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By: Monica Zepeda,
on 7/24/2016
Title: Eden West Author: Pete Hautman Publisher: Candlewick Publication Date: April 14, 2015 ISBN-13: 978-0763674182 320 pp. ARC provided by publisher This is a book that could be confused for dystopia at first glance. Jacob lives in the community of Nodd, home to the people known as the Grace. Their prophet, who has a penchant for young wives, says that the Grace will be spared when
Best YA and Middle-Grade novels selected by Pete Hautman. His latest book is Eden West, the story of a boy growing up in an isolated doomsday cult in Montana.
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This year’s winners of the Los Angeles Los Angeles Times Book Prizes have been revealed, celebrating the best books of the year.
Below, we’ve linked to free samples of the award-winning books for your reading pleasure. The winners were revealed at ceremony on Friday.
GalleyCat covered the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books all weekend. The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman told us how to pitch a comic book to publishers and three nonfiction writers shared The Only 3 Pieces of Writing Advice You Will Ever Need to Read.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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By: Kimberly Pauley,
on 1/10/2012
What am I reading now? The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman
For your reading pleasure, I present The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
The Book Thief
One of my absolute favourite quotes comes from Cornelia Funke‘s Inkheart:
Some books should be tasted,
some devoured,
but only a few should be
chewed and thoroughly digested.
The Book Thief, without a doubt, falls into the latter category. From the opening pages of the prologue it was clear that this book needed to be savoured. And that’s exactly what I did.
Now, I could discuss at length all that I loved about The Book Thief but I’m not going to do that. Instead, I’m going to offer you a glimpse. Why? Because this is a book best experienced as it rests in your hands.
The narrator is Death. That’s what struck me immediately. Death’s tone, pace and honesty. His tone is solemn. His pace is steady. His honesty is brutal. Death isn’t cruel but, for the lack of a better word, human. How can that be? Well, because he feels. Though he may resist at times, he feels the same as you and me.
It’s not hard to tell that the responsibility that rests solely in Death’s hands weighs on him. But this isn’t his only job. He also sets out to tell the story of Liesel Meminger. The reader recognizes instantly that he takes this task just as seriously. You hear it through the compassion in his voice and the fondness in his recollections. Death no longer wields a scythe but simply his two hands.
My advice when it comes to The Book Thief is to take your time. There’s a lot to ingest and digest. But, believe me, it’s worth it.
By: Trisha, Gayle, and Jolene,
on 1/24/2011
Shayne Blank looked like a “middle-school bad boy picked up for shoplifting.”
He wasn’t.
Shayne was actually sixteen, at the police station to confess to killing someone. Detective George Rawls usually handled cases involving teenagers, so five minutes before his shift ended, he was handed Shayne’s case.
While Shayne tells his story to Rawls, Mikey Martin tells us his version of the same events. Mikey is the shortest junior at Wellstone High, and the first student to meet Shayne. He was with Shayne when Jon Brande gave Mikey a paper bag and told him to hold onto it for a little while. Mikey didn’t want it—he knew Jon dealt drugs—and when he heard rumors of locker searches and drug sniffing dogs, he got rid of the bag. Only Jon demanded it back, and if Mikey couldn’t return it, then he wanted monetary compensation. Mikey can’t afford to pay Jon, and Shayne quickly became involved in their dispute. But what exactly happened after that and what is Shayne confessing?
Blank Confession gets off to an intriguing start and stays tense from beginning to end. Not unrelentingly so, but in a way that still makes you keep turning pages, curious and unsure of what will happen next. It’s easy to see why Blank Confession made YALSA’s 2011 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers list. While Pete Hautman keeps the story fast-paced, he does take his time letting the story itself develop; we don’t find out right away whom Shayne claims to have killed, or why. Instead, he starts at the beginning, with Shayne’s arrival in school and how he became entangled with Mikey’s problems. Shayne himself is just as big a mystery as the events he and Mikey describe, and it is partly this that keeps the story compelling while we wait to find out about the crime Shayne claims to have committed.
