scholarly journals Judy Moody and the Right Royal Tea Party by M. McDonald

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Aitken
Keyword(s):  
School Children ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Young Brother ◽  
Elizabeth I ◽  
National Unity ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Queen Victoria ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
The University

McDonald, Megan.  Judy Moody and the Right Royal Tea Party. Illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds. Candlewick Press, 2018. The multi-volume Judy Moody series continues here as Judy attempts to complete a grade three assignment: create a family tree. Learning that one of her British ancestors was “Mudeye” Moody, rescuer of a prisoner from the Tower of London during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Judy embellishes: the rescuer was a young prince; the prisoner was a princess; she, herself, is akin to royalty, a future Queen. There is, however, a rival for her title, her schoolmate, Jessica Finch. Jessica, too, has British roots. She, too, claims kinship with Mudeye Moody. Jessica’s Mudeye, however, was a rat catcher who rescued his lady from the Tower in the time of Queen Victoria. Unaware that more than two centuries elapsed between the reigns of Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, the two girls decide that Mudeye Moody, the one-and-the-same, is their mutual ancestor. They ally; they are “step sisters.” They will keep secret Judy’s relationship to the rat catcher, but, together, they will stage a “Right Royal Tea Party.”  Judy Moody is a domineering child. No constitutional monarch is she; she is a despot, her younger brother the target of her bullying. In both conversational and narrative passages, scatology is the norm. Judy and her friends belong to the “Toad Pee Club.” They meet in the “Toad Pee Tent.” Her younger brother’s Siamese Fighting  Fish is named “Prince Redmond the Farter.” It communicates, of course, by ”farting.” Throughout the book, the young brother is referred to as “Stink.” (There is never any adult censure of this talk.) Dubious diction continues in Judy’s letter to the current Queen Elizabeth. She asks: “...Did you ever ride a hinny? (That’s a cross between a horse and a donkey, not a hiney?) … P.S. Sorry if I’m not supposed to say hiney in a letter to the Queen.” (Among its various uses, “hiney” is slang for “buttocks.” It is, as well, a derogatory 20th-century term for a German soldier.) Questions spring to mind as one reads this book: does the writing merely reflect the anal obsessions of children, or does it encourage them? The same could be asked about bullying behaviours. It is also curious that the historical dates of Elizabeth I (who died in 1603) and Queen Victoria (who came to the throne in 1837) are never given. There are natural opportunities within the story to do so: Peter Reynold’s illustration of “Famous Women Rulers” is one such opportunity; the Moody family’s trip to Wolff Castle is another. Of course, if Judy and Jessica discover the dates, they must give up their assumptions about Mudeye; he would have to have lived for more than two centuries to perform his dual acts of gallantry. Are the presumed readers (upper primary, lower elementary school children) thought to be too immature to appreciate this absurdity? Or must they be kept in ignorance lest the contrivance of the plot be revealed?    In Canada, school children are taught that the Queen is a constitutional monarch, a symbol of national unity, not a ruler. Because she lives in England, she has a Canadian representative who performs her ceremonial duties. A Canadian Judy Moody might dream differently—perhaps pretending that she is an astronaut like Governor General Julie Payette. While much imagination went into the premise of this book, it lacks thoughtful, well considered composition.  However popular the Judy Moody books, this entry in the series is weak. Not recommended: 1 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Leslie Aitken Leslie Aitken’s long career in librarianship included selection of children’s literature for school, public, special and academic libraries. She is a former Curriculum Librarian of the University of Alberta.

