Kittenpie Reads KidLit

Guts

2011-11-27T20:03:00.000-08:00

by Gary Paulsen

Gary Paulsen's Hatchet is a much-read, much-recommended Newbery honor book from 1988. It has sequels about Brian's further adventures, also much-read by many, many boys. So many readers have been fascinated with the survival adventures and the hardships that Brian goes through as he struggles his way out of the wilderness that Paulsen has had, over the years, stacks of letters asking him about various aspects of the book. Has he ever tried to start a fire the way Brian did? Do moose really attack people? Can a plane really crashland the way Brian's did and leave a survivor? Finally, he decided to write about some of his own experiences and how they came to form the ones Brian has in Hatchet.

This book is incredible, in that it is full of crazy experiences that are all drawn from Paulsen's real life. The man has seen a lot. A lot of death - by sharks, deer, or freezing alive. A lot of wilderness, where he hunted, camped, and learned some of the secrets of the forest and the animals, and how to use those to survive out there. A lot of brutal cold, on two Iditarod races. And a lot of hunting, which he talks about in great detail, talking about the differences between hunting with guns versus bows, and how he came to make his own bow and arrows as a young man. It's stuff from another time and place, except that some of it is not in fact that far removed by time or geography, but rather style of living.

The most interesting thing about it all, really, is maybe that Paulsen isn't being sensational about any of it. The deaths and hunting are not relished, he is factual, and shows plainly that he has enormous respect for the animals he hunts for food and for the forces of nature. His lifetime of experiences have been well-selected and boiled down to create Hatchet, and as he walks us through these times in his life and relates them back to the book, I found myself completely amazed at the varied, tough, and extremely full life he's led. Very much a worthwhile read for anyone who enjoyed Hatchet or more classic stories like those of Jack London.

The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading

2011-10-28T15:30:00.000-07:00

by Charity Tahmaseb & Darcy Vance

What starts out as a sort of social experiment to test the fairness of cheerleading tryouts leads geek girls Bethany and Moni into entirely new territory when they find themselves members of the squad.

There are crushes on popular boys that seem to be coming to fruition, some acceptance among the popular clique girls, but also clashes with the worst of them, an ex-friend who resents not only the new status of these two rising stars, but also the attention they are getting from those most crushable boys.

Add in that Moni seems determined never to go back, going over so far into the world of the clique that it comes between the two girls, and Bethany is not too sure how this will ever end well.

Things work out, mostly, of course - this is, after all, a nice light read, but it also raises a few issues along the way, and I quite like Bethany, the main character. I'd recommend it as a somewhat meater bit of chicklit, definitely.

Scott Pilgrim

2011-10-27T15:32:00.000-07:00

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
Scott Pilgrim vs The World
Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness
Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
Scott Pilgrim vs The Universe
Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour

by Bryan Lee O'Malley

This set of graphic novels set in Toronto follow Scott Pilgrim in his pursuit of becoming the boyfriend of Ramona Flowers and, as required, defeat her evil ex-boyfriends, all seven of them. Sounds strange? Well, yes, but it makes more sense when you realize that it is set up much like a video game, with each book as a level, and the defeat of each boyfriend an objective that earns Scott points toward his final goal. Better?

That framework also helps explain the crazy fight scene between Ramona and Knives Chau, who Scott first dates briefly, that is held, of all wonderful things, in the Toronto Reference Library. Seriously. It is a delight to Toronto readers that the city figures so prominently and recognizably, but it doesn't limit the readership, either. It's a bit nonsensical, a little rambling, and a whole lot of crazy, mixed-up fun with characters you mostly like, even in their douchey moments, and they do have them.

I like the drawing style, a fairly comic style that keeps the fight scenes jokey and the characters seeming fun even when they have their moments. Having read the series, I can see that Michael Cera might just be the most inspired choice to play Scott Pilgrim, as he was cast - it's sitting on my shelf waiting for a viewing now.

Stargirl

2011-10-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

by Jerry Spinelli

Like many high schools, things are pretty typical in Leo's high school. So when a strange hippie chick in a range of weird costumes shows up and starts singing to people in the cafeteria, cheering for the other team, and generally acting like all the unspoken norms and rules don't apply to her.

For a while, people aren't sure what to make of her. Eventually, they embrace her, and a wave of individualism sweeps through the school. Leo optimistically daydreams of a new dawn, until the tide begins to turn. When their sports team begins to win for the first time ever, people suddenly start to care that Stargirl, as she calls herself, cheers for the other players as much as she does for their own, and start to view her as a traitor. The shunning is complete and Leo, her boyfriend, gradually notices it and finds himself swayed, as well, beginning to be embarrassed by the very things that he once admired.

This book doesn't go for the happy ending, as a movie or an episode of Glee would, with everyone discovering her wonderful heart again at the end, though there is a glimmer of hope. Instead, it goes deeper, and Leo finds himself talking with a wise old friend of his about the nature of her and him and the stuff of stars and stargirls. There are lessons here, to be sure, but they are imparted with a sort of longing and a mystical feel that keeps them from being earnest or preachy. In the end, Leo looks back wistfully, and still full of more questions than answers.

Note: there is a followup as well, Love, Stargirl, that I will be adding to my to-read pile, as I am curious how a sequel to this would unfold.

Does My Head Look Big in This?

2011-10-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Amal is a pretty average girl living in Australia, though she is pretty new at her snooty prep school, and it's a bit strange after being at a school that was rooted in the Muslim community for years. Despite wanting to blend in at McLean, she decides over the holidays to start wearing the hijab as a step farther into living her faith as a fuller part of her life. This is not met without resistance, let's just say...

Her parents, to begin with, are concerned about the opposition they fear she will encounter, and worry that it may hold her back because of how she will be perceived by others. Their worries aren't unfounded, and she does indeed encounter some nasty moments along the way. Her principal is not on board, to begin with, though her parents convince her to allow the addition to the school uniform.

Her own biggest worries come with her return to school and the dog-eat-dog social world of high school. For one thing, she is already a target of mean girl Tia and her friends. For another, she has a major crush on school cutie Adam. She has some rock-solid friends, but they do have some issues of their own that they are wrestling with, making Amal's struggles to fit in as an identifiably Muslim girl in a very white school only one of the issues that this book covers.

Amal is smart and sassy, and determined not to be defined or limited by people's perceptions. She sets out to inform the people who make clueless comments about the differences and similarities between Islam and other major religions, and to point out stereotypes and assumptions where they rear their ugly heads. She wins some people over this way - including Adam, who suddenly presents a new problem, when she realizes that what part of her wants, another part does not, for she is level-headed enough to remember that her religious beliefs about intimacy are more important to her than what her heart is telling her she wants with him.

In the end, the book sets out to expose and correct a lot of ignorant beliefs and assumptions, and does a fine job of it. The characters are likeable, and have the reader with them the whole way. And best of all, the author manages to make several good points, and make them strongly, without sacrificing any of the fun in this moving book about growing up Muslim in Australia to her message.

A Northern Light

2011-09-11T19:44:00.000-07:00

by Jennifer Donnelly

This is one of those books I had heard about for years, from many people whose opinions I respect immensely, but never seemed to get to, until just now. It's a period piece, which is not always my style, and it's a weighty read, which for a slower reader like myself can be off-putting when my reading pile is so very tall, but I"m glad I finally took the time to delve into it.

The book opens with Mattie Gokey working at a summer holiday spot in upstate New York, where a body has just been pulled from the lake. The victim had given Mattie some letters to destroy before she went out on the fatal boat ride, and now Mattie has some choices to make as she uncovers some truths in those letters. This story unfolds in chapters that alternate with the chapters about how Mattie came to work there, despite the wishes of her stern father and an engagement that should have seen her home.

Mattie, we learn, is a bright girl who should, in the opinion of her teacher and best friend, be bound for a scholarship she has won at Barnard College with the assistance of her inspiring (but, it turns out, scandalous) teacher. She wants it so badly she can taste it, yet the money to get there seems impossible and worse, her father won't give her permission to go and leave him and her younger sisters behind. She is already torn between wishes and responsibility when Royal gets in the mix, asking her to marry him, and she is pulled in yet another direction by his handsome, solid self. Add to this the trials of her dearest friend, who sees the dreams he longs for fiercely go up in smoke, and in the end, she learns a few hard truths about men and women, about love and duty and destiny.

Mattie is one of those great girl characters, the ones full of spunk and longing and fight, the ones who we root for the whole way, whose frustrations are our frustrations, and she is the core of what makes this book great. There's a lot here, though. A lot about girls and position, a lot about what we want and why, a lot about living in another time, when you were defined by what you looked like and were told not to fight it.

All this, the experience, the realness of it, and the depth of the characters make for a read that pulls you in and stays with you well after you've closed the cover. Highly recommended, and a Printz Honor Book, to boot.

Junk / Smack

2011-09-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

by Melvin Burgess
***(This book has been published under both titles.)

Melvin Burgess is the kind of writer who manages to take on anything and make it compelling reading - really, the reason that I wanted to read this book. He can the write the impossible so that it's believable, the creepy so that it's chilling yet not unthinkable, and in this case, the big issue in a way that neither sensationalizes nor minimizes.

This book is about junk - as in heroin - and a pair of kids who fall into using it. Well, one of them falls in, following the other, who rather jumps headlong into it as an adventure. Which is kind of how their relationship is, really - she leading blithely, he following, even though he is the one with the true problems at home. It's her thirst for something new that leads them to run away, to move out with some users, and to start themselves.

Once they start using, Burgess presents a pretty balanced picture about what the appeal is, the hold the cravings have over them, the unappealing things they do to keep that next score in sight, and the lies they tell themselves to make it seem okay. In the end, they do strive to clean up and return to a different life, and we see glimpses of where their stories will lead, some endings happier than others.

Over it all, though, is Burgess' writing, less showy here than in some of his books, but solid, unflinching, and a real enough voice to speak directly to teens and the questions they might have about this drug and the life that too often goes with it.

Noah Barleywater Runs Away

2011-09-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

by John Boyne
Doubleday
978 0 385 67597 0

Something is wrong at Noah's home, and he decides to run away. He's not being mistreated, it's made clear, but the nature is a mystery that some readers will guess at before it is revealed at the end.

In any case, he is now on the road and encounters some strange people and situations along the way, landing finally at a strange toyshop built under a most unusual tree. There, he meets an old man who seems to understand a great deal about him. By the end of a very odd and thought-provoking day of magical happenings and meandering discussion, Noah has learned enough to change his perspective and decide to return home, and the reader has learned enough to piece together the pieces of this fairy-tale-inspired story.

The ending is satisfying, if not as surprising as it might have hoped to be, and the read has a decidedly fairy-tale quality, as mentioned above. How well it all worked, though, I'm not certain. I think it is perhaps too old for most children, or too determinedly offbeat, but that is John Boyne's style, and to be honest, I didn't love his famous title The Boy in Striped Pajamas, either. I have to call this one a book that some will enjoy and some not, because I really believe it's a case where taste will dictate more than anything whether you walk away liking it or not.

Poppy

2011-09-10T21:23:00.000-07:00

by Avi
Harper Trophy
978 0 380 72769 8

This is one of those classics I've always thought I should read, and a favourite of many. It finally jumped off a shelf at me, and I took it home (no really, it did, when I pulled down something else for a patron!).

It's not the first of the series, as I had figured it would be, but a followup to Ragweed. Thankfully, it is not necessary to have read the first book to enjoy this one, and I really didn't feel that I was missing much background starting here.

Poppy is a small mouse who lives in a field under the sadistic control of an owl who restricts their movements and eats them for any infraction. Not that he wouldn't eat them anyhow, but he enjoys their terror and gives them the illusion of safety and choice to play with them. Terrible stuff, but handled deftly, this.

After the owl eats Poppy's boyfriend and denied her family permission to move to a larger home with more food, Poppy takes matters into her own hands, and sets out to find out more about this new home. The owl, Mr. Ocax, is both panicked and enraged by her defiance, and tries to stop her, but she allies herself with a grouchy porcupine who helps her avoid him as she finds out what has Mr. Ocax so scared and returns to her family home. By the time she gets there, she has made fast friend of Ereth the porcupine, and Mr. Ocax has died, never to harrass the mice again, who can now move as they please. The scene is set for the next book of the five-book series.

These are fantastic animal tales in the vein of Redwall or the Rats of Nimh, with the small overthrowing the mighty, and the valiant taking the day. It's got some scary bits, of course, but on the whole is written to be pretty accessible even to grade two or three kids, if they are not the easily frightened type, like my girl is.

Punk 101

2011-07-28T21:01:00.000-07:00

Punk is a catchall title that covers subgenres widely ranging from Ramonescore to Grindcore to Queercore, and is hotly debated by its listeners, whether or not they live one "punk" lifestyle or another - and again, there are many. With punk being so hard to pin down, it should come as no surprise that while these two teen books both caught my eye for their otensible punk theme, they are wildly different.

So Punk Rock
by Micol Ostow
Flux
ISBN: 9780738714714

Ari is a serious music lover, and also in dire need of some cool points, especially since his best friend Jonas is one of those effortlessly charismatic types who overshadows him at every turn. In pursuit of rock stardom, they drag in a few other classmates along the way, act like jerks to each other at times, and of course, learn a few valuable lessons by the end - but not too much of the lesson stuff.

Ari also attends a Jewish day school with his friends, and references to their shared culture abound, from co-opting the term "kosher" to mean cool to mentions of bar mitzvahs, bagels, bubelehs, and the like. It's great fun, and makes the character come to life even as he pokes fun at his own stereotypical family and school settings.

The short graphic interludes and notebook drawings add another dimension to the novel and the character, and introduce David Ostow's art, as well. A great pick for a reluctant reader or a teen who wants some funny in a light, music-themed read.

Mosh Pit
by Kristyn Dunnion
Red Deer Press
ISBN: 9780889952928

Simone, a young lesbian punk is at the centre of this rough, raw story of living on the edge. She has a lingering loyalty to Cherry, her self-destructive, addicted best friend who she is in love with, despite her manipulation and recent alliance with a nasty, violent dealer. She is at the same time falling for Carol, a streetsmart tranny with a heart of gold, who also happens to be wise enough to know that Simone has a long way to go to be ready for a real relationship with her.

Simone does has a circle of tight friends like Hardcore Hank, Velvetine, and Diesel, who all help her at the worst times, including after she is badly beaten by a cop, and want the best for her. In the end, they save her and help her find a way back to okay after a horrific run-in with Cherry and her psycho boyfriend that nearly has her and her friend's little niece killed in a park. Seriously.

This is most emphatically not a book for the faint of heart, but a reader looking for a gritty read about offbeat characters that you can root for will find plenty of friendship and violence in equal measure here.

Emily the Strange: Stranger and Stranger

2011-07-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

by Rob Reger and Buzz Parker

I've always kind of loved Emily the Strange... but until not that long ago, she was mostly a vague character to me. The new series of half-graph novels/diaries are delving further into the world and mind of Emily, and giving me a whole new appreciation. Being based on an already-successful character, these didn't have to be great to sell - but they are pretty darn good, to be honest. Way better than they have to be, which is a real treat to find!

This second installment is not quite as great as the first (my review of The Lost Days here), but still interesting and as amusingly twisted as you could hope for. This time, Emily successfully duplicates herself, only to find her mother initially unreceptive to this new twin, and soon enough, she isn't feeling so keen on the idea anymore either, as she discovers that this twin is more EvilMe than Emily, and has not only stolen her dark side, but her skating skills! She seeks help from her neighbour, a former spy trainer, and eventually hatches a plan to get rid of the twin and regain what she's lost...

As with The Lost Days, the book is funny, and Emily has unexpected cool little quirks that make her even more awesome. Definitely a worthwhile read, even for those who are not hardcore fans of the Strange!

Naomi & Ely's No Kiss List

2011-03-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Namoi and Ely. Ely and Naomi. They were like ham and eggs. Or at least they were until the ham kissed the eggs' boyfriend and the eggs thought that was the last straw in a series of small petty annoyances and decided to draw a line in the home fried... so to speak.

What made me really excited for this book was that it's written by the same dynamic duo that brought us Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist which has to be one of my favourites, still. Different characters, but still, the chemistry! The problem is that while some of the same ups and downs and near misses are at work here, at its heart, this is the story of a breakup, while Nick & Nora was a love story, and that? Is so much more satisfying.

The writing is still tight, and the voices arch and interesting, but I must admit that I didn't love either character - neither is really someone you'd like, even if they are charismatic, and I wasn't really rooting for them the way I was for - well, you know, the other couple. So while I wouldn't say I really liked this, I would also have to say in fairness, that it was not what I was looking for either, which made me more disappointed than anything else about it.

The Search for Delicious

2011-03-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

by Natalie Babbitt

This is one of those classics that I had never quite gotten around to reading but always wanted to... until I saw it sitting out one day a couple of months ago, and grabbed it. Glad that I did, too!

Set in a world that is perched on the border between olden days (maybe even medieval) and fantasy, this tale begins with a Prime Minister who is creating a dictionary for the king, and providing relateable examples for each entry. When he gets to "delicious," however, a dispute erupts in the castle and sows discontent. The king sends the Prime Minister's boy, Gaylen, out to poll the countryside on the topic, ignoring the likelihood of spreading even more dissent, and off the boy went on this errand. This may have been enough to cause problems, but the king's jealous, ambitious brother-in-law set out as well, spreading lies in a bid to create havoc that would let him lead a coup.

