by Jack Gantos
ages: 12+
First sentence: “School was finally out and I was standing on a picnic table in our backyard getting ready for a great summer vacation when my mother walked up to me and ruined it.”
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From the get-go, I found this book to be weird. It’s basically the story of Jack Gantos (no, I don’t know how much is real and how much is fiction, but it’s in the fiction section, so let’s assume it’s more fiction than fact) who lives in the (real) town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania and the summer (of 1962) he spent grounded. For mowing down his mother’s cornfield. On his father’s orders.

He’s let off as often as his next-door neighbor, Miss Volker, needs his help. She’s the town medical examiner and obituary writer, but severe arthritis in her hands is keeping her from doing very much, and so she gets Jack to help her out. This leads to not only some pretty long-winded, but sometimes interesting, stories about the original residents of Norvelt. Not to mention Norvelt history (was Eleanor Roosevelt really involved?). There’s also a bit of a mystery thrown at us at the end: all the original residents are dropping like flies, and someone is finally asking if they really are “natural causes”, and there’s a band of Hell’s Angels that are burning down houses in town.

As I mentioned, I just found this one weird. Sure, it was sometimes funny: some of the situations that Jack finds himself in are quite, well, surreal and odd, which made them amusing. But, for the most part, I just found myself wondering what was real and what was fiction. I wished for an author’s note at the end, and was quite disappointed when Gantos chose not to include one. I never really connected with any of the character; aside from the spitfire Miss Volker, everyone else seemed to be cliches: the devoted mother, the tough father, the bully-ish best friend (who was a girl), the greedy business owner, the annoying busybody. I never cared enough about the characters to read through all the history, and found myself skipping pages.

That said, maybe I just wasn’t the right audience for this one. Perhaps some 11- or 12-year-old boy would find Jack and his adventures the right mix of history and fun.

by Patrick Carman
ages: 9+
First sentence: “Merganzer Whippet was an impulsive young man of fifteen when he raced into his father’s room just in time to hear these fateful words.”
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Leo Fillmore lives and works with his father in the most amazing place: the Whippet Hotel. It’s small, exclusive, and very, very wild (and weird). All the rooms are themed: from the Cake Room, to the Pinball Room, to the Caves and Ponds Room; it’s a kid’s dream (and possibly a maintenance man’s nightmare) to live in a place like this, even if it is only in the basement.

Except Merganzer Whippet, the owner, has disappeared, been gone for more than 100 days, and the hotel is falling apart. Then, a small purple box arrives for Leo, and he finds out that saving the hotel is up to him, his new friend, and a duck named Betty. They’re in for some wild (and weird) adventures, as they figure out who is sabotaging the hotel (because it’s just not falling apart on its own) and save it from being sold to developers.

Part mystery, part buddy novel, part adventure story, this quirky little book has a lot going for it. Carman’s writing is accessible without being overly simplistic, and the whole whimsical aura gives it a very carnival-like feel. There’s a couple of nice twists and turns throughout the book, and the story wraps up quite nicely. Which leads me to my only concern: this one is billed as Book 1, and I have no idea where the story could go in book 2 (or 3 or 4 or 5). It’s a self-contained story, one that is quite entertaining and very sweet, and doesn’t need a sequel. At all.

*sigh*

Sometimes children’s publishing these days frustrates me. In spite of that, the book is more than worth reading.

by Catherynne M. Valente
ages: 11+, good for read aloud 6+
First sentence: “Once upon a time, a girl named September grew very tired indeed of her parents’ house, where she washed the same pink-and-yellow teacups and matching gravy boats every day, slept on the same embroidered pillow, and played with the same small and amiable dog.”
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Once upon a time, there was a blogger who got an email about a book. This book had a very long, somewhat pretentious title, and the blogger thought to herself, “It can’t be any good” and proceeded to delete that email.

Then she started seeing reviews of it pop up all over the place, reviews saying how wonderful and amazing and delightful this little book with the long, pretentious title is. And still she said to herself, “It can’t be true” and didn’t read the book.

Then, one day, while she was shelving other titles, she saw the book, and picked it up. Once she had it in her hands, she began to question her firm belief that this book wasn’t any good. And so, she checked it out.

And was absolutely delighted.

To be sure, she is not sure that September’s story and adventures in Fairyland would be appealing to children. The book is pretentious and precocious, and not at all something that she can see many 10-year-olds picking up. Sure, there’s magic and danger and adventure, but it’s not flashy or laugh-out-loud hilarious. The language is a bit advanced, and she thinks that Valente sometimes talks down to the reader (and sometimes talks over the reader as well).

And yet, there’s a whimsicality about it all, a sense of timelessness, of a telling of Every Story, that makes this story work. She could envision reading it aloud to her children, smiling at the humorous asides, being afraid at the tense moments, sharing the adventure. It would be a delight, actually, to read this book aloud. She also found herself captivated by September and her adventures, as well as the sometimes fickle narrator, though she has to admit that her favorite character is the Green Wind, even though he only briefly appears.

At any rate, she regrets not getting to this one sooner, and since it’s always better to get to things later than never, she’s happy she finally arrived at the gala, giving this story its’ much deserved happily-ever-after.

The End.