Hautman uses an alternating narrative to great effect in Blank Confession. The chapters are short, with Mikey’s chapters picking up where Rawls’ questioning of Shayne leaves off and vice versa. Mikey’s chapters are written in first-person and the chapters with Rawls and in the interview room are written in third-person from Rawls’ point-of-view, but in both cases, we never get into Shayne’s head. We know only what Mikey and Rawls observe, and what Shayne wants them to know. It makes for a fascinating interplay between what Mikey actually sees happening and what Shayne is—or isn’t—telling Rawls.
Because of this, I thought Hautman wrapped things up a bit too tidily and conveniently. It was nice to have the major questions answered, but I didn’t need as many answers as Hautman provided. On the other hand, I know there are readers who will be pleased by this and find the ending satisfying.
Book source: public library.
Cross-posted at Guys Lit Wire.
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By: Gillian Philip,
on 8/17/2010
I'm going to apologise in advance because this will be short, and much of it is based on this post from Pete Hautman, which is an incredibly interesting account of another author being 'uninvited' from a teen literary festival, and how Pete Hautman himself withdrew in solidarity. It isn't just the post that's interesting but the comment thread (I love it when a comment thread is smart and fascinating instead of just abusive).
The reason this is rushed and half-stolen (bear with me while I explain my tortuous train of thought) is because I've just arrived at the Edinburgh Book Festival, which is just as fabulous as always. Anyway, my new book FIREBRAND was published just in time to be on the shelves, and will be launched here at an event on the 27th, so I took the chance to vandalise some copies with a signature or ten. As I was doing this, along came a curious 9-year-old, who wanted to know if she could read the book. And since I won't let my own 9-year-olds read it, I said I didn't think that was a good idea. (Which wasn't that virtuous, actually. I sold one to her older brother and said she could read his copy in a few years.) But the point is that my (many would say underdeveloped) sense of responsibility did actually overcome my commercial instincts. I think all YA/teen authors would say the same. Wouldn't we?
This brings me back to Pete Hautman's post. I was uninvited once. I'd been asked to speak to primary pupils - just about the business of writing, and what was involved in doing it for a living, and how I went about it. I'd already explained that my work wasn't suitable for younger children, and they'd understood that, and agreed I'd simply talk about being a writer, and the invitation stood. But then they panicked. What would the parents say if they googled me? So the invitation was withdrawn at the last minute.
I'm still not sure how I feel about that, and I'd love to know what anyone else's perspective would be. I sympathise with the nervousness about a pack of angry parents; but I can't help feeling they were confusing me and the writing profession with my characters and storylines. Are we simply not trusted if we address certain issues in our work? Should organisers capitulate to a vocal minority (or even the prospect of them?)
Answers on a postcard, or possibly the comment box. And now I had better get this posted...
By: David Elzey,
on 6/4/2010
by Pete Hautman Simon & Schuster 2004 A teen boy questions religion by playfully inventing one of his own based on a water tower, but things get out of hand as everyone who participates views the new religion differently. This is a book I've started several times over the last three years and only now finally managed to read it straight through. It's no fault of the book or its author, I've
By: Laura Purdie Salas,
on 11/16/2007
Mary Logue is a award-winning Minnesota writer of adult novels, children's novels, and poetry. She taught the very first class I took at the Loft Literary Center. Now she and her partner, National Book Award-winning Pete Hautman (how's that for a powerhouse writing couple...geez!) live and sometimes write together (see their Bloodwater mystery middle grade series).
Anyway, I love Mary's poetry. Her first collection that I was aware of, was Discriminating Evidence. Recently, I came across a new collection called Meticulous Attachment.
This book had lots of wonderful poems in it. Here's one of my very favorites.
Chrysalis
The end result is
a jewel of a house,
lime-green capsule
dotted with gold leaf,
but the resignation
with which it's done
makes me think there's pain
involved: the last desperate
munching of milkweed leaves,
the search for the solid branch,
the meticulous attachment.
The caterpillar swings free
and hangs upside down
in a question mark.
I can almost hear it wonder--
why am I doing this?
As the body splits,
it shrugs out of its skin
to hang--green teardrop--
in wide open space,
waiting for wings.
