REVIEW: Bink & Gollie: Two for One (A light tale of friendship)

Yay, first post of 2014!  Happy new year, few but dear readers!  May your year be filled with many enjoyable books, but no paper cuts!

One of my resolutions for the year is to try and focus more on my writing.  I may try to post about my progress on my blog to help keep myself accountable.  Another goal will be to post more about what I have been reading.  And with that goal in mind, here's my first review of the year...

DiCamillo, K., & McGhee, A.  (2012).  Bink & Gollie:  Two for One.  Somerville, MA:  Candlewick Press.

80 pages.

Appetizer:  Bink and Gollie decide to tackle the state fair.  But there's a chance the fair may not be ready for the two friends.  In three short episodic chapters, Bink attempts to win the world's largest donut, Gollie appears in a talent show, and they both visit a fortune teller.  At the heart of all three stories is a sense of friendship and love and support.

I loved the first Bink and Gollie book and I actually think I enjoyed Two for One even more.  Set on an ordinary day and in relatable experiences, the illustrations and word choices and humor and delight to the story.  I giggled in surprise when Bink's first ball toss didn't hit its intended mark:

The illustrations are in black and white with a accents of color.  (I know that as a wee child, I would have wanted photocopied pages to color in the rest of the scenes.)  They include a lot of signs and cues that an adult can point out to kids to help them read both the written text and the images.  A teacher could emphasize some of the vocabulary and idioms (like fearing "this can only end in tragedy" or "in a manner of speaking."

I also love the different characterizations of Bink and Gollie (and this would be a good book to start a discussion of characterization or foils with young kids).  From their size differences, clothes and language choices, and attitudes they're easy to contrast.

Dinner Conversation:

Tasty Rating:  !!!!

REVIEW: a + e 4EVER

Mercy, I.  (2011).  a + e 4 EVER.  Maple Shade, NJ:  Lethe Press, Inc.

Appetizer:  Ash is the new kid at McMillan High.  He's attracting a lot of attention due to the fact that he looks very effeminate.  The only friend he manages to make initially is Eu, a fellow artist.  Any potential romantic relationship between the two is complicated by the fact that Ash fears being touched (aphenphosmphobia!) and also has a slightly too touchy-feelie relationship with his sister, Lena.  As Ash has his first sexual encounters, experiments with drugs, and starts acting in a play, it becomes uncertain whether his and Eu's friendship can survive.

I was really excited to read a + e 4EVER because of the beautiful art work, but when I actually sat down and did it, I was a little overwhelmed.  Generally, I consider myself to be very good at reading graphic novels, but some of the fonts were hard to decipher.  At times, I couldn't tell who was talking or thinking.  This was unfortunate, especially since a + e 4EVER is a little more text heavy than many other graphic novels.

I personally also had some trouble relating to the content.  The drug use and the fact that a character's first sexual encounter occurred while on drugs (and was essentially rape), were really hard for me to read.  I completely understand that these are the realities of some readers and I'm so glad they're depicted here, but it made the book difficult for me to read.  Even the consensual sex was more explicit than in most YA novels.  (It really made me wonder if this was more of a crossover book, intended for adults but picked-up by teens.)

So, my concerns with this book are kind of major, but I'm also passionate about some of a + e 4EVER's strengths:  It demonstrates the inadequacies of labeling people, it gives voice to many experiences that are ignored in most books, it's brutally honest and realistic, and as an extension of that, the graphic novel's ending is 100% believable.

So, yeah, I left the book with mixed feelings.  But it's a book that I'd love to hear others' thoughts about.

Dinner Conversation:

Tasty Rating:  !!

2012 #Cybils Finalists Announced!

To welcome in the new year, the finalists for the 2012 Cybils Awards have been announced.

I'll be helping to select the winner in the YA fiction category.

The finalists are:

I've already read two of them and based on my enjoyment of Code Name Verity and I Hunt Killers, my fellow judges and I are going to have some difficult but awesomely fun work ahead of us.

For more information on the winners and to see the other Cybils Award categories, check-out the Cybils website.

Let the book discussing commence!  What a wonderful way to begin the new year.  Happy 2013!

Audiobook Review: Dear Mr. Henshaw

Cleary, B.  (2009).  Dear Mr. Henshaw.  New York:  Harper Collins Publishers.

1 hour 44 minutes.

