Odd and the Frost Giants

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by Neil Gaiman

ages: 8-12

First sentence: “There was a boy called Odd, and there was nothing strange or unusual about that, not in that time or place.”

Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Let me just get this off my chest: I have learned, over the past couple of years, to adore Neil Gaiman. Really. The more I read by this man, the more I love his writing.

If you’re looking for a good place to start reading some of his work, Odd and the Frost Giants is really about as accessible as Gaiman gets. Funny, yet slightly (but not too much), well, odd, there’s a little bit of everything for everyone: some honest-to-goodness coming of age in there, a bit of mythology, a bit of adventure. In short, it’s everything Gaiman usually delivers, just this time in a slim 117-page packet.

Odd is a boy who’s a bit down on his luck. His father died trying to save a pony after a Viking raid. Odd tried to fill his place, but a tree fell on his leg, smashing it to where it was nearly unusable. His mother eventually remarried, but his step-father (who already has a bundle of kids of his own) isn’t very kind to Odd. Then, the winter that doesn’t want to let go, Odd decides to leave. Once he reaches the forest, he meets a fox, who leads him to a bear and an eagle — strange companions, sure, but with an even stranger story.

That’s when Odd finds himself on a journey he never expected to take: a journey to save Asgard, city of the gods, from the Frost Giants. There’s no doubt that he’ll succeed, but how he succeeds is ultimately quite surprising. (And satisfying.)

I couldn’t put the book down, and when I closed it, my first thought was, “That was just about perfect.” And, really, you can’t say much more than that.

Bloggiesta Wrap Up

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It was a short trip, and I was a bit hampered by the lack of a laptop (it’s in the shop… again…), but I had a grand time with Bloggiesta.

What I did get done:

I got rid of the blogroll, inserted recent comments feature. It’s not quite the way I’d like it… I’d really like it if the link with the commentor’s name would go to the commentor’s blog, but I’m not sure that’s available on Blogger. If anyone knows how to do that, I’d love to fix it. I think, in the long run, that it’ll be a better way to go than a blogroll.

I didn’t get rid of my master lists that were over on the side (they’re still there, under the label “master lists”!), but I decided that I needed some more versatility in the blog. Hence, blog labels! I even managed to put up a few genre-specific ones.

And I have a spiffy new blog header. The picture’s from Powell’s, on a trip I took last summer. I’m still not sure I absolutely love it, but it’ll do, for now.

The only thing I didn’t get to was cleaning up my feed reader. (I actually expanded it with some of the blogs from my blogroll.) I think I’m okay with that.

At any rate, I had a grand time Bloggiesta-ing!

Catching the Late Train (and other news)

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Okay… since I found myself hanging out on Twitter yesterday, and being interested in all the tweaking that was going on, I’ve decided to climb on board and join Bloggiesta. The laptop’s decided to crash today and so is off to the shop, so I don’t know how much I’ll actually get done, but I’m going to put a bit of effort into it anyway.

So, what I’d like to get done:

  • clean up the layout of my page — got rid of the blogroll, inserted recent comments feature
  • decide if I want to get rid of my long master lists of books and go to labels on the sidebar, or some combination of both… took the plunge, and put up a labels, which includes a link to my master lists.
  • add genre tags to my blog (in addition to age-level tags) — I added a few. Maybe I’ll add more later.
  • change the blog header/colors (I’ve had this one for at least 6 months — maybe a year — and it’s time to move on) — done
  • clean up my feed reader

Other than that, I’ll see what else I’m inspired by you all on Twitter to do.

Other news: I’ve also signed up for Mother Reader/Lee Wind’s Comment Challenge 2010. My goal (other than at least 5 comments a day) is to visit at least one new blog and leave a comment there. I’m going to be picky about adding them to my feed reader, though.

And one last bit of news… I meant to share this earlier this week, when I found out, but Betsy at Fuse #8 is doing a Top 100 Fictional Chapter Books Poll. I’ve already sent my list in (which I stressed over… but what about?! and I forgot?! I wish I could send in two!), but you have until January 31st to come up with your top 10 and send it in.

Okay, I think that’s about it… I’ll continue to update this post with bloggiesta items throughout the day/weekend.

