Author: booknutgirls

booknutgirls http://thebooknutdotcom.wordpress.com I read. I blog. I sell books. I chauffeur my kids. What more do you need to know?

Cuckoo Song

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by Frances Hardinge
First sentence: “Her head hurt.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy left for me by the publisher rep.
Comtent: It’s more than a bit creepy, and it’s slow (like many Hardinge) books. I’ll probably put it in the YA section (grades 6-8), but I’d give it to a 10-year-old who showed interest and was willing to be patient with it.

I have not read everything Hardinge has read, but what I’ve read I’ve (almost) wholeheartedly loved. She is not an easy author to love; she makes you work for the story, often having a very slow start and building from there. Cuckoo Song was no different in that respect. It was a slow and somewhat confusing beginning, one that took me a bit to get into.

Triss has been ill for a good long while. She is Delicate, and often prone to Sickness. And so when she wakes after an accident during her family’s vacation no one seems to think that anything is the matter. Except she feels like something is … off. And her younger sister, Pen, (with whom she has always had a contentious relationship) is screaming awful things at her.  And so Triss does what any 12-year-old would do: she tries to figure out what’s wrong with her. And the deeper she goes into that mystery, the more she discovers that there are things Wrong with her family in some very dark (and somewhat magical) ways. And it’s probably up to her and Pen to fix things.

I don’t want to give away too much because much of what I loved about this was the slow realization of what was going on. There’s a reason the beginning is slow and confusing: Triss, herself, is slow and confused. The reader figures things out as Triss does, peeling one glorious, dark, delicious layer back after another. And no to worry: once the story really gets going, Hardinge’s writing is so lyrical it pulls you in, increasing the tension until the immensely satisfying ending.

It’s absolutely wonderful.

State of the TBR Pile: May 2015

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Happy Mother’s Day, to all of you who celebrate it. I don’t think we have much planned here, but perhaps I’ll get some reading off my pile done today… Though looking at this pile, it’s heavy on the YA. I may have to look through my other piles and find some nice middle grade books to balance it out.

The Cage, by Megan Shepherd
The Heart of Betrayal, by Mary E. Pearson (she’ll be at the store on June 10th; I figure I should read this)
The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate, by Jacqueline Kelly
The Wrath and the Dawn, by Renee Ahdieh
Truth Commission, by Susan Juby
Saint Anything, by Sarah Dessen
Spelled, by Betsy Schow
Read Between the Lines, by Jo Knowles
I’ll Meet You There, by Heather Demetrios

What’s on your TBR pile?

How to Be a Heroine

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by Samantha Eliis
First sentence: “A couple of summers ago, I was on the Yorkshire moors, arguing (over the wuthering) with my best friend about whether we’d rather be Jane Eyre or Cathy Ernshaw.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There’s a handful — not more than six — of f-bombs and some mentions of sex, but nothing graphic. It’s in the adult creative nonfiction section of the bookstore, but I’d give this to anyone in high school and up.

Somehow, I ended up with a complimentary copy of this book. I really have no idea how it ended up on my pile. I do know the idea of it (and the subtitle: “Or, What I’ve Learned from Reading Too Much”) appealed to me. Any book that is about books or the love of reading has to be good, right?

And it was.

The book is nominally a reflection of Ellis’s life. She’s an Iraqi Jew, living in London, with all the cultural and religious implications you’d think that entails. She struggled against expectations, she struggled with faith, she struggled to find her own path. And, on its own that would be a fascinating story. But she framed the book with an analysis, heavily feminist, of classic heroines. From familiar to me ones like Jo March and Anne Shirley and Jane Eyre to ones I’ve never heard of, like Franny Glass and Esther Greenwood. She explored their narrative arcs, and what she took away from their stories. Both when she was younger and then, as an adult, how she feels the held up. Some did. A lot didn’t. And many she got something different out of the book than what she got when she was younger. She discovered new things along the way, and made me want to revisit books I’d loved when I was younger and read ones I’ve not read before.

And for all the literary criticism, it wasn’t a stuffy book. Ellis has a way of drawing the reader in, of making the characters pop to life. Perhaps that’s because she’s a playwright and has a way with words as it is. But whatever the reason, this one won my heart over.

Momo

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by Michael Ende
First sentence: “Long, long ago, when people spoke languages quite different from our own, many fine, big cities already existed in the sunny lands of the world.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: If you can read The Phantom Tollbooth, then this one is for you. It’d be in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

This book is one of the reasons why, busy as I am, I won’t give up an in-person book group. (I’ve been a slacker with my on-line one lately…) While I read The Neverending Story by Ende as a child (when the movie came out…), I had no idea (and no inclination to find out, for some reason) that he’d written any other books. But, because it’s probably been 30 years since I’d read Neverending Story (or seen it for that matter; we may have tried showing it to the kids), I had no idea what to expect.

What I got was a sweet little fable. Momo is a little orphan girl that shows up in this town and moves into the old amphitheater. What endears her to the people in this town to Momo is twofold: she has a remarkable imagination, and she truly listens to them. Then one day, the grey men show up and infiltrate the town, stealing time from people. Suddenly, no one has enough time for Momo to listen to them, and everyone except the children stay away. And even the children are different. Momo happens to find out the grey men’s plan, and then sets out on an adventure to get her friends back.

