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THE MOORCHILD

It takes a special kind of aplomb to make a reader fall for a sharp-edged character, and I can't remember the last time anyone carried it off as well as Eloise McGraw. With a personality palpable as burlap, Saaski the changeling somehow comes across as lovable as she is fierce, even as she tumbles and blunders through a life that seems utterly foreign to her. The fantasy is just the way I like it - grounded in a robust old world setting that makes fairy folk seem matter-of-fact as moor grass. Meanwhile, the grudging affection that takes root in Saaski's family unfurls at just the right moment to wrench your heart sideways.

Quite possibly the best re-read of the year.
The Children's Book
by A.S. Byatt

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LIAR

I climbed aboard fully expecting Justine Larbalestier to mess with my head, and manalive did I get my wish.

You know Micah's a liar. Says so right on the cover, right on the first page. Yet when she promises to tell you the truth, you can't help trying to believe her. And the seesaw effect that sets up in your poor little brain is a wonder to behold. Not to mention the way the chapters tinker even further with your mind by ping-ponging between Before and After.

So when Micah lays out the most extraordinary claim of all, it's dumbfounding. You just can't believe something like that. Can you? The Hundred and One Dalmatiansby Dodie Smith

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STITCHES
by David Small

(W.W. Norton & Co.)

First I read the words, and I said, "Wow." Then I re-read the pictures, and...what was left to say?

As much as the story, the art is bleak and often disturbing, yet fascinating -- like David and his brother huddled over the forbidden images in their father's medical books, you can't look away. Perhaps because converting emotions into words is essentially a process of translation, while images (especially images like these) forge a much more direct connection between artist and audience. The emotion is laid plain in the brush strokes themselves, with little need for explanation or description.

We talk sometimes about getting inside a character's head, or reaching the heart of a story. Instead, Small's memoir goes straight to the gut, so that reading Stitches actually feels different from reading other books. With its economy of words, it forces the reader to process the images into language, leaving you momentarily speechless. And is there any more just reaction to the story of a boy who lost - and then found - his own voice?

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I’ve been known to grumble now and then about third person present tense narration. For me, that particular combination often accentuates the sense of outside-looking-in, and I end up feeling a curious detachment from the characters — more like an out of body experience than a vicarious one.
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Currently reading:

A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson

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WHEN YOU REACH ME
by Rebecca Stead

(Wendy Lamb/Random House)

Fact: I am scared of plotting. Which is why I've been sissily sticking to the ready-made plots of historical fiction in my own books, and why I go downright berserk when I read a story with such a clever, concise plot as this one. Everything, and I mean everything, counts in this book.

Now, because everyone's lobbing stars at When You Reach Me, I was braced for one of those profound, grandly composed exemplars of children's literature. But you know what? Instead, it's a perfect delight, written with an agile hand, a dose of intrigue, and a stealthy punch of emotion.

As the official synopsis will tell you, things in Miranda's neighborhood start to unravel, and then get downright mysterious when a quartet of anonymous notes foretelling the future creep into her life. But that's nothing compared to how the loose pieces (and a few more besides) all work themselves back together in the end.

And by the way, I FIGURED OUT THE TWIST. Me, all by myself. (Actually, I only figured out the big twist. There were a couple extra ones to keep me from getting too big for my britches.)

Read a smidgeon here and try to resist.

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THE CHOSEN ONE
by Carol Lynch Williams

(St. Martin's Press)

What's wrong with having one father, three mothers, and twenty brothers and sisters? For 13-year-old Kyra, nothing much at all, actually -- until The Prophet decrees she's to become the seventh wife of a man in his sixties. A man who happens to be Kyra's own uncle.

The plot is every bit as stomach-twisting as the premise, but here's the interesting thing: Williams reveals strikingly little about the workings of Kyra's community outside her immediate family's circle of house trailers. No worship services, very little theology or doctrine, limited interaction with other families in the compound. And yet it works. The place quietly scares the bejezus outta you. Maybe because we've all seen enough prime time investigations of polygamist cults to let us fill in the blanks. At any rate, it's not often an author trusts that much of the story so successfully to her readers.

