Wandering Librarians

Sparks: An Urban Fairytale by Lawrence Marvit

2012-02-08T14:50:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time there was a girl who looked at those around her and wished for a better life. She was surrounded by family that doubted her and friends that didn't understand. With her journal to comfort her and a wrench to keep her grounded, she eventually gives in to her fancies and creates a 'prince' out of auto parts. Little does she know that her silly playtime is going to create a living being. Eventually the prince will rescue the princess, but not before stopping the evil doers that would end their happiness.

This was quite a lovely story. Sad, romantic, uplifting, heartwarming. I think everyone should read this because it was wonderful. I thought that the artwork was perfect for the storyline - clean lines, almost child-like faces - fantastic for the overall fairytale theme that ran throughout the story. Awesome. This was really quite perfect.

Waiting on Wednesday: The List by Siobhan Vivian

2012-02-08T08:30:00.000-05:00

"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 The List by Siobhan Vivian.

An intense look at the rules of high school attraction -- and the price that's paid for them.It happens every year. A list is posted, and one girl from each grade is chosen as the prettiest, and another is chosen as the ugliest. Nobody knows who makes the list. It almost doesn't matter. The damage is done the minute it goes up.This is the story of eight girls, freshman to senior, "pretty" and "ugly." And it's also the story of how we see ourselves, and how other people see us, and the tangled connection of the two

The List comes out April 1, 2012.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

2012-02-07T15:32:00.002-05:00

Cameron is dying of mad cow disease. His only hope is to go on a mission laid out to him by Dulcie, an angel. With his sort of friend Gonzo, a hypochondriac dwarf, and a yard gnome who's really the Viking god Balder, Cameron goes off to find Dr. X, the only man who can cure him. Cameron's also suppose to save the world while he's at it.

I hated this. Like, actually hated it. I can't say I hate a lot of books. Actually, the only other book I can think of that I actually hated is Ethan Frome. It's rare that I have such a strong negative reaction to a book, because usually if I don't like a book, I just stop reading it and that's it. So I think the fact that I made myself go through it, disliking it the whole time, has now turned to bitter, bitter hatred.

I tried to read Going Bovine when it first came out, because I like Libba Bray. I disliked it enough that a hundred pages in I stopped reading it, because life's too short to read bad books. Then it won the Printz. I was outraged. How the hell did it win the Printz? My only answer was that the committee was trying to be edgy that year, what with Going Bovine and The Monstrumologist and Punkzilla.

So why, you may ask, have I read it now? Well, because the YA book group I'm in was reading it. So I thought I'd listen to the audio, because at least that way I'd be able to get through it. So I got through it. And now I hate it, and I also hated the audio. Let's talk about the audio first. It was read by Erik Davies, a man on whose lips teenage slang sounds absolutely ridiculous. So there was that. There was also the fact that every single female character, regardless of what her personality was like, was represented with a high pitched, breathy voice that was pissing me off SO MUCH. Also, the dialogue in the book itself was just not that great and having it read aloud highlighted that fact. So I don't recommend the audio.

But I don't recommend the book itself either. It was a long (really long) confusing mishmash with a meandering plot that disappears for considerable lengths of time. And it was also suppose to be a retelling of Don Quixote, but it just didn't work. Cameron kept having these encounters and experiences along his journey that added absolutely nothing to the trip. For example, Cameron spends five days living with a cult, then he and Gonzo run away. There was no point to it. Cameron didn't learn anything, didn't grow, there were no character developments and there were no new characters introduced that we actually needed. It was a complete waste of time to make it fit with the Don Quixote theme. The issue with that is I'm assuming most people who would pick up Going Bovine won't have read Don Quixote, so they won't see a connection and all it will seem is a waste of time. There was a lot of that.

Another issue I had was that the book was filled with unpleasant characters that I just didn't care about. Not at all. I didn't care what happened to Cameron, or Gonzo, or the yard gnome, or anyone. I just couldn't connect with any of the people in this story, and that makes it very hard to care about, much less enjoy a book.

Now before people get all pissy, I like Libba Bray. Really, I do. She's funny and fascinating. I listened to her Printz acceptance speech, and it was a very nice speech and made me totally want to hang out with her. But I still didn't like her book. So there we are. Maybe I'll give Beauty Queens a try.

Birthmarked and Tortured by Caragh O'Brien

2012-02-07T15:26:00.003-05:00

For those that live next to Unlake Superior, there are those that must struggle to survive and those that live in the walled in Enclave that take care of them. The chosen few that live in the Enclave live in luxury and help the poverty stricken masses that live outside their walls. Of course this comes with a price, every month the midwives outside the wall must 'advance' three babies to the Enclave. The babies' families must trust that their children will grow up with the best and be provided for and that this process is for the good of everyone involved.

Gaia Stone is sixteen and just advanced her first baby that she delivered by herself, her pride at achieving this by herself is overshadowed by the mother's distress at advancing her baby. She is further shaken when she discovers that her parents have been taken for questioning by the Enclave and is not told if they will return. In her fight to try and free her parents, Gaia uncovers the injustice and weakness in the Enclave and their system. With the help of a young mysterious man named Leon, Gaia must decide how far she will go to reconnect with her parents.

When I read the short summaries provided by Good reads or Amazon, I have to admit that I wasn't overly excited about the premise. It sounded like a rather weak plot line with overly done themes. Sweet Moses was I wrong! I completely underestimated how intriguing the characters would be, the depth of the society that Caragh O'Brien had created, and the emotions that the story could evoke. The simplicity worked beautifully, it really made the entire story quite clean and stark. Overall really nice.

P.S. Spoilers ahead
Here's my one quibble: the romance aspect. I get why she put it in, it does add to the character growth and it is a series so there's time to deepen the relationship, but I'm unfortunately confused as to why Leon and Gaia are falling in love. I mean, yes Leon is intrigued with Gaia's indomitable spirit and Gaia is attracted to Leon's face and kindness, but I'm not sure if that is the greatest platform for the romance that will supposedly carry through the series. I get that this is just the first book, but I thought that there should be a greater emotional connection if Leon is going to sacrifice himself for Gaia and her sister. Just saying.

Tortured is a novelette that takes place between Birthmarked and Prized. It's essentially telling Leon's backstory and what motivates him to go after Gaia into the Wilds. Again, nice clean story that really gives me not a lot of answers as to why Leon is so attracted to Gaia.

I've really enjoyed this series so far, I've got Prized on my bookshelf to read over February break. Except for my confusion about the romance, I really enjoyed these books. So do it. Read them, you know you want to.

Random side-note, I really like the fact that Caragh O'Brien wraps up each character's storyline. You don't finish reading and wonder what happened to a secondary character, they're all taken care of.

News

2012-02-06T15:52:00.001-05:00

Censorship Battle Flares Up in Tucson School District. From PW.

Well, that didn't take long. FOX options John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. From PW.

An essay on the 50th anniversary of A Wrinkle in Time. From The New York Times.

It is now official. DC will publish Before Watchman. From The Beat.

SLJ's Battle of the Kid's Books is soon to kick off. I am especially happy to see OK For Now, A Monster Calls, Chime, and Daughter of Smoke and Bone on the list. I hope one of them wins!

School library petition asking the Obama Administration to make school libraries a national priority exceeds 25,000 signatures. From SLJ.

I just don't think sex-themed books at Urban Outfitters are going to be the main place that her teenager might get her "young mind [is] bombarded with hard core sex." Nice job Dedham police department for not going crazy. From DedhamPatch.

Do I want the Collected Amethyst Princess of Gemworld when it comes out from DC? I sure am. From The Beat.

New Hunger Games Trailer

2012-02-03T09:05:00.000-05:00

The Hunger Games trailer number two is here! I'm so excited. My hopes are so high. I'm going to be totally devastated if this movie ends up being crap.

Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba

2012-02-02T14:45:00.000-05:00

How would people remember you if you died at a particular point in your life? In your 20s? In your 40s? As a child? In this unique graphic novel, we see the obituaries of a man named Bras as they would be if he died at different points in his life.

Wow. This was pretty incredible. What a concept. Daytripper won the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series in 2011. I think it was well deserved. You really have to read it. It's hard to explain.

Through the entire graphic novel, we piece together Bras' life from when he was a small child to an old man, if he should live that long. The story does not go in chronological order. The first obituary is when he's 32, then it jumps back to 21, then goes forward to 28 and so on, all over the place. It's like a whole bunch of little separate stories about some guy, and at the end of each story the guy dies. But it you piece them all together (minus the dying) you have the story of a single persons' life.

At the end of each story, when Bras dies, there's an obituary. When he dies as a child, it's about how he wasn't in the world long enough. When he dies in his 30s, his obituary is about how he was the son of a great writer. When he dies later in his life, it's about his family he's leaving behind, or his own writing. It was incredibly poignant seeing his life summarized in just a few sentences, and how different those sentences were depending on when he died.

The last story in the book is when Bras is an old man. Was that done so we'd be left thinking he didn't really die those other times? That he got have all his life experiences and die when he's old and satisfied? Or was it just another story in the book of possibilities. I'm not sure which it was suppose to be, but I'd like to think that that's what really happened, not the other, often violent or sad deaths that could have happened at earlier points in his life.

The art worked perfectly with the story. The color was subdued, using a lot of grays and browns and maroons. For most of the story, the world doesn't really seem like a great place, and the color reflects it. In the final story, I noticed there was a lot more yellow than in any of the others.

Daytripper was really something. Check it out.

Takio by Brian Bendis and Michael Oeming

2012-02-02T14:06:00.000-05:00

Taki cannot stand her annoying little sister Olivia, who follows her and her friend Kelly around everywhere. One night, Taki and Olivia go to visit Kelly, and end up in the middle of an explosion caused by Kelly's scientist father. Now Taki and Olivia have unusual powers, and Kelly's father is after them! Will the girls fight back and use their powers for good?

Such fun! I'm really looking forward to seeing where this series goes. There's lots of mysterious stuff going on beside the main plot. Taki is adopted, and her mother is incredibly overprotective of Olivia, blaming Taki for anything bad that might happen to her, down to a skinned knee. Olivia says it's because of their dad. Where is their dad? What happened to him? There are no clues so far.

Kelly's mother has also recently left, seemingly right after her father loses his job again. It's not clear exactly what Kelly's father was working on before it exploded, or the full reason Kelly's mom left when she did.

Olivia is adorable. I loved that she was totally in character as the second grader she is. She's all, "We have superpowers? Cool! Let's make costumes! Can we fight bad guys?" Taki, on the other hand, is torn up about what to do. Should she tell their mother? Do they need to go to a doctor? As annoying as she finds Olivia, she's pretty protective of her too and doesn't want anything bad to happen. It isn't until Taki realizes that bad stuff is going to happen anyway (what with a crazy guy after them) that she agrees to embrace her powers and fight against the bad guys! And let her little sister make costumes.

I don't like the art style that much. It's very angular and sharp. At times regardless of whether a character is evil or not, everyone can look warped and creepy. The color is flat and dingy.

Despite that, I thought this was a great start to the series.

Waiting on Wednesday: Starters by Lissa Price

2012-02-01T06:21:00.000-05:00

"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 Starters by Lissa Price.

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man.

He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . .

Starters comes out March 13, 2012.

News

2012-01-31T13:57:00.000-05:00

Jack Gantos, author of the Rotten Ralph series and now winner of the Newbery award for Dead End in Norvelt stops by Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! to play What's My Job. We learn that Jack Gantos is the only Newbery winner to ever serve 18 months in federal jail on drug smuggling charges.

In other Children's Youth Award news, none of the morning shows would interview the winners. From PW.

Since we're not going to hear it on TV, let's find out where the award winners were when they found out they'd won. From PW

Daniel Handler, author of A Series of Unfortunate Events and Why We Broke Up gives relationship advice on Twitter. Hilarity ensues. From The Huffington Post.

Authors in the UK protests changes in copyright laws. From The Guardian.

YALSA's great graphic novels of 2012 list is out as well as the 2012 best fiction for young adults.

Things got a bit nasty at ALA midwinter. I totally agree that this is an issue. Things can get a bit scary some times. Remember how I was almost crushed to death against a book table at the annual conference last summer? Messed up. People need to calm down. From Biblio File.

How Dr. Seuss got his start "on Mulberry Street." From NPR.

This map of Panem is AWESOME! I would be living in District 13. It was made by aimmyarrowshigh and badguys.
Read how they did it.

Dotter of Her Father's Eye by Mary M. Talbot, art by Bryan Talbot

2012-01-30T21:07:00.001-05:00

Mary Talbot remembers growing up with her father, a renowned James Joyce scholar. Talbot draws parallels between her own life and the life of Joyce's daughter, Lucia.

An interesting story. The main parallel between Mary and Lucia was that they both had fathers who were praised and admired, but when it came to their own families, they were sadly lacking.

Mary's father had moments of kindness and fun, but most of the time he seemed emotionally abusive. He was focused on his work and writing about Joyce, which did not bring in much money for most of Mary's childhood, leaving Mary's mother to not only provide for her family, but also care for all the children.

I thought Lucia's story was fascinating, and I felt absolutely awful for her. I didn't know anything about Lucia Joyce before reading this. She was an incredibly talented dancer, but both her mother and her father discouraged her. It was so sad to see her so excited after a performance, being praised by critics and other dancers and to have her parents say, "Yes, very nice dear, but when are you going to stop this?" Her father's moving around and insisting she come with her ruined her career. When she lashed out in anger after giving up dance at the request of her father, her brother had her put in an asylum. The poor woman. If she was actually crazy, it was completely the fault of her parents, but she probably wasn't. She was finally expressing what she felt and she got shut up for the rest of her life. Yikes.

Mary got pregnant young and she and her then boyfriend, Bryan, got married. And they're still married to this day. That made me happy. They have two children and are making books together. Lucia's story did not have a happy ending, but I think Mary got one.

Dotter of Her Father's Eye come out February 8, 2012.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

2012-01-30T15:30:00.000-05:00

Hazel has terminal cancer kept at bay by her miracle drug. Augustus' cancer is in remission, but not before he lost a leg. Hazel and Augustus meet in support group (which Hazel thinks is ridiculous) and their friendship begins. After Hazel shares her favorite book An Imperial Affliction by Peter Van Houten with Augustus, the two end up on a Last Wish trip to Amsterdam to meet the author, who is nothing like they expected.

Your good, John Green. I do so love your books. And yes, there was some crying at the end, which is saying something, because I do not usually cry over books, even ones I really like. The only other book, besides The Fault in Our Stars that I was actually full out crying was Monsters of Men.

I've been having a little trouble writing about this book, which is why this review didn't come out before. If I say it's not a cancer book, would that make sense? Yes, it's about kids with cancer, but it's not about kids with cancer. It's really about how you live your life, whether lightly, or heroically, or just regularly. There were no dying children speaking like prophets, and there were really realistic portrayals of what cancer can be like at the end (it sucks).

And it was funny. One of the things I look forward to reading John Green's books is laughing out loud. It happened many time whiles reading this one.

I think the point that a lot of John Green's characters sound the same is a fair point. His characters tend to be very smart and snarky. They're quick with a comeback and do a lot of deadpanning and sarcasm. I don't care, because that is my favorite character. I love that voice and don't get tired of reading books that are written in that voice. What can I say? It's my favorite. I disagree that it's an unrealistic teenage voice. There are plenty of super smart teenagers out there that totally have conversations like this. I have met some of those kids. I think a lot of those kids were at the book tour. It's not like they're talking like college English professors (Dawson's Creek, anyone?), they're talking like smart teenagers. Which exist. Yes, a bit more polished than you might hear in the classroom, but it's a book. Moving on.

I loved that Hazel's parents were actual characters you could care about. There aren't very many real parents in YA books. Most of the time they're just off stage. Hazel's parents were very involved in her life. I loved that there were scenes of them eating dinner together, and we weren't just learning more about Hazel during those times, but about her mother and father too. They didn't fall into the "all adults are stupid" stereotype. Sometimes they were right when Hazel was wrong, and sometimes even though it might have been best, Hazel needed to do something else.

There are lots of spoilers coming up. If you haven't read the book yet, don't ruin it for yourself. Also, I'm going to say "fuck" a lot. You've been warned.

I knew something was going on with Augustus when he seemed to be in pain while in Amsterdam. The moment when Hazel realizes that she is not going to be the grenade, Augustus is, was a very powerful moment. I respect John Green for showing what things are like as someone who is very sick deteriorates. It's not all lying in bed, smiling serenely, imparting wisdom and taking sips of water. It involves throwing up and not being able to take care of basic bodily functions and feeling like you're losing your dignity. It was hard and sad to read, but I'm so glad it was there.

I had this horrible moment, right in the middle of Augustus' funeral when I suddenly thought, "Holy fucking shit. What if Hazel dies too? Yes, she has terminal cancer, and will eventually die, but I mean die before the book is over. You better not do that, John Green. YOU BETTER NOT FUCKING DO THAT!" And then I thought, "Holy fucking shit, what if he pulls an An Imperial Infliction and ENDS THE BOOK IN THE MIDDLE OF A SENTENCE! I will never forgive you, John Green. I WILL NEVER FUCKING FORGIVE YOU!" It's possible I had become very involved in this book.

Neither of those things happened. So, thank you, John Green.

I didn't quite buy the end when Peter Van Houten shows up for the funeral, and then sticks around to sneak into Hazel's car to try and talk to her again. I just don't think he cared that much, even if he was feeling kind of guilty. I was willing to go along with it, because I was very involved with the book, but afterwards thinking about it, it didn't really add up. But we needed to understand what his personal connection was to cancer. I had thought originally that perhaps he had cancer himself, but his child having cancer makes a lot more sense, and shines some understanding on to why he is the way he is now.

I was left at the end sad and happy at the same time. Hazel was going to be OK, I knew, or as OK as she could be, I guess. There was no getting around that she had terminal cancer, or that she'd just lost someone she'd loved. Hazel is pretty awesome though. Yes, I know she's a fictional character, but I'm wishing her the best.

Enchanted Ivy by Sarah Beth Durst

2012-01-29T20:09:00.001-05:00

Lily has one goal in life, go to Princeton just like her father and grandfather did. She can't help but think that going to Princeton will lead to better things, better than her grandpa's flower shop, better than her crazy mother, better than her deceased father who no one talks about. When her grandpa invites Lily and her mother to go with him to his reunion it turns out that Lily is being given the Legacy Test that could lead to her automatic admission into Princeton. Of course Lily is terrified and determined to find the key that will get her into her dream school, which grows exponentially as she learns that Princeton is not what she thought it was, i.e. magic. As she starts her quest she makes the acquaintance of a dreamy were-tiger, a gorgeous knight, and more gargoyles than she had anticipated; she watches as a seemingly simple 'old boys' test turns into a quest to save the magical compact between two worlds and her family's lives.

Let's be honest this was not a deep life-altering tale. It was fluff, unadulterated magically romantic fluff. And I enjoyed it, really enjoyed the hell out of it! It helped that the dialogue was pretty snappy, characters were engaging, the plot line adequately built, and it didn't pretend to be anything that it wasn't. It didn't go for deep and meaningful, it didn't go for gut wrenching, it was satisfied with being entertaining and that's how it should be. I'm not going to go into greater detail, because I think it is really unnecessary. This book was delightful and I actually don't feel super strongly about it, but I'm mostly posting this in the hopes that my friend Laura will read my review, then skim through the book, and then take me on a tour of Princeton and show me all the buildings and gargoyles. Dorky? Absolutely but necessary to appease my literary geekhood.

Habibi by Craig Thompson

2012-01-27T15:14:00.001-05:00

Two children, Dodola and Zam, escaped from slavery and live alone for years in the desert. As they grow older, their relationship becomes strain as Dodola sees Zam as her child and Zam begins to experience sexual attraction. Dodola is captured and becomes a slave in the sultan's harem. Zam goes in search for her. Years pass, but the two never stop looking for each other.

