Month: November 2010

The Kneebone Boy

3 Comments

by Ellen Potter
ages: 10+
First sentence: “There were three of them.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

To say that the Hardscrabble children — Otto, Lucia (Lu-CHEE-ah, thank you very much), and Max — are a bit odd, is an understatement. Max is one of those brilliant know-it-alls who drive people nuts, Lucia is hopelessly, shamelessly candid, and Otto hasn’t talked since their mom disappeared several years ago. They live in Little Tunks, which is about as exciting as its name, with their slightly absent-minded artist (he specializes in portraits of fallen royals) father.

Their existence is fairly boring, partially due to everyone in town avoiding them like the plague (and partially due to the fact that Little Trunks is just a boring place). And yet, one eventful afternoon, their father sends them down to London to stay with their aunt… who turns out isn’t there. (Gone on holiday to Germany, it seems.) Thus begins their adventure. There’s some mystery, a lot of close scrapes, some new friends, and a few new relations as well. At any rate, they become a lot less of whatever they were, and a lot more interesting.

The book reads much like a Lemony Snickett one — a comparison which is probably inevitable considering the cover — but without all the “oh, and what next?!?” feeling that went along with the adventures of the Baudelaire children. It helps that there’s a meta element going on here: often our narrator (whose identity isn’t revealed, but we are invited to guess at) pops out of the story to give us, as readers, asides about the action and plot, and pass along advice that their teacher, Mr. Dupuis, has give them in writing this. It’s not that the plot wasn’t enough to carry the book; the adventure of the Hardscrabble kids is actually quite interesting, especially with the mystery of their lost mother overshadowing it. But the asides add that little something that makes the book that much more fun.

It’s a dark little story, but with the right balance of dark and funny to make it truly enjoyable, and it’s fascinating how the mystery unravels at the end. Just about perfect, I would say. (But don’t tell the Hardscrabble kids that. They might not like it.)

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I’ve been asked to make sure y’all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

It’s Holiday Time Again!

1 Comment

I’ve been musing lately about Christmas, what to get the girls, what to get the siblings we’re giving to this year (any ideas?), and considering just bagging it all and saving for the trip to Hawaii in January. In the midst of all this musing, I did start to wonder: is the Book Blogger Holiday Swap going to happen this year??

Of course it is! (Thanks, Charlotte, for the heads up…)

I’ve always had a grand time with this (though I can’t remember how many years I’ve signed up… three? four?), meeting new bloggers, the excitement of picking out something and the fun of seeing where and what I’m sent (mmm… chocolate…). It’s part of what makes the whole book blogging thing so much fun. (And the holidays.)

The deadline for signing up is November 14th, so hurry…. (You know you want to.)

Linger

2 Comments

by Maggie Stiefvater
ages: 14+
First sentence: “This is the story of a boy who used to be a wolf and a girl who was becoming one.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Linger picks up where Shiver left off (so if you’re one of the few people on this planet who’ve not read that, then be forewarned, there’s no getting around spoilers): Sam and Grace are an item, since it seems Sam has been cured of werewolfism. Or so they think. As winter slowly turns into spring, Grace is sick for the first time in her life. Her parents have (finally, however unbelievably) decided to be parents, and are clamping down on their relationship. And, in order to complicate things, the new wolf that Beck turned last winter, Cole, is adding his own problems, especially considering that he used to be the famous, yet self-destructive, lead-singer of the hip band, NARKOTIKA.

Told in the same evocative prose as her first book, Steifvater takes us to some of the same places that Shiver did. But not always with the same results. Falling in love is always more interesting than being in love, and for that reason Sam and Grace felt stale, while Cole and the attraction he holds for Isabel took front-and-center in my book. It really didn’t matter that both characters were very unlikable; their attraction was immediate and one of those destined to destruction. It was fascinating to watch. Granted, Cole is also brilliant, and may have figured out the trick with the whole werewolf thing. That always helps any relationship, I think.

I didn’t find it as compelling as Shiver, but it was still good. Stiefvater knows how to turn a phrase, a way to evoke a setting that makes you believe you are there. (Someday, books will come with smells and tastes, too.) And for that (and because it’s the next book in the trilogy), it’s worth reading.

I Shall Wear Midnight

Leave a comment

by Terry Pratchett
ages: 13+
First sentence: “Why was it, Tiffany Aching wondered, that people liked noise so much?”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Tiffany Aching has discovered that she was a witch, gone through training, accidentally joined a dance she shouldn’t have and had to kiss the winter as a result. Now, she’s back at the Chalk, a sixteen-year-old girl, trying to manage her stead as a witch. It’s not going too horribly: she’s managing to get the things done that need doing. Until one day, things start to unravel. It began with a beating of a young girl by her father, and the rough music started. Then it morphed into something grander: Roland’s engagement to Letitia, daughter of an uppity Duchess, the Baron’s death, and a growing resentment and fear of witches. It turned out that Tiffany had accidentally let out something quite evil, something which, if left to roam, will result in the demise of all the witches. And it’s up to her to make things right again.