The Street of a Thousand Blossoms

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by Gail Tsukiyama
ages: adult
First sentence: “A white light seeped through the shoji windows and into the room, along with the morning chill.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

The thing that kept coming to mind as I was reading this sweeping novel, was that this book is much like a picture album. The pictures go together because they’re of the same family, and because they tell a story of the passing years. But, each individual picture has a story. Sometimes those stories are interesting, sometimes they’re a little boring. Much like this book.

Tsukiyama tells the story of two brothers — Hiroshi and Kenji — over the course of nearly 30 years. When we first meet them, it’s 1939, and they are orphans living with their grandparents (their parents died in a freak boating accident). The book follows them as they grow up: through the horrors of the war years; Hiroshi’s rise as a sumotori and Kenji’s discovery and mastery of the art of theater mask making; as both brothers find (and lose) love. It’s more than a slice of life, it’s history.

But, even though it’s quite lyrical and beautifully written and incorporates Japanese incredibly seamlessly, I found myself going back and forth on this one. Some of the snapshots were fascinating. Some of the people I cared immensely about. But, sometimes I found myself unable to get into the language, or drifting off because the plot, such as it was, wasn’t grabbing me.

That said, one of the things that Tsukiyama does beautifully is give us a slice of Japan. More than the people, it was the way Tsukiyama described the land, the culture, and the people, as well as the push and pull between tradition and modernity. For that alone, the book is worth reading.

Library Loot 2010-01

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A new year, a new bunch of loot. Same old story: I go, I see books, and I get them, even though my TBR pile by the side of my bed is already too big. Oh, well. Such is the life of a reader. Right?

Picture books:
Do Not Build a Frankenstein!, by Neil Numberman
Green Wilma, Frog in Space, by Tedd Arnold
Archie and the Pirates, by Marc Rosenthal
Not all Animals Are Blue, by Beatrice Boutignon
Superhero School, by Aaron Reynolds/Illus. by Andy Rash

Middle Grade books:
The Unfinished Angel, by Sharon Creech
Odd and the Frost Giants, by Neil Gaiman

YA books:
In The Forests Of Serre, by Patricia A. McKillip
Front and Center, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park, by Steve Kluger

The roundup is either at Reading Adventures or A Striped Armchair. 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.

Dream Girl

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by Lauren Mechling
ages: 12+
First sentence: “I was breezing down the airport corridor, minding my own business and thinking about the new look I’d have with the liquid eyeliner I’d picked up at the duty-free shop in Paris, when I saw it in the distance: the pink combination lock.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Claire Voyante has a problem (and it’s not her name). She has these dreams. Vivid, detailed… and they seem to come true. Or, at the very least, have a basis in real life. And ever since her eccentric grandmother, Kiki, gave Claire a black-and-white cameo, they’ve been in black-and-white. They’re also somehow connected to Claire’s new friend, Becca, and her ketchup-magnate family. It’s up to Claire to figure out how and why… if she can.

This book is a little bit of everything. A little bit of romance, a little bit of upper-New York fashion plate, a little bit of eccentric relatives (besides the grandma, Claire’s dad is a French professor, and Claire’s mom writes a astrology column). Stir all that together with a lot of mystery, and you pretty much have this book down. That’s not to say it isn’t a fun book; on the contrary, it is quite fun. There’s a lot to balance in the book, but I think it all works towards a cohesive whole picture: I loved Claire’s life, and I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of it. Sure, it was a bit predictable, and I guessed the ending long before Claire got there, but file it under “guilty pleasure”: this one was the right book at the right time.

Which makes me quite interested in the sequel, Dream Life. Thankfully, I won’t have to wait long!

Calamity Jack

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by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale/Illustrated by Nathan Hale
ages: 9+
First sentence: “I think of myself as a criminal mastermind… with an unfortunate amount of bad luck.”
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: January 5, 2010

Remember Jack from Rapunzel’s Revenge? No? That’s okay, because this is his story.

It seems that Jack has always had a knack for scheming. From the get-go, he’s been trying to find ways to swindle people. Sometimes, they deserve it, sometimes they don’t. Then… he decides to take on Blunderboar, the biggest (literally: he’s a giant), meanest guy in Shyport. Jack breaks into the tower (with the help of some magic beans), makes off with Blunderboar’s magic goose, and manages to accidentally kill a giant while chopping the beanstalk down. (Does all of this sound familiar? It should.)

Insert brief interlude, while Jack goes out west, meets Rapunzel and has adventures.

