So many books, so little time

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

2012-02-10T13:29:00.000-08:00

Shiver

Scholastic Press

2009

Two apologies to start off this review:

1. I'm WAY behind the times in reading this book. And for that, I'm sorry.

2. Dear Maggie Stiefvater: I'm sorry I read this book when I did. I know you've written a great novel (er, trilogy), and I should have read this book years ago. Any book that followed the high of Daughter was bound to get a meh reaction. That’s just the way things are. But I'm still a little sorry.

With Shiver Stiefvater has taken the “forbidden love” plotline and threw a big, rather hairy, wrench into it. Grace and Sam have always admired one another, but from afar. Grace has always admired Sam from her kitchen window, and Sam admired Grace when she came into the bookstore where he worked during the summer. So why don’t the two just talk to each other? Because Sam isn’t a typical teenager: he’s a werewolf. When the weather gets cold enough, he turns into a wolf and stays that way until the weather warms enough that he can turn back into a human. In their small town of Mercy Falls, MN, there has been lots of wolf activity recently – a student was mauled and killed by the wolves. When a hunting party shoots Sam, he is able to turn himself into a human and luckily Grace is there to save him. Finally united in their human form, Sam and Grace make the best of the time they have together while trying to find a cure AND save the town from Jack, the oh-wait-he-didn’t-actually-die new werewolf in town.
Being a non-fan (antifan?) of the romance genre for the most part, I thought I was destined to dislike this book. It sounded Jacob-gets-Bella-esque from the description, so I was leery. However, the super creative twist (think Ladyhawke only sans Ferris Bueller, and for teenagers) made it completely readable to us Nicholas-Sparks-loathers. I will say that the plot dragged a little for me, and there were times when Grace and Sam were gazing deep into one another’s eyes and I kind of hoped for a wolf to jump out and bite them, but again, I blame the timing. I’m pretty sure if I’d read this book in the fall, or even six months from now, things would be different. But I digress. In general, it was a pretty good read. I can absolutely see the teen attraction, and the last chapter or so hooked me. I would love to say I’m going to read the rest of the trilogy: Linger and Forever, but unfortunately, I just don’t have time. The pile of books-to-be-read grows daily, so I rarely read sequels (Laini Taylor, if you’re reading this, that sentence does NOT apply to your books. Just sayin).
Regardless of whether or not I find out what happens to Grace, Sam, and all the other great characters from Mercy Falls, I would highly recommend (and already have, twice) this book to just about any teenage girl who loved Twilight.

Books, Steampunk and Bonding with Students

2012-02-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

I don't usually blog about what I do every day in the library because non-library people would probably find it pretty boring. I read*. Books, book reviews, magazine articles about books, books about books, etc. And I talk about books - with teachers, students, and other library geeks. I do book talks, genre walks, book recommendations, etc. At least once a day I go gaga crazy over a book. Usually, it's when a student comes in looking for a book and I get to help them find one that's AMAZING and that they cannot possibly live without reading it!!! And yes, most of the students and staff here think I'm a little off my rocker. They're probably right, but I'm charming and cute, so they let it go.
The teacher part of me has not died in becoming a librarian. One of the biggest perks of being a teacher is watching young minds grow, change and develop into thinking (albeit hormonal, slightly imbalanced, but darn funny) minds. The thing I miss the most about being in the classroom is the opportunity to get to know students - their lives, their strengths, their struggles, and their passions. As a classroom teacher I really got to know the kids in my classes, but I never really learned much about the students who didn't take German. As a librarian, I learn lots of names but I don't have as much of an opportunity to get to know kids on an individual basis. Except for two types of kids: the book lovers and the punks. I know the punks because I have to talk to them every time they come into the library about one of the following things: drawing on the desks/walls/bookshelves, horseplay, trying to check their facebook status, swearing, or being punks. I had to deal with the punks as a classroom teacher as well, so it's par for the course. And usually, I can find one or two redeeming qualities to the punks, so they aren't that bad.
However, it's the book lovers that make my job a joy each and every day.
Take, for instance, the three girls who come in and have lunch with me every day. They love books just about as much as I do and we banter about books constantly. If I read a book that I know one of them will enjoy, I give it to them. One of them constantly tries to convince me that there is literary value to Nicholas Sparks novels (professionally, I know she's right, but personally...gag me). Another devours every book i give her within 24 hours and always give an honest opinion about books (last week: "Only babies would like that book Miss C...what were you thinking?"). Those girls make my day each and every day - even on days when they're hyper and loud.

This morning I visited some 6th grade classes and talked about different book awards, the awards process, and the award winners we have in the library. As I was getting ready to leave, a boy caught my attention: "Miss C...look!!" I turned, and in his hands he held the perfect Steampunk tophat and goggles. I melted. This kid knows I LOVE Steampunk (if you don't know what Steampunk is, think Will Smith's Wild Wild West. It's technology + historical fiction = pure awesomeness), and now we're permanently bonded through the love of a genre.

I don't know where life will take him, who he'll turn out to be, or what books he'll love as an adult, but I do know that we've bonded because of books.
Some people are super stoked for this weekend because of the Super Bowl, and that's great for them. I am super stoked because sweet Abram brought his rockin' cool hat and goggles in to show them to ME today. That? Makes me pretty freakin' cool.

*Update: I also spend quite a bit of my day focused on technology - fixing it, teaching it, figuring it out. I'm as much tech-guru as book-guru. Beloved library friends, please stop the influx of emails about "don't you work with technology?" and "gosh, I wish I had time for books - I'm too busy with technology". Books are just the focus today. For the record, I heart tech too.

The actual review for Daughter of Smoke and Bone

2012-01-31T06:00:00.000-08:00

The Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Laini Taylor

Little Brown

2011

Ok, so yesterday’s post was kinda mean. Well, not mean, but it wasn’t really a review as much as it was a demanding rant.

Sorry about that.

But The Daughter of Smoke and Bone is one of the best books I’ve read in a while. Holy crap it’s good. It’s so good that when it ended, I didn’t pick up another book for three days because I couldn’t imagine reading anything else. And in my world, not picking up a book for three days is a big deal. HUGE. My guy was a little worried when I was reading magazines and…gasp…talking to him instead of ignoring him (in my defense, he likes to read as well and is rarely offended when I ignore him).

Every time I give the premise of Daughter, people look at me like I’m nuts. It’s so involved and so intricate it can be a little confusing. So stick with me for a minute mmkay?

17 year old Karou lives a double life in Prague. On the one hand she’s an extremely talented art student who doesn’t have a family and is a little mysterious. On the other hand she’s an errand girl for the chimaera (mythical beings made up of different animals and human parts) who raised her. However, because they are part animal, part human, the chimaera do not venture out into the human world. Karou must access them through a one-way portal: she knocks on a door and it is opened to her. If she tries to open the door from the outside, she cannot enter. Brimstone, the head chimaera, is a Wishmonger – if you bring him things he wants, he pays in wishes. And usually what he wants are teeth. Karou is usually sent out to collect teeth from all kinds of people, both normal and…well…unsavory. Upon returning from an errand, Karou notices a handprint has been seared into the door of the portal. About a week later, she is attacked by a seraph – a super hot angel dude. Shortly thereafter, all the portals burn down and Karou is left alone in the human world. As she tries desperately to find a way back to the only family she’s ever known, the seraph – Akiva – reappears in her life, and Karou is drawn to him for completely inexplicable reasons.

And that? Is only about a third of the actual plot. The plot is amazing – twists and turns and creativity I never would have imagined. The world Taylor creates is mystical and fantastic and so completely believable you will get lost in it. And not lost as in “ohmygoodness where am I”, lost as in “I have animals to feed and a job to do? Pah. I shall read and nothing else”.

And on the last page, you will simultaneously want to hug and curse Taylor. Hug her because she has created this amazing work of fiction that is romance, action, fantasy wrapped together with a little comedy, and curse her because the sequel Days of Blood and Starlight (the title was just announced Friday on Taylor’s blog) isn’t due out until this fall. Oh, the horror. I seriously don’t know if I can wait that long. I’ve already contacted Taylor and begged for an advanced copy.

And yes, I will be sending her a link to this review in the hopes that she finds me witty and charming and sends me an advanced copy.

If not, you can bet your knickers I WILL NOT work immediately following the release of Days of Blood and Starlight. I will be reading and neglecting the rest of my life for at least 24 hours.

I also just noticed on her blog that Universal already owns the film rights. There are only 52 days left until Hunger Games the movie is released. And you all know how excited I am about that right? NO LIE: I’d trade Hunger for Daughter. THAT’S HOW AWESOME IT IS.

So go read it. Now.

The Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

2012-01-30T13:45:00.000-08:00

The Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Laini Taylor

Little Brown

2011

There are about a thousand ways I could/can start this review. But I feel like this one sums it up the best:

Stop what you are doing RIGHT NOW and go check out Daughter of Smoke and Bone and read it.

RIGHT. NOW.

Why, dear friend are you still reading this review?!?! Were the capital letters not urgent enough? Did I not make myself clear?

Go.

Now.

I swear, you’ll love this book and be completely annoyed that the sequel isn’t due out for another six months.

Now go.

JUST GO ALREADY.

Sheesh.

Updated: I felt bad about this review, so here's the for realsies review

Zombies vs. Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier

2012-01-17T10:46:00.000-08:00

Zombies vs. Unicorns
Edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier
Margaret K. McElderry Books
2010

Obviously, with a title like Zombies vs. Unicorns I had to read it. It did not disappoint, though it wasn’t quite what I thought it would be either. Of course, I went off of the assumption that it would be a scholarly debate based in fact and research (ahem). It isn’t. It’s actually a collection of stories by various YA authors who are either “Team Unicorn” or “Team Zombie”. The banter between editors Black and Larbalestier at the beginning of each story was the only debate throughout the book, and it’s snort-out-loud funny.

The book started because of a twitter war between Black and Larbalestier about which was better: zombies or unicorns. Larbalestier is Team Zombie and Black is Team Unicorn. When I first heard about the book, my I’m-too-much-of-a-wussie-to-watch-scary-movies side immediately agreed with Black that unicorns kick undead hiney. But when I saw the authors’ that made up Team Zombie, I decided I’d have to give the walking dead a chance. After finishing the book, the debate still has not been settled: there were excellent zombie and unicorn stories, but there were also crappy/weird stories from both teams as well. Here’s my favs and my least favs.

Scores for Team Unicorn:

The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn by Diana Peterfreund – in a world where unicorns are actually savage beasts, a girl saves a baby unicorn from certain death at the hands of a creeptastic carnie and raises it in spite of putting herself directly in the path of danger. And razor sharp unicorn teeth.

Princess Prettypants by Meg Cabot – I swear I didn’t like this book just because of the author. It’s Liz’s birthday and her aunt sends her the most interesting present ever: a for realsies unicorn. Little does she realize that unicorns aren’t actually my pretty ponies, and Liz must learn how to take care of Princess Prettypants while also trying to win back her friends, all of whom she ticked off on her birthday.

Scores for Team Zombie:

Cold Hands by Cassandra Clare – Adele and James are a young couple in love in the town Lychgate, aka Zombietown. But when James dies in a car accident, everyone assumes they will not live happily ever after, since Luke will probably come back as a zombie. Did I mention Luke was supposed to be the Duke of Lychgate? Yeah, Adele is out to prove that he was murdered. It’s an awesome story.

Bougainvillea by Carrie Ryan – the island of little Curaçao is a safe haven against zombie – mudo – infestation, and Iza’s father runs the island with an iron fist. Iza feels stifled and isn’t sure that the way her father runs things will actually keep them safe. Then one day a mysterious stranger appears on the dock. Iza should report him, but for some reason she doesn’t, and…well…all hell breaks loose.

Strikeouts in general, regardless of team:

A Thousand Flowers by Margo Lanagan – princess makes it with a unicorn, gets preggers, goes downhill from there. Way too weird for me, and I can handle weird.

Inoculata by Scott Westerfield – this kills me to say because I heart Scott Westerfield. I was so excited to read his story and it totally left me feeling meh. In a zombie infested world, there is a group of people living in isolation beyond a fence. One kid figures out how to get zombie-fied w/o going crazy and then all the kids want to.

This is definitely a book for anyone who likes short stories and stories that present interesting twists on old topics. Even though there were a few misses within the collection, in general, it was a very fun read, and if you find yourself bored with the stories, spend a few minutes looking at the book cover - it depicts an all out battle between zombies and unicorns and is, well, hilarious.

In the end, I’m totally team Unicorn: I’ll take rainbow farts over rotting flesh any day of the week.

I'm Not Her by Janet Gurtler

2012-01-13T08:44:00.000-08:00

I'm Not Her
Janet Gurtler
Sourcebooks
2011

I read a review or two of this book, put it on hold and waited for about two months to get it. Usually, that's a sign of a really good book. By the time I got the book, I'd completely forgotten about it. When I read the description, I almost turned it back in without reading it. I couldn't remember why people had said it was soooo great. And now that I've read it, even I can't necessarily put my finger on why it's soooo great. But it is.
Maybe I love the book so much because I feel like Tess is me and her perfect, athletic sister is my sister Nikki. Tess likes herself just the way she is, and though Kristina is pretty content lets her be herself, she also encourages Tess to be a bit more social. I think that's how things were (and probably still are) with Nikki and I. Granted, my sister never had to encourage me to be social. But I was (and still am) awkward, especially when you put me next to my tall, stunning sister. I might not be shy, but when Nikki walks into a room, you can't help but notice her (I just make people notice me by being loud and often somewhat obnoxious. I prefer the term charming, but whatever).
The twist of the book comes when Kristina is diagnosed with bone cancer. All of a sudden her popularity weaves its way into Tess' life, and Tess likes it and hates it. Tess has always been somewhat invisible in her sister’s shadow, and not just to Kristina’s friends, but also to her parents. Suddenly, Kristina’s friends – who couldn’t be bothered to notice Tess before – are constantly around wondering why Kristina won’t return their calls, and her parents expect Tess to “be strong” even when they refuse to deal with the situation themselves. Throughout the book Tess is completely torn between being angry that her sister’s situation has upended her life and dealing with the horror and the sadness she feels about her sister having such a devastating form of cancer.
I love that Gurtler made the parents fallible but not self-absorbed. The parents have faults, and up until their daughter was diagnosed with cancer, they were able to cover those faults with style or academia. When faced with the dilemma of their daughter’s illness, they don’t know how to cope with the reality of the situation or the emotions that come along with knowing their lives aren’t perfect and their perfect athlete daughter might end up an amputee. I also love that Tess was not only mature and level headed, able to step in and be the adult when her parents were unable/unwilling, but also a girly teenager, completely controlled by her hormones. Tess struggles to balance school – she really wants to be one of the freshmen chosen for National Honor Society, her friend(s) – including her former best friend and the multiple boys who now notice she exists and her parents – whose habit of turning a blind eye and acting like all is normal are not only affecting their relationship, but Tess’ grades and Krisina’s recovery.
In the end I know that my life and my relationship with my sister (and my entire family) is very different from Tess’, though I probably felt a lot like she did when I was a freshman in high school. The bond that Tess felt with her sister and the way it grew and evolved throughout the book was pretty close to the relationship I had with my sister: we were different and we frustrated the heck out of each other, but it was in high school that we learned to talk to each other, confide in each other and value each other for our differences.

The Power of a Good Book

2012-01-12T08:16:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year, my dear friend Kami gave me this necklace. To most people, it would just be a pretty necklace. But for me, it's one of the most amazing gifts ever.
As soon as I saw the necklace, I said "Ohmygosh, this reminds me of Revolution!" Kami hadn't read the book, so I - of course - had to give her a rundown of what happens and why it's so amazing.
Yes, I'll admit that most people have not achieved my unbelievable level of book-freakishness, but I know I'm not alone in relating certain things in life to the books I've read. I make obscure book references often. I try to keep those references in my head unless I’m fairly certain those around me will catch on to the reference. I don’t want everyone to know the true level of my book-weirdness. But I digress…
When we read a book that moves us, it sticks with us, and even though we may not think about that book or character for a while, it only takes a little push, a little reminder, to shoot us back into that world. This morning, as I was putting this necklace on, I remembered Andi’s voice: her bitterness, her pain, and her absolute obsession with a secret diary that made her feel crazy and, ultimately, helped save her. I know that I have read books that make me feel crazy while I’m reading them – whether it’s because of the pictures I create in my head (Coraline by Neil Gaiman took my fear of rats and crazy mothers to a whole new level) or because of the emotions they stir up in me (please, please read A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness if you like to be moved by literature. Or read Revolution! Both will rock your socks, I promise).
Regardless of why and how the book moves you, the important thing is that you are moved. As a librarian, that movement is one of the many things we strive for. Even though the library isn't just about books anymore, and sometimes in a school library, we spend more time focusing on technology, 21st Century Skills and research, we still love to see students absolutely engrossed in books, we love it when they come in raving about a great book, and we really love it when they connect a great book they've read to something as obscure as...a necklace. Even though we do so much more than just book talks, we still want every patron to find books that make them feel, or forget the world around them for a little while. And that, my friends, is the power of a good book.

