Poetry Friday: Diamond Willow

Diamond Willow Helen Frost

Well, I loved Crossing Stones so much, I wanted to read more of Frost's book. When Willow makes a mistake with her dogsled team, the family's favorite dog is seriously injured. In her guilt, Willow is determined to make things right, which leads to adventure and long-held family secrets, but without being as melodramatic as it sounds.

Willow lives in a small village in Alaska, and is part Athabascan. Her racial and cultural identity are very minor parts of the story, and I can't speak to the authenticity of it, but a cursory search doesn't throw up any criticism and I do like seeing modern stories about Native American characters, especially because this book isn't about being Native American.

Diamond Willow is a type of wood found in northern climates, where diamonds with dark centers form where injured branches fall away. The injury makes the wood stunningly beautiful, but one must remove the bark to find it. Willow is named after Diamond Willow and is serves as a fitting metaphor for her character. Most of the book is told in verse, in her voice, diamond shapes with bolded words to get at what she's really thinking. We also get interjections from the animals in Willow's life, all of which are the souls of her and her friend's departed family members, one of which is a character in The Braid, which has been on my TBR list for a loooooooooooong time.



What
I love
about dogs:
They don't talk
behind your back.
If they're mad at you,
they bark a couple times
and get it over with. It's true
they slobber on you sometimes.
(I'm glad people don't do that.) They
jump out and scare you in the dark. (I know,
I should say me not "you"--some people aren't
afraid of anything.) But dogs don't make fun
of you. They don't hit you in the back
of your neck with an ice-covered
snowball, and if they did, and
it made you cry, all their
friends wouldn't stand
there laughing
at you.
(Me.)



Round-up is over at Great Kid's Books!

Book Provided by... my local library

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Dawn of the Dreadfuls

Dawn of the Dreadfuls Steve Hockensmith

So, I liked Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I tried Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters and didn't get more than 30 pages into it* and overall, I'm more than a little burned out on all of these mashups. The joke's old and it really only worked as a novelty.

But... this isn't a mashup, it's the prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and, dare I say it, even better.

Because Hockensmith isn't shoehorning an alternate plot into an exsisting literary work, he's not constrained by one and so it just works so much better than the mashups..

We start at the church, for a funeral, only the corpse doesn't stay dead for the entire service. Mr. Bennett, one of the only people in Meryton to understand what this means, starts training his daughters in the ways of the warrior. Mrs. Bennett is just concerned about their marriage prospects if they engage in such unladylike behavoirs.

Jane is being foisted onto the lecherous Lord Lumpley. Elizabeth is torn between her martial arts instructor and the scientist who comes to study the zombies.

The zed word gets thrown about rather frequently, unlike in PPZ, and sometimes I disagreed with a character action (not so much of a 'no! don't do that!' but more of a 'dude, Jane would NEVER! Even if there were zombies all over the place!') BUT, overall, I really like what he did the characters and his thoughts about what they'd be like several years younger. I also loved the background information we got-- not only on the previous zombie wars and information about the zombies and how England reacted and what was going on there, but also about the original story. If you ever wondered why all five Bennett girls were out at once or why Netherfield was empty in the first place... well... here's one possible explanation.

Overall, super fun.

*Although that may have been my mood at the time instead of the book.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Return to Sender

Return to Sender Julia Alvarez

Tyler's family has had a run of bad luck-- first his grandfather dies, and then his father is injured in a horrific farm accident. Timed with his brother going away to college, and it looks like the family might lose the farm. Then Tyler's dad hires three Mexican workers to help out on the farm-- workers that aren't legal.

Mari and her sisters were used to life in North Carolina, but Vermont is different. Colder. They stick out more here. Even worse, Mari's mother went back to Mexico to tend to her dying mother. She hasn't returned yet and now the family has moved...

Told in alternating voices, Mari learns to trust, and Tyler learns that just because something is the law doesn't make it right.

I really really liked and really really didn't like this story all at the same time. Mainly, this is a book WITH A MESSAGE. A huge agenda written all over this. And I didn't necessarily mind that so much, but it made the writing uneven. Sometimes Tyler seemed 6, sometimes 60, rarely was he the sixth grader he was supposed to be. Mari's parts of the story are told in letters to her missing mother, but she includes all this back story that's necessary for the reader to know, but not necessary for her mother to know. Also, in the beginning of the story, Tyler compares EVERYTHING to the Trail of Tears. I understand how when they learn about something like that, kids try to put it into a context they can recognize. But really kid? You losing your farm is JUST LIKE a systematic forced eviction of an entire people? REALLY?! It was offensive.

THAT SAID, I really got into the story. It took me awhile (I was only reading it because I had to for a training at work) but...despite the book's flaws and slow beginning, I really cared about Tyler and Mari and the paths they were taking and by the end, I couldn't put it down.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Booking Through Thursday

Today's Booking Through Thursday question asks...

God* comes to you and tells you that, from this day forward, you may only read ONE type of book–one genre–period, but you get to choose what it is. Classics, Science-Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Cookbooks, History, Business … you can choose, but you only get ONE.

What genre do you pick, and why?

*Whether you believe in God or not, pretend for the purposes of this discussion that He is real.

Classics, because there are so many genres within classics. Romance, sci-fi, horror, fantasy, literary fiction, realistic fiction, adventure, humor... it's all there.

Every Soul a Star

Every Soul A Star Wendy Mass

Ally (short for Alpha) lives in the middle of nowhere, on a campground dedicated to amateur astronomers. For most of her life, her family has been preparing for this week, when they have the best place in the world to view the upcoming solar eclipse. And after that, she will be moving away.

