These Shallow Graves

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theseshallowgravesby Jennifer Donnelly
First sentence: “Josephine Montfort stared at the newly mounded grave in front of her and at the wooden cross marking it.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s some mild swearing, murder, and some questionable situations. It’s in the Teen (grades 9+) section of the bookstore, but I’d give it to a 7th or 8th grader, who was interested.

Josephine is a thing that an 1890s socialite isn’t supposed to be: curious. She’s supposed to obey her parents, be elegant and ladylike, and marry a wealthy, eligible bachelor of her parent’s choosing. But, when her father unexpectedly turns up dead, supposedly having shot himself, Josephine won’t — can’t — settle for that. She heads out, teaming up with a reporter by the name of Eddie Gallagher, to find the Truth.

Thus starts a winding, sometimes scary, path that will lead Josephine down paths that would scandalize her family if they knew, but ultimately opens Josephine’s eyes and changes her forever.

I’ll be honest: the mystery was kind of predictable. I guess who it was fairly early on, as well as guessing the “big secret”. I didn’t have the how and why, but eventually, I figured out that too. The thing that kept me reading was Jo herself. I enjoyed the push and pull she had with Upper Crust New York Society, how she was willing to go against the expectations of her family. I found it all fascinating, and found Jo a character worth spending time with this.

Which made it worth reading.

Three Books for National Mentoring Month

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One of the things I do as part of my job is write a newsletter for teachers and librarians. It’s the thing I feel the most inadequately prepared for, not being a librarian OR an educator, so I did some asking around to find out what would be most helpful. One of the things was lists of books on a theme. That, I can do.  So, I started a new part of the newsletter where I highlight three books (new or backlist) on a certain theme. This month was Mentors, since I needed a place to start. If you have any theme ideas, I’d love to hear them as well!

I figured it would be a good idea to feature them here as well. Lists are always fun, anyway.

9780399257629 Thank You, Mr. Falker, Patricia Polacco. Believe it or not, I’ve never actually read this one. I do know it is loosely autobiographical and that people love it. But that’s all I know. What have I missed?

 

 

 

9780399162596Fish in a Tree, Lynda Mullaly Hunt. This one is like so many others: brilliant (male) teacher discovers previously unknown learning disability in a student and makes her shine. But, I enjoyed it anyway.
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A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle. I’ll admit that this one didn’t readily come up when I was thinking about this list. But, doing some internet digging I came across two things: first, that there aren’t enough books with women mentors (no surprise) and second, that this was an excellent example of strong women mentors. From Meg’s mom to Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, there are strong women guiding Meg in her journey. No, they’re not traditional teachers, but they count.

 

Any other books with good mentor/teacher figures that I forgot? Particularly ones with women?

Friday Barnes, Girl Detective

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fridaybarnsby R. A. Spratt
First sentence: “Friday Barnes was not an unhappy child.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy snagged off the ARC shelves at work.
Content: There’s some biggish words, and a bunch of swoony 7th-grade girls, but other than that’s it’s aimed toward the 3rd-5th grade crowd. It’s in the middle grade section of the bookstore.

Friday Barnes excels in going unnoticed. In fact, she prefers it that way. She prefers just sliding through school, being little noticed. She also is incredibly observant, so when her uncle (who’s a private investigator) needs some help solving a bank robbery, she helps, solving it. Which means she received the $50,000 reward money. She uses that to go to a posh boarding school, mostly because she wants a change.

What she gets is a brilliant but absent-minded roommate, some ditzy teachers, and a few mysteries to solve (she makes a tidy profit doing so, too.)

It’s not a bad book. I like that Friday is a girl, and that she uses deductive reasoning to solve cases (kind of like Sherlock Holmes, or Encyclopedia Brown). And while the mysteries were run-of-the mill, I didn’t catch the clues enough to solve it myself, so they were pretty smart. That said, the stereotypes drove me nuts. The absent-minded smart girl with the dumb jock brother. The silly 7th grade girls who swoon over a hairy mystery guy in the forest because “hairy guys are cute”. The super hot boy who’s got it out for Friday. Yeah, it’s all supposed to be funny, but it kind of just fell flat. I’d love it if authors stopped using silly stereotypes for humor.

So, in the end, while I like the idea of this one, I didn’t really like the book.

Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics

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libraryolympicsby Chris Grabenstein
First sentence: “Just about every kid in America wished they could be Kyle Keeley.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library
Content: Much like the first in the series, this one has short chapters and not much objectionable content. There are some bigger words, but Grabenstein defines them for you. It’s in the middle grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Ever since they won the competition to get out of Mr. Lemoncello’s library, Kyle and his friends Miguel, Sierra, and Akimi have had a certain amount of celebrity. Signing autographs, starring in commercials, the whole deal. Which, of course, has made everyone (not just Charles and Andrew, who lost the previous competition) a bit jealous. So they demand a rematch. And Mr. Lemoncello responds with the Library Olympics: kids will compete to be on regional teams which will then come to Alexandriaville to compete against the winning four.