Happy Reading!

Trapped by Michael Northrop

2011-12-16T16:00:00.000-08:00

Trapped
Michael Northrop
Scholastic Press
2011

It’s winter, it’s cold, and it snows. Luckily where I live, it doesn’t snow too much (yes, I live in Colorado, but newsflash, the western side of Colorado is the desert), so we rarely get snow days (darn). When I lived in Chicago I always hoped for snow days, but in the four years I lived there, it just never happened. As a teacher, I love snow days. It’s the greatest feeling in the world – wake up, start getting ready for school and ring ring YES no school! I’ve never thought about the fact that a snow day could be bad.

Then I read Trapped by Michael Northrup and I realized a snow day could be bad. Especially if it meant I’d be stuck at school on a snow day.

Trapped takes place in New England – a place where monster snow storms are more common. And the storm that takes place in this book is the big one – the perfect snowstorm. The book starts out and it’s a regular day with snow expected. When the snow starts to fall harder and sooner than expected, school is released a little early so the students can get home. Of course, a few students and a teacher stay late – grading papers, working on projects, etc. By the time they decide to leave a few hours later, the snow is so bad, cars are no longer driving on the road and it looks like they’ll be stuck overnight. The next morning they wake up and it’s still snowing and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop. They realize that no one is going to be coming for them anytime soon, so they make themselves comfortable – they raid the cafeteria for food and try to make the best of it. But when day three and four pass and the snow hasn’t stopped, no power and no sign of help coming, things get interesting.

I enjoyed the premise of the book, and I really enjoyed that it was told from a student’s point of view – for the first day or so, they aren’t worried because they’re at the age where they still rely on adults to take care of them. Once there are no adults to make the decisions, things get a little tricky. The characters are relatively true to “typical teenagers” – though I must say, they were pretty tame for teenagers. I liked this book, but it wasn’t really a page turner, and my reliable student reader Anna called it “a little kid-ish”. It has action, it has suspense, but it’s just a little…vanilla. Having said that, I liked that it wasn’t over-sensationalized – it’s definitely realistic fiction.

Though it didn’t make my top ten list of greatest books ever written in the history of the world, I would recommend it to some of the readers I have who don’t like fiction because it’s “fake”. I think those readers who enjoy reading books that are realistic and not dramatized at all would enjoy a book like this.

Scarlet Moon and the Once Upon a Time Series

2011-12-16T10:05:00.000-08:00

Scarlet Moon

Debbie Viguié

Simon Pulse

2004

Part of the Once Upon a Time series

Fairytales will always have a special place in my heart. When I was a girl, I loved fairytales because of the knight in shining armor. When I was a teenager, I loved fairytales because they made me feel nostalgic (I know, nostalgia as a teenager? But think about it, childhood stories would be something we had shed by that age and could look back on with fond memories). In college, I was able to see and appreciate the strength the female characters possessed in fairytales. Now as an adult, I have loved reading fairytales to my nieces because I get to re-experience the stories through their eyes.

Last year I discovered the Once Upon a Time series, and I was hooked. The series takes all of our favorite fairytales and retells them with historical twists. Scarlet Moon is the retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. Only in this story, the grandmother lives in the woods because she has been banished from the village for being a “witch”, and Ruth (Little Red Riding Hood) is first attacked by the wolf when she is young because her red cloak attracts his attention. She survives the attack as a child because her brother stabs the wolf. Then her brother must go off to fight in the Crusades, and Ruth spends the next nine years helping her father in his blacksmith shop. As a young woman, she meets the mysterious nobleman William enters her life, she can’t help but fall for him – he’s the only man who not only accepts that she is a woman doing a man’s work, he is attracted to her because of it. One problem: William has a very dark secret. His family was cursed generations before, and, well, he’s a werewolf.

Yep, you guessed it. He’s the wolf that attacked Ruth so many years before. And now she has the hots for him and he has the hots for her. It’s twisted and awesome and I couldn’t put it down.

What I love about Scarlet Moon and all the books in the Once Upon a Time series is that the twist they put on each of the fairytales has to do with different historical periods, making them almost historical fiction. Scarlet Moon is just as much about the Crusades and how difficult they were on families as it is about werewolves and witches. Crimson Thread, the retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, tells the story of American immigrants at the turn of the century. What a great way for girls to learn history!

So obviously I’m completely in love with this series. Scarlet Moon is one of my favorites, and I’ve read about 8 of the series. Yes the series is a bit older, but it is TOTALLY worth reading, regardless of age. The books are written at about a 6^th grade level, so if you have young daughters, they are great books to read with them before bedtime. If you have sons, yeah…you’re going to want to find a different series. These books are all girl. I would highly recommend these books to any female who has fond memories of fairytales.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

2011-12-05T16:57:00.000-08:00

A Monster Calls
Patrick Ness
(inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd)
Candlewick Press
2011

First off, let me say that usually, I don’t do scary. I’m the girl that has night terrors and is truly afraid of things that go bump in the night. When I do read scary books, I usually only read them during daylight hours, and they usually have a pretty profound effect on me – especially on my ability to sleep. When A Monster Calls came across my desk, I knew the book would have an effect on me, I just didn’t realize how much of an effect. And…spoiler alert…it’s actually NOT scary.

A Monster Calls is about Connor, whose father has moved to America and has a whole new family, whose grandmother is hard-working and pretty cold toward him, and whose mother is battling cancer. Connor has suffered from a terrible nightmare for months – his mother falling off a cliff being consumed by a monster. When another monster appears at his window one night, he isn’t scared. This monster has not come for his mother, it’s come for him. The monster will tell Connor three tales, and then Connor must tell him a tale – the only truth Connor knows. But Connor isn’t sure he can tell the only truth he knows.

Throughout the book Connor tries to convince himself that the monster is just a dream – I mean really, it’s a talking tree! But as his mother gets worse, and things at school get worse, the monster continues to visit him, tell him stories and have a profound effect on him.

I don’t want to tell you much about the book, because I think part of the reason it affected me as much as it did is because I didn’t know much about the storyline. I will say that the book really isn’t about monsters. It’s about coping with grief and loss. Patrick Ness has done a superb job of creating a new way of viewing the human condition and what is “unfair” in life.

What I will tell you about the book is that while it was written by Ness, the idea came from another great writer – Siobhan Dowd. She has written several excellent novels which I can’t keep on my shelf, and in 2007 she lost her battle with breast cancer. Last night as I finished the book, I couldn’t help but think about her and her battle. Did this idea come from her difficulty in dealing with her mortality? I also kept thinking about a conversation I recently had with my dear friend Katy– is it easier to deal with loss when it’s sudden or when it is a slow process? In the end, we realized that loss is difficult regardless of when and how it happens, but the most important part of loss is dealing with it. I hope I never have to deal with loss similar to Connor’s (I’m hoping beyond all hope that my parents are actually immortal…), I’ve learned a lesson from Connor’s story – speaking the truth is the only way to truly deal with loss.

I would recommend this book to just about anyone – unless they’re looking for a traditional “horror” book. The illustrations (by Jim Kay) are haunting, but the book really isn’t about monsters in the traditional sense. This book really is about as close to realistic fiction without actually being realistic fiction as humanly possible. This book is heart-wrenching, deep and thoughtful. So if you’re looking for funny, don’t pick this one up. But if you want a book that will make you think about truth, the human condition and the tough stuff in life, I highly, highly recommend this book. And yes, I cried (shocker).

Here's an article/review written by Jessica Bruder, a woman who knew Dowd well: It Takes a Monster to Learn How to Grieve

Another great review from Stackedbooks.org

Here's an article written by a 17-old-student here in GJ. Genrefluent's Bistro Book Club - Teens Talk About Books

Here's a link to Siobhan Dowd's website The Siobhan Dowd Trust

Habits are Learned Video

2011-12-05T09:02:00.000-08:00

Thank you to Nancy Dowd of The "M" Word - Marketing Libraries for sharing this awesome video!

True (...Sort of) by Katherine Hannigan

2011-11-30T14:26:00.000-08:00

True (...Sort of)
Katherine Hannigan
Greenwillow Books
2011

When I started reading Katherine Hannigan’s novel True (Sort of…) my first impression was that it was an elementary level book. I liked the character Delly Pattison and her made up words – you know, being a word-maker-upper myself – but it was just a little too…cutsie for me. I couldn’t imagine a super-cool 8^th grader being willing to read about “surpresents” (surprise presents) and “mysturiosities” (very curious mysteries). In fact, I envisioned the book being read aloud to a class of sixth graders. Theoretically, a teacher could read this book aloud to a class – it’s a bit long, but it’s a very quick read. However, in the end, I’m not sure I’d read it aloud to a class. For a book that starts off being “cutsie” it definitely hits some heavy topics and in the end, is a very deep, meaningful and profoundly touching book.

Clearly, I loved it.

Like I said, it’s the story of Delly (Delaware) Pattison – second youngest in a family with five children. Delly has been labeled a troublemaker, even though her escapades are always done with the best intentions. The book starts out explaining how when Delly was younger, she was happier and even though she got in trouble, she always had a smile on her face and would wake up and face the day with excitement. Somewhere along the line though, Delly lost that smile and that excitement, and now she’s usually just angry.

Then she meets Ferris Boyd, the new girl who doesn’t speak and doesn’t allow anyone to touch her. She’s sort of a “mysturiosity” to Delly, so Delly starts following her home, telling her stories. Delly is supposed to go home after school, so their friendship is sort of a secret. Soon, they are best friends. Throughout the rest of the book, that friendship is tested, and Delly learns about the world around her and slowly starts to understand that she has been rather selfish in life. As she learns to be self-less, the relationships in her life – with her family, teachers, and even with the local police officers – improve, and her life is profoundly changed.

What I love about this book is Delly’s worldview. She sees the world in a completely different light than most people. It’s the perfect blend of innocence, ignorance, wonder and thought. It’s her worldview that creates, almost ruins, and saves her friendship with Ferris. I would like to think that there are 6^th graders out there who are like Delly – who are still able to see the wonder in the world, but who realize the importance of being there for those you love.

For a book that started out as a fun, read-aloud book, I cried hard in the end, and my worldview has changed in regards to my students. I no longer think this would be a good book to read aloud to a class, but I will recommend it to just about any one of my students who enjoys realistic fiction, and I think I might recommend that the Literacy teachers at my school read it. In fact, I would say this would be an excellent book for any middle school student, or anyone who works with middle school children. It is a beautifully written book with heart and a sense of humor.

Dead Rules by Randy Russell

2011-11-29T06:41:00.000-08:00

Dead Rules
Randy Russell
HarperTeen
2011

Creeperific cover eh? For the first few days I had this book, I really wanted to spin old school and make a brown paper bag cover for this bad boy, the cover freaked me out so much. However, about three days into reading, I realized that the back is the same, only different (wha?), so instead, I just remembered to keep the book face down on my bedside table. That and the description made me think it would be somewhat scary and it’s not at all. In fact, it’s just plain fantastic. Super fantastic. One of my favorite reads of the school year so far.

Jana Webster is one half of Webster and Haynes – champion debate duo and soul mates – and when she dies in a freak bowling accident, she is sure that her boyfriend, Michael Haynes, is absolutely devastated without her. She’ll do anything to have him join her at Dead School – the purgatory high school all teens go to between life and death.

The first thing I love about this book is Dead School itself. What a great idea! Real high school is kind of like purgatory for most of us, but it’s also a time where we figure out who we are (er…try to) and what we want to do with our lives. Dead School is similar in that kids are divided into different groups – risers, sliders, grays and virgins. Grays are students who took their own lives and are servants in the afterlife. Virgins are…well were…yeah, you get it…and they are the messengers for the powers that be. Risers are students who lived decent lives and died, usually by accident, and will most likely “rise” when they’re done with Dead School (a time frame that no one knows or understands for the record). Sliders are the opposite. These are the kids who lived life on the sketchy side and many died while in the middle of some illegal or dastardly deed (what a great word – dastardly!).

Jana dies and is a Riser, however, in order to help her boyfriend die, she must become a Slider – something that rarely happens in Dead School. In order to become a Slider, she’ll need the help of Mars Dreamcote – the handsome Slider with a secret or two. Mars is the second thing I love about this book. He is not what he seems and he is one of the most real, honest, fantastic kid…er dead kid…you can imagine. I kept thinking of some of my classmates when I was reading about him – were the people we thought of as misfits and “bad boys” really just kids trying to make heads or tails of their lives? If you can read this book and not fall in love with Mars, you’re heartless (ok, maybe not, but still, you might want to have yourself checked out by a professional).

Jana is also an excellent character. Her death makes her reexamine her life, and though this isn’t a new concept, Russell definitely puts a new spin on it. Her drive to become a Slider and thus help her devoted boyfriend join her in the afterlife is so focused, she completely misses out on some big details just like she did while she was alive. When it all becomes clear to her, her change/revelation/epiphany – whatever you want to call it – is fantastic (if not just a wee bit predictable).

Yeah, so basically Dead Rules is an awesome book that I would recommend to anyone who likes realistic fiction that is set in a science fiction world. Oh, and anyone who likes a laugh. It’s darn funny – the stories of how all the characters die are hilarious as are the dialogue and the rules of Dead School.

Enjoy!

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

2011-11-28T17:44:00.000-08:00

Liar
Justine Larbalestier
Bloomsbury
2009

Audiobook read by Channie Waites

I got this book because I liked the premise: Micah has been hiding her true identity for years but when her boyfriend is killed, she decides to come clean (to the reader at least) about the fact that she is a werewolf.

Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out as I’d planned. But I’ll get to that later.

As I said, the book is about Micah – a girl who doesn’t fit in anywhere. The truth is she’s a werewolf. Her family on her father’s side are all werewolves, and she inherited the “family illness”. The book starts off with Micah telling us about all the ways she’s lied in the past – pretending she’s a boy, not telling her parents where she’s going or with whom. Then her boyfriend (secret boyfriend) turns up missing and since everyone knows she lies all the time, they assume she did or knows something. When it turns out her boyfriend was mauled by wild dogs, Micah has to figure out who really killed Zach and convince her parents it wasn’t her so they won’t ship her off to live with her crazy, red-neck were-relatives.

As I said, the book ended up being very different from what I imagined. For one, Larbalestier does an amazing job of weaving lies and truth together. She does such an amazing job, in the end, you have no idea what is lie and what is the truth. Truth be told, I think I need to go back and re-read the end of the book because I really don’t know what was true and what was fiction, and I can’t decide whether that is a plus or a minus for the book.

I’m also not sure how I feel about this book because I listened to it on audiobook and, well, I pretty much hated it. It was read very slowly and the different accents the narrator attempted were forgotten relatively quickly or just plain bad*. Usually when I don’t like an audio book I quit listening and finish reading the book in print and that often helps. However in this case, by the time I got the print book, I’d listened to so much of the book, I only had about a chapter and a half left – not enough to be redemptive.

I would recommend this book to high school aged students who are fans of science fiction and romance – anyone who likes secrets, werewolves and “forbidden love”. It’s definitely a girl book, and the language and violence are a bit much for the average middle school student. I will not give up on Justine Larbalestier because of this one book though! Mostly because she’s married to Scott Westerfield (one of my favs), and because the title of her other book – How to Ditch Your Fairy – is just entirely too tempting!

*I say this with all due respect to Ms. Waites. I couldn’t do her job no matter how hard I tried. Just ask my friends. Last year I tried reading a passage from a book aloud to them and it was crapski.

Gemini Bites by Patrick Ryan

2011-11-17T17:00:00.000-08:00

Gemini Bites

Patrick Ryan

Scholastic Press

2011

When my guy saw this book sitting on the kitchen table and read the book jacket, his first reaction was “What in the world are you reading?” Then, as I explained the premise of Gemini Bites to him, his look of confusion and concern just deepened. I’ll admit, the storyline is one of the things that drew me to the book: fraternal twins Kyle and Judy fall for the same guy. And said guy is super gorgeous, rather mysterious, and allegedly a vampire.

But the storyline isn’t all there is to this book. In fact, the love triangle turns out to be rather secondary (at least it was the way I read the book). It’s more about sibling rivalry and about why teenagers do things that make no sense to them or those around them but they just can’t help themselves.

Case in point: Judy. If she were my sister, I’d probably hold a pillow over her head to put the family out of their misery. Über-competitive, fake and cranky is how she comes across in the book – even in the chapters written from her point of view. She’s attending a church group and claiming to be “born again” all because she wants to date a guy. She’s rude, selfish, conniving and goes after Garret (aforementioned vampire) just because she can tell Kyle is a little interested in him. Throughout the book both Kyle and Judy make references to the fact that they were closer before their parents initial divorce (backstory; Kyle and Judy are the middle children in a family of nine. Their parents separated for just over a year when they were younger and they haven’t been close since. Kyle doesn’t understand why, and Judy never bothers to tell him. Judy, for some reason, is in constant competition with Kyle, often mouthing “I win” when she gets her way. The only person to somewhat derail her is Garret – his penetrating stare, great abs and vampiric ways seem to throw her off her normally snarky, aggressive ways.