While I was asking some previous students about their favorite childhood reads, Dear Mr. Henshaw by the great Beverly Cleary was mentioned a few times.  Based on the cover and title, I--ever so cleverly--deduced that it was somehow related to writing and just miiiiiiiight be worth checking-out.

My hypothesis proved true!  Dear Mr. Henshaw *is* about writing and shows a young boy's development into an author.  I'm left trying to figure out how I can incorporate it into my "teaching of writing" course.

Appetizer:  Following Leigh through several school years, his parents divorce, he moves, deals with a lunch thief, struggles to make friends and develops as a writer.  Dear Mr. Henshaw is an epistolary novel, beginning with his first letters to his favorite children's author who doesn't always respond.  Inspired to write, some of Leigh's unsent letters serve a diary entries).

I was struck by how realistic the book was.  The ending is not purely happy.  There are no improbable coincidences.  People don't magical change or improve.  Nobody wins the lottery.  It's *real* or true to life.  I could imagine this being some young readers' first novel that doesn't end with "happily ever after."

In terms of the audiobook narration, Pedro Pascal clearly had an adult voice (which can sometimes be off-putting), but he did such a good job of capturing Leigh's emotions that I found the audiobook narration flowed well and didn't get in the way of my enjoyment of the story.

Now, I must find a way to incorporate Dear Mr. Henshaw into my current "teaching of writing" course...I might focus on Leigh's growth as a writer.

Tasty Rating:  !!!

REVIEW: A Monster Calls (A stunning examination of grief, recovery and story by @Patrick_Ness)

Ness, P.  (2011).  A Monster Calls.  Somerville, MA:  Candlewick Press.

206 pages.



Appetizer:  Thirteen-year-old Conor has a multitude of problems:  His mom is sick and the treatments may not be working.  His grandmother, who he doesn't get along with, is coming to the house to help.  He almost never hears from his Dad who has a new family in America.  He's bullied by three kids at school and all of the teachers and other students treats him differently because Lily, who had once been a close friend, told everyone about how ill his mom is.

Oddest of all, a monster begins to visit Conor some nights at 12:07 AM.  Surprisingly, Conor isn't frightened by it.  He has a nightmare that is far worse; one that he fears more than anything and refuses to tell anyone....

The monster insists he tell Conor three stories and in return Conor must tell him the truth of his nightmare.  The monster's stories prove strange and Conor seeks ways that they and the monster can help him with his grief and difficult situations, most important among them, saving his mother.

The characters of A Monster Calls were originally the children of Siobhan Dowd, who died far to young.  The novel I most associate with her name is Bog Child, a book that I have been meaning to review for several years.

A Monster Calls recently won two (COUNT THEM!  TWO!!!!!!  One and one equals two!...boy, am I good at math....) Carnegie Awards:  One for text and one for illustration.  I think both awards are well deserved.  It was wonderful to ease into a well-written book and the art did an amazing job of adding to the tone and eeriness of the story.  Here are some of my favorite images:

I set this one as one as one of my desktop backgrounds!

Also, if you'd like to read about the creation process for A Monster Call's, click here.

I found A Monster Calls to be a great complex read (although, certainly not a book to pick-up if you want a laugh).  It has the feel of a classic.  The way Ness deals with the emotions Conor is avoiding and enduring is beautifully done and can provide a lot of comfort to anyone who has shared some of the feelings Conor struggles with.


Dinner Conversation:

"The monster showed up just after midnight.  As they do.
Conor was awake when it came.
He'd had a nightmare.  Well, not a nightmare.  The nightmare.  The one he'd been having a lot lately.  The one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming.  The one with the hands slipping from his grasp, no matter how hard he tried to hold on." (p. 1)

"He felt a rush of panic, his guts twisting.  Had it followed him?  Had it somehow stepped out of the nightmare and--?
"Don't be stupid," he told himself.  "You're too old for monsters."
And he was.  He'd turned thirteen just last month.  Monsters were for babies.  Monsters were for bedwetters.  Monsters were for--
Conor. (pp. 2-3)