I know it sounds dark, and there are some dark moments, but this book is so wonderfully affirming, so incredibly hopeful, that it isn’t the dark bits that stand out. While it’s not as hilarious as some of the other books in the series, it’s still quite amusing. And Tiffany really, truly grows into her own. She has to give up some things, and learn some things, and make some difficult decisions, but she does it all. And she makes some new friends, looking past prejudice and bad first impressions to see that everyone is wonderfully more complicated and interesting that we give them credit for at first.

A perfect ending for an excellent series.

Library Loot 2010-39

7 Comments

I tell myself that I’m reading for the Cybils, and I need to put other books on hold. Then I actually do put them on hold, and then they come in, and then I need to read them. I am reading for the Cybils, I promise. I’m just squeezing in other books, too….

Picture Books:
The Wild Swans, by Susan Jeffers
Moon Dreams, by Ruth Martin/Illus. by Oliver Latyk
Lyle Walks the Dogs, by Bernard Waber/Illus. by Paulis Waber
The Day the Cow Sneezed, by James Flora
Corky Cub’s Crazy Caps (Animal Antics a to Z), by Barbara deRubertis/Illus. by R.W. Alley

Middle Grade:
The Archaeolojesters, by Andreas Oertel
A Million Shades of Gray, by Cynthia Kadohata
Zora and Me, by Victoria Bond & T. R. Simon
Mallory Goes Green!, by Laurie Friedman (Illus. by Jennifer Kalis)

Adult Fiction:
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, by David Sedaris (Illus. by Ian Falconer)

The roundup is either at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader or The Captive Reader. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I’ll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it’s SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I’m going to keep doing it.

Clementine, Friend of the Week

4 Comments

by Sarah Pennypacker
ages: 8+
First sentence: “I couldn’t wait for Margaret to get on the bus Monday afternoon.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Dear Clementine,

I will be very sad if you ever decide to grow up. You are what is most wonderful about kids: eager, curious, meaning well, and yet with a stubborn streak that makes me believe that you’ll go places when you get older. I love that you call your brother by vegetable names, in protest for your name (which is quite cheery, by the way; I hope you like it when you get older). I think your boundless creativity — Moisturizer for your cat’s name; Flomax for your friend’s iguana? Priceless! — and energy is amazing. I admire your parents for being as patient and indulging at they are. (They are pretty cool, too.)

As for your adventure this time, I feel your pain. To lose your best friend, due to a fight that you have no idea what it’s about, is a tough thing. And then to lose your cat, too? Ouch. But, you get through it, and I think you realize, at least a little bit, what a great girl — and good friend — you are.

Don’t ever change.

Best,
Melissa

P.S. And Ms. Pennypacker? Keep the books coming! My girls love having someone like Clementine to read about!

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I’ve been asked to make sure y’all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

(Not Quite) 10 Questions for Jackson Pearce

1 Comment

Jackson Pearce is one difficult woman to get a hold of. Seriously. It’s because she has her fingers in so many pies, I think. There’s her blog, and her presence on Twitter and Facebook. And don’t forget her vlog, on which she recently tacked a 30 days of vlogging series. Oh, and she writes books. Her most recent one, Sisters Red, was a captivating take on Red Riding Hood, and the companion book, Sweetly, is out in June 2011. It’s no wonder that I had to beg and plead (and become an annoying email/Twitter presence) to get her to answer a few questions. And it’s a good thing she was gracious enough to squeeze me in.

MF: Which character of yours was easiest/most fun to write?
JP: I think, oddly enough, Scarlett was the most fun to write. She’s so focused, so intense…it was like being on one of those haunted-house-carnival-rides that happened entirely inside her head. Even though it was super dark sometimes, it was always interesting. She was NOT easy, however. I think Jinn, in AS YOU WISH, was actually the easiest to write. He’s so fun and wry and sarcastic, it was always a blast.

MF: How about the most difficult?
JP: The most difficult to write was Gretchen, in my upcoming book SWEETLY. I think I started the first draft of that book before her personality was fully formed in my head, and thus I had to write and rewrite and rewrite. I finally found her voice, but it took a while!

MF:You spend a lot of time with Twitter and Facebook, not to mention your blog and vlogging. How does social media affect your work? (or does it?)
JP: I love twitter/blogging/vlogging/facebook, and did it long before I sold my first book– that said, I do think being able to so easily connect with readers is wonderful. It doesn’t necessarily affect the writing directly, but it certainly affects the “author” side of the job in that I get to have fun, meaningful conversations with readers instead of wondering if anyone out there in the world is reading my work!

MF: Who or what inspires you to write?
JP: Nothing specific inspires me to write– I write because if I don’t write my stories down, no one else is going to! Writing is the only way I can get what’s in my head out into the world.
MF: Since this was going around the interwebs recently, I’m curious: why do you write for a YA audience?
JP: I feel like this is similar to asking “Why do you like ice cream?” Because it’s delicious, and well, I just…DO. It’s simple. I write for YA because it’s awesome and I just DO. It’s not a conscious choice, it’s just the stories in my head are YA. Equally simple.
MF: What are your top five books (at least right now)?
JP: This is always, always, always changing, but:
THE VESPERTINE by Saundra Mitchell
ACROSS THE UNIVERSE by Beth Revis
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN by Mark Twain (yep, I’m a nerd)
MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins
Hm, I can’t think of a 5th! I’ve been doing a lot more writing than reading lately, it seems…

MF: Thank you for your time, Jackson!