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Books Books Books! A Children's Librarian and life-long book addict invites fellow readers to share their thoughts on books and library service to children. Dedicated to all those who would rather be reading.
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Today's Doonesbury strip struck me as particularly apt today. There was a
nice piece in the Parade about the effects of the economy on the Parker Public Library in Arizona, which, though depressing, showed that folks value the library. Except then there's the fact that hundreds of library aides in LAUSD elementary schools just had their last day of work on Friday, a horrific and barbaric situation on which
Steve Lopez has done a good job reporting.
The powers that be, whether at LAUSD or in government, give lots of lip service to libraries (and to education and kids in general) - but all those things are the first to be cut. If we were to gift politicians and bureaucrats with
Skulls of Truth, they'd all sound a lot like our Honest Man above. Who cares whether we have any educated or literate young adults 20 years from now? Let's slash libraries and education and health care to the poor right now, 'cause it's low-hanging fruit. After all, it'd be "class warfare" to pick on the poor rich people and apparently it's just useless to get anyone, Democrat or Republican, to understand that spending money on education today means spending less money on jails tomorrow (or rather, in 20 years - but that's science fiction to politicians) - not to mention that maybe, just maybe, it might be best to have citizens who are literate and well-educated and healthy and productive.
Grrr.
Wilson, N.D. The Dragon's Tooth. Random House, 2011.I finished this book a week ago but have put off reviewing it because it reminds me strongly of another book - or maybe a movie - and I've been wracking my brains trying to remember which one. No matter, I'll charge on regardless.
Siblings Cyrus and Antigone live in the seedy, molding motel that their older brother Daniel has been operating ever since their dad died and their mom lapsed into a coma. This depressing and sorrowful life comes to an abrupt end when old Billy Bones shows up at the motel, bequeaths some magical objects to Cyrus (keys; a dragon's tooth, a small snake named Patricia) with the aid of his lawyer Horace, and promptly dies.
Immediately, a very bad individual named Maxi and his henchman, sent by the sinister Mr. Phoenix, show up and all hell breaks loose. Daniel is kidnapped, and Cyrus and Antigone just barely make it with Horace to the headquarters of The Order of Brendan, an ancient society of magical explorers, adventurers, and heroes.
It turns out that Cyrus and Antigone's dad was a member of the Order - but not one in good standing. Cyrus and Antigone are inducted as Acolytes - which brings Maxi and the rest of Mr. Phoenix's nasties down full-force upon the Order of Brendan. They'll destroy everyone and everything to get those magical objects of Cyrus' - and only Cyrus, Antigone, and their friends can stop them.
There is a great deal of fascinating secret-society lore going back hundreds of years; apparently plenty of famous folks and objects are linked to the Order of Brendan (or its nemeses). Rick Riordan fans will enjoy the plucky, bantering kids and their relationships with adults good and bad, plus the link with ancient traditions and myths. There is a hint of Neil Gaiman in the intricate details of a full and bustling secret world existing underneath and parallel to our own familiar world. The ancient and mysterious artifacts, not to mention the dashing derring-do, bring to mind the Indiana Jones movies. And all those kids, teens, and adults hustling urgently here and there in various uniforms, learning ancient languages, flying planes, and practicing with weaponry - well, this is the part that reminds me of some book or movie and I can't think which. Any thoughts?
As with all his books (
Leepike Ridge, the
100 Cupboards series), Wilson peppers
Dragon's Tooth with quirky and complex characters. Simple down-home folks have hidden depths; everyone has at least one secret under their sleeves, and both allies and traitors pop up when least expected. The history of the Order and its members, not to mention the mysteries surrounding Cyrus' and Antigone's own family, is so tantalizingly hinted at that readers will finish the last page gasping for the next installment.
Highly recommended for grades 5 to 8.
P.S. For some words from N.D. Wilson on his 5 kids, the inspiration for 100 cupboards, and more,
click here.
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| Hudson Park, NYPL |
For a couple sneering quotes about children's librarians and storytelling from John Cotton Dana, plus other nuggets about Library Days of Yore, see my post on the
ALSC Blog.
I sat next to Lindsey Philpott at dinner last night. Lindsey Philpott is the Southern CA-based knot expert who served as consultant to Susan Patron as she wrote her Lucky trilogy. That hammock Lincoln was creating in
Lucky Breaks? Mr. Philpott created a model for Susan, so she could see it and touch it and know exactly how to describe it.