Aside from all of this, there are old, near-forgotten tales of creatures believed to be the stuff of fairy tales that are discovered to be real, though few would credit it, and their stories are interwoven and used by both the brother-in-law and, as he learns more, Gaylen in his effort to stop Hemlock.

The whole is a wonderful fantasy, and a book that would make a terrific read-aloud, being a great story and gentle enough for younger kids. I'd recommend it for reading to grades 1-4 or for dreamier older kids to read on their own.

The Agency: A Spy in the House

2011-03-10T07:44:00.000-08:00

by Y. S. Lee

This spy mystery is set in Victorian London, and features the kind of anachronistic spunky young girl that makes the Enola Holmes mysteries so fun and engaging. In this case, though, she's not just going it alone, but is found and trained up by an agency that uses the invisibility of young women to gain entry into areas not open to police or male spies.

Her adventures are fast-paced, action-packed, and complex enough to keep teen readers guessing until the last. Along the way, she must deal with shadowy government types, suitors, society folk, and baddies alike, each with their own set of perils. She proves herself quite able, though, and by book -----2, is a trusted member of the mysterious Agency. Now to go and find book 2...

Book 1 is newly available in trade paperback.

Spanking Shakespeare

2011-02-21T05:52:00.000-08:00

by Jake Wizner

Shakespeare Shapiro. Yep, that's his real name. (Hey, his brother is named Gandhi - but somehow, his brother is popular and everything works out for him anyhow.) He's thinking not much is going his way, and tends to see himself as the victim - or at least, that's the way he writes it in his writing projects, which always take the funny slant and lump in a dose of crude teen guy humour. He writes a lot - not only because he goes to a school with a special writing programme and he's hoping to get picked as one of the finalists in the memoir contest, but also because it is one of the few things he seems to do well.

He grows up - a little - over the year, and there are some lessons about choices and what's important, as well as a bit of loser-makes-good teen movie optimism, but mostly, this novel is a really funny and very guy-oriented read. If you know a fan of Don Calame's Swim The Fly, this is a good followup in the same sort of vein, with just the same good balance of solid message and rude, crude humour. Yes, I snorted as I read it - always a good indicator.

Where you been, kittenpie?

2011-02-21T05:27:00.001-08:00

Writing over at Shelf Candy, mostly...

You see, this new iteration of Shelf Candy, at Urban Moms, is a twice-a-week assignment rather than one, and has an audience for a much wider age range, meaning that more of my posting goes on there.

But! I'll be here every now and then, still, with posts of interesting stuff I've read, especially if it is not from the past year. Meanwhile, if you are looking for more? go on over and check out what I'm posting there. So much good stuff!

Revisit: The Bride's Farewell

2010-10-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

by Meg Rosoff

My review of this is here, from earlier this summer, so I don't need to tell you about the content of this book again, but look:

A stunning, gorgeous new cover!

But what do you think of it? As I noted in my original review, "The two [main characters] set out on the road, with little to no resources outside of a horse, a woollen shawl, and a few pennies. They live in rough times in a rural area..." You see what I mean? The original cover is, perhaps, too dark (see below), while this overcorrects, being too light.

Yes, it's beautiful and ethereal, and I love it, but. But the descriptions in the book are of rough cloth, brown wool, dirty feet, and days and weeks on the road on foot or horseback, scouring the countryside. Even when they have places to stay, they are mean - small cottages or lofts of barns. None of this lends itself to the whiteness of cloth and glowing lightness of this.

What do you think? More appealing cover or lovely, but just not quite suiting this right?

Knucklehead:

2010-09-24T13:17:00.000-07:00

Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories About Growing Up Scieszka

by Jon Scieszka

Jon Scieszka, as you likely know, is one of the funnier authors around, and is also a huge proponent of finding the right books for boys to read. His own books have massive boy appeal, and he highlight a lot of others, as well as giving advice, on his website, Guys Read.

Like Gary Paulsen, whose hilarious How Angel Peterson Got His Name had me literally guffawing (and I don't do that often), Scieszka has been moved to write about what it was like growing up a rowdy boy among other rowdy boys. Thank goodness, because this book is funny - and explains a lot about how he became such a funny guy, himself.

The family stories and photos are, as those commercials like to put it, "priceless," being funny, revealing, and wonderful snapshots of the era he grew up in. The stories are full of humour, horseplay, and sometimes pain, with physical comedy looming large. It's not all slapstick, though, because these stories of his boyhood are also full of heart, reflecting the full range of chaos and love that coexist in a big family.

Bang, Bang, You're Dead!

2010-09-24T09:34:00.000-07:00

by Narinder Dhami

After reading Todd Strasser's novel/indictment about school shootings, and in preparing to read an adult novel on the topic, I came across this book, and was surprised to find that it was British. Since we tend to think of school shootings as an american phenomenon, I was curious to see how it would be handled differently here.

The book alternates between the actual action of what is happening in the school and the reasons why Mia believes that her twin brother might be the one holding the gun, including a look back over their lives, beginning as very young children looking after themselves while their mentally ill mother lay in bed during the depressed phases of her bipolar cycles.

Mia is nearly certain that her twin is trying to both pay back a girl who bullied her and make her mother sit up and take notice of how her refusal to seek help is affecting the family. They are, after all, living on the brink, and Mia does not feel that she has the strength to deal with it, while she watches her brother become ever more distant and scornful.

During the school shooting, Mia is so certain it's her brother that rather than evacuate the school with her classmates, she runs toward the classroom held hostage, hoping to talk him down, only to find herself playing cat and mouse with the gunman, who she hears rather than sees until the last second.

This story has a twist ending that took me completely by surprise, and which I will not give away, but I will say that the British tradition of psychological thrillers and mysteries is definitely alive and well, even in teen fiction...

Fever Crumb

2010-09-24T09:23:00.000-07:00

by Philip Reeve

To start, let me say that the post-apocalyptic setting is not one I am drawn to, and in fact it was the cover of this book and the description of it that drew me in - until I started reading, and found myself curious and, soon enough, invested in Fever's story.

Fever has always been told that she was found as a baby, and brought to live with the Order of Engineers, where she has been raised as one of them: logical, analytical, and dismissive of emotion. She ventures out into the world to assist an archeologist, who begins to turn her world upside down when he brings her to places that she remembers, in vivid detail, despite having lived her entire life with the Engineers. When she is spotted, with her mismatched eyes, by paranoid Londoners who believe her to be a remnant of the species who has lorded over them not long ago, she becomes hunted. Soon, her past, the city's past, and the strange memories become hopelessly intertwined, and she learns the truth about her birth, just as new forces invade the city. At the centre of the desires and fears of many and opposing forces, Fever managed to emerge safe, but thoroughly transformed.

Reeve is a skillful author who draws readers in quickly, building characters and setting up a scenario right away. The larger world around them comes out along the way, and was so fully imagined and so filled with clever details that I found myself becoming more and more curious about it. I am now on the lookout for more by him!

The Adventures of Jack Lime

2010-08-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

by James Leck

Recommended by the Exelsior File, this sounded like fun, though I had seen a slightly less enthusiastic review elsewhere (the location has escaped me in the meantime).

This slim book has three separate cases in it, so it works even for someone who finds it hard to stick it out through a whole story, as they can be enjoyed one at a time. it's appealing, too, for its simple, graphic cover, which I love, and smacks of the era emulated (spoofed?) in the writing style.

The book is written in classic hard-boiled detective lingo, with small, smart substitutions made to bring it into the world of kids. A couple of examples from the opening pages of the first case, as Jack is setting the scene:

... I was inside, tucked into the rear booth of The Diner, where not even the rays of the sun could touch me, nursing a root beer float and trying to ignore my throbbing left eye as it swelled shut. ... That's when Sandra Kutcher walked into my life.
...
Sandra was the type of girl who made boys do stupid things, even boys who needed to take a long hiatus from finding things out.

The cases, too, are tailored to be those you expect a kid to get into, not the murders of adult mysteries. jack certainly does get himself into some scary situations along the way as he tangles with some town toughs, but nothing a grade 3 or 4 and higher couldn't handle. in fact, that element of danger is part of what makes the genre, so this simply wouldn't work without it - and it has massive boy appeal, too.

In short, I found this a great fun read with a sly sense of humour, so the fact that yes, it's not the first children's book to hop on the tails of classic noir and may not be wholly original doesn't take much away from my enjoying it.

Sold

2010-08-06T19:54:00.000-07:00

by Patricia McCormick

A book about a girl tricked into leaving her parents and sold into human slavery in the sex trade is, as you might imagine, not a topic for the young or faint of heart. This definitely belongs in the teen range with its content, though I do think an older child, say a grade 6 with some sophisticated reading habits, could handle it, because while Lakshmi is in a horrific situation, the writing of it is handled gently.

The story is told slowly, so that the circumstances that led to her mother allowing her to leave the home become clear, and the mother is not painted as someone who has easily abandoned her child to the mercy of others. The manipulations used by the various traders along the way are revealed, so the reader can see how people are tricked by them. Lakshmi's introduction into the sex trade, even, is handled carefully, never using shock value or graphic description, but couching it more in the language of the child the Lakshmi is, since she is telling her own story here.

This is a worthwhile read for an older child or a teen who can handle it, who is interested in what is happening in the wider world, because this is very real, but of course, it is a topic that makes this book one to recommend carefully to the right child. for all that I picked it up worried that I would be horrified, I was pleased to find that McCormick has managed admirably the tricky balance of cushioning the brutality and horror without downplaying the truth of what happens to girls in this situation.

Publisher REview: Boom!

2010-08-06T18:10:00.000-07:00

by Mark Haddon

(A foreword to this book notes that it is a rewrite of a long-ago-published book by the former title of Gridzbi Spudvetch!.)

This title by the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is full of action and silliness in equal measure right from the get-go, when Jimbo overhears his teachers exchanging words in another language and starts to snoop.

When it becomes clear that his teachers are not normal humans and are onto he and his friend, Charlie, the stakes climb, and things get dangerous, but when his friend disappears, he knows no adults will believe his story. He's on his own - except for a surprise last-minute addition to the mission.

What follows is funny and fast-paced, and reminds me a bit of a Daniel Pinkwater, or even a slightly (and I mean slightly) toned-down Douglas Adams written for kids. Totally enjoyable, and a great read across the board, though it does have the benefit of great boy appeal.

The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School

2010-08-05T14:12:00.000-07:00

by Candace Fleming

This collection of stories takes place throughout the school year at Aesop Elementary, a most unusual institution filled with punnily-named teachers and occasionally very strange occurrances, particularly in the grade 4 classroom, with its new teacher...

Each of these tales is a way of retelling one of Aesop's famous fables, or telling a story that while set in a modern school, winds up at the same moral as one from an ancient fable. The moral is spelled out at the end of the chapter, but this doesn't feel preachy because of it, and it doesn't seem that it would turn kids off. Instead, they might find themselves trying to guess what the lesson will be.

The stories, with their often strange and sometimes supernatural elements combined with the school setting made me think of the Sideways Stories from Wayside School series, or maybe even the Bailey School books.

Fun, a little silly, and light-hearted, but not without its little life lessons, either.

Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Subsitute

2010-08-05T14:09:00.000-07:00

by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Another one a coworker told me about - it's great having someone else in the children's department to share thoughts with! This short graphic novel/easy to read book uses a lot of the devices of plot and setting that are familiar to readers of this level, but melds them with comic book superheroes for a ridiculous but really fun take on an early graphic novel. Imagine if the cartoon-y sections of Captain Underpants took over the whole book... there you go. You've got it now. It is similarly funny and irreverent, though parents should like it better for the fact that its humour is very slightly more sophisticated and far less toilet-based!

I really liked the clever way the author inserted spy tools into the lunch lady's standard arsenal of tools like lunch trays that become laptop, hairnets that become net to bind bad guys, and so on. The plot is simplistic, but well-suited to ER readers, and the evil plot not so evil as to create nightmares, especially as the images are simply drawn and printed in black line and yellow colouring only.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and now obviously need to get my hands on the second installment, which involves evil librarians...

Publisher Review: Wave

2010-07-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

by Eric Walters

Eric Walters, it seems, is finding his niche in writing sensitive takes on major disasters and making a plausible story of one family's experience in that setting. He takes that same direction here, writing the story of a family vacation in Phuket, Thailand, that is turned quite literally on its head with the massive tsunami that wreaked havoc on the Indian Ocean in December 2004.

The writing is believable, and while he does take on some difficult moments, he carefully treads the line between allowing some of the tragedy to occur, making the story truer to life, versus bringing too much to his main characters, which the reader has come to know. It's a balance, and mostly he does it well, though I do sometimes think the happy ending is not always the best for the story.

Walters' level of detail is strong, and he has clearly done his research, both in how tsunamis happen and in what it was like that day, as he writes compelling description that meshes with what video and photos of the day show, as well.

If you have a child who is fascinated by disasters or wants something with a little true-to-life action and danger, this would fit the bill nicely.

The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline

2010-07-23T09:05:00.001-07:00

An Enola Holmes Mystery

by Nancy Springer

This is the fifth installment of the terrific Enola Holmes series of mysteries, which I have been enjoying enormously.

Enola is the younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes, who is on the run and living on her own in Victorian London, depending on her wits, facility for disguise, and her intimate knowledge of society.

When her landlady, who she has grown close to, is kidnapped, she leaps into action, trying to discover who has kidnapped her, and why. Once she discovers the root of the long-ago misunderstanding that led to this, she takes on the baddies to rescue her landlady, and ensure her future safety.

None of this is cut-and-dried, however, for she also risks exposing herself, and her brother is tangled up in the case, being a famous detective and all. She manages to escape her brothers again, but by the end, finds she will have to change her living situation to stay one step ahead of them. (This is, for the record, not a terrible spoiler about the mystery itself!)

One additional twist is added in this story - Springer has included a figure from history, blending truth and imagination in equal measure to create a likeable character. She notes at the end how much is real and how much invented, but it's a fun bit of speculation to engage in for the sake of the plot!

These books are terrific fun and a great read for someone who likes a spunky female heroine.

Maybelle - Cockroach With Ambition

2010-07-23T09:01:00.000-07:00

Maybelle in the Soup
Maybelle Goes to Tea

by Katie Speck

Maybelle is a cockroach. She lives in the apartment of a couple who like everything Just So - no dust, no mess, and no bugs. There are rules that help keep a cockroach alive in this kind of situation, and she knows them, but, well, she really, really wants to taste food that isn't a leftover crumb, you see, and that ambition tempts her into some dangerous situations, along with her friend, the flea who occasionally hops onto the cat for his own snacks.

Whenever Maybelle's wishes overtake her good sense, the two find themselves off on an adventures of some sort, precipitated by an urgent need to flee (heh, heh) when they are noticed by a human and must hide in a hurry and find safe shelter while the humans try to make sure there can be no bugs left in their apartment.

These predicaments are fast-paced, funny, and easy to read, making these books a great pick for an early chapter reader.

Ottoline and the Yellow Cat

2010-07-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

by Chris Riddell

Ottoline lives in an apartment on her own, except for her very odd little companion, Mr. Munroe, who is of unknown species, found in a bog in Norway. She has a cute, spunky little haircut, absent parents off hunting things down for collections, and several collections of her own, as well as several agencies who take care of everything in her apartment that might need taking care of, including the making of beds and plumping of pillows, the cleaning, the cooking of meals, and the shining of door handles.

She also has several costumes and a diploma from an academy of subterfuge, as well as a healthy curiosity that she isn't afraid to pursue. Which, of course, is how she gets herself and Mr. Munroe involved with the yellow cat.

You see, she had been noticing that several lapdogs were disappearing, and then an advertisement appeared offering help in finding lost lapdogs - isn't that odd? Ottoline thought so, too. And of course, she and Mr. Munroe sort things out with a little extra-special assistance from some of those many agencies and their specialties.

This book is an unusual little mystery, with a touch of the eccentric upbringing of Eloise thrown in for good measure. What pushed it past somewhat amusing and into the thoroughly charming, though, is the mix of story told in text and the many drawings that accompany it, making it one part graphic novel to two parts early chapter book.

It really is a fun, quirky little number for the child who likes something a little different.

The Voyages of Dodsworth

2010-07-23T08:33:00.001-07:00

Dodsworth in New York
Dodsworth in Paris

by Tim Egan

This pair of cute, quirky books about Dodsworth and his friend's duck and their travels is a great addition to the Beginning to Read level of short, simpler books.

Start with New York - order matters here, as they set out on their adventures and we see that the duck is along for the trip because a) he stows away in Dodsworth's luggage and b) Dodsworth feels responsible for getting his friend's duck back home safely to him. Which means that his time in New York is mostly spent chasing the crazy fowl around the city and seeing sites incidentally along the way.

Which is also sort of how he gets to Paris - he and the duck were about to get on a train back home (having let his friend know they were okay), when he spots the duck boarding a boat, follows him, and finds the boat pulling away, Paris-bound.