Bree wants to be a model when she grows up. She isn't like her scientist parents and geeky sister. She likes makeup and clothes and being popular and only wishes her family understood that. She is not happy to find out that they're moving to the middle of the woods, at least an hour away from anything else.

Jack isn't sure what his science teacher was thinking-- why would he pick him to assist on the eclipse tour? Jack is fat, doesn't have any friends, and just sits in the back of class drawing aliens and wizards, which is why he failed science, but... if assisting on this tour will get him out of summer school...

There lives are thrown together during a major astronomical event. Although there are only three narrators to the story, it's actually six kids that form a group of friends-- Ally, Bree, Jack, Ally's brother Kenny, Bree's sister Melanie, and Ryan who comes to the camp every summer with his grandparents. While the friendships are unlikely, there isn't a lot of drama surrounding them. Mass makes each of these kids multi-faceted and likable, even Bree. It's so easy to make the pretty, popular girl be mean and horrible, but I really liked Bree. (I have some further thoughts on how her story ended here. SPOILERS!) I was NOT such a fan of the parents (really, dropping huge 'we're moving!' bombshells on your kids days before the fact? NOT COOL. And yet both sets of parents did it! What the what?

I also like the way Mass handled all the science (and there is a lot of science.) She explains a lot of astronomical things without letting the explanations bog down the story or the text. There's also a great further reading list at the end of the book if you want to know more.

Overall, a great book about eclipses and friendship and change and life and the big and little things that make up the in-between.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Year of the Historical: Storm in the Barn

The Storm in the Barn Matt Phelan

This largely wordless graphic novel shows Jack, a young boy growing up in Dust Bowl Kansas. He can't help on the farm that's not growing anything. His sister is very ill with dust pneumonia, and the town bullies keep beating him up. In this bleak landscape, he thinks he might be seeing something in the neighbor's abandoned barn...

I liked this and I didn't. It's a fantasy. There are huge not-true fantastical elements to this. And... as a story, it didn't really work for me. In general, I'm ok with attributing various historical events to supernatural reasons (Hello Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell! Or Soulless!) but it just didn't work here and I can't quite put my finger on why.

That said, it is beautiful book.  The muted, hazy pictures of brown, brown, brown, some muddy blue really convey the bleakness of the landscape and all that dust dust dust. When someone's telling a story or a memory, something that doesn't take place in the dust, colors become bright and lines crisp. Then it's back to the hazy endless brown. I could look at this book for hours.

Also, I love the juxtaposition of Ozma of Oz, being stranded on the desert, being far from Kansas. Only Jack's Kansas is the Endless Desert. My only question is WHY is there no mention in the book about where these long quotations come from? It doesn't necessarily have to be in the story, but you'd think it would appear on the copyright page (such as "Quotations from Ozma of Oz (c) L. Frank Baum.") The closest we get is when the author's note says that the Wizard of Oz movie would come out two years after this book comes place.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Year of the Historical: Secret Keeper

Secret Keeper Mitali Perkins

In 1974 Asha's father leaves India to look for work in the US, Asha moves with her sister and mother into her paternal grandfather's house. There, Asha's family is in the precarious position of being female relatives dependent on their relatvies. In Kolkata Asha loses the freedom she had in Delhi. She struggles with being the "ugly" sister-- why is so much of her value dependent on her looks-- and with the role women are expected to play in society.

Her only solace is writing in her diary, up on the house's rooftop. There, she befriends and the neighbor boy, a friendship that is strictly forbidden.

I appreciated that Asha's brashness wasn't the only way that women stood up for themselves in this novel, and at different points, different approaches worked better. I also liked that Perkins included a depressed character and her explorations of grief.

But perhaps my favorite part is the fact that this isn't a story about how unfair traditional Indian homes are, but rather a story about the strength and importance of family, especially sisters. Oh! And a great author's note at the end  A great example of why I love Mitali Perkins so much!

Also, this is the paperback release day! Mitali Perkins does so much to promote teen and middle grade books using social networking, so give her some love today!

If publication day is a book's birthday, is paperback day like its bar mitzvah?

Book Provided by... the author, for review consideration

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Nonfiction Monday: Heroes of the Enivornment

Heroes of the Environment: True Stories of People Who Are Helping to Protect Our Planet Harriet Rohmer

This book introduces readers to a dozen people of all ages and walks of life who are doing something to help the environment. Will Allen started an organic farm in the middle of Milwaukee. Keyladra Welcker invented a water filtration system to deal with a local pollutant--when she was in high school. Omar Freilla started a cooperative that sells construction waste to other builders to use in new construction projects. Debby Tewa helps houses in the Hopi Indian reservation get hooked up to solar power. Margie Richard got a big oil company to pay for residents to move out of Old Diamond--a town that the company had polluted so badly it was no longer safe to live there. John Todd invented a system that treats sewage and waste through a series of mini-ecosystems. At the age of 11, Alex Lin and his friends set up a site to collect e-waste. When that wasn't enough, he got his school to teach kids how to refurbish old computers and helped lobby for Rhode Island's e-waste law. Julia Bonds campaigns against mountaintop removal mining. El Hijo del Santo, a popular lucha libre star in Mexico gets kids to help him fight pollution. Barry Guillot gets his students to help him protect the wetlands around New Orleans--teaching science and helping the environment at the same time. Sarah James works to educate people about the importance of the Arctic areas and the caribou birthing grounds. When Erica Fernandez was high school with limited English skills, she campaigned to halt an offshore processing plant that would pipe highly explosive gas through Erica's Hispanic, farm-worker community.

