Fifth Business

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by Roberston Davies
ages: adult
First sentence: “My lifelong involvement with Mrs. Dempster began at 5:58 o’clock p.m. on the 27th of December, 1908, at which time I was ten years and seven months old.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I first became aware of this trilogy several years ago when Julie at On the Curve (Back then she was Bookworm…) told me I HAD to read it. I started it, once, got nearly a third of the way in, and then abandoned it because life got in the way.

Thankfully, my online book group chose it for this month’s book, and I was able to sit down to thoroughly enjoy this book.

The first in a trilogy (I will read the other two… later…), Fifth Business is the personal history of Dunstan Ramsey: historian, scholar, Deptford boy. He’s also a friend to Boy Staunton, recently murdered. The history seems almost pointless, aimless in its endeavor: why does Dunstan’s connection with Mrs. Dempster — the woman of the first sentence, and a fairly major presence for much of Dunstan’s life — matter in the ultimate rise and fall in the plot? I found that it didn’t matter: Dunstan’s story, mundane as it was, was immensely fascinating. The writing was at once elegant and accessible: Davies didn’t go in for the long, flowery, overwrought descriptions that seem to plague many authors, instead choosing a first-person narrative that drew you in with simple, yet evocative language.

It was also surprisingly religious. I think I was expecting something more along the lines of the fantastical: magical realism and all that. What I got was an introspective, philosophical work about faith, doubt, and life’s purpose. Dunstan’s fascination with saints, his discussions with the Jesuit priest about a God to help him grow old; all incredibly fascinating, yet somehow didn’t have much to do with the plot.

I wonder — and this is why I’ll eventually get around to reading the other two — how the story all plays out, because this book felt very much like a beginning. While there was a story arc, the plot, the mystery, didn’t kick in until near the very end of the book. Which makes me wonder in what direction the other two books — The Manticore and World of Wonders — takes the plot.

At any rate, Julie (if you’re still out there), you’re right: Davies is a brilliant writer, and this book is definitely worth the time. I’m just sorry it took me so long to get around to it.

Library Loot #44

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Because Veteran’s Day was Wednesday, the library was closed. And because the library was closed, I didn’t get to go on my regularly scheduled library day.

As a result, this is two days late and really small since we’re going back in just a few days. Next week should be bigger (says the woman whose pile is getting a bit out of control…).

For A/K:
Curious George Seasons
Monsters Don’t Eat Broccoli, by Barbara Jean Hicks/Illus. by Sue Hendra**
Only a Witch Can Fly, by Alison McGhee/Illus. by Taeeun Yoo**
Monkey with a Tool Belt and the Noisy Problem, by Chris Monroe
Those Darn Squirrels!, by Adam Rubin/Illus. by Daniel Salmieri
The Earth Shook: A Persian Tale, by Donna Jo Napoli/Illus. by Gabi Swiatkowska

For M/me:
Leviathan, by Scott Westerfield

For me:
Cotillion, by Georgette Heyer

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.

*Ones that M eventually read.
**Picture books we really liked.

Models Don’t Eat Chocolate Cookies

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by Erin Dionne
ages: 10-13
First sentence: “‘No way,’ I hissed through the slatted dressing room door.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Celeste has never really worried about her weight. That’s not to say she was super-skinny: she’s not. But, she’s comfortable in her track pants and hoodie, and she likes her chips, soda and cookies. It’s not bothered her, and she’s never really thought about it.

Until her cousin Kathleen chooses the Peach Monstrosity for her bridesmaids’ dresses (of which Celeste is one). And then her mom and her Aunt Doreen conspire to enter Celeste into a HuskyPeach — that’s a clothing line for “plus sized girls” — modeling competition. Suddenly, the idea of being a HuskyPeach is too much for Celeste. But how to get out of it? By losing the competition, of course: if she’s too thin, she can’t win. So, Celeste makes the life-altering decision to alter her lifestyle. And with it comes some unexpected consequences.

