Reading Roundup October 2008

By the Numbers
Teen: 25
Tween: 14
Children: 17

Standouts
Teen: Impossible by Nancy Werlin
Tween: The Life and Crimes of Bernetta Wallflower by Lisa Graff
Children: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Because I Want To Awards
Yep, It's That Good: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Most Fun Sequel: The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall
Most Realistic Teenage Guy in a Girl-Centric Book: Will in Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott
Sequel, NOW!: Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Most Discomfiting: Swimming With the Sharks by Debbie Reid Fischer

Mixing It Up

An article from the Chicago Tribune about schools shifting away from all-classics in the classroom and toward a mix of classics and contemporary. Which I can't help but approve of. However, go read the article and tell me what you notice.

Back already?

No contemporary YA titles were mentioned. Not a one. It was all adult literary-type novels.

Now this may be bad reporting, the paper focusing on novels that their readership will recognize. And I fully understand that many teens choose to read a mix of adult novels and teen. But all the same, I do hope that schools are taking note of the amazing things being offered in the YA section.

Teachers out there, can you comment?

Free Books!

Lenore of Presenting Lenore is giving away free books all through the month of November. Of course, my head snapped around like a retriever sighting a downed duck. Check out her list of giveaways and how to win.

It's the Lisa Yee Title Contest Time Again!

Lisa Yee's blog is like a hit of caffeine at 4:30 am. I love it. One of my favorite features is her annualish title contest, in which readers compete to create silly titles. This year, the rule is, "Change two letters to get a whole new title."

Ready? Go!

Book Review: Swimming with the Sharks by Debbie Reid Fischer

Book: Swimming with the Sharks
Author: Debbie Reid Fischer
Published: 2008

Peyton Grady’s finally done it. She’s on varsity cheerleading. Even though she’s a scholarship student at swanky Beachwood Prep, even though she buys her clothes from Goodwill and has never been to Aspen in her life, she’s finally an Alpha, thanks to the pompoms, the cute little uniform, and most of all, cheer captain Lexie Court.

Then Ellika Garret moves to Beachwood and buys her way onto the cheerleading squad. Peyton is as disgusted as the rest of them, and intially gets into Lexie’s plan to haze Ellika right off the team. But as things escalate from pranks to actual harm, Peyton starts to have doubts. But anything is worth it to stay an Alpha, right?

Right?

There are a lot of books out there about the bullied, but not a lot about the bullies. In most ways, Lexie is your typical golden girl, glittering and beautiful, but two or three scenes in her home show that she has a soft underbelly just like everyone else. The only difference is that she will lash out first, just to make sure that her weak spot is protected because her opponents are so busy licking their own wounds.

As for Ellika, you want to be sympathetic towards her, but the more she tries to buy friends and popularity, the more pathetic she becomes. Just about every scene she’s in prompts a full-body cringe. While the cheer squad’s bullying is horrible (and in the end, monstrous), you almost understand how they can do it.

Fischer walks a delicate line in Peyton, managing to keep her sympathetic while making it clear that she is in it as much as the rest of the cheer squad. At the same time, she is victim of a far more subtle bullying pattern than Ellika. Her redemption toward the end feels like our own. Pick this book up for a thoughtful and all-too-probable story about how anybody can bully, or be bullied.

Art and Children's Books

A school in Colorado has a 3-D mural on their wall, especially for kids (including one boy legally blind since kindergarten) to touch and play with as well as look at.

What caught my attention was the subject. The artist (the school's night janitor) picked iconic characters from kids' lit. Not just the classics, either. In the photo, I can make out the Magic Treehouse and Captain Underpants alongside the Cat in the Hat and what appear to be the Three Little Pigs.

Coooooool.

Illustration and Choices Thereof

A little bird tells me that Neil Gaiman's newest, The Graveyard Book, is being offered with your choice of illustrators in the UK. Dave McKean, who illustrated Coraline to deliciously creepifying effect, has the "adult" version and Chris Riddell the kids'. A quick Amazon check tells me that the US seems to be sticking to McKean for both.

I got a cover image (over to your right) of Riddell's work, enough to see that although it's not the angular creepiness of Dave McKean, it's not fluffy bunnies.

I read an ARC without any illustrations (sigh), but it was a great yarn nonetheless. Has anybody seen either or both of the versions? Can you weigh in?

ETA: Betsy Bird over at Fuse #8 has a much more thorough gathering of the various covers. Take a look!

Is That You Under My Desk, Philip Pullman?

The Golden Compass author's description of his office sounds awfully familiar, is all I'm sayin'.

Have a look at this article from the Liverpool Daily Post (oh, Google Alerts, how I love thee) about Philip Pullman, writing, movies, and the keeping of offices (or, y'know, not).

My favorite quote:

“When you write books for children, you can write about whatever you like, and you’re not pigeonholed in the same way, which I find a great freedom. You’re not stuck doing one kind of thing.”

The Cybils Nominations Are In!

Check out the grand collection of nominations for the 2008 Cybils Awards, right here!

Now it's time for the first round of judges to go to work, reading, reading, and reading some more to winnow out those special few that will make it to the second round. Good luck, guys!

The shortlists will be announced January 1 and the winners on Valentine's Day.

I'm Not the Only One

A friend sent me this opinion piece from the LA Times about the different reading level systems at work in California.

I deal with this every day, and the ones that drive me craziest are the kids or parents who refuse to read anything that's not numbered, leveled, and assessed within an inch of its life. It's as if a book has no value beyond the value of the quizzes one can take after reading it.