"I have come to get you, Conor O'Malley, the monster said, pushing against the house, shaking the pictures off Conor's wall, sending books and electronic gadgets and an old stuffed toy rhino tumbling to the floor.
A monster, Conor thought.  A real, honest-to-goodness monster.  In real, waking life.  Not in a dream, but here, at his window.
Come to get him.
But Conor didn't run.
In fact, he found he wasn't even frightened.
All he could feel, all he had felt since the monster revealed itself, was a growing disappointment.
Because this wasn't the monster he was expecting." (p. 8)

"The monster gave an evil grin.  The wind died down and a quiet fell.  At last, said the monster.  To the matter at hand.  The reason I have come walking.
Conor tensed, suddenly dreading what was coming.
Here is what will happen, Conor O'Malley, the monster continued, I will come to you again on further nights.
Conor felt his stomach clench, like he was preparing for a blow.
And I will tell you three stories.  Three tales from when I walked before. (p. 35)


Tasty Rating:  !!!!!

REVIEW: Why We Broke Up

Handler, D. & Kalman, M.  (2011).  Why We Broke Up.  New York:  Little, Brown and Company.

354 pages.


Why We Broke Up isn't your typical book.  Instead of the usual author blurbs describing how awesome a book is, the back cover is covered (haha) with quotations from famous YA authors (like Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, Sarah Zarr, MT Anderson, Carolyn Mackler, David Levithan etc.) describing the first time their hearts were broken.

What a wonderful touch to demonstrate that 1. a potential heartbroken reader is not alone and that 2. such pain is survivable.  Because that's what Why We Broke Up is:  an honest look at the problems and joys of a relationship between people from different cliques.


Appetizer:  Min has arranged to deliver a heavy box to Ed's front door.  The box contains everything from their less than two-month (Oct. 5-Nov. 12) relationship.  Everything.

As Min writes about the meaning of each object, the details of her and Ed's star-crossed relationship and why they broke up is revealed.

Including paintings of each object, Why We Broke Up is a loooong, slooooooow post-mordem of the relationship between 11th grade, movie-buff Min and her 12th grade, basketball co-captain, Ed.

From the beginning of their relationship, the two had almost nothing in common.  As their relationship develops--both emotionally and physically--this tension mounts and the novel serves as a very honest look at a doomed relationship.

The more I read Why We Broke Up, the more I was reminded of the Youtube video Dramatic Reading of a Break-Up Letter:

And not just because of the video's similar subject or the fact that the entire novel is told in the second person, with Ed being the intended audience.  Min's run-on sentences (which I occasionally stumbled over) started to remind me of the grammatical slip-ups in the above video.  Admittedly, Min's voice has much more poetry to it.  Plus, Min can spell.

I enjoyed Why We Broke Up a lot, but it didn't rock my world.  While there are still some darkly humorous touches one could expect from the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events (a bitter sixteenth birthday party, anyone?), the book wasn't as enjoyable as I would have expected.  I think it was the subject matter.  It's one thing to hear a brief retelling of all the hints of what contributed to the end of a relationship, it's quite another to read a 354-page play-by-play.

I was still very impressed by how honestly Handler managed to portray his female protagonist.  I liked Min's references to made-up old movies.  I found myself wishing some of those movies were real, because I would totally watch them.  I also don't think I'd mind living in the city where Handler set Why We Broke Up.  Min shopped at so many awesome and quirky stores.  If I lived in this town, I'd also be very poor.  Due to all of the shopping.  (The more I reflect on this, the more I start to realize that this novel has almost a quirky Gilmore Girls feel to it.)

The mystery of what happened between Ed and Min did carry me through.  I also liked seeing all of the paintings.  Plus, there was a lot of wonderful dialogue.  Yeah, the witty dialogue between Min and her friends definitely made the book worth-while.

Also, I want to frame some of the artwork from the novel and put it on my walls.


Dinner Conversation:

"Dear Ed,
In a sec you'll hear a thunk.  At your front door, the one nobody uses.  It'll rattle the hinges a bit when it lands, because it's so weighty and important, a little jangle along with the thunk, and Joan will look up from whatever she's cooking...You won't even know or hear what's being dumped at your door.  You won't even know why it even happened." (p. 1)

"I'm telling you why we broke up, Ed.  I'm writing it in this letter, the whole truth of why it happened.  And the truth is that I goddamn loved you so much." (p. 1)

"Every last souvenir of the love we had, the prizes and the debris of this relationship, like the glitter in the gutter when the parade has passed, all the everything and whatnot kicked to the curb.  I'm dumping the whole box back into your life, Ed, every item of you and me." (p. 3)

"'He asked you out.  Ed Slaterton.'
"He's not going to call," I said.  "It was just a party."
"Don't put yourself down," Jordan said.  "You have all the qualities Ed Slaterton looks for in his millions of girlfriends, come to think of it.  You have two legs."
"And you're a carbon-based life-form," Lauren said.
"Stop," I said.  "He's not--he's just a guy."  (p. 21)

"I gave you an adventure, Ed, right in front of you but you never saw it until I showed you, and that's why we broke up." (p. 31)


Tasty Rating:  !!!!