---Mary Logue
Great metaphor for writing, too, was my first thought. I love the jewel of a house, the desperate munching, and that gorgeous final line.
The roundup is at Big A little a today!
By: Kate Messner,
on 6/18/2007
If you write for young people, consider this LJ post a big, fat thank you note (virtual chocolates and ice cream, too). I just finished reading my 7th graders' final exams. I ask them to write an essay reflecting on how they've grown as readers, writers, and human beings this year. Here's a quote from K...
"In the beginning of the year, I didn't like to read at all. But then my teacher showed me all these books that were for me, and I couldn't stop reading."
Books that were for her. Written just for her. Or at least it felt that way. She went on to talk about Sonya Sones, Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Nancy Werlin -- voices that spoke to her over the past ten months.
And K wasn't the only one who named names as she reflected on books that made a difference this year. My kids talked about finding themselves in the characters of Pete Hautman, Janet Tashjian, Jack Gantos, Laurie Halse Anderson, Lisa Yee, Sharon Creech, Jerry Spinelli, Wendelin Van Draanen, David Lubar, Cynthia Kadohata, Mal Peet, and Walter Dean Myers. They wrote about being challenged by M.T. Anderson, Richard Preston, and Markus Zusak. They wrote fondly about escaping into the worlds of Margaret Peterson Haddix, Christopher Paolini, and JK Rowling. And they reflected on walking a mile in someone else's shoes as they read Gene Luen Yang, Cynthia Lord, Will Hobbs, Jennifer Roy, and Joseph Bruchac.
I write for kids. I know that some days, it feels like you're alone with your computer, and even your computer doesn't like you very much. So I thought I'd share K's reflection on her year of reading. We all need to realize when we write, we're writing for someone important. Someone like K, who's waiting for a book that's just for her, just for him.
If you write for kids, that's the work you're doing every day. You may never get to read the end-of-the-year essays, but you should know that you make a difference, and you're appreciated.
By: Jennie,
on 5/22/2007
POPCORN!
10 points to anyone who gets that.
Keeping with the theme of random, here are some books I haven't reviewed yet. That's today's theme. I really need to catch up. I didn't start keeping notes until January and I'm still facing a backlog since September, so these are kinda short, because my memory isn't that long. Still, you get the last impression of a book. OK-- I've started writing this post. The "theme" has been narrowed a wee bit. These are all YA books that I liked. Not shout-from-the-roof-tops-love, but really enjoyed and liked.
By: Leila Roy,
on 1/18/2007
It's the mid-2070s, and the United States has changed. It's not the USA anymore, for one thing. It's the USSA -- United Safer States of America. People are encouraged to wear helmets when they walk, beer is illegal, and football was banned for being too dangerous. The Child Safety Act of 2033 made protective gear mandatory in the school sports. And we're not just talking mouth guards in field hockey. Here's what students of the time wear to run the 100-meter dash:
... AtherSafe shoes with lateral ankle support and four layers of memory gel in the thick soles, knee pads, elbow pads, and a FDHHSS*-certified sports helmet. We raced on an Adzorbium track with its five centimeters of compacted gel-foam topped by a thick sheet of artificial latex. It's like running on a sponge.
Jail has been abolished. When people break the law, they are sent to work camps. Almost a quarter of the adult population is serving time -- not surprising, as breaking the law is not very difficult:
"Littering is only a class-four misdemeanor--you don't get sent up for that."
"Mr. Stoltz did."
"That was for assault. Melody Hynes got hurt."
"But all he did, really, was litter. He dropped an apricot when he was unloading groceries from his suv."
"Yeah, then Melody slipped on it and got a concussion."
"She should have been wearing her helmet. My point is, Bo, all the man did was drop an apricot and they sent him away for a whole year. A year of hard labor on a prison farm. For dropping an apricot!"
"But if he hadn't dropped it, Melody wouldn't have gotten bonked," I said. Sometimes my grandfather could be kind of dense.
The men in Bo Marsten's family tend to be quick-tempered (his father is serving time for road rage and his older brother for getting into a fight) and Bo is no exception. Though the Levulor he takes usually prevents violent outbreaks -- it slows his anger reflex (and, in an unfortunate side effect, every other reflex) by a tenth of a second -- but he occasionally "forgets" to take it.