This book has an interesting balance, walking the line between “fat is okay” and “losing weight will get you what you want.” On the one hand, Celeste isn’t really that obsessed with eating, and her parents aren’t really that hard on her eating habits. What bothers her more is that she’s incessantly teased by the (stereotypical) pretty, mean girl at school. Perhaps it’s just Celeste living up to expectations, because even though she has friends, she schlumps through each school day. On the other hand, once she starts the modeling competition, she’s given role models (no pun intended!) of confident, healthy, pretty overweight girls and women, and she can see her potential. She decides to start keeping a food journal, as part of trying to lose the competition, and she realizes that being healthy is better. She gains confidence, in part through the competition and in part from being healthier, and she’s able to conquer her demons and assert herself in ways she didn’t before.

The writing was a bit clunky, and the characters are overly cliched, but overall, a good book.

(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.)

Oracle Bones

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A Journey Between China’s Past and Present
by Peter Hessler
ages: adult
First sentence: “From Beijing to Anyang — from the modern capital to the city known as the cradle of ancient Chinese civilization — it takes six hours by train.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I picked this one up because I thought it was a travel book. I think I first saw it in Powell’s, in the travel section, and upon reading the blurb, I thought it sounded interesting. I know little about China, and have a passing interest in the country, and this sounded like a good overview.

And in may ways, it was. A series of essays and vignettes about Peter Hessler’s experiences in China, initially as a teacher and then as a foreign correspondent, spotlighting the people he met and their experiences in modern-day China, interspersed with histories of various artifacts from the oracle bones of the title to the development of Chinese language.

It was an uneven book for me: some sections — his stories about his friend Polat, an Uighur who eventually sought refuge in America, or the chapter about Hu Xiaomei, a radio talk show host in Shenzhen — were incredibly fascinating. The intersection between history, Communism and progress in China is a vibrant, conflicted, exciting thing, and there were times when Hessler caught that just perfectly.

Unfortunately — and it may just be me — there were many times in which what Hessler was trying to do just fell flat. I ended up skipping most of the Artifact sections; they were long, they were boring (to me), they didn’t add to the arc of the narrative. And then there was the fact that I wanted a travel book. Yes, the people he met were fascinating enough, but I didn’t come away with an overall picture of his experiences, his time in the country. Which disappointed me, in the end.

But, I’d be interested to hear the opinions of those who are actually interested in the area (Amira and Jennie, I’m thinking you…) to see if it was just me.

10 Questions for Aaron Reynolds and Neil Numberman

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Today, I get the very distinct pleasure of chatting with two very talented men, the author and illustrator of Joey Fly, Private Eye. Aaron’s already got several picture books under his belt — including a favorite around our house, Chicks and Salsa. Neil, on the other hand, is new at the trade; Joey Fly is his first book, though his first picture book, Do NOT Build a Frankenstein, was recently published.

This was fabulously fun for me, partially because I’ve never done an interview with picture books/graphic novel authors before, and partially because these guys make me look smart! Love them.

Oh, and they’ve said they’ll be on hand for the next couple of days to answer any additional questions you may have for them; leave any in the comments. Enjoy!

Book Nut: A graphic novel about a bug detective is a pretty unusual idea… how did it all come about?
Aaron: Is it unusual? I guess when you write about roosters that cook and ice zombies, anything seems normal! It started for me with just a title…which was, at the time, Joey Off, Private Fly (get it, Off? Off bug spray?…get it?) Anyway, I loved the idea of a goofy mystery, having grown up with a steady diet of Scooby Doo and movies like Clue (and I’m a huge Agatha Christie fan). Bugs seemed the perfect cast of characters…all freaky and different, each with their own personalities and weird physical traits. From there, the story just took off.