Audiobook Review: Rotters

Kraus, D.  (2011).  Rotters.  New York:  Delacorte Press.

448 pages.


Rotters won the 2012 Odyssey Award.  Since I was so in love with past audiobook winners like The True Meaning of Smekday and The True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, I made it a priority to listen to this year's winner.

When I first began listening, I was haunted by the feeling that I'd heard Kirby Heyborne's voice previously and that--for some as of yet unknown reason--I didn't like him.  I went to audible and searched through the books he's read for--and my goodness, there were a lot--and I figured it out.  He read one of the characters for a book that I absolutely detested--Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen.

I tried not to let that ruin the experience of Rotters.  But it wound up not mattering, because, I hated Rotters for reasons all its own.


Appetizer:  Sixteen-year-old Joey Crouch's mom has died and he is sent to Bloughton, Iowa to live with his father, a man Joey has never met and whose only known act was to deafen his mother in one ear.

After arriving in Iowa, Joey quickly learns that his father, Ken Harnett, is ostracized from the town and Joey finds himself in a similar position at the high school.  Accustomed to getting straight-A's, Joey is bullied by a teacher and other students.

Less than excited about the turn his life has taken, Joey seeks to discover what it is his father does.  The answer will take Joey into an underworld of grave robbers and into a different and scary new life.


Sooo, I hated this book.  Seriously, hated it.  First off, I thought it took way too long to get to the grave robbing portion.  Next, I found the entire story to be frustrating.  I hated most of the characters.  Hated the dark underworld Joey was entering.

I found myself wishing for zombies.  Or unicorns.  Or to be listening to a different book.

I eventually got my final wish.


Opening Quotation:

"This is the day my mother dies.  I can taste it right off:  salt on my lips, dried air, the AC having never been switched on because she died from heart failure while reclining in front of the television, sweating in her underwear, her last thought that she needed to turn on the air because por Joey must be roasting in his bedroom.  Pulmonary embolism:  it is what killed everyone on her side of the family and now it has killed her, while I slept, and this salt is the bitter taste of her goodbye.
Turns out, her heart is not what got her."  (p. 3).


Tasty Rating:  !

Audiobook Review: Feed (This book is still unit!)

Anderson, M.T.  (2002).  Feed.  Cambridge, MA:  Candlewick Press.

300 pages (5 hours, 1 minute audio book)


Appetizer:  Titus and his friends went to the moon for a good time and while it was kind of fun since he met a girl named Violet, it wound up sucking because some of their feeds were hacked.  But after that, Titus's life isn't quite the same, a fact he has trouble dealing with.

The feed is--essentially--an internet connection in most people's heads, complete with advertising, chats and viruses.  Through Titus's voice, M.T. Anderson reveals a possible future in which skin legions are becoming cool, the English language is diminishing, schools are run by companies and consumerism is a requirement.  Although only written in 2002, some of Anderson's predictions feel as though they are only several years or decades away from becoming realities.

The audiobook was a fun read.  The ads that are sprinkled throughout the novel are brought to life with actual jingles and all of the comments made from the President sound vaguely George W. Bush-like (dating the book a little).

This week my students had the choice between reading Feed and Brave New World.  As I was re-reading Feed though, I thought of an even better book pair:  Feed and A Walk to Remember.  No, seriously.  The different ways that the protagonists deal with the declining health of their girlfriends is fascinating.

When we discussed the book, my students didn't seem to enjoy Feed as much as I thought they would.  But it became apparent from our discussion why they were resisting the text:  It was scary.  Aspects of the scary dystopian future were a little too familiar.

Frankly, that just makes me even more impressed with Anderson's Feed.