The Lines Come Pre-Blurred

Leila over at Bookshelves of Doom hooked me up with this article about SF, fantasy, YA, and the meldings thereof. They conclude that a) YA books are selling better than their adult counterparts and b) YA and SF/fantasy are premade for each other, like a horse and carriage.

Quotage from our own Scott Westerfeld about the immense variety to be found on the YA shelves:

"YA is a bit like airplanes in the early 20th century: There are biplanes and triplanes, flapping wings, and engines front and back," Westerfeld says.

There's plenty more, but follow the link for all the goodness. I'm going to go imagine YA books as turn-of-the-century airplanes. Illustrators out there, anyone want to bring this one to life?

National Book Awards are Nigh!

Everybody and their brother has scooped me on this one, but the National Book Award finalists were announced just this past week. Here are the nominees for Young People's Literature:

Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains (Simon & Schuster)
Kathi Appelt, The Underneath (Atheneum)
Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied (Scholastic)
E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (Hyperion)
Tim Tharp, The Spectacular Now (Alfred A. Knopf)

I've only read E. Lockhart's tome (yay, E!) but I've heard about Chains and The Underneath around the blogosphere. I hear some of these aren't out yet, but anyone out there gotten their hot little hands on the Blundell and Tharp books?

I'm also heartened to see the list of judges for this category:

Daniel "Lemony Snicket" Handler (chair),
Holly "Writes about Way Freaky Faeries and Does It Damn Well" Black,
Angela "Even looking at the cover of The First Part Last makes me a little weepy" Johnson,
Carolyn "Ferocious Girls" Mackler,
and Cynthia "Do Not Even Tell Me You Don't Know Who This Is" Voigt.

It's a nice variety of people who know what they're doing when it comes to words for kids and teens.

Check out the website for the grown folks literature finalists. The Awards are announced November 19th in New York City.

Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Book: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Published: 2008

It’s the future. The USA is no more. Instead, North America is divided up into twelve poor, starving districts and a pampered, luxurious Capitol. Each year, as payment for a long-ago uprising, each district must send two teenagers to the Capitol, where they will compete in the Hunger Games. The winner gets fame, riches, comfort for the rest of their lives, and prizes for their district. The twenty-three losers get bloody death and a plain wooden box. The Games are merciless, brutal, dehumanizing, and aired on national televison.

Katniss Everdeen is horrified when her treasured little sister is chosen as one of the contestants, and offers herself in her place without a second thought. She and her fellow contestant, Peeta, aren’t considered to be real contenders. The winners usually come from the (comparatively) richer districts, not the coal-mining and always-on-the-edge-of-extinction District 12. It’s a death sentence, but it’s one she’ll gladly shoulder for her sister’s sake.

Her life is complicated (like it needs it!) by Peeta, whose love for her has been seized upon by the Gamemakers as an angle for the audience. But are his feelings true, or just another kind of bait waiting for the switch?

As the Games go on and she becomes, to her own surprise, a real contender, the stakes get higher and higher. Soon Kat must confront the real question--lose the Games? or lose herself?

I’ve been hearing about this book for awhile. Doubtless you have too. The buzz is fast and furious. I always get a little skeptical when so many people rave about a book. Can it be that good?

Yes. It can.

The Hunger Games is not a perfect book, but there’s a lot to love about it. Kat is gutsy, intelligent, and the perfect mix of soft-hearted and clear-headed. Her constant awareness of the audience and the sponsors affect her actions as strongly as the threat that’s right in front of her, inviting comparisons to the reality shows that reportedly inspired the novel. She also never loses sight of the fact that even though she may forge temporary alliances, every other person in the arena is (or should be) out to get her.

The Games themselves are written as long periods of strategizing and assessment of your opponent (plus paranoia, hunger, cold, and fear), interspersed with abrupt and terrifying bouts of violence. Underneath all the action, there’s always the awareness that the Games are indeed nothing more than a game to viewers in the Capitol, and Kat’s rising anger at that fact comes to a head toward the end.

Finally, the ending. It comes a little quickly, but since it leaves you slavering for the remainder of the proposed trilogy, I’m not sure I’d call that a misstep on Collins’ part. I won’t give away any spoilers, but I will say that Kat is forever changed by what occurred in the arena. You get the sense that the choices she had to make, for good or ill, are going to haunt her for a long time coming.

This thought-provoking, horrifying, and complex book stays with you long after you close it.

WANT.

From Wired Magazine via Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. Click on through for a story about the lucky bas--uh, duck--who owns this library all for himself.

Book Review: Paper Towns by John Green

Book: Paper Towns
Author: John Green
Published: On shelves today

As a kid, Quentin Jacobsen was infatuated with his best friend, the fascinating Margo Roth Speigelman. Now seniors in high school, they’ve drifted into different social strata and he’s still infatuated. So much so that when she appears at his window late one school night on a mission for revenge and in need of a driver for same, he ditches responsibility and fires up the minivan. Through a night of clothing theft, eyebrow removal, and dead fish, Quentin believes that he’s reconnected with the Margo he once knew, and everything will be different now.

But the next day at school, she’s nowhere to be found. As the Margo-less days pass, Quentin becomes convinced that she’s about to do something drastic. Furthermore, he’s the only one who can assemble the clues and save her from herself. But as his search takes him further into the life Margo left behind, he starts to wonder--did he ever really know her?

Did anybody?