The competitions are one part fun and one part silly and one part learning. And, of course, Charles and his mother (ugh) are up to their no-good tricks, trying to wrest control of the library from Mr. Lemoncello (in order to make it a More Respectable House of Learning) and kick him out of town. Additionally there’s a scary good (and kind of scary) competitor from Michigan, Marjory, who really knows her stuff.

It’s a bit more didactic than the last one — yes, we know: learning can be fun and censorship is bad — but I found I didn’t mind. It was fun, and filled with riddles and puzzles that will entertain kids. It’s delightful to revisit the wacky fun library again, even if we didn’t spend as much time there this time. And even though sequels aren’t often as good as the original, it was enjoyable.

Peas and Carrots

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peasandcarrotsby Tanita S. Davis
First sentence: “By the door,on the other side of the sheet that divides the room, Baby cries in his car seat.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: February 9, 2016
Disclaimer: I’ve met the author, working with her for KidlitCon in Sacramento and I find her an absolutely delightful person.
Review copy snagged off the ARC shelves at my place of employment.
Content: There are several instances of mild swearing, plus some illusions to adult drug and alcohol use. Because there are no f-bombs, it’ll be in the YA section (grades 6-8, though it might be better for the older end of that spectrum) of the bookstore.

Dess is a 15-year-old girl stuck in the foster care system. Her deadbeat dad’s finally in jail, as is her mom. Dess’s grandmother gave up trying to care for her and her baby brother years ago. Dess is determined: she doesn’t need anyone. And so when she gets placed in a new home, one of an affluent family, she figures it’s not going to last.

Hope’s parents are stable and happy and take in foster kids, including Dess’s brother Austin, to give back to the community. Hope’s used to the revolving door of kids, but there’s never been one close to her age. Until now. And since Dess is doing pretty much everything to keep people at arm’s length, Hope knows that living with Dess is going to be a challenge. She just doesn’t know if she’ll be able to adjust.

First test: which one of these girls is African American and which one is white? (Answer: Dess is white. Did you pass?) That’s actually one of the first things I liked about this: Davis takes your (my) assumptions about foster care, about the State of the Country, and turns it upside down. In this story, the white girl is the one who’s on the run from an abusive family and the black girl who has the stable life. And Davis doesn’t leave it there; there’s discussion about race and class and belonging, which I respect.

And, as an unofficial foster parent myself, I found myself nodding and agreeing and loving the entire book. Yes, the kids come with baggage and a backstory that usually isn’t pretty. Yes, their lives can be changed by living in a stable, more affluent (though we’re not nearly as well off as Hope’s parents) situation. But Davis also got the corollary to that: having a foster kid in your home is challenging, sometimes disruptive, but is also life-changing. And, if you let yourself — as Hope and Dess eventually find out — you will be better off for it.

Definitely worth reading.

Kill the Boy Band

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killtheboybandby Goldy Moldavsky
First sentence: “People have called me crazy.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: February 23, 2016
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There’s a LOT of f-bombs, plus an off-screen sex scene. It’ll be in the Teen (grades 9+) section of the bookstore.

You ever finish a book and think “Huh. That was a wild, weird, insane trip”?

Yeah, this is that sort of book.

The premise? Four friends — Samantha, our narrator; Erin; Isabel; and Anna — who are all dedicated fans of The Ruperts (a One Direction-like band) have met up in New York City for The Ruperts’ Thanksgiving show. They’ve managed (thanks to Anna, whose family is loaded) to score a room in the hotel where the boys are staying. Their goal? To score tickets to the show, maybe meet the band.

Or at least that’s what it begins like.

Then, they accidentally sort-of on purpose kidnap the most useless member of the Ruperts, Rupert P., and things kind of go (hilariously) downhill from there.

I’ll admit it: I laughed. I laughed a lot. The premise is so ridiculous, so inane that I had to laugh. The fans are called Strepurs (that’s Rupert’s backwards). The four girls got into ever increasingly weird situations. But, at it’s heart, it’s a dark novel. What is the purpose of a celebrity? How much do they owe their fans? How much should a fan expect? You see this all the time with celebrities, finding a balance between being a private person and appeasing their fans, and Moldavsky just takes it to the extreme. It’s also a musing on the extremes that fans — especially teenage girls, but maybe that’s a stereotype — will go to meet and interact with the object of their affection. It’s a fascinating look — albeit satirical — at the current state of culture.

Did I like it? Yes. Did it scare me? Somewhat. (My boss says it’s because I have teenage girls who are fans of things.) Is it good? Definitely.