Who will save my planet? by M. C. Urrutia

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Canadian Market ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Right ◽  
The University

Urrutia, Maria. Who will save my planet? Toronto: Tundra Books, 2012.  Print.This volume appears to be a republication of a 2007 imprint from the author’s own publishing house, Tecolate Books, in Mexico.  Although Tundra recognizes support from the Canada Council for the Arts, there appears to be no specific Canadian content in this book.  There is no text and the images are the work of several different photographers.  Urrutia’s contribution to the work appears to be the title and the selection and pairing of the images. The book is designed for children ages 7+ and consists of 14 pairs of unadorned, borderless photographs. Each spread of two images shows something environmentally negative on the left and a corresponding positive image on the right.  However, without text, the viewer is left to draw their own conclusions about what message is intended. Many of the images have several potential interpretations, particularly for viewers coming from a different environment. For example, the opening pair of images shows fire in the canopy of a tropical forest, presumably implying that people are burning the forest. However in Canada, lightning is naturally one of the primary causes of forest fires which is a natural part of the forest’s life cycle.   In the second set of images, someone is cutting down a tree, but it is the only one being felled.  The rest of the forest appears to be undisturbed.  An image of a clear-cut would have conveyed a much more obvious message.  The second last pair show garbage strewn along a path and the images are a garbage can overflowing with garbage, with a plastic water bottle prominently placed on top.  Bottled water is one of the least environmentally friendly things on the planet.  Is the message that producing huge volumes of unnecessary garbage is fine as long as you put it in the garbage can? Many of the images are high quality.  An image of a seal with the rope embedded in the flesh around its shoulders is particularly effective.  However, the selection and combination of images, as a whole, reminds me of posters at a fourth grade science fair.  The difference is that the fourth graders usually add captions and introductory paragraphs so that their messages are clear. While environmental damage anywhere is important, this book would have been more effective for the Canadian market had it incorporated images of environmental problems found in the Canadian environment. Recommended with reservation:  2 stars out of 4 Reviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

scholarly journals Excepcionalidad meritocrática y política de acción afirmativa en la educación superior en Chile

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Briones ◽  
Daniel Leyton
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Admission Policy ◽  
Affirmative Action Policy ◽  
Discursive Formation ◽  
Working Class Students ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
The University

Based on Foucauldian notions such as discourse, regime of subjectification, and governmentality, the article analyzes one of the dominant discourses constituting the affirmative action policy in higher education in Chile. Our analysis is based principally on main documents associated to the discursive formation of the Support and Effective Access into Higher Education Program (PACE by its acronyms in Spanish), the main affirmative action program in that country. We argue that this program deploys a meritocratic exceptionality subjectification regime that governs inclusion and right to HE through a discursive chain that articulates notions of selectivity, excellence, quality, talent, sacrifice, responsibilization and critique against the dominant admission policy. This articulation is inscribed and mobilized in the discourses about working-class students, their families and schools, and the university. This makes possible, on the one hand, the legitimacy of the program as well as of their students as new constituencies with the right to HE, and on the other hand, the strategic foreclosure and invisibilisation of the structures of inequality that sustain the majority of working-class students and their knowledges excluded from HE.

scholarly journals Fifteen Dollars and Thirty-Five Cents: A Story About Choices by K. Cole

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patti Sherbaniuk
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Young Children ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Youth Advocacy ◽  
The Right ◽  
The University ◽  
School Yard

Cole, Kathryn.  Fifteen Dollars and Thirty-Five Cents: A Story About Choices. Illus. Qin Leng. Second Story Press: Toronto, 2015. Print.Fifteen Dollars and Thirty-Five Cents. A Story About Choices is part of the I am a Great Little Kid Series by Second Story Press, published in conjunction with Boost Child & Youth Advocacy Centre.Fifteen Dollars and Thirty-Five Cents tells a simple story, yet successfully brings across some bigger themes. It takes place at an elementary school. Joseph, who is with his friend Devon, finds some money in the school yard- fifteen dollars and thirty-five cents. He is very excited and wants to keep it, but Devon has second thoughts and thinks that someone they know might have lost it and that they should turn it in. Joseph says “finders’ keepers” and offers Devon five of the dollars not to tell. Devon is very tempted but then sees his classmate Lin crying and has the feeling that it is her money they have found. His suspicion is confirmed when they are back in the classroom and the teacher, Ms. Crosby, asks sad Lin what is wrong. Lin’s friend Claire says it was money for her mother’s birthday present that she has been saving for weeks. Devon is increasingly uncomfortable but Joseph pressures him to stay quiet because they are friends and because he is also worried that people will think he stole it. The teacher suspects something and gives Devon a chance to explain what has happened. He doesn’t tell on his friend but lets his teacher know her suspicions are correct. Ms. Claire comes up with a way for Devon and Joseph to give the money back without them getting in trouble and everyone is happy with the outcome.The story is simple but gets the point across about making the right choices, about friendship, honesty, and “doing the right thing”, without being too preachy. The cast of characters are diverse and the issues dealt with in the story are ones that kids can relate to.The illustrations by Qin Leng are vibrant and colourful and enhance the telling of the story. I would recommend this book for young children from ages 5-8 years of age.Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Patti SherbaniukPatti is a Liaison Librarian at the Winspear School of Business at the University of Alberta. She holds a BA in English and an MLIS, both from the University of Alberta. She is passionate about food, travel, the arts and reading books of all shapes and sizes.

