Frostbite (Vampire Academy Book #2)-Banned Book.

"Rose loves Dimitri, Dimitri might love Tasha, and Mason would die to be with Rose…

It's winter break at St. Vladimir's, but Rose is feeling anything but festive. A massive Strigoi attack has put the school on high alert, and now the Academy's crawling with Guardians—including Rose's hard-hitting mother, Janine Hathaway. And if hand-to-hand combat with her mom wasn't bad enough, Rose's tutor Dimitri has his eye on someone else, her friend Mason's got a huge crush on her, and Rose keeps getting stuck in Lissa's head while she's making out with her boyfriend, Christian! The Strigoi are closing in, and the Academy's not taking any risks….This year, St. Vlad's annual holiday ski trip is mandatory.

But the glittering winter landscape and the posh Idaho resort only create the illusion of safety. When three friends run away in an offensive move against the deadly Strigoi, Rose must join forces with Christian to rescue them. But heroism rarely comes without a price…"-Goodreads.

   This one I enjoyed a lot, so much in fact that I finished it pretty quickly. The story kept moving the whole time, and unfortunately, Richelle Mead ended the chapters in such a way that made you want to keep going. Not fair...because I did keep going, really late into the night. My husband will probably be contacting Richelle here pretty soon asking her not to do that anymore so that he doesn't have to deal with a grumpy, sleep deprived wife. 

   There is a trifecta of guys and Rose has to figure out which one is right for her and worth her time (I think I'm still Team Dimitri...but now I have a bit of a crush on Adrian so I'll have to see where that goes in the next one).
   Her mom in her life again and is pretty stern about Rose changing how she acts about life and her guardianship and Rose has to learn how to deal with that without help from anyone really, because her best friend is to involved with her boyfriend to really hang out and talk with her much. The only person who is trying to help her cope with everything is Dimitri and that in itself is difficult because Rose wants to be with him and he has started showing interest in someone else.
  Dang, poor Rose. So much is on her plate in this story.

    I related to Rose more in this book. There were times when I just couldn't stop thinking "Whoa...that's what I would have done and/or said." I liked those parts because they usually ended up okay, which made me feel smart. And I knew how she felt with the whole "in love with one guy but he tells you you two cannot be together for certain reasons so you try dating someone else and it just doesn't seem to really work" thing. Yeah, been there, done that. But I am now married to that very same guy who told me we couldn't be together....so maybe there is still hope for Dimitri and Rose! This revelation has made my night.

   I'm not even going to lie to you...............I cried. Yeah, it's one of "those" books. But that just makes it feel all the more real.

   Now, onto the Banned Book part. This one, along with the entire series was banned in a school district in Texas for sexual content and nudity. Yes, there is a bit of fooling around, but before you read anything that happens between these two people a fade to black kind of thing happens. Would I suggest it to my 13 yr old cousin? No. But then again this is a young adult, and I don't consider her a young adult just yet. Seriously though, the scene would barely make a parent blink if they saw it in a pg-13 movie with their kid, but when it's in a book it's bad enough to be banned from the entire district? That is just a bit silly.

The Hunger Games. (challenged book)

"Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with every one out to make sure you don't live to see the morning? 

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. 

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning 
to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love."-Goodreads.

374 pages

Published October 1st 2008 by Scholastic, Inc..

I almost regret taking so long to read this book (I say almost because since I waited all the books are out and I won't have to wait for anymore to be released). I saw it in the bookstore right around the time that it was released but decided to wait on it and kind of forgot that I wanted to read it until recently with all the hype of Mockingjay being released. I bought it last week at Border's and when I started it I could not stop reading. Since I haven't read the entire trilogy I cannot yet say they are all my favorite, but I can say that The Hunger Games is now one of my favorite books. 

Dystopian is one of my favorite type of stories and this definitely hit the spot. It's a very intense story. Great characters, riveting plot, the writing is amazing...it's just an all around fantastic read.

And for right now, I am Team Peeta. LOVED him! I hope he stays sweet and amazing in the next two books.

If you haven't read this book, read it soon! I don't want you missing out any longer than you have to.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Banned Books Year Read: (even though it is only a challenged book, that fits in my qualifications for my banned book year)

Now on to the challenged book part. Sometimes I hate the internet. When I searched for this one being a banned book I just got a bunch of links to other people asking if it was banned...BUT I did find one story that stood out to me.

A mother from New Hampshire challenged the book and wanted it removed from her 11 yr old daughter's entire school district after she started having nightmares because of the book, and she also thought that it would desensitize other kids to violence. You can read the entire article HERE.

Now this article states that the mother had not read the series, but other ones that I read said she had...but more often than not they do not read them so I'll go with she didn't.

I can understand an 11 yr old getting scared. As I said before, it is an intense story, and it is violent. If I had a child and found out she had to read it for school I would have read it with her because there are some things to be learned from the story. And I do not believe it will desensitize kids to violence. Most of the characters playing in the games do not feel right about having to kill and it shows them standing up against something they feel is wrong.