On the other hand, we have Kyle. He has recently come out of the closet and is handling life pretty well, other than the fact that he doubts he’ll ever actually date a real live boy. His family (minus Judy) is very supportive, he has good friends, and he’s finding his way, though he still struggles with self-confidence. Then along comes Garret Johnson. He tries to be friendly, but 1) he’s pretty sure Garret is straight (wait…is he sure? He’s not sure he’s sure) and 2) Garret is, well, a little creepy with the weird lighting in his room and the mysterious calls with his “vampire trainer” (I can’t remember the term Garret uses and I already returned the book…sorry!). So while Kyle is completely attracted to Garret and thinks maybe Garret is attracted to him, he’s not sure and when Judy starts to show interest in Garret, things get interesting.

Then there’s Garret. He’s weird and somewhat secondary to the plot until the end. His dad is transferred mid-school year, so instead of moving with his parents, he lives in the Renneker attic until the end of the school year. He admits that he’s a vampire when asked, but it’s not something he advertises necessarily. Too bad for him the school crazy is after him, constantly trying to stake him in the heart or shoot him with a silver bullet. And I can’t tell you too much about Garret without spoiling the end of the book, but I will say that I really didn’t like him much for the majority of the book (I was Team Kyle all the way!!!) but in the end, regardless of his vampire-ness, he is just a kid trying to figure out who he is, and he is definitely instrumental in helping Judy and Kyle both figure out who they are.

Who would I recommend this book to? That’s a great question. I did enjoy the book, but it definitely wouldn’t make any of my favorites list. The book is definitely not middle grade appropriate because of sexual content, but I think high school students who struggle with their identity (and not just their sexuality, who they are in general) would benefit from reading this book because each of the characters tries to be someone they aren’t and then has to deal with the consequences.

**This is the first book review I've done where I can't find the author's website. Help please if you can!***

Matched by Allie Condie

2011-11-17T10:38:00.000-08:00

Matched
Allie Condie
(Allyson Braithwaite Condie)
Dutton Books
2010

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl – the women who wrote Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness – claim that this book is “a brave new world that readers from Twilight to The Hunger Games will claim as their own” (from Matched book jacket). Now, I’m not sure if the words “a brave new world” are bolded to make reference to Aldus Huxley’s book, but if so, I have to whole heartedly disagree. This book is pretty darn good, but it is not, in any way, the “new” form of A Brave New World. However, it is a book that will appeal to both crowds that loved Twilight and The Hunger Games (the movie is on its way people! Get excited!!). In fact, I’d go as far as saying that Cassia really is Katniss stuck in Bella’s world…or...maybe the other way around.

Cassia lives in a world where all decisions are determined by “Officials” – where you will live, what job you will have, how much food you get, etc. The book starts out with Cassia attending her Match banquet – the celebration where she, and many other teens her age, will find out who they are to be “matched” with. Shockingly, Cassia is not only matched with someone she knows, she’s matched to her best and lifelong friend Xander. It’s very rare to be matched with someone you know. The next day when Cassia tries to view all the information about her match (even though she already knows him so well), something strange happens. She sees someone else. Someone else she knows. Ky lives in her neighborhood and she, Ky and Xander have grown up together and spend much of their recreation time together. Now she must figure out which of the two boys is her “true” match, and as she deals with her feelings for both boys, she learns that her perfect society is far from it.
Cassia is much like Bella in that she must choose between two “matches” that are both good for her – one is safer, one fits her better. She doesn’t want to hurt either of them, in fact she tries very hard to protect both of them. She’s also like Bella in that she doesn’t know her own strength (I know there are many people out there who would completely disagree with me that Bella is a very strong female character, but whatever, she is). The difference is that Cassia is taught and encouraged to be strong – by her society and her grandfather. Bella just doesn’t think or know how strong she is. However, the difference between Bella and Cassia is that Bella is drawn to Edward for reasons she doesn’t understand. The idea of Ky is put into her mind by the mixed up match.
Initially, the correlation between Cassia and Katniss was difficult for me to see. From the get-go Katniss knows that Panem is massively defective, and Panem is designed to keep people down. The Society in which Cassia lives tries to convince the citizens of its perfection and goodness. Katniss is a rebel from day one, whereas in Matched, Cassia fights against her initial feelings of rebellion and consistently tries to be a “good citizen”. However, as the book goes on, I can totally see the correlation between the two young women. Both understand that they are, more or less, pawns in their respective societies. Both are forced to put on “shows”, both are forced to do things in order to keep their loved ones safe, and both make choices that classify them as “rebels” simply because they want to protect others.
And now that I’ve compared the crap out of these three heroines, let’s just talk about Matched for a second. It really is an excellent YA novel. It has the action, internal struggle, rebellion and cute boys that are required of any good YA novel. It’s definitely a girl book – the romance plays too much a part in the story for most male readers to get into it.

I don’t know that it will have the same adult-reader appeal that Hunger Games and Twilight did (though I still scratch my head at the adult appeal of Twilight. Yes, I’m an adult who loved it, but...hello…I’m a YA Librarian. It’s kinda my job). This might stem from my current state of the blahs about YA lit. However, I also think the romance-strand of the book is a little too teenage girl for adults to be able to identify with. Or, I might be a complete romantic cynic (probably). In any case, I look forward to purchasing the book for my school library, but won’t necessarily be passing it on to my adult friends.

Hunger Games Movie Trailer

2011-11-16T08:28:00.000-08:00

Oh holy lord. It's nearly here. Ok, so March is four months away, but whatEVER. I can't wait for this movie. And the cast? Wowza.

Ican'twaitIcan'twaitIcan'twaitIcan'twait.

Can you tell I'm excited?

Dear Bully edited by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones

2011-11-11T12:16:00.000-08:00

Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories

Edited by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones

HarperTeen

2011

Dear Bully is a collection of stories about bullying written by some of the most prominent YA authors of our time. I read this book because several copies were donated to our school, and an interesting thing happened while I was reading. I realized that I was kind of a bully in high school. And if I’m going to be completely honest, I’m kind of a bully now sometimes.

People associate the term bully with big hairy teenagers that push down the little runt in the hallway and steal everyone’s lunch money. That may have been the modus operandi of bullies years ago, but now bullies look very different. And bullying isn’t just physically overpowering another person and laughing, it’s any action intended to intimidate or humiliate another person (my definition based on definitions from Merriam Webster, The Free Dictionary and OLWEUS.com). So based on this definition, ask yourself this question: were you a bully?

No?

Yeah, you’re probably lying and don’t even know it.

What I realized through reading Dear Bully is that bullying comes in all different forms, has many different intentions, and most importantly, we – or at least I – have the wrong ideas about bullying in general. Usually we look at bullying from the point of view of how mean the bullying “act” is. We should, however, look (or try to) look at things from the point of view of the victim. Calling another kid “fat” or “fag” or “ugly” isn’t that bad, and doesn’t make you a bully, but put yourself in that kid’s shoes. He/She probably hears those words/taunts hundreds of times. You may not be a bully for teasing someone once, but you are a part of a collective bully that might be making someone’s life pretty miserable.

I also realized that as adults, we haven’t learned to deal with people who are different from us any better than we did when we were kids. I hate to admit it, but I'm pretty sure I'm still a bit of a bully. I used to work with a woman that I could NOT stand. Everything about her annoyed me– she was difficult to work with, had horrible personal habits, and generally drove everyone nuts. Honestly, I never really gave her much of a chance because she was so weird. Instead of being an adult, I acted just like I would have in middle school: I ignored her as much as possible, I conveniently “forgot” to do some of the things she asked, at lunch I would talk with others about how annoying she was and immediately go silent when she walked through the door, and – I hate to admit it – I was flat out rude to her about 90% of the time. And though I wasn’t the only one, I realize now that I could have handled working with a difficult person in a much more adult, professional manner, and that most of the time, I just wanted her to understand that I didn’t like her and wanted her to leave me alone. Only problem was, we worked together. There was nowhere for her, or me, to go. So I just kept being rude, accomplishing nothing.

Yep, I admit it, I bullied her.

Well done, Suzanne. Well done.

And now that I’ve read the wonderful stories contributed by such amazing authors as Jon Scieszka, Lauren Oliver and Mo Willems, I know that bullying looks different through every pair of eyes and that the most empathetic, friendliest, non-bullyesque thing you can do for another person is try to see the world through their eyes and understand their world. Life is hard for everyone, and the best that you can do for your classmates/coworkers/fellow humans is try not to make their journey any harder.

Hereafter by Tara Hudson

2011-10-22T14:12:00.000-07:00

Hereafter

Tara Hudson

HarperTeen

2011

Truthfully, I’m about done with teen-angsty books. And teenage romance? Ugh. So when someone recommended Hereafter, I wasn’t terribly excited. But since the reviews were mixed (book reviews often recommend appropriate ages for books, but they rarely agree) I put the copy at our local library on hold. And I’ll admit that I didn’t really pay a ton of attention to the description.

I’m glad I didn’t, because I think not knowing what I was getting into when I started the book helped a ton. The book is told in first person by Amelia, who is a ghost. She doesn’t remember her life at all, she just remembers her death. Other than reliving her death as a nightmare, Amelia doesn’t have much of an existence. Until she sees someone dying in almost the exact same way she did. As she tries to save him, a connection is made between them, and all of a sudden, someone – the very hunky Joshua she tried to save – can see and hear her. And the fact that he happens to be attracted to her as well is icing on the cake. As Amelia and Joshua try to unravel the events of her life and battle Eli – the powerful ghost who seems to have all the answers to Ameila’s past – they find out all kinds of interesting secrets about the town where they live, Joshua’s family, and the bridge where they both almost perished.

I’ll admit that the book is pretty typical in its storyline – boy and girl meet, they can’t be together, they fight of the bad people, blah blah. What takes Hereafter up a notch is that Hudson keeps the twists coming. Though I could tell where the book would eventually end up, I truthfully didn’t have the slightest as to how it would get there. For example (WARNING: slight spoiler alert) I knew from pretty early on that Eli was responsible for Amelia’s death, but when it came down to the how…dang dude, I did NOT see that twist coming (see, slight spoiler alert).

Back to the main reason I read the book, and that is the mixed reviews. No, the reviews were not mixed about whether or not the book is good, they were mixed as to the age-appropriateness of the book. In my career as a librarian, I’ve tended to err more on the safe side of things unless a book is extremely well written, or I can name at least 5 low readers who would eat it up. And though I loved the book, I’m not sure that too many of my low readers would be able to get through it, so I’m not going to buy it for my middle school library. I think the majority of middle school students could handle it though, despite the alcohol and mild language (which totaled much less than a typical episode of the new 90210). And yes, anyone who loves a good romance story (ugh) that has some action and intrigue in it would love this book.

Guest Post: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter

2011-10-22T13:52:00.000-07:00

My friend Lisa's son Michael is an absolutely avid reader (I'd put money on the fact that he reads more than I do), and since he has read the Warriors series by Erin Hunter and I haven't, I thought it would be AWESOME to have him do a guest review for me! I was so right! What a smart kid!

Warriors: Into the Wild

Erin Hunter

HarperCollins

2003

In this book, a young cat, named Rusty, is introduced to the life of a wild cat. One day, he was hunting a mouse in the woods behind his house, and runs into some of the wild cats of the forest. They offer him a place in their Clan, ThunderClan. He accepts the offer, and starts training to be a warrior. Rusty has to be an apprentice before he is a warrior. Rusty’s apprentice name was Firepaw. He doesn’t settle in quickly; a lot of the cats teased him because of his kittypet (house cat) roots. He trained hard to become a warrior with his best friend, Graypaw. In the end, after saving kits from a rival Clan (ShadowClan; there are five Clans total: ThunderClan, WindClan, RiverClan, ShadowClan, and StarClan), Firepaw and Graypaw become warriors, and their names change to Fireheart and Graystripe. Fireheart’s first moons (months) with the Clan are full of adventure, and there is more to come in Warriors: Fire and Ice.

The only book I’ve read that is similar to Warriors: Into the Wild is A Dog’s Life by Ann M. Martin. That book is about one stray dog’s journey to try to find a nice home. I like this book (this series) because it (they) all have a sense of adventure in them. Also, the cats have problems similar to humans* (such as joining a new school, falling in love with the wrong person or being bullied by someone that should just take care of you). However, in this book (series), I noticed a lot of mistakes. Sometimes, the wrong names were stated or paragraphs were repeated a few pages later. On the Warriors website, the author says this: Since starting the series in 2003, there have been more than forty Warriors and Seekers books, including separate story arcs, mangas, special editions, and field guides. With all of this, you can imagine how many characters and story lines there are to keep track of! While each book is carefully checked and double-checked by the author, the editors, and others, we are only human and sometimes mistakes can slip through. We love your sharp eyes and always listen when you’ve found a mistake so we can be sure to fix it for next time!*

I would recommend this book to anyone with a taste for cats and/or adventure in 2nd grade and up. I think any person who likes cats or adventure will really like this book. Before I read the book, I didn’t really have a taste for cats. But now, I would love to have one as a pet.

If you are wanting to learn more about the “ Warriors “ or the author ( Erin Hunter ), go to the Warrior Website. You can also go to the HarperCollins Website to learn more about “ Warriors: Into the Wild “.

*As cited on the Warriors website.

THANK YOU MICHAEL! WHAT A GREAT REVIEW!!!

My Fair Lazy by Jen Lancaster

2011-10-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

My Fair Lazy : One Reality Television Addict's Attempt to Discover if Not Being a Dumb Ass is the New Black, or a Culture-Up Manifesto

Jen Lancaster
New American Library
2010

Jen, if you happen to be reading this review, I heart you, and can we please be best friends?

For the rest of you who lovingly laugh at my stupid jokes and my inability to keep my mouth shut and not say the sarcastic thing I’m thinking about the moron across the room, please go read any of Jen Lancaster’s books. Why? For one, she writes like I talk (only much funnier). But there are many reasons.

First, she is the master of the footnote. After finishing my masters, I said something along the lines of “I never want to read another footnote or annotation again!” But Lancaster taught me that footnotes can be fun!

Her sense of humor is sarcastic, pointed and, well, right. She, like me, says the things the rest of you don’t want to say out loud but think. She just gets paid for it. I work for peanuts to “change the future”. Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do, but sarcasm and middle school students make a fire-y cocktail that usually ends in tears. But more importantly, she’s real, and her humor is real. Her books are not fantasy, they are not science fiction, and when you read her books, there is no suspense of reality. She writes about things that happen to all of us: getting laid off, getting fat and learning that we know nothing.

My Fair Lazy is, as the title explains, a memoir about the quest to move from reality TV to real life. In the book she realizes that while she is a wealth of TV and movie facts, but when it comes to literature, the theater or anything non-Jersey Shore related, she’s lost. So she sets out to better herself and its hilarious every step of the way. While Lancaster is able to find humor in just about every situation, she is also extremely real, and that’s what makes me love her even more. When I read about her dog getting sick, I teared up and then laughed because she then described the dog’s stench in great detail.

What makes me love her even more is the fact that she realizes how little she knows about the world and chooses to do something about it, without losing who she is. So many people think that reality TV is real, and…I hate to burst bubbles, but…it’s not. Reality TV stopped being real before the turn of the century. It’s still fun to watch, and might be mildly educational (the Amazing Race teaches us about geography and various cultures, and anything on MTV teaches us about drugs and contracting STDs), but to experience life you have to live it, not watch it. In the end, Lancaster doesn’t become a know-it-all, nor does abandon her television habits. She just becomes a more well-rounded person. Which, in this case, is a good thing. If you want to read about her quest to fight the “roundness” in her life, pick up Such a Pretty Fat. It’s amazing.

Who would I recommend this book to? It's difficult to recommend one of Jen's books. But her books in general? I'd recommend to anyone who has ever wanted to make a sarcastic remark and hasn't, anyone who has ever realized that they aren't actually perfect but are willing to come to terms with it, or anyone who wants a good belly laugh when they read, I'd highly recommend this book. And truthfully, if you can get through one of her books without laughing, I will give you $100.

If you need short little doses of hilarity, check out her blog:
http://www.jennsylvania.com/
It too is quite awesome (though she's working on her newest book, so lately it's been a bit slow).

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson

2011-10-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

Middle School, the Worst Years of My Life

James Patterson

Little Brown and Company

2011

Being a middle school librarian, I read quite a bit of middle school literature (duh). For the most part, I enjoy it – not necessarily because the literature “speaks” to me (instert snooty book snob voice), but because when I read it I think of the students I serve who would enjoy, learn from or benefit from reading any given book*. But I have to admit that I really don’t like reading middle-school-survival books. As in, I kinda hate it. Partly because the angst that most middle school students experience didn’t hit me until high school (late bloomer, what can I say), and partly because, to be honest, I’m still getting used to the wee people. Middle school is a crazy crazy parallel universe where up is down, cool is not and nothing makes sense. Ever.

However I have loved a few middle school books – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is one of my favorites (Mr. Alexie, feel free to send me the free, autographed copy of your book for that plug). Since James Patterson is one of the most prolific crossover** authors out there, I figured I should give his book Middle School: the Worst Years of my Life a shot.