Dinner Conversation:

"We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck." (p. 3)

"I guess if I'm honest?  Then I was hoping to meet someone on the moon. Maybe part of it was the loneliness of the craters, but I was feeling like it was maybe time to hook up with someone again, because it had been a couple of months." (p. 5)

"Link and I were chatting about the girl, like I was going, She is meg youch, and he was going, What the hell's she wearing?, and I was going, Wool.  it's wool.  Like from an animal, and then Calista did her own chat to us, which was, If you want to hear about an animal, what about two guys staring with their mouths wide open so they look completely Cro-Magnon?"  (p. 21)

"She was on the moon all alone.  Here it was, spring break, and she was on the moon, where there was all this meg action, and she was there without friends.  She said she just walked through the crowds and watched, and she saw all these great things that way.  She said she was there to observe."  (p. 28)

"She took me up to a huge window.  We stood in front of it.  Outside the window, there had been a garden, like, I guess you could call it a courtyard or terrarium?  But a long time ago the glass ceiling over the terrarium had cracked, and so everything was dead, and there was moon dust all over everything out there.  Everything was gray.
Also, something was leaking air and heat out in the garden, lots of waste air, and the air was rocketing off into space through the hole, so all of the dead vines in the garden were standing straight up, slapping back and forth, pulled toward the crack in the ceiling where we could see the stars.
"Whoa," I said.
"Isn't it beautiful?"
"It's like...," I said.  "It's like a squid in love with the sky."
She was only looking at me, which was nice.  I hadn't felt anything like that for a long time.
She rubbed my head, and she went, "You're the only one of them that uses metaphor."
She was staring at me, and I was staring at her, and I moved toward her, and we kissed.  The vines beat against each other out in the gray, dead garden, they were all writing against the spine of the Milky Way on its edge, and for the first time, I felt her spine, too, each knuckle of it, with my fingers, while the air leaked and the plants whacked each other near the silent stars." (pp. 62-63)


Tasty Rating:  !!!!!

REVIEW: Where Things Come Back

Whaley, J.C.  (2011).  Where Things Come Back.  New York:  Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

228 pages.


Appetizer:  My first thought when first hearing of this book:  "Why isn't it called Where Things Return?  Why?!"  Why use two words when you could use one?

My first thought after hearing that this book won both the 2012 Morris Award for debut authors and the Printz Award for young adult literature:  "I must read this NOW.  Wordy titles work!"

My first thought after learning that the author, John Corey Whaley, is a Louisiana teacher:  "Yay!  I can't wait to show my students."

My first thought after reading the book:  "Meh.  Alas, alack, oh dear.  I wanted to enjoy it more."

Where Things Come Back is the story of seventeen-year-old Cullen Witter, whose cousin recently died and who has a crush on the tragic Ada Taylor (her previous boyfriends have a tendency to die....).  Cullen's brother has gone missing.  There's no evidence or reason for Gabriel's disappearance and the grief is hurting every member of Cullen's family.  On top of that, Cullen is stuck in Lily, Arkansas just like all of his other friends, and knows he will never leave until he knows what has happened to his brother.  As Cullen searches for a way to bring Gabriel back, the town of Lily searches for the elusive Lazarus Woodpecker which has been seen for the first time in sixty years.

Every-other-chapter is devoted to sharing the story of Benton Sage, a missionary who works in Ethiopia and then his roommate after Benton returned to the U.S. to attend college.  These seemingly unrelated stories eventually come together in striking ways.  (Although, these chapters never really won me over.  I found the narration to be too telling.)

Throughout the novel, there are paragraphs which begin "When one..." to describe the way Cullen reacts to things.  At first I found this subject change from the first person to be very off-putting, but I have to admit, it grew on me.  I also liked the way that Cullen invented book title names throughout the narrative.  It reminded me a lot of the novel King Dork and the attention its protagonist paid to creating band names and album covers.

Nonetheless, Where Things Come Back never really captured my imagination or interest.  I never desired to pick it up and read it.  However, when I did bring myself to read the book, it was the type of narrative where it was easy to just keep reading.  (To get through as opposed to enjoy)  I can appreciate and respect what Whaley has written.  He pushes away from the way many YA narratives are told.  But I never really connected with Cullen, his friends or the story.