Then, Jack brings Rapunzel back to the city, where things have changed. Blunderboar has gotten more powerful, literally razing parts of the city as well as taking Jack’s mother into captivity. Along with a couple of new sidekicks, it’s up to Jack and Rapunzel to save the city.

I liked this graphic novel well enough — it’s the Hales, after all. But I really wanted to love it as much as I loved Rapunzel’s Revenge, and honestly, well, it’s not as good as that one. It wasn’t as funny — or, at the very least, the funny fell flat in my opinion. There was a wee bit of a love triangle, which also did nothing for me. And, while I thought it was a clever spin on the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale and I liked the action and mystery in the plot, there just wasn’t enough… oomph, I suppose, is the word I’m looking for.

But oomph or not, it’s a decent sequel to Rapunzel’s Revenge. And I can’t argue with that.

Tis Cybils Time!

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Happy New Year, everyone! And, since it’s January 1st, that means the Cybils shortlists are up!! Click through to read the shortlists for everyone else. I’m going to sick my panel’s — Middle Grade fiction — here. Enjoy. (Oh, and go read these books. They’re wonderful!)

by Dean Pitchford
Putnam Juvenile
Nominated by: Dawn Mooney

Even though he’s smart and capable, Newt is the neglected younger brother of a high school football star, mostly content with sliding through the cracks of life. Then a couple of events–his older brother ends up in a coma the night of the Big Game and Newt is forced to improvise a Halloween costume–coincide to spur the creation of a new superhero: Captain Nobody. Newt finds that he feels different when in his costume: stronger, more outgoing, more able to handle…well, everything (within reason, of course) that’s thrown his way. Hilarious, fun, and completely charming, this is one superhero that the world can’t do without.–Melissa Fox

Chains
by Laurie Halse Anderson

Simon & Schuster
Nominated by: melissa

Anderson has taken the historical facts of the American Revolution and given us a new perspective. Chains is told through the eyes of Isabel, a slave girl. Sold after her master dies, Isabel is thrust into the middle of the war where both sides claim they want what is best for her. She passes along messages to the Loyalists only to learn that the only one she can trust to help her gain her freedom is herself. Anderson has presented a story that with the proper foundation can be read, enjoyed and understood by the youngest to the oldest middle-grade student. War is always a tough topic but the details were intricately woven into Isabel’s life. It can be read as a stand-alone book and yet Anderson has left it open enough for a sequel. –Sandra Stiles, Musings of a Book Addict

Anything But Typical

by Nora Raleigh Baskin
Simon & Schuster
Nominated by: Pam W Coughlan

There is much to love in Nora Raleigh Baskin’s Anything But Typical. The writing–in particular the narrative voice–feels so genuine: vulnerable and heartfelt; simple yet beautiful. Almost poetic. The book stars Jason Blake, an autistic hero, who loves to write stories and participate in online forums. When his parents surprise him with a trip to the Storyboard writing convention, you might think he’d be happy instead of terrified. But for Jason the thought of meeting his online friend, PhoenixBird, in real life causes nothing but anxiety. Everyone has moments of insecurity and doubt, and to see these reflected so honestly in Jason feels more than right. —Becky Laney

Heart of a Shepherd

by Rosanne Parry
Random House Children’s Books
Nominated by: jone

Twelve-year-old Ignatius Alderman discovers the “heart of a shepherd” as he helps his grandparents take care of the family ranch when his father is deployed to Iraq. Nicknamed “Brother,” Ignatius is the youngest of five brothers, named for St. Ignatius, and searching for his own gifts, talents and career path. He’s not sure that ranching or military service, the two traditions that dominate his family, are truly his gifts. And although he learns to live up to his responsibilities, it will take a major crisis for Brother to find his own right road to maturity.
The book is rather quiet, the pacing slow and deliberate, like Brother himself. Even when the crisis comes, it sneaks up on the reader rather than announcing itself with trumpets. In addition to its coming-of-age theme, Heart of a Shepherd also has lots of little details about ranching life and rural Oregon and the life of a soldier in Iraq and even about chess. These will capture the young reader who’s interested in any of those subjects and make him pay attention to the larger themes in the book. This debut novel by author Roseanne Parry is a treat to be savored.–Sherry Early

All The Broken Pieces

by Ann Burg
Scholastic
Nominated by: Laurie Schneider

Matt Pin is haunted by his memories of Vietnam. He was born a bui doi, the dust of life — son of an American GI and Vietnamese mother during the Vietnam War. He was airlifted out of Vietnam at ten years old, leaving behind his mother and brother. Through the course of this verse novel, Matt is forced to come to terms with his with his horrifying past and his American present.