Book Nut: One for Neil: this is your first book… congrats! Can you tell us a bit about how you got involved in the project?
Neil: Actually, there was quite a bit of luck involved! I received an email from an assistant editor at Henry Holt many years ago. As it turns out, she was in my second grade class in Medford, NJ! And she remembered me after all those years as the kid that never stopped drawing in class. She had stumbled upon my artwork by chance because one of her co-workers had a postcard of mine hung up at her desk, and she recognized the name. We met up after not seeing each other after seventeen years, and I bombarded her with my artwork (because how many opportunities will I get to eat lunch with an assistant editor at a children’s book publisher??) Once she vouched for me to her boss and editor of Joey Fly, I was given a sample of Aaron’s script. I did a couple pages for them, and a couple character sketches, and that was that! I got the job!

Book Nut: HA! It really does matter who you know. So, I know really little about how graphic novels are created… can you tell me a bit about the process? How does it compare to picture books?

Aaron: Some ways, totally different. Other ways, similar. The writing is much different, because I don’t write a manuscript, I write a script. Like, for a play. It looks like this:

Caption: And I was about to dig into a day-old corned leaf on rye, extra mayo…
Sammy: You gonna eat that?
Joey: Slow down, dustbuster.I haven’t even started yet.
Sammy: Just asking.
(A shadow blocks our view)
Caption: …when a shadow fell across the table.
Shadow: You are Mr. Fly?
Caption: The shadow was eight-legged and fuzz-covered.
Caption: It had the stench of death…or maybe it was the week-old aphids on the all-you-can-eat buffet. It’s so hard to tell the difference sometimes.

That’s a sneak peek from Joey Fly 2: Big Hairy Drama. I write the whole book like that, including stage directions and details about the action along the way. Then I break the scenes into panels, the way I think each shot makes sense for the telling of the story…like this:

Panel
Joey: Slow down, dustbuster. I haven’t even started yet.
Sammy: Just asking.
Panel
(a shadow blocks our view)
Caption: …when a shadow fell across the table.
Shadow: You are Mr. Fly?

So, the writing is much different than a picture book. But the process is similar after that. The book gets handed off to Neil, and I often have very little to do with it after that, just like is true of picture books.

Neil: For me, the biggest difference is how time-consuming a graphic novel ends up being. There’s so much more artwork involved! Not including the story for my latest picture book, Do NOT Build a Frankenstein, it only took about a month and a half for the artwork! Compare that to the two years I spent on Joey Fly! But at the same time, each piece is so much more important in a picture book, because there are far less pictures used to tell the story.

Book Nut: Speaking of which… do you two know each other? From your bios, one’s in Chicago, the other’s in New York. How did you two coordinate the story/writing/illustrating?

Aaron: Nope, we’ve never met. In fact, we had never even spoken or e-mailed until after the book was released. This is how it typically works for graphic novels and picture books when the writer isn’t also the artist (unless you’re Jon Scieszka, of course!). I write the story, the publisher picks Neil as illustrator, he illustrates the story. I’ll usually get to see it once the original sketches are done, and my editor will ask my opinion and ask for my feedback, but even then, I rarely have “approval” authority. Writing is a lot about trust. Trusting the process, trusting your editor, trusting this other artist that you’ve never met but are somehow collaborating with.

Neil: That’s right! It’s funny how many people will ask “So, what, you and your friend just made this and someone published it?” I wish it all could’ve been that casual! But in most cases, it’s not in that order. I actually like this approach, though, because it brings a third party (the editor) into the creative process, and she can oversee and make sure everything’s running smoothly.

Book Nut: One of the things I liked about the graphic novel is that there’s something for everyone. The humor — there was a lot of slapstick — and the bugs (in general) obviously are aimed at boys, but there was enough in the book that two of my girls really liked it, too. Was that intentional (or do I just have odd girls who like bugs)?

Aaron: I really want to write books that have layers…layers of humor that are fun for girls, boys, adults even. I want to write books that talk up to kids, not down…that are smart in their humor and assume kids are smart enough to get it, while also being silly and slapsticky. For example, kids don’t know what “film noir” is, but the book is kind of a film noir spoof. I think they can go there and take it for what it is. So, it is intentional as far as that’s what I’m trying to create. How successful I am…that’s a case by case basis. If it leaves me cracking up and snorting into my milk, I tend to trust I’m on the right track.

