I have to apologize for the short reviews the past couple of weeks. I was looking through them yesterday, and I realized how little I had to say. Ah, well. Chalk it up to residual flu-like symptoms. I hate being sick, it tends to slow me down and make everything (mostly my brain) hazy. I’m feeling more up to snuff today… the first time in a couple of weeks. Maybe I’ll even be able to churn out something lucid this week.

On to our flaps…

The Top Five:
5. Robot Dreams (First Second): “Richly endearing and full of surprises, Robot Dreams follows an ill-fated friendship between a dog and a robot. After a Labor Day jaunt to the beach leaves Robot rusty and immobilized in the sand, Dog, unsure what to do abandons him. As the seasons pass, Dog tries to replace his friend, making and losing a series of new ones, from a melting snowman to epicurean anteaters. Meanwhile, Robot passes his time daydreaming, escaping to better places. . . Through interwoven journeys, the two characters long to recover from their day at the beach. Although its adorable characters and playful charm will win over young readers, Robot Dreams speaks universally to the fragile nature of friendship, loss and redemption.”

I think this is remarkable — it’s a wordless book, and yet they’ve come up with an interesting (and accurate!) blurb about the book. Not an easy task.

4. Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians (Scholastic): “A Hero with an incredible talent… for breaking things. A life or death mission… to rescue a bag of sand. A fearsome threat from the powerful secret network that rules the world… the Evil Librarians. Alcatraz Smedry doesn’t seem destined for anything but disaster. But on his thirteenth birthday, he receives a bag of sand, and his life takes a bizarre turn. This is no ordinary bag of sand… and it is quickly stolen by the cult of evil Librarians who are taking over the world by spreading misinformation ans suppressing truth. The sand will give the evil Librarians the edge they need to achieve world domination. Alcatraz must stop them!… by infiltrating the local library, armed with nothing but eyeglasses and a talent for klutziness.”

I liked this one primarily because it made me laugh. Kind of like the book.

3. A Curse Dark as Gold (Arthur A Levine Books): “The gold thread shimmers in the fading light. It promises Charlotte Miller a way out of debt, a chance to save her family’s beloved woolen mill. It promises a future for her sister, livelihood for her townsfolk, security against her sinuous and grasping uncle. It might even promise what she didn’t know she needed: lasting hope and true love. But at what cost? To get the tread, Charlotte must strike a bargain with its maker, the mysterious Jack Spinner. But the gleam of gold conjures a shadowy past — secrets and bonds ensnaring generations of Millers. And Charlotte’s mill, her family, her friends, her love… What do those matter to a powerful stranger who can spin straw into gold? In her brilliant debut, Elizabeth Bunce weaves a spellbinding fairy tale, spun with mystery and shot through with romance.”

I like how this alludes to Rumpelstiltskin, without coming outright and saying “this book is based on the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin”. I also like that it works in the elements of weaving and family, which were also important to the book.

2. The Winter Queen (Random House): “Moscow, May 1876: What would cause a talented young student from a wealthy family to shoot himself in front of a promenading public in the Alexander Gardens? Decadence and boredom, most likely, is what the commander of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Moscow Police thinks, but still he finds it curious enough to send the newest member of the division, Erast Fandorin, a young man of irresistible charm, to the Alexander Gardens precinct for more information. Fandorin is not satisfied with the conclusion that this is an open-and-shut case, nor with the preliminary detective work the precinct has done — and for good reason: The bizarre and tragic suicide is soon connected to a clear case of murder, witnessed firsthand by Fandorin. There are many unresolved questions. Why, for instance, have both victims left their fortunes to an orphanage run by the English Lady Astair? And who is the beautiful “A.B.,” whose signed photograph is found in the apparent suicide’s apartment? Relying on his keen intuition, the eager sleuth plunges into an investigation that leads him across Europe, landing him at the deadly center of a terrorist conspiracy of worldwide proportions. In this thrilling mystery that brings nineteenth-century Russia to vivid life, Akunin has created one of the most eagerly anticipated novels in years.”

A bit long, but really fun — and it works in a bit of Fandorin’s personality without giving away too much.

1. Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac (Farrar Straus Giroux): “If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss. She wouldn’t have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn’t have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn’t have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place. She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her “Chief.” She’d know about her mom’s new family. She’d know about her dad’s fiancée. She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. She wouldn’t have wanted to kiss him back. But Naomi picked heads. After her remarkable debut, Gabrielle Zevin has crafted an imaginative second novel all about love and second chances.”

Clever, intriguing and to the point. It also reflects the tone of the book really well. Very, very good.

The Worst One:
Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window (Kodansha):“This engaging series of childhood recollections tells about an ideal school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom and love. This unusual school had old railroad cars for classrooms, and was run by an extraordinary man — it’s founder and headmaster, Sosaku Kobayashi — who was a firm believer in freedom of expression and activity. In real life, the Totto-chan of the book has become one of Japan’s most popular television personalities — Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. She attributes her success in life to this wonderful school and its headmaster. The charm of this account has won the hearts of millions of people of all ages and made this book a runaway bestseller in Japan, with sales hitting the 4.5 million mark in its first year.”

For me, the worst crime a jacket flap copy writer can commit is to underplay a very cute book. Granted, it’s a very hard book to categorize and summarize, but, still, this blurb does not do anything to make me want to read the book, and the whole deal about the author becoming a huge TV star in Japan is just padding. Terrible.