Snowed In

A couple of months ago I read Let It Snow, a book of three interconnected stories by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. Now that we have 8 inches of snow outside my doorstep it seems like a good time to post about it. The cover says it is three romances so I was expecting three romantic short stories with a snow theme to them but really it was much more than that. So why did I pick it up? To start with, I know not everyone likes short stories--I happen to love them. And then there were the three authors. I love everything John Green has published. And Maureen Johnson has never let me down either. I'd never read Lauren Myracle but my daughter really likes her. So all in all what did I have to lose? And then it turned out to be three stories that were linked together. How fun is that? I read the first one, Maureen Johnson's story about a girl on a train that gets stuck in the snow. Then I started on John Green's story about three friends driving out in the snow to meet a friend who is stranded in a restaurant full of cheerleaders--cheerleaders who had come from the stranded train. Then Lauren Myracle's sweet story about a well meaning but selfish girl who wants to get back together with her boyfriend--a guy who shows up on both the stranded train and at the restaurant too. All the stories were satisfying. If you can walk to your local bookstore or library in the snow, pick up a copy. Recommended for middle school and older.

Reminded me of:
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green but more PG
Fifteen or The Luckiest Girl by Beverly Cleary or any of her other sweet teenage romances

Make Lemonade, part three

This Full House is the third and last book about LaVaughn by Virginia Euwer Wolff. The first in the series, Make Lemonade, is a beautiful powerful book that I loved when I first read but I didn't know anyone to recommend it to. In that book, we first meet LaVaughn, a girl who knows what it is to be poor. At least, that's what she thinks, until she starts babysitting for Jolly's two kids. Jolly is a single teenage mom who used to live on the streets and is getting her life together. In This Full House, LaVaughn is still babysitting for Jolly but now LaVaughn's a high school senior and balancing not just school and babysitting but also an ambitious science enrichment program for low-income girls interested in the field of medicine. Told in poems, this is a book about growing up--not just getting older but learning to accept responsibility for your actions and do the right thing even when it's not the easy thing. Most of the young readers I know are probably still too young for this book, but I would recommend the entire series for 8th-12th grade. At 496 pages it looks a bit daunting but it's a quick read since there is a lot of white space on the page. If you haven't read Make Lemonade, start there. If you have, well, there's more to the story and it's waiting for you.

This Full House, Virginia Euwer Wolff, 978-0-06-172534-0, on sale 1/27/2009

This made me think of:
Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, another book in verse, this one about a girl with physical disabilities
Mare's War by Tanita Davis, see post from 12/4/08--another story about poverty

Bullying--a post from Mary Lee

The book that I am considering for purchase is Letters to a Bullied Girl: Messages of healing and hope by Olivia Gardner with Emily and Sara Buder. New York: Harper, 2008 ISBN 978-0-06-154462-0 14.95

“Olivia Gardner, was singled out, physically and verbally bullied by her peers after she suffered an epileptic seizure in front of other students.” The introduction gives some background information, which details the extent of the harassment in every venue possible in this high tech world we live in. Emily and Sara Buder read about the incident and promoted a project, which encouraged adults and children to send messages of “healing, hope, inspiration and healing to Olivia. Letters were sent to a P.O. Box and the response was overwhelming. About 125 letters from parents of children who were bullied, adults who had been bullied and students who were dealing with the issue at the time of the project, March 2007 make up the rest of the books.

This would work for parents and students. In fact, my KCLS copy has been sitting on my desk and students have asked to borrow it. I think it is an R (recommended) because of the limited number of resources that connect specifically to middle school students. However, I wish there were more letters from students.

I like any feedback anyone can come up with on this book.

Mary Lee

I just finished Mare's War by Tanita Davis. Someone told me they'd heard good buzz about it and now I know why--because it's fabulous, that's why. Octavia and Talitha have to ride cross country with their grandmother, Mare, this summer to a family reunion in Alabama. The two teenage sisters don't want to spend that much quality time with each other, let alone their out of control grandma but they don't have a choice. Once they hit the road, the story starts to alternate between the road trip and Mare's experiences growing up, especially her experience in the African American battalion of the Women's Army Corps during WWII. The present day story is well told and full of colorful details. But it's Mare's story that will capture your heart. Small town Alabama was a tough place to be a black girl in the 1940s and you can see why Mare grabbed the chance to join the army and see the world. The period details are vivid and compelling. I cried when Mare recounts how proud she was for making it through the toughest training. Recommended for middle and high school.