It reminded me most of The Phantom Tollbooth: it was a bit on the preachy end — YEAH I get it, unplug from being busy and actually CONNECT with people — but it was also sweet and tender and had that late-60s/early-70s feel to it. It’s nothing earth-shattering, but it is very sweet.

The Tapper Twins Go To War (with each other)

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by Geoff Rodkey
First sentence: “Wars are terrible things.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy picked up at Winter Institute for me by my co-workers
Content: There’s a lot of silliness, and it’s a “notebook” book and told in an oral history form, which means lots of pictures, not a lot of exposition, and a generous mix of technology. Perfect for reluctant readers. It’s in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore, but it’d be good up through 7th, I think.

The Tapper twins, Claudia and Reese, are at war. They disagree on how it started, but both are pretty invested in making each other’s life miserable now. It escalates from name calling to pranking (a dead fish left in a backpack) to online bullying to out-and-out destruction in an online gaming forum.

It’s told as an oral history; Claudia is the narrator, and nominally the one telling the events as they unfold, but she interviews friends and family (well, she uses text messages from her parents) and neighbors to defend or refute her point: that Reese is the one who started the War, and that he Deserved It. Of course, Reese totally rejects that idea.

Sure, this isn’t a lot of things, but it IS a lot of fun. And honestly: that’s what kids want and like. Personally, I loved the dynamic between the twins, their push and pull with each other. And while it’s an upper-middle class life that they live (computers, tablets, phones, babysitter, private school), and while it’s yet another New York City book, it’s a fun “fantasy” life for those of us in middle class, Midwest America (although yeah, I’d like to have their life and their problems) and a fun look at kids in New York City. It got me laughing, aloud at times, and sometimes that’s exactly all you want out of a book.

And I’m sure kids will love it.

An Ember in the Ashes

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by Sabaa Tahir
First sentence: “My big brother reaches home in the dark hours before daown, when even ghosts take their rest.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: It’s dark and it’s brutal. Seriously. More so than Hunger Games. And because of that, it’s in the Teen section (grades 9+) of the bookstore.

Laia has grown up in a world where her people, the Scholars, are a captive people. Their great enemy, the Martials, conquered them and have shown no mercy. They imprison the Scholars, they rape the women, they torture and kill those that they catch. Laia’s parents were part of the resistance, and they were betrayed and killed, along with her older sister. She and her brother Darin lived with their grandparents, trying to fly under the radar of the Martials. Until one day, when they don’t. And the Masks come for them, kill her grandparents, take Darin. Laia barely gets away.

Elias has grown up at Blackcliff, the military school that trains the Martial Masks. An unwanted bastard son of Blackcliff’s Commander, he spent the years before he turned six with the Tribal people in the desert. Then the Augurs — the mystic, magical, immortal Martial prophets — came for him and thrust him into a kill-or-be-killed world. The only way he survived was because of Helene, his fellow student and best friend. Now, just as he was graduating and dreaming of freedom, the Augurs decide that it’s time for a new emperor, and pit Elias and Helene against each other and two other students in a bid to be emperor (or die).

I think the most logical comparison read for this book is Game of Thrones. This is brutal, unflinching, dark, violent, harsh… there’s magic, but it takes a back seat to the exploration of Martial culture. And yet, underneath all of that dark is a hope, a light. Elias, for all the terrible things he’s done (and that have been done to him), turned out to be a decent human being. Laia, even though she thinks of herself as weak, has a quiet strength and bravery to her that isn’t readily seen or valued. It’s a very human book, as well: the characters are complex and messy, there’s depth even to the most hateful of characters (Marcus and the Commander, I’m looking at you), that makes them understandable, even if they aren’t likable.

In fact, the only thing I didn’t like about this book was that there are many unresolved issues, and many unanswered questions at the end. Then again, if this is the quality of writing that Tahir gives us with her first book, I only have high hopes for where this story is going to go.

First Sunday Daughter Reviews: May 2015

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Happy May! (Seriously: It’s MAY? School ends in 19 days? WHERE DID THE TIME GO? I could swear it’s still March, although I’m glad it’s not.) On a side note: I just realized that I’ve crossed the 2500 post threshold. I’ve stopped keeping track of blogging milestones (it’s been more than 10 years, people!) but that seems something worth mentioning! (I’m amazed, anyway….)

My kids’ reading has gone down this month. In fact, out of the three that are at home. I can only think of one who actually read something at all. (Not true: I just thought of something K read.) A lot of that is end-of-the-year busy-ness: field trips and event days and projects and plays, but some of that is an uptick in electronic usage. That seriously needs to be curbed, especially with summer coming on. Maybe rewards for books read? Suggestions are always welcome….

So, C got A hooked on this:

 She seriously plowed through it, eating it all up. And for the record, she’s Team Cal (which makes C very happy).

And I picked up an ARC of this in Pasadena, and K discovered it:

It’s a bit “weird” but it’s also pretty cool: a girl magician who has to play basketball to defeat the bad guy. I think she thinks it’s weird because of the art style, but she completely loves the story.

