Great Spring Reads

2012 is shaping up to be a great year for Children's Literature! 

FOR TEENS

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews (14 & up)
Refreshingly humorous and poignant this book by first time author Jesse Andrews introduces us to the surprisingly lovable anti-hero Greg, whose only goal in life is to remain invisible. I could not stop laughing through the first two-thirds of this book. I loved the ending, but most of all, I loved Earl, Greg's only friend.

The 10 PM Question by Kate De Goldi (12 & up)
A friend traveled to New Zealand (where this book was originally published) and brought it back for me to read. She loved it, and I loved it, and now it has finally made it to our country! Alas, like many other great titles, this one is hard to describe - but in a nutshell it beautifully illustrates the love between friends, and between members of families that fall outside the narrow range of normal.




FOR MIDDLE GRADES (ya know - all those kids who read chapter books but aren't yet teens)

A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle (8-12)
Four generations of Irish women gallivant around town. Oh! And one of those ladies is a ghost. This book makes me wish I was Irish just so I could join in on their fun. Actually the situation, which revolves around a dying grandmother, isn't really fun, but with fantastic humorous dialogue Roddy Doyle (the author of The Commitments) makes you wish you were there.

Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger (8-12)
What can you do with a good fake mustache and a "man about town" suit? Oh, well if you are in 7th grade, you can take over the world. Or you could have taken over the world if your best friend and an actress from a cancelled pre-teen TV show hadn't gotten in your way. Actually, Fake Mustache is told from the point of view of the best friend, but I have to admit my sympathies lie with the mustache wearer. Like Anglebergers fantastic Origami Yoda series, this book is chock full of humor, but unlike Origami Yoda, it leaves reality far far behind.


FOR YOUNGINS

Betty Bunny Wants Everything by Michael Kaplan, illustrated by Stephane Jorisch (4-8)
Betty Bunny is like the Berenstain Bears with an artistic upgrade and a sharp edged sense of humor. Her books (of which there are now two) have morals, but Betty Bunny is a reluctant learner. In fact it could be argued she doesn't learn the moral at all. But the reader will learn the morals, even if the protagonist misses the big picture. Speaking of pictures, I LOVE the artwork, and I love the bunny family's sense of style.

Best Gifts of 2011!

My Favorite Gifts of 2011!

 Topsy-Turvy Stacking Blocks

by MoMA

Ages 1-5

These stacking blocks are different in that they balance at an angle, creating a fantastical topsy-turvy tower that toddlers will love to create (and destroy). What sets this set of stacking and balancing blocks apart are their bright colors, and their smaller shape, making them easier to stack and store.

Guess How Much I Love You Pop-Up Book

by Sam McBratney

illustrated by Anita Jeram

paper engineering by Corina Fletcher

Ages 3-99

A classic story is now available in a pop-up edition!

Lego Brickmaster Ninjagq

by Lego & DK publishers

Ages 6-99

The Lego Brickmaster series gives you a set of Legos combined with full-color book that shows you all their different combinations. Combine this with ninjas, and you get a toy that is sure to please!

shains

Recycled Bracelets

by shains

Ages 6-99

Shains are bracelets made of rubbery plastic that you can modify with your own
letters, symbols, & words! So much fun! They are a great gift for
boys and girls!

Watercolor Postcards Portable Studio

by Chronicle Books

Ages 13-99

A wonderful set for beginning artists and those on the go. The materials provided include high quality paints and paper, thus this is not a set for the younger child.

Best Young Adult Books of 2011!

My favorite Young Adult Books of 2011!

 Glow 

by Amy Kathleen Ryan

A suspenseful action/adventure novel set in the claustrophobic confines of two dueling spaceships in outer space. Black and white meld into ever confusing shades of gray as two groups of teens try to survive the consequences of their elders' past decisions and current desires. This book provides a lot of food for thought on the nature of power, gender, and religion, but it doesn't give you any answers. Be warned this is only the START of a trilogy, so you will be left hanging.

Shine

by Lauren Myracle

A young teen decides to face the dark underbelly of her small Southern town head on as she tries to solve the mystery of who beat her openly gay friend to the point of near death. I particularly loved how her need to help a friend ended up helping her overcome her own rape of two years prior. This book has a lot to say about sexuality, friendship, family, and drugs, but despite the heavy subject matter it is an engaging and adventurous read with unexpected turns and twists!

Where Things Come Back

by John Corey Whaley

This is a first novel from an author I'm sure we'll be hearing more from. Don't be fooled by the cover, this book has mature content and is definitely for teens! Sometimes publishers make artistic mistakes, fortunately the same cannot be said of the author. The book tells the story of a teen's struggles to make sense out of a summer of romantic pitfalls and a missing brother, while the town he lives in becomes a sort of avian Disneyland due to the supposed sighting of an extinct woodpecker. Trying to remain sane in a crazy world is a feeling most readers will identify with.