Sir Seth Thistlewaite and the Kingdom of the Caves by R. Thake

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Huck
Keyword(s):  
English Literature ◽  
Water Shortage ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Hooking Up ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Animated Cartoon ◽  
Everyday World ◽  
The Right ◽  
The University ◽  
Better Than

Thake, Richard.  Illus. Vince Chul. Sir Seth Thistlewaite and the Kingdom of the Caves. Owlkids, 2011. Print. Sir Seth Thistlewaite and the Kingdom of the Caves is the second book in a series detailing the adventures of the eponymous protagonist, his dog Shasta and his friend Sir Ollie Everghettz. Together, the two friends are the Mighty Knights of Right and Honour, knights errant who look for wrongs to right in fantastical lands inhabited by strange creatures ruled by kings and queens. Like the Narnia adventures, these domains lie just beyond our everyday world, but unlike those books, these stories are meant to be comic and fun. More than forty illustrations are incorporated into the text. Together, the text and illustrations suggest the pace and style of an animated cartoon. The story in this book takes place in the Queendom of Claire, a secret land underneath Puddlewater Pond, a feature of the world of Thatchwych from the first book that Sir Seth enters when he dons his homemade armor fashioned from hockey gear. The water is being drained from Puddlewater pond and the King commissions Sir Seth and Sir Ollie to find out why and stop the leak. In fact, the water is being siphoned out of the pond into the Queendom of Claire below because of a water shortage caused by a malicious elf Ooz (who looks like an ogre). Ooz has blocked Claire’s primary river because his pet dinosaur Grak has eaten most of the trees in the queendom, leaving deserts in his wake, and Ooz wants the queen to let Grak graze in the royal gardens. Sir Seth and Sir Ollie are commissioned (anew) by the Queen of Claire to unblock the river, and so they set out across the desert, called the Sadlands, in search of Ooz, hooking up with feisty princess Sundra Neeth and the dubiously helpful family of Fibbs along the way. When Ooz captures the search party, he hatches a new plan to hold the princess for ransom until the queen gives him possession of the entire land of Claire. Ooz leaves our heroes in his cave with Grak and sets off to meet the queen, but the prisoners escape and rush back to the castle to try to prevent him from executing his plan. Thake aims for an outsized, slightly absurdist style to convey a sense of adventure and fun: alliterations, rhymes, and puns are sprinkled throughout; two or three adjectives are usually thought better than one; and characteristics tend to be exaggerated, meaning that big is gigant-o-normous, and small is tinier than the teensiest speck of dust on the underside of a mitochondria. Similarly, events in the plot don’t transpire, rather, they tend to happen all of a sudden and cause widespread dumbstruck-edness. This hyperbolic style is tough to maintain and it is successful in some places more than others; at a certain point, constant surprise ceases to be surprising and characters are weakened when they share the same reactions. Chui’s clean illustrations hit all the right notes and add a lot to the book. While the book is mainly plot driven, it does convey other messages worth mentioning. The knights enter each unknown situation without bias, demonstrate tolerance when encountering strange creatures, and encourage others to explore untapped potential. Also, the plot is a kind of lesson in environmental activism. When Princess Sundra Neeth discovers that the Sadlands are not barren after all, but populated by many desert creatures, she promises that, as queen, she will “make sure these Sadlands become glad again.” Age K-6. Recommended with reservations:  2 stars out of 4Reviewer: John HuckJohn Huck is a metadata and cataloguing librarian at the University of Alberta. He holds an undergraduate degree in English literature and maintains a special interest in the spoken word. He is also a classical musician and has sung semi-professionally for many years.