Well. So. I heard lots of mixed things about this one. Some were saying it was the most amazing thing ever. Others disagreed and had major problems with it.

I also had problems with it. But first things first. It was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. All of Craig Thompson's work is beautiful and I love his style of drawing and how gorgeous it can be in just black and white. So Habibi was no exception. Beautiful as always.

There were some things that bothered me a lot. In particular, I felt very uncomfortable with how Thompson drew the black eunuchs at the sultan's palace. For whatever reason, the eunuchs that watched over the sultan's harem hardly looked human. They looked like animals. Particularly, they looked like apes. Why? Why were they drawn like that? No other characters took on an animal-like appearance. I was very aware of it and it made me very uncomfortable.

So there's a lot of nakedness and a lot of sex in this book. This is fine, it's allowed to be a book that has a lot of sex in it. However, even though the book is sort of about how awful it is that women are treated like pieces of property, I thought that the female characters were incredibly over-sexualized. There was hardly a page that someone wasn't having sex or someone wasn't topless. Even if they didn't particular have a good reason to be topless, or to have their breasts showing. So it was kind of strange. On the one hand, look at how awful things can be, on the other hand, look at all the naked women! It was actually was reminding me a lot of Lost Girls in that way, which was unabashedly a pornographic book.

I was confused about the time period. At the beginning of the book, it could have been any time. It could be fairly recently, or it might have been a long time ago. I was unclear on the time period all the way though until the end, when suddenly we seem to be in the middle of a modern city and there are condos and water bottle factories. I guess it could have just regular process over the course of the character's lifetime. Or maybe we were moving through time? Because it was suppose to be timeless? Or maybe it just wasn't clear.

So I can't really say I enjoyed Habibi. I didn't. Visually it's certainly very beautiful, but the story itself didn't sit well with me. I'm not even completely clear what the point of the story was. I'd like to know how much research Craig Thompson did for this book, or if most of this was just coming out of his head. If I had to guess, I'd say most of it was coming out of his head.

Maurice Sendak and Stephen Colbert

2012-01-27T11:34:00.000-05:00

Stephen Colbert decided he wants to cash in on the the trend of celebrities writing children's books. Thus, he went to talk to Maurice Sendak. You must watch them if you haven't already. It's amazing.

Part I

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Part II

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

The Next Day by John Porcellino, Paul Peterson and Jason Gilmore

2012-01-25T15:13:00.000-05:00

This graphic novel starts with a warning. "This graphic novella is built from intimate interviews with four people who have attempted suicide. It includes descriptions of actual attempts and traumatic events that may be upsetting to some readers." It is the story of four young people, Tina, Ryan, Chantel and Jenn, who all attempt suicide. Each individual's story is told, leading up to their suicide attempt and what happened after.

I think it was a very brave thing to do. Suicide, depression, and other mental illnesses are still taboo subjects. It's something to be ashamed of and people don't like to talk about. It was brave for these four individual's to share their stories and the struggles they face to this day, and it was brave for the authors to put it together and publish it.

I appreciated that different types of people were represented. In some cases, like with Jenn and Chantel, physical abuse in their past lead to depression, eating disorders, alcohol abuse or cutting, and eventually, suicide attempts.

Ryan was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As an adult and after marriage, two children, divorce and drug abuse, he attempted suicide.

Tina came from a very happy home with involved, supportive parents. This didn't prevent her from suffering from depression, which later leads to alcoholism. After being raped while drunk she became even more depressed and tried to hang herself.

So we had people who experienced a traumatic event which lead to depression and other issues and eventually suicide attempts, and we had people who were born with mental illnesses that lead to depression and other issues and suicide attempts.

So we got to hear from people who were born with an illness, like Ryan and Tina, as well as people who had something outside of themselves happen that caused depression. I think it's important to be aware of both situations and not think of one as more "real" than the other.

Realistically, everything isn't all better now with these people. Ryan attempted suicide again, before accepting he had a disorder that required constant care. Jenn seriously attempted suicide five or six times. She is married with children now and is glad she wasn't successful. Tina manages her depression with medication, but still has bad days. Chantel works in a hospital, often working with people who have attempted suicide.

The art was very stark and very simple. It looked like a young child with one colored pencil drew the whole thing. There was no detail work. It worked very well with the tone and subject of the book.

I know this isn't one you'd just pick up and read, but I think it's an important book so I hope you'll check it out, and maybe even get it for your collection. It might help someone.

Waiting on Wednesday

2012-01-25T06:55:00.001-05:00

"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 Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness.

Shortly after Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont timewalk to London, 1590, they discover that the past may not provide a safe haven after all. Reclaiming his former identity as poet and spy Matthew Roydon, the vampire falls back in step with a group of radicals known as the School of Night who share dangerous ideas about God, science, and man. Many of his friends are unruly daemons - the creative minds of the age who walk the fine line between genius and madness - including playwright Christopher Marlowe and mathematician Thomas Harriot. Matthew, himself, is expected to continue to spy for Queen Elizabeth, which puts him in close contact with London's cutthroat underworld.

Together, Matthew and Diana scour the bookstalls and alchemical laboratories of London where they follow the elusive trail of Ashmole 782 - and search for the witch who will teach Diana to control her powers. (Summary from Goodreads)

You might remember that I reviewed Discovery of Witches back in April, and loved the book. I've been waiting impatiently for the sequel and am delighted that I have only six short months for it to come out. If you haven't read Discovery of Witches, do it. Soon. But make sure you clear out a couple days because it's massive.

Shadow of Night comes out July 10.

Ashes Ashes by Jo Treggiari

2012-01-24T17:30:00.001-05:00

A tenth of the world's population is dead in the first epidemic, more die in the second wave. Natural disasters keep people fending for their lives, and sixteen year old Lucy is trying to survive in the Wilds just outside of New York City. Her family is dead and Lucy lives in constant fear that she will not survive the next day. When she is chased down by a pack of dogs, a young man saves her and she joins his commune when a tsunami destroys her hut. She must learn to trust and rely on others, overcome her prejudices against the S'ans (the infected that survived and now carry horrible scars), and deal with her attraction to Aiden, even as the Sweepers raid the little tent city more frequently on the search for something or someone. As Lucy discovers that there is more to her own back-story than she first realized, she must decide whether to stay and fight for the people she's become close to or run north.

This had a super strong start. Extremely atmospheric and a great history of how this world developed. I liked Lucy's voice, she was strong, spunky, moody without being obnoxious, and realistic responses to what life threw her way. Unfortunately I did not love the plot after the first four chapters. It slowed way down. Like a snail's pace. All of a sudden we're trying to deal with Lucy gardening, like all the time and a flirtation with a random guy. I liked the secondary characters, but there was some random focus on them. I didn't really understand why we didn't spend more time with Aiden and Del and really build up the love triangle there. Or why we didn't see or hear more of Leo so his death meant more. Why didn't we get to know more of Sammy or Del? Why was there a rather lame ending, that seemed overly action-y in the whole scope of the book.

I think that Jo Treggiari had a fantastic idea and a really solid base, but if she would've spent a little more time developing the character relationships and less time inner-monologuing and gardening this book could've been amazing. As in praising the heavens amazing, but the was a huge drop in the middle that left me bored and uninterested in the rest of the book.

I do like the fact that this is a standalone, there aren't enough standalone books. I think that I've bitched about the fact that it is completely unnecessary to make ever book into a trilogy, and sometimes unwanted to continue a storyline. I liked the fact that this left you a bit hanging on what's going to happen next. Nice.

Awesome beginning, snoozer middle, adequate ending. That is all.

2012 ALA Youth Media Awards

2012-01-23T14:34:00.001-05:00

The results of the Youth Media Awards are in, and per usual, they go to books I've never heard of! Huzzah!

The Printz Award Winner: Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Honor Books:
Why We Broke Up, written by Daniel Handler, art by Maira Kalman (Look! One I've actually read!)
The Returning, written by Christine Hinwood
Jasper Jones, written by Craig Silvey
The Scorpio Races, written by Maggie Stiefvater

Newbery Medal Winner: Dead End in Norvelt written by Jack Gantos

Honor Books:
Inside Out & Back Again written by Thanhha Lai
Breaking Stalin’s Nose written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin

Caldecott Medal Winner: A Ball for Daisy illustrated and written by Chris Raschka

Honor Books:
Blackout illustrated and written by John Rocco
Grandpa Green illustrated and written by Lane Smith (Yay Lane Smith!)
Me … Jane illustrated and written by Patrick McDonnell

Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award: Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

Honor Books:
The Great Migration: Journey to the North by Eloise Greenfield
Never Forgotten by Patricia C. McKissack

Get full results for all awards here.

So there you have it. What do you think? I'm starting to get super annoyed with the Printz committee. Where's Chime? Where's Daughter of Smoke and Bones? They're not even honor books? What is this Where Things Come Back that no one has ever heard of? It better be pretty flipping fabulous.

News

2012-01-20T09:01:00.001-05:00

The most famous man in the literary world, if you are under three feet tall, is Mo Willems. From The Washington Post.

The 100 best-selling books of 2011. Look at all the books on the list that are considered children's or YA! From the USA Today.

Listen to Walter Dean Myers on NPR.

Happy 50th birthday, A Wrinkle in Time! From big think.

Same day digital release of comics is becoming the norm. From PW.

British comic book artist Philip Bond has drawn a very cool series of real-life female astronauts. Check it out.

Dystopian Domination

2012-01-19T11:58:00.000-05:00

This month long celebration of all things of the dystopian genre is hosted by Amaterasu Reads and Fragments of Life. I can't believe that I didn't pick up on this earlier ( you all know I love the dystopian) and pimp it out for all it's worth. It started January 9th, and they have author interviews and giveaways almost every day of January. Here's a description from the blog.

"It's just this month long celebration for books in the wonderful and all too awesome dystopia genre. And for those who participated last year, it was a month filled with awesome interviews, reviews, insights from various authors and fabulous giveaways."

So check it out and glory in the wonder of dystopia.

Babysitters Club: Kristy's Great Idea by Ann M. Martin adapted by Raina Telgemeier

2012-01-18T19:09:00.000-05:00

The saga begins as Kristy convinces Mary Anne, Claudia, and new comer Stacey to start a club to babysit for the neighborhood. While the foursome tries to deal with new clients and new kids, they also have to deal with their own lives and the pressures and changes that abound. Will their friendship survive?

Obviously not a long in-depth summary, but I kind of feel like everyone knows the Baby-Sitters Club series. Raina Telgemeier does a commendable job of encompassing who each character is. Nothing is outrageous or mind-blowing, but perfectly acceptable at introducing the
BSC to a new generation. Mostly this is just an excuse for me to promote the "Where are They Now" by Emily Weiss, which makes me giggle every time that I read it.

"Janine's superior intellect and demanding career left little room in her life for anything else. She has many, many parakeets as a result."

Hilarious. Of course all this Baby-Sitters Club chatter brings one thing to the forefront of my mind:

It's been stuck in my head all day.
Babysitters Club... Say hello to your friends.... Babysitters Club.....

Waiting on Wednesday

2012-01-18T00:26:00.001-05:00

"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 Illuminate by Aimee Agresti.

Haven Terra is a brainy, shy high school outcast. But everything changes when she isawarded a prestigious internship at a posh Chicago hotel under the watchful eyes of agroup of gorgeous strangers: the powerful and alluring hotel owner Aurelia Brown; hersecond-in-command, the dashing Lucian Grove; and their stunning but aloof staff ofglamazons called The Outfit.As Haven begins falling for Lucian, she discovers that these beautiful people arenot quite what they seem. With the help of a mysterious book, she uncovers the evilagenda of Aurelia and company: they’re in the business of buying souls. Will they succeedin wooing Haven to join them in their recruitment efforts, or will she be able tothwart this devilish set’s plans to take the souls of her classmates on prom night at thehotel?Illuminate comes out March 6.

Morning Glories Vol. 1 by Nick Spencer, Joe Eisma, and Rodin Esquejo

2012-01-17T16:45:00.000-05:00

Morning Glory Academy is one of the most prestigious prep schools in the country. Only the intellectual elite are allowed into the hallowed halls. For the new students, this could be the start of an incredible future.

Casey is an outrageously smart girl, with a drive to outdo her peers and do what's right. Morning Glory is Ike's last chance after being kicked out of seven other schools, he is a privileged psychopath with no real desire to care for anyone else. Zoe always gets what she wants, especially if it's coming from a boy. Hunter is the boy next door, with a strong moral compass and a fatherly benevolence. Jade is a rather stereotypical emo, with a rather unhealthy crush on her teacher. Jun has an agenda and the abilities to carry them out, but no one else knows what they are. They think they're all special in some way, until they meet one another at Morning Glory Academy. As they try and survive orientation, they must question not only why they've been chosen for the school but also what the true agenda of the sadistic Miss Daramount is, and what else is inhabiting the school

I would like to state that I wasn't gung ho about this series when I picked it up. It sounded too violent and a bit cliche to hold anyone's attention. That's when I read the first ten pages and got bitch-slapped in the face and sucker-punched in the gut. This graphic novel is a fast-paced psychological thriller. Yes it's violent, and yes there's some romance, but it's also got more twists than the first season of Lost. I kept reading it and thinking, "What the what?" Well that's not really what I was thinking, but my parents read this so we'll keep it PG-13. Morning Glories never really lets you stop to ponder why something is, it is so crazy fast. It just leaves you with the absolute need to continue reading in the hope that something, anything, will be explained or some crumb of information will be handed to you. Instead Nick Spencer makes you work for it. You can't say once you've finished that you get anything in this literary universe, but you know that you crave a bit more. Fan-fricking-tastic.

To Dance: a Ballerina's Graphic Novel by Siena Cherson Siegel and Mark Siegel

2012-01-17T14:12:00.001-05:00

When she was six, Siena was told that it was impossible to fix her flat feet but as a last effort she and her mother enrolled her into ballet. Siena soon became entranced with dancing and it soon completely shaped her personal and family's life. It was through dance that Siena was introduced to an outside world, and became the impetus for the family move to New York from San Juan. Every waking moment was given to dance, which brought her continuous new experiences and introduced her to new people.

Though eventually Siena has to give up dance because of severe injuries, the influence of dance on her life and life's perspective continues.

I quite enjoyed this book. It's a quick read, and though a rather romanticized view of Siena's life, I like the fact that she didn't play down how difficult the actual life of a dancer is. It was a sweet and somewhat thought-provoking memoir. That's all I have to say about it. Done.

John Green Tour: Don't Forget To Be Awesome

2012-01-16T15:14:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, January 7, was a very exciting day for John Green fans. Not only was it the much anticipated release of his new book The Fault in Our Stars, but also the kick-off of his book tour. This first stop was in Massachusetts, and was GOING to be held at my school, but very sadly for us, due to John Green's rock starness, we lost him because our auditorium wasn't big enough. It was very sad. However, because they were very sorry that they had to move it means that we got preferential parking, seating and were the first to get books personalized, which made us all feel very special indeed.

This was like no book signing or author talk I have ever experienced before. It was crazy. It was like going to a concert. It was a show, really. When I arrived with a van full of VERY excited teenager girls (SO excited. Like, seeing a celebrity excited), we parked directly behind The Fault in Our Stars van and beheld a line of teenagers stretching out the doors down the sidewalk. It really quite warmed my heart to see all the young people so incredibly excited to see John and Hank Green.

Now I'm going to fool myself that it's All For the Love of Books. John and Hank Green are incredibly popular with their Vlogbrothers video blog and their Nerdfighters community is huge. I'm sure plenty of people were Nerdfighters first and came to the books after. But whatever. They were there. They were excited. They were wearing Nerdfighter and other literary tee shirts. They were sitting in a totally packed auditorium waving their books in the air and calling for John Green to come out. It was...surreal.

When the show (really, I have to call it a show, there's no other way to describe it) began with Hank Sock welcoming us. John Sock could not be there due to be eaten. I'm not a regular watcher at Vlogbrothers, but I was able to ascertain that Hank and John Sock are regulars.

John Green himself appeared and damn, it was like the videos you see of the Beatles arriving in the U.S. for the first time. The screaming! The clapping! The waving of books in the air! There were probably people falling into a swoon right there and having to be revived. John, looking very dapper in his suit, proceeded to read to us from The Fault in Our Stars, which was funny and touching and made us all want to read it even more than we did before if that's even possible.

Hank came out to sing for us. This was my first introduction to Hank Green. They look a lot alike, adorably awkward and nerdy. Hank is a lot more over the top than John is though. Hank's songs were very funny, and it was amazing to look around at the audience and see everyone singing along to every single word. It reminded me a lot of being at a Wizard Wrock concert. The Wizard Wrock crowd and the Nerdfighters have a lot of crossover (the founder of The Harry Potter Alliance was sitting right in front of us). Hank actually had a couple songs about Harry Potter ("This Isn't Hogwarts" and "Accio Deathly Hallows"), which I very much enjoyed. During one of his songs, "Shake-a-Booty" people became to spontaneously stand up in their seats and start dancing. Pretty soon the entire audience was up and dancing.

After Hank played, John, now less formally dressed, came out to answer questions specifically about his new book. People were asking very thoughtful questions, like what it was like for John to write from a female perspective for the first time, that he answered in an appropriate literary manner that the entire audience (teenagers, remember) were totally involved in his answers.

Then John made a very dramatic announcement. John's wife is know among Nerdfighters as The Yeti, because she is often mentioned but never appears in any of the Vlogbrother's videos. John said that she was actually here, tonight, and she wanted to meet everyone! Oh how the people screamed with excitement! And out came:

Hank. Who proceeded to sing "Never Gonna Give Me Up" and we all got to experience a real-life Rickroll. Oh sure, there was disappointment, but I think everyone was OK. Now the mystery of John's wife can continue.

John and Hank answered questions together, and now people asked totally stupid ridiculous questions. Things like "What's your favorite color?" and "Will you be my best friend?" which they both fielded pretty well. They had a timer going and the person who was speaking when it went off was electric shocked. I don't know. Vlog thing I guess. There was a lot of I didn't understand.

The show finished with Hank and John singing "500 Miles" by The Pretenders. They'd mentioned at the beginning how they kind of looked like them. It's true.

All the books and been signed (and some had been Hanklerfished) but you could stick around afterwards to get them personalized. Of course, all the girls who I'd driven wanted their books personalized, but thank goodness we were in the first batch to go up. I heard the next day that some people were there until one in the morning. It ended about 8:30pm. Damn. The girls were bubbling over with excitement as I drove them back. They were so excited to have gone, to have seen the Vlog boys, to talk to them, to read their books. Everything. It makes me all smiley.

So it was quite the experience. I think my colleague Sam (who blogs at Parenthetical.net) summed it all up nicely when she said, "I feel like I just got hit by a truck of awesome." Yeah. That's pretty spot on.

Don't forget to be awesome everyone. The Fault in Our Stars review coming soon.

Above World by Jenn Reese

2012-01-16T14:17:00.000-05:00

Aluna is a Kampii (don't call her a mermaid) who lives in the City of the Shifting Tides. The Kampii have lived under the sea for generations, having no contact with the above world of humans. But now, the breathing devices that allow the Kampii to live under water have begun to break, and no one knows how to fix them. The Kampii elders chose to ignore the problem and Aluna decides to take the problem into her own hands. With her friend Hoku, Aluna journeys to the above world in search of HydroTek.

The first scene in this book seemed right out of the Little Mermaid. We have the headstrong girl and her scared male friend going somewhere forbidden. People are called guppies as a fill in for scaredy cats, and then they are chased by a big shark. So sorry Aluna, you already have me in Little Mermaid mode.

There was some interesting world creation going on (you know I like good world creation) but the story itself was unimpressive. As things began to go to crap in the world and there's overcrowding and disease, technology allowed people to flee to other, less crappy places on Earth. Some went under water, some went to the skies, some went to the deserts and some became Upgraders, combinations of humans and machines. So I was interested in this idea of humans deciding to live in places that don't naturally support human life and that they drew on ancient myths to do so. Mermaids, harpies and centaurs, essentially.