All the stories are presented in a few pages, showing how normal people took something they found to be important and went with it, no matter if they didn't have skills, or if they were just kids.

What really struck me was that, with many of these projects, the fact that it helped the environment was secondary-- many of them are community projects. Debby Tewa helps Native American families use solar power, but she really just wants them to have access to electricity, but they live too far away to be connected up to the power lines. Will Allen wanted the people of Milwaukee to have access to fresh produce. Many of these projects show that no matter what you want to do to help your community, it can also help the environment and often community and environmental issues are intertwined.

A cool and easy to read, easy to browse book to show kids how people around them are quietly changing the world.


Round up is over at Check It Out!

Book Provided by... my wallet, for Cybils judging.

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Year of the Historical/War Through the Generations: Shooting the Moon

Shooting the Moon Frances O'Roark Dowell

It's the summer before 8th grade. Jamie's two best friends have both moved away (which happens a lot when you live on an army base. Either they're moving, or you are) and her older brother has just shipped out to Vietnam.

Jamie and her brother have always loved playing war and she's disappointed when his letters home aren't about the smells and sights of battle. But, with every letter, he sends Jamie a roll of film to develop. Jamie's days are spent volunteering at the rec center, playing gin rummy with Private Hollister, and developing film. Through TJ's photos, she sees a reality of war that she never expected and discovers new talents within herself.

This is a short, slight book. It's quiet, but it stays with you. Not a lot happens. It's summer, Jamie plays cards and develops film. She flashes back to when her brother enlisted up until the day he shipped out. Despite the lack of plot, we see a lot of growth in Jamie, and how she views the her father, her brother, the army, and war.

This is the hardcover cover, which I like better, which the picture of the moon on it, but I think that the paperback cover (above) has more kid appeal and captures more of the book's spirit, with the little green army men. The "Shooting the Moon" of the title refers to TJ's habit of taking pictures of the moon, both at home before he ships out, but also in Vietnam.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Gone

Gone Lisa McMann

THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THIS SERIES! SORRY!

Read was Leila has to say. Go ahead, I'll wait.

In this final book of the Wake/Fade/Gone trilogy, Janie's stuck making her decision between isolation and the physical effects of being a dream catcher. Cabe says he'll be there for her when things get bad, but he doesn't remember his nightmares, the ones that Janie gets sucked into and shows his true fears about the future.

Then, for the first time in her life, Janie's father shows up, only he's in a coma and about to die.

This is same as the other two in the series in that it has a fast plot and moves quickly, but it's also very different. Since the trial at the end of Fade, Janie's been outed as a narc, so there isn't any undercover work or mystery to solve. Also, Janie's mother and her drinking problems play a much more prominent role in this book.

I liked it because I liked the trilogy and I wanted closure on the story, but it's not my favorite book in the series. Also, I can't argue with anything that Leila says in her review. BUT! It does win points for having the most hilarious reference to Forever that I've ever read.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Eleven

Eleven Lauren Myracle

"Everyone says change is what makes life an adventure. That when you change, you grow, and if you don't change, you'll shrivel up and rot like an old potato.


Well, baloney. The people who get rah-rah over change are always parents and librarians, not kids. Because when kids change, it's really pretty ugly." (p98)

I'm surprised I finally got a chance to read this. This series (Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen) is crazy popular at work. I'll also have to weed the copy I read because it's been read so many times that it's falling apart. And that's why I did read it, because I wanted to see what has my upper-elementary grade girls so excited.

This is a chronicle of Winnie's 11th year. It's a time of change-- her best friend is growing up without her and finding new friends. The new girl at school is bossy to the point of being a bully. Boys, boys, boys... Winnie often knows the right thing to do, especially when it comes to reaching out to her less-popular classmates, but that doesn't mean she actually wants to do it!

Myracle's portrayal of this awkward time is heart-breakingly honest, while still being really funny. I love the Chinese jump rope sub-plot (oh, Chinese jump rope) Winnie and her friends play slightly differently than we did (different levels, different jumping pattern) and I kinda want to go find myself a Chinese jump rope so I can play this version, too.

And that's one of the things that makes this book so great-- the little details. Not just the Chinese jump-rope, but the giant Dr. Pepper Lip Smacker and the girls-choice skate at the roller rink party, the horrible curling iron burn across your forehead...

And when it's the little details that make something so wonderful, I get a little irked when the little details are wrong, because it totally pulls you out the story.* Not that such things make the story any less, but I don't like it when the story pulls me out of the story. It's jarring and makes me cranky.

But, to end this on a happy note, because it's a good book and deserves to be ended on a happy note, can I just say how much I love Winnie's older sister's boyfriend? He is so nice to Winnie and her younger brother, even though they can be pretty annoying.

*In this case, she says viral pink-eye isn't contagious, even though that's the most contagious kind, and that Lisa Simpson plays the trombone! She plays the saxophone!

Book Provided by... my local library

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Poetry Friday

Wednesday was my mom's birthday. One of my favorite poems is "This is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams. It's one that many authors have riffed on recently, notably in Joyce Sidman's This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness and Sharon Creech's Hate That Cat.

So, here's my version, for my mom...

This is Just to Say

I know you really didn't ruin my life
When I was 10.
And 14.
And 18.
And all the times in between.
Even though I said you did.

It's just that you were trying so hard to teach me
Right from Wrong
And how to see the beauty in the world
And in myself.

Please forgive me,
But they are hard lessons to learn.
And I still need your help.



Round up is over at Picture Book of the Day.



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Runaway

Runaway Meg Cabot

THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST TWO BOOKS IN THIS SERIES! SORRY!