Neil: I’m glad it’s appealing to both boys and girls, I certainly wouldn’t want to cut either party out! It would seem like boys would appreciate the general bugginess and hard-boiled detective story more… but as I show the book to more and more kids, I’m also meeting plenty of girls that love it!

Book Nut: There were a lot of detective/noir movie in-jokes (I got them as an adult; I think they flew past the kids, though.) Did you watch a lot of noir movies as research? Was it challenging writing a mystery aimed at kids?

Aaron: Again, I want adults to read it too, and get something at their level. The best examples of humor (I think of Shrek and Toy Story and Monsters, Inc.) play on many levels and have stuff that hits kids and other things that hit adults. I didn’t actually watch tons of Bogart movies or episodes of Dragnet, though these certainly work their way in. Moreover, I wanted to capture the vibe of these things, but then be really silly with it. It all goes back to Scooby Doo! I also wanted a mystery that had kid appeal, where the characters aren’t kids themselves. Bugs lets you get away with that. But the challenge is then to make it translate to a kids world. Besides the humor, the issues of jealousy over someone stealing your best friends (SPOILER ALERT!) that crops up as the root to the mystery is one that all kids get.

Neil: I watched plenty of noir movies, but the one I kept coming back to was The Maltese Falcon, starring Mr. Bogart. It’s definitely one of the more familiar film noir movies, but it also had everything I was looking for, from great compositions, costumes, and scenery, all of which I “borrowed.”

Book Nut: Will there be more Joey Fly books? What kind of adventures do you see him and Sammy having?

Aaron: Joey Fly #2 is already written, as you know from the example I gave above. It takes place in a theatre and involves the kidnapping of a lead actress and Sammy’s accidental debut on stage. I’m currently working on books three and four.

Neil: Yep, and I’m just about done with the artwork for the second book. This one is going to knock everyone’s socks off! The characters are so well written and so much fun to draw. Watch out for a gigantic, hairy tarantula… that has a passion for the performing arts!

Book Nut: Who or what is your artistic/writing inspiration?

Aaron: I jokingly mentioned Jon Scieszka earlier, but guys like him inspire me…Neil Gaiman, George Saunders, Roald Dahl…these guys pull off some edgy quirky stuff, but in a way that hits right at the core of what kids love. They challenge me to keep pushing the edge and stay true to the kinds of books I think kids will respond to.

Neil: I love Martin Handford’s work, or as most people would know him, the creator of the Where’s Waldo books. He fits in literally thousands of stories in one piece, and while finding Waldo is a hoot, there is so much more to his work, including European historical references, and lots of people on fire. I also love comic book writer/illustrator Peter Bagge’s work. While his stories are wildly inappropriate for kids, his artwork and characters are so cartoony and stretchy. You can definitely see some of Bagge’s influence on me in Joey’s posture, if you look carefully. Book Nut: Is there a graphic novel or book that you would have loved to have written? What is your all-time favorite? Aaron: I wish I had written James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl. It’s my favorite of all time…in the first page, James’ parents are eaten by a rampaging rhinoceros! Not only is that ridiculous (rhinos are herbivores, FYI), but also a little dark. But so spot on. Brilliant and wonderful.

Neil: There are some Calvin and Hobbes strips that are so frustratingly simple, but so profound at the same time. And so dead-on to what childhood was like, fighting Dinosaurs or riding around in a spaceship, all on your mom’s best living room couch. That kind of stuff will definitely show itself in my work to come.

Book Nut: If you don’t mind telling us, what’s next for both of you?

Aaron: More Joey Fly stuff is coming. I also have a picture book coming out next spring called The Carnivore Club about a lion, a wolf, and a shark that all become friends because the plant-eaters are so spiteful and nasty to them.

Neil: Other than working on the second Joey Fly, I’m shopping a couple picture book ideas around, and in the very early stages of getting one started. All I can say for now is that it will be full of monsters!

Thanks so much to both of you for your time!

I’m a Prolific Author… Sort of.