I enjoyed being introduced to the Kampii, who have thick skin to keep them warm and eyes that can see in the dark, the Aviars, warrior bird women, have light bones and wings and are grown from eggs, and Equines, the horse people. The story itself, however, I didn't find myself especially interested in.

Aluna leaves the ocean (Kampii don't get tales until a ceremony when they're 13 where they swallow a pill) with Hoku to try to discover why her tribes' tech is breaking down. Aluna was kind of annoying. She always wanted to fight, never thought anything through, and had a really weird idea or loyalty. I know she was supposed to be acting nobly, but most of the time she was just a pain. Hoku was a little more interesting. He was interested in figuring out how things work, but still, no exactly a gripping character. I found I felt like that the whole way though. Callie, an Aviar joins them, and then Dash, an Equine that had to leave his herd because he'd been born without a horse's body. There's lots of running about and fighting the Upgraders and so on. The journey dragged (even though it was not a long book) and I wasn't really sure where it was going or what was the point.

Everyone neatly gets matched up. Callie and Hoku like each other, as do Aluna and Dash but neither admits it. This is sure to be a series. The book ends with kind of a triumph, but there's plenty more to do to keep the world safe from the evil Upgraders. The fight is only just beginning. I have no interest in continuing on with this series. There are plenty of other much more engaging dystopias available.

Above World will be available February 14.

Something for you to enjoy on a long weekend.

2012-01-13T22:21:00.001-05:00

Sean and Lisa Ohlenkamp took over Type Books in Toronto to create this charming short. That's right it's damn charming. With a crew of over 20 people, the "Joy of Books" was born. Music composed by Grayson Matthews.

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson

2012-01-12T12:18:00.002-05:00

Bobby is 16 and a father. He is the soul guardian of his brand new daughter, Feather. Bobby loves Feather so much it scares him. But his love for her doesn't change the fact that he still a kid that wants to be cared for himself and is completely overwhelmed by Feather's care.

The First Part Last is a very short book. It's a novella, almost, a little over 100 pages. I read it about an hour. It's written on a middle school level. The language is simple and straight forward, but beautiful in its simplicity. Angela Johnson said a lot more in 131 pages than a lot of other authors say in 400. It makes me think some other author's are in desperate need of an editor. I think this has a lot of high school appeal as well. It's easy to read, but high interest.

The First Part Last is unique in several ways. First, there aren't a whole lot teenage pregnancy books that focus on the father, and that focus on the father actually caring for the child after it's born. Bobby and his girlfriend Nia are from middle class families, also not seen as much in teenage pregnancy stories. Bobby and Nia, even after they know about the pregnancy, continue their relationship and clearly care about each other very much. That in particular I was struck by. Bobby and Nia had a very gentle, caring relationship. Most of the books about teenage pregnancy I've read the relationship is bad, or falls apart. In this book, Bobby and Nia love each other, do something super stupid they know was super stupid, and then they deal with it and continue to love each other, and getting married never comes up. Amazing.

Bobby's reaction to being a single father who's still in high school was realistically torn. He loves his baby. He's actually afraid of how much he loves her, and of how much Feather needs him and depends on him. He wants to do what's best for her, care for her and make her happy. But that doesn't change the fact that he's 16, and wants to play basketball with his friends, and hang out, and sleep through the night, and go to school without having to worry. The portrayal of Bobby's emotions was heartfelt and painful.

There were still some flaws in the story. Spoilers ahead.

I really loved this book until the end, when it was revealed why Nia was not in the picture. I was wondering why the whole time, especially seeing what a loving relationship she and Bobby had. Where was she? It turns out she's in a vegetated state because of eclampsia, which is pretty rare and rare not to be caught in its pre-eclampsia stage. I felt let down. It would have made for a far more interesting story if there were a reason Nia had decided not to be involved in the baby's life, and therefore Bobby's. I found the eclampsia route disappointing.

This also raised the question, "Where are Nia's parents?" Bobby keeps the baby, because he can't think of parting with her now with Nia in a coma, and Nia's parents saying how Feather is the only thing they have left of their daughter. If that was the case, why did they not show up at all in Feather's (and therefore Bobby's) life? That seemed very odd. They seemed to have just disappeared. I would have thought they would want to be very involved in Feather's life, or maybe even would have wanted to raise her themselves.

Still beautifully written and a unique perspective.

The Mystic Phyles: Beasts by Stephanie Brockway and Ralph Masiello

2012-01-11T13:00:00.002-05:00

Abigail Thaddeus is overprotected anti-social and boring until, on her thirteenth birthday, she is given a quest to research mythical beasts by someone known as the "Devoted Friend." This is not an easy task considering she doesn't have a lot of support from the people around her: she's not let out of the house by her tyrannical grandfather, her sweet grandmother is rather crazy, her only friend Charley is constantly sick, and she's constantly picked on by evil Kane and the empty-headed Britney-s.

Abigail perseveres and creates a journal of everything she discovers, but as she learns more she starts noticing strange things happening - strange noises at night, bats flying around the house, a threatening note from the Board of Mystical Management, and her grandfather becomes more neurotic in his need to keep Abigail safe. On top of all of this, Abigail must deal with Charley's social goal of climbing the popularity ladder from brainiac to band geek, Kane stealing the journal, Britney bailing as a science partner and leaving Abigail to do all the homework, and actually becoming a part of the school as she seems to have made a connection to the artistic Deke. How is she supposed to deal with all of this, especially when Abigail is discovering what she thought was fantasy is actually quite real.

It's been a while but I briefly blogged about this book back in 2010, when I heard Stephanie and Ralph discuss the production of The Mystic Phyles at the MSLA Conference. I remember being extremely impressed with the amount of detail that they had put in to just the creation of the pages, and now I've seen the real deal. Yeesh! Each page has a painted background, the text looks like the paper been cut to size by hand, there are beautifully hand-drawn sketches, bits of yarn are all over the place, random haiku add to the Abigail's journal entries, and the 'official' artwork is beautiful.

This doesn't even cover the characters or storyline, which are super fun and original. Abigail is fantastically funny, and so wonderfully downtrodden you can't help but love her. She doesn't fall into any one category of your stereotypical young teen heroine - she's funny, honest, quirky, and I think more importantly aware of her shortcomings. She isn't laden with angst or overbearing with Pollyanna positivity, she's something kind of new and interesting. She has a sensibility and grounded self-awareness that I think is so refreshing, actually all of the characters are quite charming (though I'm hoping that the secondary characters will be fleshed out a bit more in the following books). The plot kind of reminds me of the Spiderwick Chronicles, which I haven't read, but with more mystery and less action. A lot less action. Most of the book is spent with Abigail creating beautiful fact pages about mythical beasts or discussing her school life, nothing really action-y happens until about the last five to eight pages of the book. I didn't mind though, because each page is so visually stimulating and interesting. Whether discovering weirdo facts about a barghest or reading about Abigail's freak out during her oral presentation, I was completely engaged the entire time.

Get the book it's wonderful.

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

2012-01-11T10:26:00.000-05:00

Lucy longs to meet Shadow, a graffiti artist whose art Lucy loves. She's sure someone who can create the pictures Shadow does is sure to be her soul mate. On the last day of year 12, Lucy and her friends meet up with Ed and his friends. Lucy doesn't like Ed very much, but the boys say they know Shadow, and they'll try to help Lucy find him.

Graffiti Moon was released in Australia in 2010, and it's now being released in the U.S. I do so like reading books that aren't based in America or England. It's good to shake thing up a bit. I enjoyed reading about how school was over and it's October and it super hot out and people talk about going to uni.

The book itself was very sweet. There were no surprises, but it was a nice romantic story of two people really getting to know each other over the course of one long evening, letting go of preconceived notions and realizing they care about each other.

I'm not giving anything away, I swear, by telling you that Ed is Shadow. You find out on like page two. So you, the reader, don't have to wonder for long who these Shadow and Poet characters are. Poet is Ed's best friend, Leo, who writes poetry to go with Ed's art. Ed dropped out of school, mostly because he can hardly read and write. Ed has some kind of learning disability, and he's clearly very smart and very talented, but he doesn't think much of himself. He paints to express himself, something he can't do very well in words.

Lucy and Ed split off from the rest of their friends and continue "searching" for Shadow. Ed takes Lucy to all different places around town to see his art, and begins to hope that she'll realize it's him, while all the time worrying that once she knows it's him she won't want Shadow any more. Lucy, meanwhile, is starting to fall for Ed and begins to realize how running after some idealized version of someone she's never met is silly.

There's a slide plot going that Leo owes a rather nasty guy money, and in order to get it the boys have agreed to take part in robbing their school of computers. Ed is reluctant but agrees, and as the hour of the robbery approaches, he worries more and more what Lucy would think if she found out.

There was actually a minute toward the end that I thought, "Wait, are things not going to end happily ever after? What the hell?" But then, thankfully, everything worked out just fine, just like it should.

So yes, very sweet and I enjoyed reading it.

Graffiti Moon comes out February 14, 2012.

Waiting on Wednesday: Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks

2012-01-11T06:39:00.000-05:00

"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 Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks.

A coming-of-age tale with a spooky twist!

Maggie McKay hardly knows what to do with herself. After an idyllic childhood of homeschooling with her mother and rough-housing with her older brothers, it’s time for Maggie to face the outside world, all on her own. But that means facing high school first. And it also means solving the mystery of the melancholy ghost who has silently followed Maggie throughout her entire life. Maybe it even means making a new friend—one who isn’t one of her brothers.

Funny, surprising, and tender, Friends with Boys is a pitch perfect YA graphic novel full of spooky supernatural fun.

Friends with Boys comes out February 28, 2012,

Steady Beat by Rivkah

2012-01-10T11:24:00.002-05:00

Leah is frustrated with being compared to her perfect older sister Sarai and under appreciated by her overworked mother. But when Leah finds a passionate love letter for Sarai signed "Love, Jessica" she is thrown in a mental whirlwind and feels the need to discover who Jessica is and what this means for her sister.

The mystery thickens when Leah is contacted by an anonymous caller saying that he can explain the love letters. Leah misses her chance to meet with him when she is a car accident, but meets a family that is very different from her own with a handsome young man that tries to help her. It seems that Leah's life is about to get even more interesting as she tries to come to terms with her sister's sexuality and her own.

This series was the winner of the Manga Academy's Create Your Own Manga competition back in 2005 and it's a YALSA recommended title. Eh. The themes are excellent, I like the idea of Leah trying to understand her sister's love life while she figures out her own but the whole side-plots of soccer, mystery caller, and Elijah's family seems unnecessary. It was all rather trite, I don't really understand why the whole mysterious caller thing is necessary to the plot line. I also didn't like the artwork. Let's be honest, I could not do better and I am not a professional art critic, but I thought that the artwork was a bit amateur and cliche.

I guess my response could be summed up as being: The themes should make it an awesome high YA manga, but the plot and artwork dumb it down.

I feel kind of bad for saying it, but there it is.

Straw House, Wood House, Brick House, Blow by Daniel Nayeri

2012-01-09T14:16:00.001-05:00

Four novellas of different genres make up this collection. The first is a western taking place on a ranch made up of toys that are grown from the ground. The second is science fiction, taking place in a world that's on the verge of going completely virtual. The third is a fantasy tale about the wish police stopping the dangerous wishes people make, and the last story is a romance narrated by Death.

Loved. Totally, totally loved. Nayeri is incredibly skilled at creating a whole world and well-rounded characters in just a hundred pages. No easy trick.

The title, obviously, comes from The Three Little Pigs, but the connection in each story is not always obvious. There are no actual wolves or pigs in any of these stories. It's more about what the houses represent. Straw House deals with vulnerability. Wood House the idea that one might not be quite as safe as you think. Brick House actually makes mention of a brick House, which was the most literal interpretation, and Blow was the one I had the hardest time seeing the connection.

The first story I wasn't really feeling. It was odd and disjointed and I wasn't sure I fully understood what was going on that whole time. It also ended quite suddenly. However, I absolutely loved the other three stories. I don't think I can even say which one was my favorite.

Wood House and Brick House in particular had amazing world creation. They both left me wanting to read more stories that take place in that world. I wanted the novellas to turn into full-length novels so I could know more. I wanted to know more about what happened to the characters. Or it didn't even have to be the same characters. There were such fascinating worlds that any story that took place there I'd love read.

Wood House is a science fiction story. In this world, people do most of their living online through virtual representations of themselves, where they can be heroes. Why live in the regular world when you can be a hero online? Those who don't want to live online are therefore referred to as Villains. The Villains are trying to fight against ReCreation Day, the day when Nano-Fidelity hotspots will extend across the world and create a merging of real life with virtual life. It leaves no one with the option to opt out. Janey, a Villain, is sent to deliver a book (a real one, with paper) for her guardian and stumbles into the horrifying truth of nofi technology. It was super creepy. The story was also quite funny. It was excellent storytelling and I want more stories in this world.

I felt the same about Brick House. In this world, wishes are real and powerful. Three agents of the Imaginary Crime Unit are called in to stop a wish of a young boy who has wished his family dead on the first star in the sky. His wish becomes entangled with another boys wish, and Saul (a djinn), Ari (a talking fish) and Mack (not clear what she is, claims she's an over-sized leprechaun) must stop them both before it's too late. It was great, with a couple of excellent surprise twist at the end. Again, I want more! More stories in this world!

I got to hear Daniel Nayeri speak at the Boston Book Festival, and he was an engaging and fascinating speaker, much like his book. I haven't read anything else by him, but after this, I definitely want to.

News

2012-01-09T10:24:00.000-05:00

Q and A with Judy Blume, who continues to be awesome and totally adorable. From Simthsonian.com.

Apparently, kids shouldn't read books that they see themselves in. They should read Homer. And Walter Dean Myers is bad for the children. Sigh. From NY Daily News.

Kid literary characters and their grown-up counterparts. From Flavorwire.

2011 in children's books. From The Guardian.

If famous writers had written Twilight. From Lizzie Stark.

Katerine Paterson reflects on her terms as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. From the Huffington Post.

A new show on AMC from Kevin Smith will be called Comic Book Men, and looks like it will portray all the usual comic book world stereotypes. People are disappointed. From The Beat.

Also from The Beat, Axe is creating an interactive graphic novel, Axe Anarchy. As typical from Axe, it's gross. It totally serves them right they are now the preferred brand for awkward high school boys.

The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman

2012-01-07T17:00:00.001-05:00

June and Wes do not fall in love at first sight. They do not think it's destiny they met. They hardly even noticed each other at first, and then Jen starts dating one of Wes' friends. June and Wes do finally find each other, but it's right before June learns that she's moving. Again. And that's a problem, because June has been taught to sever all connections every time she moves.

This was a thoughtful book and one I enjoyed reading. I certainly appreciated there was no eye contact from across and room and then they knew they were destined to be 2gether 4eva 4L. June and Wes came together slowly. They became aware of each other. They become interested in what the other person is doing. They talk, a little. But then June starts dating Jerry, Wes' friend. And Wes realizes he feels kind of funny about that.

The book is divided into four section: Fall, winter, spring and summer. The emotion that each sesction expresses is pretty well illustrated on the cover of the book. This is one of the few times that I feel like the cover of the book was actually made for this particular story, rather than just picking a stock image that sort of fits. In the fall, June thinks Wes is weird and Wes thinks June looks like a fish. In winter, for a brief moment, they get to be together. Then June leaves, and it's spring. Finally it's summer, and they see each other again.

June was a fascinating character. Because of her father's job, her family moves constantly. She often doesn't even finish a school year in one place. She's become an expert at making friends and finding a group. Getting herself a boyfriend and then completely disengaging when it's time to move again. June is not looking for anything or anyone that requires an emotional attachment because she knows she'll be leaving soon. She started dating Jerry because he was nice enough and acceptable as a boyfriend. That was pretty much all she felt for him though. It was actually kind of disturbing the way her parents didn't allow her to contact any of the people she'd met in the many places they'd lived. "The past is the past," they said, and it was best not to make any attachments. June has to delete all the numbers from her phone and everything. Her parents think they are sparing their child, when they are actually royally screwing her up.

When June and Wes finally collide (literally, they smack heads in a convenience store), they only get to be together for a matter of weeks, and really, they have one date. Then June finds out she's moving again, and tries to distant herself from Wes. For the first time, it's really difficult. She's created an attachment and there's nothing she can do about it.

What follows is an incredibly realistic portrayal of a long-distance high school relationship. They miss each other. June finds she just can't break it off and move on. She gets permission to talk to Wes on the phone. And they do, but time goes on. They think about each other less, even while they talk every day. They aren't perfect. They annoy each other sometimes. Sometimes they don't really feel like talking to each other. It wasn't fantasized at all. June probably would have eventually moved on if she went on not seeing Wes, even though she missed him, but then Wes decides to be crazy and romantic and drives hundreds of miles to see her, which ends with him getting arrested for car theft (it was all a misunderstanding) and both June and Wes get into trouble.

Over the summer, June gets a job that's close to Wes that allows them to see each other every day. The book ends with June and Wes having a very philosophical discussion about what comes next. They don't know what's going to happen. They don't swear to each other that they'll always love each other or that they'll always be together, because they both know that they might not. It's left very open. You can believe that they continue their relationship and end up together, or you can believe that they grow up and grow apart. It doesn't say, and that was really nice. You're left with a feeling that they'll both be OK though, in the long run, and that was very satisfying.

Corsets & Clockwork: 13 Steampunk Romances

2012-01-05T13:36:00.000-05:00

The title pretty much says it all. Another steampunk anthology, this one focusing on steampunk romances. The title is fairly silly. I mean, it might as well be Corsets & Clockwork & Top Hats & Goggles & Airships. However, I thought these writers did a much better job at creating steampunk worlds than the authors that were part of Steampunk! Perhaps because these authors were given some kind of direction as to what constitutes steampunk?

I read about half of it. As ever with an anthology, some stories were good and some were not, but by the time I'd read six stories I was bored and wanted to read something else.

Of the ones I read, I most enjoyed Wild Magic, by Ann Aguirre, who wrote Enclave, and Deadwood by Michael Scott who wrote the The Secrets of Immortal Nicholas Flamel series.

Wild Magic was a fairly straight forward love story, with a high class girl falling in love with a boy beneath her station, but it had a bit a twist, and I thought Aguirre did an excellent job with the world creation. I really got an understanding of how the world Pearl lived in work, and the fear of magic, even though the ruling houses are the ones who have magic in their backgrounds. Pick is one of the Wilds, and convinces Pearl to help him let magic loose into the world. Pearl falls in love with him, and it seems like Pick loves her too, but there's something he isn't telling her. This story was really more fantasy based than steampunk, but there were some automatons that attacked them.

Deadwood was lots of fun. It took place in the American west (Deadwood is in South Dakota) and was very exciting and adventury. Martha and JW meet on and airship on their way to California, and find themselves in the middle of a terrible plot! Luckily for the rest of the passengers on board the airship, both Martha and JW don't let much get in their way, and they're not about to leave anyone behind. There's a funny little reveal at the end.

So it's not that I didn't enjoy the stories I read, it's just that after reading a handful I was all set and ready to move on to something else.

Waiting on Wednesday

2012-01-04T06:08:00.000-05:00

"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 Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore.

Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck’s reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle—disguised and alone—to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past. Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck’s reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn’t yet identified, holds a key to her heart. (Summary from Goodreads)

Exceptional right? It's a little early to be posting this, but I love Graceling and Fire and Kristin Cashore. I can't contain myself! Bitterblue comes out May 1st.

Ozma of OZ by L. Frank Baum, Eric Shanower, and Skottie Young

2012-01-03T20:30:00.000-05:00

While crossing the ocean with her uncle, Dorothy is once again thrown into a mystical land that needs her help. She must help save the royal family of Ev from the devious Nome King. Fortunately she has the help of new friends Billina the sassy talking chicken and Tik-Tok the ever useful clockwork man and many old friends.