One would think that
The Knot Guy would have string and yarn hidden about his person, but no - when we asked Mr. Philpott to demonstrate a knot, all he had on him was the string holding his glasses around his neck. I can't remember the name of the knot, but apparently he tied this complex shape for the first time when he was 6 years old.
Mr. Philpott described to me the anxiety of showing a knot, created slowly and painstakingly in solitude, to a fellow expert and hoping for approval rather than disappointment. He sounded very much the way a writer feels, offering up a manuscript to be read for the first time. The passion he feels for his work is clear (despite not having any string with him); he described in meticulous detail globe knots - all the different ways they can look, depending on type of line used and many of factors. Some of them can have 100 sides! I imagined them looking like D and D dice made of string. When I googled "globe knot" looking for images, the one I chose (the one above, due to its beauty) turned out to have been made by - Lindsey Philpott!
We were all at
Skylight Books before dinner, celebrating the publication of Susan Patron's
Lucky for Good with a packed house of writers and librarians and friends and fans. It was a lovely way to end a literary weekend that also included a dinner with some Scholastic folks, some independent children's booksellers from the Southern CA , and - Allen Say! He'd spoken at the
Japanese American National Museum earlier that day.
It was fascinating talking children's books with booksellers rather than librarians. Several mentioned that Brian Selznick's
Wonderstruck was selling slowly due to its $29.99 price, $3 more than
The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The booksellers felt that it crossed a psychological barrier for customers, and no wonder when you could buy it on Amazon tonight for $16.49. Or get it at the library for free. Not that I said that. Man, it's got to be tough being an independent bookseller.
Though I think if Skylight Books was down the block instead of across town, I'd find myself spending quite a bit of money there...
Though September and October are usually very warm months in Los Angeles thanks to the Santa Ana winds, a bit of cloud layer has some Angelenos hauling sweaters down from the top shelf. Though it never snows and seldom rains, we cherish the changing of the seasons, even if we do have to use our imaginations quite a bit.
For book award fanatics, there's no question that fall is right around the corner. Not only are the fall books streaming in from publishers, but bloggers have cranked up their engines and have started circling the course. At Heavy Medal, Nina and Jonathan have gotten their toes wet with some fun, kvetchy posts about too-long books and Over-praised Fantasies with Too Many Capital Letters, plus the expected discussion about Okay for Now's flaws in an otherwise amazing book. Betsy has given us her fall predictions for both Newbery and Caldecott, adding to my need-to-read list.
After resigning from the 2012 Newbery committee last January (
full story here), I decided that this would be the year to read whatever the heck I wanted - YA, middle-grade, adult. As a result, there are big holes in my reading for any one list, be it Printz or Newbery. On the other hand, it's been a LOT of fun trying to catch up on my adult reading. I keep notebooks for jotting down adult titles as I read PW, Library Journal, Booklist, and Kirkus, and I'm now only two notebooks behind, having finally caught up to 2009.
That said, it may be time to toss those notebooks away and focus on Newbery and Printz-eligible titles for the remainder of the year. Oh, but first I've got to read
The Magician King by Lev Grossman! And Vernor Vinge's
The Children of the Sky...
Hmm, this may be another year when I end up not having yet read the Newbery winner, ignominious as that is.
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| LA Roadrunners |
By the way, it's the start of the running season, too - and thanks to our library system being open on Mondays again, my Saturdays are now mostly free to run with the
LA Roadrunners again. Meep meep!
The paper was a bit disheartening today. Poverty has hit a
50 year high in the United States, thanks mostly to our lack of jobs.
Like many library systems, my own can't remedy this problem in even the slightest degree. I just heard that an extremely talented recent library school graduate, who has been yearning to work for the Los Angeles Public Library, simply can't afford to live in Los Angeles any longer and must return home. We need her - and other young, dedicated librarians like her - at LAPL. Jeez, it's frustrating.
Meanwhile, the
LA Unified School District is even worse off, library-wise.
Time to self-medicate with a little Winnie-the-Pooh.
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| Signing up at the Platt Branch, LAPL |
What I've realized since taking on the planning of the summer reading program last year is that it's like a snake with its tail in its mouth; the summer hasn't even ended when planning for next year begins.
The children's and teen librarians on the front lines are enjoying having completed summer reading for another year - but here in the Youth Services office, we never escape its insidious, time-sucking grip!
We do have a few weeks of reflection on the successes and failures of the summer before plunging headlong into planning next month.