Mrs. Queen Takes the Train

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mrsqueenby William Kuhn
First sentence: “Several years ago, on a dark afternoon in December, Her Magesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, and Her Other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth of Nations, Defender of Faith, Duchess of Edinbugh, Countess of Merioneth, Baroness Greenwich, Duke of Lancaster, Lord of Mann, Duke of Normandy sat at her desk, frowning at a computer screen..”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s a few f-bombs (maybe a half dozen?). But other than that, it’s pretty clean. It’s in the adult fiction section of the bookstore.

You would think, from the title and first sentence, that this is a story about Queen Elizabeth and you would be right. She is most definitely a character. However, I’m not entirely sure she’s the main character, or rather just a plot device. The basic plot is this: The Queen gets down one December day, and then goes missing. Six people — her lady in waiting, Lady Anne; her dresser, Shirley; her butler, William; a member of her security team, Luke; an employee at the Mews, the horse stables, Rebecca; and an employee of the shop where The Queen gets her cheese, Rajiv — all, for various reasons, go looking for her. It’s much less about The Queen and the reasons she left than it is about the politics of the royal household, and the lives of those looking for her.

Which isn’t to say it was bad. It wasn’t. But it wasn’t as good as I had hoped, either. The parts with The Queen out and wandering around, connecting anonymously with people were really intriguing and quite fun. The rest of it — the backstories, the drama, the relationship building — not so much. There were several times when I considered bailing on this — it just took way too long to get going — but I didn’t because it was for book group. I think I just wanted it to be more… fun. And much less drama-y.

I just wasn’t thrilled with it in the end.

We Should All Be Feminists

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weshouldallbefeministsby Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
First sentence: “Okoloma was one of my greatest childhood friends.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s really nothing objectionable; my 12 year old has read it. It’s in the sociology section of the bookstore.

I wasn’t going to write a review of this one, mostly because it’s so short and simple, but I decided I needed a record of having read it.

It’s basically an extended, written version of Adichie’s Ted Talk on the same subject, an exploration of the value of feminism. I read this over Christmas, after I heard a that Sweden gave this book out to every 16 year old in the country. I know I’m not really the target audience (neither are my girls, to whom I gave this book for Christmas) already self-identifying as a feminist, but I wanted to see what Adichie had to say.

And she had a lot to say, actually. A lot of it was directed toward African culture — it’s very male — but I think that it’s relevant even in America. The fact that women do experience sexism, the fact that men don’t notice gender, the fact that things are easier for men, and so on, is important. It’s important to have discussions about gender and equality, to raise boys so that they understand the value of women, to raise girls to speak their minds without fear. It’s important, to say, as Adichie writes, “Yes, there’s a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better.”

I may not be the target audience for this one, but it was definitely worth my time.

State of the TBR Pile: January 2016

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I’ve had a slow start to the new year. I don’t know what it is; I’ve started more than a half-dozen books and tossed them aside, because they haven’t grabbed me. Even so, my TBR pile has grown with things that look interesting, at least. We’ll see if I can finish any of them.

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50 Unbelievable Women and Their Fascinating (and True!) Stories by Saundra Mitchell
Young Hee and the Pullcho by Mark James Russell
Friday Barnes Girl Detective by R. A. Spratt
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
I am Princess X by Cherie Priest
Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate
His Right Hand by Mette Ivie Harrison
Beetle Boy by M. G. Leonard
A Tiny Piece of Sky by Shawn Stout
The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Driving Heat by Richard Castle
Radioactive by Winifred Conkling

What are you looking forward to reading this month?

Nimona

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nimonaby Noelle Stevenson
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Content: There’s violence and some more mature content. I’d give it to a 5th grader if they asked, though. It’s in the teen graphic novel section of the bookstore.
I’ve been  meaning to get to this one for ages, and being shorlisted for the Graphic Novels Cybils kind of gave me the push. That, and Alyssa over at Everead told me I wouldn’t regret buying it.

She’s right: I don’t regret it at all. It really is that good. (Well, I do regret it a little, because now I have to wait for a copy to come back in so I can put it on my recommends shelf.)

It’s hard to write about this one, though. Mostly because not knowing a whole lot is part of the fun. Know this: it’s a unique fantasy world, both high- and low-tech at the same time. It’s about heroes and villains and what it means to be both. It’s about sidekicks and friendship and Being True to Yourself.

What it’s not: Trite.

Nimona is a fantastic character, fully her own person, beating her own drum, and all the other cliches. Except this feels like the furthest things from a cliche there is. She’s incredibly compelling (though not always likable) to read about. Sir Blackheart, the villain to whom Nimona is sidekick, is also incredibly fascinating. As is Ambrosious, Sir Blackheart’s nemesis. There’s so much going on here that it’s hard to do it justice.

So, just do yourself a favor an read it. You won’t regret it.