Welcome to the Slant, where you'll find reviews and original writings by the members of Martin Library's Teen Advisory Board.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Broken: A Poem by Aketzalli G.

My heart is smashed
Trying to put it back the best I can
But glue or tape won’t work
And it keeps breaking apart
I’m screaming
You can’t hear but I know you are
I need to move on
To forget all that’s happened
But my mind replays us again and again
I think I may still love you
But I don’t even recognize you
Your betrayal chain will soon set me free
And I’ll run from your memories
As I walk by myself
I feel really cold and shattered
Of course your not here to keep me warm
I’ll keep looking for the one who I know will put me back together
And keep me whole
I won’t be pulled down into your hell
To be forgotten and lost
You have broken me
Destroyed me into pieces
Broke all my dreams and feelings
Left me here still cold and crushed
My heart burns when I see you go
I have this venom that’s been poisoning me
Into something that’s not me
I’ll try to recover myself as a whole
Or forever shall I be broken

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Lost: A Poem by Jose D.

I waited for your love in hope,
That ours would come again,
And make me feel the things I felt,
When we were one, back then

But time and distance have erased,
The Things I wish anew,
And now I find myself alone,
Now that I’m here, Left with the thought of you,

what good is love, that does not touch,
what good is love, that fives you pain
what good is love, that makes you run,
And makes you lost out in the rain,

I traveled to another world,
Out far beyond the one we knew,
I thought that I could live again
Merely by the thought of you,

But what of hearts that beat as one,
And what of Passion and embrace,
Is it too much to ask of you,
To make the pain of mine erase,

what good is love, that does not touch
what good is love, that gives you pain
what good is love, that makes you run
And makes you lost, confused with pain,

Too painful this - to journey back
To times of love, the times we laughed,
The times we lay together wit
A sense of you, a sense of me.

So now, I journey on alone
Forever wandering, in my thoughts
And I will ask you again, once more
What good is love, without you?

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Monday, January 19, 2009

Book Review: My Bonnie Light Horseman (L.A. Meyer)

by Becca L.

In this latest installment of the Bloody Jack series, Jackie has gotten herself into the most far-fetched bit of trouble yet. We've stuck with her through cross-dressing, finishing school, piracy, slavery, and grand theft nautical. Even I, Jackie's biggest fan, cannot swallow our heroine as a spy/ballerina/burlesque/French soldier. Yes, she tackles all these roles in a single book. One day she's gaining information on French troop movements via pillow-talk, the next she's delivering the orders that save Napoleon's bacon. And the author tells us this is not the end of it!

I have never been a supporter of neat, tidy, gift-wrapped endings. In fact, I am highly offended by them. But would it kill L.A. Meyer to give it a ending? Every book ends in the middle of something very important. Just send her back to England with Jaimy already! She can get in plenty of book-worthy trouble when she's married.

I am all for suspense, but I have been waiting with baited breath for far too long. I have another bone to pick with you, Mr. Meyer. When did Jackie become gentrified? A large part of her charm stems from her cockney upbringing. I cannot have a properly educated Cheapside scammer! It simply will not do! I demand that you return her to her humbler speech patterns that must be read aloud to be understood!

Still, I can never stay mad at Jackie for long. She holds a special place in my heart as the one heroine I actually like who can be snuck into the "realistic fiction" box of required reading. I shudder to think what the seventh book will bring. I doubt there is anything left to subject her to.

Town of Deadly Hollow, Part One - Sarah D.

Christmas is a wonderful time of year. Children playing, carolers singing, parents buying presents. At least that’s how I wanted it to be. In the small town of Deadly Hollow, things weren’t like that. Christmas was forbidden, almost forgotten in this god forsaken place. Anyone who lived there like me would tell you, it just wasn’t the place to grow up.

You're probably wondering who I am. Well my name to me isn’t really that important. But I guess I could tell you. Anna. Anna Mackanzie. I was a fifth generation in Deadly Hollow. My Great-Great Grandparents from my father’s side moved here before his Grandfather was born.