Our summer reading program was run very differently this year in many different ways. To name just a few, all 72 branches and Central Library used exactly the same game board (counting minutes read for kids and a combination of reading and activities for teens), the same prize structure, and the same start and stop date. We added a preschool component, with its own game board highlighting early literacy activities, for the first time, and we used Evanced to keep track of registration. Also, we gave everyone, from babies to teens, the chance to earn a free book.
As we did last year, we collected surveys from kids and teens to measure their thoughts on various aspects of the program as well as to track how many were joining the program for the first year, second year, etc. As in previous years, I also asked children's and teen librarians to fill out a report on what worked, what didn't, and how the program could be improved for next year.
So now I have LOTS of data, more than we ever had before. I know who signed up, ratio of boys to girls, how old they are, which branch they attended, and in which zip code they live. I know how many kids and teens actually "finished" the program, as well as how many hours were read altogether by our reading club participants. And just as importantly, I know what worked and what didn't, both from my own point of view and from the librarians out at the branches, and I know what librarians want from the program next year.
We're forming a Summer Reading Program committee for the first time this year, rather than Youth Services planning the whole thing (it nearly killed us last year, I swear). Actually, we'll have two committees - one to create the children's program and one to create the teen program. These committees will decide on the details of the programs, from how incentives will be rewarded and what those incentives will be to what the game boards will look like.
But I can tell them some things right away. For instance, children's librarians (I haven't tabulated the teen librarians' reports yet, as I'm still missing a few - tsk!) overwhelmingly feel that the 2012 program should begin in mid-to-late June and should last 8 weeks. Most think we should continue to count minutes read, though many would like to also give kids "credit" for attending programs, writing book reviews, and doing activities online. Most librarians feel we should use
Evanced again next year for registering and keeping track of statistics.
Mostly, librarians really liked the new preschool component and so did families. We could make it more exciting, though, by building in some progress similar to the children's
Sedgwick, Marcus. White Crow. Roaring Brook Press, 2011.London teen dragged to a tiny town against her will, doomed to spend summer away from her friends - it's an old story. And Rebecca's reluctant friendship with the village oddball, Ferelith, who is lonely, very smart, and troubled as heck, has a familiar ring to it as well. Add to that a grand old building with a ghastly past, and you've got all the ingredients for a delicious Summer Gothic.
Lest you roll your eyes, keep in mind that Sedgwick is a master in the fine art of creating tension and bringing it to the breaking point - and beyond.
In third person, we learn Rebecca's side of the story. She lives only with her dad, a police inspector who has been accused of negligence that resulted in the death of a teenaged girl; to get away temporarily from all the fuss and negative media attention, he has escaped with Rebecca to the dying town of Winterfold, on the English coast. Rebecca is Not Thrilled.
Ferelith tells her own story, which has the effect of letting us get to know her more than anyone else has ever bothered to do but which becomes chilling when we realize we didn't really know her at all. Like Rebecca, we find ourselves unable to gauge exactly how disturbed Ferelith might be.
Oh, and then there's the truly creepy diary of a Winterfold pastor, recounting the grisly events that occurred - with his full cooperation - in 1798 at the Hall. The reader knows that these events must be connected to the present day - and that it can't bode well.
A supernatural chill runs through the story, bred by the pastor's obsession with hell and the devil. What becomes clear is that humans can work plenty of evil without any help from the devil.
The twist at the end is particularly compelling and keeps the book focused on what it is really about - loneliness and human connection. Highly recommended for teens who relish a creepy, atmospheric read with a bit of depth.
Patron, Susan. Lucky for Good. Atheneum, 2011.
If you lived in Hard Pan, who would you be? Are you a creative and thrifty Short Sammy type, living in a water tank? Or are you more like Klincke Ken, who can fix anything and has a fondness for cats and donkeys? Perhaps you're more like sociable Dot, who operates the only beauty salon in town or the Captain, who holds the only steady job with benefits that exists in Hard Pan (postmaster).
Myself, I'd be Mrs. Prender, grandma of the smart-and-sweet 6-year-old Miles and mom of Miles' mom, Justine, who has just returned from a longish stint in prison. Mrs. Prender has been raising Miles as best she can, bringing him books from the library to feed his hunger for knowledge, and then her intense and complicated daughter returns as a new, passionate, and outspoken Christian. The kind that takes the bible as literal and won't let her son read any books about dinosaurs or anything else that contradicts what the bible says about the creation of the earth.
What a dilemma! It's hard for Mrs. Prender, it's hard for Miles, it's even hard for Lucky.