That’s about it. Are your kids reading anything good?

April 2015 Round-up

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I completely spaced getting this post up yesterday!  I don’t know if that’s the first time it’s happened, but it probably won’t be the last. Life has been super crazy. I still managed to read a bunch…

My favorite this month was

All the Light We Cannot See

It’s really stayed with me in ways that I haven’t expected. Definitely worth the hype.

As for the rest:

YA:

Miss Mayhem

Middle Grade:
Crossover
Genuine Sweet
The Island of Dr. Libris
The Return: Disney Lands
The Trap
Willy Maykit in Space

Non-fiction:

I Will Always Write Back
Life from Scratch

Adult:

Trigger Warning

What did you like this month?

The Island of Dr. Libris

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by Chris Grabenstein
First sentence: “Billy Gillfoyle’s dad shifted gears and gunned the engine.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: It has a few big works, but there’s a lot of white space, short chapters, and quick pacing. Good for reluctant readers as well as the middle grade crowd. I’d give it to anyone 8 and up who’s interested. It’s in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

I really REALLY loved Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library a couple of summers back. And so, I was really REALLY excited that Grabenstein was returning to a similar idea in this one. Anything that celebrates books and bookishness for kids (while making it kind of techy cool) is a win in my world.

Billy Gillfoyle’s parents are having issues and so he’s spending the summer out at a cabin by a lake with his mother that she has rented from a university colleague of hers. She’s going to write her dissertation, and he’s going to… explore the woods? Ugh. There’s no TV, no internet, and the next-door neighbor is a Mean Kid. This is going to be the Worst Summer Ever. Especially since there’s no cool books in the library of Dr. Libris (the colleague, whose first name is Xiang, so he can be X. Libris. Ha!), only old Classics. BORING.

But, when Billy begins reading, he hears weird things off in the distance, at the island in the middle of the lake. And when he goes to investigate, he discovers that the characters in the books have come to life! Not actors, not holograms, but real, live people who are interacting.

Cool so far, even though the “technology” behind the island is a bit squidgy and feels more like magic. (It’s supposed to be technology, but the science was so vague, I just considered it magic. I’ll be interested to see where it ends up during Cybils season.) I really liked seeing the classic characters come to life and I thought Grabenstein made them fresh and interesting for a new crowd. If I hadn’t already read The Three Musketeers or Robin Hood, I’d be tempted to pick them up.

But I didn’t utterly love the book, for one reason: there were no girls. Seriously. Maid Marion was there, a little tiny bit, being Robin Hood’s sidekick, but she really didn’t do anything. And Pollyanna was there, but she was mostly annoyingly cheerful (well, that’s to be expected) and served as a love interest. And Billy made a friend with his other next door neighbor (not the Mean Kid) and he had a younger sister, but her role was to 1) introduce Billy to her brother and 2) be annoying and mess up the island. And, yeah, there’s Billy’s mom, but she was barely there. It was a glaring hole. (As was the lack of diversity: all the classic characters were white, and the other characters were never really given physical features,  so I suppose they could have been diverse, but it was never really defined as such.) I wish there had been more girls, stronger girls, more interesting girls.

I’ll still recommend it to kids, but I do wish it had been… more.

The Return: Disney Lands

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by Ridley Pearson
First sentence: “
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: I was made a bit wary when I started and discovered that the main characters are high school graduates, but (aside from the age) it really is a middle grade novel. Lots of action, a little bit of romance, and easy to follow. It’s in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

I got an email, as part of my new role at the store, that Ridley Pearson was interested in coming to visit. I got excited, said hey sure! And then promptly realized that the only thing I’ve ever read by him was Peter and the Starcatchers, which I didn’t really think of as “Ridley Pearson” but more “Dave Barry and the other guy.” So I had the publishers send me a book, partially because I wanted to read it, but also because I wanted to test their claim that it would “bring new readers to the series.”

The series is this: there are five kids who, at night when they sleep, become holographic hosts at Disney World and Disneyland and fight the evil Disney villians for control of the world. They thought their job was done, they’re moving on — graduated from high school and are off to Bigger and Better Things — but WAIT, something has happened and they need to Fix It.

On the one hand, this book is an elaborate set-up, so yeah, it worked for me. I’m sure I missed some in-jokes, and some references went over my head, but as a start of a new adventure, I Got It. The best comparison I can think of (and that I’ve been using with customers) is that reading this without reading the first series is kind of like reading Heroes of Olympus without reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. You can do it. It’s probably not the best way to go about it, but it can be done.

In fact, there’s a lot of similarities between Pearson and Riordan’s writing styles: short chapters, a lot of action, overarching mythology, a plethora of characters (7, in fact) to keep track of. The difference is that Pearson is playing around in the world of Disney rather than Greek Mythology. No, they’re not as fun as Riordan’s books (but then, I’m saying that as a long-time Percy Jackson fan), but they are good. It’s good, solid, accessible, middle grade fantasy. Nothing SuperWowAwesome, but it’s not horrible either.

As for the event…