Oddfellow's Orphanage by E.W. Martin

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Dalmer
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Discrete Event ◽  
Read Aloud ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
School Year ◽  
New Family ◽  
The Right ◽  
The University

Martin, Emily Winfield. Oddfellow's Orphanage. New York: Random House Children’s Books, 2012. Print. Emily Winfield Martin crafts a whimsical, imaginative read in her debut novel, Oddfellow’s Orphanage, that is sure to delight readers of all ages. As Delia, the newest member of the Oddfellow’s Orphanage quickly discovers, the members living at the orphanage are anything but ordinary. Under the guidance of Headmaster Oddfellow Bluebeard, her new family includes an onion-headed boy, a blue tattooed girl, a child-sized hedgehog, and a family of three dancing bears. While Delia is unable to speak and must instead write to communicate, she is immediately accepted into her new family. The oddities and peculiarities of each of the children residing at the orphanage are matched in the school classes they take, including Professor Flockheart’s F. T. Studies (fairy tales and folktales) and Professor Silas’ cryptozoology class. In this rather unorthodox orphanage, the school year passes with one quirky adventure after another. Each bizarre yet entertaining escapade allows the author to develop each character’s personality as well as friendships between the children, endearing the reader to each of the orphans. With Haircut Day, a grand picnic, a fieldtrip to see the Great Comet and an expedition to locate lake M.O.N.S.T.E.R.S. (Mysterious or Nonexistent Subjects Thoroughly Examined Really Scientifically), nothing is ever ordinary at Oddfellow’s Orphanage. While comical and curious, the story, at times, appears to unfold in isolated vignettes, with each chapter a discrete event, making for less-than-smooth plot continuity. Quite impressively, the author manages to pepper the story with an appropriate amount of bizarre and peculiar elements, never once does the plot appear to be overly outlandish. While the writing itself is sweet and simple with perfectly proportioned chapters, lending itself to a fantastic first reader or a read-aloud story, it is Martin’s illustrations that accentuate the writing and highlight the whimsy found within the pages. The soft, sepia-coloured pencil drawings that appear on nearly every page give off a vintage aesthetic and confer just the right amount of detail to the story, allowing the reader to invent and imagine the rest. With overarching themes of acceptance and perseverance, both girls and boys will fall in love with the charming and unique characters and the impressive illustrations. Highly recommended for elementary school libraries as well as public libraries. Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Nicole Dalmer Nicole Dalmer is a Public Services Librarian at H.T. Coutts Education & Physical Education Library at the University of Alberta. She is interested in health literacy, pinball, and finding the perfect cup of coffee to accompany a good read.

Circle Nine by A. Hetzel

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Mead-Willis
Keyword(s):  
English Literature ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Rare Book ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Special Collections ◽  
Literary Allusion ◽  
The One ◽  
The University

Heltzel, Anne. Circle Nine. Somerville, Mass.: Candlewick Press, 2011. Print. Why are hapless females in YA novels always named Abby? I don’t know, the amnesiac narrator of Circle Nine would reply. That’s just what it says on my necklace.  So begins Anne Heltzel’s debut thriller: a teenaged girl awakens on the pavement outside a burning building with no memories and no name, save the one she wears in gold around her neck. With her is a mysterious, charismatic youth named Sam, who claims to be her friend. Sam persuades Abby to retreat from the fire and into the woods, where they hide in the safety of his “cave-palace”: a glittering subterranean paradise full of shimmering fabrics and sumptuous furniture. There, the two of them sip pomegranate wine, discuss fine literature, and forswear all contact with the outside world, which Sam likens to an Aleghierian hell (hence the book’s title). We suspect this a fantasy, invented by Abby to protect herself from an uglier cave and an uglier Sam, to say nothing of the ugly events occluded by her smoke-kippered memory. The question is: whose fantasy is it? What sixteen-year-old with cheap bling on her neck would retreat into a happy place wrought with literary allusion, Platonic cave metaphors, and Oriental carpets? This is clearly the reverie of the author herself, still in love with her various muses. Abby’s fantasyland, though out of character, is not necessarily a detriment to the novel itself. Indeed, we could do without the predictable combination of flashbacks and sleuthing by which Abby reconstructs her true identity, and abide instead within her doomed and darkly luminous otherworld. For it is there that Heltzel’s storytelling is at its boldest, her writing most sensuous and wild, and it is here that the novel promises—if only briefly—to be something other than the dreary chestnut about a naïve girl brought low by bad luck and sly men.Recommended with reservations: 2 out of 4 starsReviewer: Sarah Mead-Willis Sarah is the Rare Book Cataloguer at the University of Alberta's Bruce Peel Special Collections Library. She holds a BA and an MLIS from the University of Alberta and an MA in English Literature from the University of Victoria.