There are other things going on in Lucky's life, and the most dramatic is that the county, personified by Stu Burping, may have to close down Brigitte's Hard Pan Cafe due to a code violation that doesn't allow the commercial serving of food out of a residence. Luckily, the eccentric and independent residents of Hard Pan prove themselves up to the task of teaming up to come up with an innovative solution, leading to a scene of outrageous hilarity and thrills when a tractor with no brakes, towing a cabin, heads slowly and precariously down the road. Unbeknownst to the driver, Klincke Ken, the road ahead is filled with animals and people - so Lincoln and Lucky's friend Paloma jump aboard the tractor to warn him. Klincke Ken can't hear him and is a little annoyed.
"Later!" Klincke Ken shouted. "I'm a little busy!" He resolved to ignore those two and turned back around to face front and the home stretch. And what he saw caused him to rise up in his seat. Kids! And women! Half the blasted town, it looked like - all over the road!
Homes and propane tanks on the left, a 4-foot drop to a sandy shoulder on his right, and no brakes! The tension mounts but somehow the comedy does, too - until a combination of factors suddenly clears the road. Klincke Ken accepts the miracle. "The sky had never in his life been so blue, the air so pure, or the sun so brilliant."
Lucky, being her usual slightly fierce and rather tenacious self, has her own troubles. After socking a mean boy in the jaw (well, she had good reason, okay?), Lucky is assigned a task as punishment - to create her family tree. And this means investigating her absent father's side of the family. That Lucky handles this with style and aplomb demonstrates how much she has grown up since the day she ran away two books ago. In The Higher Power of Lucky, Lucky is still quite fragile and desperate for reassurance and in Lucky Breaks, she is trying to handle some powerful and not so positive emotions. Now, Lucky shows herself able to meet difficult situations head-on, with common sense and perspective.
(well, except for that momentary loss of sanity when she punched that boy - ahem!)
It's clear that Lucky is going to weather adolescence just fine. Oh, it'll be rocky at times (because like I said, Lucky is both fierce and tenacious), but her sense of humor and her intelligence will see her through. A
Today was the first day of school for the almost 700,000 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Can you imagine the effect that had on commute times? Yep, we'll be in traffic hell until June.
In homes all across Los Angeles, scenes played out much like this one, which took place in my bedroom at about 7 am this morning.
(Nadia, a high school senior, enters the bedroom of Eva, her mother, who is getting ready for work.)
Nadia: So how do I look?
Eva: That's a cute blouse. But woah, those shorts are really short.
Nadia: It's going to be super-hot today.
Eva: Yeah, but those shorts are going to attract a lot of attention. Do you really want to make that kind of impression on your first day as a senior?
(there follows a heated discussion on short shorts, which ends with Nadia leaving the room. She returns a short time later in a different outfit)
Nadia: So how's this?
Eva: Hey, I like that dress with the blouse over it! But...(looks more closely) the hem is so uneven. Did you cut it?
Nadia: It's part of the look, Mom.
Eva: (figuring that a ragged hem is better than short shorts) I like it. You look really cute and whimsical.
(Nadia looks immediately dubious at this sign of parental disapproval and leaves the room, returning a short time later in a third outfit)
Eva: Oh no! That dress is way too short and way too low-cut! It would be fine for going out at night with friends but no way is that appropriate for school.
Nadia: (pulls the loosely crocheted vest over her decolletage) I'm wearing a vest over it!
Eva: No! Definitely not!
(Nadia stomps away and returns in a fourth outfit - a loose thrift store dress with no rips or tears)
Nadia: I feel totally ugly in this but at least it's comfortable.
Eva: That's a fine compromise between comfort and style - you look cute without trying too hard
Nadia: I don't feel like I look dramatic, and you know I like to look dramatic. How about if I wear dark lipstick?
Eva: Perfect! And there's your centimeter-long hair and your nose ring for added impact.
Nadia: True.
One day down - all the rest of the school year to go.
Hardinge, Frances. Fly Trap. Harper, 2011.The streets of my town are covered with layer upon layer of memories. I've lived here most of my life, and as I walk, run, bike and drive through the Venice streets, I somehow become simultaneously all the different versions and ages of Eva who were here before me.
Cities within cities, cities layered upon cities - there is something intensely intriguing about two or more locales existing in the same place at the same time. Neil Gaiman explores the concept in many of his books, including
Coraline. China Mieville is similarly fascinated - just check out the enthralling
The City & the City, or his YA novel
Un Lun Dun.
