Ninth Grade Slays

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The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, #2
by Heather Brewer
ages: 10-13
First sentence: “Jasik gripped the photograph in his hand and scanned the face of the boy.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

We pick up again with Vlad at the beginning of his freshman year. His one goal over the summer was to call Meredith (the love of his life), but… he chickened out. So, where does that leave our teenage vampire? Depressed. Bummed out.

Must be high school.

Vlad has new challenges this year: there’s the leftover problem the vampire community has with his existence. There’s a vampire slayer kicking around Bathory. There’s the training his uncle wants him to get with a uber-vampire in Russia. There’s the teen angst of not knowing whether or not Meredith likes him.

There’s the problem that the book (still) has too much set up and not enough pay off. That Vlad is annoying, the dialogue stilted and the action uninteresting. Which means, even though I read every single page, there wasn’t much there for me to truly like.

Sigh. That’s what really slays, y’know.

Library Loot #42

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I’m still running around like a crazy person this week, and this time (horror of all horrors!), the library got shortchanged. We popped in to return books and pick up my Cybils holds, and threw in a few picture books (and other books) on our way to the checkout counter.

Next week will be better.

For A/K:
Dora Saves the Snow Princess (Dora the Explorer)
Hug Time, by Patrick McDonnell**
Score One for the Sloths, by Helen Lester/Illus. by Lynn Munsinger**
Batter Up Wombat, by Helen Lester/Illus. by Lynn Munsinger
Read It, Don’t Eat It!, by Ian Schoennherr
Super Duck, by Jez Alborough

For M:
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy , by Gary Schmidt
The Outlaws of Sherwood, by Robin McKinley*
Rules of the Road, by Joan Bauer

For me (and anyone else who wants to read them):
William S. and the Great Escape, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Practicing the Piano: But She Does Love Being in Recitals, by Peggy Gifford (which is NOT a Cybils book, for shame!)*
A Season of Gifts, by Richard Peck
Anything But Typical, by Nora Raleigh Baskin
Also Known As Harper, by Ann Haywood Leal
Models Don’t Eat Chocolate Cookies, by Erin Dionne

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.

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love

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by Lauren Tarshis
ages: 9-13
First sentence: “Emma-Jean Lazarus knew very well that the seventh-grade boys at William Gladstone Middle School behaved like animals at times.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I don’t know, after the events in the first book, if I really, truly expected Emma-Jean to be less quirky. I don’t think I did. Which is good, because she wasn’t.

This time, in Emma-Jean’s life, love abounds. It’s May, it’s time for the spring dance (both of these books revolved around dances). And it’s the girls turn to ask the boys out. Everyone’s pairing off, except Emma-Jean and Colleen. (Colleen wants to; Emma-Jean is considering it, to a certain extent.) And so, when Colleen gets a secret admirer note in her locker, she tasks Emma-Jean to figure out which boy it is. Brilliant deductions, quirky observations — but not over-the-top like in the first book.

Emma-Jean also has her first crush, which she takes on in Emma-Jean-style:

“A crush?” Emma-Jean said. This sounded very serious. She pictured a boa constrictor wrapped around the neck of a lemur.

“An infatuation,” her mother clarified.

“Is it the same as being in love?” asked Emma-Jean warily….

“No,” [her mother] said. “Being in love is one of the most powerful experiences anyone can have. I think that’s why we have crushes when we’re younger. Maybe it’s how we get ready for real love.”

This seemed logical to Emma-Jean. After all, many important life skills — walking, talking, cooking, identifying birds in flight — were learned in stages and honed through practice.

It’s a sweeter book than the first one, funnier, and the plot works better. I found myself actually falling in love with Emma-Jean’s quirkiness in a way I didn’t the first time around. Quite charming.

(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.)

2009 Challenge #5: The End of the World II

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Yahoo! I finished another challenge! This one was hosted by the illustrious Becky, and while I didn’t manage to squeak in under the deadline, I did finish it. (Okay, I thought the deadline was the end of October. Sheesh. That one was my fault.)

The books I read:

1. Life As We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer
2. The Stand, Stephen King
3. Extras, Scott Westerfield
4. The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood

My favorite: for pure terror, Life as We Knew It. And for a great introduction to a popular author, The Stand.

Anyway. Thanks, Becky.