Good Book!

Dark Water

By Laura McNeal

The following is a shortened version of the dust jacket liner: Fifteen-year-old Pearl doesn't pay much attention to the migrant workers on her uncle's avocado grove...until Amiel. After coming across Amiel's makeshift hut near Agua Prieta Creek Pearl falls into a precarious friendship-and a forbidden romance. Then the wildfires strike. Pearl knows that Amiel is right in the path of the fire, so slipping away from safety and her family, Pearl moves toward the dark creek, where the smoke has become air, to warn him.

The dust jacket makes this National Book Award Finalist seem like a modern Romeo & Juliet with a climatic fiery ending. And I suppose it is, but yet it really isn't.  Pearl's relationship with Amiel is only half the story. The other half is her relationship with her family: her cousin, her aunt and uncle on whose charity she and her mother live, and her father, who left them. There is also the ever present but never discussed relationship between these (white) people and the dark-skinned, Spanish-speaking people who surround them. The fact that this difficult relationship is not openly discussed gives the book a depth that would have been lost had the author, Laura McNeal, decided she had an axe to grind. There is no preaching, there is simply a description of what is.

One of the things I love about this story is that Pearl makes no excuses for her behavior, or her feelings. Introspection is not one of her stronger personality traits (nor is it for her age group in general), and her lack of questioning oddly makes her likable. Unlike most of the human race, Pearl is a girl who knows what she wants; Pearl wants Amiel, even if she doesn't really know why.

Laura McNeal has written a number of other books with her husband Tom. Their books include Zipped, Crooked, Crushed, and my personal favorite The Decoding of Lana Morris. All of these books feature teenagers in love. Another common theme I've noticed has been parental infidelity. I haven't read every book they've written, but from the ones I've read it seems as though they cover serious issues (foster care, disabilities, homosexuality) through the lens of teen love.

Dark Water is different from their previous books, it was not written by Laura & Tom McNeal, it was written by Laura herself. And unlike their previous books, Dark Water is not so much a look at serious issues through the lens of teen love, but rather a look at teen love through the lens of serious issues. Amiel, Pearl's love, doesn't talk, he mimes. It was his miming that first drew her to him. He tells people he can't talk because of an accident, but later Pearl discovers the accident was his abusive grandfather choking him when he still lived in Mexico. So Amiel can't talk. That's a pretty serious issue: he was abused and now he has a permanent disability. Yet, Amiel's difficulty with speech makes the communication between Amiel and Pearl all the more interesting and endearing. And their communication, is the point of the story.

Watch out Vampyres, the Wolves are on the prowl!

When vampires, or excuse me vampyres overtook pirates (with the exception of the Vampirates series) I thought it would just be a phase. In 2008 I thought the vampires were heading into extinction with zombies coming in to take up the mantle. I was wrong. Don't get me wrong, the zombies came, and are still around, as are the faeries (gotta be cool, spelling it f-a-i-r-y would be a sure sign you hadn't been a book store for five years or more - but that said I've never been cool so from this moment on I'm going back to the fairy spelling). Vampyres are still around, and, these days, so are the wolves. Apparently the actor who played Isabella's werewolf boyfriend in the Twilight movie was hotter than her vampire true love. At least that is what I was told, I didn't see the film, and I haven't read the books. I know, shame on me. But don't worry, I've made up for my lack of Twilight reading by setting my eyes on numerous other vampire and mythical creature books. And lately I've fallen in love with the wolf.

To be clear, Dust City's fabulous wolven creatures are NOT werewolves. Dust City goes the fairyland route with humans, goblins, ravens, donkeys, wolves, and fairies occupying the same dirty sprawling metropolis. Except in Dust City the fairies have been killed, and what's left of their fairy dust is a rare drug, bought and sold on the black market, and highly addictive. Dust City practically opens up with a description of a saliva filled wolf kiss; this is not a book for the faint of heart, but it is a great book! My 12-year-old neighbor LOVED it, as did her mother. It has not yet become a top seller at the bookstore, but give it time, with word of mouth I am certain this title will spread all over our small town like the latest cold. It's a Blade Runner fairy tale, and is perhaps the most creative book that came out in 2010.

Red Moon Rising does have werewolves, and vampyres, and humans. All races have formed an uneasy alliance where they live and work next to each other, but not happily. Vampyres and humans are the elites, and the wolves are the poor & downtrodden. Essentially the story unfolds in a time of a civil rights battle and Dante (Danny), our 1/2 vampyre and 1/2 wolf hero would have a much easier time of it if his wolf side would disappear. Of course, that doesn't happen. In Red Moon Rising, author Peter Moore has created a world of with vampyres, werewolves, night-time high schools, lesbian best friends, first kisses, and equal rights rallies that is utterly familiar. In a somewhat disturbing way I think this book about werewolves gives one a better sense of the civil rights movement than most history tomes. Perhaps that is because most people don't read history tomes.