And it took me a month and a half to read it. But I am so glad I did. I wanted to give up on it multiple times, but as many of you know, once I start a book, it’s nearly impossible for me to not finish it. I think I expected it to be more like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Absolutely True Diary, and it’s not. Regardless, I had to start this book three times before I finally got far enough into it for it to be worthwhile.

And it was.

Wow.

Rafe Khatchadorian is a 6^th grader going through a pretty rough time. He’s not popular – in fact he only has one friend, Leo the Silent***. In the beginning, Rafe’s story seems silly and pointless and, well, meh. He comes across as a kid who just wants to go from a zero to popular for all the wrong reasons and in all the wrong ways. The book starts out and Rafe hates school so he and Leo create a game – Operation R.A. F.E – that requires Rafe to break every school rule within the school year. See? Meh and a little silly. As the book goes along, it’s difficult to see any rhyme or reason to why Rafe keeps doing the things he’s doing – it seems so pointless and juvenile. And it takes Patterson almost half of the book to show the reader that there is a lot more to the story that Rafe lets on.

In the end, it’s Patterson’s style that made me love the book. As someone who works with middle school students, I can honestly say that the stuff they do makes no sense whatsoever most of the time. Having spent the better part of my professional life surrounded by confused, horndog teenagers, I know that ninety percent of the time, their behavior is just as mysterious to them as it is to us. Patterson takes that and shows that though the kids don’t even understand why they do the things they do there’s always a reason, and that reason might not be simple, fixable or pretty.

I would recommend this book to anyone who works (or lives) with middle school students, and any middle school student. If you’ve ever come across a kid who just doesn’t make sense, Rafe and his adventures (however misguided) and his life story make the confusing world of middle school a bit more clear. And I beg you, even if you don’t like the beginning of the book, try to stick with it. Rafe annoyed me to no end for the first, third/half of the book, but in the end, he makes more sense.

*if you haven’t ever tried read a book from someone else’s perspective, I highly recommend it – it gives reading a whole new twist

**Crossover meaning he/she switches between writing books for adults and YA (young adults)

***Without giving anything away, I’ll say that there are many plot twists that include Leo – the first annoyed me and the second about made me cry.

Flip by Martyn Bedford

2011-09-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

Flip

Martyn Bedford

Wendy Lamb Books

2011

This book was awesome! It’s the story of Alex who, one morning, wakes up inside Phillip “Flip” Garamond’s body. He doesn’t know how he got there, but his body is in a coma and he’s not sure if the switch is permanent or if there is a way for him to return to his body. Living someone else’s life is extremely complicated and as Alex tries to figure out if he should stay Flip or return to Alex he continually gets himself in trouble and can’t seem to keep his emotions or actions in check. Eventually he meets someone who has had the same experience, which helps, but when he learns that his family (Alex’s) is thinking about removing life support, he is faced with a very difficult choice – figure out a way to return to his own body or spend the rest of his life as Flip.

I really enjoyed this book – it made me think about what makes my life good and what annoys me about life, and that's something I don't think teenagers think about very often. Alex is asthmatic and clumsy, but Flip is an athlete. Flip is quite the ladies man, Alex isn't. So for a few months, Alex has the opportunity to life a life he wouldn't otherwise have. But is it worth it? The book attempts examines whether or not the grass is greener on the other side from a teenager's point of view. Pre-switch, Alex had an OK life - it wasn't perfect and he was kind of a dork. Once he switches and gets the life that all teenagers think they want, he realizes how much he loves his family and is able to see all the great things his life had to offer. When I think about the students I serve here in comparison to Alex, I wonder if they would have the same reaction. If life weren't great, would you miss it when it was gone? As a teacher, we see all kinds of life situations, and I wonder - if psychic evacuation (the term Bradford coins for what happens to Alex) were possible, would everyone really miss their previous lives, or would it be a massive improvement for some people?

I guess I'm just going to be thankful that I love my life enough to not want it to end.

I would definitely recommend this book to just about any middle school student. The only caveat I have about this book is that it might be difficult for reluctant readers because Bradford English so some of the terminology would be difficult for them. While this book hasn't made it on to my favorite books of all time list, it was definitely worth the read and I will admit that I stayed up late the other night just to finish it!

Zoom by Istvan Banyai

2011-09-27T06:03:00.000-07:00

Zoom
Istvan Banyai
Penguin Books
1995

What a fun book to read...er...not read. Zoom is a picture book that does just that - repeatedly zooms. Each image turns into another image on the next page. And amazingly the image on the last page is completely different from the image on the first page, but if you "read" the entire book, there is a storyline there, and it's great.
This book was recommended to me by one of the elementary para-librarians that works in our district. I took it home this weekend intending to read it on my own time, but some precious, unexpected time with my 7-year-old niece came up on Saturday, so I decided to read it with her. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I decided to make reading Zoom a game. Once I figured out how the book worked, we would look at the page and look for clues as to what the next image would be. Sometimes we were right, other times we were way off.
What I found in exploring the book with my niece is that her ideas of what would come next were worlds away from mine. While many of my ideas were right or pretty close, her's were fun. She simply ignored the obvious hints and made up her own fun ideas.
How I wish I could be seven again...

If you're looking for a trippy webpage that gives a great preview of the book, visit Istvan Banyai's homepage (linked above). Wow.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

2011-09-26T21:02:00.000-07:00

The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Mary E. Pearson
Henry Holt and Company
2008

As a librarian, I often have to read books because I'm not sure whether or not they'll be appropriate for the level of students I serve - whether because of reading level, content or interest. Sometimes I come across a book that I can't put down but I know my kids won't be interested in. Sometimes I read books that I find completely annoying, but as I read I can tick off the students who will go completely gaga over the story.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a bit of a mystery to me though, Intriguing story, pretty good plot line, acceptable ending, but, in my professional opinion, very blah. It's the story of a girl named Jenna who wakes from a coma after a terrible car accident that took place over a year ago. She can hardly remember her life before the coma, but things come back to her in flashes. Her parents are loving and fiercly protective, but her grandmother is distant - Jenna can sense that grandma just doesn't like her. As the story unfolds, you find out just how much Jenna's parents adore her, and what lengths her dedicated mother and scientist father are willing to go to keep her safe and alive. Her parents have provided her with stalker-esque (can your parents stalk you?) videos for each year of her life in the hopes that it will help her remember. However, as she watches the videos, she realizes that things don't quite add up. First of all, a scar on her chin is missing, then she realizes that she's a few inches shorter than she was before the accident. As you can imagine, the teenager in Jenna starts to rebel and all hell breaks loose.
The premise of the book really is excellent - how much of a person must remain in order for it to be the same person. Is a soldier who loses his/her arms and legs in battle still a whole person? What if all that could be saved of a person is half their brain? A third of their brain? Would they still be the same person? The problem I have with the book is that, well, I can't explain it. It was just blah. Parts of the plot that were supposed to be mysterious ended up being confusing and/or weird, and the ending - you all know how I feel about weak endings. The end annoyed me. Talk about rainbows and unicorns. Sheesh.
So here's my dillema - and let's be honest, it's not really a dillema. A dilemma would be solving the health care crisis or the Middle Eastern Conflict. This is more of a "whiney moment". I'm not sure my students will like the book. According to the reviews students have loved this book for years - heck the second book in the series The Fox Inheritance just came out (don't get me started on that one. It is NOT on my reading list. Oi.), but no students names popped into my head as I was reading it, and I don't look forward to book talking it (though, there are lots of books that I can sell like candy to kids that I'm not a fan of. 'Tis one of my talents). To purchase or not to purchase, that is the question.

I wouldn't recommend this book to students younger than 7th grade, but I think the majority of middle school students can handle it. If you're looking for a quick read that is somewhat thought provoking, I'd recommend it, but don't expect literary grandeur.

7 Books that Changed the Way I See the World

2011-09-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

After reading this post on Bobbi Newman's blog, and then reading the original post on The Happiness Project, I decided to create my own list. Only it turned out not to be as easy as I thought it would be. Answering the question "What is your favorite book" is difficult because I love lots of books. But answering the question "which books have changed the way you view the world" is different. It doesn't mean I had to like them - they had to change how I saw the world around me. So here my list in no particular order.

1. The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay: I know, you're probably thinking get over this book already lady!!! But it really did change the way I viewed myself, the world, and reading. PeeKay doesn't set out to change the world around him, but he does. I learned that all of our actions have an impact on the world around us - an impact that often we can't control. I also learned that the only way to accomplish anything is to be yourself. And, as I stated in this other post, I fell in love with reading through this book. This was the first book I ever read multiple times, and it is one of the few books that I will continue to read throughout my life.

2. Lamb by Christopher Moore: Though I read this book long after my view of the church and God had gone through some major changes, I loved this book. To me, this is what Jesus' life would have been like - kinda. I don't think Jesus did it all by himself - I think He had friends who supported, helped Him, and challenged Him when He wrote the beatitudes (my FAV part of the book). And by friends, I don't mean the Disciples. I mean He had a BFF like Biff. The truth is, no one knows what happened during the 30 years of Jesus' life when nothing is written about Him, but I like Moore's take on it - that He struggled, whined, got annoyed with the Disciples and eventually came to His senses and did what needed to be done. Though this book is completely irreverent, I loved it, and it helped me see Christ in a more human light.

3. The Alphabet Versus the Goddess by Leonard Shlain: another book that challenged what I believe. This book was given to me by one of my mother's childhood friends. I grew up seeing her not often, but always enjoying being around her even though I thought she was a kooky feminist. Before I read this book, I'd never considered the differences between how men approach the world, problems and issues versus how women do, and I'd never considered that there could be factors in society that would shape the way we view women. When I started reading the book, I wanted to disagree with it, hate it and dismiss Shlain's claims as "kooky" and, well wrong. But man he makes a compelling argument and it makes sense. I've never viewed feminism or reading in the same light.

4. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera: this was one of the first books I picked up of my own accord and absolutely positively hated. Ugh, it was awful. It depressed the crap out of me, and I felt like the characters in the book were truly miserable and just wanted everyone to be miserable with them. I don't want anyone to be miserable, but most of all I don't want to be miserable. I knew after reading this book that life is entirely too short to ignore or not deal with depression - a piece of wisdom that has served me well in life.

5. A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron: have you ever read a book that makes your soul smile? What an amazing book. I am a dog lover, and I've read just about every book written from the point of view of a dog (including The Art of Racing in the Rain and A Dog's Life), but none of them even come close to this book. We all know the human reasons for having a dog, but this book made me see the world from my dog's perspective - why are dogs such great companions? And why can't they put the damn ball down?!? I look at dogs differently now and, honestly, I love them more after reading that book.

6. Die Entdeckung der Currywurst by Uwe Timm: this was the first book I read in German that was not translated from English. When I lived abroad, I felt that it was important to immerse myself in the language - including in my reading. But reading original German texts was difficult because every culture has its own accepted writing style (anyone who has read The Girl with the Dragon Tatto knows that in Sweden, starting a book of with 80-100 seemingly pointless boring pages makes for a best seller), so I found myself reading tons of Nora Roberts books because the layout was already second nature. When I read Die Entdeckung der Currywurst (the discovery of the curried sausage), it was like the language - and to some degree - the culture clicked in my head. I wasn't stumbling over passages anymore, and I began to see how the culture is reflected in the writing style, but that's another post for another day.

7. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Polan: I love food. I love eating it, sharing it with loved ones and preparing it. This book changed the way I view what I put in my body and how it affects the world around me. I won't even attempt to claim that I am now a locavore who despises all things fast food (thank you to my dear sister who cured my doldrums today with a Wendy's lunch of awesomeness...sorry Mr. Polan), but I will say that I am more food conscious now and I make more of an effort to buy local and stay home and prepare fresh meals when I can. The saddest part about reading this book is my changed view of corn - it's no longer an exotic vegetable that I only get in the summer when my favorite Olathe sweet corn is in season. It's everywhere, all the time in everything.

Which books have you read that have changed your world view?

I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali

2011-09-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui
Translated by Linda Coverdale
Three Rivers Press
2010

I like to think of myself as a strong, independent woman. However, reading a story like Nujood's, I find myself wondering what I would do if I were in an arranged, abusive marriage. I'd like to think I'd have the courage to step up and walk away, but I also know that a great portion of my strength comes from my family, so I think if I were in an abusive marriage that was arranged by my family, I'm not sure I'd be able to walk away without their support. But I think I'd be able to do it. My family isn't the only community I have, so I think it would be painful and it'd take a truckload of prayer and support, but I'd be able to do it.

Having said that, I'm 33, employed and live in a country where my voice is heard regardless of my gender. When I read the story of Nujood - the ten year old girl in Yemen who walked into a courthouse one day and demanded a divorce - I realized that while I might think I'm strong, I can't imagine the strength and courage this young woman has (when you hear her story, you'll understand why I find it hard to think of her as a little girl). Nujood was only ten years old when her father married her off to a man three times her age and sent her to live with her new in-laws far away from the only family she has ever known. Her new family will not allow her to go to school, and though her new husband promised not to touch her until she was old enough (the accepted age in Yemen is thirteen. THIRTEEN), he forces himself on her regularly. Though she doesn't have much understanding of how the world works, she knows that a judge can help her, so one day she pulls together all her courage and enough money to ride the bus to the courthouse and finds a judge and asks the judge for a divorce. Wow.

The book is a quick read that is expertly written - Delphine Minoui does an amazing job of balancing Nujood's strength and character with the simple fact that she is just a little girl. In one scene she walks into the courthouse demanding a divorce in a country where women are often ignored altogether, and in the next, she is thankful that she has made new friends (the children of one of the judges who agrees to help her) and that she can play with dolls instead of being scared to sleep. You want to feel sorry for Nujood, but you just can't - she doesn't want people to feel sorry for her. She wants people to learn from her story and help others.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in what life is like for women in the Middle East. I've read books about life for women in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and now Yemen. Some of the accounts are terribly frightening and depressing, and some show hope - much like Nujood's. And I know that stories like this are not limited to "other places" - terrible things happen around the world, in every country, every day. Luckily, we have stories like Nujood's that inspire us and remind us that it's important to look out for each other and to do what we know is right - even if the societal norm has been/is contrary.

If you want to read more about Nujood without reading the book, here is Glamour Magazine's article naming Nujood and her lawyer as 2008 Women of the Year.

If hearing stories like Nujood's gets your helping genes racing, I'd recommend Vital Voices as a wonderful organization to support.

Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker

2011-09-05T16:07:00.000-07:00

Small Town Sinners
Melissa Walker
Bloomsbury
2011

Do you remember when exactly you started to realize that your parents didn't know all the answers and weren't always right? Do you remember when you started to form your own opinions that differed from those of your parents? I do, and I don't. I think all parents try to raise their children to the best of their abilities, teaching them what is helpful and what can be harmful (I hate the words "good" and "bad"), and I think that for all parents, the time when their children start making choices of their own - whether helpful or harmful - is extremely difficult (I'm kinda guessing, as I have no children of my own).

Small Town Sinners is an amazingly crafted novel that examines this phenomenon from the point of view of the child. Lacey Ann has grown up in West River - a small, God fearing community. Lacey Ann's dad is the youth pastor at the church, and every year the youth put on a production called "Hell House" - a house of sin production aimed at bringing souls to Christ. The book begins when Lacey is finally old enough to audition for a main role, and Lacey wants to be Abortion Girl. Lacey knows that her performace will show people the truth as she knows it: that abortion is wrong and that Christ is the answer.

Enter the mysterious Ty. Lacey has never met anyone like Ty before - his smile melts her resolve, but more importantly, she can talk to him like she can't talk to her parents or her best friends. She can talk to him about her doubts and worries when it comes to the church, her friends and the things that happen in West River. However Lacey's parents don't approve of Ty, and when "bad" things start happening to Lacey's friends, she finds it easier to talk to Ty and more difficult to talk to her parents. All of a sudden, Lacey finds herself questioning what she believes and how she has been raised and wonders if she'll be able to resolve the two.

I know there was a time that I realized that my parents - and some of their views - were wrong. I also know that my own personal faith/values journey has been more extreme than that of most. In my lifetime I've been on the extreme ends of many ethical/religious arguments. And I think I've come to a pretty happy place in who I am, what my values are and what I believe. While reading Small Town Sinners I heard my own voice and my own thoughts echoed in what Lacey Ann was going through. I remember times where I was so angry at my parents because I didn't think they could hear me (and sometimes, honestly, they couldn't) and other times where, in hindsight, they could hear me, but their wisdom was beyond my understanding.

Walker has created a wonderful cast of characters who are more honest than many teens think they can be - with themselves, each other and the adults in their lives - who I think will both speak to and encourage young people struggling with who they are and what they believe. I also love the way she portrays West River! It is a christian community that is wholly human - they make mistakes in their pursuit of the Kingdom of God, but for the most part, the people don't forget that they are merely human. Often times people outside of the christian community don't understand the "zeal" of "believers" and see them, as, well crazy zealots. And, admittedly, some people - regardless of faith tradition - are crazy zealots. Walker clearly and plainly brings humanity, respect and dignity to the "zealots" in her book, allowing the reader to disagree with their beliefs, but still respect them for their dedication. It's amazing.