In
Fly Trap (sequel to
Fly by Night), the town of Toll is really two towns in one - Toll-by-day and Toll-by-night. At dusk, the citizens of daytime Toll scurry into their homes and bolt their doors, not daring to come out until dawn. In fact, they couldn't even if they wanted to - their doors have been locked from the outside as well, and entire facades of buildings shifted so that the daylight doors are blocked while the night-time doors are revealed. Then it's time for the the nightlings to come out to conduct their business. The nightlings live in the cracks, hollows, and left-over spaces carved out from the daytime dwellings - and never do they see their own city by daylight.
Our 12-year-old heroine Mosca Mye, black-eyed and ferret-faced, is a true nighttime child, whether she likes it or not, thanks to the Beloved whose hour she was born in (Beloveds are like minor gods, and each has its sacred hours in the year). As such, she is uniquely able, with her companion Eponymous Clent, to scrabble in the nasty crevasses of Toll in order to unearth plots and save the world (or at least Toll - or okay, her own skin if nothing else).
Mosca doesn't have much comfort or security in her life. She's homeless and townless - though not friendless, as she's got Clent and of course her fearsome goose Saracen for companionship. And Mosca is quite fierce herself, a true survivor. But I just yearn for her to have a mama to hug her and love her and feed her warm meals.
Frances Hardinge is a wondrous writer. From
Fly by Night to
Well-Witched to
The Lost Conspiracy, her books are full meals, aromatic and filling. And I do think that the next time I lope down a Venice street, I'll be imagining Mosca Mye headed down that same street, clogs clopping determinedly against the sidewalk and pipe clamped firmly between her teeth.
Highly recommended for ages 10 and up.
When wracked by insomnia at 3 am, I comfort myself by thinking how lucky I am to be lying in a comfortable bed under a solid roof - safe, warm, and secure.
I'm just finishing up Fly Trap by Frances Hardinge, in which the 12-year-old Mosca Mye spends much of her time cold, hungry and certainly homeless. In Holly Goldberg Sloan's I'll Be There, brothers Sam and Riddle aren't exactly homeless, but one can't really say they have a real home either. And in Tim Wynne-Jones' Blink & Caution, two teens are living very rough indeed.
We've always had a large homeless population in Venice, but it seems to have gotten bigger or at least more visible over the last few months. During my daily early morning run on Ocean Front Walk, I've seen the number of sleeping bags and encampments double, treble - and now it's quite astounding. And by 7:30 am, the sleeping bags are rolled up and folks have melted into our usual summer crowds.
Many of these sleeping folks are young, and some are clearly teens. It's uncomfortable at best and terrifyingly dangerous at worst. Great organizations like the Los Angeles Youth Network help some youth but not all.
Libraries can provide daytime shelter from the elements, computers, non-judgmental librarians, information, and policies that allow homeless teens to get some form of library card (even one that just lets them get online and perhaps check out a limited number of items). Because the issue is clearly not going away.
I shot this video while biking along the Ocean Front Walk at 6:30 am this morning.
Sloan, Holly Goldberg. I'll Be There. Little, Brown, 2011.17-year-old Sam and his little brother Riddle's unstable, mentally ill, criminal dad Clarence has dragged them from one side of the US to the other, never allowing them to go to school or the doctor. In fact, he doesn't even bother to feed them; the brothers live off food scavenged from trash cans, plus whatever small amount of money Sam can make with odd jobs. They never stay anywhere long; when Clarence has stolen enough to make people notice, they always move on.
But in this new town, something is different. Sam meets Emily; they fall for each other. But after Clarence finds out and drags the brothers back on the road, life for Sam and Riddle rapidly turns from bad to operatically horrific. A plunge off a cliff, multiple wounds, bug-eating, a hungry bear, plummeting down a waterfall, separation - oh, and a crazed and violent dad.
This book reminds me a little of
As Easy as Falling off the Edge of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins; it's something about the way the characters connect and then separate, and how the narration might follow a minor character on his or her path away from the main plot before swooping back to the story again. And of course this is a tale, at least for the brothers, about finding home.
Riddle is a wonderful character, slowly unfolding and blossoming from a pale and enigmatic little grub creating intricate technical drawings in phone books and rarely communicating with anyone but Sam (he seems to have a form of autism or Asperger syndrome) to a self-reliant boy who not only saves his big brother several times in creative ways, but learns to trust and love at least one other person besides Sam. His relationship with Sam is tender and heart-breaking.
