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What I said about Borderline being a great choice for this challenge? Does not apply to Nothing by Janne Teller, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken. I need to decompress after reading it and writing this review. I can’t just pick up another book and immediately start reading, which, after all, is what you want to do in a reading challenge.

Nothing is an astounding book, undoubtedly among the best books I’ll read this year. I’m going to have a hard time forgetting about it, it’s so haunting and disturbing and frightening. This book deserves all the starred reviews it’s received here upon its US publication and, I have no doubt, the children’s book prizes it’s already won in Europe.

Pierre Anthon realized that nothing matters. His classmates, all thirteen or fourteen-years-old, believe he is wrong. They collect things with meaning to prove to Pierre Anthon that things matter and there is meaning to life. But what started as a collection of favorite toys and mementos soon escalates into something darker, as the classmates begin to force one another into giving up more than material possessions.

Agnes is one of the students. She watches as things start to go wrong, participates in the collection of meaningful things. She tries, early on, to convince her classmates they’re going too far. But their quest has taken on a momentum of its own and Agnes is compelled to remain a part of it. They’re all in it together. As a group, they decided not to tell adults about Pierre Anthon, and as a group, they refuse to let any of their number back out.

For people looking for a thought-provoking, challenging (in terms of content, not style) read, put Nothing on the top of your list.

Reading Time: 54 minutes

Blog/Twitter Time: 28 minutes

Total Reading Time: 2 hours 42 minutes

And now I need some light reading. Maybe Yakitate!! Japan vol. 22? Or maybe I’ll just go to sleep, because we had such a hectic day at work.

I've been deep in the depths of revision for the past few weeks -- polishing up a picture book and a middle grade mystery.  They are both done (*pause for cheering & confetti here*) and on submission now, and I have big plans for a post-revision reading binge. But before I do that, I want to talk about a handful of books I've read lately that you might like, too.  Ready?



Amy Ignatow's THE POPULARITY PAPERS: RESEARCH FOR THE SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT AND GENERAL BETTERMENT OF LYDIA GOLDBLATT AND JULIE GRAHAM CHANG is the book to hand to your girls who are fans of the Wimpy Kid series.  It's that same diary/graphic novel blend that keeps even reluctant readers turning pages and laughing like crazy.  Interestingly enough, the main characters in this are in fifth grade, but it's going over really well with some of my 7th grade girls, even though they're a bit older.  (Due out from Amulet April 1st)



I can't keep Lisa Schroeder's CHASING BROOKLYN on my classroom library shelf - it's one of those books that gets handed from kid to kid in the cafeteria and never makes it all the way back to my classroom, and that's just fine.  I understand why the kids love it, too.  Set at the same high school as Lisa's I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME, her latest YA novel-in-verse is about love and loss, remembering and moving forward. It left me in tears, but they were good ones - the kind you cry when you've just read an amazing book that's full of sorrow and beauty and hope all at once. It's a a beautiful, beautiful book. (Available now from Simon & Schuster)



Fans of Jerry Spinelli's MILKWEED and Lois Lowry's NUMBER THE STARS will love ONCE by Morris Gleitzman.  One of my 7th grade students absolutely devours historical fiction set during the Holocaust, and she was waiting for this ARC, standing at my desk, tapping her foot as I turned the last page.

The main character, Felix, begins the story as a unique (and heartbreaking) unreliable narrator. He's a Jewish boy, hidden in a Catholic orphanage, and utterly unaware of the danger he's facing. When he sets out to find his parents, he sees evidence of the Nazis destruction but misinterprets much of it, placing himself squarely in harm's way. Ultimately, though, he's faced with too much reality to go on believing the stories he's told himself, and from there, the book chronicles his loss of innocence and his coming of age in the worst of times. It's beautifully written and though like many books set during the Holocaust, it's tough to read at times, it's certainly not without hope.  Highly recommended, it comes out from Henry Holt March 30th.



Two days after turning the last page of NOTHING by Janne Teller, I'm still struggling over what to write about it. I can't really say that I liked it, since I read most of it with a pained expression on my face. But is it brilliantly well-written? And smart? And incredibly thought-provoking? Yes, yes, and yes.

The premise is simple and kind of horrifying: A 7th grader climbs up into a tree and says he's not coming down because there's really no meaning in life anyway. His classmates, u

Sometimes trees can look heathy on the outside, but actually be dying on the inside These trees fall unexpectedly during a storm.

This is part of a news article Parker Rabinowitz, the outwardly perfect, honor roll, athletic, hopefully Princeton-bound senior, who is the protagonist of Robin Friedman's novel NOTHING thinks about writing for the new teen section of a local newspaper. But it is less about trees than it is about himself. Because Parker is bulimic, suffering under the weight of parental expectations, the pressures he puts on himself and his inability to separate himself and his own needs and desires from his parent's expectations.

That line really hit me when I read it, because when I was actively bulimic, I wrote several poems with a very similar theme - if I can dig them up I'm going to send them to Robin - where I'm inside crumbling and wondering why no one can see that, feeling like tiny chunks of myself are falling off each and every day yet everyone acts as if I'm just the same and tell me how well I'm coping. That dissonance between the outer facade and the inner reality comes across very effectively in NOTHING - as does Parker's longing to tell someone about his problem, his feeling of isolation and loneliness, yet his inability to cross over the wall of his own "perfect", coping facade to admit vulnerability.

Yes. Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt. I remember when I finally did "fall unexpectedly during a storm" and was in the hospital" and I said to one of the doctors, "I feel like I'm screaming for help and no-one is listening."

He said, "Have you ever tried just asking for help?"

Me: *crickets*

It's been a long learning process, and even now I have to fight my perfectionist streak and my feeling that it's "weak" to ask for help. But I've become much better at it. And it's certainly a much healthier option than standing in front of a toilet and sticking your finger down your throat, right?

Robin also portrays the family dynamics effectively. Sure the media plays a role in our desire to be thinner and thinner, but eating disorders are as much about control as they are about looks - and much of the background for the control issues derives from the family of origin.

Brava to Robin for writing this important and powerful book. I'm so glad that there is a well-written book with a male protagonist with an eating disorder, because the incidence of eating disorders (and generally disordered eating which isn't clinically an eating disorder) amongst males is on the rise.

And I have an extra thank you to Robin because this book was originally called PURGE. When Robin and her publishers changed the title to NOTHING, I wrote and asked if we could take the title PURGE and they said yes!
So DOUBLE thanks to Robin, for writing such a sensitive and on-target book that I'm sure will reach and help many, many teens and also for finally giving me a title for my book!