Waiting on Wednesday: When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney

"Waiting On Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine to spotlight an upcoming release that we're excited about. This week I'm waiting on When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney.

Filled with humor, raw emotion, a strong voice, and a brilliant dog named Sandy Koufax, When You Were Here explores the two most powerful forces known to man-death and love. Daisy Whitney brings her characters to life with a deft touch and resonating authenticity. 

Danny's mother lost her five-year battle with cancer three weeks before his graduation-the one day that she was hanging on to see.

Now Danny is left alone, with only his memories, his dog, and his heart-breaking ex-girlfriend for company. He doesn't know how to figure out what to do with her estate, what to say for his Valedictorian speech, let alone how to live or be happy anymore.

When he gets a letter from his mom's property manager in Tokyo, where she had been going for treatment, it shows a side of his mother he never knew. So, with no other sense of direction, Danny travels to Tokyo to connect with his mother's memory and make sense of her final months, which seemed filled with more joy than Danny ever knew. There, among the cherry blossoms, temples, and crowds, and with the help of an almost-but-definitely-not Harajuku girl, he begins to see how it may not have been ancient magic or mystical treatment that kept his mother going. Perhaps, the secret of how to live lies in how she died.

When You Were Here comes out June 4, 2013.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch: The Magic Within by Tania del Rio

Sabrina is a witch, and that means she not only has to go to regular school, but to magical school too!  Sabrina is torn between two very different boys: Harvey, a mortal who she's know since kindergarten and has had a crush on forever, and Shinji, and fellow warlock who's recently started going to Sabrina's mortal school too.  With her talking cat Salem, her friend Llandra, and her two fabulous aunts, Sabrina will navigate the confusing worlds of both high school and magic.

Meh.  Oh it was cute.  Fluffy and light.  Those that like shoujo manga will love this one.  In her introduction, Tania del Rio talks about being asked to do Sabrina and choosing to do it in the manga style.  She describes shoujo as "..aimed at young girls filled with romance, adventure, and beautiful, strong-willed heroines."  Well, I don't know about the "strong-willed" part.  It's appropriate that this comes from Archie comics, since Sabrina and her friend Llandra are Betty and Veronica like in there mooning over the same boy.

This book would not pass the Bechdel test.  I don't think Sabrina had a single conversation with her friends, her cat, or her aunts that didn't in some way involve her ever present dilemma over which boy she should chose.  Or, once she started dating Harvey, how Harvey wasn't acting enough like a boyfriend.

News

So you think you want to be a librarian?  Grumpy misanthropes need not apply!  From PW.

Famous authors' handwritten outlines for great works of literature.  From Flavorwire.

And JK Rowling's notes for Harry Potter.  From Explore.

Judy Blume's Tiger Eyes as a movie.  From PW.

John Green's commencement speech at Butler University.  From EW.

Title reveal!  The third book in Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bones series.  From EW.

What a high school English teacher thought of The Great Gatsby movie.  From The Atlantic Wire.

Children's books in translation.  From The Independent.

Orleans by Sherri L. Smith

Ever since the deadly outbreak of Delta Fever, the entire Gulf Cost has been cut off from the rest of the Outer States.  The people on the outside assume that almost everyone in Orleans is dead.  But that is far from the case.  Fen de la Guerre lives in Orleans. In Orleans, you live with a tribe that corresponds to your blood type.  Blood is the most precious commodity in Orleans, and you need a tribe to protect you.  But Fen's tribe has just been attacked, and now she has her leader's new born daughter, and the promise that she will give the baby a better life.  Daniel is a scientist whose brother died of the Delta Fever.  Daniel is so close to finding the cure.  He believes that going into Orleans itself will help him get there.

I liked the set-up for this story a lot.  No, it's not at all new that there was a deadly outbreak of some kind and part of the U.S. gets quarantined and young people must struggle to survive.  BUT!  Sherri Smith went beyond the rather old and tired trope and created a really interesting way of life.  Delta Fever appears to be a kind of blood disease, and different blood types are effected different ways.  Fen is an O-Positive, and that's a good thing to be.  She has the Fever, but it's not going to make her go crazy, unlike some other blood types.  Because having "clean" blood is so important, back market blood farms have sprung up, and it isn't unusual go tribes to attack each other for their blood, or to sell them to a blood farm.  It's super creepy, and yet, totally fascinating.