Before I give you my review of the book I have a caveat. I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of the Oz series. I don't like the Judy Garland's Wizard of Oz and have never been intrigued enough to read the actual books. It just all seemed so schmaltzy. Then came along my friend Liz, we were bonded by a love of classic children's movies and though doubtful watched Return to Oz with her. Am I every glad I did!

Amazing right? Like crazy banana-pants awesome! I couldn't believe that this made me a believer in L. Frank Baum, but it did. Ozma of Oz is what this fantastic movie is based on. It isn't quite as exciting, and it is again pretty touchy-feely, but the essence of it is still wonderful. Billina is so sassy and Tik-Tok is so unintentionally sweet and funny. The Hungry Tiger is ridiculous and the army of officers absolutely pretentious. This was delightful. I adored the artwork, it completely suited the off-the-wall storyline. Read this, then watch the Return to Oz movie. It's absolutely worth it.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill, Ben Dimagmaliw and Bill Oakley

2012-01-03T20:09:00.000-05:00

In 1898, Campion Bond has put together a team of misfits to save London from an evil Doctor. He sends out the beautiful and secretive Mina Murray and mercurial Captain Nemo to gather up Allan Quatermain the legendary opiate-addicted hunter, the psychopathic invisible Hawley Griffin, and the nervous and monstrous Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Edward Hyde. They create the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. As they try and learn to cope with one another they must also try and understand what the true motivation of Bond and their mysterious benefactor M is.

I really enjoyed this book. An interesting premise, gathering notorious literary characters and putting their abilities together, followed up with the equally intriguing idea of putting them in famous plot lines (volume two takes place during War of the Worlds). I found the artwork to be quite beautiful and the attention to details lovely.

Enough of the accolades. While overall an awesome book there are some issues, I had a hard time with how they dealt with women. I don't have an issue with Mina Murray being the only leading woman, but she's constantly being attacked and cannot save herself. Isn't she supposed to have some special abilities? Why can't she defend herself? All other victims are either men who are violently killed or women that are sexually assaulted or killed. Doesn't seem quite right, does it?

Anyway, I liked the book, will read the rest of the series, will try and cope with the underlying misogyny.

Womanthology

2012-01-03T14:28:00.004-05:00

I am super excited about the release of Womanthology, and therefore feel the need to share my excitement with everyone.

From the Womanthology blog:

Womanthology is an anthology graphic novel created entirely by women for Charity. The purpose of the book is to showcase the works of female creators of every age and experience levels.

The Graphic Novel will majorly consist of many short stories interpreting our theme for this volume; "Heroic". We'll also have interviews and how-to's with some of the industry's top female pros, as well as talks with young girls who someday want a career in comics.

How awesome is that? So cool! So exciting! The release date is set for February 21, 2012, so it isn't terribly far away. All the money for publishing was raised through Kickstarter, and they far exceeded their goal. I think that shows how many people out there are yearning for more women in comics, don't you think? Unfortunately for me, I didn't hear about this until after the fundraising was over, so I can't say I back it. I wish I could.

Womanthology is all over. They have a blog, Tumblr, Twitter, so you can stay updated as the publishing date approaches, and at this point some of the first pages are starting to be available. A list of contributors is available on the blog.

You can check out some interviews with editor Renae De Liz.

And since we're feeling the fabulous love of female comic creators, let's take a look at 13 fantastic female comics creators of 2011 from Jezebel.

News

2012-01-03T13:39:00.000-05:00

Fashion designers envision Katniss' fire dress. You can tell which designers actually know anything about the books and which ones don't! From InStyle.

Joyce Valenza wins lifetime achievement award. From SLJ.

Oops. Barnes & Noble shipped John Green's The Fault in Our Stars too early. From PW.

Jules Feiffer, illustrator of The Phantom Tollbooth talks about his first job. From The Wall Street Journal.

How Spielberg handles racism in The Adventures of Tintin. Really interesting article. From The Atlantic.

Authors on the best and worst book-to-movie adaptations. From Salon.

Congress approves $28.6 million for school libraries. From SLJ.

YALSA names Morris awards finalists.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone already picked up by Universal. From EW.

Walter Dean Myers will be the new Ambassador for Young People's Literature. From PW.

Underwire by Jennifer Hayden

2012-01-01T20:18:00.000-05:00

Jennifer Hayden is a member of the webcomic collective act-i-vate where she publishes her autobiographical comic Underwire. Underwire is a collection of the webcomics.

Jennifer is in her forties, married, with two children. Her comics tells stories of moments with her daughter, a dream she had about her husband, laughing and saying bitchy things about other people with her girl friends, and other little moments from her life.

Each comic is about 18 to 20 square boxes, drawn simply in black and white. While I didn't love the style the comic is drawn in, I loved seeing these small moments from Jennifer's life. She is able to say a lot in very few words, and even without her illustrations being especially detailed. A strong feeling comes across in every story she tells.

Jennifer is very truthful. She is not afraid to show that she's far from perfect, that her husband sometimes pisses her off, and that her kids both drive her crazy and amaze her. I feel kind of bad for her family, that they are exposed in this way, but maybe having a mom like Jennifer has prepared them. In any case, I very much enjoyed reading her stories.

Jennifer is currently working on a graphic novel, The Story of My Tits, that tells the story of her breast cancer diagnose. It will be coming out in 2012.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour

2011-12-28T08:52:00.000-05:00

"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 The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour.

Colby and Bev have a long-standing pact: graduate, hit the road with Bev's band, and then spend the year wandering around Europe. But moments after the tour kicks off, Bev makes a shocking announcement: she's abandoning their plans - and Colby - to start college in the fall.

But the show must go on and The Disenchantments weave through the Pacific Northwest, playing in small towns and dingy venues, while roadie- Colby struggles to deal with Bev's already-growing distance and the most important question of all: what's next?

Morris Award—finalist Nina LaCour draws together the beauty and influences of music and art to brilliantly capture a group of friends on the brink of the rest of their lives.

The Disenchantments comes out February 16, 2012.

Yule Ball 2011

2011-12-27T22:16:00.001-05:00

On December 18, Anna and I and our fellow librarian friend Rachel (who we hope will soon be doing some guest blogging) went to the 7th annual Yule Ball in Cambridge. Anna and I went last year and it was AMAZING. As in magical and fabulous and hard to describe. If you're new, the Yule Ball is a Harry Potter wizard wrock concert. You are so missing out if you've never listened to wizard wrock. You are missing out on the awesome.

It was sad, however, because Draco and the Malfoys, who are my very favorites, were playing their last concert ever. Ever! I don't know why they are leaving the Harry Potter music scene, although I understand that people need to move on at some point. But it's too bad for us, as their songs are a delight. Draco and the Malfoys didn't go on until later though. Let's start at the beginning.

When Anna, Rachel and I got there, Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt was in the middle of their set. They are not a wizard wrock group, but they were enthusiastic and loud. And a couple of them were wearing dresses. They were not wearing dresses after they played, so I don't quite know what that was about.

Matt Maggiacomo of The Whomping Willows was up next, but before he began he played drums for a surprise appearance by Gred and Forge singing "Ginny Gets Around!" I thought it was kind of adorable that all the wizard wrock musicians are friends and will play up in each other's bands. We had members of Harry and the Potters and Draco and the Malfoys playing in almost all the other bands that played that night. My favorite Whomping Willows songs are still "I Believe in Nargles"

and "Draco and Harry." Matt had us create a Freedom Wind to send to the UK so that Draco and Harry wouldn't be afraid to be together.

The Potter Puppet Pals were coming up next, but first we had a musical interlude with the ever enthusiastic (really, almost frightening enthusiastic) Jason Anderson. It involved a lot of call and response and telling us how awesome we all were. He ended by having a large group sing-a-long with "Don't Stop Believing." Which having looked back at what I wrote about the Yule Ball last year, he ended the same way then, too. It's a fail safe I guess. Because that song will never die and you know everyone knows the words. More wizard rock, I say! That's what I came for!

We heard from Andrew Slack of the Harry Potter Alliance, an organization that fights real evil in the world. The Harry Potter Alliance's 2011 project was convincing Warner Bros. to use fair trade chocolate for their Harry Potter products. Andrew also talked about a new project, Imagine Better, which is bringing together lovers of all kinds of books to take on social justice projects.

But then the Puppet Pals came on! And it was magic. Harry told us the whole sad story or his life, never forgetting to remind us how awesome he was, since he's Harry Potter, after all. From Hagrid telling him he was a wizard:

To stealing a flying car with Ron and Hermione:

To Dumbledore taking Harry to find the horcrux inside the locket

Which, since it was Puppet Pal Dumbledore, involved him taking off his clothes.

Harry even traveled to another world where he ran in to J. K. Rowling:

The skit involved a live performance of "The Mysterious Ticking Noise," much to the audience's delight. Snape also got his own musical number that involved him flying in the air on wings.

Draco and the Malfoys! I love you! Joe and Paul DeGeorge of Harry and the Potters gave them a very touching tribute, and then gloated over finally defeating Draco Malfoy. They started off with the every popular "My Dad is Rich and Your Dad is Dead," and went through all their fabulous hits. Everyone was singing along and it was so much fun. Draco and the Malfoys I think are also among the better musicians in wizard wrock. They ended their last concert ever with "99 Hippogriffs Go By."

Sigh. The Yule Ball won't be nearly as much fun without them. Farewell Draco and the Malfoys! Best of luck in all your new endeavors!

Harry and the Potters took the stage to wrap up the evening with their usual hijinks and ridiculous. We had to cut out before they were done though, as some people had to get up early in the morning to teach the children. Other people were already on vacation and didn't care.

Another successful Yule Ball! Go next year. It's such fun.

Giveaway: Audio Book of Cinder by Marissa Meyer

2011-12-25T21:03:00.003-05:00

We have an exciting giveaway for you! Thanks to the kind folks at Macmillan Audio, we have the audio book of Cinder by Marissa Meyer for you! I reviewed Cinder a few weeks ago, and it was a lot of fun. Listen to the first six minutes of the audio book.

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

In this thrilling debut young adult novel, the first of a quartet, Marissa Meyer introduces readers to an unforgettable heroine and a masterfully crafted new world that’s enthralling.

Cinder will be coming out January 3, 2012.

Giveaway ends January 1 and is limited to the U.S. only.

This giveaway is now closed.

Around the World by Matt Phelan

2011-12-25T20:35:00.000-05:00

In 1873, Jules Verne wrote Around the World in Eighty Days, and exciting adventure of a man racing against time. The book inspired real life adventures to circumnavigate the world. In this graphic novel, the stories of three individuals at the end of the nineteenth century are told, who all went around the world in very different ways.

The first story is of Thomas Stevens who from 1884 to 1886 rode around the world on a bicycle (naturally taking a boat at the water bits). And not the bicycle you're probably picturing. One of the ones with the gigantic front wheel and a tiny back wheel.

The second story is Nellie Bly's, a female reporter for the New York World who set out in 1889 to beat the Jules Verne hero and go around the world in 74 days.

The final story is about Joshua Slocum, a mariner. In 1895 he set out in a small boat to sail around the world, not returning until 1898.

This was a lovely graphic novel. The illustrative style is similar throughout the book, but the color scheme is different for each story. Stevens' story is in blues and grays, Bly's story is more colorful and vibrant with yellows and blues, and Slocum's is the most subdued in dark blue, gray and brown.

I know the story of Nellie Bly, but I'd never heard of Thomas Stevens or Joshua Slocum before, and it was fascinating reading about them. Slocum's story and the least words, and was very sad. It was about his trip around the world in his little boat, but it was really about his sadness and loneliness about the loss of his beloved first wife. Although he's remarried, he clearly still loves her a misses her.

Nellie Bly came off as a total jerk in her story. It might be based on fact. She probably had to be very assertive and not let other people push her around. She was doing things that were unheard of for women. She's glaring or squinting angrily in most of her illustrations. And saying rude things. If it's based on fact, then fine, otherwise, why make her look so unpleasant?

Definitely a very pretty as well as informational graphic novel. Recommended!

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

2011-12-22T22:00:00.001-05:00

Rose Edelstein develops the ability to taste the emotion in food on the eve of her ninth birthday. The first thing she realizes is that her mother is incredibly sad and empty.

I strongly disliked this. If I hadn't been listening to it on audio, I wouldn't have finished it. The audio itself I wasn't that great. It was read by Aimee Bender herself, and she had a very flat and uninspiring reading voice. Rather like the book itself, which I'm sure was intentional.

I do not like books that aren't about anything. Or rather, are about "life." I just don't care. I don't want to read about someone's day-to-day life, for the same reason I rarely use my Twitter account and hardly ever update my Facebook status. I want to read a story with a point and a plot. I don't want to read someone's kind of pointless inner musings. I know some people like books like that a lot. I know books like that are often highly praised and thought of as "literary." To that I say "whatever." You can keep your literary. It doesn't change that fact your book wasn't about anything.

Spoilers

Rose discovers she can taste emotions in food. OK. Got it. So now what? I was waiting for something to happen. Something connected to her ability to taste emotions in food. But nothing ever did. Ever. In fact, the story shifts to her brother, Joseph, who also has a strange ability. He has the ability to turn into inanimate objects. Or...go inside them. I don't even know, it was never made clear. And it was never explored why Joseph would chose oblivion over his life. What was the point of him at all? Some many things were introduced in this story and then nothing happens.

Meanwhile, Rose's mother begins an affair that starts when Rose is 12 and is still going on when she's 20 something, and no one knows except Rose, because she tasted it in food. Rose father is just sort of there, not doing much until the end of the book when he reveals that his father had the ability to smell people's feelings, or something, and that the reason he's never gone in a hospital (Rose's father won't go in hospitals) is because he feels a pull toward them and doesn't want to know what would happen if he went inside.

Nothing. Day to day life. Rose musing on whatever. It just dragged on and on and I kept wondering where it would end. What more could be talked about? There clearly wasn't going to be a point to the story. It could end anywhere.

And then, it went and ended when an actual story seemed to have started. Rose decides to stop hiding from food and starts eating at restaurants. She finds a place where the food and the emotions are good, and she works there. She also meets a woman who works with at risk kids, and asks Rose to taste the cookies the kids make to see how they are and if they need help. Two actual stories! Will Rose come in to her own by becoming a cook or chef? Will she help others with her strange ability? We'll never know, because no sooner then did those actual story points appear, the book ended.

What the hell? If it had started there rather than ended, it could have been an interesting. Also if there was any exploration of Rose and her family member's abilities. As it was, I thought it was sloppy, poorly thought out fantasy.

I'll give this book one thing. It has an excellent cover. The cake looks so good. Every time I see it I feel hungry. I want that piece of cake.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Vanishing Game by Kate Kae Myers

2011-12-21T07:25:00.000-05:00

"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 The Vanishing Game by Kate Kae Myers.

Jocelyn's twin brother Jack was the only family she had growing up in a world of foster homes-and now he's dead, and she has nothing. Then she gets a cryptic letter from "Jason December"-the code name her brother used to use when they were children at Seale House, a terrifying foster home that they believed had dark powers. Only one other person knows about Jason December: Noah, Jocelyn's childhood crush and their only real friend among the troubled children at Seale House.

But when Jocelyn returns to Seale House and the city where she last saw Noah, she gets more than she bargained for. Turns out the house's powers weren't just a figment of a childish imagination. And someone is following Jocelyn. Is Jack still alive? And if he is, what kind of trouble is he in? The answer is revealed in a shocking twist that turns this story on its head and will send readers straight back to page 1 to read the book in a whole new light.

The Vanishing Game comes out February 14, 2012.

Dude! It's the FREAKING HOBBIT!

2011-12-21T07:11:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure if I have mentioned that I am a HUGE Lord of the Rings nerd. My dad read them to me when I was about ten and I've read them three other times since. I love the books and loved the movies, and I have been super psyched about The Hobbit movie coming out since 2009. So I have to share this with all of you, I know it's pretty hard core fantasy, but technically Tolkien intended it for children so it's still blog appropriate right?

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

2011-12-20T22:08:00.000-05:00

For thousands of years in the Range, the same million souls have been born over and over again in different bodies. Until Ana. Ana is new, and no one knows why she exists, or what happened to Ciana, the soul that was never reborn. Ana has grown up believing she has no soul at all, and is therefore incapable of human emotions, like love. Ana travels to the main city of Heart to try and discover why she was born, and finds the citizens suspicious of her very existence. Ana finds help in Sam, who struggles with his own feelings: can he love someone who might only live once?

I loved this so much. And I wasn't expecting to. It took me totally by surprise. The world that Jodi Meadows has created was absolutely fascinating. And so many different aspects of the world were explored. In this world, the same people have been born over and over again for thousands of years, and they remember their past lives. Therefore there are people in teenager and child bodies but that act like adults (but have to deal with the limitations of their bodies). You could be born to someone that in a past life was your sibling, or friend or a lover. It was just so weird and interesting to think about how it all worked.

Ana is completely overwhelmed by this. She has been kept in isolation, and for her, everything is new. She's fascinated and excited about all the new things she experiences, while Sam watches on in amusement. He hasn't really experienced anything new in thousands of years. Ana trying to process how everything worked, how everyone knew everyone else and how you could be male in one life and female in another pretty much mirrored how I was trying to process it. It's such a foreign concept it's hard to wrap your head around. A lot of thought had to be put into making this world make sense, and I really appreciate that.

I thought Ana and Sam's relationship was lovely. Sam is fascinated by Ana and does not blame her, like so many others, for Ciana disappearing. He seems attracted to her, but doesn't act on it. While Ana and Sam appear the same age, he's got thousands of years on her. At one point, Ana goes to the library and looks at pictures of Sam in past lives. She sees him old and young, male and female, in all sorts of different bodies. It's hard for her, although she realizes that no matter what he looks like, she can also pick out Sam in the picture. There relationship grows slowly, as Ana learns to trust Sam, and Sam realizes that Ana is someone he can confide his fears in.

I still have so many questions though! I'm actually glad for once to see the start of a series because I really want to see where it's going to go. By the end, we've learned some very dramatic things about Ana's origins, but it's also raised lots of other questions. I also want to know more about what's outside of the Range. Are there other people out there they just don't have any contact with? What's up with the dragons and the sylph (some kind of strange smoke like creature that kills by burning)? Why do they seem to be after the temple in the middle of Heart, that doesn't have any doors (except for sometimes)? Questions! When does the next one come out? I hope really soon.

I highly recommend this. Incarnate comes out January 31, 2012.

John Green is coming!

2011-12-14T14:58:00.001-05:00

John Green will soon begin his 2012 tour for his new book The Fault in Our Stars and guess where he's starting? AT MY SCHOOL! Squee! So exciting! And it's already sold out. It's crazy. John Green has been to my school before, just after Paper Towns came out. However, he was not a HUGE DEAL yet. Now he is a total HUGE DEAL, so much so that he can sell out fairly large venues like a rock star. Yay John Green! Something about you just makes me want to tousle your hair and tell you you're adorable.

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex

2011-12-14T14:26:00.000-05:00

Gratuity "Tip" Tucci is writing a five-paged paper on the true meaning of Smekday, the day the aliens invaded Earth. Tip has an interesting perspective, although no one else knows it. With her cat named Pig, Tip begins her journey to find her mother who was taken by the aliens and winds up teaming up with a rogue Boov named J.Lo. When Earth is reconquered by another alien race, the Gorg, who are much bigger and scarier than the Boov, Tip is determined to not only find her mother but get all these aliens off her planet for good.

I listened to this on audio book, which I'm not going to recommend. The audio book itself wasn't bad, although the voice that was being done for the aliens got kind of annoying after a while. When you listen to it, you miss out on visual elements. Tip has an old Polaroid camera she's taking pictures with through their travels, and J.Lo draws comics to explain things about his background and the Gorg. When I figured out I was missing something, I went and found the book and looked at all the pictures. You do really miss out if you don't have that piece.