In Paris, though, he and the duck make their peace, and manage to have a good trip together, even though the duck can't seem to help but get into trouble. By the end, all is right again, and they board a hot air balloon - which seems to be headed for England. I smell another installment!

These are great fun, a little offbeat, and especially suited for a kid who is curious about the world or likes a little adventure. They're going on the reading pile here, without question.

Moxy Maxwell, Procrastinator Extraordinaire

2010-06-13T19:45:00.001-07:00

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank You Notes
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Practicing the Piano

by Peggy Gifford

A coworker recently introduced me to Moxy Maxwell, who falls into that class of precocious young girl for roughly grade 2-3 readers that have been so popular, spawning Junie B., Clementine, and Judy Moody, and following in the august footsteps of Ramona Quimby. Thankfully, she reminds me more of Clementine, with her big ideas, than of Junie B., who can be a little obnoxious for my tastes.

The hook in each of these novels is that Moxy has a deadline for some task she really does not want to complete - laid out in the very descriptive titles. Instead of getting to it, Moxy procrastinates. She thinks up "easier, faster" ways of doing it, involving many other things that backfire. Or she has some other brilliant plan that is way to fantastic to put off in favour of what she ought to be doing.

It is perhaps not truly helping her that she has a small friend who is willing to do her bidding, no matter how ludicrous, as well as a younger sister who has been known to get involved. Her older brother is wise enough to stay out of the action, though he doesn't seem able to resist hanging around to see what will happen - and records everything in photographs sprinkled throughout the books.

Moxy's long-suffering mother really makes these books for me, with her dry, seeming-calm inquiries about what exactly has happened to create the mayhem that she has just discovered. For example:

"Was there a fire in your room?" her mother asked.
"A fire in my room?"
Was a fire in her room a good thing? Was a fire better than not reading Stuart Little?
"Not that I know of," said Moxy.
...
"Are you aware that you are swinging in a hammock and eating peaches and petting Rosie?" her mother said.

Because yes, Moxy was doing all those things after having destroyed her mother's garden and having not read Stuart Little, in fact.

This is the way things seem to happen around Moxy. for some reason, her big ideas go awry in a pretty spectacular fashion. And yes, it's a wild ride, but awfully funny.

A couple of things that makes these books a little difference is the narrator, who is outside of the action, and the photographs of the action, which add a fun comic twist. (I can't help but think how much fun they must have had staging those!)

This trio shows signs of expanding, and I will be picking up the next one, because these are a good laugh. In fact, I think I'm going to start reading one to my own little girl soon.

The Bride's Farewell

2010-06-13T19:44:00.001-07:00

by Meg Rosoff

Pell is intended to marry a boy with whom she has a great friendshp, but no love. In fact, though she is of age and from a terribly poor family, and despite the fact that marrying him would represent an improvement in her life, she has no wish to marry at all, and decides to run away and see if she can't find a way to ply the farrier's trade that she has learned growing up or make money from her gift for working with horses. As she leaves, her brother, a mute half-brother, presents himself and asks in his way to go with her.

The two set out on the road, with little to no resources outside of a horse, a woollen shawl, and a few pennies. They live in rough times in a rural area, so while they receive a few small kindnesses, most people view them as suspicious or as potential victims, so they must be careful.

She does meet someone promising at one point, hangs her hopes on him, only to be disappointed when he leaves the city without paying her his due. Meanwhile, her brother follows him, so by the time she returns from a small errand, she has lost brother, horse, and hopes of money.

How she fares on her own, searching for both the man who has wronged her and her lost brother, makes for a tale with many twists and turns, heart-catching moments, disappointments, and small victories. Perhaps Pell's most amazing gift is her tenacity, and she proves herself made of the very iron she knows how to mold as she faces one trial and another.

The book is, of course, lovely, as Rosoff is a terrific writer, and the end is, not to give much away, one that left me satisfied without being so miraculously happy as to ring false.

The Owl Keeper

2010-06-13T19:43:00.001-07:00

by Christine Brodien-Jones

As this novel starts, it is not clear how much the world is like ours and how much is set in another, very different reality. I'm not much a reader of fantasies or dystopian literature, and liked how this left some of that misty at first, and slowly revealed how much the world had changed in this story. There is an interesting blend of old stories, of folklore nearly lost, and a darkness to the main character's world that add to the moodiness.

You see, he is told that he is allergic to sunlight, and kept hidden away indoors, so that he only roams at all in the dark of night. he receives injections regularly from a doctor, and has a guardian who looks after him, for his parents are working nearly always, and he seldom sees them at all.

As we start to learn about silver owls that had once been revered but were now considered enemies to be destroyed, he also meets a strange girl who appears to live just as far outside of the bounds of normalcy as he does, and they form an instant bond. He is attracted to her fearless fierceness, and they start to explore and question, making some horrifying discoveries about the world and the plans that are soon to be completed. They decide that they are the only ones who understand what is coming, and that they must act, even if their mission is nearly hopeless, and based on half-remembered mythology. They set out on a quest, as it were, fending off dangers human and not on the way, and find surprising resolution and renewal.

This book is very much in the tradition of quest tales, but is told beautifully, with a dreamy quality that mutes the more horrifying parts just enough, and keeps the sense of mystery nicely. There is some lovely bits of poetry tucked in, and a warming feeling of love for this boy, even among terrible, dark times, that makes this especially lovely.

Even though I am not generally a fan of this genre, I really loved this book.

Alice Week II: the Giveaway

2010-05-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

When Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland was released in theatres, I did a roundup of fun new Alice books.

This week, the DVD will be released, and to celebrate, I am giving away a copy of Alice!

(Yes, I'm a tiny bit of a Carroll fangirl, but just a bit.)

The book in question comes from Chronicle Books, and the text of my review back in March went like this:

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
By Lewis Carroll Compiled by Cooper Edens

This edition from Chronicle Books is an interesting way to go if you want to see some of the many portrayals of Alice, in that it features not one illustrator, but an extremely plentiful selection of images from of host of different artists.

From the time Alice came out of copyright in 1908, every major illustrator has had a crack at it, and many lesser-known ones, besides. It' s well-loved, a real classic, and has a massive following of collectors, so why not? This is a good sampler of some you may never have seen before, as well as old favourites like Arthur Rackham.

It's not as cohesive in look because of this, and is large and a bit floppy in format, so if you want something for just a nice straight read-through, there may be better editions, but for the curious who want to talk about illustrations and how they relate to text, to peruse lots of pictures and styles, or get a pretty solid overview of different ways Alice has been drawn, this is a really good way to get that. I even found some illustrated versions that I have never seen, and I've seen a pretty good range of them, being an Alice fan myself.

Sound interesting? To enter to win a copy (I have one from the publisher to give away), tell me in comments about your favourite classic.

(Please remember to leave me an email address so I can let you know and ask for your mailing address!)

------------------------------------

***And the winner, drawn by Misterpie from a well-scrambled batch of names written on lips of paper is:

kgirl!

(I know, we are so high-tech around here!)

The Remarkable Adventures of Tom Scatterhorn

2010-05-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

: The Museum's Secret (Publisher Review)

by Henry Chancellor

This book is on the face of it in the vein of the Night at the Museum movies - Tom Scatterhorn's father seems to go a little bonkers, and then disappears, so tom is sent to live with his aunt and uncle while his mother goes to find his father. They live, of course, in the strange, spooky old Scatterhorn Museum, where strange, spooky things seem to be afoot.

This is not enough, however, so there is also a portal to the past, which may also be played out in a scale model of the town at that time, some 100 years ago, when the museum was first being built and opened by Sir Henry Scatterhorn and his genius taxidermist friend, August Catcher.

Add to this also a strange life-giving serum, "the divine spark" and a pair of odd characters who also seem to be traveling through time hunting for the bottle and ready to destroy Tom for it, some strange goings-on in Mongolia that involve Tom's parents, and the second-largest uncut sapphire in the world, and you have a LOT going on in this book.

It's not short, but it's packed, and it feels like a few threads were left untied at the end. Whether this spells sequel or just the fact that it was too much to keep track of is really not clear, but i could hardly blame the author for dropping one or two lesser plotlines, given the number that do find themselves neatly wound up.

The book did not immediately grab me, to be honest, but after a few chapters, began to pick up, when Tom begins to wander the museum a bit and you get a sense of where this is going. Once it does get going, there is plenty of suspense and action, though I did at times find it confusing with the hopping around in time and the references to the town model and the large eagle that seems to go unexplained even at the end. It had large sections that were great fun, but I think this is one for a dedicated reader or one really looking for a time travel or museum adventure.

It's Kind of a Funny Story

2010-05-02T07:17:00.000-07:00

by Ned Vizzini

Craig is suffering from clinical depression, and feeling the tiredness, the inability to eat, the insomnia, and the disheartened emotional state that go with it. Like being a teenager isn't sucky enough, especially when your best (and maybe only) friend is with the girl you're in love with and you have to watch them together all the time.

Then one night, it just all seems too much, and he seriously contemplates suicide. The suicide hotline tells him to go to the nearest emergency room, where he then goes to an adult psychiatric wing and stays for several days. While there he talks to other patients and to doctors, and learns some things about himself, his medications, his friends and that girl, and other people's problems. He starts to feel connected again, more like himself, and feel like here are some changes he has to make to keep the positive momentum going. By the time he gets out, he's ready to try the world again, ending on a positive, or at least cautiously optimistic, note.

At the end of the book it notes that Vizzini spent five days in a psychiatric hospital as a young man, and started writing this book one week later. That did not come as a complete surprise, as everything about life on a psych ward rang true in this book - something I know from visiting a close relative there on more than one occasion.

It all adds up to a really great teen novel - one with parts about finding yourself, about growing up, about stuff that teen boys think about, and that throws in a real experience, though hopefully one not too many teens will have to live themselves.

Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones

2010-05-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

by Brandon Sanderson.

Followup to Alcatraz Smedry and the Evil Librarians (my review here), door left wide open for next in series.

Not much is different in this book than the first, as one might expect. There is still the sense that this is a mashup of fantasy and comedy, a sort of Terry Pratchett-ish form of the fantasy genre, but maybe more so. Add, as I suggested last time, a dash of Snicket-ish asides and loops of silliness that turn back on themsleves constantly, and you get the idea.

This time, Alcatraz, Bastille, and some long-lost family members unite to try to break into the very dangerous Library of Alexandria and rescue Alcatraz's father and grandfather, whom they believe to be there. On the way, they have a nasty encounter with some Librarians, in particular a sect known as The Scrivener's Bones, who are a sort of cyborg hybrid.

It's all danger, learning to use weird "talents" more effectively, uncovering some mystical prophecies and magical lenses, and of course, a lot of narrow scrapes. In short, fun and full of adventure, if maybe a bit more busy being silly and flip than is really my own taste. Fans of Pratchett and Pinkwater, though, will love it, I'm pretty sure.

Publisher Review: When You Reach Me

2010-04-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

by Rebecca Stead

This first caught my attention because it is last year's Newbery winner, and I try to make sure I hit those big titles amidst my reading. The jacket blurb sounded decidedly strange, leaving more questions than anything, and it seemed like this was one you'd have to read to get, as if it was defying attempts to describe it.

It didn't grab me on the first few pages, to be honest. But once I started further in, and started to care about the characters and be curious about where the story was going, it became a series of events that were a little strange, full of hints, and weaving their way slowly towards a fascinating conclusion.

It's definitely a book for older children - it contains some minor violence, some abstract concepts, and a horrible accident, and would just fly over the heads of younger children. But for the child who can follow it and stick with it through the first little bit as it gets going, it holds rich rewards. It's a book that has stuck with me after I closed it, a sure sign of a worthwhile read.

Earth Day: Not Your Typical Book About the Environment

2010-04-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

by Elin Kelsey

This book starts from the premise that most books about the environment are depressing - heavy, doomsaying, guilt-inducing, and laying the onus squarely on the reader to fix it. Yikes. From there, it promises to inform and inspire hope rather than horror.

She goes on to talk about a lot of factors that affect the environment and a lot of the problems that we are seeing. A lot of the information centres around our lifestyles and how they impact the world, showing the ripple effects that we have on the planet.

As promised, though, she looks at many sides of each issue, as well as areas where research is showing new promise for future improvements. In some cases, this this means she shows the flaws in things we believe are answers, but she always points out several pros and cons, making the book more about information and choices than about lessons.

The book is text-heavy and densely packed with information, as it is a non-fiction book for kids in middle grades (I'd say grades 4-8), but the tone is light and conversational, making it a surprisingly easy read.

A great gift for a curious or environmentally conscious kid, or a starting point for doing a project or making a change, I recommend this one as a great way to start learning about earth and what we can do to help her out.

Media Meltdown: A Graphic Guide Adventure

2010-03-21T10:50:00.000-07:00

by Tim O'Donnell
ill. Mike Deas

Orca has started a new set of graphic novels that include a little teaching in an adventure format - and not just teaching on topics that we adults wish they knew more about. There is one about survival skills, and another about soccer which star the same kids, while this tale of media use and awareness is the second adventure for a group who first taught kids about skateboarding. Which I really have to get my hands on, because it sounds really cool, and I wouldn't mind learning myself!

What I'm loving, though, is even with a topic like this one, which is more fact-based and obviously less kinetic, the story has a base in action and fighting bad guys that would help it appeal to even the most learning-averse. The graphic format helps keep it light and lets labels with tiny blurbs do some of the talking where a traditional text would have to do more describing. It really works.

I think media literacy is more important for kids every day - it's something we really need to be teaching them so that they can start to navigate the millions of messages bombarding them every day, not to mention do their school work and research with a critical eye.

To be able to give them a good start on understanding, a place from which to start getting curious and asking questions, without boring them into avoidance is fantastic. I think every kid should read this or something like it, and explore the accompanying website for more information, and some fun games and free stuff.

If you know a kid in grades 3-6, make sure they get this, whether as a gift or a library pick.

American-Born Chinese

2010-03-20T12:10:00.002-07:00

by Gene Luen Yang

This teen graphic novel was recommended to me by a bookstore clerk, who saw that I had picked it up and told me it was good stuff. He wasn't wrong.

The book features three stories that seem separate, yet address the same theme of fitting in and knowing who you are. The first story is from the Chinese legends of the Monkey King, the second is about a young boy who is growing up as a Chinese-American, and the third is about a white American boy whose annoying, over-the-top stereotype of a Chinese cousin is visiting and ruining his life at school.

The blend of fantasy and reality here works well, though it did have me for a while wondering why we had these three separate stories and where we were going. It resolves nicely, though, and at the end, the three stories suddenly entwine in an interesting and unforeseen way to drive the point home, without becoming all message-y.

Being a graphic, this is a quick read, and it's fun, but it's a solid book, too, with things to say about racism, accepting yourself, and growing up. While it's about a boy from Chinese heritage, it's applicable to a huge number of kids growing up in North America right now from different places, and I bet a lot of them would identify with parts of it. To me, that makes it a great thing to have on the shelf, so people get a better sense of what they or someone else might be facing.

and of course you can't talk graphic novel without talking about the drawing style. it's cartoon-y, of course, but a more conventionally western style of comics, not manga-style. it's got bold lines, yet manages a good amount of detail. To be honest, while I'm not a big graphic novel reader, I really liked the look and the way this novel worked.
-loved the style

Clementine's Letter

2010-03-20T12:10:00.001-07:00

by Sara Pennypacker
ill. Marla Frazee

There are a certain group of young girls who star in early chapter books. Some of them, I find overly precocious, even obnoxious. Some I find not all that well-written. But when they are hit just right - think Ramona Quimby - they are fantastic. Clementine is like that.

Clementine is not precocious or convinced of her own specialness. The world does not need to revolve around her. She does not sound bratty. Rather, she is a girl who struggles a little to contain herself. In this third book in the series, she has started to find some strategies, and find out a little more about what she needs to succeed. She and her teacher have worked out a system, and she is doing better than ever in school.

And then... her teacher gets nominated for a year abroad, and she has to contend with a supply teacher while she also deals with her feelings about her teacher's possible departure. Part of this, too, is that the children are asked to write letters about why their teacher should be selected for the trip - the trip she really doesn't want him to go on.

So with a blend of humour and heart that is characteristic of her, Clementine muddles her way through, making mistakes, getting frustrated, but coming out on top in the end. I can't help but love this kid, and while I have to laugh at her escapades, I am always cheering for her and love seeing how her good intentions pull her through after all.

If you know a young girl, I highly recommend putting these books in her hands.

A Week of Alice: Rodney Matthews

2010-03-05T13:36:00.000-08:00

Alice in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
Illustrated by Rodney Matthews

This edition is nothing short of gorgeous. It starts with a thick, sturdy, slipcover beautifully decorated with the White Rabbit framed in a stone heart, two inset gleaming blue hemispheres, gilded letters in writing that speaks of fantasy, and a front edge that cuts back to reveal a bit of the fully illustrated cover. This all adds up to a pretty strong announcement that you should expect something special inside.

The cover itself, too, opens out into a painting of part of Matthews' conception of Wonderland, replete with all the arches, towering mountains, and ringed moons you would expect from a noted painter in the field of fantasy. he adds thoughtful details, though, in card suit-shaped trees, heart motifs sprinkled everywhere, and an Alice standing, looking at the terrain she is about to enter. Gorgeous.