I’m always a little worried about reading books by people I know. Now I realize that watching somebody’s vlog is not the same as really getting to know them--it’s mostly a one-way street. Still, they feel like somebody you know, and you wonder if you can stop hearing their voice and hear the characters’ instead. Overall, Green succeeds with this book.

Green’s writing really shines in the character of Margo Roth Speigelman (try saying “Margo” without adding “Roth Speigelman” now. Just try it. They’re permanently linked.) She’s exactly as mysterious, intoxicating, and intriguing to us as to Quentin. Q himself is very much in the vein of Green’s other main character/narrators, young men standing warily on the line between childhood and adulthood and just getting an inkling of the confusing, painful, demanding, joyful mess they’re about to walk into.

Try Paper Towns for a book about the way we think about people, and how deceptive that image can be.

It's the Last Day for the Cybils Nominations!

Just like I said up there. You've only got until midnight to express your love and devotion for your favorite books of the year! Is there a book in one of these categories that you can't imagine living without?

From the Cybils blog:

The genres: Easy Readers, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels, Middle Grade Novels, Non-Fiction Middle Grade/Young Adult Books, Non-Fiction Picture Books, Poetry, Young Adult Novels.

Has it not been nominated yet? Then go nominate, you silly person!

Blog the Vote!

Lee Wind over at I'm Here, I'm Queer, What the Hell Do I Read? and Colleen Mondor of Chasing Ray are putting together another initiative, this one called Blog the Vote! Quotage of the fundamentals:

Blog the Vote is a one day Kid and Adult Lit Blogger Event, where we all blog on Monday Nov. 3rd about the importance of voting on Tuesday Nov. 4th.

Blog the Vote is about sharing WHY it's important to vote. It's about the issues that will be decided by whoever wins this election . . .

Blog the Vote is not, however, about hate-speech or being rude - posts that overstep into nastiness won't be linked on the master list.

What's this got to do with kidlit?

This is about encouraging young voters to get out there and affect their own government. This is about determining the direction of the country that our kids (of all ages) are going to live in for the next four years, if not longer.

So join in!

(Double posted to Kid Tested, Librarian Approved. Apologies if you're seeing this twice!

Classics vs. Popular?

Okay, as a recovering English major, I'm really torn on this one.

Check out What's So Great About Shakespeare Anyway? It's an opinion piece where the author begs literature teachers to give the dusty classics a rest and get on board with great new YA stuff. (How new, and how YA, we can argue another time, since she cites only The Giver, The Lovely Bones, and The Secret Life of Bees. Lowry is good stuff, for sure, but I can think of numerous others.)

Now ordinarily I would be jumping for joy, since yes! I do think that teachers should incorporate contemporary literature in their classrooms, both for the appeal and because they do confront thorny issues.

What gets me is that the author seems to view classics as being opposed to contemporary lit, i.e. it's one or the other. As someone who read and loved the complete works of Jane Austen (minus Mansfield Park; bleaaaah!!) as well as knowing my library's YA and children's sections up, down, and sideways, I'm more in favor of using a mix. The reason the classics are great is because they still speak to many. The reason modern lit is great is the same reason.

What are your thoughts?

From the Annals of Ludicrousity . . .

Harry Potter sock yarn.

Oh yes.

One presumes that actual socks knitted out of this actual yarn will never get lost, or at the very least, scream if they get too smelly. Or is that too much to hope for?

Thanks to Bookshelves of Doom for the link.

PS Does the word "annals" just sound dirty in itself to anybody else? No? Just me then.

Slate Slideshow!

I enjoy Slate's slideshows about kidlit. This latest one was put together by Erica of Pajamazon and is titled, Mom, What's a Credit Default Swap? Books to read your children during a financial crisis. She points out,

A review of popular American children's books of the past century reveals a recurring theme in the children's publishing industry: When times are tough, cue the stories about times that were even tougher.

Interesting. I have to admit I never thought of that myself, but it makes sense. Check it out, and maybe get some titles for your own worried kids.

Night Bites at Readergirlz!

It's October again, and you know what that means.

Cybils?

Well, yes, but something else.

Trying to come up with a good costume all month and finally giving up and draping a sheet over your head like last year?

Something else.

Telling everybody you have a million trick-or-treaters so that's why you just bought a metric ton of fun-size Snickers?

Shut up, inner me.

No.

It's the month that contains Teen Read Week, and the Readergirlz have a lineup of cool events planned, including chats with Mitali Perkins, Holly Black, Ally Carter, Maureen Johnson, and others! Check it out.

Also have a gander at this awesome video:



Zowie. Head on over to the Readergirlz website for all the fun.

Thanks to Interactive Reader for the link.

The Fug Girls Are At It Again . . .

They're ragging on Twilight again, this time the theatrical poster. I need a sixty-second laugh-myself-silly break now.

Book Review: The Devouring - Sorry Night by Simon Holt

Book: The Devouring - Sorry Night
Author: Simon Holt
Published: 2008

With an AWOL mother and a father who might as well be gone too, Regina’s carrying more burdens than she knows what to do with. Escape into Lovecraft or Poe or even a good slasher flick are a welcome escape, because she knows she can always close the book or stop the DVD.

Then she finds a journal detailing another girl’s terrifying experience with incorporeal beings she calls “Vours,” evil creatures that feed on fear and take up possession in a human body. At first, Regina thinks it’s the rough draft of a never-published novel. But then her little brother Henry starts acting strange. Inhuman, almost . . .

Now Regina’s got to battle her own fears to rescue her little brother, or they’ll both be lost forever.