The book grew on me as it went along, and in the end I wound up really liking it. I wasn't sure at first though. I think some of it was getting used to all the different voices on the audio, and part that the story kind of starts in the middle, but it completely won me over.

Tip is a pretty amazing kid. She was taking care of herself and her mother before the alien invasion, and she put all those survival instincts to good use as she tries to get to her mother. Unlike most of the population, Tip hasn't given up the idea of taking the planet back. The relationship between Tip and J.Lo emerged organically. At first, they are only together because they each need something from each other. Slowly, they begin to trust each other and work together. They learn about each other's cultures and lives and understand each other better. They become true friends, and instead of using each other they genuinely care for and protect each other.

This could have been a very dark book. I mean, the world has been taken over, everything has fallen apart, millions have probably died and now everyone has to leave their homes. Humans have no rights, families have been separated, it's really pretty awful. That wasn't the focus though. The focus was on Tip and her determination. She would find her mother, she would get rid of these aliens and none of these annoying adults who didn't know anything was going to stand in her way. With J.Lo to back her up, she was unstoppable. The big bad aliens are defeated by a 12 year-old and a whole bunch of cats when everyone else was ready to surrender. It's a pretty awesome book for a middle school kid to read.

I enjoyed the framing device that was used. At first, it was confusing, because the first time Tip tries to write her essay, she starts in the middle. We have no idea how the invasion happened or what happened to her mom. The second try at the essay gives us the background and what happened to her mom. The third part is not intended for anyone else to see, but for Tip herself to capture what really happened. It also allowed for a poignant end, with a newspaper clipping describing the time capsule with Tip's essay being dug up 100 years later, and much to Tip's annoyance, she's still alive.

Waiting on Wednesday

2011-12-14T06:06:00.001-05:00

"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 The Agency: The Traitor and the Tunnel by Y.S. Lee

Get steeped in suspense, romance, and high Victorian intrigue as Mary goes undercover at Buckingham Palace - and learns a startling secret at the Tower of London.

Queen Victoria has a little problem: there's a petty thief at work in Buckingham Palace. Charged with discretion, the Agency puts quickwitted Mary Quinn on the case, where she must pose as a domestic while fending off the attentions of a feckless Prince of Wales. But when the prince witnesses the murder of one of his friends in an opium den, the potential for scandal looms large. And Mary faces an even more unsettling possibility: the accused killer, a Chinese sailor imprisoned in the Tower of London, shares a name with her long-lost father. Meanwhile, engineer James Easton, Mary's onetime paramour, is at work shoring up the sewers beneath the palace, where an unexpected tunnel seems to be very much in use. Can Mary and James trust each other (and put their simmering feelings aside) long enough to solve the mystery and protect the Royal Family? Hoist on your waders for Mary's most personal case yet, where the stakes couldn't be higher - and she has everything to lose. (Summary from Goodreads)

This is the third books in a historical mystery series that I've really enjoyed. Can't wait to see where it goes! The Traitor and the Tunnel comes out Feb. 28, 2011.

News

2011-12-13T09:59:00.000-05:00

Ryan Gosling loves the library. And you.

SLJ's Best Books of 2011.

Did you miss it? Because I sure did. The Blogger/Publisher kerfuffle. I completely understand publishers wanting to save money by printing less books and saving on shipping when they might not get a review out of it. However, bloggers (for the most part) do not work for the publisher. It's a hobby, and we have real, full-time jobs. Sometimes we don't get to stuff, and sometimes we choose not to review something, and sometimes it takes us a long time to get around to reading something. We are not on your payroll. From the LA Times.

Neil Gaiman talks to Shaun Tan. I would listen to Neil Gaiman talk about anything. From The Guardian.

I get to use "kerfuffle" multiple times in a single post! Leila Roy of Bookshelves of Doom summarizes 2011's biggest YA lit kerfuffles. From Kirkus.

So, apparently 1 in 3 children in the UK don't own a book. That makes me sad. From BBC.

2011 Bad Sex Award. From CBC News.

Thirst (Ava Delaney #1) by Claire Farrell

2011-12-12T20:19:00.001-05:00

Ava Delaney doesn't belong, shouldn't exist. Infected at birth with vampire poison she is not entirely human, not 100% vampire. She has lived by herself for the past seven years after running away from her zealot grandmother at the age of eighteen. Fighting her growing urge to drink blood and trying to stay hidden from the local vampire clans becomes more difficult after saving a young man from a vampire. Carl becomes enslaved and he mindlessly pressures Ava to drink from him. In desperation Ava reaches out for help, and unfortunately gets Peter Brannigan. Peter hates all vampires after they killed his family, but he also happens to have a lot of underworld connections and have a general knowledge of vampire culture. As they work together to free Carl, Ava finds herself in the middle of a vampire turf war, and of course is the only one to be able to stop the stalemate.

First off I would just like to say that I had assumed this entire time, just until about twenty minutes ago when I reread the first chapter, that Ava was like eighteen. Not to be a total ditz about it, but doesn't this generally sound like something straight out of a young adult book? I'm not saying that it isn't inclusive for a young adult audience, the violence is pretty low key and it's not uber sexy, but you would think that with a twenty-five year old protagonist that it would be a bit grittier than it was. The storyline, violence, and sexuality were all pretty PG-13. Practically PG if you compare it to some other things. I guess my gripe is either amp up the gritty or make her younger...... which isn't really possible since this book is already published.

Otherwise, pretty decent. There isn't a ton of depth to the story, perhaps that might come into play more as the series progresses? The characters are solid, though not quite three-dimensional. Ms. Farrell has some very interesting elements to work with, such as Carl and Ava's relationship post-enslavement, Peter's background, Ava's employment by Daimhin, and so on and so forth.

This e-book wasn't quite novel length, more novelette, so I'm trying to give it the benefit of the doubt that it could've been more thorough if given greater length. Makes sense right? Right? It also could help that I got this for free..... just sayin'. Worth the free read, I will probably check out the sequel and then make a final decision on the series.

The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

2011-12-12T15:03:00.002-05:00

In 1888 in Russia Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, is trapped in a world of balls and marriage. Katerina wishes to be a doctor, although Russian women are not allowed in the medical schools. Katerina is also hiding a terrible secret: she can raise the dead. Katerina is careful never to tell anyone about her curse, but her secret gets out and now the rival families of the Dark and Light courts are after her power.

My knowledge of Russian history is minimal. It mostly revolves around Jewish history and not what the aristocracy was up to. But since I do know that the Russian Revolution was in 1917, whenever the tsarevitch (the heir to the throne) was mentioned I would think, "Oh Nicky, if only you knew what was coming." Most of the book was spent with Katerina going to balls. No wonder the regular Russian people revolted. I had a hard time keeping straight all the secondary characters. I did appreciate the explanation of Russian last names at the beginning of the book, which was helpful. Even so, with so many characters having the same name or similar names, and there were just so many of them, I lost track of who was who early on. I would have loved to have a family tree or something. There were just so many damn royals! And they're all related to each other.

When Katerina talked about the books other women liked with scorn, saying, "All romances ended exactly the same way: a girl realized the surly boy she had hated all along was the only person in the universe who could completely her soul. I did not believe for a minute that my soul could be completed by some surly boy," I had such high hopes for her. But nope. The surly boy that had annoyed her all along, who was constantly telling her she was evil was in fact madly in love with her and she with him. Sigh. Oh well.

So. Vampires. The Russian aristocracy is actually made up of those with fairy blood and those who are blood drinkers. At least the vampires were evil in this story. And Katerina did not fall in love with a vampire. Well, she sort of did, but only because she was under a spell, she knew he was evil. The plot was convoluted and it took us a very long time to get to the climax of the story, and many things were left up in the air. For instance, Katerina suddenly realizes that her cousin is slowly being poisoned and she must dash to her with the antidote! But then Katerina is kidnapped and forced to participate in the blood ritual of her fiancee and by the time she's made it back to St. Petersburg the fact her cousin so desperately needed an antidote has been forgotten.

The main action of the book unwound very slowly. Someone is raising the dead and forming an army. The tsar's personal guards are being killed. The vampires are rising. No one seemed to be doing much of anything though. The tsar's second son, George, the one who kept telling Katerina that she was evil and then asked her to marry him on the last couple pages of the book seemed to be in the know, so how did things progress so far into the badness?

It was fine. I thought it was a little slow and confusing, but I think people who like historical romance with a bit of an edge to it will enjoy this. I would put this on par with the Luxe series by Anna Godbersen.

Gathering Storm will be available January 10, 2012.

The Whole Story of Half a Girl by Veera Hiranandani

2011-12-08T14:31:00.001-05:00

Sonia Nadhamuni's father has just lost his job, and that means she can't go to her beloved private school with her best friend any more. For the first time, Sonia is entering public, and for the first time is dealing with questions about what color she is. Sonia struggles to figure out where she fits in, being half Indian and Jewish but not religious. As Sonia's father sinks into depression, Sonia spends more and more time out of the house and with her cool new friend Kate. Sometimes things just don't feel right to Sonia, but she not sure how to fix it.

Sonia is coming from a "hippy" school. Very integrated, very creative and free-flowing - the teachers go by their first names, there are no grades, there's lots of doing and experiencing things. When Sonia enters public school, she is unsurprisingly shocked at what she has to deal with that she never had to deal with before. No one had ever asked her if she was Black before, and it wasn't something she had ever thought about. Suddenly, Sonia is questioning who she is. Besides being half Indian, her mother is Jewish, and although the family isn't religious, Sonia has always thought of herself as half Indian and half Jewish. Now she has to really think about what that means.

Sonia gets pulled between two groups at school. The first is a popular crowd. The only girl Sonia really likes is Kate, the leader, who genuinely seems to like her too, but doesn't stand up for her when the other girls say mean things. Sonia also is friends with one of the few Black students at her school, Alisha, who likes to write. Sonia ends up pushing Alisha away in favor of spending time with Kate, who has cool parents and pretty clothes. I liked that Sonia wasn't hanging out with the popular crowd just to be popular. Kate really did seem like a nice person, and the two girls had a lot of fun together. Kate was very encouraging of Sonia when they all tried out for cheerleading together. Ultimately though, Kate wasn't a true friend. A true friend wouldn't let other "friends" treat you badly, which Sonia eventually realizes.

Sonia's father's depression was a very interesting aspect of the story. We have Sonia's coming-of-age story, and her identity struggles, but separate from that we have her struggle to understand what's happening to her father. As her father falls deeper into depression, Sonia watches her father have a hard time getting out of bed, and experiences his sudden anger and sadness. After he gets another job, Sonia assumes that everything will be back the way it was before, but then her father disappears. It story doesn't get too in-depth on the topic of depression, but I thought that it was handled very well for a middle-grade book. Depression is described as a sickness (which it is), and Sonia comes to understand that it doesn't just go away all at once. It's something that her father constantly has to work on, and that he needs help with.

The Whole Story of Half a Girl comes out January 10, 2012.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

2011-12-07T14:43:00.004-05:00

Cinder can't remember anything before the accident that caused her to become a cyborg at age 11. Five years later, an incurable plague is sweeping through all of the Eastern Commonwealth. Cyborgs are being drafted to test new antidotes for the disease, and none of them have survived. Cinder is volunteered to be a test subject by her guardian, but much to Cinder's surprise, she discovers she's immune to the disease. This realization is the first step in Cinder beginning to piece together her early life. With the plague spreading, war brewing with the powerful Lunars, and Cinder's unlikely friendship with the Crown Prince Kaito, Cinder finds that she is the missing piece to an intergalactic puzzle.

This is billed as a retelling of Cinderella, but there really isn't a whole lot of Cinderella left, which was just fine with me. It kind of has the framework of Cinderella. Cinder lives with a guardian (who is not nice) and two sisters (who are NOT ugly, and one is actually quite nice). Her father (who adopted her) is dead. Cinder has to do all the work to support the family and is not allowed to go to the ball. She falls in love with the prince, runs away from the ball (and leaves a foot behind, although there's not searching door-to-door for her due to being arrested). So yeah, it was Cinderella-y, but it wasn't just a retelling of the story, for which I was glad.
I enjoyed this and I'd like to see where the series is going to go. There is a lot going on in this story, and at times it was confusing and a little convoluted. We don't really get a whole lot of background on the world Cinder is living in. It's the future, there have been two more world wars, and after the fourth one, the world was divided it as it currently was in the story. We also have the Lunars, who live on the moon and have the power to manipulate people. There's a lot of politics and intrigue and mystery going on. Usually I get really annoyed when I don't understand what's going on in the world, but I didn't with this one. I think it's because I felt like there was a promise of much more information to come. So I went along for the ride.

Spoilers

Early on in the story, after we learn how mean and bad the current Lunar queen, Levana, is, we hear about Princess Selene, who was the direct heir to the throne but was killed in a fire at three years old (and rumors say it was set by Levana so she could be queen). The moment it was mentioned that "...conspiracy theorists thought the princess had survived and was still alive somewhere, waiting for the right time to reclaim her crown and end Levana's rule of tyranny..." I knew at once that Cinder was Selene. I mean, duh. It was fairly obvious. So there was no dramatic build-up or big reveal in that respect. However, Cinder didn't know she was a princess, or even that she was Lunar, and watching her get there was very enjoyable.

Cinder and Kaito have a funny relationship. Cinder is a mechanic, the best there is, and Kaito seeks her out when he needs his android fixed. They bump into each other again when Cinder is brought to the palace to be used to help find a cure for the plague. Kaito, whose father has just died from the plague, is stressed and confused and desperate, and he feels comfortable talking to Cinder, the only one around who doesn't seem to be part of the confusing and difficult political mess he's in. Kaito doesn't know Cinder's a cyborg, and later that she's a Lunar, and Cinder is afraid that if she tells him he'll look down on her like everyone else.

There wasn't a lot of information about why, if cyborgs are so abhorred, are they created? There are definitely a lot of questions left unanswered and I hope things will be answered as the series continues.

Cinder comes out January 3, 2012.

Waiting on Wednesday: Getting Over Garrett Delaney by Abby McDonald

2011-12-07T06:22:00.000-05:00

"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 Getting Over Garrett Delaney by Abby McDonald.

Seventeen-year-old Sadie is in love: epic, heartfelt, and utterly onesided. The object of her obsession - ahem, affection - is her best friend, Garrett Delaney, who has been oblivious to Sadie's
feelings ever since he sauntered into her life and wowed her with his passion for Proust (not to mention his deep-blue eyes). For two long, painful years, Sadie has been Garrett's constant companion, sharing his taste in everything from tragic Russian literature to art films to '80s indie rock - all to no avail. But when Garrett leaves for a summer literary retreat, Sadie is sure that the absence will make his heart grow fonder - until he calls to say he's fallen in love. With some other girl! A heartbroken Sadie realizes that she's finally had enough. It's time for total Garrett detox! Aided by a barista job, an eclectic crew of new friends (including the hunky chef, Josh), and a customized selfhelp guide, Sadie embarks on a summer of personal reinvention full of laughter, mortifying meltdowns, and a double shot of love.

Getting Over Garrett Delaney comes out January 24, 2012.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

2011-12-06T10:12:00.000-05:00

Since love had been identified as a disease, everyone has an operation on their 18th birthday. The operation cures a person of armor deliria nervosa, and then you will be safe forever. Lena is counting the days until her 18th birthday. She has been looking forward to it for years. All she wants is to be safe. But then she meets Alex. Alex isn't safe, even though he's 18. Alex is from the Wilds, where people don't have the operation. Even though Lena knows better, she wants to keep seeing Alex, and before she knows it, they've fallen in love. Lena is still counting down the days until her 18th birthday, but now it means the end of her world.

I really enjoyed Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall, which I thought was thought provoking and original. I was hoping for more of the same from Delirium. I didn't quite get it. I knew what was going to happen the moment the book started. Clearly Lena, who was so safe in her protective world, was going to fall in love with some guy and realize that All Was Not As It Seemed. Which is exactly what happened. So it was pretty predictable. But I will say the end was a little surprising. There was a bit of twist involving Lena's mother, who committed suicide when Lena was little. Lena's mother didn't respond to the operation, and supposedly love drove her mad. That was an interesting side-plot.

So this operation, I have questions. It seems like it doesn't just get rid of love, but emotions of all kinds. People who have had the operations have a glazed, kind of glassy way about them. It's like all feelings are gone. Except people can still get angry. There's plenty of adults getting angry. And adults being cruel. Super cruel. So I found that inconsistent.

One thing I did like is how Lena's preservative of herself changed. Lena has always thought of herself as average and plain. She's nothing special, she thinks. She doesn't believe that Alex would like her over her beautiful friend Hanna. As Lena and Alex fall in love, Lena begins to see herself as Alex sees her, and her confidence grows, not just in her physical appearance, but in all aspects of her life.

I think teens who enjoy dystopia romances will like this books as well. I just didn't think there was anything particularly different or exciting about it.

News

2011-12-05T09:43:00.000-05:00

Yay Cherie Priest! Boneshaker is going to be a movie! I really hope it's good!

This comic sounds awesome. I must find it.

Parents still prefer paper books for their children, even if they're e-readers themselves. From The New York Times.

Authors recall the best book they ever got for Christmas. I think some people aren't telling the truth... From USA Today.

Notable children's books of 2011. And by "children's books" they mean from picture books to YA. From The New York Times.

Neil Gaiman guest starred on The Simpsons. You can watch The Book Job on Hulu.

Brian Selznick is happy with the movie adaptation of The Adventure of Hugo Cabret. From the Chicago Sun-Times.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

2011-12-05T08:32:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I know I'm seriously behind the times. A few years ago when the entire world was reading this book, people kept asking me if I'd read it yet and what I'd thought and I'd say, "Yeah, it's on my to-read list." However, my to-read list is about a million books long, and I just wasn't that interested. It seemed to be one of those love-it-or-hate-it books. Either people said it was the most amazing thing they'd ever read, or people were totally unimpressed, didn't know what the big deal was and discussed how it was clearly written by a middle-aged man, as no one else could write a book where female characters of various age kept jumping into bed with a middle-aged man.

I finally decided to read it because of the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is coming out and I saw the preview and it looked kind of awesome. And since I feel strongly about reading the book before seeing a movie based on a book, it was, at last, time to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. So I did.

In case you've been living under a rock, or work in a field where you primary read YA literature, it is the story of Mikael Blomkvist, a respected journalist who's just been find guilty of libel, which puts a crimp in his career. Blomkvist is hired by Henrik Vanger, the head of an old and powerful Swedish family to ghost-write his autobiography, but the real reason Vanger hired Blomkvist is to solve a decades old murder of his grand-niece, Harriet, who vanished without a trace in 1963. Blomkvist joins forces with Lisbeth Salandar, a researcher with a photographic memory and authority issues.

Here's the interesting thing about this book: almost half of it was set-up. Things didn't actually start happening until more than halfway through the book. The story is so incredibly detailed that over 200 hundred pages are spent giving us all the background we need in order for the action to really start. While this was kind of annoying after a bit, I was interested and involved enough (and horrified enough) to want to see where things were going to go, so I carried on and was reward with one royally fucked up story. Whoa. Holy shit. I was so, so, so, not prepared. How is it that whenever people talked about this book no one ever said, "Oh, P.S., not for the faint of heart." Or maybe, "Involves graphic violence against women." Or even, "You may want to throw up at various points while reading this book." Something. Anything. I'd like to have been warned is all. Because holy shit. Fucked. Up. So disturbing.

So...yeah. It was certainly an engaging story. Lots of twists and turns and near escapes and horrible, horrible things happening to people. I kept reading, even when I was absolutely horrified, so well done book. I am now a lot more wary about seeing the movie. I also don't feel the need to read any of the subsequent volumes. Unless the movie's really good and then I'll have to, I guess.

In conclusion: graphic violence against women. A lot of it. Just be prepared.

