Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Cullen lives in a tiny southern town, where the most exciting thing to happen is the possible reemergence of the believed-to-be-extinct Lazarus woodpecker.  That's the same summer and Cullen's younger brother, Gabriel, disappears without a trace and Cullen and his family have figure out how to carry on with their lives.

There are two seemingly unrelated stories being told.  The first is Cullen's story, which is told in first person.  I like Cullen's voice as a narrator very much, and the matter-of-fact way he spoke about things.  The other story is first that of a boy named Brenton Sage and then switches to his roommate, Cabot Searcy.  It is not clear for much of the book how these two stories are related or will come together.

As I'm sure you know, Where Things Come Back won the Printz award.  So I was waiting for everything to come together in an awesome and mind blowing way.  Something that was going to take this from being an enjoyable and thoughtful read to something amazing that would justify it winning the Printz.  It didn't happen.  Things came together, but there was nothing amazing or mind blowing about it.  Things were explained, wrapped up and then it ended and I was left staring at the covering and thinking, "what was so special about that?"  Thanks a lot, Printz committee.  You've ruined what would have been a perfectly good reading experience.  Because Where Things Come Back was a good book, and I'm glad I read it, but I didn't think there was anything especially amazing about it.

I still think Chime was the best thing I read all year and I'm cranky it didn't even get honored.

What's interesting is that Where Things Come Back isn't exactly about anything in particular, and I usually don't really like those books.  It's kind of about how people cope with the terrible things that happen in life.  I did want to know what happened to Gabriel, I think that helped keep me involved, but most of the story is just what happens over the summer as the town goes crazy over the thought that a bird may have come back to life and Cullen's family and friends try to deal with Gabriel being gone.  Each character deals with grief and stress in a completely different way, from disengaging from life to pretending everything's fine, to keeping busy, to taking care of other people and so on.  Everyone keeps themselves together in different ways, and so work better than others.

So I quite enjoyed Where Things Come Back and totally recommended it, it's just that I was expecting something completely amazing and didn't get it.  I should have known.  The Printz committee and I have been in a fight for several years now.

Waiting on Wednesday: Purity by Jackson Pearce

"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 Purity by Jackson Pearce.

A novel about love, loss, and sex -- but not necessarily in that order.

Before her mother died, Shelby promised three things: to listen to her father, to love as much as possible, and to live without restraint. Those Promises become harder to keep when Shelby's father joins the planning committee for the Princess Ball, an annual dance that ends with a ceremonial vow to live pure lives -- in other words, no "bad behavior," no breaking the rules, and definitely no sex.

Torn between Promises One and Three, Shelby makes a decision -- to exploit a loophole and lose her virginity before taking the vow. But somewhere between failed hookup attempts and helping her dad plan the ball, Shelby starts to understand what her mother really meant, what her father really needs, and who really has the right to her purity.

 This seems like a really lovely book about self-discovery and family dynamics. Not my usual fare, but pretty excited for this one.


Purity comes out April 24. 

Lori Cooney: Web 2.0 Tools

Lori Cooney did a fantastic job recommending different websites, apps, and software, that further collaboration and teaching. I cannot wait to implement them ALL! I am hoping to embed her presentation in this post, because the amount of stuff she talked about would take forever to write down. For now I'll just link it.

Char Siddell: Char Shares

Char did a really lovely job recommending new books (as in published in the past year) for kindergarten through fifth grade. I'm linking the list and I'm just going to highlight a few that I really liked.

Picture Books

• Neville by Norton Juster - Really cute story about being the new kid in town. I generally enjoy Norton Juster's books. He has a nice sense of humor.
• This Plus That: Life's Little Equations by Amy Krouse Rosenthal - A book about "math." Except it's more about connecting actions and realizing how they result. Clever.
• The Day Tiger Rose Said Goodbye by Jane Yolen - I hadn't known that Jane Yolen's husband died this past year. This book is about death and dealing with saying goodbye. Very sweet and soft.

Fiction

•  Bless this Mouse by Lois Lowry - As the church mice prepare for the Blessing of the Animals, they must deal with being driven out of their home and the oncoming cats that are also going to be blessed in their church home.
• Dumpling Days by Grace Lin - I did a review of this and really enjoyed it. It's sweet and thought-provoking. 
• Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos - A quirky semi-autobiographical story about a boy with a nose-bleed problem that must work for a woman that writes obituaries. Newbery winner.

Non-Fiction/Biography

• World Without Fish by Mark Kurlansky -  Kurlansky wrote the adult books Cod and Salt, and how these two things had a HUGE impact on our history. He now does a look at what the impact of fish is on our present ecosystem and how we need to have greater concern for fishes' depletion.
• The Many Faces of George Washington: Remaking a Presidential Icon by Carla Killlough McClafferly - This book brings together science, technology, detective work, art history, and American history; and makes a Founding Father approachable. Ms. McClafferly follows the work of the historians at Mount Vernon's Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center and relates the project of creating three life-size models of Washington to actual events in Washington's life. This book goes beyond the standard biography.
• Me... Jane by Patrick McDonnell - A biography of Jane Goodall, with special attention to her childhood and how her love of observation and chimpanzees developed. 

Char did a lovely job, but she ran over so didn't get a chance to book-talk all of the books on her list.

Tim Green: Reading is weightlifting for your brain

Tim Green is a writer, lawyer, and used to play for the Falcons as an NFL lineman. He has written nine books for kids, with two more coming out in the spring and fall, and one autobiographical book for adults. He gave a somewhat motivational/self-promotional speech about reading and how it betters the characters and minds of children.

Really great message not well implemented. He did a nice job tying it in to sports and his own experiences, but poor Tim has had one too many hits to the head. There were a couple times that he lost his train of thought, and his stories tended to wander. He also had a lot of stories about running until he puked, concussions and badly bruised heads, and sticking needles into knees (which we learned about during lunch). Gross. On a positive note, he would be a wonderful school speaker. He has a great demeanor that would really connect with kids of ALL ages. He has a fantastic passion for reading, education, and how this affects a person as a whole. Nice.

MLSA Conference 2012: Hyannis

Hello all! Ari, Jamie, Alana, and I are at the Massachusetts School Library Association's conference. We will be blogging about what's going on here, but if you need more immediate satisfaction you can also follow us on Twitter, #msla12. Tweet us if you're here as well!

Happy Read Across America Day

Happy Read Across America day!  This year Read Across America is brought to you by The Lorax....and Mazda.  Does anyone else find it really weird that the Lorax is trying to sell you a large SUV (and how many Truffula trees had to be chopped down to put that road in)? If the Lorax was going to partner with anything commercial, you'd think it would be an environmentally friendly product.  I laughed at loud when the Lorax tried to sell me a breakfast at iHop the other day.  It was just so ridiculous.  And then it made me sad.  The Lorax of my childhood would never have done such a thing.  

It's very nice that Mazda has pledged $1 million to school libraries.  I wish it wasn't through having people test their cars though.  "For each test drive of a Mazda vehicle between Feb. 21 and April 2, Mazda will donate $25 toward public school libraries nationwide, up to $1 million (www.nea.org)."   Sure, Mazda isn't going to do something for nothing (although it would be nice) but this just feels strange to me.  Thoughts?

It just makes me crazy when books and education get commercialized like this.  Stupid commercialization.  Just read a book. Whatever book you want.  I believe you can find a book that you'd like, even if it doesn't involve movie characters, famous people, cars or ice cream.

So let's read kids!  Also test drive cars.  Because those two things go together.  Like environmentalism and iHop.

P.S. The Lorax movies looks AWFUL.