News

John Green defines every acronym ever.  From Mental_Floss.

6 modern horror movies as 80s' YA novels.  From The FW.

Do classic children's books give to rosy a picture of childhood?  From The Guardian.

Mo Willems shares delightful things with us.  From CNN.

YA authors talk YA.  From The Los Angeles Times.

10 best book endings.  From PW.


The 10 worst mothers in books.  From PW.

Maureen Johnson calls for an end to gendered book covers and challenges people to redesign book covers.  From The Huffington Post.

Does the world need a content rating system for YA books?  Or please Lord no.  From Chron.

An interview with Peter Sis.  From The North Adams Transcript.

How graphic novels became the hottest selection in the library.  From PW.

3 YA sub-genres that should exist.  From Book Riot.

Someone I've never heard of to star opposite someone else I've never heard of in The Fault in Our Stars movie.  Clearly I am out of touch.  From EW.

News

Everyone should watch this documentary: Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines.  From PBS.

Can you guess the authors by their Nobel citation?  In my case the answer is no.  No I sure can't.  From PW.

Why it's important to differentiate between middle grade and YA books.  From The Horn Book.

Also from The Horn Book, Roger Sutton tells us why there needs to be a difference between YA and adult books.

Kid's books concepts to strange to publish.  From The Atlantic.

Unnecessary romance in YA.  From The Huffington Post.

AA Milne was a WWI propagandist?  Wha?  From The Guardian.

So India-based Reliance Entertainment is trying to acquire rights to the Graceling trilogy.  THEY BETTER NOT MESS IT UP.  From Variety.

"You should really have kids review the children's books."  Word.  From The New York Times.

A school district in Utah cut 20 library positions.  From Library Journal.

E-books and democracy.  The New York Times.

Hehe.  I am enjoying the One Star Review Guess Who.  Try to guess the name of the classic book from a one star review from Goodreads or Amazon.  From School Library Journal.

Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon by Matt Fraction, art by David Aja and Javier Pulido

Clint Barton is Hawkeye, a self-made hero with no superpowers, but with his incredible skills with a bow and arrow, he was once an Avenger.  But not anymore.  Now Clint wants a little downtime from the superhero life.  But of course the superhero life won't leave him alone.

This was the trade paperback which collected issues 1-5.  It was awesome.  The two series I kept hearing people rave about were Saga and Hawkeye, and after waiting on a wait list at the library FOREVER, I finally was able to read Hawkeye.  It was just as good as everyone said it was.

First off, Hawkeye is a totally fascinating superhero in the fact there is nothing super about him.  He has no superpowers whatsoever.  He's an amazing sharp shooter with a bow and arrow.  And he's pretty good at punching people in the face.  But he's also a regular guy, and living the life he does often ends up in the hospital.  In traction.  I kind of loved that.  I mean, Batman supposedly doesn't have superpowers, but does he ever end up in the hospital like a regular person?  Surely not.  Well Hawkeye does.  And when he gets out, he does it all again.  His tag line seems to be, "This looks bad."

Second: Kate Bishop.  Kate Bishop is freaking fantastic and I love her and she is my new favorite.  Kate Bishop was ALSO Hawkeye for a time, with the New Avengers when Clint had retired.  Then he came back.  Now he and Kate are working together and it's excellent.  Don't worry if you don't know all the Avenger/New Avenger backstory stuff.  I did not either, and there was enough to understand what was happening that it makes a great jumping on point, but also won't bore those who are very familiar with the stories.  Kate is incredibly smart, confident and kickass.  She is just as competent with a bow and arrow as Clint is.  She's young, and kind of has a crush on him, but also doesn't put up with any of his crap.  Kate and Clint make a good team.  Also, she always wears purple.  I like that.  I wear a lot of purple too.

The story lines were a little hard to follow for me, as there's a lot of jumping back and forth in time, but once I figured out that's what was happening it wasn't a problem.  Often a story will open with Clint in some unfortunate situation, like falling out a window, and then we jump back and see how he got there.

The art style is gritty.  There is no bright happiness in this world.  Colors are dark and muted, and everyone looks a little rough.  There isn't a whole lot of detail, especially in the backgrounds.  Things are pretty flat and one-dimensional.  It has a 50s vibe to it, and it all works very well.

I will definitely be following this one as it continues.