I would recommend this to anyone who has a friend or family member they consider a "religious zealot". I would also recommend this to parents whose children are starting to stretch their own wings and figure out who they are, as well as the children (pardon me...I mean teenagers - they HATE being called children) starting to realize their parents don't have all the answers. It's an excellent book that shows the many perspectives of any given issue and how to love those around you regardless of their perspective. I will say, I'm not sure it's appropriate for middle grade

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

2011-09-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

Unbroken
Laura Hillenbrand
Random House
2010

Check out the label cloud over there on the right. See how relatively small the nonfiction label is? Yeah, it's pretty small. That's because I like fiction. Lots. But every once in awhile an excellent nonfiction book works its way into my stack. How thankful I am that Unbroken made its way into that pile. And as rare as it is for me to read nonfiction, it's also rare for me to read a book that immediately makes me think "Wow, my dad would love this book!" See, my dad is my inspiration for reading (see my post What Type of Reader are You? to understand why), and in the nearly 30 years we've both been readers, our reading tastes have starkly diverged. On the rare occasion that I come across a book my dad would love, I get extremely excited and can't wait to recommend it to my Papa.*

Unbroken is the story of Louis "Louie" Zamperini. It follows him through his entire life, starting with his troubled childhood in Torrence, California. It then follows his quest for Olympic gold in the 5000m and his attempt at being the first man to run a 4-minute mile. Then it follows him as he serves the Army Air Forces as a bombardier - crashing in the Pacific, surviving on a raft for over 40 days, and ending up as a POW in Japan. THEN it follows his post-war life as he tries to destroy himself and ultimately reinvents himself yet again in a way that I did not see coming.

Oh, and it's about 400 pages, not including 50+ pages of notes and the extensive index at the end.

Truthfully, the length didn't bother me at all. It was so good, I cranked out about 200 pages in a day - one of those blissful days that involved little more than a comfy blanket, some ice cream, the occasional bathroom break and a good book. Much like my favorite book The Power of One, this book reminded me of the power of the human spirit. It reminded me that some of us - not all of us - have within us a resilience that allows us to take just about anything life throws at us and make it our proverbial b!tch. Louie never claims to be super-strong or amazing, but those around him always knew that he was exceptional. He, much like my favorite character every PeeKay, simply went through life putting one foot in front of the other, doing whatever was needed to survive. And I suppose that is all that most of us do - some of us are just required to stretch much further in order to survive.

In the end, this book gave me yet another perspective on WWII. And it gave me yet another reason to thank those who serve and fight for us. What they go through for our freedom is unbelieveable. Wow.

As a librarian, I would recommend this book to just about any adult interested in nonfiction, survival stories, or well-written books in general. I would not recommend this book for younger readers - it's pretty intense. High school would most likely be OK, but definitely not middle school.

*Fun story: As soon as I finished the book, I met up with my dad and said "Dad, you absolutely have to read this book!" His response? "I already read it. Man, how much can one guy go through?" Foiled again!

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

2011-08-24T06:04:00.000-07:00

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Ransom Riggs
Quirk Publishing
2011

Holy creepy book Batman! I've admitted to being a wuss before, but I really think this book would give just about anyone the heebie-jeebies. Having said that, YOU REALLY NEED TO READ THIS BOOK. Wow. Wow wow. It's sooooo good. And I hate scary things. But this book had me hook line and sinker from the get go.
So here's the basic storyline. Jacob has grown up around his very peculiar grandfather, Abe, who always told him stories of children with special gifts - an invisible boy, a levitating girl and a boy who had bees living inside him. When Jacob was very young he believed his grandfather's tall tales, but as he got older, he realized that there was no way the stories could be true. When Jacob's grandfather dies mysteriously, Jacob suddenly wants to know more about Abe's odd childhood. Finally, Jacob convinces his own father to travel with him to the small British Island where Abe grew up in search of some answers. What he finds are more than answers and will lead him to believe all his grandfather's stories and lead him into great danger.
And that's all I'm going to tell you.
Ok, I lied. Here's some more. This book has it all: history, fantasy, science fiction, time travel, creepy crawlies, bullies, bad guys, good guys, bad guys disguised as good guys, oh...and some serious sheep do-do. But what really makes the book stand out is Riggs' use of antique photographs. First off, some of the photographs are down right creepy (demonic Santa Clause posed with two innocent children on a reindeer? Creeptastic). However all of the photos add to the storyline. The story starts out with Abe showing Jacob the pictures and telling him the stories, and it comes full circle in the end.
I will admit that I started reading this book one night before bed and promptly had to put it down. The next day I went through the entire book looking at the pictures in an attempt to un-creepify them. Then I restricted myself to reading only when it was light outside (though the middle of the book is not so creepy, it's just great writing, so that part I could read before bed). I also started to freak out about shadows (eeeh...they're ruined for me forever) and, I won't lie, considered sleeping with a lamp or two on one night. And you can bet your knickers I checked and double checked the locks before going to bed each night. Which reminds me....

August books...

2011-08-23T21:03:00.000-07:00

I recently finished another amazing book (no spoilers here) and came to my blog to write the review and realized that I hadn't published a single review yet this month! What the...?

So once again, just wanted to let you know a few things:

I have been reading. Lots and lots. Oodles and oodles. I even gave up movie time with my guy last weekend to read (in my defense, he was watching Beavis and Butthead).
I have been writing reviews, I just haven't finished any. I get about 1/2 way through the review and something comes up so I save it to be finished later but then later never comes...
I GRADUATED!!!! Pretty soon I'll be a full-fledged librarian. But the best news is I don't have to take any classes this semester! Wahoooo!
School is about to start, so yeay! And boo...because there goes my free time.
I promise to have at least 4 reviews up by the end of the month. I promise promise. Two of them are going to be AWESOME because I've just finished reading some truly awesome literature.
Book Club Ladies - I'm coming back someday, I promise.

Oh, and if you have read any good books lately, please let me know. I'm looking for recommendations for adult books. Now that grad school is over I feel like it's going to be completely acceptable for me to read some adult books now and then.

Happy Reading!
Suzanne

Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann

2011-08-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

Cryer's Cross
Lisa McMann
narrated by Julia Wehlan

Truthfully, I'm on the fence about this book, and I'm not sure if it's because I listened to the audiobook or because the book is a bit weird. I'm starting to wonder how my opinion of books is shaped by the audiobook. I wonder if the audio version doesn't absolutely thrill me from the get-go then I don't like the book in the end as much, or if I think it's boring or moves slowly because the narrator speaks slowly. But that's another debate.
Cryer's Cross is a remote town in Montana where students are starting to mysteriously disappear. The book begins with the main character, Kendall, recalling how she felt being a part of the search party for the first missing teen, Tiffany. Then a few months later when Kendall's boyfriend starts acting weird and disappears as well, her life is thrown into turmoil. To make matters worse, Kendall is extremely obsessive compulsive, so her brain races all the time - except when she's playing soccer or dancing.
When Nico (Kendall's boyfriend) disappears, the obsessive compulsive in Kendal notices that Nico and Tiffany sat at the same desk, and that the desk had been brought up earlier in the spring when the class got too big. She convinces herself that it has to be a coincidence and works very hard to distract herself with soccer and dancing so that her constantly racing OCD brain doesn't take over. But the oddities that keep cropping up make it impossible for Kendall to let go of the possibility that Nico is alive and needs her help, and she must constantly decide whether what's happening is real or whether she's going crazy.
What made this book difficult to finish is that the jacket cover promised a sci-fi thriller type of book (which it is) but the first half of the book is more realistic fiction with really odd teasers at the beginning of each chapter which are, at first confusing and a little intriguing, but then become annoying and confusing until about the last chapter of the book. The book's saving grace is the ending - very thrilling (read: it scared the pee out of me*).
I don't know who I would recommend this book to, but I have a feeling that it would be pretty popular with teenagers for two reasons. First, Lisa McMann is a pretty popular YA author (she wrote the crazy popular Wake series). And second, the plot is sooooo out there - I think kids will like it because they really think if they spend too much time at school they'll go crazy and disappear.

*Author's Note: I am an absolute wuss. If something "scares the pee out of me" it could be anything from creepy music in a commercial to someone walking into my office without me seeing them coming. So really...probably not that scary.

What Kind of Reader Are You?

2011-07-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I read. Often. Entire 8 hour spans with nothing more than a pause to use the bathroom (or to let the dogs use the bathroom). In fact, today, my guy suggested that I go shopping instead of sitting at home all day reading, and, well, I'm still in my work out clothes (at least I did that today!). In the rock-paper-scissors world of reading vs. shopping, reading beats shopping every time. (Shopping beats cleaning, but cleaning does NOT beat reading. I don't think anything beats reading...)

But what do I read? And how do I choose? What kind of reader am I?

In order to explain what kind of reader I am and how I choose the books I read, I need to give you a little history about my life as a reader. So grab a cup of cocoa, a snuggly, and enjoy.

When I was little my family would watch TV together in the evenings. After about an hour of Murder, She Wrote, my dad would usually move from the front couch to the back couch and open a book. I think he wanted to spend time with us but just wasn't all that interested in TV (to this day it's pretty difficult to get him to sit through an entire movie). As a daddy's girl, I often went and sat with him. And since he was reading, I had to as well. I brought my library books out and sat next to him while he his books. Then one day, I was probably about 13, he finished a book and handed it to me. I wish I could remember the title - all I know is the cover was blue and it was a mystery novel. And it had the "sh" word in it! I felt soooo mature. From then on, if Dad thought I could handle the book, he'd give it to me when he was done. If not, he put it in the basket (and I always raided the basket when he wasn't around). And any book my dad liked, I had to like. One day he handed me The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. I started reading it and hated it. But I didn't want to admit that to my dad, so I avoided reading it or talking about it. When it became obvious that my dad loved the book and was dying to talk to me about it (he's Italian and prefers silence, so when he wants to talk, you talk), I picked it up again. Once I'd struggled past the first 80 pages or so I couldn't put it down. I literally fell in love for the first time. I felt like the words had power, I wanted to be PeeKay and I really REALLY wanted to work in a coal mine with a big Russian guy (ironic that that part isn't the most important part of the book, but I have loved mines ever since). That book changed my life, both how I viewed myself and my talents and abilities, and how I viewed reading.

I often look back at that experience and wonder who I would be if I hadn't read that book - both as Suzanne the semi-normal woman, and as Suzanne the reader. What it did for Suzanne the person is show me what self confidence is, about the effects of our actions, and why it's important to never give up. For Suzanne the reader, it made me unable to put a book down until I've read it cover to cover, and it expanded my "reading comfort zone".

So what type of reader am I?

I'm a slow reader. I like to re-read passages that are particularly well worded, or go back and find the clues in a mystery.

I enjoy all genres. Some more than others, but I have read books of every major genre and enjoyed them all.

According to my mentor, idol and friend Di Herald, I prefer literary fiction (books that don't have clean "happy for all" endings). I think this stems from the fact that life rarely has fariytale endings. I'm aware that books don't have to be realistic, I just like them to be a little realistic. I think reading too many romance novels gave me the wrong idea of what love looks like, so now in my old age I'm a bit...skeptical?...of books with shiny, happy, perfect endings.

I don't get graphic novels. If the mystery clues are written out, I can solve the mystery in 90 pages (usually). If you draw it out, I'll miss the clues every time.

I now read every single book from the point of view of a book-recommender/librarian. Whenever I finish a book, a list of names of people and students who would like the book pops into my head.

I am a reader that refuses to purchase books. The only books I have actually paid for with my own money in the last two years are either absolute favorites, gifts or textbooks for grad school. Find your local public library and use it.

I choose books based on recommendations from other librarians, friends, family or reviews I read. The list of books I want to read is so long I stopped keeping one. If I see it or hear about it more than once, or if it's on the bookshelf as I'm walking by in the library, I read it. I always welcome recommendations, though I think the public library would prefer that I didn't - my request list is a mile long.

If I start a book, I have to finish it. There are very few exceptions to this rule. If I consider putting a book down, I remember The Power of One and keep reading it. Though you'll be happy to know I have learned that it's OK for me to not like a book my dad recommends.

I love YA Lit and am darn proud of it. I don't care if you think it's silly. Read this article by Gretchen Kolderup and you'll understand why. "But even if I were to switch careers, I would continue reading YA Lit because it’s good." I agree with her completely. Kolderup does an amazing job of explaining what YA Lit is and isn't, but I think it is sufficient to say simply, YA Lit is good literature, reagardless of your age. My one soap box for this post is this: if you think YA Lit is just for teens, you're absolutely wrong. Email me, I'll chat with you about your likes and dislikes in reading and prove to you that there are equal numbers of YA Lit and adult lit books that fit your taste. And parents, if you have kids, get over it and start reading YA Lit. These books are not only interesting, they contain big issues that you can discuss with your children.

So what kind of reader are you?

XVI by Julia Karr

2011-07-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

XVI
Julia Karr
2011

I can honestly say that I don't remember where I first read about this book or who first recommended it to me. By the time I got around to reading it, it had been recommended so many times, I just grabbed it. Rarely do I randomly grab books (I am a dedicated patron-initiated-hold-placer, thankyouverymuch) without at least remembering what they are about. But I remembered the cover and I knew I'd only heard good things, so I went for it. This is one of the library books I faithfully carted to and from Germany this summer and with weight restrictions the way they are nowdays, I can honestly say this book is worth it's flight weight! Such a fantastic read and such an interesting storyline.

Nina Oberon is fifteen. The day she turns sixteen she, like every other girl will receive the "XVI" tatoo on her wrist. And she'll be legal - as in it will be legal to have sex with her. Nina lives in a world where sixteen = "sexteen" and girls can't wait to get their tatoos and become legal. But Nina can wait - she, unlike her best friend Sandy, isn't interested in sex and boys. She is extremely close to her mother and half sister, and cares more about getting her creative designation so she can study art and make something of her life. When her mother is murdered, Nina discovers that there is a possibility that her father - who died when she was very young - is still alive, and she finds herself in the middle of an extremely dangerous conspiracy theory. She doesn't know what is true and what isn't, and she is forced to rely on people she has just recently met to keep herself, her sister and her family's secrets (that she doesn't completely understand yet) safe.

While I would not recommend this book for middle grade students, I would definitely recommend it for high school aged students - male and female alike. The idea that sex is legal at a particular age, and then sensationalized is really not that far fetched. Sandy's obsession with turning sixteen and her constant desire to make herself attractive to men/boys is something that, I think, teenagers do without realizing. By reading a book where those sorts of behaviors can be dangerous in a very real way might help some girls understand the risks they take - even if the dangers in our present society aren't as strikingly obvious and prevalent (at least they aren't in my happy little world). And on the other side of the gender coin, by reading a book like this, boys might realize that just because a girl dresses a certain way does not make her "fair game" or "available".

But the beauty of Karr's debut novel is not only that it will make students think, it's action packed and well written. I could not put the sucker down (I know, I know, which books can I put down?). And though the ending does lend itself to a sequel, a sequel is not necessary (though according to her website, the sequel Truth will be available Jan 2012. AND according to her website XVI has been translated into German (that makes this former-German-teacher very happy!)

Other reviews of XVI:

Review by another Colorado Librarian, who wasn't necessarily a fan: http://yalibrariantales.blogspot.com/2010/12/review-xvi-by-julia-karr.html

Student review as found on Genrefluent's Bistro Book Club:
http://genrefluentteentalk.blogspot.com/2011/03/xvi-by-julia-karr.html

Blood on My Hands by Todd Strasser

2011-07-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

Blood on my Hands
Todd Strasser
2010

Once again, Karol Sacca was right on with a recommendation. This was a darn good book, and I can totally see why teens would be all over it. In fact, I can see this book being made into a movie it's so good. Imagine Mean Girls meets Carrie...kinda.

The book opens with Callie standing over the body of Katherine - top school mean girl - holding the bloody knife. *Click* people start taking pictures with their cell phones. "You killed her!" Shouts someone. The only problem is that Callie didn't actually kill Katherine. But now that there are pictures and accusations, Callie knows no one will believe her, so she hides. While she's hiding she tries to figure out who really did kill Katherine and why they would want frame her. And the ending is totally unexpected! And you all know how much I hate obvious endings.

What I really liked about this book is that it's actually plausable. Most books about teens and murder are completely unrealistic (I'm thinking of Blank Confession by Pete Hautman). That isn't to say that such books are not great reads - it's just rare that you come across one where a teenager is able to hide out for days without getting caught, the mistakes and motives are believeable, and the ending is both shocking and excellent. Strasser did a great job of making Callie's story believeable, and kept just enough details from the reader so that the ending make sense but isn't obvious.

Not only could I not put the book down, I let out a little yelp this afternoon when, while reading the book, my boyfriend's cell phone went off unexpectedly. That? Is the sign of a good book and an engrossed reader.