I don’t usually read horror, but The Devouring: Sorry Night caught me firmly and held me on the couch until I hit the last page, with its promises of evil only temporarily vanquished. It gets pretty gory and sick at times (in particular, don’t read the hospital scene when eating) but teen horror fans will love it.

Read this with all the lights on.

Oh fer . . .

I ran across this article in my Google Alerts about children's lit, and I found it a fundamentally flawed study. Let me say this: it's one book. I'm the last person to say it's impossible that a book can change a kid's life, but this is pushing it.

In a nutshell: a study was conducted with overweight preteens. Some were given a book with an unhappily overweight protagonist. Others were given a book with a normal-weight protagonist. A third group wasn't given any book.

There are a number of things it doesn't take into account. Losing weight includes lifestyle changes that (especially for kids) never exist in a vacuum. Case in point:

For the study, the Duke University researchers recruited 31 obese girls between 9 to 13 years of age, who had already signed up in the Healthy Lifestyles Program at Duke Children's Hospital. Italics mine.

These were girls who already wanted to make a positive change in their health (or their parents wanted them to). It's not as if they plucked kids off the street and changed their entire outlook on life with one book.

In a telling omission, it touts the 71% statistic of kids who read the first book, but doesn't mention the change in weight for the other two groups.

It may be the writing of the article that makes it sound like one book was the deciding factor, but to me, this study is reducing children's lit to manipulation, and children themselves to paper dolls.

Grrr.

Book Review: Impossible by Nancy Werlin

Book: Impossible
Author: Nancy Werlin
Published: 2008

All Lucy Scarborough wanted to do was go to prom. Dance, eat rubber chicken, kiss her date, have fun. But the evening turns nightmarish when her date rapes her and runs away to crash his car into a tree and kill himself.

Horrible, but only one night, right? Wrong. Lucy’s pregnant. Worse than that, she’s just discovered that she’s the most recent in a long line of women, all cursed to bear a daughter at the age of eighteen and surrendered their sanity to a merciless Elfin Knight. The only way to escape is to complete three impossible tasks before her baby is born.

No woman in her family has ever managed it before, but Lucy is determined to break the cycle--for herself, for her daughter, and for the poor, insane mother that she only sees sporadically. She’s got assistance, in the form of her loving foster parents and her lifelong best friend, Zach. But will that be enough?

It has to be.

When I picked this book up at BEA, the person manning the booth told it me was a story about a pregnant teenager. To which I say, Impossible is about a pregnant teenager in the same way that Hamlet is about a guy who’s a little down these days. Technically true, but there’s so much more to the story.

Pitchforked from innocent high-schooler to young mother fighting for her child’s future and her own, Lucy makes the trip with equal measures of fear and strength. Werlin makes a strong point that Lucy is luckier than her ancestresses, because she does have the love and support of her family. Zach especially becomes the one person without whom she would never succeed. Yet it is Lucy’s inner strength that pulls her though.

This is a story about a pregnant teenager, but it’s also about family, about the true meaning of love, and about doing the impossible because the alternative is unthinkable. Lucy’s quest is a compelling and fascinating one, especially for kids who are just starting to realize what adulthood is going to mean.

P.S. Be prepared to get Simon and Garfunkel stuck in your head for days, since “Scarborough Fair” is the traditional folk song on which Lucy’s impossible tasks are based.

Sit Tight . . .

Apparently, Blogger has flagged Kid Tested Librarian Approved as a spam blog (?!) and locked it down until they can review it. I'm not sure why. If you're trying to get to it, I'll let you know as soon as everything gets sorted out. Sorry guys . . .

Another Unshelved Recommendation

Check this week's Unshelved Book Club for a neat cartoon booktalk of David Lubar's classic Hidden Talents. Mostly they do adult books, but every so often a great YA or kid's book will slip in.

This Looks Hopeful

Smart Bitches Trashy Books alerted me to a very good review at CNN of "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," otherwise known as "It Was a Fabulous Book, O Dear God Please Don't Let Hollywood Ruin It."

Key Quote:

so much goes down on Nick and Norah's one enchanted evening that the best advice is to enjoy the ride -- the actual ride -- around this vibrant new New York.

Anyone up for a trip to the movies?

Diablo Cody and Judy Blume

Not sure how I missed this when it came out, but here is a neat little interview with Juno writer Diablo Cody about her love of all things Judy Blume.

This quote encapsulates a lot of Blume's enduring appeal at the time she first started writing and even today:

Every other book written for kids my age was sunny, upbeat, and about as subtle as a bullhorn-wielding camp counselor. Blume's stuff had an edge; it was grimly hilarious and worthy of my attention.

Go have a look-see.

Michael & Kat's Infinite Interview

Leila over at Bookshelves of Doom posted a link to this interview at the Onion's AV Club with Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, otherwise known as Movie Nick and Movie Norah. While longish, I liked what it showed about the movie, the characters, and the actors' involvement with both.

AVC: The book apparently has more boozing and drugs and swearing—

KD: Just swearing.

MC: Not boozing and drugs.

KD: Nick and Norah are straight-edge.

Hee. For some reason, I liked that little exchange, in which they are so insistent on this important element of their characters (the straight-edge-ness) that they're practically talking over each other. It makes me hopeful for their versions of Nick and Norah.

Reading Roundup September 2008

Notice anything missing? With the opening of Kid Tested, Librarian Approved, I decided to move the preschool books portion of this roundup over there. This, of course, means more pointless and silly Because I Want To Awards for everyone!