scholarly journals InvisiBill by M. Fergus

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Aitken
Keyword(s):  
Public Libraries ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Peanut Butter ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
End Of Grade ◽  
The University ◽  
Scientific Name

Fergus, Maureen. InvisiBill. Illus. Dušan Petričić. Tundra Books, 2015.The plot of this amusing picture book is simple: Bill would like someone at the dinner table to pass him the potatoes; he is repeatedly ignored. Bill mutters,                “What am I. Invisible?... PLEASE PASS THE POTATOES!”In response, Mother continues checking messages on her “whatchamacallit,” and Father answers his “thingamajiggy.” (We have to admire the use of the terms “whatchamacallit” and “thingamajiggy;” Fergus deftly avoids the stale dating that comes with naming current technologies!) The story proceeds: Bill’s brother declares the scientific name for potatoes to be “SOLANUM TUBEROSUM.” His little sister begins to juggle the tubers. No one passes the potatoes. Bill’s fate is sealed; he becomes invisible.The romp through Bill’s family’s solutions and sorrows as they try to regain their invisible child and brother is complemented by the witty cartoons of Dušan Petričić.  Only a few of these drawings are large and distinct enough to share in a group storytelling session; none-the-less, they would be much appreciated by the individual reader.That reader might easily be a child of eight years of age—the approximate age of “Bill,” as Petričić depicts him. By the end of grade three, and certainly at the grade four reading level, most children could handle independently such passages as the one below:               Bill was in no mood to eat dinner with his family who had, after all, caused his invisibleness. So he took three peanut-butter-and-pickle sandwiches up to his room and spent the evening with his gerbil, Gerard.The humour in this story, however, is not for the exclusive delight of the primary school-aged; if you are a “middle child” of any age, you might just think that Maureen Fergus wrote the book with you in mind!Home, school, and public libraries should find this a popular addition to their collections. Depending on the ages involved, it might also prove a helpful gift for that once-youngest child whose family position has been “reordered” by a newcomer. Reviewer: Leslie AitkenRecommended: 3 out of 4 starsLeslie Aitken’s long career in librarianship involved selection of children’s literature for school, public, special and academic libraries. She is a former Curriculum Librarian for the University of Alberta.

HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD, AND LLANDYSUL IN CEREDIGION: INSIGHTS FROM THE COLLEGE ARCHIVE

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-520
Author(s):  
Simon K. Haslett ◽  
Robin Darwall-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Elizabeth I ◽  
Initial Investigation ◽  
University Of Oxford ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
The Right ◽  
The University

Jesus College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, was founded in 1571 by Elizabeth I. The college has benefitted from parish patronages, with the right of advowsons, which have assisted the college's development. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the college held twenty such advowsons, including a relationship with Llandysul parish in Ceredigion (Cardiganshire) that was established in 1680 and survived until 1944. This study uses the college archive to provide an initial investigation into the historical connections before and since 1680, so raising awareness of the historical link with Llandysul and providing a framework for future research.

scholarly journals Intermediate steps towards the achievement of an official romanian translation of the Fugl-Meyer assesment scale specific forms