Last we saw Em, she was being whisked off to Brandon's house with the real Nikki Howard, and Nikki's family.

Now she's being held prisoner, with no word from Christopher and angry voice messages from her mother about spending Christmas with a boy!

Nikki knows something about Stark that Stark doesn't want her to get out-- to the point where they killed her. Nikki will tell, but only if she can get her own body back. While Em knows she probably won't survive being transplanted into another body, she's also not sure she wants to give up Nikki's body. Despite everything, she's now used to it and being the prettiest girl in the world has some perks. Em knows it's shallow but...

Of course, Em knows she'll get to leave Brandon's house soon, because on New Year's Eve is the Stark Angel's fashion show, so she has to go back to New York so she can parade around on TV in her underwear. Joy!

But that doesn't solve the main question-- just what is Stark up to?

Super-exciting and a great way to wrap up the trilogy. Stark is even more evil than I thought. I can't talk too much about it without giving away the plot, but I've read some of Cabot's adult mysteries, and I think this series was more gripping and action-packed. I also like the way she balances some serious concepts about medical ethics, brain transplants, and society's feelings about beauty and celebrity and  with the fluffy chicklit flair that is her trademark without it being uneven or stupid.

Plus, how can you not love Lulu?

I wasn't totally sold on Airhead when I first read it, but Em's my second favorite Meg Cabot character (the first of course, being Allie Finkle.)

Book Provided by... my wallet.

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Year of the Historical: Brookyln Nine

The Brooklyn Nine Alan Gratz

9 generations of a family, 9 short stories from each one, 9 innings of baseball.

We meet the garment industry workers on Lower East Side tenements in the 1840s, Civil War soldiers, numbers runners, and All-American Girls Baseball League players. The Schneiders move from Manhattan to Brooklyn, they change their name to Snider, baseball is codified as a sport, the Dodgers move to LA. The family confronts racism in baseball and is the victim of anti-semetism. They fear the Russians and Sputnik, and one of them pitches a perfect game.

There is much more baseball in this book than in Samurai Shortstop, but I liked this one even better. Gratz perfectly captures these slices of America-- the people, the time, the culture, the fears, as well as giving us a history of the game. These are short stories, one for each generation, but in a matter of a few pages, we come to love a character (and I loved it when they appeared again in later stories as parents and grand-parents.)

And of course, the archivist librarian in me loves the story of how, in 2002, Snider Flint tries to trace the provenance of one baseball bat and then tries to authenticate his findings. But, my favorite story was how in 1926, when Frankie Snider runs numbers for the crime boss Mickie Fist. It broke my heart that in the next story, Frankie who was such a whiz at math, only got to finally be an engineer when all the boys went off to war.

Over all, super fantastic.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Year of the Historical: Samurai Shortstop

Samurai Shortstop Alan Gratz

Toyo Shimada lives in a changing Tokyo, in a changing Japan at the end of the nineteenth century. Japan is teetering between tradition and new Western ideas and inventions. Toyo embodies this, the new Japanese man, while his father is of the old school, which causes much tension.

At his elite boarding school, Toyo lives in fear of the ritual hazing by the older students, and desperately hopes to make the baseball team. For, at it's heart, this is a baseball novel, and one your sports books fan will love. But at the same time, Toyo's father is teaching him the ancient way of the Samurai, a way of life Toyo tries to fit into this new world. Baseball might be the bridge.

The baseball parts I could honestly take or leave, but I love how accurate Toyo is. He doesn't always do what we expect a hero of a teen book to do, which is great, because so often in historical fiction, we have a hero that is essentially modern shoved into a different time and place. When Gratz needs to make the decision between "likable hero" and "historically and culturally accurate person" he goes with accuracy. I loved the portrait of a changing country and the class issues that were explored, and the cultural tensions between the Japanese and Americans. There's enough here to give it to your reader who usually can't stand sports books.

Super Fantastic.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Sunday Salon--The Green-Eyed Monster

So, in general, I stay away from blog envy. Jealousy is a harsh mistress and I have better ways to spend my time. Every so often though, a bunch of blogs will get an ARC of a book I can't wait for and... oh, it twinges. It really does.

This happened recently with Meg Cabot's new book, Runaway. And of course, I will be out of town and no time to get to a bookstore when it *does* come out.

But late last night, I realized something. There is a bookstore near my house that seems to have no concept of what "release date" means. I think they put all the books out as soon as they come in. I frequently find things on display a week or two early. So today, I went with fingers crossed, and sure enough, there it was on the shelf.

I know that I shouldn't encourage this type of behavior but...

In other news, I seem to have some odd sort of review writer's block. It's not that I'm in a blog malaise, but when I try to write more than a basic plot description, all of my words sound stupid. I'm going to try to bust through it later tonight. I have a huge stack of reviews to write, mostly on overdue library books, so I really should get on that!

I also mentioned that I'm going out of town later this week-- it's time for the Maryland Library Association conference. I'm looking forward to it. If you're going, be sure to come see Sarah Campbell talk about her Blue Crab nonfiction winner, Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator, which is such an awesome book. Also, I'm part of a panel entitled "The Millennials Turn 30" about how those crazy millennials are more than just those damn "kids today!"

Also, crab cake! All my meals are booked, but I have to see if I can find an excuse to go the hotel restaurant, where they have crab and Boursin stuffed mushrooms that I'm still drooling over from last year!

And of course, which books will I bring to read? And what audio book should I listen to on the drive? Or should I burn off my Lady Gaga MP3s, because given how early I need to leave, I'll need the peppy?