The Stand

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by Stephen King
ages: adult
First sentence: “Hapscomb’s Texaco sat on US 93 just north of Arnette, a pissant four-street burg about 110 miles from Houston.”

This one definitely takes some doing to wrap your brain around. It’s huge (even though I read the “original” version — the one that was published in 1978 — and not the “definitive” version — the one that King went back and added 200 pages to). It’s sprawling. It’s weird and wild and wacky. It’s dystopian, political, religious, horrific, gross, amazing.

It’s… well… Stephen King.

This was my first experience with King (aside from his Entertainment Weekly reviews, and reading The Lawnmower Man in 6th grade, which I don’t remember at all). And what an experience. I was blown away by the sheer craft of the man: not the plotting (which I felt dragged in spots), but the imagination (warped) and the world building, and the characterization, and just the fact that he. made. this. book. work. Not many people could imagine something so sprawling and huge and you’d be able to say that in the end.

The basic plot (in case you haven’t read the book, or seen the miniseries, which I have to admit I’m curious about now): a superflu (something which threw me for a loop: “Government heath officials emphasize that this is Russian-A flue, not the more dangerous swine flu.”) virus gets out and, because it has a 99.4% mortality rate, wipes out most of the population of the country. How or why you survive isn’t known; you either don’t catch it, or you’re dead. The first part of the book is the horror: watching people die terrible, horrible, gross, pathetic deaths not only is difficult, but incredibly unsettling. Shoot: it’s terrifying, especially with H1N1 floating around. King is brilliant in this part: he gives people names, occupations, dialogue, a history… and then kills them off. It’s brilliant watching the spread of the virus, and terrifying how it affects the world, and the reader.

Then, once everyone who is going to die is dead, the book changes tone. It becomes a political book as the survivors gather — either around Mother Abigail in Boulder, Colorado (the good team) or around Randall Flagg, aka The Dark Man (the bad team), in Las Vegas. There’s a whole section, and this is where the book (for me, at least) lags, about setting up a community, how the Free Zone works, about the human race’s urge to gather and organize and build. There’s this one character, Glen, who is the sociologist (he’s the Hermione of the book) who explains everything. And explains. And explains. Yawn.

Then — because having a horror book and a political commentary isn’t enough — King decided to turn religious on us, and has a showdown — though not in the way I expected — between the good and evil forces. Once the focus switches away from the community in Boulder, once Stu, Glen, Ralph and Larry — they’re the leaders, of sorts, of the Free Zone — begin their quest as commanded by Mother Abagail on her deathbed — and once we see what the Dark Man’s been up to in Vegas, the action picks up again. Perhaps King is only brilliant when he’s twisted? I was fascinated with the downfall of Randall’s society, with twists and turns of the plot, and with the climax.

Then — and why do authors feel a need to do this? — the book went on for 50 more pages. Yeah, sure, I suppose we need some sort of denouement, some sort of resolution, but honestly, 50 pages worth? (I was actually glad I got the 1978 version by this point.)

It was an uneven book: when it was on, it was brilliant; when it was off, it was incredibly boring. But, now that I’ve forayed into the world of Stephen King, I have to admit I’m curious to read more. He’s an amazing writer.

Warped and weird, yes. But definitely amazing.

Sunday Salon: the Zen of Blogging

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For the first session last Saturday at KidlitCon, MotherReader took us through a series of introspective questions about blogging and our fundamental purpose. I thought it’d be interesting to share the questions, as well as some of my thoughts (from my jotted notes) on them.

1. Why are you blogging? Initially — and it’s still my main purpose — I started blogging as a way to keep track of what I read. But, in the (nearly) five years since I started, some of my reasons why have changed. This is what I wrote down: because I love the community and the friendships; because — honestly — I like free books (well, I do); because I like to write about books; because it’s fun!; because I want to share my love of books, and spread the word about books I love; and because I love it when there’s a good discussion, a give and take of ideas.

2. What do you have to share in your blogging that is unique to you? I had a harder time with this one; I really don’t see much of what I do as “unique”: there are other bloggers out there doing exactly what I do, and are much better (and more “popular”) at it. But, I realized over the course of the weekend that I need to just embrace my unique traits — that I’m a mom of four girls and that I live in Kansas! — even if they’re not what I would have chosen for myself. The other things I think I have to offer are my honesty, and just being a fan of what everyone else does.

