Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Reviewed by Tanuj B.
Grade 10

What do you enjoy doing at Christmastime? Opening presents? Visiting family members? Catching up with your friends? How about a scavenger hunt, conducted through a red notebook? Because when Dash finds a red notebook full of dares, he is drawn to the challenges it lists and the prospect of love it offers. As Dash and Lily trade their book of dares back and forth, both of them get the other to do things that he or she would never do.

Alone at Christmastime, Dash decides to spend his days at the Strand, a rather large bookstore, looking for, you guessed it, a nice book. But when he finds a red notebook lodged next to Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, filled with dares such as finding books titled Fat Hoochie Prom Queen, The Joys of Gay Sex, and other lesser known works, well, who could resist? He agrees to the challenge, and leaves a note with the cashier for the owner of the red notebook to find. In the meantime, Lily, also alone, is spending her Christmas cooped up at home, her parents in Fiji and her brother with his boyfriend. So she agrees when her brother makes up a way to get her a friend of the opposite sex and leaves the notebook at the Strand. She’s quite surprised when she finds someone takes her up on the dare and leaves one of their own. And so Dash and Lily start to trade their dares and their memories back and forth. Throughout the book, they visit places such as a wax museum, a mall, the movie theater, and a nightclub, and leave their comfort zones to make Muppets, break grandma’s boots out, and feel up a stranger at the mall.

The difference in the authors' style of writing each chapter is great to characterize Dash and Lily. Because the two authors wrote each chapter of the book independently and then sent the finished sample to the other author so that he or she could write the next one, Dash and Lily’s characters develop extremely well. Dash’s chapters seem to be filled with sarcasm and witty retorts, while Lily’s are filled with unreal threats, for the most part. Both of the authors seem to be going for humor to make the book interesting but do so in different ways, using irony and wit. For example, when Dash first finds the red notebook, and has to find Fat Hoochie Prom Queen, he resolves to ask the man behind the counter. He says something along the lines of, “I’m looking for Fat Hoochie Prom Queen.” Pause. “It’s a book, not a person.” When Lily is faced with a problem, while trying to find a solution, she sometimes threatens to do things that the reader would never imagine her to do. For example, she seems to want to use her parents’ guilt at making her do something she doesn’t want to do to get a puppy, or perhaps a bunny. It just makes her look ridiculous. These not only make the reader like the characters, it makes the characters like each other. To Lily, through his writings and her family’s descriptions, Dash seems like a snarling hipster that might wear purple often (which he is), while Lily is conveniently described as “the weird girl” by Dash (which she is).

I definitely, positively recommend this book. Not only does it illustrate an important theme (one that I and many other people too, I suspect, often have problems with), the characters are rich and funny, as is the conflict, the plot, and anything else about it. Will Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares result in two good friends, disappointment, or love? One thing’s for sure: I know I loved this book, and I’m quite sure you will too!

Also available in downloadable eBook form!

Eldest by Christopher Paolini

Reviewed by: Angela W.
Grade 9

Soar with Eragon and Saphira over the Hadarac desert. Hike through a deadly mountain chain with the villagers of Carvahall and Roran, Eragon’s cousin. Dance with the elves of Ellesmera. To get there, all you need to do is jump into Eldest, the second book in the Inheritance Cycle, and then join Eragon and Saphira, two unlikely partners that are out to save Alagaesia from the evil King Galbatorix.

Eragon, a sixteen year-old Rider who grew up on a farm, and Saphira, a young dragon that, as an egg, was rescued from the king, are sent to train with the elves in the forest of Du Weldenvarden. Eragon begins to show his affection for Arya, a century old elf-maiden who works with the Varden. Can they ever be together? Meanwhile, Saphira’s hopes of finding a mate are renewed when they make a sudden discovery at the edge of Ellesmera, the elven city where they are staying. Will anything come of it? Back in Carvahall, Eragon and Roran’s hometown, the village has just been attacked by the king’s soldiers. Several people have died, and Katrina, the one Roran holds most dear, has just been stolen from him. Is it at all possible the she is still alive? Roran manages to convince the village to leave their homes in search of safety, with an underlying mission of avenging Katrina’s death or rescuing her if she is still alive. Throughout the story, you receive many surprises, both pleasant and unpleasant, with one final twist that will totally surprise you.

I found that although Eragon has such a high stature and is revered all over Alagaesia because he is a Rider, he is still just a normal, sixteen-year-old boy on the inside. One example of this is when Eragon was sparring with another elf. The elf was chiding him about how he was inferior to the elves, who were much more agile, and Eragon lost his temper and bound the elf with magic. I commend Mr. Paolini on creating a whole new language (called the Ancient Language), and a different, new kind of magic that seems so versatile and diverse in how the characters use it.

I enjoyed reading this book, but it sometimes seemed a little bit slow. The descriptions were very good though, and I could clearly picture the places they went to. I think I would probably recommend this book to people that like fantasy and action, especially if they always think to themselves, “The thicker the book, the better!” I would also recommend that you read Eragon, the first book, before you read this one, but if you don’t, Mr. Paolini has kindly placed a detailed summary in the beginning of this volume.