The Ninja Listens to.... Mimus by Lilli Thal

For years Prince Florin's father, the King of Moltovia, has been at war with the county of Vinland for many bitter, destructive years. When an opportunity for peace arrives, King Philip of Moltovia gladly takes his retinue to discuss the war's end. Florin waits patiently and after many days he is summoned to join his father at Vinland's court to celebrate the new peace treaty. The Prince is overjoyed and speedily makes his way to his father's side.

But treachery awaits him as soon as he steps into King Theodo of Vinland's castle. Upon his arrival, Florin discovers the deceitful King has tricked him. With his father and Moltovia's royal court imprisoned, Florin finds himself apprenticed to Theodo's snide court jester Mimus, who is considered neither human nor animal. Florin, dubbed Little Mimus, must face the ice cold winter and starvation while living in the stables of the monkey tower. If Florin doesn't learn the art of jesting, his father will pay the price. But Florin never gives up hope that one day, he can be reunited with his King and father.

Mimus (pronounced Mee-mus), set in medieval times, is an excellent tale translated from German. The story is very rich, complex, and at times gritty and barbaric. Teens who love historical fiction will certainly love the realistic portrayal of the times while they sympathize with Florin's humiliation at the hands of his enemies. The reader of the audiobook, Maxwell Caulfield is gifted and highly enjoyable to listen to.

The Ninja Listens to.... The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

Alyss Heart, daughter of the King and Queen of Hearts, is forced to flee Wonderland when her evil Aunt Redd uses her powerful imagination to murder both her parents.  She and her bodyguard Hatter Madigan escape by jumping through The Pool of Tears, a portal into other worlds. But something goes wrong in the Pool and Alyss lands smack-dab in the middle of London while Hatter is transported to Paris.  Alyss is forced to use her wits instead of her magical imagination to survive until the Liddell family adopts her.  Her new family disapproves of of Alyss' fantastical stories of Wonderland but she finds a sympathetic ear in the Charles Dodgson, a friend of the family.  Alyss finally thinks her stories will find validity when Dodgson writes a book on Wonderland, only to find that the has got everything wrong!  Her life was not a silly magical adventure with a white rabbit and a disappearing cat!

Meanwhile in Paris, Hatter Madigan spends all his time tracking down Alyss across continents until he finally finds her 12 years later. When Alyss and Hatter are reunited they are finally able to go back to Wonderland, but the country they see has changed drastically.  Redd has taken over the entire kingdom and turned it into a country of forced devotion to Redd and her evil ways.  Only a small group of resisters, called Alyssians, fight back.  When the Alyssians find out that Alyss is back, they begin to plan how they can take back their kingdom and hand it over to the rightful Queen.

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This book is probably one of the most imaginative reworkings of a story that I've ever read!  Beddor does justice to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by twisting the story to create a world in peril.  It's not necessary to have read the book to enjoy Beddor's version, however it might be easier to see Beddor's clever reimaginings.  Take the name of Alyss' tutor, Bibwit Harte and rearrange the letters.  You get White Rabbit.  The Chechire Cat in this book is actually an evil, 9-lifed soldier that works for Redd.

The one downfall of this book would be the amount of time Hatter spends searching for Alyss while on Earth.  Twelve years pass and while it is understandable that this would help turn Alyss from girl to woman before having to go back to Wonderland and fight Redd, it also feels very long to read this part of the book particularly when the reader wants to get back to Wonderland and fight evil! 

Honestly, if I hadn't been listening to this book (as opposed to reading it), it is possible I would have stopped when the plot slowed down in the middle.  Listening to the book helped to get me through slower points because the narrator is absolutely fantastic and does a wonderful job of imagining character voices.  Four out of Five Ninja Kicks!

Check out the first book and the rest of the series:

Seeing Redd : Looking Glass Wars, Book 2

ArchEnemy : Looking Glass Wars, Book 3

Prefer graphic novels?  Try this graphic version of The Looking Glass Wars through Hatter Madigan's point of view!