By the Numbers
Teen: 25
Tween: 8
Children: 10

Standouts
Teen: Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher
Tween: Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale
Children: Clementine's Letter by Sara Pennypacker

Because I Want To Awards
I So Should Not Have Read This During My Lunch Break: Dead High Yearbook by Ivan Velez
Prompted Fangirl Screams of Joy Upon Acquisition and Then Read in Three Hours: Chalice by Robin McKinley
Most Wrenching: TIE Nothing by Robin Friedman and The Smell of Old-Lady Perfume by Claudia Guadalupe Martinez
Made Me Want to Go Rent Movies: Keep Your Eye on the Kid: The Early Years of Buster Keaton by Catherine Brighton

Cybils Nominations are Open!

As of this morning, everyone should stampede on over to the Cybils website and nominate your favorites!

In a nutshell:

On Oct. 1, we publish all nine genres* as separate posts. You leave your nomination in the comments section of each post.

Having trouble? Feel free to email anne (at) bookbuds (dot) net with questions or complaints.

*The genres: Easy Readers, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels, Middle Grade Novels, Non-Fiction Middle Grade/Young Adult Books, Non-Fiction Picture Books, Poetry, Young Adult Novels.

Here are the rest of the rules.

I was a YA judge last year and it was a great experience. This year, I'm on the Fiction Picture Book judging committee, so find some great books for me to read!

Why are you still reading this? Off you go!

Conference AfterParty! With Pictures!

As promised, pictures! It's always a jolt to meet other bloggers in person. Some will put their picture up, but often they won't, so you feel as if you know this person very well but you've never seen their face. I knew some people from last year, but I met new ones this year.


Farida Dowler (Alkelda the Gleeful) at Happy Hour with a hot toddy, which delighted me no end, even considering that the reason for the hot toddy was a horrible cold.


At dinner, I sat at a table full of writers, mostly of picture books. We all bought raffle tickets and fantastic prizes were raffled off. The money raised went to a good cause whose name I cannot quite recall. Here's a shot of the winningest table, as they celebrate over yet another one of their numbers being called.


After dinner, we took a group photo (see yesterday's post) and then toted all our winnings back to the hotel bar to celebrate with the Readergirlz as they welcomed their new diva, Holly Cupala. Pam Coughlan (MotherReader), Lorie Ann Grover (writer and Readergirl) and Lee Wind (I'm Here, I'm Queer, What the Hell Do I Read?) in a candid shot.


Betsy Bird (Fuse #8) and sock-puppet Edward Cullen. Uh, does she look a little pale to you?


Clare Bell and handmade friend. Isn't that the neatest?

I didn't take many more pictures, as I was much more involved in hanging out with Jackie, Pam, Lee, and various others. It was a great conference, and as always with conferences, the best fun was just meeting everyone, talking about the things we loved best, and throwing ideas around.

Next year's conference is slated for DC, and Pam Coughlan of MotherReader has volunteered to organize it. See you all there!

Book Review: Masterpiece by Elise Broach

Book: Masterpiece
Author: Elise Broach
Published: On shelves today

Marvin and James share an apartment, but they’ve never traded so much as a “hello.” That’s because James is a human boy and Marvin is a beetle.

Their friendship starts the day that Marvin uses James’ new ink set to draw him a perfect copy of the view from the boy’s window, in miniature, of course. James is delighted with the gift for its own sake, but when his mother spots it, he has to lie that he drew it. Of course, this plunges both him and Marvin into a web of lies about about his supposed genius for miniatures.

They wind up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the lies get bigger as James and his “gift” are drafted to help with an elaborate sting meant to catch art thieves with a faked Albrecht Dürer, the Renaissance master of miniatures. Of course, even that’s not the end of it. How will James and Marvin ever get themselves out of this one?

As complex and confusing as I’m making this sound, there’s one theme that anchors this story, and everything else is pretty much window dressing. Dürer and art theft aside, it’s really about the friendship between James and Marvin. Even though they’ve just met and they never exchange a single word, it clearly runs deep from the very first moment, and both characters will go further for each other than they ever would for themselves.

Bugs, adventure, friendship . . . this is a great book for just about any kid.

New Outfit!

If you're reading this on the webpage, you'll notice that I changed up the design. I've been feeling like it was time for a change, and I hadn't yet updated from a "template" to a "layout" in Blogger. It's much easier.

What do you guys think of the new look?

Kidlit 08 Conference Summary

I was an idiot and left my camera upstairs until midway through the (first) Happy Hour. So this post will be augmented with pictures I've snatched from other bloggers.

The first session was a panel discussion with authors, bloggers, and a podcaster about bridging books and blogs. It included Mark Blevis (Just One More Book!), writers and Readergirlz Alice Pope, Dia Calhoun, and Lorie Ann Grover, and Betsy "Fuse #8" Bird. They talked about the ways blogs are working to publicize books (new and old). We even had a comment from Eric Kimmel (I know! That Eric Kimmel!). Big excitement.

The second was a presentation by Jackie Parker (Interactive Reader) and Colleen Mondor (Chasing Ray and Guy's Lit Wire), about doing group events like the Winter Blog Blast Tour. There was much snark and banter to be had, which Jackie assured me was not practiced or planned and was in fact the SOP whenever they're together, be it online or in person.

The next two sessions were breakouts, and I hit MotherReader's Better Blog session. Such was the appeal of this session that there were people sitting on the floor at her feet, like acolytes.

