Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

The story Akata Witch has a lot of female characters in it.  The main character is Sunny and while she does everything that a protagonist does she also faces a lot of sexism in the work as well.  I believe the other used this on purpose to help show how tough the world can be for woman instead how it has been used in other novels where it feels like an author is trying to talk down to women.  Nnedi Okorafor has many examples of strong women in this work; between that and her accurate references to Nigeria this novel is overall a unique take on fantasy.
One of the biggest moments in the novel that stuck with me after reading it was when Sunny was trying to play soccer.  This is something she loves to do and is very good at it.  When she gets on a team to play for the day they first tell her that she cannot join them because she is a girl.  Her friend Sasha stands up for her and convinces the other boys to at least give her a tryout.  What made this scene so powerful was her tryout was so much harder than any of the boys' tryouts.  She had to not only shoot the ball into the goal, but there was a goalie and defense playing against her. This was a powerful image showing the extra work women have to do in order to get the same privilege as men.  The novel gives other examples of both genders working together to destroy the evil, which is good.  I don't like when works try to praise women by bashing men, but instead lift both men and women togther.
-Amanda

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

"My dear Bilbo! he said. Something is the matter with you! You are not the hobbit that you were." -Gandolf

I wish I could have read this book before seeing the movies, but as I watch them all as they were coming out and just read the book for the first time for this class, I unfortunately cannot change that.  Because I had seen the movies, so much felt like it was missing from this book.  I realize now why there were so many changes made, but I am not sure I would have done all of them myself.  

My favorite part about this book is the protagonist.  Bilbo is such a relatable character.  He really just finds himself in the middle of all of this greatness not really making many choices on his own yet still lucking out.  The entire time he is dreaming of his bed back home.  While I love The Lord of the Rings series, I think that Frodo is more of a savior archetype which can make him hard to relate to.  He saves everyone, by doing what no one else could before him, and sacrifices almost everything to fix someone else's mistake.  Frodo leaves his story scarred yet stronger.  Bilbo on the other hand gets thrown into an adventure he didn't sign up for, wants to go home, manages to mess up the right way every single time, and walks away with a huge secret that starts the drama in the original series.  He leaves his story a different character, but I wouldn’t call him scarred, just braver.  He is a great example to children and adults of what a real human is: flawed but brave.  He tries his hardest and makes difficult choices, all while fate throwing him where he needs to go.  Bilbo is a great main character.  

 -Amanda

The Infernal Devices Books 1-3 by Cassandra Clare

The Infernal Devices is an interesting trilogy due to its time period.  Fantasy books tend to take place in the medieval times or in more recent day they have started to take place in modern times, but the Infernal Devices takes place in the late 1800s in Victorian England.  I have read a few other fantasy books in that time period but no more than five that I can think of, without getting into the steampunk genre.

What really make the Infernal Devices stand out in that time period is they affectively use their setting to help the plot, it is not just a time period Cassandra Clare happened to throw her characters into.  She shows this through her use of machines. This is extremely different from what the same story would look like if it was told today (which we can see if we read the Mortal Instruments).

Each of the is titled with the work Clockwork in it.  This is an important aspect of each of the books, as they are all centered around the rise in “new” technology.  I put new in quotation marks because it was only new for their time.  They had creatures made of cogs and wheels running around working for the antagonist.  There was also a load of inventions such as flash bombs and wheel chairs that came into being while the books were going one.  They also described the architecture and how it was getting build and how it doesn’t match the current day.  All of these elements helped control the characters and kept them from doing outrageous things, therefor helping the plot along and not just being a fancy sight note.

-Amanda