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I did the whole YA author thing… and so when 100 Scope Notes introduced the Debut Picture Book Cover as part of his cover week, I decided I needed to have some fun with it.

Presenting, my picture book: Raymundo and the Spinning Balloon, by Tabitha Kibbey.
That’s about as good as I draw, too. Though I liked the possibilities of the spinning balloon in this picture…

Anyway, the instructions if you want to play along:

1 – Go to “The Name Generator” or click http://www.thenamegenerator.com/

Click GENERATE NEW NAME. The name that appears is your author name.

2 – Go to “Picture Book Title Generator” or click http://www.generatorland.com/usergenerator.aspx?id=243

Click CREATE TITLE! This is the title of your picture book.

3 – Go to “FlickrCC” or click http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php

Type the last word from your title into the search box followed by the word “drawing”. Click FIND. The first suitable image is your cover.

4 – Use Photoshop, Picnik, or similar to put it all together. Gettin’ creative is encouraged.

5 – Post it to your site along with this text.

Anything But Typical

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by Nora Raleigh Baskin
ages: 9-12
First sentence: “Most people like to talk in their own language.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Sherry at Semicolon captured my thoughts on this one just perfectly. This book takes you away, makes you think about your perceptions of people, makes you think about language, actions, reactions, and how we treat others.

It also made me cry. (Which is a rare and unusual thing, and also mildly embarrassing, since I was reading this while sitting in the salon waiting for M to get her hair cut…)

Twelve-year-old Jason is autistic. He’s full of labels and letters — ADOS, LD, HFA, PDD-NOS, NT — and yet, those labels and letters and names don’t define him. Or, at least, he tries not to be defined by them. Yes, getting through the day is difficult, and any little thing can set him off, often beyond his control. But, what he really wants to be seen as, defined by, is his ability to write stories.

(As an aside, I loved this quote:
“But really, if you ask me, there is only one kind of plot.
One.
Stuff happens.
That’s it.”
So true.)

He posts his stories on a fanfiction website, Storyboard, and one of them got a comment from PhoenixBird — who happens to be a girl. Jason and PhoenixBird seem to connect; at one point, he tells people that she’s his “girlfriend”. Then, there’s a Storyboard convention, and it turns out that PhoenixBird will be there. Jason — because of past experiences, because he knows how people react to him when meeting him for the first time — is anxious about going.

I don’t want to give much more than that away. I’ve read books about autistic kids before, but never have I felt so involved in the life of one. Baskin stuck us, as readers, inside Jason’s head — and sometimes he was an unreliable narrator because his interpretation of events didn’t always match up with what “actually” happened — and let us live through his triumphs, pains, anxiety, hopes, fears, love. It’s a beautifully written book; not because the language is poetic, though sometimes it is, but because it’s spare enough, tight enough, there are no wasted words, no wasted pages.

Perfect.

(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.)

Neil Armstrong is My Uncle

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and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me
by Nan Marino
ages: 9-12
First sentence: “Muscle Man McGinty is a squirrelly runt, a lying snake, and a pitiful excuse for a ten-year-old.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Not quite sure where to start on this one.

On the one hand: it was an interesting story of loss and tension and dealing with differences. Tamara’s best friend, Kebsie, has just moved out of her foster house and back in with her mother. Without saying goodbye to Tamara. In her place, Tamara has Muscle Man McGinty, who loves (loves!) to tell stories.

On the other hand: in a book that is so thoroughly driven by the main character, it helps if that character is sympathetic. I understand that she was hurting. I understand that she was resentful. I understand that she had annoying, stupid, bad parents. But. I. Hated. Tamara. Wanted to smack her upside the head and tell her to get a better attitude.

On the one hand: it captures the essence of a 1960s summer, from endless games of kickball, to the anticipation of the first moonwalk, to the tension about the Vietnam War, to the joys of sitting on a roof and howling at the moon.