Immediately following, Jen Robinson, Sarah Stevenson, and Jackie Parker all ganged up to talk about how the Cybils will work, and to urge us to participate. I asked how effective the Cybils had been so far in their aim to recognize quality books with kid appeal, and Jen pointed out that teachers and librarians love the shortlists and publishers are actually putting "Cybils nominee!" in their catalogs. Hurrah! More on Cybilation in a later post.

Lunch was had at the hotel restaurant. I hung out with Deb Lund, Susan Blackaby, Christine Fletcher, Emily Whitman, Nancy Arruda, and Kim Baise, all authors and/or publishers. I did my fantastic impersonation of a ditzy fangirl for Christine Fletcher, whose historical YA Ten Cents a Dance I just finished last week and loved.

The afternoon kicked off with a discussion between Jen Robinson and Laini Taylor about the relationship between authors and reviewers. Another blog (Sara Ryan's, I believe) pointed out that what Jen was saying about how authors and publicists should approach reviewers was incredibly similar to what common wisdom says about unpublished authors approaching editors. Find out what we like. Don't just send things blindly. Don't pester with "have you read the book yet?" Interestink.

Greg Pincus taught us all how to optimize our blogs for the happy accident using tagging, proper post titling, and social networking. Look for me to become downright obnoxious on Facebook now.

I stopped into the Group Blog session with the Class of 2k8 and 2k9, which by the way is about the most interesting and efficient method I've ever seen of doing lots and lots of homegrown publicity. I know I've got books in my Blue Journal that I might not have even heard of if the Classes of 2k8/9 weren't around.

The last structured event for the day was the author meet and greet. I scored books from Alma Alexander (ee!), Clare Bell, Matthew Holm, Zu Vincent, and April Henry. These went into my bag to nestle next to the books I'd gotten earlier from Barbara Shoup and Emily Wing Smith. Not to make you envious or anything.

After-party stuff tomorrow! With more pictures!

The Bibliovore Has Even More to Say

So I was hanging out at a table last night, imbibing beverages liberally, and I mentioned an idea I had for a blog name: Kid Tested, Librarian Approved. The chorus of, "Get that blog name right now before somebody else does!" darn near deafened me. But I thought, "I have a blog! What do I need a new one for?"

Then I realized--when I branched out into picture books, I started posting at two ends of a spectrum. There are people reading this blog who probably don't want to see YA reviews but they do like the picture book reviews, and vice versa. It's not your fault I can't make up my mind.

So with that in mind, I decided to create Kid Tested, Librarian Approved. That blog will focus on picture book and early reader news and reviews, and Confessions of a Bibliovore will continue with the MG/YA news and reviews.

Oh, and further conference news and unflattering pictures coming soon!

Taking a Breather

The meat of the day is over with, as far as the conference goes, and right now is listed as "Happy Hour and Drinks," with "Buffet Dinner" following.

After a full day of listening to people talk about the kidlitosphere, talking to people about the kidlitosphere, and meeting new faces whose blogs I've been reading for insert amount of time here, I'm taking a breather. Don't get me wrong, it's been a blast, but boy, are my batteries drained.

The neatest thing about this (job? hobby? Something like both and something like neither) is that I have an iron-clad excuse to shamelessly beg for books that aren't even out yet, and they'll be put in my hands. Muahahahahahaha.

Okay, the breather has been breathed and now I'm going to investigate the "drinks" part of the entertainment.

Conference Eve!

Is there anything more fun than hanging out with a bunch of bloggers at a bookstore and then a brewpub in downtown Portland? For tonight, I'll say no.

By the way, Powell's books?


Dangerous. Very, very dangerous.

And that's just one room. They have floors. Multiple.

Oh well, who needs money anyway?

Book Review: Sucks to Be Me by Kimberly Pauley

Book: Sucks to Be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire (Maybe)
Author: Kimberly Pauley
Published: 2008

Most kids feel like their parents have superpowers--knowledge of when trouble is a’brewin’, perhaps, or supersonic hearing for that nasty name you just called your little brother. In Mina Hamilton’s case, it’s true. Her parents have super-hearing, don’t need to sleep, and always look good--just a few of the side effects of being vampires.

It’s something Mina’s always known but never given much thought to, until the day they sit her down and tell her that the Vampire Council says she has a month to make up her mind. Is she going to live out her life as a vampire, or a human? No pressure or anything.

Mina’s on the fence, and the vampire candidate classes she has to go to twice a week aren’t so much helping. If she chooses vampirism, she has to leave behind the human world, including her best friend. But if she stays human, she’ll not only lose her parents, she’ll lose all memory of them.

What’s a possible teen vampire to do?

With little notes on vampire myths and truths at the head of each chapter (my favorite was MYTH: Vampires have no reflection. TRUTH: That’s silly. How would you check your makeup?) and cute sketches of smiling bats and vampy faces, Pauley sets a cheerful, Princess Diaries tone that keeps this book bouncing along. While darker undercurrents in vampire society are alluded to, she wisely concentrates on the fun. Mina’s not battling evil here, just questions about how much to tell her best friend and what to do about the three (count ‘em) guys in her life, two of whom are in on the vamp secret.

I really liked that her parents weren’t pressuring her one way or the other--in fact, they’re determined not to influence her decision. Together with her Uncle Mortie, they form a loving family unit, the basis of Pauley’s tongue-in-cheek approach to vampirism, and an antidote to the brooding vamps of myth and legend. No cut-glass cheekbones, black capes, or widow’s peaks in this crowd--Uncle Mortie is a balding door-to-door salesman and Dad is an accountant with a fondness for Italian food, the more garlic the better.