3. Who are you blogging for; who is your audience? I’m selfish: I am bloggging for ME, first and foremost. After myself, I am blogging for other readers, whether or not they are parents looking for books for their kids, or other lovers of whatever it is I love. And then, I’m just looking to spread the word about the fabulous writing in middle grade and YA books out there, to whomever will listen.

4. Where do you see your blog among the other blogs? Again, I had a hard time with this one. From the start, I’ve never quite fit in a particular “category”. Mine is a review blog, definitely. But of what? I read too much adult fiction to be truly kidlit, and I read too much kidlit to be a truly adult blogger. I’m too eclectic to fit in anywhere, and while that’s frustrating sometimes, I don’t think I’d have it any other way.

5. When are you going to revisit your mission? Um, it would actually help, I think, if I had a mission. I do seem to revisit why I blog about once a year or so, when I catch the blogging “flu”. I have been seriously rethinking things (it’s a work in process), including the idea of quitting altogether, as I’ve approached my 5-year anniversary. Bear with me as I try to figure things out. MotherReader did stress that it’s important to keep in mind not only why you’re blogging, but to revisit that regularly, to make sure that it’s still a fitting reason, and to see if you’re achieving what you’ve set out to do.

6. How are you going to change or support your blogging mission? Again, I think what I need to do here is perhaps come up with something specific. I don’t know. I am going to go through and refine my blogging policies and procedures (something that’s not only a side effect of the conference, but of the FTC guidelines) — as soon as my life settles down! I do need to be more specific about what books I am willing to accept from publishers/blog tours/authors, for sure. Other than that, I’m still thinking.

So, any general thoughts? What would your answers be to these questions?

Something, Maybe

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by Elizabeth Scott
ages: 13+
First sentence: “Everyone’s seen my mother naked.”
Review copy given to me by the author at KidlitCon 09.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Hannah has the most obnoxious parents on the planet. Her mother spends the day in various states of undress chatting over webcam with fans of her long-canceled TV show. Her father is Jackson, reality TV star, philanderer, and all-out jerk. Hannah has spent the past five years, ever since she and her mother moved to Slaterville after the death of Hannah’s stepfather Jose, trying to be invisible. And she’s mostly succeeded.

Except that means she doesn’t really talk to her crush (her “soul-mate”), Josh, whether at work or at school. However, her invisibility (or her terribly outrageous parents) doesn’t stop Finn — obnoxious, irritating Finn — from talking to Hannah. It’s everything she can do to keep it all together when it seems everyone around her is slowly falling apart.

Well, actually, that’s not quite right. Something, Maybe is a straight up romance, the kind of book that you’d expect from Sarah Dessen or Maureen Johnson. And as a straight up romance, it works wonderfully. Yes, it’s a bit predictable — I figured out how the ending would go and there was really no surprises, even with her incredibly wacky parents — but, it’s a good, solid, enjoyable, fun, and yes, hot (or at least I found it to be hot) romance. Aside from the parents, I found the relative lack of disturbed, broken, or otherwise damaged characters to be quite refreshing. They’re pretty normal teens doing pretty normal teen stuff. Works for me.

And you can’t ask much more of that out of a YA romance, can you?

Lips Touch Three Times

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by Laini Taylor/Illus. by Jim Di Bartolo
ages: 12+
First sentence: “There is a certain kind of girl the goblins crave.”
Review copy picked up from the ARC exchange table at KidlitCon 09.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Wow.

Oh, I knew Laini Taylor had a fabulous imagination, having adored both Blackbringer and Silksinger, but, really: wow.

This one is three short stories in which the only connection is the act of kissing. Taylor explores what that “means”, but because it’s Laini Taylor, the exploration is not what you’d expect. Or maybe you would, if you’d read her other stuff. In short, it’s weird, wild, entrancing and just plain fabulous. Without giving too much away…

The first story, “Goblin Fruit”, takes something that every girl wants — to be noticed by the popular, cute boy — and turns it ever-so-slightly sinister. Kizzy has a weird immigrant family, one that she’s embarrassed about. It’s all she can do to avoid their practices, beliefs, superstitions, especially those of her (now-dead) grandmother, who believed quite strongly that there are goblins out there waiting to capture your soul. Kizzy tries to live a normal life, even from the sidelines of her high school, but she wants. Wants — to be popular, to be in the arms of the cute boy — so badly it’s palpable. So, when Jack Husk — beautiful, amazing, wonderful Jack Husk — shows up and pays attention to her, she goes with it. It’s got a bit of an open ending: what really does happen to Kizzy, but it doesn’t really matter. In this story, it’s the getting there that counts.

