confusion over Steve’s feelings towards her. Throughout the book, the fact that Kate is a very impulsive character is highlighted strongly, but I admired her for trying to rectify that near the end of the book. Kate hesitates from apologizing but isn’t ignorant of her mistakes and does feel guilty over them. The mystery and crime portion of the book was pretty well done. It was well tended to and not overlooked, but not over the top either. The revelation of motives and the events taking place on its basis were well-sequenced. The ending was superb—you think you have it all figured out but things take an interesting turn. I say no more or else the book shall be spoilt for prospective readers.
    The things that irked me at times was Kate’s occasional whining and, and Jodi trying to press down her opinion on Kate—I’d have liked to see a little more backbone in the latter, and the lack of depth of emotions. But honestly, they are covered up for at other times, so sin forgiven.
    All in all, I would say you should pick this book up with a sweet frappe in hand and just relax. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and couldn’t stop myself from laughing out loud at parts.

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    CoverLover
    Indulge in superficiality...
    And judge these covers.




    Another Faust by Dina and Daniel Nayeri





    Gone by Lisa McMann

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    Tête-à-Tête with YA author Julie Kraut
    Julie Kraut is the author of two YA books, including the recent attention-grabber Slept Away along with Hot Mess: Summer in the City. Here's her answering a few questions with stuff you may, or may not, know about her.

    Let’s start with the basics. Tell us something about your latest book, Slept Away.

    Well, the quicky pitch is that it’s about a New York city it-girl who spends an unexpected summer at a very rustic sleepaway camp. Slept Away is perfect for anyone who’s ever been to sleepaway camp or somebody who’s felt just a little uncomfortable in a new situation or folks who just love them some fun and funny summer reading.

    For the official description, click here.

    A giant chicken just took over the city. What would Laney Parker (the main character of Slept Away) do?

    Update her Facebook status to “Who ordered the giant, angry chicken? WTF?” and then run for cover.

    How did you come up with the plot? Was it inspired by your own experiences in summer camp?

    Because I still want a spot at the Thanksgiving dinner table, I won’t go into too much detail about this, but during a recent trip home, I found myself yelling down the stairs, “I swear I’m like the only person in this family who wears pants on a regular basis.” And then I thought to myself, “What a ridiculous thing to say. I want the main character in my next book to say that.” And that really was the little kernel of the idea that started the book. I outlined my ideas for Laney and her mother and not-at-all-step-father and made sure that the two adults never wore pants.

    After I laid out this little trifecta of pantsless family dysfunction, it felt like the perfect set up for sending Laney to camp. After ten years (no wait, more—ah, when did I get this old?) of reminiscing on my summers at camp, I really wanted to write about the experience. While Slept Away isn’t the love letter to sleep away camp I’d write if I were telling my own story, it still allowed me to put a lot of my ideas and memories about camp on paper.

    Tell us something about yourself. Anything from your favourite colour to the wackiest quirks works.

    My favourite color is purple and that’s the first time I’ve ever spelled favorite with a “u.”

    What's the weirdest thing you've ever done?

    Oh man. This is a toughie. I don’t even know. Here are three weird things that came to mind.


    I just mixed hummus with cottage cheese for lunch as an experiment. (It tastes way better than it looks.)
    Once I did the robot in front of reality television cameras. Thankfully, the footage never made it to air.
    When I was little, I used to take pickles and hide them around my house for my parents to find when they got really stinky.

    Did you ever think authors could be this cool? Julie Kraut sure can be! Any more questions? Shout out in the comment box!

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