Shiver

Steifvater, M. (2009). Shiver. New York: Scholastic Press.

                         
 Grace is a seventeen year old who loves to watch the wolves out of her window.  She lives in a small town in Minnesota.  There is one wolf in particular that she loves to watch, it a bluish-gray wolf with beautiful, yellow eyes.  This wolf, even watches her.  When Grace was  a child, she was attacked by wolves and this beautiful, yellow eyed saved her and still protects her.  When it is cold, he lives as a wolf and when it is warm, he is a human. Sam and Grace fall in love.  Together, they are trying to find a cure since this is the last time that he will become human.  Then, one of Grace’s friends, Jack is attacked by the wolves and the hunters from town want to kill all wolves.  Sam and Grace wonder if there is a cure since Grace did not become a wolf when she was bitten as a little girl.  From what they can figure out was that Grace had a high fever following her wolf attack.  So, then Sam and Jack are infected with meningitis in hopes to produce a fever.  Jack dies from the meningitis.  Then during the middle of the winter, Sam walks out of the woods into Grace’s embrace. 

I really enjoyed this novel.  The characters were a perfect blend of reality and fantasy.  The two worlds worked well together and you could feel the love between Sam and Grace.  Students in grades 7^th and up would enjoy this story.  Shiver is the first book in Stiefvater’s Shiver triology. 

Shiver meets these characteristics of a high fantasy, supernatural novel:

·                  A complete world is created with specific and consistent rules.

·                  Readers are so thoroughly convinced of the logistics of the created world that they can suspend their disbelief enough to be drawn into the story.  However, there is still a basis in reality.

·                  There is a quest and a hero who must complete the quest no matter the dangers or impossibility of the tasks set before him or her.

·                  Good and evil engage in battle, back and forth throughout the story until the hero wins.

·                  There is plenty of suspense to propel the story forward and compel the reader to keep turning pages.

Chance, R. (2014). Young adult literature in action: A librarian's guide. 2nd ed. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.