The second story, “Spicy Little Curses”, was my favorite. Taylor played off of Hindu religion and myth on this one, not only setting the story in Imperialist India, but giving us a devil in Hell who thrives off of making life (and death) miserable for humans. There’s a human liaison to Hell who tries to temper what this devil does, but one day — in exchange for twenty two souls — she allows the devil to curse the daughter of the Political Agent. The curse: if she ever speaks, she’ll kill everyone in the sound of her voice. She manages never to speak, but of course, she grows up into a lovely young woman and a soldier falls in love with her. There is not a happy outcome (again, of course), but the twists and turns and the language (oh, the language!) make it simply a joy to read.

And, finally, “Hatchling”. It’s the longest of the three stories, the most developed, the most interesting world-building that I’ve read in a while. Taylor takes were-lore and vampire-lore and develops it in a new and fascinating way in giving us the Druj. Not quite werewolves (and yet they shape shift), not quite vampires (and yet they use and abuse humans for their own pleasure), they terrorize and terrify humans. Mab was one of those, and for some reason, she managed to escape from the Queen. She was pregnant at the time and with her daughter, Esme, she has been in hiding ever since. Fourteen years later, Esme wakes up one morning with one blue eye and one brown eye. This not only terrifies Mab, but leads Emse to the destiny that she never knew she had, changing the way the Druj interact with each other and the world in the process.

I know I didn’t quite capture the wonderfulness that is this book. But it truly is amazing.

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree

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by Lauren Tarshis
ages: 8-12
First sentence: “Emma-Jean Lazarus knew very well that a few of the seventh-grade girls at William Gladstone Middle School were criers.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Quirky.

Really. That’s the best way to describe both Emma-Jean Lazarus and this book.

See, Emma-Jean is a seventh-grade Spock. She’s highly logical, rational and prefers to just observe her classmates rather than actually participate in the drama. That is, until one day she stumbles upon Colleen crying in the bathroom. Colleen has a problem: the popular, yet mean Laura is trying to undercut Colleen’s friendship with Kaitlin. Emma-Jean realizes that she can fix it, and so… she does. Which sets off a chain of events, including Emma-Jean getting ambitious enough to (try and) fix other problems, that eventually lead to Emma-Jean interacting (at least a little bit) more with her peers.

It’s not much of a plot, and it does fall prey to the typical middle school stereotypes (why do all the popular girls have to be mean?). Yet, I think, because of who Emma-Jean is, and the way she is, the book works. It’s sweet and funny and rings true to middle school. I’m not sure if kids would like it (I should try it out on C and see what she thinks) — it is quirky, after all — but as an adult, I was completely charmed by Emma-Jean and her story.

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking and Other Natural Disasters

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by Lenore Look/Illustrations by LeUyen Pham
ages: 7-10
First sentence: “You will know some things about Me if you have read a book called Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Is it too much to say that I still adore Alvin?

One of the tricky things about sequels, I think, is getting it right the second time. Writing a book that is just as adorable, just as funny, just as interesting as the first one? Not an easy task. And yet, Lenore Look (with much help from LeUyen Pham) does. Alvin is spot-on, hilarious, adorable, fun, sweet, and plain great to read.

This time, Alvin’s dad decides that he hasn’t done a great job of instilling a love of nature in Alvin (spurred by a time-traveling adventure of Alvin’s with Henry David Thoreau), and plans a camping trip. As you can imagine (well, if you haven’t read the first one, you can’t), this does not bode well with Alvin. Camping is bad. There are natural disasters. Bears. Sleeping outside. Germs. Trees. Inside is a good place to be.

And yet, after some wonderful mishaps at school (oh, how the recess camping “game” made me laugh…), Alvin and his little sister, Anibelly, go camping with their dad. After some prepping by older brother Calvin and getting Uncle Dennis’s super-duper awesome Batman ring, Alvin’s still not quite ready…but ends up going anyway. And,well, has an Alvin-tastic time: aliens, thunderstorms, bear traps, and best of all, sleeping out under the stars.

That doesn’t mean it was “fun” for Alvin. For me, though, it was a blast. (Maybe it’s because I didn’t actually go camping?)

(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.)