Although we hear parts of the story from Sam's point of view, he remains more of a riddle than Riddle to me. His main traits are his empathy/kindness, his movie-star good looks, and his mind-boggling prodigal musical ability - but it's hard to pin him down otherwise. Emily's love for him says more about Emily than about Sam; I couldn't quite see the attraction (except that he's a soft-spoken, sweet piece of gorgeousness).
The most complicated character might be Bobby, a rich, popular boy who has fallen for Emily - probably because she doesn't like him back. Bobby becomes so obsessed with her that it's a bit sad and quite disturbing. He provides some comic relief in the book, but it's nervous laughter. You have to feel for the guy and the series of humiliations he endures - but he's also quite clueless. Sure, his feelings are strong and real, but they're all about Bobby, not Emily. Still, the reader gets to know Bobby fairly well, and it's a bit of a letdown to see him end up as a standard-issue jerk when he had the makings of a really unique jerk with hidden depths.
There are flaws in this book - with pacing and plot, mostly. For instance, the series of outrageous setbacks that the brothers endure are so extreme that the fact that they survive feels like cheating. Yes, we're glad, because by now we're totally invested in these characters - but still. And as I said, some characters come alive much more fully than others, and it's not always the ones you might predict. A very old motel cleaning lady has a
Some LAPL children's librarians (past and present) and I have wrapped up another summer of reviewing holiday books for School Library Journal. Or at least I hope that the two that landed on my front porch a couple days ago were the last.
Just try scraping up some holiday spirit while embroiled in record high temperatures! We Jingle Bell Reviewers had to immerse ourselves in picture books, nonfiction, and novels featuring hot chocolate, snow, latkes, Christmas trees, menorahs, caroling, and Santa. Ah - snow!
Just put the last review to bed (let's hope) and now I'm headed there myself, with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head.
Weatherly, L.A.
Angel Burn. Candlewick, 2011.
16-year-old Willow, who lives with her mentally ill mother in her aunt's house, knows she's different; she likes to fix cars and she's psychic.
17-year-old Alex is one of a small, fierce band of "AKs" or Angel Killers; he has been trained from an early age to find and kill angels, using his chakra points to lift his consciousness into another plane so that the angels are visible.
No, Alex isn't the bad guy - the angels are. Their own planet is dying and can't sustain them anymore, so they come to earth to feed off humans, whose life force is particularly tasty and nourishing to angels. This damages and even kills the humans, but conveniently, they get a feeling of divine well-being when angels slurp up their souls. Lots of these angels have started a cult-like Church of the Angels, which works very well for the angels, who are about to invade earth in huge numbers. Lots of yummy, willing acolytes to devour!
Turns out Willow is half angel (this isn't much of a spoiler - one finds out pretty darn early on) and the angels, who are also psychic, sense that she is a great danger to them. Willow runs off with Alex, with the angels and their human acolytes hunting for them all over the country.
As long as Willow and Alex are on the run, the story maintains momentum; the road trip is one of the best parts of the tale. They have an uneasy relationship (after all, Willow is half-angel, and Alex's whole life revolves around killing angels) at first, which adds some interesting tension - and Alex's backstory is fascinating as well. But as soon as they fall in love (oh, you knew it would happen), the story becomes rather soggy with heartfelt emotion and expressions of undying affection, relieved at the end by a fairly tense climax (of the plot, not sexual, type).
I didn't buy the angels as convincing characters (they just seemed like super-glamorous humans who happen to be able to turn into glorious angels) and the supreme physical beauty of both Willow (oh, her green eyes and soft blonde hair - okay, she IS half angel but still - MUST she have green eyes?) and Alex (chiseled perfection from head to toe) are somewhat annoying. But it is highly readable and will be an easy sell for readers ages 12 and up looking for a modern fantasy/romance.
Oh bleah! Check out this Ralph Lauren picture book and video storybook.
If you weren't cynical before, this should clinch it. Thanks to Jacket Flap for the link.
Barnhill, Kelly. The Mostly True Story of Jack. Little, Brown, 2011.Those who think that tales of ancient powers and magical guardians belong only to the Old World haven't read this book or other recent stories of magic in the American heartland*.