Their names were James Mackanzie and Jane Mackanzie. They had three children in all, Jeremy, Jack, and Eliza. Eliza unfortunately died at the age of six. No one knows why just that one day she was healthy as a bat then the next day, well dead. My father’s Grandfather was Jack, the second oldest in the family. Jeremy never married and died all alone. I always found that weird to tell you the truth.

Of course, I left it be since no one in the family wanted to talk about it. Jack married young I believe, age sixteen, going on seventeen to a young girl named Katrina. Katrina was someone everyone adored; unfortunately she died during her second child birth to Diana. Diana died not to long after her mother to measles. Jack now had only his son, my Grandfather, in his life. He named him James after his father.

James, my grandfather, fell in love with a lawyer’s daughter. She unfortunately had a thing for the richest family in Deadly Hollow and wouldn’t give him a glance. Out of anger, he raped her. She ended up pregnant with my Father, Jack Mackenzie. After being forced to marry James to keep her family’s good appearance, she hung herself in front of my six year old father. May god bless her soul. Jack forever mortified of his mother’s death was sent to counseling a good six years until he was deemed stable. He met my mother, at age twelve, and that was that. At age sixteen they both got married and had six children. Five boys and one girl, in other words, me.

Now that we have that settled let me tell you one thing, when I was four my mom was killed in front of my eyes. Although, I can’t remember much, that’s not really that important. I am now twenty-one years old and a very well known writer. My oldest brother Drew is happily married with six kids of his own. He’s now a reporter for the Daily Times.

Actually, let me just cut to the chase and tell you that all of my brothers are happily married with kids. As for me, I have been married twice with no kids from either. I think my brother said something about them being sterile. It doesn’t matter anymore, I wasn’t really planning to have kids nor do I want any at this stage of my life. Anyways, the story I am about to write is not for the weak of heart or in this case stomach, defiantly not the stomach.

It’s about treachery, murder, and betrayal. But all in all it’s about how I came to understand something very important. There are secrets in every family, which are sometimes best left as that, a secret. If you are of weak stomach or heart turn back now, go read the book on happy fairies and unicorns that dance in broad daylight to merry little tunes, cause I will tell you one thing there are no daisy’s up ahead, just a deep understanding of how sometimes children should never look where they are not welcomed to look. But if you think that you can handle it, by all means be my guest, after all I can’t stop, now can I?

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Olivia Birdsall's Notes on a near life experience: A Review by Alexis M.

Divorce is all over. In movies, TV shows, with her friends, etc. Mia never expected to have it happen to her though. Suddenly, after having an almost perfect family with tons of routine and tradition, she’s 15 and her father decides to move out with no notice. As her family life crumbles, her love life picks up. Her longtime crush, Julian, has finally noticed her. However, Julian happens to be her older brother, Allen’s best friend. Allen… isn’t exactly thrilled to have Julian want to spend more one on one time with Mia. As this is happening, Mia’s mother is disappearing more and more into her work, Allen is starting to skip school and is becoming very mysterious, and her father just brought home a woman from Peru.

“Notes On A Near-Life Experience” was an interesting book. The family drama added to the new dramatic love life was totally addicting. I really enjoyed all the topics that Birdsall included. Although, might have been a little too much. It easily could have been broken up a little more and been made into a series. Despite that fact, it was an awesome book.
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Anger: A Poem by Aketzalli G.

The fire that burns in you
That grows every time someone pisses you off
Making you think to do something wrong
To think twice if you should kill
Or turn crazy and beat someone ‘til the sight of blood appears
To try and calm that fire in you
Trying to hold the sobs of fury for you can’t do anything to stop the rage
The beast not even I can tame
To hold in the screams of threat and mean in
So hard to not cry in eyes view
Trying hard not to hurt yourself
Having that anger win
And get you in trouble
Mess you up
Or grow hatred in you
Turn you into that beast that’s too savage to calm
And hurt who don’t deserve to be hurt
That anger that gets too much to handle
How others react when you get mad
To scare others in helping you
Escape the anger
And be who you were moments ago
Trying hard to not remember the cause
Remembering who you were when you were angry
To return in you again
Doing something you’ll regret
Because of that anger
You don’t know what you’ll expect next.

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