Great Gifts for the "NICE" present

All books are nice, or at least most books are nice, but some books are REALLY NICE. I'm thinking of beautifully illustrated books that you adore, but are usually too expensive for you to justify buying yourself. These books, these REALLY NICE books, are usually the ones that I lust after and dream about. These are also the books that make fabulous presents.

Sylvia Long's Mother Goose

For Ages 0 - 6

Spectacular illustrations make this Mother Goose set stand out from all the others. This is a wonderful book for families with young children.

Flight of the Reindeer

by Robert Sullivan

illustrated by Glenn Wolff

Ages 5 - 99

A fantastical romp through the "history of Santa! A joy to read for non-believers & believers of all ages!

Harry Potter : A Pop-Up Book

by Lucy Kee

illustrated by Andrew Williamson

Ages 8 - 99

A terrific gift for Potter fans, art lovers, & film buffs! Amazing pop-ups with info on Potter lore and cinematic visions on every page.

Shapeshifters

by Adrian Mitchell

illustrated by Alan Lee

Ages 10 - 99

Based on Ovid's Metamorphoses this glorious book of stories, ballads, & poems is sure to delight well-worn myth lovers and newer fans of the age-old tales as well.

Spooky Reads for Hallow's Eve 2010

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I enjoy the costumes. I wish I didn't enjoy the candy. But candy or no candy, the costumes, and carnival air of the evening are something I look forward to every year. One of the other things I enjoy about Halloween, is that everyone, regardless of your age, can enjoy the holiday. So for this blog post I've included books for each age range. Enjoy!

Ages 14 & UP

Fat Vampire by Adam Rex

If you were a fifteen year old boy you might have dreams of a hot sexy vampire chick turning you, and romantically living happily ever after with super vampire powers. But that of course, would be a fantasy. What might really happen is that you get attacked one night by half crazed schoolmate who could care less who he attacked, and you end up fat and fifteen forever. This of course is what happened to Doug. Fat and fifteen, Doug now has to feed on blood, but has no idea of how to get it. He isn't a murderer, animals are kinda hard to catch, and robbing blood banks isn't as easy as one might think.

In Adam Rex's hands Doug, the fat vampire, seems like a lot of the kids you went to high school with. He wants to be cool, he wants the new foreign exchange student to like him, he wants to be a popular kid. But he isn't, and as Adam Rex wisely points out towards the end of the book, sometimes he isn't even nice.

Adam Rex is the author of one of my all time favorite books, The True Meaning of Smekday. Smekday is a super funny read for kids 10 to 14. Fat Vampire is for an older crowd, but the humor is still there, it is just darker. There is a gloomy hilarity that pervades this high school fantasy. The gloom, oddly, makes the story seem all the more realistic. Don't expect a happy ending, but expect a rewarding one.

Ages 10 to 14
Weenie Series: In the Land of the Weenies, Invasion of the Road Weenies, The Curse of the Campfire Weenies, The Battle of the Red Hot Pepper Weenies 
by David Lubar
David Lubar writes funny, off beat short stories, that frequently have unexpected or surprise fantastical endings. For example, there is the Thanksgiving when the vegetarian relatives come to visit. The house is attacked by monster turkeys who go after the vegetarians because they taste better. Or there is the kid who secretly meets up with his Internet friend, who turns out not to be a 12-year-old, but an adult man. That is fine with the kid who then lets loose his fangs and attacks. In Mr. Lubar's hands these little tales take up more than two sentences each, they usually they run three to five pages.

David Lubar's short stories are quirky mixtures of science fiction and typical middle class American life. His protagonists are children, typically from 7 to 17 years of age. His tales read like urban legends, and maybe that is where they came from; they stick in your head and make you smile  & shiver at the oddest times. His tales can be creepy, and scary. They are perfect Halloween reading!

Ages 6 to 10
Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night
by Joyce Sidman
illustrated by Rick Allen
COOL BOOK! Fantastic illustrations. Using linoleum cuts illustrator Rick Allen has created amazing visions of the natural world at night time. Each complex and lyrical illustration accompanies an equally lyrical poem describing a life form within the illustration. Some of the poems rhyme, some do not, but they each create a feeling of darkness and life. The poems and illustrations are the heart of the book, but along the right hand border of each set there is a paragraph with a literal retelling of all the poem describes. In a typical book I would say that the paragraphs are scientific expansions of the poem, but they don't read like science, they read like a story of their own.

For example there is the first poem, Welcome to the Night, the first stanza begins:

"To all of you who crawl and creep,
who buzz and chirp and hoot and peep....."