The Ninja Listens to. . .The Everafter by Amy Huntley

At first, Maddy doesn't know where she is. She has no body, no real senses. She seems to be. . .nowhere. But then she realizes: she's dead. Around her, barely illuminated enough to see, float objects that she soon recognizes as things she lost when she was alive. A piece of homework, a baby rattle, a hairclip, an orchid, even a single piece of popcorn.

When Maddy touches these objects and imagines holding or using them, she is transported back to that moment in her life. She eventually finds that she can not only view these memories, but actually re-live and even change them. But changing a moment means that other parts of her life change, too. And that might not be a good thing, especially when Maddy doesn't even remember how she died.

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I listened to the MP3 version of this novel, then later went back and re-read some of it in book format. The audio version is read by Tavia Gilbert, who is wonderful at portraying the helplessness Maddy feels as she simply exists and re-lives pieces of her life.

Author Amy Huntley uses an interesting technique in telling her story; As Maddy touches each lost object and relieves moments in her life, she does so in a random order. One chapter might be when she is 17 and the next when she is 5. There is even a chapter when she is a baby. As confusing as this sounds like it might be, it really isn't. Amy Huntley does this in a way that we not only learn more about Maddy, but we learn more and more about her friends and loved ones, including her mother and sister, her best friend Sandra, and her boyfriend Gabe. I actually found myself anticipating Maddy re-visiting certain periods in her life, so I would say the author uses this technique very well in order to build up the reader's anticipation and even a sense of foreshadowing.

I have read some reviews of this that say there is no real happy ending. Some people were even depressed by the ending. I didn't feel that way. I felt that the ending gives hope. Maddy was given a chance not only to re-visit her life but to learn about life in general, learn about herself, and better understand everyone she knew and loved.

If you want to read something that is different, very emotional, and a little bit supernatural, give this one a try and you may be surprised.

The Ninja Listens to. . .Fat Cat by Robin Brande

Oh, how I love Robin Brande. Seriously, people. Robin Brande is such a breath of fresh air in teen fiction that when I read one of her books it's like I'm in the Swiss Alps breathing, you know, fresh air.

In Fat Cat, super-smart and super-overweight Cat, in an effort to conduct a science fair experiment that is sure to be more brilliant than her former-childhood-best-
friend-turned-arch-nemesis Matt McKinney, vows to live for 7 months (as closely as possible, anyway) the way Homo erectus did about, oh, roughly 2 million years ago. This means that Cat essentially becomes vegan, gives up her computer, her cell phone, driving her car, using a microwave, and even, dare I say it, wearing makeup.

At first, Cat's parents and her best friend Amanda aren't too sure this is a great idea, let alone a possibility. Cat is seriously overweight and totally reliant on candy bars and soda. But as Cat's experiment progresses, the support she receives from her family and best friend grows and Cat herself starts to become, well, hot. Before she knows it, her experiment takes on a new phase (one that involves some serious kissing), and she becomes more determined than ever to prove that she is smarter and better than that jerk Matt McKinney.

Let me just say that I have always been a meat eater. I love me some bacon and I prefer steaks cooked really rare. But this book, which I listened to on audio 2 1/2 weeks ago, actually inspired me to eat better. I have totally given up drinking soda (Oh, Dr. Pepper - I miss you!) and I haven't had a hamburger since finishing the book.

That being said, I don't think this book will inspire everyone to change their diet like I am. My point is that Robin Brande is such an amazing writer that I was totally sucked into the story. I was rooting for Cat the whole way. Best friend Amanda is the most awesome fictional best friend in the history of literature (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating. . .) and Amanda's boyfriend Jordan is equally amazing.

I did not find the vegetarian/vegan aspects of the book to be preachy at all. Cat never looks down on someone else for eating badly. How could she? She spent the last 4 or 5 years putting on weight and eating terribly. I love the way Cat develops a relationship with her little brother who, before her experiment, was always just kind of there in her life.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in science or someone who likes stories about people who used to be best friends and what happened that made the friendship end (yeah, I'm a sucker for those types of stories). If you haven't read anything by Robin Brande, give her a chance! You won't be disappointed.


A few other titles you might enjoy if you like Fat Cat:

Schooled by Gordon Korman

Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande

Liar by Justine Larbalestier