Marshmallow first read Pam Muñoz Ryan’s Esperanza Rising (2000) for school and liked the book so much that she wanted to review it for the book bunnies blog. About a year ago, she enjoyed reading and reviewing her Paint the Wind (2007). Today she talks about her most recent book, Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs, published in 2022.
Marshmallow reviews Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs by Pam Muñoz Ryan.
Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like books about magic and fantastical events, then this might be the book for you.
Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): Solimar, daughter of the king of the land of San Gregorio, has watched the monarch migration since she was a little girl. However, in previous years, she would go to the oyamel forests and watch the monarch butterflies come in to hibernate from a distance. This year, before her quinceañera, she crosses the creek and sits among the butterflies when they come home. But then something mystical happens, and she finds herself with a peculiar gift.
Solimar discovers that she can correctly answer questions about the future, but she soon figures out that this ability only functions in the sunlight. Additionally, her rebozo (her silk shawl, see Wikipedia for more) gains a peculiar, shiny side. Solimar tries to tell her best friend about her new gift, but the friend, Maria, dismisses it as a combination of great intuition and clever guessing. Then Solimar tells her abuela (grandmother), who takes her to the curandera, whom Solimar believes is a witch. This woman tells Solimar that the ancestors appointed her as a guardian to protect the monarch butterflies on their way home. She must protect the young and weak butterflies with her magical rebozo.
Then Solimar’s father and brother leave on an expedition. Taking advantage of their absence, a neighboring king invades their kingdom and holds everybody hostage. This invader king plans to cut down the oyamel forest in which the butterflies live. Solimar escapes, but now she has a tough mission. Can she save her kingdom, her family, and the monarch butterflies?
Marshmallow is reading Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs by Pam Muñoz Ryan.
Marshmallow’s Review: I’ve read several books written by Pam Muñoz Ryan before and really liked them. I like her poetic writing style and the mystical aspects of her books. This book displays the same lyrical style and magic is threaded neatly into the story line.
The mission Solimar must embark upon was exciting to read about, and the descriptions throughout the book were lovely. The characters were all interesting and unique. They all stood out as separate individuals. I also liked how Pam Muñoz Ryan wove some parts of Mexican culture into the book. Some examples would include the usage of Spanish words and Solimar’s quinceañera.
I would recommend this book for bunnies of any age. There isn’t really anything that would make this book scary or inappropriate for younger bunnies.
I did feel like the book was a little short. I would have liked it a little more if the adventure was a little longer or more complicated. Also I think that the main character could have used a little bit more depth. However, Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs is a beautiful story overall, and I appreciated reading another book from an author whose writing I really enjoy.
Marshmallow’s Rating: 90%.
Marshmallow rates Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs by Pam Muñoz Ryan 90%.
The book bunnies are all Whovians, that is, they are all fans of the British science fiction TV show Doctor Who. Having watched and enjoyed many episodes of the show from both its original run 1963-1989 and the reboot series 2005-present, they also have several books about the series on their bookshelves. Today Marshmallow talks about one of these books, Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia, written by Gary Russell in 2011. Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.
Marshmallow reviews Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia by Gary Russell.
Sprinkles: So Marshmallow, tell me a bit about why you wanted to talk about this book today.
Marshmallow: We went to a Doctor Who convention recently, and I thought it would be fun to revisit this book.
S: Yes, makes sense to me. So tell me a bit about Doctor Who for readers who may not know who he is.
M: Well, that’s a tall order. But let me try. Doctor Who is an alien, from a planet named Gallifrey, and he travels through time and space. Realistically, I think he finds himself on Earth way too often, but through his travels, he makes friends and defends humanity and anything good in this universe against all sorts of evil villains.
S: I think that is a good summary. And I like how you said he finds himself on Earth too often. In fact he finds himself in the UK, almost all the time, right?
M: Of course. It is after all a BBC show!
S: Of course.
M: And he has a companion or two almost in every episode. He is usually the only Time Lord — that is what people from his planet are called — but he often travels with a human or two, finding them in one of his many trips on Earth and bringing them along with him through many adventures.
S: I’m guessing Time Lords call themselves Time Lords. Kind of pretentious, don’t you think?
M: Yes, but they kind of are lords of time. They have the technology to travel through time and space, and they kind of have the ability to even get out of time sometimes. Which is of course weird, and even incomprehensible, for bunnies like us, who are bound by time.
S: I see. Okay, maybe they can call themselves Time Lords then. So tell me about the book. What is it about?