A foreword by the illustrator explains his fascination with Alice and his history of painting scenes from her for calendars and prints, making this book released in 2008 by Macmillan and in 2009 by Templar Press in the US a culmination of sorts. It is clear, too, that Wonderland is somewhere he has spent some time in his imagination, and he fills it with loving touches, such as small insects playing music among the foliage and about a million tiny instances of hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs hidden among the images.

He is one of the few illustrators who has really managed to pick some different scenes and moments, as well as the classics we are used to seeing, making this a great treat because it pulls you back to the text a little more. In the Pool of Tears, for example, we see not only the small mouse swimming, but also a wonderful crocodile grinning wide underwater as he beckons the wee fishies closer and breather out heart-shaped bubbles.

The feeling of the whole certainly shows Matthews own usual style in the forms of landscapes and buildings alike, as well as putting on display a strong sense of humour. The tea party, for example, features a strikingly rabbity-looking house, while in the same picture, a tree bears a kindly smile, and a stag beetle holds a skein of yarn for a spider as she spins. On the whole, the illustrations are fun, wonderfully imagined and planned out, and rendered in either a softish black/white for the smaller decorations or the most stunning colour for the full-page or double-page spreads. The ivory pages and large format only serve to further the feeling that what you have in your hands is something well more than your ordinary edition.

I must admit that of the many new versions of Alice out this past year, this is definitely my favourite. Now to see whether Tim Burton's Wonderland can compete with this visual treat, as he's known for a few gorgeous details, himself. I'll report back!

A Week of Alice: Oleg Lipchenko

2010-03-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
Illustrated by Oleg Lipchenko

I have to admit, I didn't find this edition appealing at first glance. it's illustrated all in sepias and black/white drawings and sketches, and I wasn't drawn (heh) to the Alice in it right away. But this is a classic case of not judging on first impressions.

Once I started looking at the drawings more closely, I found them fascinating, in fact, filled with details and references to both the story and the back-story of Carroll and the "real" Alice. It's clear that Lipchenko has done some reading and put some serious thought and inspiration into what seem initially like so many doodles.

This is definitely not bright enough for a child or someone looking for some bright "wow" pictures, nor for someone who is intrigued by the darker aspects of Alice's adventures, but for someone who is interested in Carroll or is likely to spend time perusing the illustrations the way children do with I Spy books, it's full of hidden treats. It would amuse someone who knows a lot about Carroll, or perhaps inspire someone to read a bit more to find out, for the little things he has dropped in are truly clever.

In the end, I like this a lot for being not only thorough, but interesting in a quiet, unflashy way.

I liked it enough to include it among six editions I spotlighted over at sweetmama.ca this week, in fact. Go check out that and a few others that I won't be reviewing in greater depth here. There are some really nice things in the bunch!

A Week of Alice: Camille Rose Garcia

2010-03-03T13:49:00.000-08:00

Alie's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
Illustrated by Camille Rose Garcia

This purpleish edition illustrated by Camille Rose Garcia is full of little details like decorated endpapers, small illustrations tucked in margins, and fanciful initial letters in each chapter. The illustrations are printed in colour so bold as to at times flirt with the garish, while the pages are an offwhite, with small, neat type. On the whole, the design is very nicely done, though my own preference is for matte pages over glossy (it's a personal thing, really). I especially like the 1920s-style font on the title page, which lends it the suggestion of an absinthe-fueled fantasia. Clever touch!

As to the illustrations? Garcia's style is interesting, and different than a typical portrayal of Alice, for certain. She is older, and sports a look featuring thin eyebrows and long, spidery lashes reminiscent of Theda Bara at her vampiest. Indeed, the overall of the illustrations is like that - a sort of older, gothic, yet playful mood that even seems to feel the influence of the surrealists, which fully works for Wonderland, where it makes the creepy creepier, the sad sadder, and the mean meaner with their black-rimmed eyes, downturned mouths, and much purple dripping going on throughout.

Between the feel of the illustrations and the tiny type, I would venture that this is not a book for a child, but would be fun for an adult with a taste for the offbeat and absolutely perfect for a teen, especially one who is inclined to the gothic anyhow. I mean, even Alice's hair-bow is oddly bat-like. How could you not give that to your dearest black-wearing darling?

A Week of Alice: Sweetmama Edition

2010-03-03T12:33:00.000-08:00

You may (or may not) know that I write the Shelf Candy blog at www.sweetmama.ca - a weekly review of children's books, mostly aimed at the 0-6 set.

This week, though, I'm doing a little special on Alice there, too, featuring editions that suit different styles of readers. If you want to see more of what else is out there in the wide world of Alice, it's a nice little capsule collection!

Go! See! It's pretty, too.

A Week of Alice: A Compilation

2010-03-02T18:31:00.000-08:00

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
By Lewis Carroll
Compiled by Cooper Edens

This edition from Chronicle Books is an interesting way to go if you want to see some of the many portrayals of Alice, in that it features not one illustrator, but an extremely plentiful selection of images from of host of different artists.

From the time Alice came out of copyright in 1908, every major illustrator has had a crack at it, and many lesser-known ones, besides. It' s well-loved, a real classic, and has a massive following of collectors, so why not? This is a good sampler of some you may never have seen before, as well as old favourites like Arthur Rackham.

It's not as cohesive in look because of this, and is large and a bit floppy in format, so if you want something for just a nice straight read-through, there may be better editions, but for the curious who want to talk about illustrations and how they relate to text, to peruse lots of pictures and styles, or get a pretty solid overview of different ways Alice has been drawn, this is a really good way to get that. I even found some illustrated versions that I have never seen, and I've seen a pretty good range of them, being an Alice fan myself.

A Week of Alice: Robert Ingpen

2010-03-01T11:59:00.000-08:00

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
Illustrated by Robert Ingpen

The first impression from this thick, large-ish hardcover is that it gives ample weight to the classic. The pages are nice, thick, matte stock, and the background is often completely tinted with the spreading of the painting's background underlaying the text. From this design standpoint, it's a lovely edition. I also like the notes at the back about the origin of the story, including a couple of reproduced pages from Carroll's original Alice's Adventures Under Ground, and about Tenniel himself and his iconic illustrations.

The choices of scenes to illustrate deviate little from Tenniel's original, as is typical, though there are extra bits here, with this being so thoroughly illustrated, some of which are quite interesting.

The overall impression from the paintings and drawings is that they are composed to tiny little strokes of pen and brush that gives them the fuzzy, hazy quality of a dream or distant memory, maybe one from a golden summer afternoon, which fits beautifully with the story's origin. The animals are all lovely, and rendered with much more loving detail than the humans, adn even the Cheshire Cat is adorably creepy, while the White Rabbit seems more worried here than scatterbrained.

And the people? The people tend to be running to fat and look rather sad, even when they also look pompous, as the Queen does, or somewhat jolly, like the Mad Hatter, who could be modeled on Gene Wilder, or perhaps bears a touch of Dudley Moore about him, too.

Alice, even, if a more sombre little girl than usual, and more little than she often is, too, more childlike. She is darker-haired, sleeveless, thin and a little scraggly-looking in many pictures. Indeed, she is something of a little ragamuffin, more than a well-scrubbed little Victorian miss. By the time the cards have turned to golden leaves in the air (a nice new touch, I thought) and she is returned to the riverbank with her sister, she looks almost as though she has been, perhaps, chasing rabbits through the fields and down their holes...

A Week of Alice

2010-03-01T11:01:00.000-08:00

2009 and 2010 have been especially busy years for new editions of Alice, with the Tim Burton movie coming out to great anticipation this Friday.

In celebration, as my own sort of countdown here, I will look at a few of these here, and a few over at Sweetmama on Friday, and if my best-laid plans don't go awry, I'll be going to see the movie Friday and tell you what I though of that, too.

I have been for a long time now, I should tell you, a big fan of Carroll's, and I am always on the lookout for new editions of Alice. Which means that this week also inaugurates a new tag for Alice material, so I can add it as it appears.

And now, to the reviews...

Airman

2010-02-26T13:31:00.001-08:00

by Eoin Colfer

This book of historical fiction by the author of the Artemis Fowl series is far different from what I am used to from him, so those who didn't like the fantasy series (I'm looking at you here, Sue) would, I think, enjoy this stand-alone novel.

There is no magic or fantasy element, here, and the story is slower to get started, but once the action begins, Colfer's excellent writing takes you along on a ride. Even then, the action is slower, more plotting and working inch by inch to a goal, the suspense stretched taut by danger rather than flat-out action.

The character is different, too, a boy who has grown up with a mentor who teaches him discipline and patience as he teaches him fencing and other fighting techniques, as well as working together with him to try and create the first heavier-than-air flying machine. This makes him a quietly dangerous character, and far more mature. His emotions are deeper, and on the whole, it makes the book seem right for an older, more serious, or more mature reader.

On the whole, though it is less obviously "fun" than the Fowl books, this not only kept me on the edge of my seat until the resolution just a scant few pages from the end, but also stuck with me more. This may work as well as a YA book as it does for older middle grades.

The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan

2010-02-16T20:04:00.000-08:00

An Enola Holmes Mystery
By Nancy Springer

Enola Holmes is another series I am really enjoying, this one still full of action and suspense, but more girl-oriented, if not all that girly.
(Follow links for my reviews of books #1 and #2.)

Enola is the runaway younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft, who would see her contained and cultured in a girls' school, much against her unconventional wishes. Instead, she is solving mysteries herself, and has rather a knack for it.

In this fourth installment, she runs into and thwarts both brothers in turn, even helping Sherlock and working with him a little, as he is on the same case as she. This causes her a little distress, as she finds herself softening toward him, and seems to think she perceives the same in him, which makes her wonder if it might be possible one day to reconcile, leaving her less alone.

This doesn't dull her acuity one bit, though, and she uses a combination of smarts and inside knowledge of the feminine world to help her save the day once again.

I am interested, though, to see how that relationship will develop a little further in the next book!

The Last Olympian

2010-02-16T20:01:00.000-08:00

Book #5 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians
By Rick Riordan

I finally got my hands on the last of the series to read it just before I saw the trailer for the first movie! These will make great movies, with lots of action and plenty of opportunities for cool effects, so I can't wait to see what they do with them.

At the end of the series, I can't help but look back over them and see the structure of the whole, which bears a remarkable resemblance to the structure of other series and notable quest myths, most obviously and best-known being the Harry Potter saga. (Let's see, at about 12 yrs old, the kid who's always had weird things happen discovers he's not an ordinary human, foes off for some training, ends up on some quests/in some battles, is facing a Big Dark Power who is rising again after years in hibernation, and is prophesied to be The One.)

The fact is, though, even a well-worn old formula can be a fantastic ride in the hands of a good storyteller, and Riordan is most certainly that. These books are entertaining, fast-paced, and could even manage to hook a kid on mythology if they were the curious kind, which I think is a great side benefit.

The series ends with a good resolution, and the battered and ragged forces of good live on, at least some of them, to fight another day, having vanquished the Titan Lords once more and saved Olympus. Phew!

My only issue was the very, very end, which seems to leave the door open for another set of Percy Jackson adventures. I enjoyed these thoroughly, but I think Percy has earned a rest, and would like to see him start a new series, instead. Perhaps based on a different set of myths, or something altogether?

Theodosia, books I and II

2010-01-28T11:21:00.000-08:00

by R.L. LaFevers

This is a new series that follows the recent trend for mythology in chapter books - a direction in fantasy that I love, as straight up fantasy was never really my thing, but this fusion of classical myths and fiction is really speaking to me.

Here, a young girl spends most of her life wandering around a London museum of antiquities, thanks to her obsessive and somewhat absent-minded archeologist parents. She has spent loads of time learning about the classics and Egyptology, particularly on some obscure books about Egyptian magic. It's a good thing, too, since she seems to be the only one who can sense the curses and spells, so she takes it upon herself to rid the objects of them and keep the museum safe. Though this starts leading her into some odd situations...

Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos

When her mother returns from a new tomb in Egypt with a spectacular artifact, Theo can tell right away it's cursed like crazy, as well as being precious. Before she can try to clear away its magic, though, it is stolen. Trying to get it back leads her into dangerous territory, despite the two allies she has picked up on the way, and brings her to the offices of Lord Wigmere and his secret society dedicated to the protection of artifacts within Britain. He is impressed with her natural abilities, and enlists her aid in recapturing the stolen Heart of Egypt returning it to its tomb in order to stave off plagues and perils that could topple the entire nation. In doing this, though, she must also evade the Serpents of Chaos society, who have big plans for that artifact, and won't take kindly to being thwarted.

A tall order for a young girl? Yes, she thinks so, too, but is determined that if it means saving England, she must find a way. A more clever and plucky heroine you could never want, and between her exploits and her funny aside comments, the book is loads of fun.

Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris

Life is just returning to normal after her first adventure, when Theodosia runs into new trouble almost immediately. She is cleaning out the basement, when she finds an interesting staff, and pops the two pieces together. Next morning, all the mummies in London have congregated in the museum! They are mostly moved back, but reappear the next day, and then the next, bringing suspicion upon Theo's dad. It's not until the next evening that she puts two and two together to realize that the staff is the problem, and lets Lord Wigmere know about it. None too soon, it turns out, for not only are the Serpents of Chaos society after it, but both a new secret society and a pesky and persistent governess have appeared and are seriously hampering her efforts to save the day.

Once again, a rousing tale of near misses, sneaking messages, precious artifacts, crazy curses, and wild adventure - I devoured this book in a mere couple of days, which is pretty impressively riveting for a slow reader like myself.

Now I can't wait for the Third book, Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus to come out, in April!

Meanwhile, perhaps I should give her book about Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist a try.

Publisher Review: The Magician's Elephant

2010-01-23T19:16:00.000-08:00

by Kate DiCamillo

Kate DiCamillo is almost a sure-fire winner when it comes to middle-grade fiction, but having been a few years since I last read her, I could only remember general impressions about what was so special about her writing when I picked this up. I knew I enjoyed her, recalled that she was really good at creating a mood, and it seemed to me that there was something old-fashioned about her storytelling. And so, like most people in the kidslit world, I was eager to read this latest offering.

When I started, I remembered immediately what makes her writing amazing - she uses language gorgeously, reveling unabashedly in words, and never shying away from using a word that a child will need to ask about. a strong or confident reader will usually pick up the meaning from context, but a reader-aloud may have to explain a word or two, or there may be some looking up, but with her stories being so magical, I don't think it's off-putting, and find it rather a great thing that she may be good enough to entice kids to do that just to stay with her when they need to! Talk about your vocab booster.

The language is not the whole of the story, of course, but one of the ways she helps create an overall atmosphere, which she does beautifully. In this case, there is magic in the air, magic strong enough the swirl through an otherwise depressingly heavy winter. This magic in the town begins with a magician's incredible but unfortunate trick, and gives way to a sense that anything is possible.

Dreams, prophetic dreams, start to bloom in the sleeping minds of the populace, drawing many of them into being part of an unfolding story. it is a strange story, an impossible story, but with the help of the dreams, with the help of a new sense of wonder, the people follow along with it and help it come true.

It's a slightly odd book, this one, but for a child who is willing to dream, who loves a good ending, who loves a beautifully told tale, it's just a lovely book to share and immerse yourself in.

The Calder Game

2010-01-20T17:55:00.000-08:00

by Blue Balliett

The author of the wonderful novels Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3 returns with another art-themed tale of suspense! I was very excited to read this, because I loved the first ones.

Calder, Tommy, and Petra are friends - well, Calder and Petra are friends, and Calder and Tommy are friends, but Tommy and Petra, not so much. The three of them do all share in the misery that is their new teacher, though. She even manages to put a damper on an exciting exhibit of Calder mobiles that has the whole of Chicago talking, but the three can't help but be a little inspired anyhow. It's not great, but it's something - at least, until Calder gets the chance to go to Britain with his dad and leaves the other two behind.

When he arrives there, he finds the whole town in an uproar over a new and mysteriously donated Calder sculpture, and no one seems friendly to outsiders. He passes a day or two on his own, exploring the grounds of Blenheim and its maze, and then both he and the sculpture disappear on the same night.

His dad is in a panic, and no one seems to be making any progress, so knowing that they have solved puzzles together before, his dad asks Tommy and Petra to come and help figure out what could have happened, along with an older neighbour who had played a key part in an earlier mystery.

There is a little less puzzle-solving and a little more on-foot discovery here, but the relationships between the kids are still really well-drawn, and the emphasis on how inspiring art and ideas can be is as strong as ever, even leading each of the trio to start seeing patterns in words and numbers the way the others do. I love that about these books, that these kids are smart and quirky without being painted as hopeless geeks, and that their interests are not only useful tools, but also fun ways to look at what is around them.

Publisher Review: Umbrella Summer

2010-01-20T17:53:00.000-08:00

by Lisa Graff

Annie is, to put it mildly, a worrier. She has good reason, she thinks, because you just never know. They didn't know anything was wrong with her brother Jared until he died, and he was only 11. Sure, these things might be rare, but clearly they happen, and she is determined to live firmly on the safe side, even reading up on new dangers to look out for.

