Non-Fiction Monday

So, this week's Weekly Geek challenge is a quotation on every post. I'm going to see if I can do all fortune cookies:

The greatest truths are the simplest and so are the greatest men.

That's what I got in today's fortune cookie. (Dan is back after spending the weekend in Houston with his family. They're fine, he's fine, and now he's home, so I'm fine. Anyway, we ordered Peking Duck for dinner. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Peking duck. Also, just another plug for The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food by Jennifer 8. Lee, which is AWESOME)

So, it's Nonfiction Monday!

This is not nonfiction for kids or teens, but rather a book for those of us who work with kids or teens or just like reading their books.

Book Crush: For Kids and Teens - Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Interest by Nancy Pearl

Ok, if you haven't yet read them, you must read Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason and More Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason, you need to go do so. Like, now.

Anyway, Book Crush is along the same lines, but focusing on children's and teen books. As usual with Nancy Pearl's works, my To-Read list grew by PAGES. Everything from fiction to older teen works are covered.

If you're not familiar with the Book Lust books, Pearl offers a subject, and then several books that deal with the topic. In this offering, such topics include "Rebels with a Cause" which includes Where the Wild Things Are or "Friends Make the World Go Round" which includes both The Egypt Game and Meet Danitra Brown (the most splendifirous girl in town.)

I mean, who can resist book lists titled "May I Have This Dance? Old-Fashioned Love Hip Enough for the Jaded-at-Twelve Crowd" or "Kung Fu, the Samurai Crowd, and Ninja Stealth" or even "Dragooned by Dragons"?!

Of course, as a children/teen book aficionado, I had a few sad moments-- first off there's no mention of the the Alice series by Phylis Reynolds Naylor. I really think this is an important work of middle grade and YA lit. I like Alice in small doses, but still, an important aspect of the field and completely ignored. And, I really don't think The City of Ember is a fantasy (sci-fi? yes, dystopian? yes, fantasy? no.) And was sad to see that the description of Private Peaceful was just plain wrong. (But then again, so is the flap copy, but in a different way. Let's just say that Tommo is NOT spending the night up on watch (which is was the flap says) and people are NOT being executed for falling asleep on sentry duty (which is what Pearl says) I won't say what is really going on though, because it's a spoiler.)

But there were happy ones too. Pearl laments that not enough people know about the out-of-print Madeline L'Engle title And Both Were Young. I was horrified to learn this was OPP (but you can buy it from Amazon used for one cent, plus shipping and handling) but was happy to be one of the chosen few who love this book. (Seriously, buy a copy now and read it. It's wonderful.)

Anyway, many weekly geeks ago, we asked for questions on unreviewed titles. Here are mine on this book:

Chris asks: How is Book Crush? Would you recommend it to your fellow book fiends or should we pass?

Recommend! Especially if you like children's or teen lit-- I highly recommend all of Nancy Pearl's works to book friends.

Molly asks : Hi Fellow Weekly Geeker! I'm a HUGE Nancy Pearl fan, but have not read Book Crush. As someone who has not read a lot of teen and tween books, would I still enjoy Book Crush?

Yes. I'm a big proponent of getting adults to read younger lit, because it's SO FREAKIN' GOOD and I think adults would enjoy it if they read it. So, I think if you like Nancy Pearl, you should check this out and read some more teen/tween and even younger than that books.

This books is super up-to-date and includes books that must have been ARCS when she was writing this!

Anyway, it's non-fiction Monday and, as per usual, Anastasia has the round-up. Woot!