To me, Mina reads a little younger than a senior in high school, but that’s okay, because (except for one euw-inducing vampire-sex talk from Mom) this book is clean enough to give out to middle-schoolers. While this novel is complete in itself, I would read a sequel, just to see how Mina’s life changes after her decision (no spoilers!).

Light-hearted and sweet-natured, this book is a sure hit with those kids that prefer laughs over angst with their blood-suckers.

Book Review: Born Too Short by Dan Elish

Book: Born Too Short: Confessions of an Eighth Grade Basket Case
Author: Dan Elish
Published: 2002

Keith Livingston is tall, handsome, and smart. He gets girls with the flick of a finger. He’s the star of every team he’s on. He’s written an entire rock opera, for God’s sake. Short, nerdy, awkward Matt Greene is in the worst possible position relative to Keith--he’s the Best Friend.

Matt feels horrible for being jealous of everything Keith has, but he just can’t seem to help himself. After the premiere of the famous rock opera, when he has to watch his date drool after Keith the entire night and listen to everyone else talk about how musically talented Keith is (news flash: he only knows four chords, and Matt has studied classical guitar for years!), he can’t take it anymore. He wishes--screams, actually--that Keith’s perfect life would fall apart.

And then it does.

As if to make matters worse, just as Keith is hitting the downslope, Matt’s life is looking up. But he can’t enjoy it properly while his best buddy is so miserable. If wishes really do come true, this is all his fault.

I kind of wondered if I was going to like this book. Matt’s jealousy is a toxic creature that infects everything in the first pages. Of course, at the beginning, Keith truly is obnoxious in all his successes, which makes Matt’s jealousy understandable. But as the story progresses, Matt’s personal growth allows him to show us the really good side of Keith that forms the basis of their friendship.

There are references to sex and drinking that make me hesitate to hand this over to every middle schooler, but I think the majority of them could handle it. Overall, this is a fast-moving, funny believable tale of how a real friendship can survive anything.

Talk Like a Pirate Day is Here!

. . . for about four more hours, according to my clock. In honor of what's probably my favorite holiday, here's a hilarious little vid for y'all.



Thanks to Zooglobble for the heads-up. Arrrrr!

Got Your Towel?

Word is that Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer is set to write the next book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I love Eoin Colfer's books, that's for sure, but I always felt that Douglas Adams had such an individual voice and outlook that it would be impossible to duplicate.

What do you guys think?

I'm so Judgemental

The Cybils judges have been announced and--hooray! I got named as one of the Fiction Picture Book judges! Check out the company I'll be keeping come judgin' time:

Category Organizer

Pamela Coughlan, Mother Reader

Panelists (Round I):

Cheryl Rainfield, Cheryl Rainfield

Stephanie Ford, The Children's Literature Book Club

Travis Jonker, 100 Scope Notes

Melissa Wiley, Here In The Bonny Glen

Round II Judges:

Erica Perle, Pajamazon

Emily Beeson, Whimsy and Deliciously Clean Reads

Maureen Kearney, Confessions of a Bibliovore

Anne-Marie Nichols, My Readable Feast

Stefan Shepherd, Zooglobble

Check out the Cybils site for the other categories and judges. The nominations (that's where you out there in Internetlandia come in) start October 1, so start perusing the shelves for your favorites of 2008.

Scieszka in Scouting Magazine

My dad, who's been a Scoutmaster for fifteen years and thus has worked with more teenage boys than you can shake a stick at, sent me this article from Scouting Magazine.

For most booky people, the article contains nothing really new. What I liked about it enough to post is that Scieszka's succeeding in his Ambassadorial goal--that is, getting the word out, not just to educators and librarians, but to the people who work with kids outside of schools and libraries. If these people absorb and transmit the message that reading is a) fun and b) part of life even when you're not getting graded on it, than maybe it has a better chance of sinking in for the kids themselves.

Odds and Ends

Also known as "cleaning out the Google Reader starred items."

1. Bookfest! A fest, with books! And Betsy Bird! If you can go, I'll be desperately jealous.

2. Funny Book Awards! Erm . . . the books are funny, not the award. Well, maybe the award is as well . . . Ignore my blathering and check out the shortlist of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize over at Kidslit. Thanks, Tasha!

3. Pretty buttons! Get 'em while they're hot!

4. Hungry-making poster The Readergirlz have a poster for Teen Read Week, and it's a little freaky.

5. Interview with Maurice Sendak I just keep learning more and more about this guy.

I had a couple more, about Dionne Warwick and Lauren Conrad, but let's not and say we didn't.

Further Evidence of My Extreme Dorkitude

This totally slays me. I mean, falling off the chair, lint in my hair, ribs-aching, slays me. It is so nerdy that it actually succumbs to Einsteinian physics and becomes cool.

Enjoy.

Join the Party!

Hey guys, check out the list of people who are going to be at the second Annual Kidlitosphere Conference in two weeks! Are you on that list?

*fish eyes*

Well? Are you??

See you in two weeks!

Book Review: Nothing by Robin Friedman

Book: Nothing
Author: Robin Friedman
Published: 2008

Parker “You Don’t Look Jewish” Rabinowitz seems to have it all. He’s gorgeous, smart, active in his community, athletic, and popular with both guys and girls. It all comes without any apparent effort. Of course, nobody knows about his secret binges and his equally secret purges, when all the pressure and the terrible feelings of inadequacy go swirling down the toilet, leaving him cleansed and able to deal until the next time.