M: Well, it is written like an encyclopedia, and hence the title. So there are many entries, all ordered alphabetically, about all sorts of things about the show and its main characters.
S: I see on the book cover the faces of three of the Doctors.
M: Oh, yes, I forgot to tell you that one of the features of being a Time Lord involves regenerating as a new face and body when your original body is worn out or poisoned or otherwise damaged extensively. So of course this makes it awfully convenient for the BBC to change the actor who is playing the Doctor more or less regularly. And yes, the cover of the book has the ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, the tenth Doctor, David Tennant, and the eleventh, Matt Smith. These are the first three doctors from the reboot era.
S: I see. So the book was published in 2011 —
M: And the Doctor was still Matt Smith back then.
S: But he is no longer?
M: Yep. At some point Matt Smith regenerated, and became Peter Capaldi, who was the twelfth Doctor. Then Capaldi regenerated to become Jodie Whitaker, who is the thirteenth. Apparently she will regenerate, and they will bring back David Tennant for a couple more episodes before he regenerates into Ncuti Gatwa, who will be the fifteenth Doctor.
S: Do you think it could be a bit hard to keep track of all these doctors?
M: Not really. They all have their own personalities. Even though it is supposed to be the same person, and the show is really about the life story of one particular individual, each actor has their own interpretation, and each Doctor is totally different.
S: That is amazing, and it is one of the things that keep the show fresh, no?
M: Yes. I think so too.
Marshmallow is reading Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia by Gary Russell.
S: Okay, back to TheEncyclopedia. So this was published before the twelfth doctor, so it would not have anything about his adventures or companions or those of the thirteenth Doctor. Does it have information about the companions and adventures of the earlier doctors, or is it only about the three new doctors, nine to eleven?
M: I think it is mostly nine to eleven. But they have had a lot of adventures and so there is a lot to say. At the end of the book they list the episodes that the book covers, and they go from Episode 1 of the ninth Doctor to the end of the second year of the eleventh Doctor. And they also have some stuff about The Infinite Quest, which apparently was an animated series with the tenth Doctor and Martha, one of his companions. Somehow we must have missed that one.
S: I see. So there are a lot of details for about six years of the new show.
M: Yes, so you could learn so much! And the book has a lot of colorful pictures. It is really neat to read and look at. Though I must say, there are some scary pictures. And if you just see a picture like that when you turn a page, it could freak you out… It did to me.
S: What do you mean?
M: You know some of the episodes of Doctor Who are pretty scary, and so the pictures about those episodes remind me of the episodes and how scary they were. And even if I had not seen the full episodes, the pictures would still be very scary.
S: Hmm. So maybe this is not a great book for young bunnies.
M: No. But if a bunny likes Doctor Who and is not too scared of the scary episodes, I’m sure they would love this book. There are so many details on each of the episodes. It will be fun to re-watch the show after looking over this book. I think I will notice so much more.
S: So then you like the book, right?
M: Yes. If you are a Whovian, and especially if you like the new series, you have to read this book.
S: I see. Then how would you rate it?
M: I’d rate it 95%, only because of the scary pictures. But otherwise it is a pretty awesome book and would be appreciated by anyone who likes the show.
S: Thank you Marshmallow. I think that is fair. So what would you like to tell our readers as we wrap this up?
M: Stay tuned for more amazing book reviews from the book bunnies!
Marshmallow rates Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia by Gary Russell 95%.
As many young bunnies her age do, Marshmallow has been reading some dystopian novels. In these past few months, she has read and reviewed the recent Shatter Me and Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi, as well as the classic Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. Today she reviews another classic dystopian novel: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, first published in 1932. Sprinkles is asking questions and taking notes.
Marshmallow reviews Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
Sprinkles: So Marshmallow, I’m so glad you have read this book. It was one of my favorites when I read it, and I was only a bit older than you I think.
Marshmallow: I enjoyed reading it too! I found it fascinating.
S: That’s big endorsement from you! Okay, tell us a bit about the book.
M: Okay, let me set the stage: The year is AF (After Ford) 632. Technology is so advanced that humans who are citizens of the World State reproduce solely in artificial wombs, and everyone is conditioned to perfection. That is, if you’re in the right caste. Even before you are born, you are assigned a caste. If you are an Alpha or Alpha Plus, you will receive the most attention and care while in the incubator machines. If you are of a lower caste, say a Delta or an Epsilon, you will get less space, and your growth will be intentionally stunted by alcohol infusions. No matter how hard you work, you will always be working the job you were assigned at birth. Despite this inequality, no one ever complains because complacency and contentment with the system are essentially brainwashed into citizens while they are children. In this sea of conformity, individuality is diluted. On the one hand, everyone is happy, but on the other, this happiness is attained only at the cost of their humanity.