Hmmmm...

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Year of the Historical/Poetry Friday: Crossing Stones

Crossing Stones Helen Frost

It's odd to do a verse novel review for Poetry Friday, without quoting. But so much of Frost's work in this book is visual, and I just can't get the formatting right. Also, my favorite poem, which shows how much work went into it, is a major spoiler.

Like most of this book, my favorite poem is extremely well-crafted but not in-your-face so, it's the things you find when you turn back and look after analyzing, the craft never gets in the way of the story.

Muriel graduates from high school in 1917. She has strong opinions and is caught between what she feels and wants, and what others expect her to be. Across the creek live her family's best friends. All members of the family are constantly traveling over the stones in the water, running back and forth between the houses. But when each family sends a son to the war, some things will never be the same.

But... it's about the friendship and the homefront during WWI, but it's also about discovering who you are, the suffragette movement, the wider world, Anne of Green Gables, and possibility.

I mentioned the visual nature of the book before. It's told in three voices--Muriel's, her brother Ollie, and their friend across the creek Emma. Muriel's poems are free-verse, in the shape of a meandering river. Emma's and Ollie's are cupped sonnets, in the shape of the stones that connect the families and lives. There's more structure hidden in there, all explained in the author's note, but I suggest you read that after finishing the story, because she reveals a lot of information about character relationships in the structure of the poem.

This was a near perfect book, with the exception of the blah cover and 1 historical error that has been FIXED in the most recent printing, so that doesn't even count anymore. And when the worst thing I can say is that the cover is blah?

Round up is over at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Swan Thieves

The Swan Thieves Elizabeth Kostova

This sprawling book encompasses three story lines. Robert Oliver is a gifted artist who is arrested for trying to attack a painting at the National Gallery. He is checked into a psychiatric residential center under the care of Dr. Marlow. Robert only says "I did it for her" and gives permission for the doctor to talk to anybody, and then says nothing else for months. He does however, read and reread a packet of old letters and draws and paints the same face over and over again.

So, first storyline is Marlow telling to story of trying to solve this mystery that Robert presents. The second storyline is that of the letters-- letters written between a French housewife and her husband's uncle in the 1870s. Eventually, these interspersed letters switch over to full chapters, to give the reader information not contained in the letters. The third storyline is that of Robert's life before the attack. Marlow visits the women Robert has loved, and who loved him, who fill Marlow in on the details of what led up to the event.

As far as the mystery goes, the book fails. It was painfully obvious what was going on hundreds of pages before Marlow figures anything out, but I didn't mind, because Kostova is such a gifted writer and storyteller, I had to keep reading. The basic plot is a basic mystery that's easily solved by the reader, but the book is actually a portrait of many people and how their lives touch, or don't. It's not as "OMG AWESOME" (or complicated) as The Historian, but I still loved it dearly. I would only recommend it, however, to patient readers.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Year of the Historical: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate Jacqueline Kelly

It's the Texas summer of 1899 and it's hot and dry. Calpurnia is about to turn twelve and is the middle child of 7--and the only girl. She doesn't like to cook or sew (but her mother's going to make her learn.) She likes to explore and notice the world around her and this curiosity leads her into a friendship with her eccentric grandfather. There isn't a whole lot of plot going on, but rather chronicles Calpurnia's day-to-day life and outlines her struggles in turn-of-the-century society. She wants to go to the university and be a scientist. Her mother wants her to be a debutante.

It's a quiet book that will appeal to your more serious readers. Kelly paints such a fantastic portrait of a small town on the brink of change at the end of the century. The first phone line comes, people see their first automobile at the state fair. Calpurnia deals with the troubles of having six brothers, along with the trails of piano recitals and pie dough. I didn't think I'd like this one, but I was sucked into Calpurnia's world and her family, her experiments and friends. I ate it up in just a day.

Also, Liz says what I would like to say, but much better than I do, so you should just read what she says.

But this is just one of the reasons why I love Calpurnia:

One day, I would have all the books in the world. Shelves and shelves of them. I would live my life in a tower of books. I would read all day long and eat peaches. And if any young knights in armor dared to come calling on their white chargers and plead with me to let down my hair, I would pelt them with peach pits until they went home.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Year of the Historical: Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg

Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg Rodman Philbrick

When Homer's under-age brother is sold to the Union Army, Homer's running down the East Coast to bring him home. Homer starts as an abused orphan who lives in a barn, but his unique relationship with the truth helps him as he follows the Union Army south. Along the way, he helps free some slaves, takes a steamship, joins a medicine show, steals a hot-air balloon, and witnesses the battle of Gettysburg first hand.

What could be a harrowing adventure story is instead told tall-tale style for humorous effect as Homer talks his way out of one predicament or another. It's a fun travel story as one kid searches for his older brother, the only family he's ever known. It could be gripping and it could be heartbreaking, but instead it was just plain fun. I think it would make a great chapter-a-night read aloud for younger elementary students and a fun one to use in classrooms with older readers.

I'm happy to see a fun book get a Newbery nod.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

GLEE!

Ok, not book related at all (except that I only started watching because everyone at kidlitcon said I HAD TO.)

But YAY! For Glee being back!

Sadly, the Vocal Adreneline version of Highway To Hell? Totally disproves my thoughts on why they're the superior Glee club.

Also, this is fantastic!



PS- Dolphins are just gay sharks.

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

100 Best Children's Novels

Woo-Hoo! Meme time! So, Betsy finished her countdown of the top 100 children's novels yesterday, so now it's time to go through the list and see what you've read! Thanks to TeacherNinja for the idea and Abby (the) Librarian for the link!