On the same page there is a colored linoleum cut of a Raccoon washing it's hands with the sun setting behind it. The adjoining page has a larger illustration with a dappled curling, gnarled oak. A raccoon is climbing down the tree and pale flocks of birds are flying past in the background. Faintly you can see a deer peeping it's head over the grasses and looking directly at you. There is a log in the foreground, almost covered with grasses and, mushrooms and flowers. A mouse peeks out of the grass in front of the log, a snail climbs down a leaf on the left, and a newt hides behind a blade of grass to the right. Meanwhile, in the grasses, there is a spider weaving a web. To the right of this illustration is a paragraph, which begins:

"As night falls, the nocturnal world wakes. Mice begin to stir, moths flutter into the starlight, and deer step out from hidden places to roam and forage...."

This is the most beautiful picture book I have seen this year.

Ages 3 to 6
Frank was a Monster who Wanted to Dance by Keith Graves
Keith Graves is one of my favorite author & illustrators of books. His Three Nasty Gnarlies (now sadly out of print) is one of my all time favorites. He has a new book, Chicken Big, which is quite funny, but as it is not for Halloween, we'll talk about it another time. What I will tell you about right now is Frank, who was a monster who wanted to dance! A monster dancing, how cute! And Frank is very cute, at least at first.  But in the course of his dancing his brain flops out of his head, and as he keeps dancing his body keeps disintegrating. Frank is okay with his disintegration, he is just happy he can dance. Frank was a Monster who Wanted to Dance is actually kinda gross, but it is a fun sort of gross, perfect for Halloween!

Ages 1 to 3
Halloween Lift-the-Flap Shadow Book by Priddy Books
Those of you who are avid readers of this blog (mom I'm looking at you!) may remember that I am, in general, a big fan of Priddy Books. Bright pictures, high quality binding, and low price tags - what's not to like? At $8.99 Halloween Lift-the-Flap is not really low priced, but despite the lack of creativity in the title, the book is worth it. The cover is sparkly and shiny with a evil red spider looking up at you from it's spider web. The inside pages are mostly two - toned, black and white, sometimes black and purple, always black and something.  But when you lift the flaps you get COLOR! A photo of a skull and crossbones with a chartreuse green background, a photo of tarantula against bright orange, the contrasts POP!

Here is a more detailed description of one of the books inside pages:
There is a black shadow of a tree against a white background (some sparkly stars thrown along the base for fun). In the middle of the tree trunk is a circle with two big eyes. Above and below the circle are the words:
"Who HOOTS in the DARK wood?"
The circle is a flap, you lift it, and there is the photo of an owl head with bright orange eyes looking right at you! In orange print, on the backside of the flap is the word "Owl".

The flaps are paper, which can easily be torn. If your child is a page ripper, you may want to hold off on this one, but if your little one can handle tearable flaps, this book would be an excellent addition to your Halloween shelf.

Ages 0 to 2

Little Bat Finger Puppet Book by Chronicle Books

Puppets are fun! This small board book has a circle cut into each page through which you stick your finger into a little bat puppet. It's little black head, with pointing ears and a round grey nose, moves with a surprisingly mouse-like realism as you wiggle your finger while turning the pages. Each page had approximately three words on it, the book as a whole consists of five sentences describing the little bat flying through the night. The illustrations are high contrast and simple, perfect for newborns and youngsters!

Summer Hand Sales

Hand selling is a bookseller term for when we direct customers to a particular title that we like. In truth it is done automatically, when you work in a bookstore, you like books, and if a customer asks for recommendations you do your best to help them. Lately I found that I have been hand selling two titles that I haven't blogged about! They are both great new summer reads, one romance and one science fiction thriller.

First the romance:

The Half-Life of Planets by Emily Franklin & Brendan Halpin

This teen summer romance is written in the he said / she said format with the alternate authors writing alternate chapters from different characters point of view. I admit that this is one of my favorite formats for character driven books; it is easy to read and it keeps stories interesting where books written in straight linear formats often get bogged down somewhere in the middle. There is no bogging in The Half-Life of Planets.

Liana is an aspiring scientist from a well-off unhappy family. Hank is an aspiring musician from a not-so-well-off unhappy family. Oh, and Hank has Asperger's, a form of Autism that is not so severe that he cannot interact, but does interfere with his ability to relate to other teenagers, and it makes his musical aspirations seem more like obsessions. Actually it was his Asperger's that first drew Liana to Hank. She met him in a women's bathroom and thought he must be mature because he didn't seem embarrassed. Hank wasn't embarrassed, he wouldn't think that one would need to be embarrassed if they were found in a women's bathroom...

Liana knows Hank is different, but she doesn't know why, and for much of the book she doesn't know WHAT is wrong with him. It is an interesting plot device. The Half-Life of Planets is a classic teen romance, with a twist, and it is lots of fun!