Dinner Conversation:

"I was seventeen years old when I saw my first dead body.  It wasn't my cousin Olso's.  It was a woman who looked to have been around fifty or at least in her late forties.  She didn't have any visible bullet holes or scratches, cuts, or bruises, so I assumed that she had just died of some disease or something; her body barely hidden by the thin white sheet as it awaited its placement in the lockers.  The second dead body I ever saw was my cousin Oslo's.  I recognized his dirty brown shoes immediately as the woman wearing the bright white coat grasped the metallic handle and yanked hard to slide the body out from the silvery wall."  (p. 1)

"Being seventeen and bored in a small town, I like to pretend sometimes that I'm a pessimist.  This is the way it is and nothing can sway me from that.  Life sucks most of the time.  Everything is bullshit.  High school sucks.  You go to school, work for fifty years, then you die.  Only I can't seem to keep that up for too long before my natural urge to idealize goes into effect.  I can't seem to be a pessimist long enough to overlook the possibility of things being overwhelmingly good."  (p. 5)

"You see, Ada Taylor had a grim history.  As a sophomore in high school, when I was just a freshman, Ada was dating this ass-hat by the name of Conner Bolton.  Conner was a senior and made it his personal mission to make every freshman in the school terrified to be caught walking alone or near the bathrooms, lockers, or trash cans.  But alas, he died before Christmas break in a car accident.  Ada was the only other passenger.  She walked away without a scratch.  Then, the next year, Ada was dating this okay guy who I used to play G.I. Joes with on the floor of my mom's hair salon.  His name was Aaron Lancaster.  He didn't even make it to Thanksgiving before he up and drowned int he White River during a thunderstorm.  His dad found his empty fishing boat.  A search party found his body four days later.  I heard it looked like he had been microwaved.
After that, it almost seemed like a ridiculous thing to date Ada Taylor, or even go near her.  But that didn't matter much to the young men of Lily, even me.  The unspoken philosophy of all those in love with Ada was something like this:  If I have to die to get that, then death it is."  (pp. 6-7)

"When Benton Sage found out that he would be going on a mission for his church that year, he was overwhelmed with excitement and panic.  His stomach felt a sort of queasy rumble as he stood with his sisters and Reverend Hughes, and watched as the entire church circled around them, clasped hands, and began to pray.  Ethiopia, he thought, would be the first place he could truly exert his faith.  It was his fear of travel, of leaving his comfortable life in Atlanta, of floating mysteriously thirty thousand feet in the air, that made eighteen-year-old Benton feel as if he would collapse onto the church's soft, green carpet as he heard the choir begin to chant amens and hallelujahs behind him."  (p. 16)

"'Did you hear about that bird?' Lucas asked me, still staring toward the house.
Lucas was one of the smartest and strangest people I knew, and so I wasn't very surprised by his choice of topic.
"What bird?" I asked.
"There's this woodpecker that's been extinct for, like, sixty hears.  Only, this guy from Oregon or something was down here and he thinks he saw one."
"In Lily?"
"Right outside of town.  I think he was canoeing down the river and saw it fly by or something.
"Weird."  (pp. 29-30)

"It was one of those moments when you're waiting on someone to say something important or funny or just do anything to break you away from the sad thoughts that overwhelm your mind.  Thoughts like never having enough money to move away or not getting into college.  Thoughts like having to come back to take care of a sick parent and getting stuck here all over again.  That's what happened in Lily.  People dreamed.  People left.  And they all came back.  It was like Arkansas's version of a black hole; nothing could escape it." (p. 35)

"It was three hours later and after calling everyone we knew and driving around town twice that we decided to call the police.  It was a Thursday when my brother, the Left Hand of God, disappeared.  It was on this same Thursday that John Barling appeared on national television to talk about the Lazarus woodpecker and how it had come back from the dead." (p. 55)

"Here's the problem with a fifteen-year-old boy going missing:  No one thinks he has been taken.  Especially Gabriel, who looked to be my age.  Everyone in town, though they didn't say it, was thinking the same thing:  Gabriel Witter has finally run away from his family.  That, or he went hiking through the woods and either got lost or got eaten by a bear.  Here's what I knew:  My brother was taken from me.  He did not run away, because he wouldn't.  He couldn't.  He would never.  And he'd never gotten lost in his life."  (pp. 58-59)


Tasty Rating:  !!