S: Okay, that is pretty dismal as a setting. Go on.
M: So in short, when the story begins, the society is in harmony, but a couple people start to realize that the things that make us human are being lost. Two citizens, Bernard Marx, an Alpha Plus, and Lenina Crowne, a Beta, are vacationing in a reservation where humans still reproduce the natural way. Such societies are rare, and their residents are regarded by basically everyone else as savages. Here they meet John, a man whose mother Linda came from the “brave new world”. When they bring him back to their world, he is horrified by what he sees.
S: That is a good summary of the plot, Marshmallow. I know you thought a lot about this book and even prepared a report of sorts for your English class. So maybe you can tell us a bit more about the three main characters.
M: Sure. Bernard is an Alpha Plus who is at the top of the society. But he is different from others because he isn’t very cheery whereas everyone else is always happy. This is probably because he doesn’t take soma, the drug that everyone else does. Soma gives people a sense of euphoria and makes them unconcerned and joyful. Bernard’s refusal to take it is one example of his peculiarity. Bernard is a bit shorter than other Alpha Plus males, and he feels a bit bad about this.
Then there is Lenina, a very typical member of the World State. An average Beta, she is content with her status and is very disturbed by the comments made by Bernard and John that vilify the World State.
Finally there is John. John’s mother Linda came from the World State, or the “developed” world. Linda actually got pregnant at some point and gave birth to John. This is highly unusual in the World State, as biological reproduction is regarded as a taboo in the brave new world. However, in the reservation, natural birth is just natural. Still, the tribe does not completely accept Linda and John, and so they feel like outcasts. When Bernard gets the permission to bring John to “the civilized world”, he is called the Savage, and people treat him almost like a celebrity. However, as an outsider with beliefs completely orthogonal to those of others, he finds this brave new world repulsive.
Marshmallow is reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
S: Thank you Marshmallow. I think you summarized the main features of these characters well. So I can see that Bernard might not be too happy because he does not feel confident about his stature, and I can see John finding it difficult to adjust. But tell me more about what is wrong with this world. Why do you think this book is so important? What is its main message?
M: I think that the main problem is that everything is supposedly perfect, and the fundamental struggles that make people human are long gone. John the Savage argues that people need to have problems to live properly like humans. Without them, they are not fully human. They become passive, complacent, and no longer crave for progress, creativity, new ideas.
S: When I was in school, we read this book in tandem with Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. You read and reviewed that book, too. Did you see any parallels or significant differences between the two books?
M: Well, I did like both books a lot. But both books had a little bit of adult content, a bit more than I like to engage with in the books I read. Other than that, they are both dystopian, telling us about a possible future where life as we know it is replaced by some very unpleasant and almost hopeless system. But when I was reading about Huxley and Brave New World for my class report, I found a very insightful quote by Neil Postman, who wrote in a 1985 book titled Amusing Ourselves to Death the following:
Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture […] In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.
Neil Postman
The Wikipedia article on Brave New World has this quote, in its context, and the full quote is also very good. But this part is enough for me here. I especially like the last two sentences. Aldous Huxley delves into the psyche of humans to look at how easily they can be reduced to passivity and complacency.
S: Are there other themes that show up in the book?
M: According to Britannica, Huxley was always preoccupied “with the negative and positive impacts of science and technology on 20th-century life”. So there is that of course.
S: I see. The technology that allows the World State to govern one of the most fundamental processes of human life is awesome and scary, and the government, or any other entity, having such a power is bound to be dangerous.
M: Yes.
S: Any other themes that you would like to bring up?
M: Yes, the book is really rich. In Brave New World, humans have become passive and complacent under the eye of the World State. Brave New World presents a different type among the many terrifying futures that could occur. Most dystopian books have governments that are feared, but in this book the government rules by giving citizens everything that they could ever want.
S: What could be wrong with that?
M: As I said before, I think one of the central messages of the book is that people are not fully human if they are not striving to be better; they are not fully human if they are completely satisfied and complacent.
S: How about bunnies? Would you not be a happy bunny if you got all the nice food and all the books and friends you wanted and so on and never needed anything?