Now for the Action:

Dark Life by Kat Falls

Much of the continents have fallen into the sea, forcing humanity to cram into cities that grow higher and higher. Space becomes valuable and unattainable, inspiring some to colonize the sea. These colonists live in fantastic undersea jelly houses and farm the ocean floor. But no one knows yet how living undersea will affect humans, or how to stop a gang of raiders from attacking the colonist's homesteads.

Ty, the first child raised undersea, is desperate to hide the powers he is developing. Gemma, a topsider, is searching for her only family, a long-lost brother who was last known to be an ocean miner. Together they try to outwit the raiders and save their families.

The adventure keeps you turning the pages, but in truth it is Kat Falls' utterly believable and super techno cool creation of an undersea wild-west-world that makes Dark Life fantastic!

Woo Hoo New Books!

Every month (well, almost every month) I get to bring in new books to the childrens' section. Opening a box of new childrens' books is like candy for me, and this month's candy is particularly delicious. So I'm sharing some of the tastiest treats with you here.

Nomansland

by Lesley Hague

While not a suspenseful page turner, Nomansland is a succinct vivid tale that will stay with you forever. Nomansland tells the story of Keller, a young woman training to be a tracker in a future society where men are not allowed, meaning male babies are not permitted. Women rule the land (an island) with a cold iron fist; societal jobs are prescribed at an early age, deviation is not allowed, and names ending in "i" or "y" are illegal.  No Mandi,  Tracy, or Brandi will be found in Nomansland, because those names are symbols of the past, when women were weak, and when the world was nearly destroyed. The trackers are the warriors of this society, the strongest, the hardest, the best. But when a group of trainee trackers, including Keller, discover an old house, hidden under bushes and vines, and filled with alluring glossy magazines showing pictures of women with bright red lips and strange shoes, their faith in the culture of Nomansland is destroyed, and their lives are endangered. The final climax to Nomansland is heart-pounding, and the images it creates are so vivid, you won't be able to get them out of your head.

Still Sucks To Be Me

by Kimberly Pauley

In an unusual twist I like a SEQUEL BETTER than an original. In Sucks to be Me Mina has to decide if she wants to be a vampire and keep her family, but then loose her best friend. She chose the vampire route, and in Still Sucks to be Me the real adventures begin! Her family is relocated (expected) to a small southern town with EVIL vampires (ooohhh). Mina's vampire boyfriend is out of town, and one of the cute evil vamps takes a liking to her, and well, shenanigans abound...A great summer read!

The Ultimate Organizer for Moms : Pregnancy Through Year Five

By Tabori Fried

If I had this book when I was pregnant with Oscar, I might have kept better track of things. This is a combination of a typical baby book, with spots to place pictures, but it also works as a calendar where you can write in doctor's appointments and play dates, and it has folders on the front and back covers to store relevant papers. Basically it is the best baby book I have yet seen.

What Really Happened to Humpty?

by Joe Dumpty as told to Jeanie Franz Ransom

illustrated by Stephen Axelsen

"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

Humpty Dumpty was pushed.

At least I think so. Who am I? I'm Joe Dumpty, Humpty's younger brother."

A hard boiled detective picture book filled with Mother Goose's offspring. Who can resist?

Ten Black Dots

by Donald Crews

The most creative counting book I've seen in a long time. The black dots increase in number while the pictures behind them change. " One dot can make a sun, or a moon when the day is done."

Weather : a Lift-the-Flap Book

by Pippa Shaw

illustrated by Andrew Grey

based on the works of A.A. Milne and the artwork of E.H. Shepard

I'm a fan of Pooh Bear, and this new board book does the Pooh justice. The artwork is fabulous, the words are simple & sweet, and the focus on weather is fun!

Spring Reads

I've been off the computer for much of the last two months, so I apologize for the lack of new posts to this site. But, my time away from the computer has allowed me to spend much more time READING. And I've discovered some new gems to share with you.

Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow

A great many wonderful books for reluctant readers have been published in the last couple years, but the majority seem to be geared towards the male reader. I'm not sure why this is? Although I would love to believe that females are superior at everything, I have a hard time believing that there are no females who read reluctantly.

Well now reluctant female readers have a spectacular book to curl up with! In fact, this is a book for avid readers as well. Amy Ignatow's popularity papers takes the form a  journal put together by two best friends - there are lots of pictures (that tell the story rather than illustrate it) and the entries from the different friends are in different ink colors and fonts (one is cursive)! There is definitely text in the book, but you don't go much more than three paragraphs without some seriously colorful illustrations.