Annie doesn't really realize that she is reacting, but she does know she hates the worried, pitying looks she gets from everyone, and and she knows her parents are acting strangely, her dad mostly disconnected, and her mother cleaning and refusing to talk about Jared.

It's not until her friend's hamster dies and she simply cannot be there for her and attend the rodent's funeral that things start to become both better and worse. For one thing, her friend Rebeccas is so hurt at her lack of support that she won't talk to Annie, who is miserable and blows up at a public event. On the other hand, she becomes friendly with the new neighbour, an older woman who has her own loss to face and who makes a part of that journey with Annie.

In the end, the new neighbour not only helps heal the rift between Annie and Rebecca, but points out to Annie that her healing is stalled, using the comparison that gives the book its title: Annie has been walking around with her "umbrella" open to prevent herself from getting wet, but in protecting herself, she is keeping herself from enjoying the sun. It's time, she says, to start closing the umbrella and find out about the other things around her. It's a message that Annie not only takes to heart for herself, but shares with Jared's best friend and brings home to her parents, leading her to help them with their own healing, too.

This is a book about death and coping with grief that somehow manages not to be teribly sad, though it makes you feel bad for Annie. Mostly, it rings true, and introduces a young girl wrestling with something huge and winning, through her own spirit and the help of a wise friend. Beautifully written, with heart and humour as well as empathy, it's not only a wonderful read, but could be a great choice for someone who knows this struggle more intimately.

If you'd like to read a little for yourself to get a feel for this book and character, check out an excerpt, here.

Publisher Review: Gravity Brings Me Down

2010-01-11T20:51:00.000-08:00

by Natale Ghent

~~Sue~~ Sioux Smith is your basic teenage nihilist, stumbling through high school and verging on trouble, when she stumbles right into something - someone, really, who makes her open her eyes.

An old woman gets her out of a jam in a case of mistaken identity, but when she runs into her again, it seems that the woman really is confused about who she is. She is not interested in getting involved, but she is a good kid at heart, a kind person, and feels herself compelled to help this woman once she sees how she lives and how vulnerable she is.

She hides what she's doing - it seems a little weird, it's not cool, and she doesn't think people will really understand - until it seems that her new person - friend? project? - needs more help than she can give on her own.

In the end, without being a cheesy happy ending, she finds she's been put in touch with parts of herself that she had pushed aside, and she sees things in a new light. There is no real moral, even the so-called resolution is problematic, but it rings truer than a tidier ending, because what Sioux finds is that life is not so neat, but it's still worth diving in. Helping, too, doesn't always work out like you hoped, but still feels good, and totally worthwhile.

I mean, she even changes her term project from death to helping. Woah.

Publisher Review: Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?

2009-12-17T13:40:00.000-08:00

by Louise Rennison.

And here it is. The tenth and final book in the confessions of Georgia Nicholson series.

The one where she finally figures out her boy situation, though not until the very, very, VERY end, after you, as a reader, have very nearly had a nervy b.

The one where she and her friends start to show mysterious signs of maybe edging towards the direction of maturing just a touch. (But not that much, don't be scared.)

My very favourite wait-for-the-next-one series for girly teens, the one that makes me laugh like a drain, as Georgia would put it.

I am, for all that I did indeed giggle and cackle my way through it and thoroughly enjoy it, unreasonably sad. Now where will I turn when I need to be wholeheartedly amused until it hurts? I may have to re-read these, and if you haven't read them at least once, I recommend you get started. You won't regret it a bit - only that it ends.

Meanwhile - Ms. Rennison? I do hope you are starting a new series?

(Check out some of this last book online if you don't believe it could be so funny - then come back and tell me I'm right.)

Stop, In the Name of Pants!

2009-12-17T13:39:00.000-08:00

by Louise Rennison.

With this book, the series of the "Confessions of Georgia Nicholson" is at, to my delight, book #9. And while I was, around the end of book #8 (Love Is A Many Trousered Thing) (my review here), starting to get a twist in my nicknacks about why she couldn't just get on with it and figure out that she and Dave the Laugh were perfect together, I have to admit that this one came back so funny that although I still wanted it to happen, I was enjoying the ride too much to have the hump about it, as Gee would say.

This time, things are heating up between her and Masimo, but she keeps finding Dave the Laugh hanging around in her brain for some reason, and she can tell it's getting to Masimo - at one point, she stops an almost-fight with the line in the title. (Nice work, kittykat.)

It's not resolved quite yet, all of this agony of luuuurve, but along the way, Rennison serves up more of Georgia's usual madness and hilarious self-absorption, as well as her equally berserk family and friends. (and cats, for that matter)

These remain the only books that I cannot allow myself to read in public, for fear of looking like a complete twit when I laugh to the point of hysterics - I nearly choked myself giggling over this at home one night. (My husband may be calling a psychiatrist for me behind my back.)

Now on to #10, just arrived...

(want a little taste of the mad, mad world of Georgia before you dive right in? Go check out this book here!)

Publisher Review: A Season of Gifts

2009-12-17T13:38:00.001-08:00

by Richard Peck

Richard Peck is a prolific writer, and one I have enjoyed many times, at different ages. As a girl, I thrilled to his tales of Blossom Culp and loved Ghosts I Have Been. More recently, I have loved his hilarious tales of long-ago happenings in small towns. His ridiculously funny Long Way From Chicago
was a favourite pick for nearly everyone, landing on "best" lists everywhere. The followup, Year Down Yonder, won a Newbery. Here Lies The Librarian
continued this trend, a great, rollicking story of pranks, races, and schemes, not to mention some great librarians (my review here).

In this new book, Peck returns to these rural roots with the story of a family's adjustment to a new town, helped along mightily by a crotchety, fierce, and fiercely independent old neighbour who insists that she "don't neighbor" even while she works behind the scenes to make things happen her way.

It seems that she has taken a shine to these new arrivals, though, and in her gruff, mysterious way, she paves the way for them while she brings down revenge on some of the town's shadier characters both on their behalf and her own through one ridiculous mishap after another.

By the end, her gifts become more apparent, and the "new" family has been solidly taken in by the town - so much so, that their success will lead them on their way.

A fun, warm-hearted read, this book may culminate in a Christmas scene, but should in no way be seen as limited to being just a seasonal book - it's a great read at any time of year, this one.

Publisher Review: Pip: The Story of Olive

2009-12-17T13:24:00.000-08:00

by Kim Kane

Olive is an odd-looking young girl who lives with a single mom who is single-mindedly chasing a career goal, and putting in too many hours to really be there for Olive at the moment. She doesn't quite fit in among the ruthless social structure at her girls' school, either, but has a best friend who shares her love of long baths, dress-up, and good snacks. The friend helps, gives her someone with whom to stave off the lonely hours, and a sense of belonging. So when her friend falls prey to the lure of the popular girls and is eager to be brought into their fold even at the expense of her friendship with Olive, Olive is cut adrift.

With too many free hours to start contemplating life, Olive's ever-present curiosity about her father grows unbounded. He is know to her only known by name and old stories of how the family lived as hippies when she was a baby, plus one old photo, so there is plenty of scope for her imaginings. And then one day, the day she is dealt the final parting insult by her former best friend and the top girls, she discovers her twin. Pip.

This twin moves in with her, goes to school with her, provides her with company, and eggs her on, getting her to do some things she wouldn't do on her own, and even getting her into some small trouble at school. (The twin, it is never explicitly said, is imaginary.) In fact, the twin so emboldens Olive that the two of them together hatch a plan to find their father, using clues to figure out last place he was known to be and plotting out how to get there.

And they do it. They skip school, lie to their mother, and board a train for a town a little ways away down the coast of Autralia. What they find, though, is not what Olive dreams of, but a man who has built a life with no room in it for her. The book ends with Olive having the answers she needs to move forward, even if they are not as she hoped - realistic, yet not depressing, for other things have turned up well in the meantime.

Her mother's aspiration has been met, and she will have more time, as well as seeing how desperately Olive needs her around. Olive has found a new friend at school during all of this, a girl with similar sense of humour and lack of interest in the school's hierarchy, so she can let Pip fade away, disappearing from her mirror and leaving her one.

The language in this book is lovely, capturing the beauty of the wild coastline and a less-structured life with a strong sense of the wistful. Longing is palpable, befitting Olive's emotional state through most of the book. And as someone who had her own unanswered questions about her absent father at this same age, I know it to be true. In fact, I had a friend with whom I plotted a trip out west to my father's last-known whereabouts as well - but it's a longer trip than Olive made, and my friend and I just plotted and dreamed, both too practical to really convince ourselves to go. Still, I know the pull of wanting to just know, and I found it pitched well here.

And for concerned parents - the dangers inherent in such a trip are not ignored by Olive entirely. She has been focused on the puzzle and the planning, not thinking of that until she has set out, but when she starts to think of that and second-guess her decision on the way, it seems too late to turn back, and she goes ahead, cautiously.

I found this book haunting and lovely, yet grounded in emotions that I recognized - a read for a thoughtful child, or one a little more mature.

The Battle of the Labyrinth

2009-11-26T18:35:00.000-08:00

by Rick Riordan
Book #4 of 5 in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

This series has been amazing - see reviews for books #1, #2, and #3 - and though I didn't love the 2nd and 3rd as much as the first, I thought this 4th installment was fantastic.

It brings together a fast-moving plot with lots action, a good dose of greek mythology, plenty of fantastical elements, and solid friendships that save the day.

This time, the dark forces marshalling around Kronos in his bid to return are threatening the training camp of the demigods, hoping to wipe out the heros and force the gods to fight them in a second epic clash of good vs. evil.

The heros will be no match for a full-scale invasion, so when they find an entrance to Daedalus' underground Labyrinth, they enter it, despite grave danger, to try to find Daedalus and seek his help. What they find is not what they expect - of course.

What they find includes various mythological gods and monsters and even one human who is not quite so human after all. The group splits up at one point, and not to give anything away, but there is some lost time, some nasty surprises, soem pleasant surprises, and, well, let's just say it's not every day that someone gets to show up at their own funeral!

If you haven't been reading this series, you really ought to - and quickly, before the first movie comes out soon! It's a sure winner for people who like action, people who like fantasy, and people who just like a well-written, fast-paced read with a few laughs on the side.

Publisher Review: Emily the Strange: The Lost Days

2009-11-26T18:12:00.000-08:00

a novel by Rob Reger and Buzz Parker.

I've been a fan of Emily the Strange as a sort of semi-defined character in my mind for quite a while, as have many people who wear her on their hair-clips, lunchboxes, or pencil-cases - but never really had much of a firm handle on her story or what she was really about. All of which has changed. Now? Now, I love her.

Right from the start, this book pulls you in with a promising premise and a winning voice and personality. You see, we know she's Emily, but she doesn't. In fact, she doesn't know anything about herself, having arrived in a super-weird town with a serious case of amnesia. it tells you right away that you are in for a good ride as she tries to sort things out, and things are pretty, er, Strange in this town.

The other characters are also interesting little puzzles that make you wonder and keep you guessing, even if hardly anyone seems likeable, and the town contains enough odd little mysteries to satisfy even the most easily bored. As she does start to unravel the layers of mystery, Emily discovers (and we along with her) what kind of person she is (and is decidedly not), where she came from, that she knows a lot of people in some other unusual places, and finally, the big secret that brought her here in the first place.

You may just be following along in her diary, but she is funny, smart, and every inch unapologetic for being different, so she never loses you, and the little drawings and asides are worth noticing.

Final verdict? I half-expected this to be kind of gimmicky and not so great, as books based on something else often are, but I was pleasantly surprised, and loved every minute of this. I fully recommend it to anyone who likes a girl with a twist - chicklit this is not, yet girly fun all the same.

And even better, you can check it out online at HarperCollins' website for the book, where they have not just the usual inside jacket flaps and a tiny excerpt, but over half of it posted for viewing with the Browse Inside feature. That's pretty awesome in itself.

Publisher Review: United We Stand

2009-11-16T11:02:00.001-08:00

by Eric Walters.

The sequel to: We All Fall Down.

First, the first book, which I read before I started this site:
We All Fall Down was published in 2006, and was the first children's or teens' book I saw that dealt directly with the events of 9/11 - five years after the fact, and I grabbed it right away. It seemed we were ready, and thought our children were, too. The book unfolds as Will joins his dad in the South Tower of the World Trade Centre for a horrifically-timed take-your-kid-to-work day. Will's dad is the classic workaholic, and Will harbours more than a touch of resentment about it, but as he sees his father jump into action as his floor's fire warden after the North Tower is struck, he begins to see him in a new light. His quick action saves lives, as he clears the floor of nearly everyone, ignoring the announcements that everything is alright, but this keeps Will and his father above the impact site when their tower is hit. What follows is their journey - painful, difficult, but full of moments of tiny heroisms - as they make their way down the stairwells.

The writing here is believable, the description of the trip down the stairs fully imagined in great and plausible detail. On the way, Will's feelings about his father change, and their relationship reforms, though this is not belaboured. My only complaint about the book was the very ending, which came across as just a touch cheesy, but I also see why it was necessary for it to end as it did. On the whole, I was impressed by Walters' treatment of a really difficult day - he managed to avoid the traps of getting too wrapped up in sentiment, or of making it too action-movie-style, thus putting together a fairly balanced, respectful telling of one imagined story from that day.

Where the first book ends, United We Stand picks up - on September 12th, 2001. As important and surreal and emotional as the actual day of 9/11 was, the few days afterwards were nearly as bad and strange and laden with fears and tears as the shock began to wear off, and here Walters works towards showing how the event did not end in a single day for the people of New York or, in fact, for people anywhere.

Will and his father wake to the aftereffects, which include not only cuts and lungs full of the dust of the WTC collapse, but also some psychological effects that don't show up right away. Will's mother, too, shows us how the panic of the day before has taken its toll on her, and also provides some information on stages of grieving for Will to use in beginning to understand himself and his friend James and their reactions.

Early in the day, Will's mother suggests they visit James' family, who are still waiting for news of his firefighter father, who Will had seen and was pretty sure was not coming home. James and his mother show us two very different ways of handling their grief and the slow loss of hope as the rescue mission began to move towards recovery as the day wore on.

It is, again, a difficult topic, and tricky to tell a story that is thoroughly thought through and realistic while being both respectful and interesting. While some of what happens may not be entirely plausible, it is well-written to make it seem as if it is, so being able to see the plot devices isn't annoying here. In the end, there is again a touch of the cheese about the last little bit, but it is not too heavy-handed, and confined to the ending, where it was, I think, maybe a little necessary, as with the first book.

On the whole, I thought this sequel handled the grief and shock of Sept. 12th really well, and I would recommend this pair to anyone curious about that day or looking for a good teen book with action, friendship, and growing up.

Montmorency's Revenge

2009-11-16T10:14:00.000-08:00

by Eleanor Updale

#4 in the series.

The events at the end of book 3 in this series propel this book, as Montmorency and his circle burn with the need for revenge at the same time that they take on a mission that should lead them straight to the person they want to get their hands on. What could be more perfect? Though they do have to struggle to keep the mission in sight at times...

Once again, the intrigue in this episode takes various characters from Scotland to London, Italy, and New Jersey to pursue the international ring of anarchists and their shadowy leader. In the process, Montmorency takes to the sewers once again, they foil an assassination attempt, and the deadly plotmaster of the terrorist group finds out Montmorency's identity, making for a whole new level of menace, especially when the book ends with the cloaked man still on the loose. (I smell sequel! Again!)

Meanwhile, the paternity of Vi's son tom has been a mystery until now, and this not only changes the way parts of the mission are conducted, but also leads Montmorency to, for the very first time, not only talk about his past, but reveal his entire life story.

I think this book brings together a lot of the side plots that in some ways had seemed to detract from the action of the last few books, making it a good way to bring the series back onto the path of the main plot even while it opens up possibilities for the next book. it also forces Montmorency to grow up a little, which makes me wonder how he will handle things next time, and once again makes me eager to read about what comes next.

Montmorency and the Assassins: Master Criminal, Spy?

2009-10-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

by Eleanor Updale

#3 in the Series

Montmorency's back many years later, with a whole host of characters from the first books, not to mention a few from the new generation who are just growing into their own and able to join him and Lord George on their wild and dangerous spying missions.

Here, Montmorency, Vi and her son, George, and George's nephews all get in on the mission, which takes them all the way to Paterson, New Jersey in search of anarchists. Again, there is costume and undercover work involved, though this time, it's not Montmorency who dives into the lower classes and the plots of would-be terrorists. Instead, while a junior Fox-Selwyn joins the inner circle of anarchists, Dr. Farcett visits with Thomas Edison, and Montmorency falls for a woman so hard that it threatens the success of the mission when he is reluctant to leave on the ship that carries George's nephew Frank and a young man planning a bombing.

Quick thinking and new schemes hatched on a moment's notice save the day, and by the end of the book, they have, they think, found a way to extricate Frank from the anarchists without seeming to have betrayed them. Everything seems fine... until a package arrives and sets up book #4.

