Evil Government Conspiracies, Take Two

So when Suzanne Collins sequel to The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, comes out on September 1st you will undoubtedly be standing in line to get your copy. As you should. You're probably wondering, "Is it as good?" and, of course, it is, almost. In The Hunger Games almost every step of the story reveals yet another surprise and, while Katniss and crew continue to develop as characters and the government is revealed as even more despicable than you could have believed in Catching Fire, once you've been amazed by the original story it's hard to be that amazed ever again. CF is more about the bigger picture, the world outside of Katniss, where THG is more about Katniss's internal struggles and changes. I don't want to talk too much about the story itself because the biggest part of the fun is seeing where Collins takes it. And she takes it in some surprising directions.

Good for 10 and up. Give it to all your adult friends too.

Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins, 978-0-439-02349-8

Comic Love

This is not about funny love affairs but instead love of the art form known as comics. I love them. I read the comics page in the paper every day. Why start your day with just the bad news? So when I found out about graphic novels, of course I was interested. And there are a lot of serious graphic novels that are wonderful. But what I really love are the goofy ones.

Just this week I discovered Jarrett J. Krosoczka's Lunch Lady, specifically Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians. Apparently this is the second in the series. Rest assured that I will be searching out all the rest of them. I didn't even notice there were others on the shelf. How could I look any further than a League of Librarians? Evil Librarians, at that. The idea was too delicious to pass up. Not that I have anything against librarians. I wanted to BE my elementary school librarian when I grew up. But librarians are always beatified in books for young readers and so how fun is it to have that turned on its head?

The Lunch Lady, her assistant, Betty, and a gang of three kids called The Breakfast Bunch solve mysteries around the school, foil evil plots, thwart criminals and use really cool gadgets made from things you'd find in a lunchroom. I really liked the spork communicator, for example. In this installment, they foil a plot by librarians to take over the world, starting by destroying a new video game system. Do I think the world would be a better place without video games? Possibly. But that's not really the point. Clearly we can't let librarians run amok.

Highly recommended for elementary school. Even middle school. Both my kids couldn't wait to get their hands on it.

Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians, by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, 978-0-375-84684-7

Science Fairs

Was Robin Brande a science geek (or maybe nerd is the right word?) when she was in school? Both her books have a strong science focus and science fairs come into play in both. Not that I have anything against geeks or nerds of any persuasion. After all, I blog about children's books that I read.

In Fat Cat, Cat is working on a science fair project for a very special science class. It is a class that focuses on creating interesting work for the fair, always engenders the winner of the fair and is a great thing to have on your college application. But instead of choosing a topic that interests the student herself, at the start of the year everyone is given a picture at random. That picture is to inspire a choice of topic for the fair project. Cat gets a picture of early humans and, at first, is totally uninspired. Then it hits her. This can be a vehicle for revenge against the boy who was once her best friend but has been her nemesis for many years. She will emulate the hominid life style--altering her diet and eschewing modern conveniences like cars--she will BE the science experiment. And she will end the year stronger, healthier, extremely fit (possibly thin for once in her life) and, most important of all, the winner of the science fair due to her unusual field of study.

Of course, nothing works exactly as planned but along the way Cat learns a lot about nutrition and exercise, a lot about the life of early humans, and a lot about human relationships in the here and now.

Highly recommended.

Fat Cat by Robin Brande, 9780375844492.

Football for the Non Sport Enthusiast

A while ago I read Chris Crutcher's book Deadline, a fabulous book about a dying boy who decides to go out for football. After all, what does he have to lose? I am not and never have been a football fan but when Gordon Korman's Pop came my way, I decided to give it a chance. After all, I liked Deadline so what did I have to lose? And once again the football was an important part of the story but not the whole story by a long shot. Marcus is new to town and really really wants to play football. But the team has been really successful and they don't want a new player. Hanging out in the park, Marcus meets an unusual man who is happy to throw the ball around with Marcus. In fact, he is happy to tackle Marcus the hardest he's ever been tackled, throw the ball almost harder than Marcus can catch and catch just about anything Marcus can throw. Soon Marcus has discovered that his new football playing friend is a former NFL player and the father of one of the guys who really doesn't want Marcus on the high school team. Full of surprising depths about dealing with long term illness, being true to your friends and taking the consequences of your actions. Recommended for upper elementary and middle school.

Pop, by Gordon Korman, 978-0-06-174230-9, coming out 8/25/2009

Old Friends

Browsing at Powell's, I looked as I always do for short stories by Joan Aiken. A small, forlorn hope still lives that I will find one of the two collections I checked out from our public library over and over again as a child. One was Not What You Expected and the other was The Faithless Lollybird (who could resist that title?) Even though I have looked repeatedly and never ever found a copy of anything remotely resembling those two books, I still look every time I am there. And this time--success! Of a sort. It's not either of those two but a new compilation of her stories from all across her career. I opened up Shadows & Moonshine and what story was in there? A Harp of Fishbones, that's what. One of the few stories I remembered very clearly. There are only five stories from my (as I like to think of them) books and two of the stories I especially remember are not there but those five are enough to make me very happy. And all the other stories have the same fairy tale quality I remember where almost anything could happen. Strange. Wonderful. Satisfying. Go on out there and read some short stories. Visit your library if you can't find any in a store.

Shadows & Moonshine, by Joan Aiken, 978-1-56792-346-9

Punk Fairies

Actually the fairies in Eyes Like Stars are not the same punk fairies as those in The Good Fairies of New York but reading that first will definitely get you in the right mood. Bertie lives in a theater with the fairies from Midsummer's Night Dream as friends. The stage manager, wardrobe mistress, props master and other important theater figures live there too as well as all the actors who only come out when a notice is left for them on the call board. As you can see, Eyes Like Stars takes place in a world much like the ones in plays--it looks familiar but it's not quite reality. Bertie is an orphan and although the theater is home it is a home where she doesn't really have a role. After causing one disaster too many, Bertie is told to prove that she is useful to the theater or she will have to leave forever. She decides to direct a new version of Hamlet proving herself useful as a director. But it is really as a playwright that she is able to solve the mystery of where she came from and save the theater from falling apart. For middle school, advanced readers in elementary school and anyone who likes Shakespeare.

Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev, 978-0-312-38096-0, July 2009.

Made me think of:
The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar (fairies)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (watching a story unfold before you)

This just in--cake wrecking contest!!! Lisa Mantchev is holding a contest and you can win fabulous prizes. See here for details: http://www.theatre-illuminata.com/contest2.html

UnExpected

Paisley Hanover Acts Out came as a surprise. It was, in Paisley speak, UnExpected. The book comes packaged in a cute box with a hot pink and orange cover with a cartoony picture on front. Inside is the book and then a little notebook that I thought was blank but was really a copy of Paisley's notebook. Judging by the cover, it was going to be a cute, fun story about middle school with little cartoony drawings. It was a fun story. But it was more than that. First off, Paisley is a high school sophomore. Secondly, there were not cute little illustrations throughout the book (totally fine by me). And lastly, Paisley is struggling to be who she really is, not just who she thinks the world wants her to be. But now that she's invested a lot of herself in becoming popular suddenly deciding to make a shift is not so easy. This could have been just one of many stories about a girl deciding to think for herself but stands out from the herd because of Paisley's completely believable snarky voice--occasionally anguished, usually funny, always heartfelt.

Paisley Hanover Acts Out by Cameron Tuttle, 978-978-0-8037-3586-5