The spare, poetic format of the story allows the reader to feel like they have entered Matt’s head and heart. All the Broken Pieces is a gorgeous novel that captures the emotional and physical rubble left in the aftermath of a war. The free verse is incredibly well-written and not a single word is used when it isn’t necessary. This powerful novel will satisfy even the most anti-poetry readers but many of the verses will remain in the heart and mind of the reader for days afterward. —Sarah Mulhern

Operation Yes

by Sara Lewis Holmes
Arthur A Levine
Nominated by: Laura Purdie Salas

Operation Yes is a story that revolves around cousins Bo and Gari. Bo’s father is in charge of a military base in the south and Gari’s mother is deployed to Afghanistan; so Gari must relocate from Seattle to live with her cousin. They are both in the same sixth grade class and their teacher teaches in a box about the importance of life outside the box. What makes this story a standout is how kids can overcome tough times and show adults what they are capable of when they work together. —Kyle Kimmal

by Barbara O’Connor
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Nominated by: Augusta Scattergood
Popeye is dreading the boring summer that stretches out before him…until Elvis arrives in a broken-down motor home and the two boys start exploring the back woods, investigating the mysterious Yoo-Hoo boats that come floating down the creek. Barbara O’Connor’s book manages to be laugh-out-loud funny and still deal with more serious subject matter without veering into Depressing. This is a rather quiet book for anyone who’s been bored and dreams of having small adventures. —Abby Johnson

I should also say how much I loved working with my panel. They were awesome!! And now, to wait until February 14th to see which one the judges pick as a winner…

The Best of My 2009

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You do it three times, and it’s a tradition.

(I’m doing this early, though, because — if all goes well — we should be driving back from Texas today. So the numbers aren’t quite exact. But that doesn’t really matter, does it?)

Presenting my best of list for this year.

By the Numbers:
Middle Grade Fiction: 78
YA Fiction: 69
Graphic Novels: 11
Non-Fiction: 20
Fiction: 41
Grand Total: 219 (I made it past 200 this year! Woot!)

Challenges Completed: 9

Gotta do my awards…

Best Adult Fiction: People of the Book or Sweetness in the Belly. I couldn’t decide.

Best YA book: Speak

Best Middle-grade book: Anything But Typical

Best Fantasy: Lips Touch Three Times and When You Reach Me

Best Sci-Fi/Distopian: The Stand (Hunger Games is a really, really close second.)

Best Graphic Novel: Tales from Outer Suburbia (with Babymouse: Dragonslayer coming in a close second.)

Best Non-Fiction: My Life in France

Best Romance: Poison Study (Valik still makes me swoon.)

Best Mysteries: Perhaps I should say best mystery writer? The Woman in White and The Moonstone.

Best Jacket Flap: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

And in other categories…

Books I should have read AGES ago: Tess of the D’Urbervilles, The Screwtape Letters, The Stand, The Wee Free Men, Fire and Hemlock, Speak, and My Life in France.

Favorite Reviews: Bee Season, The Darcys and the Bingleys, Devilish

Theme(s) that inadvertently manifested themselves: Women’s bodies (Intuitive Eating; Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters; Artichoke’s Heart; Models Don’t Eat Chocolate Cookies); Baseball (The Brooklyn Nine, All the Broken Pieces, The Girl Who Threw Butterflies); Jane Austin (The Darcys and the Binglys; Pemberley by the Sea, Jane Austen Ruined My Life, Becoming Jane Austen); Darwin (The Adventures of Charley Darwin; The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate; Why Darwin Matters; I didn’t get to Charles and Emma, but I wanted to…).

Writing Style/Genre I Discovered I liked: steampunk (Leviathan), zombie books (The Forest of Hands and Teeth)

Genre I’m getting tired of, finally: Vampires.

The Wink-Wink, Nudge-Nudge book: Pemberley by the Sea

Best Interviewee: Aaron Reynolds and Neil Numberman, followed closely by Shannon Hale.