Might want to check out these reviews as well:

From a student at Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines, IA:
http://youngadultbookreviews.com/2010/11/09/blood-on-my-hands-by-todd-strasser/

A great synopsis from ReadingJunky's Reading Roost:
http://readingjunky.blogspot.com/2010/12/blood-on-my-hands-by-todd-strasser.html

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

2011-07-22T08:37:00.000-07:00

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
Patrick Lencioni

With only one week left until I (fingers crossed!) complete my Master's Degree, I figured it was about time for me to review one of the many books I've had to read for that degree. And this was the best book I had to read for my graduate program. It wasn't written in the same style as the other educational theory books I've read - many of those books come across as inspriational-self-helpy. This one didn't. In fact, on many occasions Lencioni says that working toward fixing any of the five dysfunctions is often the most difficult task any professional will face in their career. He also makes it clear that we all will face all five of the dysfunctions at some point.

The book starts out as a fable. Kathryn has just been hired as CEO at DecisionTech - a company that despite it's amazing start, is faultering. She is faced with the task of "fixing" the very dysfunctional executive team - a task that is not easy. There is no holding hands, singing kumbaya. Lencioni does an amazing job of weaving his theory of 5 dysfunctions into a very real story that is not self-helpy at all. In fact, the theory is so simple and the fable is so well written, it causes the reader to understand that working together on a team can be an excellent thing - meetings don't have to be boring, politics can be left outside, and real results can be achieved. And although some parts of the story would not work in a school setting, his theory could absolutely bring about change to any dedicated team that is looking to work more effectively together.

The other thing I liked about the book is the fact that even though it sounds like it's going to be super negative, it is actually written from a very positive viewpoint. Lencioni basically says, here are the five biggest, intertwined issues facing businesses/groups today, and here's why and how you can fix them.

I will not say that I have completely bought into his theory. However, I will say that unlike many of the other books I've read, this one actually seems like it can work, and Lencioni doesn't claim that his method is the ultimate fixer of all woes. It's just on way to make working with other adults more effective. And as a teacher, I know that working with other adults is often more difficult than working with teenagers (ask any teacher you know and they'll agree with me. The only reason other people don't agree is because they haven't had to work with teenagers...)

Books: A Love Letter by Bobbi Newman

2011-07-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

I've realized a few things this week.

Most people don't read as much as I do.
Most people find the amount of reading that I do a little weird.
Some of you following my blog think I'm "making up" the number of books I read (wha?)
There are more people reading this blog than I thought (wahoo!).

I realized all of this because of a comment someone made about my blog. It went something like this "You really read that much? Wow. That's like, a lot." When I mentioned this to someone else, they agreed. Then along came this wonderful little posting by Bobbi L. Newman. It basically summed up exactly how I feel about reading. It is beautiful, insightful and dead on. It's called Books: A Love Letter. Please take a minute to read the entire text, but here's one of my favorite parts.

Books have transported me to new and different worlds, or just made me reexamine the one I live in. Books have helped me take a break when time were hard or escape when times were just down right awful. I’ve learned new lessons and re-learned old ones, some good, some bad: good doesn’t always triumph over evil, the good guy doesn’t always win, the bad guy doesn’t always lose, true love conquers all, there is no right or wrong path just the path we take and its up to us to make the best of it.

The only thing I would add is that if I could bottle and sell the way reading makes me feel, I'd be a millionaire in an instant

Thanks Bobbi, for attempting to put to words what many of us feel.

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

2011-07-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

Incarceron
Catherine Fisher
Narrated by Kim Mai Guest

Holy weird book Batman. I’ve tried writing an intro paragraph to review this book four times and I’ve chucked them all. There is no way to describe this book other than different, weird, and “how in the H did Catherine Fisher come up with the ideas in this book?”

Incarceron is a prison. A prison world that does not have guards or walls. It’s a living prison. Sometime in the future, there’s a huge war and the government decides to create a prison where people can live, move around, marry, have children and even die eventually, and supposedly putting them in their own world – a world that thinks and guards them with some electronic super-intelligence – will create a perfect society both in and outside the prison. Of course, things don’t work out the way we want them to do they? Outside the prison, life has gone back to the Middle Ages. Technology is technically banned, and protocol dictates that everyone life as if it were the 1800’s. All electronics are banned, but it seems that everyone uses them anyway. There is surveillance everywhere, and just about everyone knows how to dodge it.
Claudia is the daughter of the warden of Incarceron and she is engaged to the prince. She and her best friend and tutor, Jared, are convinced that there is more to Incarceron than her father claims and they find a key to Incarceron and try to break in. Through the key they manage to make contact with people inside Incarceron – a man named Finn who they believe is actually Prince Giles, the true heir to the throne thought to have died many years before. The more Claudia tries to locate Incarceron and the more Finn tries to find a way out, the more confusing the story gets. Intrigue and mystery abound in this one, let me tell you. There is nothing I hate more than a mystery that is too easy to solve – the suspense actually has to be suspenseful for me. However, this book had so much suspense and intrigue, I actually got kind of lost in it, though I'm not sure it was because of the book itself or because of the narration*. The ending is not what I would expect and lends itself to a sequel, but to be honest, I’m not sure I'll read it.

*This post is connected to my post about audiobooks. Feel free to read it!

Audiobooks - what makes them good?

2011-07-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

Audio Books – what makes them good?

For those of you who don’t partake in audio books, you really don’t know what you’re missing. Long road trips are made shorter and much more bearable by audio books, and instead of watching mindless TV while I knit (yep, I knit. Add it to my list of grandma skillz), I love to listen to audio books. As a librarian, I understand that it is physically impossible for me to read all the best-sellers and great books that are published each year, not to mention reading all the great books I missed in my past (please don’t ask me which of the classics I’ve read. The number is really small). So I use audio books. The public library has them not only to check out on CD, but also to download to almost any MP3 player.

However over the last year or two, I’ve realized that not all audio books are created equal. There are some audio books that are abridged versions, which, in some cases I can see as being a positive thing. But audio books, just like regular books, can be, well, crappy. And I’m at the point in my career where I’m starting to figure out which books I personally will listen to in audio form, and which I won’t. For example – I’m not terribly fond of books written in verse, so I don’t think that audio forms of such books would be the best choice for me. Also, I usually listen to audio books on long drives, so really descriptive books don’t keep my interest as audio books. I’ve found that I need the plot to keep moving for me to stay interested when a book is in audio form.

But there’s more to it than that. I’ve found that som

But should I let the audio version change how I feel about the print version? In the spring I was listening to a different audio book and told my good friend Sarah about it, and she suggested that I quit listening to the audio book and pick up the real deal because she knew I’d love the book if I did. Sure enough, reading the last 100 or so pages on my own redeemed the entire story, and not because all the action was in the end of the book, but because my reading wasn’t hindered by dramatic pauses and slow reading.
Unfortunately I have no solutions as to how to decide what makes an audio book great or not. I will say that it is my firm belief that an audio book should enhance the print version – not take away from it. So my one suggestion is that if you find an audio book that you don’t like because of the way it is read, turn it off and check out the print book. Never let a crappy rendition ruin your experience of a great book.e audio books are really crappily produced, and if you’re not careful, you’ll get a really great book that is a terrible audio book and it’ll ruin the book for you. Sometimes the narrator reads entirely too slowly or too dramatically for the book – as in the case of Incarceron, narrated by Kim Mai Guest. The book itself is about 442 pages, but the audio book is eleven hours 32 minutes, which averages out to approximately 38 pages per hour. If I Stay is about 200 pages and the audio book is four hours, so about 50 pages per hour. But regardless of pages read per hour, there were parts of Incarceron where the action should have been way more intense than it was. I think the narrator thought she was making the reading more intense by READING LOUDER and making DRAMATIC…..PAUSES, but the effect was lost. I caught myself thinking “Get on with it already!” And don’t get me started on fake horrid accents…ugh. So not the case with If I Stay, which is narrated by Kirsten Potter. When the action got going, she read faster. Her emotions absolutely matched the story, and there were no silly accents.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

2011-07-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

If I Stay
Gayle Foreman
Narrated by Kirsten Potter

I’ve only read a few of Nicholas Sparks books, and to be honest, I didn’t really like the ones I read. But I feel like if he wrote books that I actually enjoyed, he would write something like If I Stay. Imagine that you wake up one morning to a snow day (waHOO) and your family – that you love dearly – decides to go for a drive. However, tragedy strikes and by the end of the day, you’re the only one left alive. Mia is a senior in high school who finds herself in this exact situation. After a horrible car accident, she lies in a coma and her spectral self has the ability to see and hear everyone around her, she can even follow them into other rooms, but she can’t seem to find a way to either re-inhabit her body, or let go and go to Heaven. And more importantly, she’s not sure she wants to stay behind without her family. The entire story is her remembering her life before the accident and trying to imagine her life without her family and her struggle to decide whether or not to stay and possibly go to Julliard, or go and abandon her grandparents, her boyfriend and her extended family.

I have been blessed in this life to have a kick ass family. They are not perfect, but they are mine and I love them all fiercely. This past winter when my dad had heart surgery my entire family was suddenly and brutally faced with our own mortality - our individual mortality and the mortality of our family, and it scared the pee out of all of us. Lucky for us, my dad is fine and now has a whole new set of valves to clog with cholesterol. The way that Foreman wrote this book, the reader is forced to consider tragedy like Mia’s. What would I do if both my parents and my siblings were killed in a horrible accident? Would I be able to go on? Now that I have a special someone in my life (it’s about flippin time!!!) does that change my reaction to the situation? I don’t know and I hope I never have to find out. In any case, Foreman has created a beautiful book that is emotional, real and an absolute page turner. Or in my case, a CD switcher*. I highly highly recommend it!

*This post is connected to my post about audiobooks. Feel free to read it!

The Freak Observer by Blythe Woolston

2011-07-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

The Freak Observer

Blythe Woodson

Truth be told, I’m not exactly sure how I feel about this book. When I finshed it, I thought “hmm...that was a good book”, but when I sat down to write this review, I can’t really say what it was about the book that I liked. Most of the time I just found the main character, Loa to be sort of blah. Blah about her life, blah about the death of her sister, blah about the death of her friend, and blah about where things were going for her. But it’s possible that the reason I liked the book is because it wasn’t an over the top book. It was a book that was honest about every day life without having a huge, over the top storyline to it. No vampires, no Necromancers, just ordinary life and the good and bad that comes along with being ordinary.

Loa Lingren isn’t what you would call a stand out personality. In fact, because she has spent the last few years helping her parents raise her handicapped sister Asta, she has had very little social life. When Asta dies, Loa experiences an odd form of PTSD – she sees death coming for her or has vivid flashbacks of her friend dying every time she goes to sleep. So instead of sleeping, she does everything she can to stay awake. And her parents aren’t in any better shape than she is. The book follows Loa as she tries to figure out who she is without Asta.

As I said, it's hard for me to define what I liked about the book. But maybe I liked the fact that Loa was so blah, because after going through everything she did, being blah was the safest response Loa could have. Loa is real, and while her situation might not be average/every day, her reactions to trauma are normal (I think). I'm sure that we have all experienced traumatic events in our lives that cause us to respond to the world in a very blah manner. And I appreciate that Woolston didn't turn Loa's disasterous life into an after-school-special-esque book. Because let's face it, life is not an after school special, and it's nice to read books every once in a while that help us remember that and validate our feelings of loss and confusion after a trauma*. I'm positive there are people, teenagers especially, who will read The Freak Observer and relate to Loa and her blah-ness. And being able to relate to a character - fictional or not - will help with the healing process.

*Having said that, I'd like to add that it's also really nice to read books that are after-school-special-esque too. Sometimes we need the hope of a picture perfect ending complete with smiles and group hugs.

Prepare yourselves...

2011-07-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

Just a quick little note to let you all know that I am finally back from Europe and I have about 8 books to review. So if you've subscribed to this blog (all 4 of you!) then be prepared your inboxes for a whole lot of information coming from Suzanne - hopefully most of it is welcomed!

Here are the books/topics I plan to cover in the next few days:

If I Stay by Gayle Foreman
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
What makes an audiobook worth listening to?
The Freak Observer by Blythe Woolston
XVI by Julia Karr
Wicked Girls by Stephanie Hemphill
Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
What kind of reader are you?
Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan
The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
True Vision by Joyce Lamb
Why I've never read Harry Potter, and how I live with myself.

Yes, some of the books I've recently read are older, but, as Linda Holmes pointed out in her article, it's impossible that we read everything ever written, so I'm OK with keeping books on my to-read list for longer periods of time and getting to them when I have a minute. And since taking books to Europe is a heavy endeavor, I decided to take paperbacks I'd had for some time, read them while there and then gift them to my German friends.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride

2011-06-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

Hold Me Closer Necromancer

Lish McBride

Sherman Alexie (on of my favs) is quoted on the cover of this book saying “This is a SCARY funny book OR a FUNNY scary book. In either case, it is a GREAT book.” Dude totally nailed it. I could not put this book down, which, honestly doesn’t say much because I rarely put books down. In fact, in the future, just know that if I could put the book down, it probably wasn’t that great.

Sam (Samhain) is your typical floundering young man – I think he’s about 20 – working at the local grease pit. He finds out through a series of extremely confusing events, including being man-handled by a werewolf and having one of his good friends murdered and her head reincarnated (how can a book be bad with a talking un-dead best friend head?), he finds out that he is a Necromancer, or a magical person able to control the dead. Unfortunately, the head Necromancer in town, Douglas Montgomery, is not a fan of competition. He kidnaps Sam and forces him to become his apprentice. Sam has to figure out how to escape and how to help the super hot were-girl Douglas is also keeping captive in his basement. I could give you more of the storyline (there’s WAY more), but not knowing will make it just as fun to read. In fact, I picked the book up having been given a completely different description.

This book is perfect for just about anyone – those of us who love fantasy but are really tired of vampire books, anyone who likes scary/paranormal books, or a high school student who likes a laugh-out loud page turner. Unfortunately for this middle school librarian, it is not appropriate for middle grade students (my favourite line – “So you’re the guy who did the no-no cha-cha with my baby sister”). So if you are over 15 years old and enjoy books, you should put this book on your reading list!

The Reader (Der Vorleser) by Bernhard Schlink

2011-06-14T09:56:00.000-07:00

The Reader

Bernhard Schlink

Yes, I am fully aware that I’m about ten years late on reading this book. But I assure you I have a good reason. Ok, so I don’t really have a good reason, but I have a reason. See, I have tried to read this book two other times, but couldn’t get through it. Not because of the writing – it is exquisite. I couldn’t get through it because of my language barrier. Somewhere along the line (probably around 2001) I decided that I needed to read books written by German authors in German (I also decided I needed to read cheesy romance novels and YA lit like Harry Potter in German so that I wouldn’t be so “embarrassed” by reading them. Well, I got over that about six years ago). So I’ve tried to read the original version of The Reader (Der Vorleser) on two other occasions. I could get through the first few chapters, but then I was confronted with words and concepts that I didn’t understand – especially when Michael is in law school and discusses abstract concepts. Anyway, I finally decided that I really wanted to read the book and I “wussed out” and read it in English.

I’m so glad I did. What a beautiful novel about life, hardships and how our perceptions of people can be completely wrong for the silliest/craziest reasons! This book reminds me quite a bit of the movie Crash because it takes difficult situations and looks at them deeply and honestly. Anna’s reasons for working at Kraków had nothing to do with her political leanings or beliefs, but people were (and can still be) so blinded by the atrocities of WWII they couldn’t see the truth. Not that I think what happened to the millions of people persecuted during the Holocaust is in anyway acceptable. What bothers me the most in many cases is that when we look back on history, we blanket what happened and blame haphazardly – much like Michael found himself doing in the book. He wanted to blame his parents for not doing more, and he wanted to find Anna guilty. And in many ways, he can and did. But he realized, as I hope we can continue to realize as we examine history honestly, that their guilt is not as simple as it seems. Fear, hunger and oppression were not hardships faced only by the prisoners of those camps. Fear, hunger and oppression don’t make any of the events of WWII acceptable, but trying to understand what daily life was like for Germans during that time helps us understand how they could allow such things to happen. And if nothing, understanding the why of the every day person during that time will help us identify the possibility of it happening again in the future. Hopefully, we can see that when a people are hungry, jobless and scared, leadership can come in and take advantage of that weakness, and disaster can ensue if we aren’t careful.

Ok, so back to the book. Michael is a young man who, early in life, has an affair with a much older woman. As their relationship progresses Anna has Michael read to her – something that Michael perceives as romantic and loving. Later in life, Anna is put on trial for crimes she committed as a guard at the Kraków work camp near Auschwitz. Michael, a young law student, attends her trial and tries to reconcile this new Anna with the old Anna. He realizes, during her trial, that she is covering up a secret that is much deeper and darker than he could have imagined, but her shame in both her actions as an officer and her secret confuse him and he is at a loss for what to do for her.

The ironic part of my experience reading this book is the fact that I shied away from it because of my “reading barrier”. I could have experience this book in all it’s splendor years ago but I didn’t because of my stupid bilingual pride. And now that I’ve finished the book, I’m left with the question – am I really that different from Anna? Granted, I didn’t work at Kraków, and I’d like to think I have enough humanity to save people from atrocities. But reading and good literature are such a huge part of my life, yet I’ve kept myself from so much great literature with my stupid rule. Now I’m moved to try to find other areas of my life where I’ve unknowingly created barriers for myself. And I totally plan to read the original version now so I can look at his writing style!