He manages to keep it under wraps at first. But then his dad gets breast cancer, his grades start to slip, and his new girlfriend wants to get closer. The pressure mounts, until Parker has gone from purging a few times a week to three times a day. Something’s got to give.

It may be Parker himself.

Friedman does something interesting in telling this story both from the inside and the outside. Poems from his little sister Danielle, both chafing and basking in his shadow, show the perfect facade that starts to develop cracks and then full-blown canyons. Though she knows something’s wrong, she doesn’t know what to do about it or who to tell, and so is as helpless as Parker himself in the face of his disorder.

As to what it’s like inside Parker’s head, well, that’s a pretty screwed-up place. Friedman’s POV is so intimate that you understand how little he thinks of himself and how hard he’s fighting to live up to the Parker Rabinowitz image, even if it means destroying himself in the process.

At first, Parker’s Jewish background seemed incidental, but then I realized it was just another part of the disconnect between what he really is and how the world perceives him. I wasn’t being flippant up there in the first line--Parker’s apparent non-Jewishness is commented on by almost everyone who meets him for the first time, and his dad wants him to go to Princeton because Harvard and Yale are too Jewish.

10% of all reported cases of anorexia and bulimia are men. This is a deeply moving story about one of the lucky ones.

Terry Pratchett Interview

Publisher's Weekly had a nice Q&A with Terry Pratchett, author of the most serious funny books out there. In this quote, he talks about his audience:

Yes, for this one I was assuming that the bulk of the readers’ ages would probably be into double figures so there was no reason to hold back on some of the horror.

Love. There's respect for the YA audience inherent in that statement. At the same time, there's an implied expectation, like, "Well, they're getting closer to adulthood so they'd better learn to handle this stuff."

Granted, I do wonder how much actual YA audience Pratchett has for his YA books (the Tiffany Aching series and this new one, Nation), but I think his writing, whether it's labeled YA or not, has appeal for a certain kind of teen, the ones who like to pick things apart and look at them upside down.

What do you think?

Book Review: Good Enough by Paula Yoo

Book: Good Enough
Author: Paula Yoo
Published: 2008

Patti has spent her entire life as a PKD (Perfect Korean Daughter). She’s a “B-tier” violin prodigy, locked in a dead heat for valedictorian, never so much as squeaked a rebellion, practicing the SATs until she can break that magical 2300, and in the process of applying to HarvardYalePrinceton (and other Ivies as safety schools). Still, there’s no resting on her laurels. No matter what she does, her parents push her to improve.

Then she meets Ben (aka “Cute Trumpet Guy”) and discovers that none of those things matter to him. SAT, GPA, Ivies, success, accolades, laurels, they’re all just words and what he likes is Patti herself. Is it possible that she is good enough all on her own?

I loved a lot of things about this book. Here they are, in no particular order.

First, (spoiler!) Patti did not get the guy--neither the one she wants nor the one I thought for sure was waiting in the wings. Paula Yoo seems to understand that Patti trading PKD status for girlfriend status would have simply traded one label in for another, and Patti needs to move beyond fulfilling predetermined roles to discover her own identity.

Second, Patti’s parents. While they exert insane pressure on Patti, Yoo also does a good job of humanizing them. A lot of authors wouldn’t have shown the late night family snacks of Spam and ramen noodles (um . . . yummy?) or the stories of their past in Korea. These touches, as well as others, turns them from 2-D characters who just want bragging rights into loving parents who truly do want the best for their daughter.

Third, Patti doesn’t come into the story with no passions of her own. Her love of the violin and making music is like a pilot light, burning quietly while her identity takes shape. While her parents do urge her on, you can clearly see the joy and freedom she feels when she plays, even at the beginning of the book.

My only gripe is that, small Asian population or not, I don’t know if a modern-day high school would have stood for the outrageous racial slurs that Patti encounters, such as a popular girl dressing up as a geisha for Halloween and spouting, “Me no speak Engrish” in the hallways. Of course, I’m neither Asian nor in high school, so I might be off on that one.

What can I say? Funny, accessible, thoughtful . . . I loved this book.

Today's Giggle . . .

. . . is brought to you by the ladies at Oops . . . Wrong Cookie.

I have to cast my vote for Jewel's masterpiece, which has the added bonus of being the most likely title on this whole list to actually be written, oh god, save us please.

Reading Roundup August 2008

This was a low month for kids' books, because I went on vacation and took a stack of Jennifer Crusie novels, which are great fun for anyone over the age of eighteen. However, what I did read was good stuff. The tweens category especially had me tearing my hair out, trying to pick just one standout. I've done ties before, but I think a six-way tie is a bit much, don't you?

By the Numbers
Total Number Read: 41
Teen: 18
Tween: 12
Children: 13
Preschool: 8

Standouts
Teen: Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Peña
Tween: Leap of Faith by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Children: The Monster in the Backpack by Lisa Moser
Preschool: Every Friday by Dan Yaccarino

Because I Want To Awards
Best Book About a Beetle, a Boy, a Forgery, and a Friendship: Masterpiece by Elise Broach (no, seriously, review coming soon)
Dad-Blast It, Now I Have to Read the Whole Series: Worldweavers: Gift of the Unmage by Alma Alexander
How Did I Miss This?: I Rode a Horse of Milk-White Jade by Diane Lee Wilson
Sucked Me In: Far From Xanadu by Julie Anne Peters