While the idea of the Popularity Papers is cute and humorous (two best friends trying to discover the secret to popularity), what really makes this book stand out is Amy Ignatow's ability to create fully fleshed out, beautifully human characters with just a couple sentences and an illustration. The book is funny, but there is an underlying depth and truth to characters and interactions that is rare in books of this genre. Actually I can't remember the last time I read a book in which EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER has rounded edges. Even Graceling, the book I will rave about later in this post has some one-dimensional characters in it. What Amy Ignatow has managed to do, in a book for 8 to 12-year-olds, is truly unique. She is a talent to watch.

Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror by Jennifer Finney Boylan

Falcon Quinn is a good, fun read, with action, adventure, and plot twists that actually take a reader by surprise. Falcon Quinn is a young boy who, with many others, attends a monster academy. But no one, not even the teachers, know just what kind of monster Falcon is. Although Falcon's monster mystery hardly matters as the monster teachers seem to be trying to squash all the monsterness out of their monster students. Readers will learn just how many different kinds of monsters there are; did you know there are monster slugs? Go figure!

You aren't going to discover the meaning of life while reading Falcon, but you are going to enjoy the book, and if you are like me you will be quite anxious to read the sequel. This is a good start to a fun series for 10 - 14-year-olds.

The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz

Imagine you just won the Newbery for your book of poems about the middle ages. You are guaranteed to be used in classrooms for decades to come, teachers are going to remember your name. So, what do you write next? A small chapter book about an injured fairy would not have been my first guess, but it works!

The Night Fairy is a handsome little tale that will be well loved by girls and boys from 6 to about 11 for years to come. An excellent follow-up to medieval poetry!

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger

I sweated over the staff pick I wrote for this book (it hangs in front of the book in the store). I wrote two different picks, one was just too pretentious and one called the book sweet, which was guaranteed to drive any 11 to 13-year-old boy away. I ended up throwing the first two picks away and posting:

Hilarious!

Sweet!

Original!

                        Unique!

                        I love it!

Basically I wimped out. And I did use the word "sweet", but I figure the exclamation mark makes it a little more palatable.

I used the word "sweet" to describe The Strange Case of Origami Yoda because it is sweet. Many books about middle-schoolers, including the justifiably famous, best-seller Diary of a Wimpy Kid, focus on the cruel nastiness that kids live with and often perpetrate on a daily basis. Middle School can be rough, but the not all kids are mean, and they don't have to be. In Origami Yoda the dorkiest, least understandable kid turns out to be the coolest one - and that is sweet. Not all the kids are mean to him, even though they do think he is a dork, and that is also sweet. And outside of all this sweetness, it is also a funny, easy read, that I actually like better than the justifiably famous, best-selling Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

The Agency : A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee

The Agency is a mystery set in Victorian England. It isn't a bad mystery, but the mystery is not what makes The Agency special. Part of what makes The Agency special is that it is about a spy agency made up of only WOMEN; could a spy agency of only women existed in Victorian England? Probably not, but that is okay, we can suspend disbelief for this book. The other part of what makes The Agency special is the dual identity of it's main character, she is an orphan who is 1/2 Chinese but is trying to pass as all white. The book has mystery and romance, which I would expect, but the conflicting cultures of a bi-racial female Victorian spy - I admit to never having seen this theme in a young adult mystery book before, and I am intrigued. Another bonus to the Agency is that it appeals to a broad age range, kids from 10 to 17 will enjoy the book.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

I would not have thought a fantasy about gifted assassin would the best book I've read in the last year. In fact if everyone else hadn't raved about this book I might not have even picked it up. But I did pick it up, and I couldn't put it down. And now I seem oddly disappointed in all other young adult fantasies I read. Nothing is as good as Graceling. Graceling is violent, it has numerous adult themes, and it is fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. I highly recommend it to anyone over the age of 14, and it is good reading for mature 12-year-olds as well.

Nation - The Book of the Week

Last year I wrote a review for Terry Pratchett's young adult novel Nation. I loved it. I still love it, I love it so much that I can't figure out what to say about it for a staff review in the store. Now you can love it too, for 20% off. This week's Book of the Week is Nation!

Book of the Week - Sucks to be Me

Vampires are hot. I suppose we have Twilight to thank for this, but other vampire books have caught on as well; Vampire Academy, Vampire Kisses, the Morganville Vampires. Curiously sales of Dracula have not picked up, but I guess that is just too traditional, there are no jean-wearing teen vamps in Dracula.

I have not read all the vampire books. And truthfully, I don't want to. Vampire sex is something I can do without, thank you very much! And, well, I'm not a teenager, so I don't really understand how pale skin and sucking blood is cool. Clearly, I was never cool in school. I'm okay with sex in teen books. I find it interesting that there is so much sex in teen books, but it is part of their lives, and I don't believe authors should act as though it doesn't exist. That said, a lot of the teen books are essentially romance teen trash (with sex), and I'm not such a fan of trash. Of course my trash is other people's general fiction - it is all a matter of taste.