Another unusual facet: Kyra's family is, for the most part, happy and contented. She's got a loving, reasonable, father, a gaggle of beloved siblings, and a trio of mothers who get along quite well, all things considered. Except for her furtive trips to the local bookmobile, Kyra's not some dissatisfied rebel just itching to get loose. And that is precisely what makes her thoughts of escape so wrenching.

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A SEASON OF GIFTSby Richard Peck(Dial Books)Reading this book is like returning to a beloved front porch and finding there's still one glass of cold lemonade waiting in the pitcher.The town has changed around her in the last couple decades, but Grandma Dowdel is still Grandma Dowdel: scheming, trigger-happy, and one step ahead of the law. And as belligerently good-natured as ever underneath it

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ONCE WAS LOSTby Sara Zarr(Little, Brown)From the publisher:Samara Taylor used to believe in miracles. She used to believe in a lot of things. As a pastor's kid, it's hard not to buy in to the idea of the perfect family, a loving God, and amazing grace. But lately, Sam has a lot of reason to doubt. Her mother lands in rehab after a DUI and her father seems more interested in his congregation than

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FIREby Kristin Cashore(Dial Books)Perhaps I can finally admit this publicly: I wasn't as crazy about Graceling as the rest of you were. A rip-roaring good read, no question about that, but I wasn't head-over-heels for Katsa's story. But now there is Fire, and this time, I am officially in love. Kristin Cashore, you are my new literary crush.You probably recall that my default attitude when it

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THE MILES BETWEENby Mary E. Pearson(Henry Holt)I am not going to tell you one concrete thing about this plot. You don't need to know anything. Just climb aboard and join the ride. If you've read Mary Pearson's last book, you're likely bracing for a surprise already.Wait for it......wait for it......you won't be disappointed. I, for one, am grinning and immensely satisfied.(Available in September)

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Ahem. THE coolest concept book, ever:THE BLACK BOOK OF COLORSby Menena Cottin and Rosana Faria(Groundwood Books)Close your eyes and look at this. Black pages. On one side, braille text, describing colors in terms of sound, smell, scent, and texture. On the other, black-on-black line art printed in raised UV coating, so you can feel the image. Like so:Red is sour like unripe strawberries and as

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BEYOND THE MIRACLE WORKER:
The Remarkable Life of Anne Sullivan Macy
and Her Extraordinary Friendship with Helen Keller
by Kim E. Nielsen

(Beacon Press)

Maybe it seems counter-intuitive to write a solo biography of Anne Sullivan Macy -- who would have heard of her if not for Helen Keller, right? Even for someone who's as nutzoid for Annie as I am, it's odd at first to read a biography in which Helen Keller gets so obviously sidelined. However, much as I value Joseph Lash's dual biography, Helen and Teacher, and as much as the two women's lives were intertwined, reading Nielsen's solo examination of Annie reveals just how much of a distraction keeping up with Helen Keller creates for those of us interested the intricacies of Annie Sullivan.

Without the focus constantly swinging toward the details of Helen's existence, vital elements like Annie's disabilities and mercurial personality virtually become characters in their own right. In fact, Nielsen shows that Annie's wavering eyesight, chronic pain, recurring illnesses, and lifelong bouts of melancholy were more debilitating than Helen's blindness and deafness -- though no one who spent 40-odd years standing next to a deaf-blind icon would dare draw attention to that fact. Not even saucy Annie Sullivan.

While many biographers tend to frame the hardships in Annie's early life as a rags-to-riches buildup to her successes as Helen Keller's famous teacher, Nielsen details the lingering effects of Annie's childhood traumas on her adult relationships and behavior. The truth of the matter is that Annie Sullivan was damaged goods, and even the salve of Helen's decades-long friendship never fully closed those wounds. No matter how much Helen loved and venerated her, Anne Sullivan Macy was not an easy woman to live with. Fortunately for the rest of us, all the extremes that made her such a trial and a delight make for a fascinating read under Nielsen's steady gaze.