Favorite Challenge (that wasn’t hosted by Carl): End of the World II

Best main character: Katsa

Book for in-person book group I liked best: Garden Spells

Book for on-line book group I liked best: Fifth Business

Books I didn’t feel the love for: Atonement, Chocolat, Bee Season, Fragile Eternity

Number of Shakespeare plays I read: 1 – The Tempest (and that was as a Manga Shakespeare; I totally cheated this year!), and I only saw 1 (Romeo and Juliet; the guy playing Romeo did him kind of Emo, and it totally worked.)

Number of Fantasy books I read: 57. Choosing the “best” was REALLY hard this year!

Books that Made me Laugh the most: The Tiffany Aching series, Order of the Odd-Fish, Whales on Stilts!, Leaving the Bellweathers

Authors everyone else loves that I discovered I liked: Terry Pratchett (fave: A Hat Full of Sky), Sarah Dessen (fave: Lock and Key), Elizabeth Scott (fave: Something, Maybe), Georgette Heyer (fave: The Talisman Ring).

Best Book from an author I previously didn’t care for: The Trouble Begins at 8 (Sid Fleischman and I haven’t gotten along in the past…)

First-time authors I’d love to see more from: Rosanne Parry (Heart of a Shepherd); Kathryn Fitzmore (The Year the Swallows Came Early); Ann Haywood Leal (Also Known as Harper)

Books I read the fastest: Hunger Games and Catching Fire

Favorite book from a series: The Last Olympian (Alas, what will I do without Percy Jackson? At least the movie is out in February!)

Newbery Books I read: The Graveyard Book. Pathetic. I need to get back to reading those again.

Books that made me want to go out and do something: Operation Yes (cheer!); My Life in France (cook! Visit the Smithsonian!); Sweetness in the Belly (read more about Africa!); Mission Control, This is Apollo (visit NASA in Houston!);

Books I abandoned: I finally became bold in my book abandoning: there too many this year to list! (25, half of which were Cybils reads.)

Here’s to another great year! What were your favorites this year?

December Jacket Flap-a-thon

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Another Middle Grade issue of the Jacket Flap-a-Thon. I promise next month will be more up to our usual diversity standards… In other news, stay tuned for the best-of-post tomorrow!

All the Broken Pieces (Scholastic Press): “Two years after being airlifted out of war-torn Vietnam, Matt Pin is haunted: by bombs that fell like dead crows, by the family — and the terrible secret — he left behind. Now, inside a caring adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events force him to choose between silence and candor, blame and forgiveness, fear and freedom. By turns harrowing, dreamlike, sad, and triumphant, this searing debut novel, written in lucid verse, reveals an unforgettable perspective on the lasting impact of war and the healing power of love. “

I liked that this blurb evoked the simple, haunting style of the book. I don’t like the “lucid verse” part, but otherwise, a good blurb.

Bull Rider (Margaret K. McElderry): “All it takes is eight seconds…. Cam O’Mara, grandson and younger brother of bull-riding champions, is not interested in partaking in the family sport. Cam is a skateboarder, and perfecting his tricks — frontside flips, 360s — means everything until his older brother, Ben, comes home from Iraq, paralyzed from a brain injury. What would make a skateboarder take a different kind of ride? And what would get him on a monstrosity of a bull named Ugly? If Cam can stay on for the requisite eight seconds, will the $15,000 prize bring hope and a future for his big brother?”

This blurb SO effectively sums up this book in a few short sentences. Awesome.

Year of the Bomb (Simon and Schuster): “When Paul and his friends Arnie, Crank, and Oz find out that a horror movie will be filmed in their town, they can’t believe it — they even manage to get onto the set and meet some of the extras. But then they learn that some of the actors are really undercover agents, and the four boys find themselves tangled in an investigation. Nuclear bombs, conspiracies, and pod people are only supposed to exist in horror movies — right? Set against the backdrop of 1950s McCarthyism, this is a masterfully told coming-of-age novel by acclaimed writer Ronald Kidd.”

Again, a great job in capturing the tone and feel of the book. As well as giving the reader enough information to make them interested, but not so much that they give the story away.

Other books read this month:
Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters
The Wine-Dark Sea

Umbrella Summer
Heart of a Shepherd
The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis
The Ship of Lost Souls
Leviathan
Leaving the Bellweathers
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg
Positively
Operation Yes
The Heretic’s Daughter
Dream Girl