Review: YOLO Juliet by Brett Wright/Shakespeare and srsly Hamlet by Courtney Carbone/Shakespeare

Okay, thanks to Edelweiss and Random House Books for Young Readers for allowing me to read a sampler of these two titles.  Now, I am a little disappointed that it was only samplers, but that is fine. While I normally do enjoy books like this, I might not have made it all the way through, as I have actually read Romeo and Juliet.  But I think this could be a great way to help kids today understand Shakespeare.  Yeah, you could say it "dumbs" it down.  But, it's not any different to me than translating it into more modern words like the No Fear Shakespeare books do.

These are basically told through Romeo and Juliet texting each other, or else writing in diary mode on their phones.  They use normal texting abbreviations and terms, as well as emojis.  One of the exchanges between Romeo and Juliet that I love was like this:

Romeo:  Juliet, I swear on the

 

Juliet:  Wait, you swear on a piece of rock in the sky?  Um.

Romeo:  Okay, what should I swear on, then?

Juliet:  Maybe we shouldn't make any promises yet.  All of t his happened as fast as 

Doesn't that kind of look like fun?  Of course in the book each person's speaking part is in bubbles like in a text message.

So I would recommend this as a fun book for someone trying to understand Shakespeare as they read it.

Waiting on Wednesday - Anyone But You: A Modern-Day Spin on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (Twisted Lit #3) by Kim Askew and Amy Helmes

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  This week I've chosen a book in a series that is a modern re-do of Romeo and Juliet.  While there seem to have been a few of these lately, I like how this series would be a good choice for teachers to use in their classroom alongside teaching the "real" Shakespeare stories.  As a teacher/librarian, I can think of all sorts of ideas that could be done with these in a classroom.  Without further ado, here is the blurb from Barnesandnoble.com:

Power, passion...and pizza

The Montes love Italian food. And they hate the Caputos, That's how it is. It's been that way for sixty years. Every time the Caputos start to get a reputation for great pizza (and who knows? It could be better than the Montes!) there's "an accident" and Cap's is knocked back on its knees. What nobody knows is that the family teenagers are sick of their parents acting like schoolyard bullies, when nobody even remembers why the fight started! Gigi Caputo and Roman Monte, the son and daughter, are secretly in love. Determined to put a stop to their parents' vicious feud, they risk their parents' livelihood and their own lives. In this nod to Romeo and Juliet, will love win? Or vendetta?

Sounds fun, huh?  I've only read the 2nd one in the series, Exposure, which was supposed to be a retelling of Macbeth, and you can read my review of that HERE.

And while you're here, don't forget to enter my awesome Fierce Reads giveaway, where there will be 5 winners, so there are 5 books you could win!!!

The Hazards of Working at a Bookstore Vol. 3.2 Part 2

This is the 2nd part to my regular posts about the books I see when working at the bookstore that I want to read. As I said in part 1, this is actually a couple weeks' worth of books, so this part will be the 6 teen books on my lists.
First is Between by Jessica Warman. This is a ghost story, but with a realistic fiction slant of anorexia. The main character is Elizabeth, who is a popular girl. She wakes up after a party to find her body drowned in a swimming pool. She meets another ghost, a boy named Alex, who died in a hit and run accident. Together they try to figure out what happened to her, and they learn that no one in her group, including herself, can be called completely innocent in this death and situation.












Second is Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay. It turns out we have the whole story wrong. Juliet didn't kill herself, she was murdered by Romeo. He made her a sacrifice so that he could be immortal. But Juliet was granted immortality as well. She's spent the last 700 years fighting for true love against those that Romeo would destroy. Until, of course, she finds someone she wants to love, but can't, and now Romeo is working to destroy her love.














Third is Tankborn by Karen Sandler. Now I'm excited to say I was able to get this as an e-galley on Netgalley, so I will get to read it soon! It is a sci fi book, about genetics, which I am intrigued by. Kayla and Mishalla are best friends, they also are GENS, Genetically engineered non humans. They were gestated in a tank, then raised in slums, and at the age of 15 sent to work as slaves. They are the lowest of all beings. Kayla goes to work for a trueborn, or highest of all begins. Mishalla goes and works for children who are disappearing in the night. When they happen to meet up again, they decide they must figure out where these children are disappearing to because Mishalla has a feeling something horrible is happening to them.






Fourth is The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab. The Near Witch is an old story told to frighten children. Or at least that is what Lexi believes until a boy that no one knows shows up one night outside her home. Another saying the village has is that there are no strangers. The night after he shows up, children start disappearing. Sounds like a good mystery, and is described as part fairy tale, part love story. Another that I'm anxious to read!














Fifth is The Rites and Wrongs of Janice Wills by Joanna Pearson. The main character is Janice Wills, and she is really into anthropology. She figures you can learn a lot just by knowing basic anthropologic theories. Like how dancing can be a good mating ritual, if you're good at it. Janice is a smart girl, and so isn't used to hot guys talking to her, until it happens, and then she must become a part of the group of people that she's been making her observations about.














And finally, the last teen book for this post is The Twin's Daughter by Lauren Baratz-Logsted. The main character is Lucy, and one day a woman shows up at her doorstep who is identical to her mother. Turns out her mother has an identical twin that she was separated from at birth, and both grew up in totally different environments. Lucy's mother decides to give her sister the life she didn't have growing up. But soon Lucy has trouble telling the two apart, and is unsure what exactly this twin is after.
Tomorrow, or later tonight maybe, I'll blog the 6 adult books on my list.