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Addendum:
I am vicariously incensed with Publisher's Weekly for referring to this book as "lightly fictionalized autobiography." In fact, NONE of Nielsen's writing in this biography can be characterized in any way as fictionalized. On the contrary, Nielsen uses Anne Sullivan Macy's own lightly fictionalized autobiographical writings as a source for her work, but clearly indicates between documented facts and the autobiographical stories of 'Johannah [Annie] and Jimmie Dunnivan' culled from Macy's unpublished memoirs. *humpf*

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THIS FULL HOUSE
by Virginia Euwer Wolff

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Hallmarks of a page-turner:

1. A striking premise
(After a catastrophic highway accident, Mia's body lies in a coma while her spirit/essence/consciousness roams the hospital, watching her friends and relatives react -- until she realizes her survival is not in the doctors' hands.)

2. Suspense
(Scenes alternate between the ICU and Mia's memories until you can't choose whether you prefer the compelling present or the absorbing past.)

3. Invisible writing
(Writing that doesn't call attention to itself, that lets you forget you're even reading so you can just live the story.)

For good measure, toss in some potent personalities twining into ardent connections, and ka-bam. That's one tasty piece of reading.

(Available in April)

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BECAUSE I AM FURNITURE
by Thalia Chaltas

(Viking Press)

Anke’s father is abusive. But not to her. He attacks her brother and sister, but she is ignored, forced to be an invisible witness in a house of horrors. Believing she isn't worthy of even the worst kind of attention, Anke is on the brink of disappearing altogether...

This is the first time in a long time (maybe the first time ever) that the formatting in a verse novel felt completely intuitive to me. The line breaks, the indents, all made sense, even to a prose girl like me.

Here comes possibly the vaguest positive review ever: this is a really good book. You should read it. Killer turns of phrase, intense subject matter, all in a format you can gulp down in a single sitting.

(Available in April)

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WINTERGIRLS
by Laurie Halse Anderson

(Viking)

Among some of my friends, I'm known (mostly) affectionately as "the skinny bitch." But really, I'm the lucky bitch. Among other reasons, I am the size that I am through no effort of my own. Which is why I cringe whenever any of the teenagers I chat with online say they wish they look like me. We joke about it, but I'd secretly like to shake them, these perfectly normal girls who aren't capital-P perfect because they wear jeans that begin with a number instead of a zero. Maybe now I'll just tell them to shut up and read Wintergirls instead.

So maybe I've already got you thinking this is a book all about Why Eating Disorders Are Bad. Actually, because it's Laurie Anderson, this is a book about how eating disorders feel, and lemme tell you, it leaves "bad" in the dust. I'm not sure anyone knows better than Laurie how to crawl into the mind of a broken kid and illuminate the tangled mess inside; in Lia's case, disturbing, disorienting, desperate, and utterly compelling. In fact, it's so good that I've overcome my natural ARC-hoarding tendancies and passed it along to one of the best high school English teachers I know. Wintergirls is not a book you just tell people to read -- you'll shove it at them and demand their reaction.

Aside #1: If you want to get double your money's worth, brush up on your Greek mythology. Then you'll know why it's totally creepy that I happened to be drinking pomegranate juice while I read Wintergirls. (Even if you don't, I promise the book will still kick butt.)

Aside #2: This is the first book I've seen use strikeout text. The effect is super, but I wonder how the audio edition will cope with that?

Aside #3: When I think of Laurie Halse Anderson sitting across from me at a Chinese buffet in October where I ate only wonton broth and sushi, I can't help wondering if she silently added me to her watchlist. Seriously -- I bet I weighed less then than Lia does at the beginning of this book.

(Available in March)

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HOUR OF GOLD, HOUR OF LEAD
by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

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A SMALL MIRACLE
by Peter Collington

(Knopf)

From the Ingram wholesale website:
"Back in print by booksellers' popular demand, this wonderfully satisfying contemporary parable features the wooden figures in a church's Christmas Nativity scene that miraculously come to life to save a starving old woman who has done a good turn for them."