Again, the books seemed rather scattered over a few different plotlines, though it was more cohesive than the last. In the end, though, the action is fast-paced, the suspense kept taut, and the characters make you care about them, and those are the things that make or break a novel of this sort. So while I didn't love it as much as the first book either, I wasn't putting it down! Rather, I quickly picked up the next installment.

Montmorency on the Rocks

2009-10-24T13:10:00.001-07:00

by Eleanor Updale.

#2 in the series.

I am, quite frankly, not as enamoured of this one as I was of the first book.

It starts several years later, during which time we are told Montmorency and his friend Lord George Fox-Selwyn have had quite a career as international spies for the British government. As the book opens, Montmorency has become addicted to an unnamed drug while in Turkey, and George takes him north to his brother's estate in Scotland to cure him with the help of Dr. Farcett, who had healed his wounds in prison. Events soon lead them to a small island off of Scotland, Tarimond, which will come to feature prominently in this book and later ones.

On Tarimond, Dr. Farcett begins to look into why every baby there has died for the past 8 years, while in London, the investigation into a covered-up explosion requires the investigative services of the spies Montmorency and Lord George. The three make their way back to the city, only to find an old friend of Montmorency's ahs the information they need, and they bring her into their life, increasing their circle at the same time that they uncover the bomber - but not before he strikes again.

Once again, we have tales of intrigue and suspense, and the theme of dressing as another person or class helps them find out what they need by blending with a different group of people. I felt, though, that this book is trying to do a lot more than the first book did, and loses some of the wonderful straight-forward drive and plot that made that so good. Instead, the twists and turns feel less directed on one hand, and more contrived on the other, as they clearly set up things and characters for book #3.

In sum, I didn't not like it, but felt it didn't quite live up to the standard of its predecessor, which I loved.

Montmorency: Thief, liar, gentleman?

2009-10-13T07:10:00.000-07:00

by Eleanor Updale

I had been meaning to read this book for a while, since it sounded so delicious. Suspense, set in the Victorian era, involving a man who was a thief slinking under London by night and a gentleman by day. Would he be found out as one or as the other, and what would he stand to lose?

This first book sets up the series, introducing us to Prisoner 493 and his history, walking us through his time in prison, where he nurses his bitterness and envy towards the upper class and plans his dual life in great detail.

When he is at last released, he begins by setting himself up with the tools, clothes, and lodgings he will need, and the adventure begins. The crimes are not written up in detail, which could become dull and repetitive really quickly. Instead, his plans and what he learns are outlined, his narrow misses and the things he realizes he must change are sprinkled throughout to keep a nice degree of tension, and his progress is notable, but well-paced.

By the end, he finds himself offered a legitimate job of sorts - but one perfectly suited to his skills and parts of his personality, for it is all about deception, sneaking, and the thrill of the narrow escape. This perfectly sets up the next book in the series, too, and closes the door on part of his deception while it opens a new avenue for the same sort of suspense. This neat trick to keep the series fresh doesn't even feel gimmicky, which can be tough to pull off.

It will tell you something of my opinion that having finished the book last night, I went to the teen section today to pick up the rest of the series, bumping the book I had brought to work to start today.

Pure Sunshine

2009-10-13T06:42:00.000-07:00

by Brian James

Named for the type of acid the character are tripping on over its two-night span, this book follows a small group of Philly boys getting their party on, and sticking around with the one who's narrating as his night goes a little south.

This book doesn't seem like it's just for shock value, a big issues book, though it does talk about the drugs a bit and lets the narrator ponder more than a little about who he really is, what he wants, and why he hides parts of that from certain people, even among his group of friends.

Instead, it gives strong, believable descriptions of what an acid trip is like and how your body reacts to it, how the narrator feels at different points over the night as he rides out the effects of the chemicals and some weed he adds in, and then the next day. He talks a bit about what kind of kid he is, too, which some will identify with, and others may find interesting or may just dismiss.

The second night, he is not reacting well, gets into a huge, ugly argument with friends, and takes off on his own for a night of no fun, just hanging on to survive until the drugs leave his system. By the time morning comes, he is in rough shape, and the appearance of the girl of his dreams is the only thing that lifts him out of the gutter and the beginnings of self-pity.

The thing about this bad night of his is that it's not written to be some sort of comeuppance or morality thing. It just is what happened with too much chemical and not enough positive stuff to think about - which I think is important, because there is nothing a teenager is going to want to read less than a lesson on how he asked for it and no good came of his drug use. That, they've heard. Instead, the book answers some of those questions about what it's like to use drugs without making it either glamourous and fantastic or horrible and a sure dead end. It's got balance.

The other thing about this book is that you really see a normal, not-so-bad kid not always following his best instincts because they are not cool, but wishing he could. So while he joins in the bragging about girls and such, he actually has a major crush on a nice girl for all the right reasons, and is sort of waiting for someone like her before he has sex - he just doesn't want to admit that and face potential ridicule. And while he does okay in school and all, he doesn't want to be seen to be too interested or care too much, because it's not cool to. Instead, he talks about how he and his friends keep having to up the ante, moving from one sort of harmless trouble to the next level, when sometimes he wishes they could go back to doing small, goofy things for fun instead of having to see them as boring and chasing the next little high of small-time trouble.

By the end, he has not necessarily decided to turn over a new leaf and reject all of that as a result of some epiphany, but he is finding himself longing for simpler things and more truth, and maybe a shot at making that nice girl his, cutting the b.s. It's an interesting ride because unlike many books, not much is resolved, but some possibilities of what comes after are left wide open. And while I kind of hate not knowing, I think it might play better with a teen than a tidy ending, especially since things still are wide open at that age.

Sara's Face

2009-10-13T06:30:00.000-07:00

by Melvin Burgess
Melvin Burgess has an incredible knack for dreaming up situations that sound like they could only lead to the cheesiest book in the world, yet making them entertaining and easy to buy into by virtue of his fantastic writing. His book Lady, for example, is about a teenaged girl who turns into a dog. Ridiculous? Sure. But he writes it so that the experience of being a dog seems like it must be realistic, it is so plausible.

So here, he writes about a rock star who has, teaming up with a gifted but unscrupulous plastic surgeon, pushed the boundaries of surgery well past normal or accepted. As a result, after years of constantly morphing his appearance, his face has collapsed. Still, he won't be kept down, and reinvents himself with a mask that propels him to even greater heights of global fame.

Sara, who considers herself a piece of performance art in her own way, is awestruck. She takes to wearing a mask of his face as much as she can, even before she burns her face with an iron. As she recovers, the great star Jonathon Heat visits her in the hospital, taking her under his wing and into his home, where he says he will nurture her talent, fix her face, and make her a star. The question is - is that what he really wants? Sar begins to have suspicions that he and his surgeon want her for a whole different reason, and that she may not even be the first.

The book has good suspense, an ending horrible enough to satisfy but not as bad as it could be, and a premise of evil plotting that leaves you with some delicious little chills. At the same time, for those who are inclined to a good think or good discussion, there is plenty here for that, too.

Not the kind of book I'd say you have to read, but a good little thriller, and just shocking enough to make you want to.

Give a Boy a Gun

2009-10-02T10:38:00.001-07:00

By Todd Strasser

Written in the wake of the Jonesboro and Columbine rampage killings, this teen fiction book digs into the background of a fictional school shooting and the boys behind it. It is written as the interview notes of a reporter who went to the town and spoke to children, parents, and school faculty members who recalled what they could of the boys going years back, as well as the events of the hostage-taking. Among those notes, in footnotes at the bottom, are interspersed statistics and small facts about other real-life shootings, gun fatalities, and plenty of quotations from the documentary “Making a Killing, “ about the arms industry.

The book itself, I thought was quite well done. I know a lot of parents might react to this with horror, wondering why kids need to read about it. There are a few answers there. One is that it’s a fear our kids live with, a fact that hovers in the background of their lives at school now, the worry behind every lockdown. One school in the area my library serves has had two already this year. One based on a toy gun that was rumoured to be real, and one on a bomb threat. It’s October 1st as I write this, less than one month in. So yes, we may wish kids didn’t have to think about it, but they do.

So. With that said, this book manages not to glamourize the boys or the event, nor does it make it into a horror show. I really thought the author pulled the punch at the end, in fact, so there is very little in the way of gore. What is most shocking in the body of the book is the anger in the shooters and the entitlement in the in-crowd of jocks and the way the faculty support it.

For all that, though, Strasser does drive home a point hard, time after time. He just doesn’t use the body of the work to do so, which I appreciate, because there is little worse in terms of enjoyable reading than a book with a purpose. Instead, he hammers away at you with the facts, all the more chilling for being true. That gun deaths kill more children than all diseases combined. That for 1995, in seven states, there were more shooting deaths than traffic fatalities. That in 1995 alone, more Americans were killed by firearms than soldiers killed in 3 years of the Korean War and well over half of the number of soldiers killed during 8 years in Vietnam. (If you have seen the Vietnam War Memorial in D.C., that last fact is staggering, because you have a visual for it.) That military analysts have noted strong and marked similarities between “shooter” video games and training used by the military to break down soldiers’ resistance to shooting another human. And over and over, the seeming indifference of arms manufacturers, who continue to market guns whose only logical use can be to kill people, not to mention the tactics used to sidestep attempts to regulate their product.

Taken whole, it gives recommendation for things that need to change, it indicts the gun lobby strongly, and it shows not sympathy, but a level of understanding for how this can come to pass when conditions in a school or community are just the exact recipe for such a disaster.

If you worry that such a book might provide instruction or glamourize this kind of action, I would say I think it is not providing what kids who are wondering about it are looking for. Instead, it feels more like a call to action, a heads up about the need for change. It’s a good read, and a tricky balancing act is handled well here by Strasser.

The Dunderheads

2009-09-18T05:22:00.000-07:00

By Paul Fleischman, ill. David Roberts

This new Easy Reading book draws on caper films like Ocean’s Eleven for its quirky cast of characters, each with their own highly specialized skill set. This is married with a tale of student revenge on a teacher who crosses the line to create a fun story illustrated to terrific effect without straying into Graphic Novel territory. The overall feeling is of something familiar and cinematic, yet original and refreshing in the category this book fits into. You’re definitely rooting for the underdog kids here, and kids in grades 2-4 are pretty certain to love it for the combination of kid superiority, suspense, and humour.

Where mah kittenpie at?

2009-05-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

Yes, um, so you note that the latest posts are from August, and the last one from August I actually just posted because I found it in the draft files, thinking I had posted it way back then?

Well, I had a baby just as September turned to August, just as I wrapped up a major renovation and sent an older child off to school and helped my teacher husband get his classroom ready, so basically, it's been too busy to even consider reading and writing about it, and my arms are constantly full of massive amounts of baby flesh. (really, he's huge.)

BUT!

This hiatus should span about ten months to one year, and see me returning to regular posting in the summer, when I will have more time, or in September, when I go back to work.

I am very much looking forward to having time for reading kidslit again soon!
See you then...

Author Review: Anatomy of a Boyfriend

2008-08-23T15:05:00.000-07:00

by Daria Snadowsky. To be released in paperback in September.

Gotta love it when an author takes to the net to promote her own book, as this lady did, offering me a review copy of her teen novel of first love and loss. I'm glad, too, because for all that I love the cover (yeah, yeah, you do it, too), I may have passed it over as another fluffy teen chicklit book, which I've read lots of and find that while some are quite good, there are plenty that are, well, not so good. This book, while it does track the course of a romance, is not the same old formula, by any stretch.

What I most like about this is its straight take on the whole affair. Dominique wants to be a doctor, and has always been far too engrossed in studies and intellectual interests to notice boys all that much. She's a serious girl, unlike her friend, who is all about the fun with boys. Because of this curious, pragmatic personality, the fact that her voice is often frank and unflinching works really well to convey information about her sexual explorations as well as being able to discuss her emotions clearly.

Dominique, to be honest, is much like me as a teen, so I found her very relatable as a teen who is not a silly girl, but finds herself sometimes having to hold back to keep things going along at a pace that is is comfortable with, unwilling to completely give herself over to the rush of it, but unable to resist completely. She goes in with her eyes open and thinks about what she wants, which I like, but she isn't perfect and impervious to temptation, either. Neither a saint nor a slut, she treads a middle ground that I think will be familiar to teens and eye-opening but not alarming to parents.

I also really liked the writing of the sex and makeout scenes. It is free from cheesy euphemisms and other romance cliches, yet doesn't come across as clinicla, either. It is straight up, but perfectly evocative of how Danielle feels both physically and emotionally. I think it would actually be a really good book for a teen to read before they were involved in a relationship or considering any degree of physical exploration, as it really tells it like it is for an average teen.

I would highly recommend this for any teen.

Publisher Review: Madapple

2008-08-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

by Christina Meldrum. See more about the book on the publisher's website, here.

(and read about my stance on reviews here, if you like.)

To start, let me fill you in on the title: Madapple is another name for a local herb also called jimsonweed that plays a major role in this tale so defined by herbs and lore. Aslaug grows up isolated, under the complete control of her mother, who teaches her what she thinks she should know, including lots of mythology and history, as well as great amounts about scientific inquiry and how to identify and use local flora.

The actual story unfolds in two formats running in alternating chapters - one a series of transciprts from a trial, the other the story as told by Aslaug in her complete version, filling in the gaps and questions that the court records open up. I must say that I think this gradual drawing out of the plot was probably supposed to engage and draw in a reader, but I didn't love the device. It was a bit slow going for me, though it did raise questions along the way, as intended.

Once Aslaug's mother passes away, she seeks and finds family, only to discover a world of strange, intertwined secrets and history. Herbs continue to play a role, but now she is thrust into a place of religion, where she is suddenly introduced to the readings and explorations that her mother kept hidden from her, although she had known that her mother was reading in these areas. Now she begins to see a new side of her mother and hear conflicting stories that leave her confused. Each member of this new family seems to have their own secrets and agendas, many of which revolve around her, but which she is unable to decipher. History seems to repeat itself at the end, until her cousin decides to take matters into his own hands and break from the madness.

Without giving away the ending, it does leave you with questions, most certainly, and with some things to chew on, if the story has grabbed you enough to make you keep thinking about it. For myself, I wasn't finding that I had to keep coming back to it, though I did also have to give myself a good few days to let it percolate before I could sit down and write a review. I found myself wonderign, instead, whether I liked it or not. It was haunting in places, certainly, it raises questions that might be of gripping interest for some readers, especially if they are of a religious bent, for it flirts with religious teachings, and it leaves open questions about the family and their history. In the end, though, I think I might just not have been the right person for this one.

Publisher Review: Confessions of a Serial Kisser

2008-07-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

by Wendelin van Draanen. Knopf Books for Young Readers. Find more information about the title at the publisher's website, here.

(First, a word about publisher reviews.)

Evangeline is looking for something, and she's not sure what until she trips on a romance novel of her mother's, and reads about crimson kisses. That is it, she thinks, she needs that passion. Reading a self-help book on living your dream makes her convinced that she should just go for it, and she does.

She's not necessarily finding what she's after, though, and instead of finding passion and romance, finds herself in a mess. Her reputation is taking a hit, her best friend gets angry with her, and more than one of the guys she's tried out as a kisser is unthrilled with the aftermath. Now she has to try to figure out a way to clean up this mess, not to mention figure out what went wrong in the first place.

Add to that the fact that her mother seems to be willing to take back her father after a separation, while Evangeline is holding onto her anger, but feels like she can't talk to anyone about that. And the fact that her grades are slipping as she becomes preoccupied by everyone except school. It's beginning to get desparate, when she gets some help and support from a few directions, has an epiphany of her own, and begins to get things back on track. Somehow, the crimson kiss seems less important, and she finds herself looking for something more realisitc, but just as exciting in the end.

I was curious to see how van Draanen would do teen chicklit - I have enjoyed her middle grade Sammy Keyes mysteries and the novel Flipped, and thought she could do a character with a little more substance than the too-typical fluff-dwellers. She didn't disappoint - Evangeline has a strong base, even if she loses it for a while, and comes back to her senses in the end. She also has her own interests - van Draanen sprinkles the book liberally with references to blues rock, including bands and songs that she listens to, for she is a serious music lover. All of which make for a nice solid character and a message about being grounded and true to yourself that resonates without ever hammering to bring it home.

I really quite liked this one, both as a fun read and a fine example of the kind of girl you'd like other girls to see - fun, but sensible, cool, but smart. Good stuff, indeed.

Eggs

2008-07-08T06:39:00.000-07:00

by Jerry Spinelli.

This latest book by multi-award-winner Spinelli hits some of the same notes as his other big titles, but somehow, I felt missed by a bit.

As with many of his stories, his characters are damaged - David has lost his mother and is both angry and trying to find a way to get her back, while Primrose has no father and a mother she is embarrassed and angry about. The two find each other and develop a kind of strange relationship, each angering and needling the other, each easily offended, yet somehow needing someone. They come together and apart often, according to their latest level of hurt, and in the end, take a journey together that heals in some ways, but not as much as the homecoming.

I like the way he gives his characters realistic responses, and I found that the prickliness of the two felt right, like them just bonding happily would have been false, and I am always happy to see the happyish ending, where things are not all sunshine and roses yet, but where you can see everyone moving towards a better future. I think he handles these things well, and enjoy them, even if they are beginning to seem like what he always does.