There is one vampire book I do like - Sucks to be Me by Kimberly Pauley. This book takes off with the assumption that Vampires are cool, but then throws that on it's head by having very normal (thus uncool) parents be vampires. The main character must decide if she wants to be a vampire like her parents. The pros are that she could live forever and look hot (vampires ARE more attractive than mere mortal humans). The cons are that she would have to move and would never be able to see her best friend again. It isn't an easy choice, but with Kimberly Pauley telling the story, watching the main character decide is entirely entertaining.

And so, our book of the week this week is Sucks to be Me, where uncool vampires can be surprisingly cool.

Food For Thought

When is a YA book, not for Young Adults?

The bookseller's definition of young adult, is a bit of a misnomer. The category typically refers to books written for kids who are 12 - 17 years old, though wikipedia defines the age range as 13 - 19. A 12-year-old is definitely NOT an adult, but is a 17-year-old? Most 17-year-olds still live with their parents, they can't vote, they cannot legally drink alcohol, but they can drive. When I think of young adults I think of 20-year-olds, I don't usually think of high school students. But in bookselling, a young adult is a high school student.

So what should a high school student read? Well, if you look at the books assigned to them in school, they should be reading adult literature and non-fiction. The Grapes of Wrath, The Iliad, The Catcher in the Rye (which IS probably a YA book, but categorized as adult literature), Into the Wild, etc. Recognizing that the books "young adults" read for school are for adults, it shouldn't be surprising that the books written for their age range are filled with adult topics; sex, love, drugs, redemption. But where is the line, when is the topic so adult that the books are no longer for young adults, but simply about them?

I'm thinking of this because of the book Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. It is a YA book with a cover that seems to be geared towards middle grade readers. I haven't read the book, but I've read reviews. I know that in the book a girl is repeatedly raped by her father, forced to have abortions in the third trimester, and gang-raped by villagers. This is a YA novel?

Tender Morsels has won a number of awards:

WINNER 2008 - Booklist Children's Editors' Choice

WINNER 2008 - School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

WINNER 2008 - Horn Book Fanfare

WINNER 2008 - Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Books

WINNER 2008 - Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book

WINNER 2008 - Amazon Best of the Year (I almost deleted this one)

I haven't read this book yet, but I will; I don't understand how it is for kids, but I can't say it isn't until I have read it.

Here is a link to an excellent review in the Sci Fi Weekly.

13 Reasons Why - the Cover Sells the Book

Two years ago I was doing an order for children's books from Penguin. Th1rteen R3asons Why was listed as a new book from their cool teen publishing division, with an intriguing little description. I can't share the initial description I saw, as that catalogue was thrown into recycling long ago, but it inspired me to ask the rep if she would send me an advance readers copy so I could review it and see if would be good for the store.

She sent me an advance copy, I read it, and I didn't know what to think. The book is about a likable girl, who moved to a new school, had some unfortunate experiences, and decided to kill herself. But before she takes her life she makes an audio recording of why she has decided to kill herself and sends it to one of the people she thinks caused her suicide, with instructions to listen and send it on to the next person she thinks caused her suicide. I wasn't sure I liked the story, but I was pretty sure it would sell (sadly teen suicide is almost a guaranteed sale) so I got a copy for the store. We have since sold 33 copies of Th1rteen R3asons Why in hardcover- not bad for a small town bookstore that serves of community of less than 10,000.

There is no staff pick for the book, I'm still not sure I like it, and it hasn't gotten any special treatment except that if I can, I'll face it out on the shelf, but the book sells. It sells because of the cover, there is something about a beautiful teen, wearing a pink knit hat, a pink sweater, a frilly scarf, a frilly skirt, and high heels with sheer socks sitting on a swing that make people pick up the book. Did I mention that there are bows on her high heels? Well there are bows on her high heels. Never mind that the main character of the book continually refers to her jeans, jeans don't sell a book, high heels with bows, those sell (apparently).

You see, I'm annoyed with myself, because I too find the cover appealing. It is just that when I look at the cover closely and I see how ridiculous it is (who wears high heels and sheer socks to a playground, or even to high school?) I wonder why, why is it appealing? I guess the truth is that pretty girls sell, and the girl on this cover is pretty, and not dressed like a prostitute (as a great many other pretty girls on book covers are).

In truth the cover doesn't sell the book on it's own, the cover only gets people to pick up the book. It is the intriguing concept of a teenager leaving audio tapes to all the people she thinks caused her suicide that sell the book. Jay Asher, the author, should be congratulated for coming up with a great plot line. Never mind that I wanted the throw the book against the wall when I was done; it is still a good plot line.