On the other hand: I thought Marino could have been better with the middle one — it was a small undercurrent that swelled in the last few pages. It was unevenly paced: I wanted more oomph, more tension, more — oh, more like Shooting the Moon, which I thought captured much of these same themes but did it better.

On the one hand: It’s a quick read. And some kids will really like both Tamara and Muscle Man’s stories.

On the other hand: that kid is not me.

(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.)

Born To Fly

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by Michael Ferrari
ages: 9-12
First sentence: “Just ’cause I was a girl in 1941, don’t think I was some sissy.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Eleven-year-old Bird McGill has always wanted to fly, particularly the P-40 fighter plane. It’s something she and her dad have worked towards ever since she was old enough to reach the pedals. The fact that she’s a girl — and girls in 1941 weren’t supposed to be interested in flying airplanes — never seemed to matter to either her, or her father.

Then, the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, and Bird’s life changes. Her father gets shipped away to fight in the war, and a new kid — Kenji — comes to town. He’s Japanese, in Rhode Island to live with an uncle because of the forced internment his family in California is facing. He’s resentful, and — interestingly, realistically — faces much of the same resentment and racism that he’d faced in California.

Both being outcasts, Bird and Kenji form a tentative friendship, which is strained and tested when they inadvertently witness both the murder of a local draft dodger and the sabotage of a engine factory. Kenji’s uncle is framed for both, and found guilty. And it’s up to Bird to set things right.

It’s partly a mystery, partly an adventure story, partly a tale of friendship and ignoring expectations. It tries to do a bit too much, and is a bit over-the-top, but Ferrari succeeded admirably on one account: it’s a story with not only a strong female character, but a middle grade one who makes things happen. Sure, it’s unbelievable that she would actually get to fly a P-40 plane, but by the end, who cares? Bird is awesome. Bird makes things happen. Bird — in spite of, or perhaps because of, her faults, and insecurities — rocks. She’s inspiring.

In addition to a strong heroine, Ferrari unflinchingly tackles things like class and race and patriotism and makes it work in the context of the plot. Kenji is not just a cardboard 1940s Japanese character; he’s got hopes and dreams and frustrations, all of which are quite palpable. Enough so that you cringe when people call him the “Jap” and tell him to go back where he came from. Enough so, that you want Bird to rescue him, to beat down the bad guys, to show up everyone in town.

Again, it’s probably a bit heavy-handed to put so much in one book (I, personally, would have liked it if there was a bit less, and it did come off as a bit moralistic by the end), but overall, it works, and works well.

(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.)

Library Loot #43

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Four words: I need a bigger bag.

For A/K:
Abigail Spells, by Anna Alter
Good Dog Aggie, by Lori Ries/Illus. by Frank W. Dormer
Clarice Bean, That’s Me, by Lauren Child**
Beware of the Storybook Wolves, by Lauren Child**
Paperwhite, by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
Henry & the Crazed Chicken Pirates, by Carolyn Crimi/Illus. by John Manders**
Super Babies! (Dora the Explorer) (Obligatory Dora book. K wouldn’t go for the Thanksgiving one, though…)

For C:
She finished Order of the Phoenix! Yay!
The Borrowers, by Mary Norton
100 Cupboards: Book 1, by N. D. Wilson

For M:
Chalice, by Robin McKinley. (She’s read this before, but is using it for a book report, since it’s the best example of Use of Symbols that we could think of.)
Prince Across the Water , by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris
Girl in a Cage , by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris
Queen’s Own Fool , by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris
Endymion Spring, by Matthew Skelton
Daisy Chains (Friends for a Season), by Sandra Byrd

For me (and anyone else who wants to read them):
Regency Buck, by Georgette Heyer
The Deptford Trilogy, by Robertson Davies
Wild Things, Clay Carmichael
The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had, by Kristin Levine
The Brooklyn Nine, Alan Gratz
Al Capone Shines My Shoes, by Gennifer Choldenko
Confetti Girl, by Diana Lopez
A Recipe for Robbery, by Marybeth Kelsey

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.

*Ones that M eventually read.
**Picture books we really liked.