Books it reminded me of:
Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963, by Christopher Paul Curtis--another great road trip novel
Just Listen, by Sarah Dessen--another great book about sisters

So Many Books Read, So Few Blogged About

I'm making my new year's resolution a little early this year: I will blog more frequently. My track record isn't good but I'm not willing to give up yet.

The last book I read was Jerk, California by Jonathan Friesen. It's the story of a boy, Sam, with Tourette's syndrome who ends up taking a road trip to the city in the title. Only it turns out Sam's name is not really Sam but Jack--after his mother remarried, his stepfather decided that he didn't like the name Jack Keegan and so renamed the boy Sam Carrier. But at the beginning none of us, readers and Sam himself, know this. It's all revealed as Sam meets people who knew his father. The storytelling jumps around a bit--just like Jack's twitchy shoulders. That made it a little hard for me to get into the story but once I did the story wouldn't let me go. Self-awareness, acceptance, family, a little romance and a big dose of what it's like to live with Tourette's made this a book I won't forget for a long time. Highly recommended. For mature middle school and high school.

Books it made me think of:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (Jerk does for Tourette's what Curious did for Asperger's)
Deadline by Chris Crutcher, small town sports is the connection here

Tough Subjects for Kids

I just read Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains, a story about a slave during the Revolutionary War. Isabel has it tough, really tough. Her owner dies and Isabel is thinking about the freedom she has been promised. But the lawyer with the will has fled due to the war and, not surprisingly, no one will take Isabel's word for it. Before you can say Thomas Paine she' and her sister have been sold to a greedy loyalist and his bad tempered wife. Details about the war are seamlessly woven into Isabel's story, as are horrific facts about living as a slave. The story ends on a hopeful note. And that's where the title of today's blog comes in. It's a story for kids to read (I think the target is middle school but upper elementary kids would be interested and could read it) and so it shouldn't be too dark and grim, should it? On the other hand, it's a story about slavery and, facing facts, most actual slave narratives do not end on a hopeful note. Such a fine line--where to shelter and where to trust our child readers to know for themselves how much they are ready to process.

Other books this made me think of:
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes--I think it would be very interesting to compare Chains to what I think of as an old-school Revolutionary War story
Calico Bush by Rachel Field--another old-school historical novel about a French girl who is an indentured servant

A Good Quest

The quest is classic theme, especially in fantasy novels. My favorite of Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles has always been Taran Wanderer, a quest story if every there was one. So I was pretty sure I would like The Farwalker's Quest by Joni Sensel even before I started. And like it I did. Ariel and her friend, Zeke, are both about to start their apprenticeships and the journey to adulthood when another kind of journey takes over their lives. Ariel is kidnapped by a couple of bad 'uns because they think she may be the next "farwalker", a trade that has fallen by the wayside after the collapse of technology and the increasing isolation of villages. Zeke follows behind to rescue her. Both are caught up in things they could not have imagined in their small fishing village as they travel through woods and mountains, to a monastery and towns large and small. A wonderful read for 4-8th grade. Coming out in February of 2009.

For readers who liked:
Taran Wanderer (see above) by Lloyd Alexander
Book of a Thousand Days (another strong girl character), by Shannon Hale

Absolutely Compulsively Readable

Absolutely Maybe, by Lisa Yee, I mean. I couldn't put it down and a week later I still have the characters voices running through my head. Maybe whose name is short for Maybelline (I know, it's awful but her mother is a former beauty queen who runs a charm school--wouldn't you choose Maybe instead of Maybelline too?) needs to get away from home, from her mother's negative comments, from her soon to be step-father's wandering hands. So when one of her two best friends gets ready to leave Florida to go to film school, Maybe comes along for the ride. Oh, and she brings her other best friend, Ted along too. Ted, Hollywood and Maybe make it to LA but that's when things get complicated. Hollywood starts calling himself Daniel now that he's at USC. Ted starts working for an aging, reclusive movie star. And Maybe can't find her real father although she's sure he must be somewhere in LA.

I loved Ted's non-stop chatter, his is voice is the one I still hear. I loved Maybe's growing self-confidence once she steps out of her mother's shadow. And I loved that it would have been so easy to turn this into a romance between Maybe and Hollywood but they remain friends. Unexpected, like a lot of this book. Oh, and I loved the food descriptions--I dare you to read this and not want to run out to the taco truck for a fresh taco or two.