Back at Halfway Down the Stairs, we liked to claim credit for bringing this sweetheart back into print a few years ago. Ok, probably we weren't the only booksellers who adored it enough to beg for a reprint in Publisher's Weekly's Cuffie awards year after year, but still. Like Mo Willems's Pigeon, we have dreams, you know.

Anyhow, I could hardly walk a customer through this story without stifling snivels and snurps. Once the nativity figures come peeping out of the church to help the gypsy lady, I was mostly reduced to pointing and grunts. Which actually works remarkably well as a sales pitch, because this is a wordless picturebook. COMPLETELY wordless. Go on and see if you can make your way to the end without letting it slay you. I triple-dog-dare you.

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TEN CENTS A DANCE
by Christine Fletcher

(Bloomsbury)

Sure, I was going to do the noble thing and write a review of my very own, but then Leila Roy went and said just about everything I'd had in mind about this super-good book. So you should read her review instead, and I'm going to sneak back to the couch and the Christmas tree with the next book on my TBR pile. Ha!

Or you can read Becky's review, which made me pick up Ten Cents a Dance in the first place.

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Currently reading:

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg
by Rodman Philbrick

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CARLOS IS GONNA GET IT
by Kevin Emerson

(Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)

Every class has a get that gets dumped on, and Carlos is Gonna Get It is the kind of book that'll make your own guilt-demon go all squirmy when you think of how YOU treated your class's version of Carlos. In my middle school, that kid was Jason Hills. So I know just how Trina felt about Carlos. Part of me knew back in 6th and 7th grade that Jason was just a gangly, dorky kid who got picked on for no reason, but another part of my primitive pre-teen brain literally recoiled from him because he was, like, God, so annoying. So annoying he deserved it. (This is the part where I cringe.)

Even if you are/were such a nice kid that this story doesn't feel like an instant replay of 7th grade, the suspense and the peer pressure vortex should suck you right in. Because, c'mon, Carlos is gonna get it. How can you resist watching?

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Currently reading:

The Wordy Shipmates
by Sarah Vowell

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GRACELING

Whoops. I went and read the reviews of Graceling before attempting to write mine. Wow -- so much for that. How about this butt-kicking trailer instead:

Fierce!

That's the thing about Graceling. I've read my share of tomboy and feisty princess stories, but Katsa's a cut above the stereotype. She's got this striking physical intensity and a temper that's just barely under control. You can actually feel the tension *release* when she fights. This is a girl you will not mess with, much less suggest that she put on a dress or brush her hair. She's darn near feral in some ways, and not without reason, which in turn makes her ineptitude at perceiving emotions both endearing and entirely believable. Loved that complexity.

There's adventure, intrigue, and romance galore in this plot, and of course it changes Katsa when all is said and done, but not in a way that sacrifices the keenness of her personality. Kristin Cashore's got way too much respect for her characters to fall into that old trap.

I have not done this book justice. At all. Just read it.

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Currently reading:

Milagros
by Meg Medina

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Back in the day, when World War I was still known as the Great War, the 11th of November was called Armistice Day. 

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Currently reading:

My One Hundred Adventuresby Polly Horvath

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TENDER MORSELS

Once upon a time, the skeleton of this story was called Snow-White and Rose-Red.  Like all fairy tales, it left much unexplained. Too much. Well, Margo Lanagan took those bones and added muscle and guts, bracing the loose joints of the plot with her characters' emotions, motivations, and histories. That's the secret of successful retellings: fleshing out the gaps that relied almost entirely on the readers' willful ignorance or suspension of belief, yet still leaving room for the existence of magic. And Lanagan knows how to handle magic delicately enough to make it believable: Tender Morsels revolves around magical doings, but never degrades enchantment to the level of coincidence. The plot must bend to fit the whims of the magic, and never, ever the reverse. Yet the setting is so rich that it all feels impossibly real.

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