M: Given all the terrible things happening in our world today, this kind of a possible world actually sounds nice initially, but I think I’d eventually get bored. I’d probably want to do something different, something new. I’d want a purpose in my life.
S: I can see that.
M: I do wonder if a lot of people would be better off or happier in that world. But they would all be pawns of the establishment. They would not have a purpose or even a choice in this way of living. I don’t think either of those is good.
S: I agree. So what would your rating be for this book?
M: I think I’d rate it 97%. I think this is a very provocative book, made me think a lot, but again, I don’t like too much adult stuff in a book.
S: I agree that there is some of that stuff in the book and some of it is truly disturbing. There is even a scene where they expect children as young as seven to engage in what they call “erotic play”.
M: Those kinds of things make me think that younger bunnies should probably not read this book.
S: Agreed. So a very good book, very thought-provoking, but definitely for older bunnies.
M: Yep.
S: Then we are done. Let us wrap this up. What would you like to tell our readers Marshmallow?
M: Stay tuned for more amazing book reviews from the book bunnies!
Marshmallow rates Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 97%.
One of the last books Marshmallow reviewed for 2022 was Tahereh Mafi’s novel Shatter Me. As her first book for 2023, she chose the second book in the series: Unravel Me, published first in 2013. As Sprinkles is curious to hear more about this book, she is asking questions and taking notes.
Marshmallow reviews Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi.
Sprinkles: So Marshmallow, here we are; it’s a new year, and there are lots of new books to read and write and talk about. Today we are talking about the second book in Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me series: Unravel Me. Your review of the first book made me so curious that I went ahead and read it myself. And I enjoyed it a lot. So now I want to ask you about this second book. Should I read it?
Marshmallow: It depends. The plot of the second book is very interesting. Just like the plot of the first book.
S: That sounds enticing.
M: Yes, the plot is really neat.
S: Tell me a bit about that.
M: Well, maybe I should first summarize the first book a bit. There is this girl named Juliette, whose touch is fatal to most people. She has been living in solitary confinement for many years because many people, including her parents, are scared of her. Then we learn that there are some people who can actually touch her and not die. And one of these is a rebel, and he helps her run away, and we end the first book on a high note, with Juliette and her new friends ready to fight an oppressive regime.
S: Yes, I remember all this. And the world is pretty dismal, right? There are no birds, there is a total environmental collapse, and people are living under the control of a faceless dystopian government.
M: Well, not quite faceless, because we meet one of its faces, Warner, in the first book, and he is one of the leaders of this new regime.
S: True. Do we see Warner in this second book as well?
M: Yes, and he is attracted to Juliette, and somehow Juliette is very confused, and she is not sure if she is attracted right back, even though Warner is a pretty terrible human being.
S: Hmm, here we are getting too close to the mushy stuff you didn’t like in the first book. I’m assuming that there is a lot of mushy stuff in this one, too?
M: Yes, this one has more actually.
S: Hmm, okay, I know it bothers you, so let us move on and talk about the actual plot a bit.
M: Sure. First off, we learned at the end of the last book that Juliette’s killing touch is kind of like a superpower, and she is not the only one with these kinds of powers. There are many others who have superpowers, and they are living together, working to bring down the oppressive regime. And in this book, they are continuing to do that, with Juliette and Adam, the person who saved her, joining them.
S: I see.
Marshmallow is reading Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi.
S: So would you say, at this point, that the book becomes more like a typical heroic adventure book where our heroes are fighting an evil empire and will surely overcome against all odds?
M: Well, not quite. For two reasons. One is the mushy part, the book is more romance than adventure. And two, the “surely they will overcome” is definitely not a sure thing. Things are pretty desperate, I mean, they make some progress in this book, but the world is still a terrible place.
S: Do we ever see a bird?
M: I don’t think so. The world is still pretty bad, as I said. And there is still very little hope.
S: So I am guessing you might just have to read the next book?
M: I just might.
S: And from what you are telling me, I guess I do have to read this second book myself.
M: Yup. I think you have a higher tolerance for mushy stuff.
S: Well, they call me a grownup. I guess I can handle a little bit of that.
M: I guess.
S: So how would you rate the book then?
M: 93% I think. The plot is still very original and engrossing, but the mushiness is still not terribly exciting to me.
S: Alright, given what you told us already, this makes sense. So what do you want to tell our readers as we are wrapping things up?
M: Stay tuned for more amazing reviews from the book bunnies!
BookBunnies 