Any thoughts?

Swim the Fly by Don Calame

2011-06-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

Swim the Fly

Don Calame

Here are the two short reviews I heard about this book. First: this book is a must read for all teenage boys. They love it! Second: I seriously almost wet myself laughing. Since I find that most realistic fiction isn’t geared toward young male readers, and since I quite enjoy laughing myself silly (all urination aside), when I saw Swim the Fly on the shelf at Central High School, I immediately grabbed it and asked to check it out (much to the chagrin of Shar, their library secretary. Guess it was on her reading list too).

Swim the Fly has actually nothing to do with flies. I was a little confused by the title until I realized that “the fly” is a swimming term…I know, I’m not very smart. Matt Gratton is, well, a wimp, but he is a dedicated member of his local swim team, and when he sees an opportunity to impress the über-hot Kelly, he volunteers to swim the 100m butterfly (should that be capitalized? See, I know nothing of swimming). The beginning of Matt’s problems is the fact that he really can’t swim the fly. At all. The good thing about this book is it really isn’t about swimming “the fly”, it’s about the summer adventures (and embarrassments) of a teenage boy who has two really great friends, uncontrollable hormones, and not the slightest clue about girls.

I loved this book. It was hilarious. Some of the situations Matt finds himself in are painfully funny – for example, drinking an extra dose of protein shake that turns out to be fiber laxative (totally not a spoiler, you kinda see it coming). My tummy actually hurt thinking about it. The best part is every crazy situation Matt gets himself into, I can totally imagine one or more of my former “super smart” students getting into. It’s almost like the time I went to see SuperBad with some of my co-workers and we spent the entire movie laughing, not because it was funny (though it was) but because we kept naming students we could see trying to pull those kinds of pranks.

However, I will say that I’m not completely sold that this book is a “guy read”. I actually think it’s more of a chick read about how guys think. But I’m not sure – I don’t know any guys who have read it. It won’t ever be in the collection at GMMS because it’s not middle school appropriate, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to find a guy to read it. I thought about asking my dad, who loves to read, but I’m pretty sure it’s not his cup of tea. He’d think it was funny, but anyone who loves Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem is kind of on a different level.

Regardless, I’d recommend this book to anyone looking for a light, fun summer read. And if you happen to be a teenage boy (wow, this sentence TOTALLY started out creepy) let me know what you think!

Hereville: how Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch

2011-05-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword

Barry Deutsch

Amulet Books

2010

I swear I did not seek this book out based on my love and adoration for the book Hush. I swear on everything holy. It just happens to be another book about an Orthodox Jewish girl. This one, however, has the imagination that rivals J. K. Rowling. And it’s an award winning graphic novel (it was named one of the 2011 Great Graphic Novels for Teens).

Mirka lives in Hereville – an Orthodox Jewish community – with her family: her father, her stepmother and her many siblings. She has an amazing imagination and has always dreamed of fighting monsters – she even hides a book about monsters under her bed (because they live in an Orthodox community, they aren’t supposed to have or read non-Jewish books). One day when she gets lost on the way to school, she comes across a peculiar house and sees a witch and angers a very large talking pig. The pig starts to follow her and steal her homework, knocking her over and creating havoc in her world. When she continually tells people that it’s the pig’s fault, no one believes her. She devises a plan to get the pig to leave her alone only to have to save the pig shortly thereafter. The witch appears and offers her a reward, which sends her on a quest to fight and defeat a troll. The only person who can help her fight the troll is her stepmother, Fruma, a woman Mirka adores and fears all at once.

While I found the story extremely entertaining, I don’t know that students will be as drawn to it as I was. I’ve tried finding out as much as I can about the author because I’m curious as to what would make him write a book about Orthodox Jews. But I couldn’t make the connection – he doesn’t mention being Jewish and doesn’t look Orthodox. He is, however terribly funny and extremely sarcastic – something that I enjoy, but I’m not sure students will identify with. I think Deutsch intends to portray Orthodox Jewish customs respectfully, but it comes across as challenging if not a bit judgmental. Maybe he simply intends to get people thinking about the customs in their own personal “Hereville”. Whatever his intention, I don’t know that it will come across to middle and high school students. I think they might miss the subtlety, and I definitely think they will be turned off by all of the un-translated Yiddish phrases. If he’d included a glossary at the end so that people would know why Zindel says talking to Mirka is like “red tsu der vant” (red’ zu der Wand or talking to the wall). The only reason I enjoyed some of his jokes is because I speak German and could figure out the Yiddish.

I can see why reviewers loved the book; I’m just not convinced that reviewer enjoyment will translate to student enjoyment. But that’s the joy of books – ten people read a book and you get ten different opinions!

Here are some other reviews of Hereville:

School Library Journal

The Whole Megillah

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

2011-05-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

A Long Walk to Water

Linda Sue Park

Clarion Books

2010

In my life I have read many moving books – books that made me reconsider my world view and books that have made me reconsider my view of self. As a middle school librarian, sometimes the books that move and inspire me are books that I cannot add to my collection because they are inappropriate for the grade level I serve. But the issues still remain, and because I want to encourage young people to become reflective members of society, I constantly look for books that will help them see the world in a broad, non-egocentric way. There is a great, big, fascinating world out there, and the sooner we can teach young people to embrace it, the better off our future will be.

Over the past two years, I’ve read several very moving books about the struggles of misplaced natives all over Africa. But none were middle school appropriate. Enter Linda Sue Park and her short novel about two young people in Sudan. A Long Walk to Water many not be the best book I’ve ever read, but it is written in such a way that it will inspire and inform middle school students about the lives of people who live half a world away. It is a short novel – about 120 pages – and it is mostly the story of Salva and his struggle to survive. After violence strikes while he’s at school, he is forced to walk to a refugee camp in Ethiopia, and then years later to another in Kenya, all the while not knowing whether his family is alive or dead. At the beginning of each chapter there is a short narrative from the perspective of young Nya, a girl growing up some twenty years later in southern Sudan, who must walk for eight hours each day to fetch water for her family.

What struck me most about the book is that I could not imagine how these two stories would intersect. I didn’t notice at first that the accounts were over 20 years apart, so I assumed that Nya and Salva would meet, she would save him and they would marry, or something like that. Having read other novels by Park (A Single Shard is another one that really made me think), I should have known that it would be different. And I loved it. Park does an amazing job of creating an inspiring, realistic story (well, it is based on a true story so it should be realistic) that explains the trials occurring in Africa in a way that young people will relate to and possibly be moved to action. The one thing I would recommend to making this book just a bit better would be a resources list at the end. Salva’s organization is mentioned, so there’s a possible starting point for those interested in getting involved, and I suppose it wouldn’t be too difficult for students to find information on their own. But I’ve seen how middle school students conduct research (and I’m working daily to make them better, more saavy researchers) so I feel like a list of trusted organizations might be helpful to them.

All in all the book may not have moved me in the way that other books did, however, I think it is perfectly written for young people, and I hope that it is a catalyst for them to see the world in a different way and to understand that sometimes making a change in the world happens one step at a time.

Salva Dut's Organization - Water For Africa

Other books about the Lost Boys & Girls of Africa

What is the What? by Dave Eggers

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Other Reviews of A Long Walk to Water

5 Minutes for Books

Meredith Dias

The Future of Libraries and How Seth Godin Proves He's Never Been In a Library

2011-05-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

So honestly, I’m kind of shocked that this is my second non-book post in the last week, but this blog post ticked me smooth off (as my friend MattFrye would say). Clearly, Seth Godin has not actually visited a public or school library recently, or had a conversation with a librarian.

One of the biggest pains of my job is explaining constantly what I do. I understand the necessity of explaining myself because the role of librarians has morphed completely in the last decade. Also, I find that I have to explain my job to people who either don’t use libraries or don’t have school aged children. People who visit the public library know what my job entails, and so do parents.

So here’s why I take issue with what Godin said.

First, I’m appalled at Godin’s definition of the librarian of the future, not because of what he’s asking of us, but because we already do all that stuff. We teach people how to use the information they find to create new and innovative products, ideas, you name it. We teach people how to critically think and how to be information literate – which is a term that means they know how to identify, locate and use the information they need to complete any task. Again, it is clear to me that Godin has not visited a public or school library recently.

The next library is ...a place where people come together to do co-working and coordinate and invent projects worth working on together. Aided by a librarian who understands the Mesh, a librarian who can bring domain knowledge and people knowledge and access to information to bear.

That’s what I do each and every day, and if you walk into the Mesa County Public Library, you’ll see the same thing. Just look at their list of events and classes offered, and you'll see that the library is a place where people and information come together to form ideas. Libraries and librarians bring information and people together constantly. All. The. Time. And they do it with a smile on their face and more patience than Mother Teresa (ok, maybe that’s a stretch, but they have lots).

Second, Godin’s reasoning behind not needing a library for research is…well, you decide.

Wikipedia and the huge databanks of information have basically eliminated the library as the best resource for anyone doing amateur research (grade school, middle school, even undergrad). Is there any doubt that online resources will get better and cheaper as the years go by? Kids don't shlep to the library to use an out of date encyclopedia to do a report on FDR. You might want them to, but they won't unless coerced.

There’s a part of me that doesn’t feel the need to respond to this statement because it’s clearly...uh…uninformed (he must have gotten his information from Wikipedia…). Wikipedia has eliminated the library as the best resource for research? Ha. Double Ha. In fact, I actually have to fight to get teachers to allow their students to even use Wikipedia as a starting point. Wikipedia is not considered a valid or reliable resource by most (though it's proving to be more reliable than it used to be) and no one doing any sort of research – amateur or otherwise – should use it as their only source of information. While he is correct in that most students won’t come to the library to use an out of date encyclopedia, they will come to the library to use an online one, or any other of our many online databases, or to use a web-based tool to present their information (like Glogster, Prezi, Animoto, VoiceThread or Xtranormal – any of those tools ring a bell sir? No? Go ask your local librarian, he or she will know). Unfortunately, many of the free online resources are being overrun with advertising, and other quality online resources – like databases – aren’t getting cheaper. School districts are being forced to purchase fewer and fewer. Thank goodness the public library still purchases enough so that patrons can conduct meaningful research. Also, I’d like to extend a friendly challenge to Mr. Godin. I’d like for him to come in and teach one of my classes how to use Ebsco or another database. It’s not that easy. So the truth of the matter is, using Google or Wikipedia might be easier but definitely not better.

Truth be told, I wonder if Mr. Godin’s opinion would be the same if he made less money. I know that sounds a little harsh, but I wonder if it’s true. Let me put it to you this way. I read about 2 books per week, that’s 100 books a year (at least). Many of these books are new releases, so they’re still hardback. But in order to make a conservative estimate, let’s say I only read paperbacks. Books alone would cost me about $1000 a year. I watch fewer movies – about 1 a week. But at $12 a pop, movies would cost me about $625 a year. That’s $1600 a year that I save by going to the public library. That’s about $130 a month I save, and I’m single and childless. Imagine how much money a family of four would save.

Godin also talks about the Kindle and ebooks. Quite frankly, this goes back to my thoughts that he’d be singing a different tune if he lived paycheck to paycheck. “An ebook costs about $1.60 in 1962 dollars.” Uh, $1.60 was a LOT in 1962 – a gallon of regular gas cost a mere $0.31, so an ebook would have cost you the equivalent to 5 gallons of gas. If I re-figured the amount of money I save by visiting the public library based on this figure (each book would cost me approximately $20), I’d spend over $1900 on books alone. Now I know lots of people who buy books for $20, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. My whole point in making the comparison is the simple fact that in these economic times not everyone can afford to buy books, ebooks or DVDs. I feel like the tone of Godin’s article was a little condescending to people who struggle financially. Luckily for everyone (Mr. Godin included) libraries provide equal access and librarians provide information, assistance and guidance to everyone regardless of the size of your pocketbook.

I know that not all libraries are created equal, and some libraries might not be doing all these things, and some librarians still might be nothing more than shushing book pushers. So maybe the truth is that I'm offended that Godin didn't research things a bit more. His library of the future is here - it may not be every library everywhere, but it is here and librarians are already doing all the things he claims we should be doing in the future. So maybe I feel snubbed that he (and LOADS of others) haven't noticed the advances that we're making in Library Land. How do we fix that? We advocate, we keep defending ourselves and show what a benefit we are to students and the community. And we encourage people who write uninformed blogs that they should come visit us so they can see that the "future" is already here.

Here’s his actual blog post The Future of the Library. It is very possible that I went on the defensive and missed his point. I encourage you to read the post, visit your local library and decide for yourselves.

Here are some other reactions to his blog as well

Phil Bradley (the swank UK search guru whose image I borrowed above...)

The Unquiet Librarian (Buffy Hamilton - I'd really like to be her when I grow up)

Happy Reading!

Suzanne

Image above provided by Phil Bradley's Photostream via Flickr

(see what I did just there? That's called attribution. Something a librarian can teach you to do in about 3 easy steps...)

Not That Kind of Girl - Siobhan Vivian

2011-05-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

Not That Kind of Girl

Siobhan Vivian

Rarely do I review books that I don’t like. I prefer to just let them be. Why? Because the book that I loathe might be your favorite book of all times. But this book is different for a few reasons. First of all, I’m quite sure that teenagers will like this book and they’ll get a lot out of it. Second, it really wasn’t terrible – I just didn’t like one character. Ironically, when I was going back through my reading list, I noticed the notes I’d taken from the seminar where I’d first heard about Not That Kind of Girl. The presenter, Karol Sacca of the Parachute Branch of the Garfield Public Libraries (I want to be her when I grow up, btw) had said that the book was worth reading, but that you had to get past the snobbiness of the main character.

Ha. Understatement. I’d say you have to get past the…uh…b-word-iness of the main character*.

Natalie is your quintessential good girl. She keeps herself covered, she isn’t boy crazy and she knows what’s important in life and in high school. Her best friend Autumn made a huge mistake as a freshman, and has spent the last four years being called “Fish Sticks” – something that Natalie, being the wonderful best friend that she is, has done her best to help her deal with. Now that Natalie has been voted SBA president, she is determined to make the most of her senior year. Only not everyone sees things the way she does. Along comes Sterling, a freshman who is sexified to the max, and who is not afraid of attention. Natalie, being the wonderful person that she is, decides to take Sterling under her wing and teach her how to “survive” high school. Only Sterling doesn’t want her help. And all of a sudden, neither does Autumn. Natalie is completely confused that these two, clearly misguided young women would want to ignore her advice and chase after boys. Enter quintessential hunky high school guy, Connor. After overhearing him defend her to his Neanderthal buddies, Natalie is completely taken with him, and they start meeting in private. Now Natalie not only has no friends, she has the burden of a secret weighing on her and eventually, everything crashes and burns, and Natalie has to face the web she’s woven for herself and those she cares about.

Could you sense the sarcasm in that review? Natalie is not just snobby, she’s a downright b…b…brat. The book is told in first person, so having that direct line into Natalie’s thoughts adds to her holier-than-thou attitude. In true YA fashion, things turn out fine in the end and Natalie learns her lesson, but even that wasn’t enough to redeem her in my eyes. I can’t imagine a world where everyone is so quickly forgiving of someone who has acted so stuck-up for four years. I know if I were in high school, I would have enjoyed seeing a fall like Natalie took (people, I’m human, and honest, go with it).

But on the other hand, the book has some really poignant moments and lessons for teens, like the fact that the confident girls really aren’t as confident as they seem, and that being made fun of is not the end of the world. Oh, and the fact that the snotty girls are just as unsure of themselves as everyone else. Let’s all take a moment to remember high school – we thought we knew and that we were cool, but really? We were WRONG. And that was the one redeeming quality of the book: Natalie realizes that she, the know-it-all good girl, actually doesn’t know it all.

*Just realized I’ve never established if this is going to be a PG or a PG-13 blog. Hm…

Here are some other great reviews of this book:

Korianne Speaks – She actually loved the book!

YA Reads

Article: The Sad, Beautiful Fact that We're All Going to Miss Almost Everything

2011-05-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

I don't write personal posts very often, but I came across this article through my Google Reader today: The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We're All Going to Miss Almost Everything by Linda Holmes (and stole the picture from the article too), and made me think about the ideas of being well read and being a librarian. One of the biggest struggles I have in being a librarian is that I don't know that I'll ever be one of "the Greats" like Joyce Valenza, Buffy Hamilton or even Di Herald and Becky Johnson. If those names mean nothing to you, let me try to put it in other terms: I fear that I will be a D list actor. Someone who tries to make a living doing something well, but just can't make it happen. I will try my darndest to read all the award winning books (which is not evidenced by my blog, I read lots more books than I take the time to review) and keep up with constantly evolving technology, but how do I find time in the day? And reading Holmes' article really articulated the conclusion I've come to in the past few weeks. The simple fact is, I'm not ever going to be one of "the Greats" - in Libraryland or even as a German teacher, if I ever end up back in the classroom again - but I'm not sure I want to be one. I will, as Holmes said "make a genuine effort to explore thoughtfully", but I don't know that being "great" is so important to me that I'm willing to give up everything else just to get there. I think, instead I'll strive to be great for my family, my friends, my school community and my church community. That way I can think I'm great - as long as I stay in my little geographic world.