So what did I think missed? I think I found the book a bit disjointed in the writing, making it harder for me to get into, like the author was trying to be clever by making us guess what was going on for a while before revealing things. Perhaps this is meant to draw the reader in, but I found it more of an obstacle than a compelling lure.

And I think there were some things that seemed like they were supposed to be significant in some way that were left untouched in the end - like the eggs. Yes, they were a theme, present in the opening egg hunt scene, in descriptions of the sun and its rising, in the egging of Primrose's room, and in the fragility of the characters, though this is not pointed out directly. But what was with the egging? It is clear that it is part of her life as an outcast, but is never really addressed, which I think would have been helpful.

Overall, it's fine, and fans of Spinelli will probably not be disappointed, but I just felt it wasn't his best. Instead? I loved Crash, would recommend Maniac Magee, of course, and found Loser an interesting study.

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

2008-07-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

by Gabrielle Zevin.

Right off the bat, I was amused by the contradiction in the title. And the flap was intriguing.

So we have Naomi, who lost a coin toss, went back into the school to grab a camera and lock up, and on the way out, lands at the bottom of the school steps with a head injury and amnesia going back some four years. Meaning she has forgotten a lot - all of high school, some major family and life events, much about her relationships with others in the school. She's sort of starting over, and starting over knowing she's a bit of a curiosity in the school. In high school. Ouch.

It's a tough book to talk about without giving some of the twists and turns and discoveries away, and I think they are worth leaving for you to discover, so I will instead, just note that as she learns things and navigates her way forward through that and her re-entry into school, she finds herself interested in some different things and people, learns more than she initially might expect, and does some real growing up along the way.

By the end, she is in some ways where she started, and in other, important ways, in a very different place. I like the ending, it does wind up how I would hope, and i think the person she ends up as is a much more likeable person, all told.

I really liked this one, and kept wanting to know what came next, always a good sign. I'm not telling you a lot, here, but I will tell you I think it's a great read.

The Alchemyst:

2008-06-21T11:14:00.000-07:00

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
by Michael Scott

This book drew my attention immediately because of the Nicholas Flamel connection - some may remember him as the creator of the Philosopher's Stone in the first Harry Potter book. I was curious to see what another author had done with him and this being a teen novel, I was hoping for something meaty.

This weighty novel did not disappoint. The action begins quickly, as Sophie stands on a regular summer day in the coffee shop where she works and sees chaos break out in the bookstore across the street, where her twin brother is employed. She runs to him, and the pair are drawn into a whole new world, where the unassuming bookseller Nick Fleming and his wife Perry turn out to be the ages-old alchemist and his wife, kept alive for hundreds of years through a formula he uncovered in an ancient text. Coming after them and that same text is another magician, this one from Elizabeth I's court and also immortal through magic, Dr. John Dee, who has allied himself with ancient and dark forces who wish to reclaim the world for themselves and enslave the human race.

As they flee Dee, Josh (the other twin) manages to rip two very important pages from the book - pages which Dee will want badly enough to continue hunting for the twins and Flamel, though he has captured his wife. Flamel, and later Dee, also begin to suspect that these twins are something special, something referred to in one of the book's prophecies, and that the fate of the world may well rest with them and how well they can be protected and taught along the way.

The action is nonstop in this book, and as the plot twists and progresses, the author has drawn in a wide variety of historical figures and legends, weaving them together to form a background that he notes took years to piece together before he truly began writing the book. Without giving away too much detail, he incorporates myths from Egypt and the British Isles, as well as legends that have cropped up in cultures around the world, topping it off with a sprinkling of real historical figures such as Flamel and Dee. (An excerpt at the end reveals that we can look forward to Nicolo Machiavelli joining the fray in the next book, where the chase has moved to Europe.) The result is something so well-thought-out that it becomes convincing in the reading, and allows for easy suspension of disbelief - something I struggle with sometimes in reading fantasy-type fiction, and I must admit, the use of real mythology certainly helps for me. The book's construction and backstory is clever and interesting, the plot keeps you reading, and the characters sympathetic enough that even where you don't feel that you know them well (as in the enigmatic ancient warrior Scathach), you care about their fate. It all comes together to mean that I read this book in record time, sacrificing valuable evening flake-out time and nearly missing my subway stop on more than one occasion. Yes, I was riveted, and devoured it in mere days, quite a thing for a slow reader like myself to say of a 375-pager.

This book was terrific - I am handing it off to a coworker who was looking for something to read, and I am more than a touch disappointed to see that the next installment is not available in the catalogue yet, though it is to be released in hardcover later this week, according to Indigo (which I had to go and check, having just finished the book today!). Perhaps it might have to be a rare teen purchase...

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

2008-06-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

by Jeff Kinney.

This first of three (so far) is an interesting blend of diary-style book and graphic novel, much in the style of the Amelia books by Marissa Moss, with handwriting for a font, and little comics illustrating it throughout.

It is essentially the journal of a middle-school kid who is not at the bottom of the food chain, but definitely not at the top. He isn't exactly admirable, letting his friend get in trouble for things he's done, for example, but isn't a total jerk, either. He's just a kid. Self-interested, somewhat obnoxious, occasionally kind, trying to find his way through school without being eaten alive.

My favourite thing here is how the illustrations complement the text by showing a bit more truth or detail, or by adding what he wishes had happened or been said. They are a fun added layer, something that would have to be embodied in the text of a more conventional book.

I see this as a great find for a reluctant reader, for it is quick, short, funny, and eminently relatable. The fact that there are two more to devour once you've read it only mkaes it that much better as a starting place into reading for a kid who'd rather not.

The Talented Clementine

2008-06-11T09:24:00.000-07:00

by Sarah Pennypacker. Sequel to Clementine.

I adored the first Clementine book, which really stands out from the pack of other early readers about the misadventuresof young, precocious girls for the fact that Clementine isn't bratty or snotty, just doesn't always get it right.

In this followup, she panics when her class starts organizing a talent show, and she can't think of an act. Avoiding it doesn't seem to be working, trying to learn a new talent is a bust, and by the time the show has snuck up on her, she is convinced she is bound to disappoint her parents, teachers, and classmates.

Some of her true talents shine as the show starts coming together, however, and while she doesn't notice them, others do. so she doesn't get on stage after all - but she does get her due recognition, just in a different way. And I love the way she describes the feeling when she does, as "the proud feeling: like the sun was rising inside my chest." Perfect.

The Case of the Left-handed Lady

2008-06-11T09:23:00.002-07:00

by Nancy Springer. An Enola Holmes mystery.

Enola has set up, since the first mystery, a reasonable semblance of an existance for herself, complete with a few different identities and associated disguises. Although set up as a "scientific perditorian," she is mostly concerned, at first anyhow, with keeping herself hidden and figuring out how much her brothers know about her whereabouts, as well as adapting herself to keeping safe on the dangerous streets of Victorian London. Her newfound passion for helping other disguised as a nun doesn't help any, as she performs this role at night, wandering among the slums.

Through the book, a strange series of events turn out to be related as she is drawn into the mystery of a missing girl, learns about some radical new political movements of the time, and set upon at night herself.

Parallel to this runs the continued avoidance of her brothers, complete with a trick message left by one to trap her, a bit of snooping on her part, and a direct run-in with the ever-so-sharp Sherlock Holmes. Thsi plot will clearly continue to push through any future volumes as well, and at the end of this book, she is determined to keep herself from their grasp, telling them via newspaper ad to 'rot.'

I like the blend of suspense from the two plotlines here, I like Enola's spunk and intelligence, and I especially like the high level of explanation as to Victorian customs that is done throughout, somehow without being overly intrusive. This is a great series for a girl who likes some adventure and some smarts in her reading, but won't leave the girlier girls behind, either.

Invasion of the IQ Snatchers

2008-06-11T09:23:00.001-07:00

by Arthur Slade, from the Canadian Chillers series.

Something weird is going on in Nanaimo, BC, where plates of nanaimo bars are being delivered, and a few of them stolen away by a large, hairy thief. And why do the parents all seem so strange, all of a sudden, what with the curlers and the TV-watching and the obsession with clean ears?

Determined to find out, a pair of friends and friendly competitors set out after the thief to find out what she knows. A fair bit, it turns out, but joining forces, the three just barely manage to stop the brains of Nanaimo from becoming fuel for intergalactic flight. No, really. But it's okay, everyone turns out normal in the end, and the thief becomes a friend - for future volumes, perhaps?

Strange and silly, this one reminds me a bit of Daniel Pinkwater's style, and is sure to have the same appeal, especially to reluctant readers. Teachers may appreciate the author, who is notable on the Canadian kid lit scene, while kids will pretty surely enjoy the thin size and the fun, quirky, fast-paced content.

Publisher Review: Nobody's Princess

2008-06-08T10:38:00.000-07:00

by Esther Friesner. Reviewed for Random House. For more information about the book, visit their site here.

(A word about publisher reviews)

You would expect that a book of historical fiction about the classical figure Helen would have something to do with Troy? In this case, no. Instead, Friesner looks into Helen's younger years, envisioning her as a princess itching for something different, more adventurous out of life, long before Paris ever enters the picture.

Helen starts learning to hunt and use weapons, avoiding needlework whenever she can, and accompanies her brothers on their errand to deliver her sister to the land of her new husband. On the return, they are drawn into adventures, and she in turn creates a few of her own, including meeting up with Atalanta to learn to ride a horse and take part in a boar hunt. By the end of the book, she has found a companion, given her guards the slip, and is headed out to try and join the crew of Jason with her brothers.

This book is pure imagining, but is fun for anyone who enjoys the spunky heroines of authors like Tamora Pierce or Nancy Springer, for example. I did find her rebellious streak and the ways in which she indulges it a bit formulaic, having read others like her, but that is to take nothing away from the book - it is still a good read for the teen who enjoys this style, and I particularly liked the way the author wove in references to ancient personages while making them more realistic. All in all, it was a solid, enjoyable read. I think I will be reading the sequel, Nobody's Prize, to see where Friesner takes it from here!

Publisher Review: London Calling

2008-05-24T06:59:00.000-07:00

by Edward Bloor. Reviewed for Random House. Find more information about this book on their website here.

(And first, a word about publisher reviews on kittenpie reads.)

This book is a fascinating blend of historical fiction, family issues, and the supernatural. In it, Martin is hating school and weighed down by the accepted order of things based on history in both his school and his family. He begins to be angered when it is clear that nothing will change as long as this version of history remains entrenched, and he sinks into a depression. It is only the arrival of an antique radio that seems to connect him to a past time and give him a mission that finally shakes him into some action. He begins to research, at first to figure out if he is crazy or dreaming, then because of growing interest, and finally, to also create some temporary solution to his issues at school by doing independent research projects from home. Through his feverish dedication, he wins over his sister, his father, and his mother, and is allowed to go on the errand of a lifetime, creating a healing on many fronts that in fact changes quite a few things in the end.

I'm not giving too much away here because it is a wonderful book to watch unfold, not in terms of suspense, so much as watching Martin grow and learn, and seeing how he inspires changes in others around him. There are in this book subplots that are skillfully woven directly into the main thrust of the book, rather than being distractions as subplots can be when handled less deftly. While doing his research and following his intuition, Martin is also dealing with issues of identity, of the weight of expectations, and with an alcoholic father, all of which fold back into what he is uncovering and his pondering about what he can and cannot change. By the end of this, Martin has grown in amazing ways, and has helped everyone around him grow, too. Quite a feat for a young man just coming of age, really.

What I am most impressed with about this book is how it successfully blends enough action (in both his school struggles and the wartime setting of his time travels) to keep it interesting with a mystical quality that is not pure fantasy and with an inward-looking, serious look at self. This is pretty rare stuff, especially in a book with true boy appeal. I can think of few that manage such a balance, though I think that Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life may be a contender as well. Plus, it warms a librarians heart to see research become so important and life-changing to someone! All in all, this was a great book, and while I think it is decidedly a teen work, I wouldn't hesitate to give it to anyone but the most struggling of readers.

Publisher Review: A Great and Terrible Beauty

2008-05-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

by Libba Bray. Reviewed for Random House. For more information on this title, see here.

(about publisher reviews on kittenpie reads)

Though largely set in Victorian England, this book open with Gemma chafing to leave her home in India and go to London. She is now 16, after all. Her journey to England is set in motion when a strange vision comes over her, and she sees her mother kill herself rather than be claimed by some mysterious creature while in the company of an unknown man. This shadow cast over her family, she is to go off to finishing school at Spence to be made marriageable. This is not quite what happens there, however.

Instead, Gemma learns more about the strange amulet her mother gave her, and about the visions she continues to have.It turns out that she is a conduit to another place, a centrepoint of the next generation of a group of women known as the Order who can access this land and the magic therein. It isn't all as beautiful as it looks, though, because there is a dark side, and someone known as Circe wants control.

As she learns more about the past from a diary, it seems that it is a hunger for power that caused things to go astray when the last generation of girls entered this other land, the Realms, and that they had been sealed to prevent Circe from crossing into our world. Which means that there is current danger of repeating history or allowing Circe to manipulate one of the girls in Gemma's circle by opening the portal again.

The ending does wrap things up fairly nicely, though there are sequels, which I appreciate. I don't love to be left hanging! I am curious about the sequels, though.

Although a substantial read at over 400 pages, the book moves along fairly quickly and drew me in enough that I read it in a few days, even as a slower reader. I loved the language in many places, and enjoyed that while it has a Victorian setting and some Victorian conventions, it moved faster than your average Victorian novel, and had enough rebellious sentiments among the girls to appeal to a modern girl's sensibility, particularly in the slightly naughty pranks and the horror at Pippa's being forced into a marriage with a much older and quite unappealing man.

All in all, I'm not surprised that this has been a big hit. It had a long holds list at the library for some time, and was much-requested in-branch, with lots of girls wanting to read it. It was one with great media push at the outset, as well, but unlike some books, I think this one has substance behind all of that. It's a great read for a teen girls, with its gothic and fantasy elements being well-handled, but not the whole story, and the characters being very strong and relateable.

Now off to reserve the next one in the set...

Love Is A Many-Trousered Thing

2008-05-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

by Louise Rennison. Book #8 in the Georgia Nicolson series.

Oh my giddygodspajamas (as Georgia might say), how I love these. Truly, I can't read them in public because I tend to gigle, snort, and ocasionally howl, they are so damn funny. This last is no less ridiculous, with family madness continuing, a class camping trip looming, and not one but two potential boys to figure out?

How to choose between a Luuurve God who has said he is free for you and a Sex God who has returned from afar without notice or known reason? Ack! Yes, our girl Gee is stumped, and as such, acts like a crazy loon. As you do. (If you're Georgia.) And there's Dave the Laugh. Why does he keep popping up in her thoughts? He's just a mate. Right?

So yes, still funny after all these years, though I must admit - the bouncing back and forth between and not noticing Dave is starting to wear thin. I had figured this would be the book where she pulled him into the mix of her boy confusion, but no, it is more of the same, and she still has not figured that one out by the end. So while I continue to love them... She'd better at least add him to the list by next book, or I may just give up entirely.

Publisher Review: Running the Bases

2008-05-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

by Paul Kropp. Reviewed for Random House. See more info on this title here.

(a word on publisher reviews at kittenpie reads)

This book is subtitled Definitely not a book about baseball. Well, yes, most definitely not. I can see how that subtitle could be necessary, I suppose, given the title and the fact that the author is a man, and people could easily jump to the conclusion that this one is about sports, not about dating, as it actually is.

This book is also definitely fluffy, and a teen read, focussing entirely on Al's project to get himself a girl. The twist is that when he tries and gets shot down by one of the less popular but very smart girls in his class, she offers to hire out as a consultant and guide to the world of dating and what girls want. A dating coach.

They sign a contract, and the fun begins. He tries and practices and stumbles a good few times, and she points out where he went wrong, prepares him for the next steps, and basically grooms him to treat a girl properly. In the end, she discovers that he has made good headway based entirely on a lie, and quits, just in time for him to get dumped anyhow. She sets him up on one last blind date, though, giving the book a "twist ending" once she thinks he is fully prepared.

I say a "twist ending" in quotations because, well, it was predictable. As were the ways in which he messes up - you see them coming well down the road as he builds towards them. Still, it was an easy read on a topic of high interest to teens, and because of the main character being male and all, this could appeal to boys as much as girls already familiar with the dating genre. The thing I particularly liek about that is that the advice is, in fact, pretty solid, and Al's friend who tries to give him advice and pass himself off as a well-seasoned ladies' man is exposed as a total fraud, his opinions rendered as useless as they really are. So if boys would read this? They might actually improve their own chances by acting like the boy a girl really does want to date, and wouldn't that be a boon to both sexes?

Publisher Review: The Blue Helmet

2008-05-13T15:17:00.000-07:00

by William Bell. Reviewed for Random House. See here for more info on the title.

(a word about publisher reviews on kittenpie reads)

Lee is going down a bad path, largely raising himself in the absence of his late mother and hard-working single father, letting hatred and anger grow into a hard knot inside him, until he decides to join a local gang. The last stage of his initiation, though, goes terribly awry, and he ends up in the hands of a police officer who knows his father. A deal is worked out, and though Lee is none too thrilled, it is explained to him that he has run out of options.