Jack knows, sort of, that his situation is peculiar, but he has never wanted to think about it too deeply. He is so unnoticeable that he's never had to pay for a bus or train ride in his life. His own parents and brother don't seem to notice him, and there is not a single photo of him anywhere. But when his mother abruptly drops him off at her sister's house in a tiny town in Iowa, Jack learns - slowly and frustratingly - that there is a magical power here in Hazelwood that has been stealing children. The richest man in town is somehow connected. And so is Jack.
This is a deliciously sensual story, filled with the smells of dirt and electrical storms, radiating stifling heat or eerie cold, and pulsing with energy both beneficent and scary. The power manifests in simple but extremely creepy ways - one building radiates such ominous hostility that it seems right out of a Stephen King novel.
Luckily, Jack's solidity keeps the story grounded, even as he turns out to be one of the most exotic things about it, and his friends Anders, Wendy, and the tragic Frankie all play their own vital and unique parts in uncovering the secrets of Hazelwood in order to heal it.
This tale of transforming powers of friendship and love is highly recommended for ages 9 to 12.
*Other examples include N.D. Wilson's
100 Cupboards series, Roderick Townley's
The Door in the Forest and Brenna Yovanoff's
The Replacement.
A movie about a YA author (played by Charlize Theron), written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jason Reitman? Yeah, I'll see that.
See what
real YA authors say about Charlize's schlumpy travel attire (thanks to
Bookshelves of Doom for the link).
I've spent July and August training our children's librarians on the new Every Child Ready to Read parent workshops. Because we only meet as one big group (all 72 branches plus Central Library) every three months, I visited each Area meeting (6 in all, plus Central Library) to familiarize children's librarians with the product that they will be using from now on.
There are a few drawbacks to the package, but mostly, the response has been very positive. Read my post on the ALSC Blog to find out more.
My husband once gave me a classic construction worker's lunch box for my birthday, the big rugged kind with a domed lid for a Thermos.
That's not the kind of lunch box I see construction workers toting around these days, however. The workers arriving at the construction site I jog by every morning at 6:30 am are carrying enormous round coolers, in which my entire family's lunches would fit.
What could be in these intriguingly large lunch pails? Maybe it's that I'm hungry - or more likely I'm just bored - but I find myself pondering the hypothetical lunches contained in those pails for the duration of my run.
Thick slabs of turkey on rye bread with generous lashings of mustard.
Soy-sauced garlicky soba noodles, studded with marinated tofu, green onions, and red peppers.
Spicy shredded pork, ready to wrap up in home-made flour tortillas, still warm from the skillet.
Noodle soup, thick squares of cornbread, cold pizza, chicken drumsticks, baguette hunks and cheese
Snickerdoodle cookies, a slice of chocolate cake, a tub of butterscotch pudding
In other words, dream lunches - lunches inspired by those that Frances and her friend Albert bring to school in
Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban.
Albert said, 'What do you have today?'
'Well,' said Frances, laying a paper doily on her desk and sitting a tiny vase of violets in the middle of it, 'let me see.' She arranged her lunch on the doily.
'I have a thermos bottle with cream of tomato soup,' she said. 'And a lobster-salad sandwich on thin slices of white bread. I have celery, carrot sticks, and black olives, and a little cardboard shaker of salt for the celery. And two plums and a tiny basket of cherries.
And vanilla pudding with chocolate sprinkles and a spoon to eat it with.'
'That's a good lunch,' said Albert.
It's likely that the real contents of those lunch pails don't come come close to what I'm imagining. Do the construction workers bring red-and-white checked cloth napkins to tie under their chins? Are there little tubs of organic sea salt? Probably not.
But isn't it fun to imagine it?!
Well, I wasn't, but Betsy Bird was - and her fun post brought to mind another pairing. I just read both these books, so their strange parallels are still fresh in my mind.
Theme: Move to a small town; learn to read
Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt
Close to Famous by Joan Bauer
In Okay for Now, it's 13-year-old Doug and in Close to Famous it's 12-year-old Foster. Both kids make friends with difficult, creative, rich older women (one is a famous playwright, the other is a famous actress); both have an abusive man in their lives (Doug's dad, Foster's mom's ex-boyfriend). Weirdly enough, neither Doug nor Foster can read! Both learn. Both flourish amongst the eccentric folks in their new towns. Both overcome adversity, both personal and in a larger sense. Both are fine books.
And on a completely different subject:
Last week, Brandy of Random Musings of a Bibliophile mentioned that if she were in the world created by Megan Whalen Turner in The Thief et al "...I would take great care not to draw the attention of the amazing Gen or his Queen. As much as I love them both they would just make me feel like an idiot if I actually had to come in contact with them. And I don't particularly enjoy that feeling."