One comment that someone made on another version of the article that I liked was something to the effect of that school history classes teach about gladiators going into rings and fighting until the death so if that scares one kid are they going to stop teaching about roman gladiator history? No. So why should this be pulled?

I suggest reading the article. But if you haven't read the book yet, do not read the comments as people have posted spoilers in them.

Vampire Academy.-Banned Book-

"St. Vladimir's Academy isn't just any boarding school–it's a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They've been on the run, but now they're being dragged back to St. Vladimir's–the very place where they're most in danger. Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy's ruthless social scene, and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi–the world's fiercest and most dangerous vampires–make Lissa one of them forever."-Vampire Academy Website.


I was a little nervous to read this book because it is the first book I decided to read for my "Banned Books Year." So I didn't really know what I was in store for.  This seems to be one of the more controversial series that has been banned simply for the fact that books in the series were banned before even being available to the public. Which technically means it was banned in the future...before it was ever read or reviewed. That seems very extreme. Vampire Academy was banned for "sexual content and nudity" by a school district in Stephenville, TX. It was kept PG-13 and it is a YA book, which in my mind is rating it at least PG-13. I'm more surprised that the language was not brought up in the banning reasons. I think if they want to ban books like this because these parents don't want their kids to read it then they should ban movies with this kind of content from theatres or movie stores. They can get the books from somewhere, just like they can sneak into movies. And instead of trying to hide what is in these books, the parents should step up and actually talk about it. Tell your kids why you don't want them reading it, open up the communication, and pay attention to what they are reading in watching if you have that big of a problem with it.


Now, onto the review. First off, I want to state that I don't like the cover. It looks like Angelina Jolie and I don't like her...so I was almost turned off from this read because of that. 
I was a little bit 'meh' for the first 5-ish chapters. Richelle Mead kept soooo much stuff secret and it didn't really feel like anything in the story was unfolding. Then finally around chapter 7 or 8 it slowly started to open a little and you were let in more of what was supposed to be going on.
Rose always talks about how the biggest thing in her life is protecting Lissa...but I always got the feeling she liked doing her own thing more. She is a HUGE flirt and likes to mess around with random guys at their school. It's not until her mentor, Dimitri, points out she is being selfish in the way she acts. Then of course she gets a Dimitri crush. But the hopeless romantic in me can't wait to see what happens to Rose and Dimitri and if they ever get together or not. It is a pretty good start to the series though, so I'm looking forward to the next one to see where the story gets taken and to see what made that one get banned.

Decisions, decisions.

  I worked on my banned book list last night for a few hours before bed. It is taking a lot longer to make a list then I thought it would. There are sooo many lists of banned and challenged books to choose from. And not all the lists have the reasons for the book being banned or challenged so then I have to go and look that up too. Because I want the reasons before I read the book. But it is coming together. And I am quite happy with my list, so far.

  Also, I am trying to decide on a couple blog meme's to be a part of. There are just so many. Waiting on Wednesday, Teaser Tuesdays, In My Mailbox...and so on. Hopefully in the next couple of days I can go and look at all the ones I am considering and decide on a couple to do since they seem fun.

Banned Books Year.

Originally I planned to read the top 100 banned books in the next year. But with my husband and I moving to a new duty station in 2 months, him possibly getting deployed early next year, which would mean me moving back home with my family while he is gone and probably getting a job and starting back at school while his is gone....there is just too much on my plate to make that kind of commitment. So after we move and get settled in in Colorado I will start trying to read at least one banned book a week. If I cannot keep up with one a week (since I will still be reading all my other books) I will do no less than 2 a month.

I will start reading them January 1st 2011-December 31st 2011. If it ends up being superbly enjoyable and don't want to stop I'll keep doing it after the end date. But for now, I'll just stick to a year. Right now I am reading lists and lists of banned/challenged books and making my own list of which ones to read and why they were banned so when I am done reading them I can blog about it here and tell you what I think.

I am very much against censorship on books. To me, it is a cop out of for parents to be less involved in their kids lives. They shouldn't ban books. They should know what their kids are reading. I would even go as far to say that they should read the books before their kid.

Maybe if some came up with a good reason for wanting to ban a book from a school or library I would think about being okay with it. But when people are removing books like "Anne Frank" from shelves for the reason of it being too depressing...that makes me lose hope in people. Yeah, it is depressing. It took place during the Holocaust! I don't think there is a way you can write about Jews being tortured and killed or hiding for their lives for years and make it sound all happy go-lucky. That was life back then....okay okay, tangent over.

But seriously, this is happening. And it needs to stop. Censorship is not a good thing, especially in this area. So next "Banned Book Year" update I should have a list of what I have decided to read and the reasons why the books were banned or challenged. If packing and moving isn't too overwhelming I might start a month or so early so that I can get some more books in.

I would also love to hear from you. If you decide to do something like this with me, or just read one or two. Tell me what you think. Do you agree with the banning? Did you enjoy the book? Would it have been something you would have picked up to read just to read it? Let me know. This is gonna be fun :)