(Title's I've read are bolded)

100. The Egypt Game - Snyder (1967)
99. The Indian in the Cupboard - Banks (1980)
98. Children of Green Knowe - Boston (1954)
97. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane - DiCamillo (2006)
96. The Witches - Dahl (1983)
95. Pippi Longstocking - Lindgren (1950)
94. Swallows and Amazons - Ransome (1930)
93. Caddie Woodlawn - Brink (1935)
92. Ella Enchanted - Levine (1997)
91. Sideways Stories from Wayside School - Sachar (1978)
90. Sarah, Plain and Tall - MacLachlan (1985)
89. Ramona and Her Father - Cleary (1977)
88. The High King - Alexander (1968)
87. The View from Saturday - Konigsburg (1996)
86. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Rowling (1999)
85. On the Banks of Plum Creek - Wilder (1937)
84. The Little White Horse - Goudge (1946)
83. The Thief - Turner (1997)
82. The Book of Three - Alexander (1964)
81. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon - Lin (2009)
80. The Graveyard Book - Gaiman (2008)
79. All-of-a-Kind-Family - Taylor (1951)
78. Johnny Tremain - Forbes (1943)
77. The City of Ember - DuPrau (2003)
76. Out of the Dust - Hesse (1997)
75. Love That Dog - Creech (2001)
74. The Borrowers - Norton (1953)
73. My Side of the Mountain - George (1959)
72. My Father's Dragon - Gannett (1948)
71. The Bad Beginning - Snicket (1999)
70. Betsy-Tacy - Lovelae (1940)
69. The Mysterious Benedict Society - Stewart (2007)
68. Walk Two Moons - Creech (1994)
67. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher - Coville (1991)
66. Henry Huggins - Cleary (1950)
65. Ballet Shoes - Stratfeild (1936)
64. A Long Way from Chicago - Peck (1998)
63. Gone-Away Lake - Enright (1957)
62. The Secret of the Old Clock - Keene (1959)
61. Stargirl - Spinelli (2000)
60. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle - Avi (1990)
59. Inkheart - Funke (2003)
58. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Aiken (1962)
57. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 - Cleary (1981)
56. Number the Stars - Lowry (1989)
55. The Great Gilly Hopkins - Paterson (1978)
54. The BFG - Dahl (1982)
53. Wind in the Willows - Grahame (1908)
52. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007)
51. The Saturdays - Enright (1941)
50. Island of the Blue Dolphins - O'Dell (1960)
49. Frindle - Clements (1996)
48. The Penderwicks - Birdsall (2005)
47. Bud, Not Buddy - Curtis (1999)
46. Where the Red Fern Grows - Rawls (1961)
45. The Golden Compass - Pullman (1995)
44. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - Blume (1972)
43. Ramona the Pest - Cleary (1968)
42. Little House on the Prairie - Wilder (1935)
41. The Witch of Blackbird Pond - Speare (1958)
40. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Baum (1900)
39. When You Reach Me - Stead (2009)
38. HP and the Order of the Phoenix - Rowling (2003)
37. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Taylor (1976)
36. Are You there, God? It's Me, Margaret - Blume (1970)
35. HP and the Goblet of Fire - Rowling (2000)
34. The Watson's Go to Birmingham - Curtis (1995)
33. James and the Giant Peach - Dahl (1961)
32. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - O'Brian (1971)
31. Half Magic - Eager (1954)
30. Winnie-the-Pooh - Milne (1926)
29. The Dark Is Rising - Cooper (1973)
28. A Little Princess - Burnett (1905)
27. Alice I and II - Carroll (1865/72)
26. Hatchet - Paulsen (1989)
25. Little Women - Alcott (1868/9)
24. HP and the Deathly Hallows - Rowling (2007)
23. Little House in the Big Woods - Wilder (1932)
22. The Tale of Despereaux - DiCamillo (2003)
21. The Lightening Thief - Riordan (2005)
20. Tuck Everlasting - Babbitt (1975)
19. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Dahl (1964)
18. Matilda - Dahl (1988)
17. Maniac Magee - Spinelli (1990)
16. Harriet the Spy - Fitzhugh (1964)
15. Because of Winn-Dixie - DiCamillo (2000)
14. HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Rowling (1999)
13. Bridge to Terabithia - Paterson (1977)
12. The Hobbit - Tolkien (1938)
11. The Westing Game - Raskin (1978)
10. The Phantom Tollbooth - Juster (1961)
9. Anne of Green Gables - Montgomery (1908)
8. The Secret Garden - Burnett (1911)
7. The Giver -Lowry (1993)
6. Holes - Sachar (1998)
5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - Koningsburg (1967)
4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - Lewis (1950)
3. Harry Potter #1 - Rowling (1997)
2. A Wrinkle in Time - L'Engle (1962)
1. Charlotte's Web - White (1952)

So, 73 out of 100, not counting the books I started and just couldn't get into an never finished as a kid (Little Women and The Borrowers)

Friends For Keeps

In May, I'll be participating in the blog tour for the upcoming My Best Frenemy by Julie Bowe. So, I thought it was time to get people caught up on the series, so readers can read the first two before book three comes out. This first review initially ran in the now defunct Edge of the Forest.*

My Last Best Friend Julie Bowe

Ida and Elizabeth were the perfect pair of friends—they knew everything about each other and had all the same interests. Elizabeth was such a perfect friend that Ida didn’t need any others. When Elizabeth moves away without Ida saying goodbye, and she doesn’t keep in touch, Ida decides to never have another best friend.