Given his family history, it's not real surprise when sixteen-year-old Bo is sentenced to serve three years for a plethora of violations. (Verbal assault, physical assault -- well, he tried to punch someone -- and causing the outbreak of an itchy rash at his school.**) He is send to Canada (which was annexed to the USSA in 2055) to work in a gourmet pizza factory.
This arm of McDonald's Rehabilitation and Manufacturing Corporation is a terrifying place, full of sharp corners, non-padded clothing, and people who have no qualms about verbally assaulting (not to mention physically assaulting) others. The factory is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a tall fence, beyond which are ravenous, man-eating polar bears. The warden runs an illegal football team.
If the team wins the Tundra Bowl, they will all be treated to early release. If they lose, they'll be Polar Bear Chow.
AWESOME. It's a sports story, a futuristic dystopia story, a juvie camp story and a story that mocks consumer culture. It explores Big Ideas, about government and free will and safety vs. freedom, but without ever feeling like a Frying Pan***, and without ever feeling heavy. It's rare for a book to be both thoughtful and thrilling.
Highly recommended. I'm planning on trying it out on older fans of Holes, as well as teens into Uglies and So Yesterday, Feed and Jennifer Government. Also fans of thoughtful sports stories -- I think there are a lot of Chris Crutcher fans who will enjoy it.
*Federal Department of Homeland Health, Safety and Security. Also, that description totally made me want to re-read Harrison Bergeron.
**Good thing that Those In Charge don't know about the possibly-sentient AI entity that he (oops) accidentally created. He could get twenty years for that, easy.
***Frying Pan Message Books: Books that are so message-driven to such an extent that you feel you are being battered with a Message-Laden Frying Pan. Duh.
OOH, that sound good and creepy. I’m learning more and more to love books that don’t tell me everything — I really don’t NEED to know everything and prefer to be left with some wonderings and enigmatic conclusions.
thanks for the review! that reminds me to peep the 2011 yalsa lists too…after i add this to my tbr. :B
Not so much creepy as suspenseful.
As for needing to know everything or not, I prefer authorial restraint. Though you could probably tell by what I wrote above. Mostly because in books like this one, and first-person mysteries/thrillers/suspense novels in general, readers get their answers in ways or to an extent I don’t always find plausible. In a third-person omniscient narrative, sure, I don’t mind if an author wraps *everything* up. But in a first-person or limited third-person, I expect (okay, want) some questions to remain unanswered, some mysteries to linger. Because what are the odds that they’d get all their answers in real life?
As usual, there are some books I am shocked made Quick Picks and BBYA/BFYA, and some books I am shocked didn’t make a selected list. This one, though? I completely agree with its spot on the Quick Picks list.
And, I didn’t mention this in my review, but I hadn’t read anything by Hautman before. Don’t know how it compares to his other books, but I think this one has got a lot of appeal for Gail Giles fans.
This relates to yr. last post about stereotypical Asian immigrant characters. As an Asian Am (short for Asian-American), I totally agree. What’s more, going beyond YA to picturebooks, Lee & Low’s New Voices Award for 2010 went to a story about a Korean-American girl. No inkling of what the story’s about since it’s just been announced.
It’s cool that Asian or Asian-American stories are even seeing publication but like you said, it rankles when stereotypes form the main characters. BTW, sweet that third world immigrants are having such success with the coming to America or the second generation in America theme. Seems the Hawaii immigrant story didn’t go over big with agents or editors judging from the paucity of such literature. Why do you think that was?
Is there a particular Hawaii immigrant story you’re referring to or do you mean stories about immigration to Hawaii in general? If it’s the latter, well, it’s not like the big NY publishers put out a lot of Hawaii-set fiction in the first place, so it makes sense that they’d publish even fewer immigration-to-Hawaii novels. If you’re refering to a specific story, can you point me toward it? I don’t think I’d be a good agent or editor (though there are times when I think I’d like to give either a try), but I’d be happy to pretend!