I happened to finally be reading the fourth in that series, A Conspiracy of Kings, and now that I've finished it, I have to agree. Sophos, however, is a different matter - he may become a king, but he's a kindred spirit. He says:
"My gift is that I always know when I've made an ass of myself... I used to watch other people making idiots of themselves, and they never seemed to know it, but I always have. All my life I've wished that if I was going to be an ass, I could just be an oblivious one."
Oh yes. While being excruciatingly conscious of one's mistakes hopefully helps to prevent some future ones, it doesn't make for much serenity, especially when one's own stupid brain makes even pea-sized mistakes seem like boulders. Perhaps both Sophos and I will learn someday to note when we've been idiots, make a mental note to avoid that behavior in the future, and move on without too much pointless agonizing.
Schmidt, Gary D. Okay for Now. Clarion, 2011.There's something excruciatingly appealing about tough-guy characters with a heart of gold - think of Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar, Robert B. Parker's Spenser, and plenty of other laconic guys with chips on their shoulders and sweetness in their souls.
Such a character is 8th-grader Doug Swieteck. He's the third boy in a family of guys who act like jerks, from his dad on down - but to Doug's credit, he does struggle against this legacy. When his dad moves the family to a house Doug calls the Dump in a small and uninteresting town, Doug doesn't exactly feel sanguine about the possibility of anything good coming out of it - and he doesn't go out of his way to make anything good happen - not at first.
But he meets a girl named Lil, gets a delivery job with her dad, gets turned on to art (and specifically to Audubon's bird paintings) by a librarian named Mr. Powell, and things start turning around. Except - his dad is simply ghastly, his mom is a sweet, powerless nonentity (or she is to this reader, anyway), one brother is a bully, the other comes home from Vietnam with severe damage, and lots of folks are quick to believe that Doug is a bad egg.
And it's true that he's not always so great at dealing with adversity - but art and friendship prevail, as does a kind of goodness of soul that seems, like a benign flu, to be passable from one person to another if there's the right kind of contact.
Doug's voice is distinct and clear, full of dry wit and self-deprecating sarcasm and at times a piercingly sweet and honest tenderness. The other characters aren't exactly realistic - some are too good to be true, such as Mr. Powell, others are eccentric in that small-town way that novels love to savor, and Doug's dad is so appalling that I couldn't understand how anyone could remain in the same room with him, much less married to him - but Doug's relationship to each is intriguing, and Doug himself is very real (if he too is occasionally too good to be true, I for one am more than willing to forgive him).
Humor, heartbreak, and goofiness - it's all here. The writing soars while managing to stay tethered to Doug's 8th-grade sensibilities. The ending is tremulous and emotional but not soppy. And the whole novel is entertaining and readable as heck. This is damn good stuff. Highly recommended for ages 11 to 14.
Here are some highlights in an info-packed article from Publishers' Weekly.
Brosgol, Vera. Anya's Ghost. First Second, 2011.(Graphic Novel) When Anya, a disaffected high school student, falls down an old well, she meets Emily Reilly - a ghost who fell into the old well almost a hundred years ago and whose bones anchor her underground.
Luckily Anya doesn't suffer the same fate as Emily, but she is surprised to find that when she is rescued, Emily comes with her, thanks to a finger bone that stows away in her backpack.
Emily seems meek and pathetically eager to help - at first. But as she becomes more and more controlling and attitudinal - in fact turning into the ultimate problem teen, even if she is transparent - Anya realizes that she's got a real problem on her hands. She needs to find the bone that Emily has managed to hide - before Emily turns poltergeist, or worse.
The interesting aspects of this story have to do not so much with Evil Emily - whose story is rather pallid - as with Anya herself. She's a Russian immigrant who came to America when she was 5, and she still remembers fellow Kindergartners making fun of her accent and funny clothes. Her relationship with her single mom and her Russian heritage is ambivalent, and she desperately wants to fit in at school but somehow can't quite succeed even though she's shed her accent, smokes cigarettes, and dresses to blend in. It's a more recent immigrant, fobby as all get out, who helps her see that impressing a bunch of idiot high school students is maybe not the world's best ambition - oh, and Emily Reilly's pychopathic tendencies put things in perspective as well.
Brosgol's art is solid and self-confident, with thick outlines and an altogether pleasant feel that complements this ghost story/high school alienation hybrid. A quick, fun read for grades 7 and up.
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