Of course, her parents see it differently and keep setting up play dates with Jenna, who is nothing but a bully as soon as adults leave the room. Then enters the new girl, Stacey. Stacey has a wide smile that you have to try not to smile back too. Ida knows that all of Stacey’s claims can’t be true, but why is she lying and what is she trying to hide? And wait! If Ida doesn’t want to ever have another best friend, then why does she care?

Ida’s struggles with parents, Jenna, and loneliness are at turns heartbreaking and humorous. Jenna is the perfect fourth grade bully—-the darling of adults, but a mean girl who makes other kids eat their science projects. Bowe perfectly captures Stacey’s dilemmas in dealing with Jenna. As the new girl, Stacey is torn between standing up to Jenna and risking becoming her next victim, or keeping her mouth shut and watching Jenna terrorize the fourth grade.

Ida’s adventures are true to life and the ending is one that is happy and believable.

*Well, this is the review I submitted. The Edge of the Forest had an editor, so it might have been slightly different on the site.

Book Provided By... the publisher, for Edge of the Forest review

My New Best Friend Julie Bowe

Things are much more settled in Ida's world than they were in the first book. Stacey's her best friend, but she's friends with the other girls in her class, except Jenna, but even she's mellowed a bit. When Ida and Stacey are playing in Ida's attic, they find a creepy mermaid nightlight and decide it has magical powers to grant wishes. Ida quickly realizes that Stacey is using the nightlight as an excuse to lie and get in trouble. Ida's not sure what to do. Can she tell Stacey just to stop and still be her friend? Meanwhile, the class is preparing a performance for their parents based on the work they've been doing in Greek Mythology. Jenna has all the girls doing a dance reenacting the story of Gaia (with Jenna has Gaia, of course).

I like that Stacey still has an issue with lying and that Ida still isn't sure how to handle it. Something like that is something that's going to take awhile to deal with and when life gets difficult, it only makes sense for Stacey to fall back into those patterns. I think it's also a really common problem/coping mechanism in kids. I also really liked the plotline involving Jenna. While she's not nearly the terror she was in the first book, she's still bossy and over-bearing, especially when it comes to the Gaia dance. We also delve a little more into Jenna's story and what's going on there. Her little sister made me laugh and broke my heart all at once.

It's a great book about friendship for the middle grade set and I'm really excited about the third one!

Oh, also, the class picture on the end papers? Awesome!

Book Provided by... my local library

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Nonfiction Monday: Smile

Smile Raina Telgemeier

One night after girl scouts, Raina trips. She knocks one of her front teeth out and jams the other one entirely into her gum and jaw bone. What follows is years of corrective dentistry. Which is just what you need in junior high when you have to deal with puberty, younger siblings, mean friends, and boys.

This is such a wonderful story of growing up and the pain of crappy friends and first crushes and the 1989 San Fransisco earthquake... and a really gross (but wonderfully told) story of dental drama/trauma.

I had to pick this up because I'm a huge fan of Telgemeier's work in The Babysitter's Club graphic novels. (I mean, she was *perfect* in making Claudia and Stacey super-stylish, but Claudia artsily so and Stacey NYC-so without coping their crazy-ass outfits from the book. She perfectly captured the spirit of their styles.) Anyway, I ached at her changing friendships and how her friends became more and more mean. I love that she says she wanted to become an animator after seeing A Little Mermaid, but what she's thinking is that she really wants to be is a mermaid.

Also, I love the fact it's in full color.

All in all, love love love love love love love.

Although it hurts to see that references to Joey McIntyre now need explanatory footnotes.

Round up is over at Shelf-Employed.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Country Driving

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory Peter Hessler

I love how Hessler writes about China. His work is honest--this is what I observed, this is what I lived, this is my experience, it's not universal and I won't make broad sweeping claims. He's honest about the limitations and exceptions about being foreign in China. He points out the things that drive Westerners in China crazy, but obviously loves the country and the people. His research and insights will engage China scholars, but he's accessible enough for the casual reader as well. Also, the man can just write. Period. He has a gift with language that I envy.

Can I just admit now that I have a total Chinageek crush on him?

Country Driving is divided into three parts:

The first is called The Wall and is about road trips Hessler took in 2001-2002, following the Great Wall. Like in Oracle Bones, Hessler moves seamlessly between the present and ancient history, giving us a moment in time when China's car boom was just beginning as well as a history of the walls through many dynasties and modern history. The parts about the wall are the most interesting, exploring popular misconceptions and how the wall has become a symbol of China and what it means. He references a lot of work done by David Spindler, whom he also talked a lot about in his New Yorker article (May 21, 2007) about hiking the wall. Sadly, Spindler hasn't written a Great Wall book (yet?) but I really hope he does, and soon. His research sounds fascinating.

The second part, which was my favorite, is called The Village. Hessler and a friend rented a house in a small village north of Beijing, near the Great Wall, as a sort of writer's retreat. Like many small villages, it's dying-- most of the young people have fled to the cities to find jobs. There are complications with being a foreigner and renting the land, explorations of local politics, and a portrait of daily life in a rural village. There's also the tribulations of his friend and landlord, Wei Ziqi, who's determined to become an entrepeneur, and a gutwrenching story of what happens when Wei's son, Wei Jia gets really sick. In his years in the village, it changed. The road came to the village, more people in Beijing learned to drive, and more middle-class urbanites wanted to get away to the country for the weekend. It is an wonderful look at how rapidly China is changing and why and how. In three years, the average wage for a days labor in the village doubled. In the years he was there, the village got a good road, cell phone coverage, and cable. From wasting very little, the village suddenly had a trash problem. The effect was jarring on the people in the village.