For people who liked Jordan Sonneblick's Notes From a Midnight Driver; Sarah Dessen's The Truth About Forever; Liz Gallagher's The Opposite of Invisible; Paul Acampora's Defining Dulcie.

Deep Thoughts

I recently read Terry Pratchett's new book, Nation. I am a Pratchett fan and would read anything he wrote, including copy on the back of a cereal box. But this, this was something more than his usual parodies. Something great even.

It seems to have been inspired by the terrible tsunami of a couple of years ago, Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, Pratchett's take on Victorian England and trying coming to terms with the meaning of life and death. The Nation is a group of islanders. Mau is off island going through the rite of passage to become an adult when a tsunami tears through the chain of islands they live in. By the time he returns from his time alone, there is no one there to finish the rite of passage ceremony and he is caught--no longer a boy but not yet a man. Then a strange English girl steps out of the jungle and it turns out he is not alone but definitely without his people.

I loved that Mau is not your typical hero--what he's good at is asking questions and acting practically. Not a man of action, charm and wit, he's thoughtful and raging against the dark. Daphne has Tiffany Aching-like qualities and yet she's her own person. She and Mau are both willing to question the way the world is and are unwilling to take the answer, "because this is how it's always been."

Really a fabulous book. But maybe not for children. At least not a book you could entirely grasp as a child, although it would still be likable and would hold up under rereading as the child matured. The themes are big--the meaning of life, the senselessness of death, the importance of philosophical curiosity and the unequal distribution of the world's wealth are all featured. Great for high school and middle school. Definitely great for adults.

Books it made me think of:
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
other Terry Pratchett books, especially Wee Free Men

Roar and other dystopian fantasies

City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Tomorrow Code by Brian Falkner. There are a lot of books showing a bleak future for our world out there for kids these days. Roar by Emma Clayton is another such book. Roar is set in a world where all animals have gone berserk, attacking humans without provocation which creates the need for all of humanity to live in big walled cities crowded together in poorly constructed apartments beset with mold and little hope for the future. Mika's twin has gone missing and is presumed dead by everyone but him. As there stories unfold in parallel, we come to see who is controlling their fates and hope they will be reunited. The story is intense, fast-paced and suspenseful. Mika and Ellie are smart and likable--heroes you can really get behind. It would be a great companion book to any of those listed above or perhaps Lois Lowry's The Giver.

Catching Up

I have read a lot of books lately and not posted on any of them. Here's an attempt to get a big more caught up. Hopefully more later.

Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
This is a sequel to the book Locomotion which I haven't read although I will search it out now that I've read this one. Told in letters by Lonnie Collins Motion, or Locomotion, to his little sister this is a story about living in a loving foster care home (how refreshing!). In the few months covered in the book, Locomotion writes about friendship, missing his dead parents, missing his sister, wanting to be a poet and how his teacher's perception of this affects his school work, and quite movingly about the foster family's oldest brother returning from the Iraq war after being injured. A beautiful cry for peace in our world.

Books it made me think of:
Love That Dog and Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech
Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff (although Peace Locomotion is for a younger audience)
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

Dragons for the rest of us

Eon Dragoneye Reborn, by Alison Goodman is a dragon book but not only a dragon book. Set in a fantasy world based on traditional Chinese society and mythology, it is a story of intrigue, sword fighting, court politics, and mostly pretending to be something you're not. Eon is a dragoneye apprentice hoping to be chosen by the Rat Dragon to protect the empire. Eon is his master's last chance to have an apprentice chosen, a cripple who causes people to make the sign warding off evil wherever he goes, and disrespected in his household, his training classes and by the world at large. But more than that, Eon is really 16 year old Eona masquerading as a boy.

Coming out in December, Eon is a book you won't want to put down. And then you'll wish 2010 would hurry up and get here because that's when the second book in the duology will appear. Here's her website: http://alisongoodman.com.au/

Books that you might also like if you like Eon:

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, by Nahoko Uehashi (fantasy inspired by Japanese history and culture about a female warrior)
The Masqueraders, by Georgette Heyer (period romance about a brother and sister who each masquerade as the other)

Why blog? Why now?

I love to read. I love to recommend books to people. But now that I'm not working in a bookstore, I need an outlet. So here it is. At least, I think it will be. An outlet, that is.

What's the plan? Only to blog about books I like. Mostly to blog about children's books. And, hopefully, to start some conversations about them. So feel free to play along. Tell me your thoughts, dreams and ambitions. Or just tell me about what you like to read. And what you like about it.

Ready, set, read!