The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe

2011-12-04T15:54:00.001-05:00

Kaelyn is living on an island that is part of Canada when an unknown virus suddenly appears. It starts out just seemingly like a cold - sneezing, coughing. But then it breaks down your social inhibitions. Then the hallucinating starts, and then you're dead. Kaelyn's father, a microbiologist, is working hard to find a vaccination, but things are getting bad fast. The island is quarantined, and even though they've been promised food and medicine from the government, no help seems to be coming. Is it only a matter of time until the virus takes them all?

I classified this as a dystopia, but it isn't, not really. It hasn't actually happened, so I guess it's sort of futuristic, but something like it could happen, and the world Kaelyn was in was our world today. It isn't out of the realm of possibility. It was particularly creepy reading it because everything that happened was possible. It wasn't one of the "strange disease sweeps through and then everyone turns into brain eating zombies!" It was like Outbreak. A previously unknown virus shows up somewhere and people start dying. It moves very fast and there isn't a whole lot of time to find a solution for it.

The book is framed as Kaelyn writing in her journal. She writes in her journal like she's writing to her friend, Leo, who she had a falling out with and hasn't spoken to in two years. Leo is now in school in New York, and Kaelyn is determined to renew their friendship when he comes home for Thanksgiving. She doesn't have the chance, because long before Thanksgiving the island is quarantined. This allowed for the story to take on a very personal and confessional tone. We get all of Kaelyn's fear and anxiety. She hates having to stay home with nothing to do, hates feeling helpless and scared all the time. She wishes she was a different kind of person, who was braver and could help more.

At first, Kaelyn believes that her father will work everything out, and that the government will take care of the people on the island as promised. As people become more and more scared, life on the island quickly deteriorates. When there's a riot at the pier over food, the soldiers pull out and don't come back. Food and medicine is dropped in, but it's taken by gangs that have formed.

Kaelyn teams up with a boy from her school she never really talk to before, who has organized for food to be brought to people's homes. Kaelyn is impressed with Gav, and their relationship grows the more time they spend together. Of course, it's difficult to start a relationship when you constantly have to worry about the possibility of the other person dying.

There's a lot of sadness in this book, and a lot of death. Kaelyn loses a number of people close to her. After a certain point, as people keep dying, it becomes hard for her to process all the lose. She does the small things she can, and tries not to give up hope.

It definitely reminded me a lot of Life As We Knew It. It even ended in a similar way, with a little bit of hope, but things still being pretty awful. I thought it was a bit slow to start, but I really got into it. If you're prepared for a story that's quite the downer, I would certainly recommended this.

The Way We Fall comes out January 24, 2012.

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

2011-11-30T15:26:00.000-05:00

Meghan Chase has grown up unnoticed by the people around her. She always seemed to blend in and fade away. Even her stepfather seems to have a hard time remembering she's there. There's a reason. Meghan learns that she's half faery after her little brother disappears and is replaced with a Changeling. Meghan must journey into the Nevernever to get him back, and discovers it's really her that everyone is after.

I enjoyed this, although I thought it kind of went on longer than it had to. I assume it was so we could be introduced to all the different realms of the faery world, but some of the travel between the worlds felt unnecessary.

I liked that there was so much traditional faery lore that went into the writing of this book. Meghan's only friend in the human world was a boy named Robbie Goodfell, who turns out to be Puck (if you remember your Midsummer Night's Dream you'll recall that Puck's real name is Robin Goodfellow). Puck is of course part of Oberon and Titania's court, which is the Summer Court . There is also the Winter Court, which was Tir Na Nog. That was kind of weird choice, as there's nothing about Tir Na Nog being in endless winter in the Niamh and Ossian story, I don't think. Anyway, I liked the mixing of all different kind of faery mythology.

Of course there was a budding romance, between Meghan and the Winter prince, Ash. I'm not exactly sure why they're in to each other, it was one of those love-hate relationships. Ash also kept making remarks that he would have no problem killing her. Maybe he's just trying to cover up his feelings, which are all in turmoil.

Toward the end of the story, Meghan is beginning to realize that she has the potential to become very powerful, which is why everyone seems to be after her. While I don't know if I'm going to read the rest of the series, and I can definitely see why these books are popular.

I have a question though. At one point in the story, Meghan makes a deal that in exchange for information she'll give someone her happiest memory. After it's taken, she has no memory of her father. Why wouldn't she have any idea that she had a father if only a single memory was taken? Her father was in her life until she was six, she certainly would have had plenty of memories of him.

Sandra and Woo: a Webcomic by Powree and Oliver Knorzer

2011-11-30T12:01:00.001-05:00

Sandra is a twelve year old with a pet raccoon named Woo. He happens to have the ability to speak to her and they must make sure that this remains a secret from her father, friends, and the world. While the must work together to make sure that their friendship remains a secret, they must also face their separate lives in the wild and school and their relationships with animals, boys, and friends.

This webcomic is ridiculously cute and hilarious. I'm not sure if you understand how much I liked it. Sandra is a quirky kid who not only has a talking raccoon but also a fixation on and a love of video games and fantasy. She dates a boy named Cloud, named after a Final Fantasy character, who learns sword fighting and is generally a stereotypical nice guy. Her best friend Larissa is a pretty pyromaniac with a penchant for manipulation. These three are all quirky, funny, and endearing. Hipsters in training.

Woo is full of hijinks.... which sounds corny but is really the only way I can think of describing him. Adorable, sarcastic, and hungry for anything, Woo must balance the fact that he is a pet with his feral nature.

I read through this in essentially one night and have been checking back in with it regularly. I strongly recommend it. I think you'll all like it too. The art is clean and suits the storyline perfectly, the characters and secondary characters are all memorable and engaging, and the storyline is super engaging.

Sandra and Woo updates Mondays and Thursdays.

Waiting on Wednesday

2011-11-30T06:03:00.001-05:00

"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 The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa.

You will kill. The only question is when.

In the dark days since the insidious Red Lung virus decimated the human population, vampires have risen to rule the crumbling cities and suburbs. Uncontested Princes hold sway over diminished ranks of humans: their "pets." In exchange for their labor, loyalty and of course, their blood, these pets are registered, given food and shelter, permitted to survive.

Unregistered humans cling to fringes, scavenging for survival. Allison Sekemoto and her fellow Unregistereds are hunted, not only by vampires, but by rabids, the unholy result of Red Lung-infected vampires feeding on unwary humans. One night, Allie is attacked by a pack of rabids, saved by an unlikely hero...and turned vampire.

Uncomfortable in her undead skin, Allie falls in with a ragtag crew of humans seeking a cure, or cures: for Rabidism and for Vampirism. She's passing for human...for now. But the hunger is growing and will not be denied. Not for friendship—not even for love. (Summary by Goodreads)

I like Julie Kagawa a lot, she writes a solid story without fluff. It seems to always be a rather straight forward plot line that's all about the characters, and she writes it brilliantly. The Immortal Rules comes out April 24, 2012.

N.E.R.D.S.: National Espionage and Rescue Defense Society by Michael Buckley

2011-11-28T19:50:00.001-05:00

Jackson is on his way to being the most popular boy at Nathan Hale Elementary. Charming, athletic, and good looking, Jackson Jones has it made. So what if he likes to pick on the weirdos and nerds that don't fit in? Jackson is doing the world a service by keeping them in their place. That is until he discovers that he must get the motherload of braces. In a flash he is at the bottom of the barrel and he must find new pursuits, like observing (otherwise known as spying) his ex-friends, teachers, and peers and discovering all their secrets. The only ones that seem to elude him are five losers that are always getting out of class. By pure chance Jackson hides in a locker that he sees them sneak into and finds himself in a secret lair. After finding himself and his braces upgraded he discovers that these five geeks routinely save the world and have spectacular nano-technology abilities to help them:

Mathilda Choi's asthma inhalers give her the abilities to fly and throw fire. She has exceptional fighting abilities and can use anything as a weapon. Heathcliff Hodges has huge buckteeth and can hypnotize anyone with them. Duncan Dewey loves to eat glue and can secrete a sticky substance from his pores allowing him to climb the walls and stick to anything. Julio Escala is ADD and harnesses his hyperactivity for super strength and speed. Ruby Peet is the team leader and is allergic to everything, including negative emotions and lying. They are not only united in saving the earth, nerdiness, and special abilities, but also their hatred of Jackson Jones. As everything seems to falling apart for the N.E.R.D.S. - with a new administrator and a douche bag new agent - they are put onto a new important case saving scientists and keeping Dr. Jigsaw from rearranging the continents. Will the agents be able to pull together and reevaluate their perspectives of each other and how they work to save the world?I listened to this in my car going to to and from work.

You can either read the rest of this review to discover why I didn't like this or you can stop here with the knowledge that I didn't like this. It doesn't really deserve a longer review, but I will go into detail because as a Wandering Librarian that's what I do.
I would like to say that I do think that this is a rather intriguing plot: popular boy sees the other side of the cultural spectrum, nerds saving the world, spy vs. spy, spunky teen assassin. It should all come together with some action, witty repartee, and riffs off of spy tropes. Fun! I am just looking for some fun and things blowing up.

Unfortunately what I got was an only adequate narrator, an agonizingly slow plot, and a main character that had my yelling at my stereo asking why he was such an unbelievable ass. I truly did not find anything redeemable about Jackson. I kept thinking that he got what he deserved by being left by his friends and beat up by the agents. What a jackass. The secondary characters were too weak to take up the slack, they were either one-dimensional caricatures or ridiculously unlikable. ALL OF THEM.

I got fed up with the whole thing, about a third of the way through I just gave up and found the book and read the last two pages hoping against hope that I would be intrigued and go back and listen to the whole thing. Nope. No dice. The whole thing is bullshit, and I couldn't help thinking that I had wasted several hours of my life. It's all so unlikable! BLARGH! Don't read it, don't read the rest of the series, and I'm going to go as far as to say that you shouldn't read his other series The Sisters Grimm.

Saving June by Hannah Harrington

2011-11-25T13:21:00.002-05:00

Harper's sister June killed herself two weeks before graduation. Her family is stunned. June always seemed like the perfect daughter, unlike Harper, who's always been at odds with her family. Now Harper's mother and father, who are divorced, want to split up June's ashes. Harper decides to take the ashes to California, where June always dreamed of going. Harper heads out on her road trip with her best friend Laney and Jake, a boy whose relationship to June is unclear.

Meh. That's how I feel about this book. Complete meh. Maybe because I'd just read a book about a girl working through the death of a loved one and it was very well done. Maybe because I'm a little tired of reading about sisters dying, usually from suicide. Maybe because this particular story was kind of clunky. Or perhaps, as far as stories about a road trip to bring a loved one's ashes to a promised place, A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend would totally be my pick.

I didn't connect with this story at all. I didn't feel anything about any of the characters. Harper's family was fairly horrible to her, which I know was the point. Everyone was still treating Harper as the outcast and June as the perfect one, despite the fact June was the one who'd killed herself. Despite this, I just didn't find myself caring very much about Harper. Also, I thought it was kind of awful that Harper spread June's ashes somewhere without her parents. Yeah, her parents were jerks, but June was there kid.

Jake was kind of a dick, but we were suppose to see him as deep because he listened to 70s rock. Harper and Jake had a love-hate relationship I found really annoying. Laney was a fairly flat character who randomly gets pregnant toward the end. I have no idea why. It didn't add anything to the story. Don't worry, she has a miscarriage so she doesn't have to decided what to do. And it totally annoyed me that none of the characters could even bring themselves to say the word "abortion."

The road trip was long and disjointed. There were numerous stops along the way, and I wasn't sure what the point was. Most of them didn't really help build the characters in any way. Rather, we got new characters thrown at us that then never showed up again.

I didn't really feel like any of the characters got any kind of closure or where working toward moving forward by the end. So yeah. Meh. For whatever reason, I just didn't connect with it. I think there are plenty of YA books that are very similar that explore the issues and emotions considerably better.

Saving June comes out November 29.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

2011-11-23T09:40:00.000-05:00

"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 The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

Diagnosed with Stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumors in her lungs... for now.

Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumors tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.

Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind

The Fault in Our Stars will be available January 10, 2012.

Sign Language by Amy Ackley

2011-11-22T09:54:00.000-05:00

Abby's father is dying of cancer. Abby deals with this mostly by pretending that it isn't happening, until her father really dies. Now Abby has to figure out how to get through her days, with little help from her mother who has fallen apart. Abby knows her friend Spence will always be there to support her, but Abby finds she's pushing everyone away who tries to help.

The book is split into two parts, "Before and During" and "After." The book spans about three years; the year Abby's father is dying, the year after his death, and the year after that. It was interesting that the book covered such a span of time. In most of the YA I've read where a character dying is the main focus of the book, it either focuses on the process of dying, or the immediate aftermath. This looked at the entire process, from the original diagnosis, to the first year, to the year after.

I thought this was an unusually realistic portrayal of the loss of a loved one. No one was being a saint. There was no wise, dying prophet character. People are angry and hurt and sad and completely fall apart. This perhaps doesn't make as good a story. I think some readers would get tired of reading about Abby's day-to-day struggle that spans years. It certainly showed real people though, and that real people don't always deal well with what life gives them.

Abby deals with her father's diagnosis originally by ignoring it. "Cancer" isn't mentioned for a very long time. Abby is still in middle school when her father first gets sick, and it wasn't clear if she was just too young to understand what was happening, or if she was deliberately pushing it aside. It turned out that it was some of both.

As her father deteriorates, Abby struggles with how to act. She's becoming a teenager, a difficult enough transition as it is, and she also needs to figure out how to interact with her mother and father. She wants to help, but she doesn't know how. She's angry with her mother all the time, and although she doesn't want to admit it, she's angry with her father too. Throughout it all, she has her friend Spence, who is her support, and who clearly likes her but that's another thing Abby either doesn't see or chooses to ignore.

After the death of her father, Abby's mother falls apart, and it takes her a long time to put herself back together. Abby, again, feels disconnected from everyone. She isn't able to cry or tell anyone how she's feeling. She pretty much cuts herself off from all feeling, and her mother isn't able to see of help her. Again, Spence is her support, but Abby pushes him away.

Abby and her family go through all the stages of grief, but not at the same rate. Abby's mother tries to move forward before Abby is ready to. When Abby's mother decides to sell the house, Abby is furious. She feels like her mother is taking everything away from her. I found myself sympathizing with Abby and feeling annoyed at her mother, although I know her mother's reactions to the situation made sense as well. Abby's mother was feeling just as overwhelmed as her children, and for some time, she wasn't really able to help them. Again, this was plenty realistic but as a reader who was privy to Abby's inner thoughts, I wished her mom could have helped her more, even though Abby was pushing her away.

I think this is an excellent book for someone who is going through or experiencing loosing someone they care about, for both middle grade and YA readers.

Breaking Dawn, part 1

2011-11-21T09:07:00.014-05:00

Gather 'round children, for I have a tale to tell.

Once upon a time, there was a love like no other love that had ever been loved before. Ever. Alas, problems arose, for the boy, aside from looking like he was in constant pain, was an unchanging, undying vampire with mind-reading abilities. The girl didn’t care, for she loved him so, and also had a tendency to crash in to things and needed someone to help her up. Thus, the two decided to marry, after working out a deal that first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes sex, then comes vampifying, in that order. So they shook hands to seal it and then the movie started.

Young Jacob Black, of the turning-in-to-wolves Blacks, is upset with his wedding invite, and therefore does what he always does when he’s angry – takes off his shirt. Within the first ten seconds of the movie. Jacob shrugs and says, “Things are going to get pretty boring pretty quickly, so let’s start things off right.” He then turns into a wolf and runs away. Poor Bella’s father, Billy Burke, who everyone loves, looks very sad and makes everyone want to snuggle him until he feels better, and Bella’s mom is still a flake.

Bella herself is preoccupied with learning how to walk in high heels, because she isn’t awkward enough as she is. Alice and her soccer mom haircut have no sympathy, but become distracted by the boys who are carrying trees about. Bella takes a moment to admire her vampire betroth, who is looking healthier than he ever has before. “How thoughtful,” Bella thinks, “For Edward to not look like he has a wasting disease for the wedding.”

Bella returns to her childhood home to where she finishes packing her room, all alone. BUT NOT FOR LONG, because Edward wanted to sneak into her bedroom one last time, because after tomorrow, he won’t have a reason to sneak in unless they’re role-playing. Emmett and Jasper, whose hair is still an atrocity against all, living or dead, show up to escort Edward to his bachelor party, which does not involve naked ladies, but rather large animals but hey, whatever floats your boat.

Ah, the wedding! A day of joy and nervous anticipation! Or, if you’re Bella, a day of horror like no other horror that has ever been experienced before. As she walks down the aisle, assorted by her father, they both look as though they were headed to the guillotine. But then! Bella catches site of her Edward, and she goes from pure horror to mere nausea. That’s the power of love, children, that’s the power of love. Bella’s school “friends” (friends is in quotations because we know that Bella doesn’t actually have friends, as she doesn’t need them as she has her vampire beau) make snide comments about how Bella clearly must be knocked up, as no one gets married at 18.

Thank God, the wedding is over and now we can all party down. And make delightful, awkward toasts that probably were the most amusing part of this story. Jacob Black, of the can’t-keep-his-shirt-on Blacks, who has not come to the wedding, shows up to say goodbye to Bella and becomes full of RIGHTEOUS ANGER when he realizes Bella and Edward are going to try having sex while she’s still human. Jacob Black, of the poking-his-nose-in-to-other-people’s-business Blacks is all, “He’ll kill you!” And Bella is all, “Whys you got to ruin everything for me?” And Jacob does what he always does when he gets angry: takes his shirt off.

And so our heroes depart for their honeymoon, to the private Island (the Cullens own a private island) of Esmee to attempt to do what Bella has wanted to do since her eyes first met Edwards from across the cafeteria: sex it up. But lo! Now that the moment has come, Bella is all sorts of nervous! She stalls by doing human things like brushing her teeth and shaving her legs, even though we all know that there’s no way that Alice didn’t make Bella shave her legs before the wedding. As ready as she’ll ever be, Bella goes skinny-dipping with her now vampire husband and they end back on their big fluffy white bed for the most over-hyped sex scene ever. Ever. The bed breaks and we faded to black. Stupid fade to black.

Bella awakes in an awesome mood, covered in feathers, only to have Edward harsh her buzz because she's covered with bruises. Edward, darling, are you new or something? Bella does not care about her physical well-being, she wants to get it on with you some more and would you please stop making her play chess because this is the most BORING MONTAGE SEQUENCE EVER.

Two weeks later, Edward inquires, “Sweetie, are you gaining weight?” “What? What are you talking about,” Bella snaps, and just then the demon baby gives her a karate punch from the womb! “Holy crap!” cries Bella. “Hmmm,” muses Edward, “this doesn’t make any sense.” “Which part? The part where you somehow got me pregnant even though you’re an unchanging vampire or the part where...” “Less talking, more action taking!” Edward yells, covering his ears with his hands so as to not listen to the fact that the whole world that has been created around him no longer makes any sense. But Bella turns on “Papa Don’t Preach” and Edward knows he’s in trouble.

So our heroes return to the Cullen’s house where Bella sits on the couch for the next 45 minutes of the movie as her demon spawn sucks the life out of her. It’s super boring. Super, super boring. Oh, they try to distract us from the fact that nothing is happening with the totally not necessary side plot with the wolves, which involves a scene that will no doubt be nominated for an Academy Award, due to its intensity. So, so intense. And echoy. It was very echoy. That’s how we know that the wolves were talking inside each other's heads, you see. Anyway, Jacob Black, of the you-don’t-get-to-tell-me-what-to-do-I’m-grandson-of-a-chief Blacks, breaks with his wolf pack because they want to kill Bella thereby killing her demon spawn. And while Jacob is all sorts of pissed at Bella, he still doesn’t want to kill her, preferring instead to wait until the demon spawn in born, and then just kill it. Oh Jacob, you are in for quite the surprise.