"The longer I lived in China, the more I worried about how people responded to rapid change. This wasn't an issue of modernization, at least not in the absolute sense; I never opposed progress. I understood why people were eager to escape poverty, and I had a deep respect for their willingness to work and adapt. But there were costs when this process happened so fast." We see how this family changes due to the rapid success and changes-- the dad starts smoking and drinking heavily, the mom feels lonely and isolated and overworked. When we first met their son he was wiry and scrappy and tough, now he watches cartoons all day and is out of shape. The effects of such swift change were interesting to explore on a personal level.

The third part is called The Factory. Hessler finds a boom town before it booms in southern China and observes how it grows, and pays attention to one factory in particular. In the "well, I guess someone has to make it file" the factory makes underwires for bras, and the little rings used for the adjustable part of bra straps. In the factory sense, one detail I found fascinating was when the factory got a new order, the bra company would send over a sample of each strap color. Then a worker would look through his color book and mix and match colors and dyes until he matched the strap exactly and new what color to make the rings.

As a huge fan of Factory Girls, this section goes really well with that book (which, in a way, makes sense, as Leslie Chang and Hessler are married and wrote the books at the same time, in the same house.)

But throughout the book, it's the way Hessler connects with people and makes the reader connect with them, too. It's also the little insights into Chinese culture-- the role of smoking in Chinese business and what various brands of cigarette signal about the smoker (it also answered a question lingering from my 2007 trip to Beijing about why Panda brand cigarettes are so CRAZY EXPENSIVE. Turns out they were Deng Xiaoping's favorite brand and manufacture is very limited by the government.) How factory towns tend to specialize in a product and what towns specialized in what in the area of the bra ring factory. I marked so many passages and even though I got this book from the library, I will be purchasing my own copy when it comes out in paperback.

To read more, see:

Harper's Six Questions for Peter Hessler

Behind the Wheel, About to Snap (a look at the photos Hessler took during his trips)


Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Poetry Friday

Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse Marilyn Singer

There are always different ways to look at things-- whether there's a different perspective to take on a story, or a different way to read a poem...

In this book, Singer uses a the reverso form-- a poem that can be read in the normal fashion and mean one thing, or you can read it up to bottom, change some capital letters and punctuation, and you get an entirely different poem. And these reversos tell two sides to some familiar tales...

I give you "Bears in the News"

The first way it's presented:

ASLEEP IN CUB'S BED,
BLONDE
STARTLED BY
BEARS,
the headline read.
Next day
Goldilocks claimed,
"They shouldn't have left
the door
unlocked."
She
ate the porridge.
She
broke
a chair.
"Big deal?
No!
They weren't there."

And now, just by flipping the order of the lines, a very different side of the story:

They weren't there.
No
big deal?!
A chair
broke.
She
ate the porridge.
She
unlocked
the door.
"They shouldn't have left,"
Goldilocks claimed.
Next day
the headline read:
BEARS STARTLED
BY BLONDE
ASLEEP IN CUB'S BED.


Round up is over at Paper Tigers!

Book Provided by... my local library. A big thanks to Lauren for demanding I read it!

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Ruby Flips for Attention

Ruby Flips For Attention Derrick Barnes

Ruby's cousin Kee-Kee is the captain of the Wallace Park Spirit drill team. When Ruby see's the drill team before, she can't wait to start her own drill team, so everyone starts chanting her name! (Plus, the sparkly costumes!)

Surely, learning to dance and flip won't be a problem, but when Ruby breaks her wrist trying to flip, she learns that there's a lot more to the Wallace Park Spirit than the performances.

This one actually has a bit of a lesson (helping out the community) but doesn't whack you over the head with it. I liked how Ruby got all caught up in the sparkles of the costume and attention people lavished on the squad and immediately started her own drill team and thought it would all just come together immediately.

But honestly? The best part was the lesson, because it wasn't what I was expecting it to be. While there was a little "you need to work really hard to get good as something" that wasn't the moral of the tale. The moral was that if you want your neighborhood to go gaga for you, if you want to represent where you're from, then you have to do something to make you worthy of the attention and the name of the neighborhood. It was not the direction I was expecting the book to take and I appreciated the surprise as well as the lesson, which is not one I come across a lot. (I mean, community service is one we often see, but one linked to -- if you want to represent the neighborhood, then you have to make yourselves worthy is a new take on that.

I hope we get more Ruby. The series keeps getting stronger with every title and I'd love to see where it goes.

Book Provided by... my wallet

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Slumber Party Payback

Slumber Party Payback Derrick Barnes

Ruby's brother Ro is known as a joker, and his pranks ruined Ruby's last slumber party. He ruined it so totally that no one will come to her party this time except for Ruby's very best friends. When Ro continues to pull his stunts, Ruby and her friends decide that it's time her brother got a taste of his own medicine.

So, we've seen some of Ro's pranks in previous books and they're fairly destructive (like vandalizing all the school posters or breaking Ty's computer so he couldn't use it study animal trivia). The pranks he pulls on Ruby's friends though... it's just mean and I'm wondering how his parents let him get away with it. Soaking all of your little sister's stuffed animals in vinegar isn't funny, it's just mean.

I was also surprised because while Ro likes to make trouble, in the previous books, he was a pretty good big brother and didn't seem like the kind of guy who would think it was hilarious that none of Ruby's friends will come to her parties anymore because of him.

That said, this was my favorite of the series so far. It's pretty hilarious. It's a wonderful version of the typical sleep-over pranks and the revenge of younger sisters.

Book Provided by... my wallet

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.