Ultimately I didn't like the book because I could not forgive the main character for killing herself for such STUPID reasons. But I am an adult. I gave the book to a teenage co-worker and her friend, and they both loved it. The teenagers loved the book, and thought the adults the book described were total jerks; I didn't really see what any adult did that was wrong. If nothing else the book is an excellent discussion starter, if a teen and their parent read it together, it would be GREAT. I'm not sure how many adults are going to read this with their teenagers, but still I comfort myself that if they do, it would be good for their relationship.

I can moralize that the book never really shows the heartbreak her suicide caused her family, but that isn't the point. The point of the story is that if you are a teenager, your interactions with your friends mean a lot, and you should be careful of how you treat others. It's not a bad point, I'm still not sure I like the book, but Jay Asher does have a point. The combination of a good cover and a good point sure do sell a lot of books.

Moving onto the Irish!

(An Irish Castle, A Russian Castle, and A French Castle)

Well, I've loaned out my book of Russian Fairytales, so lately I've been reading my fetus Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland, by Jeremiah Curtin. I like the Irish tales, lots of humans turning into animals in the daylight, only to return to their man form (and their wives) at night. Also, I wonder if the Irish ever had daughters that didn't come in threes.

Speaking of three sisters, this morning I read an Irish tale that was suspiciously like a Russian tale I read some weeks ago, both of which are suspiciously like Cinderella. In the Russian tale there are three sisters, the youngest of whom is not allowed to go to church with the older two. One church-day morning she is crying into a well, when a magical fish takes pity on her, and grants her the finest clothes to go to church in. Well, all the church men are smitten of course, and as she leaves after church one grabs her shoe, and the hunt is on for the woman it fits...

In the Irish tale there are three sisters, the youngest of whom is not allowed to go to church with the older sisters. A henwife with a cloak of darkness gives her a dress, a horse, and shoes and off to church she goes, leaving as all else arise from mass. The next church day she is given a different outfit and a different horse, and escapes before the other church-goers leave the building. The third church day she is given yet another set of clothes and another horse, but the prince (who previously had wanted to marry her oldest sister) waits outside the church and grabs her shoe as she is riding away. So of course we then have the hunt for the woman who fits the shoe, but this time when she is found the prince must battle all the other princes of the world for her. They then marry, and she has a child. She invites her oldest sister to the castle to help her recover from labor, and her sister pushes her into the ocean where she is swallowed by an enchanted whale. Each day the whale vomits her onto the beach, but she cannot escape without the princes help, so she gets a young boy minding cows (the cowboy) to tell the Prince of her plight, and the Prince comes and shoots the whale with a silver bullet in a special place under the whale's fin, thus freeing the Irish Cinderella. As punishment the evil sister is put out at sea in a barrel with provisions for seven days. The Irish Cinderella gives birth to a daughter who is promised to the cowboy as a wife. Ta Da!

The Irish Cinderella tale was pulled from Gaelic in the late 1800s, the Russian Cinderella was recorded in the mid 1800s. It was Perrault's French version of Cinderella (from the late 1600s) that inspired the currently popular Disney version of the tale. All I can say is that people traveled a lot before the advent of airplanes.

Here is a fun website, discussing the Cinderella myths, and the tragedy of the feminist ideal they support: http://www.kstrom.net/isk/stories/cinder2.html . This website made me realize that maybe Drew Barrymore was trying to do something real when she re-wrote and made a Cinderella movie where Cinderella saves herself. I do have to give kudos to the Irish version, the Irish Cinderella makes the decision that the cowboy should have her daughter, and the Prince husband can do nothing to change it.

Anyway, I think my fetus and are going to be enjoying the Irish Fairytales for a while. The translation is superb, the stories flow beautifully with a delightful almost random whimsy. AND so far there hasn't been any spousal abuse! (Their has been child abuse as one Woodcutter traded all his three daughters for their weight in gold, but their animal/human husbands treated them well). Also, no one other than evil magical beings has yet to die. I guess Ireland was more politically correct than Russia.

And in line with modern fairytales let me mention one of my favorite young adult authors, Robin McKinley, who has not only created fantastic new tales with books like The Hero and the Crown and (my personal favorite) The Blue Sword, but has also done some decent fairytale retellings with books like Beauty. She is really great, I mean even her description of herself (stolen from her blog) is great:

"I am a writer. Mostly I write fantasy: wizards, dragons, enchanted swords, retold fairy tales and, er, vampires. Mostly my stories feature Women Who Do Things, as opposed to women who sit around waiting to be rescued by guys, or who aren’t in the story at all because the story is conspicuously about not sitting around. Most of my stories are so-called High Fantasy, laid in various la-la-la never-never lands, although I’ve written a few that are happening somewhere similar to this world with additional bugs/features, and I like being able to say I also write Low Fantasy. Mwa ha ha ha ha ha."

As I've been writing this post I've enjoyed listening to Irish fiddle & guitar music on http://www.pandora.com/ , if you haven't visited their site it is a MUST. Fantastic music from all over the world, and it's FREE!