In short, the deal is to get him into surroundings where he won't be tempted by the gang, will be put to some productive work, and will have more supervision. He will go to live with his aunt Reena and help her run her small cafe in New Toronto, a corner of Etobicoke, Ontario.

Reena takes a pretty hands-off approach, but gives him enough to do to keep him occupied, and lets him see her empathetic way with her customers, a mix of homeless morning visitors, college kids, and neighbourhood eccentrics. Eventually, she gets him a bike and sets up a delivery service that puts him in contact with some real characters, and he finds himself making friends, opening up a bit, and seeing people in a new way. He slips up now and then, but on the whole, he is making some progress, and even starts talking to his aunt about what is happening in his life a bit.

But the real leap occurs when tragedy and an unexpected gift come together. He puts off the discoveries that will follow for a bit, but eventually finds his way to a realization about how destructive the dark, violent corner of his soul really could be. In the end, he mends fences on all sides, finding a new way to repair the hurt and the anger that had been pushing him down the wrong path.

The book is nicely written, pulling you along through vignettes and small epiphanies one after another at a pace that moves quickly, yet doesn't feel too hurried. I did feel at times that it was all happening a little more easily, with less struggling on Lee's part, than I might have expected, perhaps even too easily, but on examining it, I got the gut feel that Lee was at heart a good kid who had fallen into bad circumstances, and that he had been caught early enough not to give over to the growing internal anger entirely.

On the whole, I think this book has plenty of appeal, and moves quickly enough to keep even less avid readers. I think it speaks to boys well, something of increasing concern as we notice how many boys stop reading, while not excluding a female audience. This is a nice balance, and could make it good for a book discussion title or a class read.

Publisher Review: What I Was

2008-05-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

by Meg Rosoff. Reviewed for Doubleday/Random House. Here is their info on the title.

(a note about publisher reviews and kittenpie reads)

This was one of those much-hyped titles this last fall/winter season, so I was curious, because it sounded interesting, with the vague descriptions I heard, and because I've never read anything by this author before. It was an interesting book - a looking back, a sort of reverie of a time in the narrator's life that changed and stuck with him.

He is not a boy with ambition, not a boy suited to the boarding school life that has been chosen for him, not a tough boy, but one who has learned to survive in that setting. Still, he has been failed out of or expelled from more than one school already, and is at what is pretty much his last chance school. He is going through the motions, when he sees something that changes everything. On a forced class run, he sees a beach shack and a smallish boy beside it, and decides to make his acquaintance. He is fascinated by him - his physical grace and beauty, his independence, his strength and capability, and the fantasy of living without adult supervision. Indeed, he sort of falls in love, though he seems unsure of what kind of love it is, whether it's about the boy, or the fantasy, or about a wish to be like him.

In the end, though, his occasional playing at keeping house with his friend doesn't add up to knowing what to do when his friend seems really and truly sick, and he puts his friend's position in jeopardy to get the help he doesn't know how to give any other way. (Yes, I am being vague here, but there is a surprise twist at the end that is worth keeping a surprise!) The book closes with the boy now an old man, returning to the scene, now long slid under the sea, where the beach house once stood, remembering.

The book is written in lovely, lyrical language and has the feel of a dream state through most of it, which really works, and kept me captive. My only real quibble is whether most boys would read this or enjoy it. It doesn't have much action, it has a questionable sexual subtext that might make less secure boys uncomfortable, and the dreaminess of it may be offputting to some. I would certainly recommend this to girls, but I think it would take a particularly sensitive, dreamy boy or one secure in himself and with a genuine interest in literature to appreciate this, even with a boy protagonist.

Hiatus Over!

2008-05-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I sort of took a break there for a while...
I read a bunch of grownup books, wallowed in bodily discomfort some, worked on my house a few times, started a new library branch, and so on.
But now I've read a new fistful of books, so expect reviews to fly fast and furious the next couple of days, as I get cover images loaded, books written up, and more books moved off of the building stack.
Back to the kidlit I love!

Publisher Review: Unicorn Races

2008-03-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

by Stephen J. Brooks, ill. Linda Crockett. From Purple Sky Publishing, a small press from Missouri.

First: here's my promise about Publisher Reviews, reviews of books which, like this one, have been sent to me by the publisher for review.

Second: This book was suggested to me by the publisher as possibly fitting the category of Advanced Picture Book. Here's a little information about those in general and what they are.

This picture books announces from the sparkly-titled, purply-hued, puffy-textured front cover that it is a book for a girly girl. The inside pages, in illustration and in story, follow this through and won't disappoint the frilliest, most princess-and-unicorn obssessed of young ones.

I am, I will be honest, not a girly girl or particularly in love with overly girly stories, so my first reaction to this is not to b drawn in, but to approach with caution! Knowing this of myself, I decided to test this one on someone who is a girly girl - my daughter, Pumpkinpie, of nearly four years of age. And much as it is not what I would choose, it is now a nightly read because it is right up her alley.

The story is simple - a young girl sneaks out at bedtime in her finest princess garb, mounts a unicorn, and rides away to a magic clearing filled with fairies, elves, and unicorns, who will race in the moonlight. The princess decides the winner, and rides back to bed as the fairies begin a great goodie-laden feast. Whether this is dream or fantasy or real live magic is left unclear, and not addressed.

The illustrations are, thoughout, suffused with pink and purple and a sort of glow about the characters that suggests magic. They are, in some places, quite realistic, while in other places have a touch of impressionism about them. For someone like Pumpkinpie, who adores this sort of thing, they are quite lovely, in fact, although they are not, as I say, to my personal taste.

Although I had hoped this would be a more advanced picture book to be more in line with this site's usual age ranges, it was quite suitable for someone as young as three, like Pumpkinpie, as the content is quite gentle. I can see, though, that a girl of 7 or 8 who was reading early chapters with a girly bent such as the My Secret Unicorn series or any of a number of the fairy series available right now would love it. I certainly have plenty of girls in that older age bracket at the library still asking for slightly schlocky princess-y stuffthat makes me cringe a bit - and they would adore it!

This book is available through the publisher or from Amazon.

Spud

2008-03-05T12:16:00.000-08:00

by John Van de Ruit.

Spud is the nickname granted to the 13-year-old John Milton, new arrival at boarding school, who has not yet reached puberty. While this is a source of some embarrassment, it also grants him the most beautiful voice in school, his ticket to stardom in the school play and among the girls joining his school to perform it. Besides this ongoing internal struggle, though, he has plenty of other things to deal with, for he is, as he frequently notes, surrounded by lunacy. His family is completely bonkers and embarrass him at school funtions frequently, though they seem favourites among the faculty. He finds some friends among the teachers, too, though they are rife with their own issues and quirks. And finally, he resides in a dorm that becomes known over the year as "The Crazy Eight."

The Crazy Eight are a pretty motley cast of characters, each with a nickname and his own oddity. There are, for example, Gecko, the sickly one; Fatty, the great eater; Mad Dog, the hunter; Rambo, the macho man; and RainMan, the demented one. There are ferocious rivalries with other boys that lead to occasionally vicious pranks, there are school traditions like birthday hazing to keep up with, and there are Rambo's own invented challenges, like the night swim which leads to disaster not once but twice. All this makes for one heck of a crazy school year, but one in which Spud learns a lot, grows a lot, and though his voice doesn't crack yet by the end, he is a whole lot closer to becoming the man he wants to be.

The book has heart and hilarity in equal measure, and had me often enough laughing out loud like a loon on the subway. If you like a good laugh and you don't mind the looks you get from the other transit riders when you crack up, I'd recommend this one, for certain.

Alcatraz Smedry Versus the Evil Librarians

2008-03-04T12:43:00.000-08:00

by Brandon Sanderson.

This book is a fantasy mixed with a comedy, a sort of Harry Potter meets Daniel Pinkwater. Throw in a smidge of Lemony Snicket, for the evil conspiracies and because Alcatraz often addresses the reader in asides about writing conventions and about what sort of person he really is, after all. But the book, or Alcatraz, that is, insists that it is in fact non-fiction, an autobiography and record of true events, and written to set the record straight, although he acknowledges that librarians will bill it as fantasy to keep the lid on the true nature of their nefarious world domination.

It's silly, it's postmodern, it's rife with action and discovery of new views of the world, which is apparently run by evil librarians who obfuscate the truth to keep the people under their control. (I'll never tell if that is true or not.)

But whatever the case, it is an fun, fast-paced, and quite enjoyable read, and one I can see recommending especially to a boy who is ready to move into chapters in terms of reading level, but reluctant to move into heavier books. One who loved Jon Sceisczka or Dav Pilkey would be a perfect bet.

Understood Betsy

2008-02-20T13:06:00.000-08:00

by Dorothy Canfield.

Someone I know - maybe Mad Hatter Mommy, another children's librarian? - mentioned in an offhand way the book Understood Betsy, and that it had been an old classic they'd read and loved as a child. I had never heard of it! So I ordered it from another library branch, and dug in.

To my surprise - it was funny. It takes gleeful little pokes at the modern science of childrearing and at applying psychology to raising young people, it makes fun in a sly, tongue-in-cheek way that is not mean, but is unmistakeable. and predictably, when Betsy escapes this dreary, fear-inducing, crippling environment by mere happenstance and is sent to live with her "most dreadful" cousins on a Vermont farm? She flourishes under their no-nonsense but quietly loving ways, blossoming into a sturdy, sensible, fun-loving girl with ideas and a fierce heart of her own.

And when, at the end, she is to go back to her original guardian aunt, she is terribly sad, but determined not to hurt the aunt's feelings, she puts on a brave face. In the end, though, the aunt will be traveling with her new husband, and it is agreed to the secret delight of everyone, that Betsy should stay right where she is.

There is nothing in this old gem from 1917 that will come as much of a surprise - it all happens just as it should for a book like this, but the tale is captivating, quickly moving, and wryly humourous enough to be a true delight. Thanks to whomever happened to mention this one and pique my curiosity!

Hello, Groin

2008-02-17T12:45:00.000-08:00

by Beth Goobie.

Somehow, I had not read any of Goobie's other acclaimed teen novels, but this one had so much buzz, I couldn't miss it. And the buzz? Was not unwarranted. Goobie is one powerful writer, and she brings Dylan Kowolski's inner struggles to life so vividly, brings the reader into the story so deeply, that I found myself crying at Dylan's turning point, both for the pain it was causing her and for pride in her for facing it at last.

You see, Dylan is dating one of the school stars. A jock without the jock mentality, Cam is a great guy, and she loves him with her whole heart and her whole mind. The problem is, her body doesn't seem to agree. It keeps just turning off, and he's been waiting patiently for it to be right for her, long past the typical waiting period for couples in their school. It frustrates her, the fact that her groin and head can't match up, but slowly she lets herself realize in a deep, hidden place that it's because her body wants a girl, no matter how much she cares for Cam. and once that starts to bubble up, there's no stopping the secret for long. Within a couple of months, she finds herself unable to carry on the lie, facing suspicion at school, slight pressure from Cam, and the growing needs of her own body. So in one wrenching weekend, both awful and relieving, she faces the truth, and tells Cam, her parents, and the best friend she loves in every way - including the way she can't love Cam.

Cam, being the wonderful, thoughtful, mature guy her is, backs off, but ultimately deals and helps her, too. He may hang with jocks, but he's no meathead himself. Her best friend Joc, fortunately, has been read right, and the two move towards something deeper. The parents are okay, though Joc's brother is not so cool - her mother, though, lets him know that he'd better step up. The only problem left is a girl that has been semi-stalking Dylan since the single kiss they shared weeks ago. Feeling braver now, she calls her to talk, too, and wraps up the ends before she starts moving forward with what is now her new life.

The book is wonderfully written, and the struggle between what Dylan thinks she wants and what her body is telling her sounds like it could be written by someone who knows. Her confusion, her fear, her longing are palpable, and leap off the page. My only complaint is a minor one - there are parts of the language that feel repetitive, which I find slightly distracting. Still, I can see how it can happen that you have a turn of phrase that you feel works well for something, and it's hard to move past it, feels false to grope for something else. Overall, this is one hell of a stellar book, and one that I would recommend for anyone growing up. Because even if it's not the sexuality thing, most teens have something in themselves they are wrestling with that wants to come out, and should be able to identify with this on some level. And this story? Ends on the sort of lovely, hopeful note you hope these stories always could.

Here Lies the Librarian

2008-02-17T12:35:00.001-08:00

by Richard Peck.

I love Peck's books A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder, both of which mine small towns of long ago for laughs. In fact, when he writes like this, Richard Peck reminds me of Robert Newton Peck, he also set his hilarious stories in rural countryside of the past. This is no exception, being set in 1914, in a town so small and backwards that a nearby small town referred to them as "Rubesburg." At this time, in this town, the automobile is just getting a firm foothold, and roads are just starting to come through. Two families compete for automotive repair business, though the Kirbys are far less than scrupulous.

At the same time, the locals are goaded into reopening their library and looking for a new librarian. When they end up with three big-city heiresses sharing the job and funding their own major improvements, the town hardly knows what hit them. And then they take on PeeWee - never known as Eleanor - as a project, too. Both teaching her what it means to be a lady and encouraging her to retain her spunk, they make her into quite the girl, big enough to stand on her own when her brother moves to Indianapolis with one of the librarians. Turns out she and he are both car-mad, and after he shows his stuff at a car race, her auto-maker father is impressed, even if Eleanor did finish the race for him in the end.

It might sound a touch confusing - well, that's because there are small plots aplenty. They keep the book hopping and funny right from the start, but they all tie in together nicely, making it a good read for a reluctant reader or a keen one, and fun for either gender, to boot. Peck's comic touch shows no sign of waning, and this is a fun read, even for the non-librarian.

No Talking

2008-02-11T15:24:00.000-08:00

by Andrew Clements.

Let me say up front, Clements is one of my favourite authors for middle grades. I like that his characters are well-fleshed out, both children and adult, and they are thinkers, smart people, by and large. People who, even when they make mistakes or act in haste, think about it afterwards, and figure out some way to make it right. They are, I suppose, what we would hope for people to be.

His books follow a fairly predictable pattern - they are school stories, some kid has an idea, something he wants to do differently, or an experiment, and he meets with some resistance, but the adults around him respect his thinking, and either decide to support and help, or to at least not truly stand in his way. The experiment goes forth, and both children and adults watch with interest. In the end, people learn something worthwhile.

This book is no exception. But still, it's a formula that I enjoy, the ideas are always kind of interesting, and the books are such that kids both get to see adults being real, 3-dimensional people, and get to mull over a new idea. I think it's a winning combination so even though I think the formula is pretty obvious, I still like it. The man is the king of the school story, after all.

The Real Thief

2008-02-05T10:24:00.001-08:00

by William Steig.

I have drivelled on ad nauseum in various places about how dearly I love William Steig, so I am slowly tucking in everything of his I haven't read before, reading them between other, more current fiction I'm reading. This latest is the slimmest of chapter books, an Easy Reader size and format, with a handful of his illustrations, though I would not necessarily place it there because of the reading level Steig writes at. Steig loves rich vocabulary and tends to use words that would leave the average ER reader in the dust, so I would still place this in fiction for middle grades, despite its slender size.

In the book, Gawain, a most honourable goose who has been appointed Chief Guard of the king's treasury, finds himself in a terrible bind when he brings some small discrepancies in the treasury's inventory to the attention of the king. The thefts continue, and he is accused, being the only one besides the king who has keys. The king doesn't want to believe this, but faced with the evidence, he brings Gawain to trial, and the goose is cooked, so to speak. He escapes, flying away, and then we meet the real thief, who had not really faced that he was stealing, exactly, only redecorating with the help of the treasure he had found his way to. When he sees his friend Gawain accused, he decides he must steal more so as to make the goose's innocence obvious. Accomplishing this, he then returns all that he has stolen, and sets out to find his friend, bring him home, and restore his honour.

The story is lovely, of course, sweet and simple, and the language beautiful. It would be a great early read-aloud, but do be prepared to answer lots of "what does that word mean?" questions along the way.

A Friendship for Today

2008-02-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

by Patricia C. McKissack

McKissack has written a book set in the 1954/5 school year, the year Kirkwood, MO, decided to integrate their schools. Rosemary is the only black girl from her school to go to the new integrated school, because her best friend contracts polio right before school starts, and is away all year receivng treatment. So she faces it alone, at times angry, at times, lonely, and she finds her way. She earns the respect of her classmates little by little, a few at a time, and even finds a most unlikely friend in another girl looked down on by many others - a former enemy, no less! along the way, she both teaches and learns.

As usual, I love a good story of friendship, and the notes of hope and determination in Rosemary's voice make it all the better as she vows to stick it out adn show everyone, as she promises to have belief in her friend's recovery, and as she takes care of a nearly-dead cat until she is quite fine again. The book is based on many of McKissack's own memories, and it rings very true. It doesn't exaggerate the difficulties of being the outsider, and may even skip over or downplay some iof the potential meanness, but it's a great read, a wonderful story, and all the richer for the endnote that tells the reader that the author is someone who lived it herself. Good stuff.