The 2011 Cybiles Award: My perspective on Frost

Appetizer:  The last of the Cybils realistic young adult novels that I'll be featuring is Frost.  The novel is the story of

Opening Line:  "Before I lived there, before any of this happened, I imagined Frost House as a sanctuary.  It crouches on the northern edge of Barcroft Academy in a tangle of lilac and evergreen bushes, shadowed by oaks and sugar maples.  Hidden enough that I didn't even know it existed until junior year, when I chased a field hockey ball through the underbrush into its backyard.  I assumed the white-clapboard cottage was a faculty member's house.  Most Barcroft dorms are three-story brick buildings' this was a weathered old Victorian, small and squat, with a wraparound porch and a mansard roof hugging the second floor.  The kind of place a family would life.  The first time I saw it, I could almost hear a whispered call mingling with the soft rattle of leaves:  Come inside, come inside...  (p. 3)


My Thoughts of the Nominee:  Frost a wonderful haunting novel.  Baer does a wonderful job of bringing the house and setting to life and of slowly revealing Leena to be an unreliable narrator.

I did have some trouble engaging with Frost though.  I wasn't too crazy about Leena, Celeste or any of the other characters.

The one aspect I really loved were the descriptions of Frost House.  It really came alive...and became the coolest character in the book.

The 2011 Cybils Awards: My perspective on the nominee Everybody Sees the Ants

Appetizer:  As a freshman, Lucky Linderman took a vow to stop smiling.  Since the age of seven, he has been bullied.  His tormentor, a boy named Nader, has always gotten away with his pranks, bullying and threats.

The one person who seems to help Lucky is his grandfather.  A prisoner of war in Vietnam who visits with Lucky in his dreams.

When Nader's bullying grows worse, Lucky's mom uproots them both for a vacation and Lucky finds himself guided by his uncle and maybe even facing a romance.


Opening Quotation:

"All I did was ask a stupid question.
Six months ago I was assigned the standard second-semester freshman social studies project at Freddy High:  Create a survey, evaluate data, graph data, express conclusion in a two-hundred-word paper.  This was an easy A.  I thought up my question and printed out 120 copies.
The question was:  If you were going to commit suicide, what method would you choose? (p. 3)


My Thoughts:  I really liked that Everybody Sees the Ants took on the issue of bullying.  I also liked that it would lend itself to discussing the Vietnam War.

A.S. King's writing was clear.  She created a great voice for Lucky.

However, the magical realism of Lucky's conversations with his grandfather did not work for me at all.

Nonetheless, check this one out!  I was glad the Cybils Award gave me an excuse to pick it up.

In case you hadn't heard, the Cybils 2011-2012 winners were announced!!!

You can look over the complete post about the winners at the Cybils website, but here's a quick breakdown of the winners:

Elementary and Middle Grade

Book Apps

The Monster at the End of This Book
by Callaway Digital Arts, Inc

(Just bought it!)

Fiction Picture Books

Me . . . Jane
by Patrick McDonnell

(got it!)

Nonfiction Picture Books

I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat: History's Strangest Cures
by Carlyn Beccia


(Got it!)

Easy Readers

I Broke My Trunk! (An Elephant and Piggie Book)
by Mo Willems

(Got it!)

Early Chapter Books

Have Fun, Anna Hibiscus!
by Atinuke

Poetry

Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto
by Paul B. Janeczko

(Added to my cart...and I'm hovering over the "buy now" button)

Graphic Novels

Zita the Spacegirl
by Ben Hatke

(Added to my wishlist)

Fantasy & Science Fiction

The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale
by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright

(Also added to my wishlist)

Middle Grade Fiction

Nerd Camp
by Elissa Brent Weissman

Young Adult

Nonfiction Books

Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
by Candace Fleming

Graphic Novels

Anya's Ghost
by Vera Brosgol

(Already on my wishlist)

Fantasy and Science Fiction

Blood Red Road
by Moira Young

Already on my wishlist)

Young Adult Fiction

Stupid Fast
by Geoff Herbach

(YAY!  This is the book I helped select!!!!!!!!  Read it readitREADIT!)




Over the next week or so, I'll post some of my personal comments on some of the books I looked over as one of the YA fiction judges.

Which of these winners have you already read?  Which books are you going to pick up soon?  (I already downloaded the There's A Monster at the End of This Book app and I'm eyeing a copy of Zita the Spacegirl to start my reading of this collection.