So we return to the Cullen’s, where Bella continues to sit on the couch and look skinnier and skinnier and the viewing audience becomes more and more bored. Edward passes the time by Googling, oh, I'm sorry, Yahoo searching, “demon baby” and getting in some product placement for Apple, and we figure out that the demon spawn wants blood. Blooooood! And that Edward can hear the demon spawn’s thoughts and they all become a happy family. Jacob Black, of the has-everyone-gone-batshit-crazy Blacks, is not amused. Baby names are discussed, everyone hates Renesmee but no one has the heart to say so (except that bitch Rosalie) because Bella looks like such crap. Then the demon spawn breaks Bella’s spine.

Blood! Lots of blood! Blood everywhere! For Carlisle happens to be out at the grocery store so Edward and Rosalie have to bite the demon spawn out! Blood! Lots of blood! Oh, hello demon spawn. Hey, Edward, you might want to spend less time smiling at your bouncing baby demon spawn and more time vampifying your wife, who’s dying. And so Edward injects his venom into Bella’s heart and then bites her a whole bunch, but alas! It might be too late (we’re not fooled though, we’ve all read the book, also there’s another whole half to this movie), and Jacob Black of the no-one-ever-listens-to-me Blacks, decides to kill the baby who killed Bella but he cannot! He cannot for he looks into the tiny demon spawn eyes of the tiny demon spawn and imprints on her. Ew. But that’s that. Because now the wolves can’t kill Renesmee, even though it might have been kinder as all the kids are going to make fun of her name at school, because they cannot attack someone one of their own imprints on. It’s their highest law, which Edward so kindly informs us.

Bella, meanwhile, is vampifying, which we can tell as the circles disappeared from under her eyes and her hair becomes all glossy and we get to see shots of blood cells rushing through her body turning all silvery or something. And then she opens her eyes! And they’re red! OMG! Does that leave us on the edge of our seats for the next one (which apparently doesn’t come out for a whole year, which seems dumb)?

Sure doesn’t, because this movie was SUPER SUPER BORING. SO BORING! OMG IT COULD HAVE BEEN 20 MINUTES LONG. SO UNNECESSARY TO BREAK IT INTO TWO MOVIES.

The end.

Breaking Dawn: It's finally here!

2011-11-18T22:21:00.001-05:00

It's that time once again, when all anyone can talk about is Twilight. Breaking Dawn: Part One (sweet Moses we have to watch a part two, oi) is finally out. Of course the four of us are going to see it, we've come this far we have to see it out to the bitter end. We're starting early this year, so expect some sort of review sometime tomorrow early evening.

Who knows what to expect? For our friend Christina's sake I hope that it is the best thing ever. For my own sake I hope it's awesomely bad so I can giggle throughout. Regardless, you'll hear about it tomorrow.

*UPDATE*
I am going to be honest and say that I can't do the movie review justice. So I'm going to make Arianna do it tomorrow. I will let you know that we thought the make up and acting has gotten better, but that doesn't mean that the movie is good. Jacob's chest is exposed within 15 seconds of the movie starting. The sex scene was built up for nothing.

Let me preface Ari's post with a little background information: in the past we've gone to the movie at night and out for drinks afterward. this was fine except we were all so tired that we didn't spend a ton of time together after the movie - something that we lamented the past three times we've gone. Not this time though, this time we had a plan. A plan that involved drinks.

We decided to meet before and have brunch, because if we were going to this movie we were going to be a little tipsy when we went. We went, had our meals, had our drinks and went to the theater. Arianna had brought us alcoholic candies to eat during the movie and we were planning to go out for drinks afterward. I would just like to state that we should have drank more prior to going to the movie...

Switched by Amanda Hocking

2011-11-18T13:08:00.001-05:00

When Wendy was six, her mother tried to kill her. She was convinced that Wendy wasn't really her child. Wendy is now 17, and her mother has been in a mental institution for 11 years, and it turns out she was right. Wendy isn't her child. She's a changeling, and now she's expected to leave her brother and aunt and return to her "true" home. Finn, the handsome tracker who found her, promises that Wendy will finally feel like she belongs and will learn more about her gift of Persuasion. But things quickly become more complicated then Wendy could ever imagine.

So Wendy is a changeling. I associate changeling with fairies, which, essentially, what the Trylle are. Even though they're trolls. Yes, trolls. A troll in this world seems to be a magical creature with close ties to the Earth. OK, fine, whatever, but it felt like "troll" was what the author went with because that hasn't been done yet. There have been way too books where a girl realizes she's really from the fairy world, but no one has done trolls! Even if a troll is pretty much being defined as a fairy. Fine. They're "trolls."

Wendy doesn't actually want to leave her brother, Matt and her aunt, Maggie. They've taken care of her since her mother tried to kill her, and her Matt actually saved Wendy from her mother when she was six. Matt is very protective of Wendy, and they clearly love each other and care about each other very much. Finn, who is the tracker who has come to take Wendy home (and, of course becomes the love interest), is astonished that she doesn't want to leave. That seems weird. None of the other changeling children bonded with the people who raised them? None of their families try to find them? Wendy only agrees to go with Finn when she's attacked by a rival clan and I guess doesn't want to put her family in danger? I'm going to hope that's why, it lets me feel better. To her credit, Wendy often thinks about and misses Matt and worries about how she knows he's worrying about her.

Tyrell is not all it's cracked up to be. Wendy discovers that she's actually a princess, and she has about two weeks to learn everything there is to know about Trylle and princessing in time for her big debut party. I proceeded to be exceptionally annoyed on Wendy's behalf, and annoyed at Wendy for not standing up for herself better. Everyone keeps snapping at her for not doing this or that or not acting a particular way or for talking to someone she shouldn't, but NO ONE WILL GIVE HER ANY INFORMATION ABOUT ANYTHING. Damn, you trolls are super unreasonable. People kept saying things like, "You're not supposed to fraternize with the mansklig. It's bad." Then Wendy would ask, "Why? And what's a mansklig?" And then no one would tell her until the next time she was hanging with the mansklig and people would yell at her again.

So that goes on for a while. The most interesting characters was definitely Tove, the son of one of the noble Trylle. He is unusually powerful, sensing other people's emotions and has telekinetic abilities. He explains to Wendy that all the Trylle used to be powerful, but they're losing their powers and are only focused on getting money, which they do by swapping their babies into wealthy families. The babies grow up, get trust funds and then return to the Trylle community to support it with the money they inherited. Great system. No wonder things are falling apart. Tove is frustrated with this and wants things to change. Wendy thinks he would be way better and leading people then she would. I have to agree.

The big question is of course, "So, what happens to the human babies whose place gets taken by the changelings?" Well, I won't spoil everything for you. You can read the series and find out.

Your kids who have been reading about angels and faeries and whatever will probably like this one too.

Switched come out January 24. Torn, the second in the series will be out February 28, and the third book, Ascend will be available April 24. I don't know if there will be more than that.

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler art by Maira Kalman

2011-11-17T14:43:00.000-05:00

Min Green and Ed Slaterton broke up. Now Min is returning to Ed a box filled with things she collected over the course of their two months together. And she's writing him a letter explaining exactly why they broke up.

Before I started this, I thought it was an adult book, because the concept just seemed like it was. I was totally taken aback when I realized the characters were in high school. But it turned out I was right. It is an adult book, even though it revolves around teenage characters. I think some teenagers would still like it, but definitely the appeal is going to be with an older, more mature, perhaps more jaded and cynical crowd. Not that I think this book was jaded and cynical. It totally wasn't at all. What I mean is this is a portrayal of a real relationship. No supernatural love-bond kind of thing. And the relationship ends, as relationships often do. That's all I mean.

Min and her friends are film nerds. Not movie nerds, film nerds. Old films, films you've never heard off. As Min writes her letter to Ed (her 354 page letter to Ed), everything gets compared to some film she and her friends have seen, but that Ed certainly hasn't. I wasn't sure if they were real movies or not, as I know nothing about films, but it doesn't seem like they are. I tried looking a few of them up. They all have awesome titles, however, I wish they were real. This is a very important aspect of Min. Throughout the book, Ed and Ed's friend try to say what's "different" about Min. They usually come up with "arty," which isn't really accurate, but there's no denying she's "different" then the girls Ed usually dates. Ed is the co-captain of the basketball team. He's popular and has had a lot of girlfriends and his girlfriends have all been popular girls. Min is not part of that crowd, and she doesn't fit in with them really well. They all think she's a little weird.

Each chapter starts with an illustration of something that is in the box. The ARC I had didn't have a lot of the pictures, but full color illustrations are promised. I'm looking forward to getting to see all the pictures.

The stories that Min tells about each item take us through Min and Ed's whole relationship, from when they met at Min's friend Al's Bitter Sixteen party all the way through to the end. From the very beginning, when they feel a connection when they meet. To the first date, where they're both really nervous. To the first kiss, which is amazing and wonderful and this boy is like no other anywhere in the world. To doing things she swore she'd never do, like ditching friends to spend time with her boyfriend (you know you do it) to watching said boyfriend practice basketball. To having him meet her friends and it going horribly, to cutting off friends because they don't understand what's so great about him. To seeing little things she doesn't like, but it doesn't matter because they love each other. To finding out that maybe her boyfriend tells his friends things that he shouldn't, but forgiving because they love each other and he's good to her. To finally the very end, and she's hurt and sad and angry and dammit, why didn't she listen to your friends?

Sound familiar?

Min's voice is very stream of consciousness. Her sentences run together as she remembers and wonders and works out what happened. The character's voices all sound very similar, but I wasn't bothered by this as it was all being filtered through Min's head. Also, the characters didn't sound very much like teenagers. I know this is supposed to be Min, at 16, writing this and giving stuff back to Ed, but despite that, I felt like it was Min looking back on something that had happened a while ago with a maturity she didn't have then. It just had that feel about it, a mature reflection. And maybe that's a fault of the book, that it didn't actually sound like a teenager, but again, I don't think it was written for a teenager. I was OK with Mind's voice being that way.

In case you can't tell, I enjoyed this very much. I was expecting too, as it' s Daniel Handler, although I haven't read any of his other adult work and didn't really know what to expect. At first, I wasn't sure if I liked it, but it won me over. So I definitely recommend for you, and possible your older students too.

Why We Broke Up will be available December 27.

News

2011-11-17T11:37:00.000-05:00

Well. This is depressing. Yes, there are Black people in your Hunger Games. From Racialicious.

Best children's books of 2011. From PW.

Anne Ursu, author of Breadcrumbs, on happily ever after (or not). From Cynsations.

I'm sure you've wondered what would be on Nancy Drew's ipod if she'd had one. Flavorwire has filled us in.

Awww, Besty-Tacy is getting a reprint. From The New York Times.

If you're wondering what happened to the Occupy Wall Street People's Library (which I was) after Zuccotti Park was cleared, it's not looking good.

If you've been waiting for Pottermore, you'll probably have to wait a while longer. From USA Today.

Flyaway by Helen Landaf

2011-11-16T15:25:00.000-05:00

Stevie's only 15, but she's has been looking after her mom for a long time. Sure, sometimes her mom disappears for days at a time, but Stevie knows how much her mother loves her. Then Stevie's aunt Mindy gets involved, and Stevie's mom ends up in rehab for meth addicts and Stevie has to live with Aunt Mindy. Stevie hates it, especially with Mindy after her all the time to study and tell her where she's going. All Stevie wants is for her mom to come back so they can live together again. Stevie begins working at a bird rehabilitation center, where she meets Alan, a troubled boy who used to go to her high school. Stevie has a lot going on in her life, but the hardest is learning the truth about her mother.

This was a bittersweet sort of story. Stevie loves her mom very much despite the fact her mom has done little to deserve her daughter's love. Stevie is constantly left alone, skipping school to wait by the telephone either for her mother to call or to answer in case a call comes for her mother. Stevie's mother has big dreams that involve selling her own jewelry and buying a house, but nothing she does gets her, or her child, any closer to these goals.

Stevie is stubbornly faithful to her mother. She hates Mindy, mostly because her mother doesn't get along with Mindy. She calls her, "Miss Perfect." Mindy has worked hard and has a stable life, and Stevie and her mother scoff at this. When Stevie has to go live with Mindy, she's angry, blaming Mindy for taking her mother away. Mindy also critiques Stevie's mom constantly, trying to get Stevie to see the kind of mother she really is, which goes as well as you'd expect.

Stevie's mom is skilled in manipulation and making Stevie constantly feel like she's in the wrong. If she disagrees with her mother, she's made to feel like she doesn't love her. Her mother leaves rehab early and Stevie moves back in with her. At first, things seem better, but then the old pattern starts again: staying away for days, collapsing when she comes home. Stevie knows the signs now, and knows that her mother is using again. She realizes she has to make a very difficult decision.

She's helped by not only her aunt, but also her tutor Rick, who helps her see how smart she is. He also tells her that if she doesn't respect herself, no one else will either.

What's happening in Stevie's life is being mirrored in the summer job she gets working with injured birds. A boy who used to go to her school, Alan also works there as well. Alan has a reputation as a bully, but at times he seems kind and understanding. Stevie is heartbroken when one of the birds she rescues can't be saved. She accuses Valerie, the woman who runs the clinic, of giving up. Valerie explains that not everything can be saved, no matter how hard we try or how much we want it. On the other hand, sometimes people can be saved with love, patience and caring, which is shown through Alan, who did some bad things but isn't irredeemable because of them. Stevie needs to figure out if her mother can be saved, and what she wants to do with the rest of her life.

This is a pretty serious topic, but I think it was well written for middle grade readers. It captured well Stevie's conflicting emotions of unconditional love for her mother, and beginning to realize that her mother has not been a good parent to her. Stevie realizes she can want more for herself, like going to college, and that it's not a bad thing to want that. I can see it helping someone who doesn't have a stable home life, as well as being a thoughtful read for those who do.

Flyaway comes out December 19.

Waiting on Wednesday: Irises by Francisco X. Stork

2011-11-16T08:24:00.001-05:00

"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 Irises by Francisco X. Stork.

Two sisters discover what's truly worth living for in the new novel by the author of MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD.

TWO SISTERS: Kate is bound for Stanford and an M.D. -- if her family will let her go. Mary wants only to stay home and paint. When their loving but repressive father dies, they must figure out how to support themselves and their mother, who is in a permanent vegetative state, and how to get along in all their uneasy sisterhood.

THREE YOUNG MEN: Then three men sway their lives: Kate's boyfriend Simon offers to marry her, providing much-needed stability. Mary is drawn to Marcos, though she fears his violent past. And Andy tempts Kate with more than romance, recognizing her ambition because it matches his own.

ONE AGONIZING CHOICE: Kate and Mary each find new possibilities and darknesses in their sudden freedom. But it's Mama's life that might divide them for good -- the question of *if* she lives, and what's worth living for.

Irises will be available January 1.

Hunger Games Trailer

2011-11-14T17:43:00.001-05:00

Not going to lie, I'm torn about this. Jennifer Lawrence seems like she'll rock it out, but the rest..... eh. Am I being too cynical? Has Twilight ruined me forever and made me pessimistic for all book adapted movies? Or am I just being realistic?Regardless this looks visually stunning, and obviously I'm going to see it regardless of what the critics say. What do you think?

My Boyfriend is a Monster: I Love Him to Pieces

2011-11-13T21:10:00.001-05:00

Dicey, the only girl on the high school baseball team and Jack Chen a D&D playing science genius, end up partners for the classic health class egg baby project. Just as Dicey and Jack Chen are seeing the blossoming of their relationship despite their different interests, a virus sweeps through the town turning people into mindless zombies! Dicey and Jack Chen are on the run for safety, and when Jack Chen is bitten, they are rapidly running out of time.

Adorable. Totally. Loved it. Dicey is pretty fabulous. She's an amazing baseball player and takes it very seriously. She likes Jack Chen from the start, but she isn't about to fall all over herself to get his attention. It doesn't occur to Jack Chen (who is always referred to by his first and last name) that someone like Dicey could ever be interested in him, and it takes him a while to figure out that she likes him and that he also likes her.

Their relationship is really cute. Despite their different interests, they get along really well and have a lot of fun working on the project together. By the way, did your school make you pair up for the egg baby project? And did you do it in high school? Eggs babies were definitely a middle school project for me (got to teach the children when they're young) and we weren't paired up with anyone. We were all single parents. Anyway, Dicey and Jack Chen take an interest in what they other one likes to do, but of course, isn't it always the way, right when things get going disaster strikes!

Now, luckily for Jack Chen, both his parents are scientists who were working on finding a cure for this disease, which was not suppose to jump to the town so quickly. So when Jack Chen is bitten, Dicey knows she has to get him to his parents before he succumbs to it. At one point, Jack Chen tries to take off without her so she won't be in danger, but Dicey is having none of that and tracks him down and sets him straight.

It seemed like the whole town got zombified pretty fast, but everyone seemed pretty up beat at the end, so maybe it wasn't as bad as it looks. I will definitely read the following volumes.

The story is told through black and white drawings and is done with a fairly traditional comic book format of panels.

Hourglass by Myra McEntire

2011-11-13T19:32:00.005-05:00

Emerson Cole has a little issue, one that no one thus far has been able to help her with. Her brother and sister in law want to help her and gone through dozens of 'experts' that say they will cure Emerson of her problem. Emerson sees visions of dead people, or at least that's what she thinks they are. They're people from different eras that have a tendency to pop up at inopportune times and pop out when Em touches them. When Emerson is booted from her private school because her scholarship runs out, she must move in with her brother and try to readjust to life at home. This time her brother has another guru set up to fix Emerson. A young man, Michael, who says that he understands what she deals with because he has the same ability. As he helps her come to terms and understand the ripples in time, that allow them to see into the past and in Michael's case into the future, it seems that Michael has his own agenda for getting close to Em. This along with the mysterious ghostlike Jack, leaves Emerson confused and unsure of what her next steps are. The only things she is certain of is that she is ridiculously attracted to Michael who is off-limits, her abilities to see the past is getting stronger, and she is the only hope for a man that died six months ago.

As I read the summary I just wrote I have to admit that I think it's total trash. So I'm posting the GoodReads summary as well:

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.

So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.
Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

OK. I feel better now. I really liked this book. As in I kept trying to read it between my classes coming into the library good. It was completely atmospheric and the lore behind Emerson and Michael's abilities was well thought out. I liked that even though their romance seemed a bit 'fated,' it also developed realistically to a point where I could see why they cared for one another. Also the entire focus wasn't on their relationship, it was also about helping Emerson deal with her parents' deaths and how grief changed her.

In other words I thought that this was a well thought out and fully developed book, which I have to admit surprised me since Myra McEntire is a debut author. I am not an optimistic reader for debut authors. This surprised and delighted me. Well done Myra McEntire, I am quite excited for your next book Timepiece. I do have to ask why there needs to be a love triangle though, I just don't find them to be satisfying plot devices. Could you please change that?

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

2011-11-11T15:21:00.001-05:00

The Balanchine family is the biggest supplier of illegal chocolate in all of the United States, but Anya Balanchine wants nothing to do with it. Anya's father and mother are both dead because of involvement in the crime world (her father was the city's most notorious crime boss) and her older brother was brain damaged. All Anya cares about is keeping her brother and sister safe and out of any involvement with the family business and trying not to get involved with Win, who happens to be the new assistant DA's son. This becomes harder when poisoned chocolate starts showing up around the city and the police think Anya did it.

I was a big fan of Gabrielle Zevin's Elsewhere. It was a book that really made me think about things. And it had a relationship between two people that seemed realistic and organic and made sense. I was therefore unsurprised that I liked All These Things I've Done very much as well.

I'm still confused about one thing though. I'm unclear as to why chocolate and coffee are illegal. I understand about the water restrictions, that made sense with the way the world was currently, but why were coffee and chocolate illegal? Why not just highly taxed if they're luxury items that are difficult to import? So I would have appreciated that being fleshed out a bit more, but otherwise I feel like I had a pretty good handle on the world and how things got the way they were in the book.