2020 ◽  
pp. 450-459
Author(s):  
Elena CONSTANTIN ◽  
Mihaela OPREA (MANDU) ◽  
Andreea FRUNZA ◽  
Cristinel Dumitru BADIU ◽  
Cosmin Daniel OPREA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Deficits ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Forward Translation ◽  
Upper And Lower Extremities ◽  
Official Site ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
The University ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
The Coordinator

Introduction. The Fugl-Meyer assessment scale for the evaluation of neuro-sensory-motor deficits after stroke represents, by completeness and adequate folding, both conceptually and methodologically, on the physio pathological and clinical-evolutionary reality of disability in this type of pathology, a widely used quantification tool for international level and well appreciated in many works in profile literature. Materials and methods. From the desire to implement the scale within the neurorehabilitation units in our country, some correspondence with the right holders of the use of the scale within the University of Gothenburg was initiated in 2019. Subsequently, the group proposed us to carry out an official translation according to an algorithm for achieving the unitary translation, agreed and recommended by the official administrators of the standardized forms of the scale, which will be included on the official website of the respective university along with other translations. Results. Following the initial steps, a constructive correspondence was maintained with the official administrators of the University of Gothenburg and in accordance with the mutual agreement, we carried out the translation from English into Romanian of the specific forms on the official site. The translation included, at the recommendation of the Gothenberg collective, only the component used for measuring the motor functions for the upper and lower extremities. In addition, Prof. Dr. Roxana Carare was co-opted in the team of. Currently, the confrontation of the translation version of our team with the one made by her (forward from English to Romanian) is underway. Within the confrontation of forward translation, different shades of formulations were found at different levels. Conclusions. In the later stages, the reverse confrontation from Romanian to English (backward) of the two translated variants is considered. At the same time, the coordinator of the administrators of the scale of the University of Gothenburg, Prof. Dr. Margit Alt Murphy, expressed her availability of assistance at all stages of the translation process. Keywords: Fugl-Meyer scale, stroke, assesment, hemiparetic patients, rehabilitation,

scholarly journals The One by K. Cass

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawna Manchakowsky
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Book Club ◽  
Her Family ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Hunger Games ◽  
Know How ◽  
The Hunger Games ◽  
True Love ◽  
The One ◽  
The University

Cass, Kiera. The One. New York: Harper Teen/Harper Collins Publisher, 2014. Print.Book Three in The Selection seriesThe One is the third instalment of Kiera Cass’ Selection series.  The first book, The Selection, begins with thirty-five girls who are chosen across the country to vie for the prince’s heart to become the next queen of Illéa.  For most girls, this would be a dream come true.  For America Singer, one of the selected, she could not care less.  She does not want to leave her family or her childhood sweetheart behind.  Soon swept into a world so different from her own, she begins to see not everything is perfect at the castle or as simple as it seems.The Elite, book two, picks up right after one of the eliminations and begins with the final six girls (the elite).  There is more turmoil as America battles with her feelings for her childhood sweetheart, Aspen, who is a guard at the palace, and Maxon, the prince, who has more aspects to him than she originally thought.  Tension rises when the rebels attack the castle and the girls are under siege.  While America struggles with her feelings, she decides that she does, in fact, want to be there and will now try for Maxon’s heart, if she still has a chance.The One, book three, begins with the castle under attack.  We have learned secrets about the king at the end of book two and are beginning to understand the rebels’ motives. Competition is also fierce as it is now down to the top four girls and each girl is desperately trying to win Maxon’s heart.  America feels strongly for the prince, but how can she know if she loves him when he still has three other girls that he is dating?  Does he love her or one of the other girls more?  Can she really turn away from Aspen, her first true love? Full of action, suspense and heartache, you will want to know how this book ends. The story is a mix between The Hunger Games, The Bachelor and Cinderella. This series is sure to thrill teenage audiences looking for adventure and romance.Highly Recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewed by: Shawna ManchakowskyShawna Manchakowsky recently completed her MLIS at the University of Alberta.  When she is not working at Rutherford Library as a Public Service Assistant, she can be found with her husband parenting her two young girls; avoiding any kind of cooking; and reading for her two book clubs. In between book club titles, she tries to read as much teen fiction as she can get away with. 

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