Another reason this article struck a chord with me today is I recently recieved a comment on one of my older blog posts (uh, YEAY!!!) and because this doesn't happen often, I immediately posted the comment. Then I realized that I didn't really like or agree with the comment, which thrust me into a conflict of whether or not I would post all comments or if I would only post comments that added to the blog in some way. Now, I realize that the person who made the somewhat snarky comment about my enjoyment of the Twilight Series was probably doing lots of culling and might benefit from a little more surrender. My hero, Di Herald, always tells kids in my book club that no two people ever read the same book. So to Anonymous from Singapore - first, I doubt you'll read my blog again, so I'm probably wasting my breath here, and second, I'm sure there are books out there that you have read and enjoyed that would make me question your professional judgement as well.

In any case, I have decided to post all comments, and hopefully, as more people read my blog, the will all remember that I am but one person dipping from the ocean of books available to us. My opinion is about as important as everyone else's, so if you don't like a book I recommend, just remember, this is blog isquasi-pointless. It says so in the title.

{And Suzanne steps down from her soapbox, waves lovingly at her fans, and exits stage right}.

Hush by Eishes Chayil

2011-05-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

Hush
Eishes Chayil

The cover of this book reads “What happens when you are betrayed by those you trust the most?” Who can pass up a book with a caption like that? Honestly, usually I can. Truthfully, the cover of this one didn’t really do it for me, but luckily I’d heard enough buzz about it that I went ahead and requested it through interlibrary loan (greatest system EVER).

Gittel is a young woman who has grown up within the comfort and safety of her Chassidic Jewish community of Borough Park. She has learned to be pious, and longs for the day she will marry and her soul will find its’ match. The one dark spot in Gittel’s life is the memory of her best friend, Devory, who died when they were 9. Gittel knows there is more to what happened to Devory than she was told, but whenever she tries to uncover the truth, she is met with silence, fear and a healthy dose of denial. The book alternates between present day and Gittel’s memories of Devory and all that happened to her, and her story is heart-wrenching and joyful all at the same time. The author still lives within the Chassidic community but felt it so important that this story be told, she has chosen the pseudonym Eishes Chayil, meaning Woman of Valor.

What struck me about this book is that it could be a gritty, terrifying book. What happened to Devory is horrifying and should not go unnoticed. But Chayil has written an account of violence in such a way that the horror of the actions of a few do not take away from the love, morality and piety of the many. She balances the heart and soul of the Chassidic community with the unspeakable acts that sometimes occur within their sheltered neighborhoods. I think it’s important that she maintain this balance because unspeakable acts like domestic abuse, child abuse, etc. happen in every community, and every community values morality, piety and family. This account does not allow the reader to dismiss the Chassidic community as evil or bad, but forces us to recognize the atrocities that happen everywhere. By presenting the story in this manner, she has allowed us to see the thorns of the rose. And the strength of her family and loved ones in the end moved me to tears. Gittel and her family represent the good of the Chassidic community, and really, any faith community – following God (or whatever deity you worship), loving those around you and doing what is right and good, even if it’s difficult sometimes.

Here are some other great reviews of this book:

Velveteen Rabbi

Readergirlz

The Radleys by Matt Haig

2011-05-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

The Radley’s

Matt Haig

So I’ll be the first to say, vampire are sooo last week. Twilight, the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, and the House of Night are the books that started it all, and now we have TV series like Vampire Diaries and True Blood (does anyone remember the original vampire series – Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Can I get a heck yeah?). When I first read about The Radleys on the Alex Award List, I thought “ugh…not again”. But then I read the jacket and I was intrigued. Behold, the power of a well written book jacket!

The Radleys is the story of a small town family of vampires, only they aren’t your normal vampires (but when, since Count Dracula, have we had a story of “normal” vampires) because of two things. The parents are abstaining vampires – they do not drink blood, and the children don’t know they are vampires. And in classic style, because the children don’t really know what they are, the book opens and both are struggling to figure out who they are. Rowan has a crush on a local girl, Eve, but lacks the confidence to even speak to her, and Clara is so desperate to get animals to like her that she is attempting to go vegan – a choice that, unbeknownst to her, could ultimately kill her. When Clara accidentally tastes human blood, her hereditary instincts take over and she accidentally kills someone. Now that the secret is out, all of the members of the Radley clan feel their lives turn upside down. Enter Uncle Will – the practicing vampire that can save them all. But there are more secrets hiding on Orchard Lane than one would expect.

I will not say that this is the greatest book I’ve ever read, but it definitely kept me turning the pages. And I can completely see why this book was chosen for an Alex Award – an award given to books written for adults that experience wide success as YA books. Haig created enough suspense that the reader wonders what will come next, and there are just enough plot twists to keep you on the edge of your seat. I had at least two *Gasp* moments, and I once said “OH NO” aloud – which wasn’t a good idea because I was reading…oops. Though this book may not make my favorite book list, I will say that Haig has definitely taken a somewhat overused genre – vampires – and taken it to a new place and written a great novel.

Here are some other reviews of this book:

NY Times

USA Today

Revolution

2011-03-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

Revolution

Jennifer Donnelly

If you’re a history buff or a music buff, this is absolutely the book for you. Andi Alpers is a senior in high school who is holding her life together by a very thin thread. Her younger brother was tragically killed two years earlier and her family has since fallen apart. The only things that keep her going are caring for her mom, popping antidepressants and her music. Andi is a guitar aficionado. When her father finds out that she might not graduate from high school, he takes her to Paris for the three week Christmas vacation in an effort to get her to focus on her school work. In Paris, a family friend gives her a very old guitar and she finds a diary inside a secret compartment within the guitar case. The diary belonged to a girl named Alexandrine who was intimately involved with the French Revolution and the royal family. Andi becomes as obsessed with the diary and the story surrounding it.

I’ll be the first to admit I don’t like history. It was never my favorite class, and analyzing why these people were mean to those people has never been my thing. So when someone recommended that I read Revolution – a book basically about the French Revolution – I was skeptical. That and the music from Les Misérables kept running through my head. But the premise intrigued me, so I decided to give it a try. And I, like Andi, was completely swept up in the story and could not put the book down. The struggles Andi experiences in the book – her bitterness towards her father, her self-hatred for what happened to her brother, her desire to save her mother but lose herself – paired with the struggles Alexandrine faced are so real and poinient, the reader can’t help but get caught up in their lives. And Donnelly has some awesome lines: “What is it that mends broken people? Jesus? Chocolate? New shoes? (p 137), “Because after all the shattered hopes, after all the blood and death, we woke as if from a nightmare only to find that the ugly still are not beautiful and the dull still do not sparkle. That this one sings better than that one. And he got the position I wanted…And no writ, no bill, no law, nor declaration will ever change it” (p 286-287). Lines like these cause the reader to really think about the situations that Andi and Alexandrine found themselves in. I also loved that Donnelly provided a bibliography at the end, so if I were so inclined, I could continue my research on the French Revolution. And Donnelly did such an amazing job with this book, I just might have to.

Heist Society

2011-03-05T19:38:00.000-08:00

Heist Society

Ally Carter

Disney/Hyperion 2010

Note: This is a book review I did for my Adolescent Literature class on Adventure novels. I thought it was good, so I decided to post it. That, and the book is darn good!

Heist Society by Ally Carter is the teenage girl version of The Thomas Crowne Affair. Kat Bishop has had enough of the world of thieves, so she leaves the family business and enrolls in a posh private school. However, the world of thieves isn’t quite done with her yet. When her father is framed for stealing some paintings from a very dangerous criminal, Kat and her band of teenage crook friends must recover the paintings and clear her father’s name. Heist Society is an excellent book about family ties, trust and one of the oldest trades: stealing. The plot is ironically over the top and completely believeable, with unexpected twists and turns that keeps the reader enthralled and guessing and leaves them shocked and begging for more.

Heist Society is, in every way, an excellent adventure story. The protagonist, Kat Bishop, is not only likeable, she and the other characters are excellently developed (Nilsen & Donelson, 184) – their back stories add to both the intrigue and depth of the story – and readers will be able to identify with Kat (Nilsen & Donelson, 184) and her desire to become who she wants, regardless of her family and her history. Though the setting and the plot are fantastic, the reader is drawn into them like movie goers were drawn into Ocean’s Eleven and National Treasure – even though the main characters are committing crimes and breaking dozens of laws, the reader wants them to succeed, if not just for the fun of the action, but for the deeper reason behind their action. All in all, this is an excellent book that will appeal to the adventurer in all of us.

Nilsen, A. P., & Donelson, K. L. (2009). Literature for today's young adults: Eighth Edition. Boston: Pearson Education.

Taylor Mali and the truth about teaching

2011-03-04T20:14:00.000-08:00

Taylor Mali - "What Teachers Make"

This is not only a great poem about teaching, it's true and Mali shows how intelligent teachers are - that's some awesome poetry!

The Chosen One

2011-03-02T16:41:00.000-08:00

The Chosen One

Carol Lynch Williams

St. Martin’s Griffin, August 2010

When I think back to the decisions I had to make when I was not quite 14, I realize that I had it pretty good. All I had to worry about was making sure my shirt matched my pants and socks, whether or not I’d finished my homework, and how to get the cute boy (yep, that’s you Andy W.*) in my Language Arts class to notice me. Reading the story of Kyra – a girl growing up in a polygamist compound, completely shut off from the outside world, and betrothed by the “Prophet” to her 60+ year old uncle before she even reaches her 14^th I am lucky that I was raised to think for myself – though I definitely could not have done so at the age of 13. birthday – made me realize how lucky I am.

In The Chosen One, we follow as Kyra struggles with her upbringing. On the one hand, she has her family – really three families blended together and headed by her very loving father who commits his time and his love to all of his children and his three wives. Kyra cannot imagine a life without them and knows that the quickest way to Heaven is to do what is best for them. On the other hand, she has the Ironton County Mobile Library that brings her forbidden books and a glimpse of the world on the outside, and Joshua Johnson, the boy who makes her feel alive and gives her meaning. When she finds out she is to be bound to her uncle, her world turns upside down and she begins to struggle with her two lives: honoring her family or loving Joshua, her faith and the words of her prophet or her books and her freedom.

In this absolutely gripping novel, Williams has created the perfect coming-of-age character. Kyra teeter-totters between a little girl who believes God knows everything she has done and will punish her for her sins, and a young woman who questions her faith – a faith that she has been raised never to question. And Williams also does a tremendous job of developing the other characters, especially the men in Kyra’s life: Prophet Childs, Patrick the book mobile driver, her father and her Uncle Hyrum – all the men who teach her what strength, courage and faith are.

All in all this book is stunning in it’s presentation of the subject matter and the journey Kyra takes as she – at the ripe old age of not-quite-fourteen – weighs and makes decisions that will affect her and those who love her forever.

This book was voted one of YALSA's 2010 Best Books for Young Adults

*for the record, Andy W. is still pretty darn cute, even with gray hair...

They Called Themselves the KKK

2011-03-01T11:24:00.000-08:00

They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group

Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Having grown up in a time where race relations are markedly different than they were when my parents were my age, and having grown up in a place where the majority of the kids look like me (read: suburban white kids) I can’t say that I’ve had much contact or experience with the KKK – something I’m quite thankful for. In her book, They Call Themselves the KKK, Bartoletti presents a comprehensive history – well, as comprehensive as is possible. Because of the extremely secretive nature of the group, it is difficult to find information about the inner-workings of the club. The information is based on Bartoletti’s research of thousands of slave narratives, newspapers, reports and diaries of people affected by the Klan. While there is an obvious bias to the book, Bartoletti does an excellent job of showing the “white” side of the coin as well – after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, most wealthy plantation owners had nothing – their land had been ransacked by the Union Army, and their “property” had been taken away from them by people who lived far away and did not understand how things worked in the south. All of a sudden, they no longer had workers to sow and harvest their crops, and they had competition in the market from their former slaves. Bartoletti shows how the fear of losing their livelihood drove many whites to use propaganda and terror to try to maintain their power – and their way of life. She also shows how the former slaves refused to give up their newfound freedom and were willing to do everything they could to keep it. And lastly, she showcases the unfailing courage of many men and women – regardless of the color of their skin – in the face of the rising terror created by the KKK.

This book was a wonderful read, even though many of the images and descriptions gave me nightmares. Bartoletti not only gives a clear picture of the historical events surrounding the early years of the KKK, she also gives keen insight into the mindset of the various groups and their struggles during that time.

**This book was a finalist for the 2011 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction

Crank

2011-02-22T12:52:00.000-08:00

Crank
by Ellen Hopkins

Honestly, I have been avoiding reading this book since it came out. I know how controversial it is, and I know how much kids love it and that it never stays on the shelf for more than about a day. In fact, I had to ILL request it from Eagle Valley just to get a copy to read. There are two reasons that I have been avoiding reading this book: first, I really don’t like books written in verse. I’ve never been much of a poetry person, so I always assumed I’d hate books written in verse. Second, I’m pretty much the quintessential good girl and have zero desire to do or try drugs (thank you Nancy Reagan, for teaching me to give hugs not drugs).

Now that I’ve read the book, I will say that I’m glad I read it. I can see the appeal in the book and in the format. And I do believe that the format of the book enhances the reading experience. Though I am a self-proclaimed goody two-shoes and have never been on drugs, I did consult an acquaintance that has dabbled in the world of illegal substances and asked him to read some of the book. He said that being under the influence was sometimes like the writing in the book – somewhat choppy and all over the place. And did anyone else notice the hidden messages in some of the poems? In many of the entries, the words that are set apart tell their own little story. Take, for example the entry “GUFN Again”. The words set apart on the left side read “I didn’t belong to my mom anymore”. Another example is “I Went Home”. Down the right side reads “Scott insisted, Chase invited, Brendan inflated, Leigh instigated, Mom finally noticed, Bree swore”.

Though, as I said before, I’m glad I read the book, I cannot say that I enjoyed it. Not only did I start dreaming weird, verse-like dreams about drugs, the book left me with a very icky feeling every time I picked it up. I suppose that’s a good thing –Hopkins doesn’t glamorize the drug (or glamorizes it as little as she can) in order to show the truth about drugs to readers. And I am the one who is very much against happy endings that are unrealistic, so the ending – which leads readers to believe that Kristina/Bree is/was unable to stay away from meth after her son was born – made me appreciate the book more. But I found it really difficult to relate to Kristina/Bree. When she talked about her life pre-drugs, she didn’t make it sound terrible or horrible, so I have trouble understanding how she was so willing to throw it all away. But then again, I suppose that’s one of the risks of drugs that kids should think about/know about before they even try it once. In any case, this book will not go on my list of favorite reads ever.

When it comes to books in verse, I’m not sure this book would be as effective if it weren’t written in verse. However, I was a little afraid that I’d associate all books written in verse with this book, so I read Shakespeare Bats Cleanup by Ronald Koertge (Candlewick Press, 2003) and I actually liked it. So I promise I won’t give up on books written in verse completely. However, I probably won’t read anymore Hopkins books…sorry.

Hilarious book song

2011-02-22T12:19:00.000-08:00

Here's a fun little song that will not only get stuck in your head, but make others think twice about interrupting your precious reading time...

While the guy in this video is quite scary, as Cathy Nelson shared in her post about this video, he's supposed to be scary so that you don't interrupt him...

So many books, so little time

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Books, Steampunk and Bonding with Students

The actual review for Daughter of Smoke and Bone

The Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Zombies vs. Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier

I'm Not Her by Janet Gurtler

The Power of a Good Book

Trapped by Michael Northrop

Scarlet Moon and the Once Upon a Time Series

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Habits are Learned Video

True (...Sort of) by Katherine Hannigan

Dead Rules by Randy Russell

Liar by Justine Larbalestier

Gemini Bites by Patrick Ryan

Matched by Allie Condie

Hunger Games Movie Trailer

Dear Bully edited by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones

Hereafter by Tara Hudson

Guest Post: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter

My Fair Lazy by Jen Lancaster

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson

Flip by Martyn Bedford

Zoom by Istvan Banyai

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

7 Books that Changed the Way I See the World

I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali

Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

August books...

Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann

What Kind of Reader Are You?

XVI by Julia Karr

Blood on My Hands by Todd Strasser

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Books: A Love Letter by Bobbi Newman

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Audiobooks - what makes them good?

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

The Freak Observer by Blythe Woolston

Prepare yourselves...

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride

The Reader (Der Vorleser) by Bernhard Schlink

Swim the Fly by Don Calame

Hereville: how Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

The Future of Libraries and How Seth Godin Proves He's Never Been In a Library

Not That Kind of Girl - Siobhan Vivian

Article: The Sad, Beautiful Fact that We're All Going to Miss Almost Everything

Hush by Eishes Chayil

The Radleys by Matt Haig

Recommended Reads - an update

Revolution

Heist Society

Taylor Mali and the truth about teaching

The Chosen One

They Called Themselves the KKK

Crank

Hilarious book song