Gabrielle Zevin created another relationship I enjoyed reading about. First of all, it was kind of a relief to read about a relationship where the girl is the one trying to protect the boy, and the boy is the delicate one. And I mean delicate as in not as hard boiled as Anya was. Win's father referred to him as soft, but he wasn't soft as in weak (although I think his father meant that too). Win just didn't have the world experience that Anya did, and so she tried to protect him. She didn't want him to get hurt because he was entangled in her family business, which unfortunately often led to injury or death. There was an attraction between them when they first meet, but then it builds into an actual relationship as they get to know each other better and Anya gets to see what kind of person Win really is, which is a very nice one, and one she doesn't feel like she deserves.

This is definitely book for a more mature reader. There's descriptions of the violence that has happened in Anya's family. Anya spends some time at Liberty Island when she's been accused of poisoning, and the conditions are pretty terrible. Anya is an incredibly realistic person and she knows what's important to her. She knows what she should do, but loving Win makes doing what she knows is right so much harder.

I hope the next in the series comes out soon!

Censorship

2011-11-10T10:22:00.000-05:00

Let's start the month off right with book censorship. The offender: good old The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian which was pulled from a school in Georgia after complaints. The best part: superintendent Shawn Tobin's proposal that “Employee[s] will confirm reading material is free of vulgar language, sexual content, racial insults or demeaning religious connotations.” So that leaves...nothing. Nothing at all. Despite his statement that " “Do I want to ban books? Absolutely not. I’m not trying to get rid of Huckleberry Finn,”if his proposal should pass than Huckleberry Finn would be right out.

Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Hidden Gallery by Maryrose Wood

2011-11-09T09:18:00.000-05:00

The Incorrigible children, Alexander, Beowulf and Cassiopeia, are staying in London while Ashton Place is repaired from that disastrous Christmas ball of Lady Constance Ashton. Of course, their governess, Penelope Lumley, will be accompanying them. Penelope is thrilled at the thought of all the wonderfully educational things London will offer the Incorrigibles, and the chance of seeing her dear, former headmistress of Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, Miss Mortimer. But almost immediately after leaving Ashton Place, strange things begin to happen. From gypsy prophesies to hidden rooms, Penelope fears the children might be in danger again.

Much like the first book, The Hidden Gallery was hysterical. Did you like Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events? The Incorrigible Children series is wonderfully Snicketesque. That dry, matter-of-fact, tongue-in-cheek, wandering off on tangents way of storytelling. I love it. It is not for everyone. I think that if you like British comedy, you'll also like books like this. If you don't, I'm not sure.

In this second volume, the plot thickens. Considerably. The Incorrigible children had been raised by wolves and taken in by Lord and Lady Ashton, although we're not sure why, as Lord Ashton has no interest in them and Lady Ashton totally hate them and blames them for everything. They are cared for by our heroine, the plucky governess Penelope. In The Hidden Gallery, Penelope begins to piece together the Incorrigibles' confusing background. Things become more and more confusing the more she learns. But Penelope is a Swanburne girl and Sawnburne girls are curious, resourceful and determined and she'll get to the bottom of it sooner or later.

I love how the children are a combination of hanging onto their wolf-like characteristics (they have a tendency to drool, chase squirrels, and add "awoo" to the ends of words), but they're also learning Latin and about the Peloponnesian War and randomly come up with things that show they're considerably smarter than most of the people around them who think they're little savages. Penelope believes in setting standards high, so who cares if they have a tendency to howl at the moon? She sends them off to fetch their protractors and graph paper.

Also, the art is just perfect.

Spoilers! Sort of.

While I loved this one just as much as the first, I was kind of surprised the turn it was taking toward the end. While we still don't really know what's going on, we have a lot more pieces and it seems like something supernatural is afoot. I was startled, and kind of annoyed by this. I guess I just don't associate magic with these kinds of books. There's certainly an unrealistic aspect about them, but it isn't fantastic or supernatural. So that threw me a bit. I'm not totally sure where it's going, but I think I'm going to be disappointed if it ends up involving werewolves.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sighty by Jennifer E. Smith

2011-11-09T06:43:00.000-05:00

"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 The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith.

Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. She's stuck at JFK, late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon to be step-mother that Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's in seat 18B. Hadley's in 18A.

Twists of fate and quirks of timing play out in this thoughtful novel about family connections, second chances and first loves. Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight comes out January 2, 2012.

The Ruby in Her Navel by Barry Unsworth

2011-11-07T21:30:00.000-05:00

During the Middle Ages in Italy, Thurstan Beauchamp, a Christian Yusuf, an Arab, in the palace's finance office. Thurstan not only deals with the King's money, but also gets sent on errands that involve bribes and blackmail. On one of these errands, Thurstan meets his childhood sweetheart, whose husband has recently died. Thurstan believes that at last he will have everything he ever wanted, but there are dark times approaching for the kingdom of Sicily, and things are not as they appear.

Every now and then I like to read an adult book. You know, just to prove I can. Oh, and I can. I just chose not to most of the time. My mother had given me this one. When I was almost done with it she informed me she didn't think it was that great. To which I said, "Why are you giving me bad books to read? Don't you know my to-read list is a million books long?" But at that point I was almost finished. And I guess I didn't hate it enough to give up part way through. Although, to be honest, there was some skimming.

Despite the cover, this book is not racy. Like, at all. What was most interesting about the story was the time it was set in. Sicily was quite interesting during the Middle Ages. It had that period where many different religions were living fairly peacefully together under the king. Keep in mind that this was a time when the Crusades were going on, so that was a pretty big deal. Unfortunately, this period didn't last forever. This story is being told right at the time when everything was beginning to deteriorate, and there were emerging feelings of hatred toward the Arab population.

Thurstan is a naive little twit who thought he was much cleverer than he actually was and for most of the book I just felt sorry for him, because it was pretty clear to me from fairly early on where things were going. I wanted to cry, "You're being played for a fool! Obviously." But he didn't listen. Sigh. They never listen. So I was hardly at the edge of my seat as there wasn't much of a mystery. I did keep reading to see how everything would wrap up, and it got wrapped up awfully tidily.

There's a side plot with some dancers that Thurstan finds and brings to court and his relationship with one of them. That's where the title comes from. It seemed an odd choice. Perhaps something that sounded kind of racy was wanted? Even though it wasn't?

So it was fine. The romance wasn't all that romancy, the intrigue wasn't all that intriguing, and the mystery wasn't all that mysterious. So...yeah. It was fine. It was no Mistress of the Art of Death. Or Brother Cadfael. But nothing ever could be.

Cinderella: Ninja Warrior by Maureen McGowan

2011-11-06T15:58:00.000-05:00

Cinderella's real mother was a powerful wizard, but after her death, Cinderella's father hid her wand. Shortly after he remarried, he died under suspicious circumstances. Now Cinderella is held prisoner in her own house, thanks to her wicked step-mother's black magic, which is illegal in the kingdom. Cinderella bides her time until she can make her escape, training herself to be a ninja warrior and working on developing her magic. Now if only she could find her mother's wand...

When I saw the title of this book, I was of course intrigued. Then, when I learned that it was not just Cinderella being a ninja warrior, but also a choose-your-own-adventure story (you know, at some high point in the action it'll say "To do this, go to page whatever, or, to do that, go to this other page"), I was incredibly excited. I used to love choose-your-own-adventure books. They were so ridiculous, so fun. Alas, I was disappointed.

This book took itself way too seriously. Come on now. Cinderella is training to be a ninja warrior? And you've made it a choose-your-own-adventure book? This is not something that anyone would ever take seriously. I was expecting silliness and hijinks at every turn. But no. What I got was a fairly straight-forward Cinderella story, except ninja training and magic are closely related in this world and since Cinderella isn't allowed to study magic, she's practicing becoming and ninja in secret.

At three points in the book, you have the opportunity to make a decision for Cinderella. The problem was, it didn't make any difference what you chose, you always ended up at the same place in the end. So what's the point of that? Why bother writing different paths, which weren't even all that interesting, if she's always going to end up at the exact same point? And the divergent paths weren't very exciting.

Actually, the book as a whole wasn't very exciting. Even when Cinderella is competing in a magic competition, and it's suppose to be nail-bitingly exciting, I was kind of bored. The story just did not catch my interest. It wasn't funny, it wasn't silly, it wasn't exciting, it was just...nothing really. Kind of blah.

This is the first book in a series of "Twisted Tales". I can't say that I'll be looking for the other ones to come out.

News

2011-11-04T16:18:00.001-04:00

Vintage covers of The Phantom Tollbooth. The 2002 UK one is awful. Actually, I don't like any of the ones that don't use Jules Fieffer's art. From Flavorwire.

More Phantom Tollbooth inside information. From SLJ.

Mo Willems' Zena Sutherland lecture, 'Why Books?' From The Horn Book

The new movie posters for The Hunger Games! Very dramatic. I'm feeling better about Peeta. Not so much with Gale. From EW.

The Case of the Graveyard Book. Repackaging young adult books for adults. From PW.

OMG! J.K. Rowling was thinking about killing off Ron! So glad she didn't. From The Guardian.

Thank goodness. The Occupy Wall Street coloring book is finally out. From Time Magazine.

The worst consequences of literary teenage romances. From Flavorwire.

Rumors from the Boys' Room: A Blogtastic! Novel by Rose Cooper

2011-11-03T11:17:00.001-04:00

A sequel to Gossip from the Girls' Room, Sofia is back, and this time she's determined that she's only going to blog about things she knows are completely true. Unfortunately, she's still getting most of her information from overhearing other people talking around the school. Sofia discovers that even when she's trying to tell only the facts, the way she goes about find things out might not be the most reliable.

The perfect book for your information literacy class. Can't you just picture it? We all read Rumors from the Boys' Room and talk about how people go about finding out information, and that just because it's then published online in no way confirms its accuracy. Thanks Rose Cooper.

Anyway. So this is short and cute. Sofia has a blog through her school, and last time (in the last book), she got in trouble for posting things that weren't true. Sofia is still determined to be the best blogger ever (thereby increasing her popularity), just this time she won't listen to gossip. She still hasn't quite gotten a handle on how to go about finding reliable information. Sometimes even when she observes things, she realizes that what she thought was happening wasn't actually what was happening at all. For example, she reported on a big fight outside of the boys' room and ended up getting a bunch of kids in trouble. They claimed all they were doing was demonstrating wrestling moves.

While Sofia is trying to be a blogger, she's also trying to help her friend Nona catch the eye of the new foreign exchange student, Lukas. Unfortunately, Sofia's advice is to make Nona dress more girly, which then leads Lukas to become un-interested in her. Sofia is also trying to get the attention of her long-time crush, Andrew, plus, her mother is pregnant and driving her crazy.

Poor Sofia. She really is trying to help! She's just totally clueless.

Rumors from the Boys' Room is an illustrated novel, as Sofia is supposedly taking notes (and drawing pictures) in her notebook so she'll be able to blog about things later.

Definitely a fun one for middle school girls.

Waiting on Wednesday

2011-11-02T06:20:00.004-04:00

"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 Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi.

Exiled from her comfortable home in the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland—known as The Death Shop—are slim. In Reverie, she spent time with her friends roaming virtual environments called Realms. But in The Death Shop, even the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He’s wild—a savage. He’s also her only hope for survival.

A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry sees Aria as sheltered and fragile—everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he also needs Aria’s help; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, they come together reluctantly, and embark on a journey challenged as much by their prejudices as by cannibals and wolves. Their unlikely alliance will forever change the fate of all who live UNDER THE NEVER SKY. (Summary by Goodreads)

Under the Never Sky comes out Jan. 3, 2012.

P.S. Don't forget to enter for our giveaway of The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

The Last Dragon by Jane Yolen, art by Rebecca Guay

2011-11-01T13:23:00.000-04:00

All the dragons had been dead for generations. Nevertheless, one day, a dragon appears and begins terrorizing the town of Meddlesome. The first victim of the dragon is the town healer, who leaves a wife and four daughters behind. Tansy, the youngest, that has her father's gift for healing, works out what happens and warns the town. Three boys are sent to find a hero to defeat the dragon, but they man they bring back is no hero. It will take Tansy's plan and the whole town together to overcome the dragon.

First, this was beautifully illustrated. Rebecca Guay's artwork is just amazing. Everything she does has such a wonderful sense of fantasy, like you're inside a dream. The colors are muted, adding to the dream-like feel. I really like how she draws people's eyes.

The Last Dragon is a lovely, simple story. Tansy is clearly a very smart girl, but girls aren't supposed to be smart, so she spends most of her time by herself. The hero, Lancelot, that's brought back to the town, is a young man who was only interested in the money, and is terrified to realize he's supposed to fight a dragon. Tansy, however, has been working on a plan that she shares with Lancelot so he won't lose face (which was awfully nice of her). It takes the whole town working together, however, to make the plan come together.

Tansy and Lancelot undertake the most dangerous part of the plan, and when things don't go as they should, Lancelot gets to show that he's really brave after all. Everything ends very happily ever after. It's a perfect fantasy story.

Great Graphic Novels for Girls Update

2011-10-31T15:24:00.002-04:00

Hey all. Anna and I have been working on updating our Great Graphic Novel for Girls web site, which is dedicated to graphic novels with female protagonists. The site originally focused on Young Adult graphic novels, but we are happy to announce that it now includes both elementary and middle grade graphic novels for girls. We hope you'll check it out, and we're always looking for more titles, so if you know of one, please let us know!

Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher

2011-10-30T21:33:00.001-04:00

Logan lives in a small town where everyone knows everyone else. At the beginning of senior year, a new girl walks into class. Her name is Sage, and she's completely different then anyone Logan has ever met. Sage and Logan become close, but Sage keeps pulling away. Finally, Sage tells Logan her secret: the gender she was assigned at birth was male.

I have incredibly mixed feelings about this book. I will try to talk them out.

There aren't very many YA books with transgender characters. Luna by Julie Anne Peters, Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger (I haven't read this one), I am J by Cris Beam, are there others? There very well might be, but I can't think of any others. I think it's admirable that Brian Katcher wanted to tell the story of someone whose story doesn't often get told. The thing about Luna and Almost Perfect is that it isn't really the transgender individuals' story. It isn't Luna's story in Luna, and it isn't Sage's story in Almost Perfect.

Sage wasn't much of a character. She was a total manic pixie dream girl. There was Logan, sad and depressed, still hung up on his ex-girlfriend who cheated him, convinced he'll never love again. In whirls Sage, and she's like no other girl he's ever known. She's totally different from anyone, ever, and she shows him how to love again. But Sage is hiding a secret (in this case it's that she was assigned the male gendered at birth, not that she has a terminal disease as so often is the case) and Logan makes a terrible mistake and ends up losing her in the end but learns a Very Valuable Lesson.

It's wasn't Sage's story at all. She was there for Logan to react to and mistreat again and again and help him grow as a person. Sage took a whole lot of shit, got very little out of it, and we hardly knew anything about her by the end of the story. What was the point? We didn't actually get Sage's story. It was all Logan. That she was transgender was a side thing. It could have been anything.

Oh Logan. Logan, Logan, Logan. You gigantic asshole. But I can't really fault Logan for how he reacted (again and again), because it was totally a realistic teen boy reaction. Even though it was reprehensible and awful and cruel and hurtful, it was sadly true. He wasn't thinking about Sage, he was thinking about himself. He was scared what other people would think and that liking Sage made him gay. He was completely obsessed with her body. After Logan broke up with her the first time and wasn't talking to Sage, he only started again because he saw her at the pool and realized she had real breasts. And that turned her into a "real" girl in his head, and he wanted to try again. Almost every thought Logan has about Sage is about her body. It goes back and forth between his disgust when he thinks of her as a boy, and his arousal when he thinks of her as a girl.

And again, I can't say this is unrealistic. But...it sure doesn't help with the stereotypes now does it? It doesn't help anyone understand transgender individuals better, or think about people in terms other than penis=boy, vagina=girl.

Does every book has to teach a lesson? No, it doesn't. But this book felt like it was trying to, but it left me feeling uncomfortable. You know what it made me think of a little? Remember when books were starting to be written with gay characters and all the characters ended up dying of AIDS or getting beat up? Almost Perfect made me think of that. Sage gets horribly beaten and is questioning whether to continuing living as a female because maybe it's too hard. And then the book ends with Logan thinking that maybe someday he and Sage can be friends again. I sure hope not Logan. I sure hope not. I can just picture that transgender kid, delighted that someone has finally written a book about him or her, and then reading about how Sage is all fucked up at the end.

I'm glad we'll be talking about this book in book club this month, because I really want to hear how other people felt about it. I'd love to hear your thoughts if you'd read it.

In my personal opinion, of the books I've read, I am J was far and away the best one, and definitely the one I would recommend. J is the main character and it's actually told from his perspective. It was not only a good story, but also explains what J is going through and how he feels and how he goes about transitioning.

Dumpling Days by Grace Lin

2011-10-30T19:58:00.003-04:00

The third in the Pacy Lin series, this time Pacy's family is going to Taiwan for her grandmother's 60th birthday party. While Year of the Dog and Year of the Rat dealt with friendship and finding out who she wants to be. This time Pacy must figure out what she is - when she's at home in America she doesn't feel like she fits in because she looks Taiwanese and when she's in Taiwan she's discovering that her insides are all American. Where's the balance? Where does she belong? On top of these racial issues, she must also deal with night markets, chicken feet, and competition in art class.

I got this book from the lovely people at Little, Brown and Co. for a book group I do at my elementary schools. I hadn't read any of Grace Lin's books, but I've since listened to The Year of the Dog and finished Dumpling Days. They're pretty fantastic: funny, nuanced, and a lot more depth in themes than what you would expect in a middle grade book.

I have to admit that I might have a deeper resonance to the themes in this book than most, considering the fact that I'm Korean American and was raised in the Midwest. I look Asian on the outside but my cultural connection is to my white parents, I've been to Korea and I felt super American. Where do you fit in? How do you deal with the subtle racism that you meet with every day? There were parts that made me want to cry because they were true representations of my experience.

I really enjoyed this book, Grace Lin does a really eloquent job of putting together the traditional themes of a middle grade book - acceptance, growing up, finding your special abilities, and family - with issues of race and cultural confusion. She never gets preachy, she laces everything with humor and levity, it's never over anyone's head and still makes an impact.

Bonus: as I finished the book I craved dumplings like never before. Does anyone know where I can get soup dumplings? Cha siu bao? Because seriously, they sound like a miracle.

The Impostor's Daughter by Laurie Sandell

2011-10-29T23:54:00.002-04:00

Laurie grew up with a larger than life father, a man who she worshiped and feared. His charisma and personality drew people to him even as he took advantage of them, and this was mostly true of his family. Shaped by her father's seeming past, Laurie grew to be a restless wanderer with a difficulty with relationships. While she couldn't seem to trust others romantically she was able to draw out trust in the celebrities that she interviewed, and as she slowly found her place in her job she discovered that her personal life was falling apart. Not until she was able to face her personal demons and find out the truth behind her father was Laurie able to truly grow as a person and be comfortable in her own skin.

This was a bit surreal. As someone that was raised by a nice Midwestern Scandinavian family, it seems like total fiction that someone's father would con not only strangers and employers but also his family members and personal friends. Taking not only their money but also their trust and twisting it until you don't know quite where you stand with any of your relationships.

The experiences that Laurie goes through, the fact that she lived in Israel and was an exotic dancer in Japan, make it seem all that more imaginative. But these incredible experiences lead her to journalism and refining her abilities to tell a story whether it's hers or a celebrities'. She has gifts that developed from her father, and a drive to cultivate them in order to find herself. After Laurie starts delving into her past, she realizes that she must confront her father's past to find some sort of peace. It's fascinating to see what happens once she realizes the depth of psychological despair she's going through that has developed from her relationship with her father.

An intense memoir.

Laurie Sandell has written the memoir of the Madoff family which is coming out Oct. 31st. Looks like she's gotten quite good at writing the memories of families that live with con-men.