Mammoth Academy

The Mammoth Academy Neal Layton

In this rather delightfully silly book Oscar (the woolly mammoth) and his friend Fox (a fox) are off to school. School has new friends and important lessons (and an unfortunate flu epidemic) but, more mysteriously-- missing oranges and MYSTERIOUS TRACKS.

Oscar and Fox are on the case, because oranges are necessary for helping their friends get better from the flu.

But, could these mysterious tracks belong to the elusive and extremely dangerous human?

A great book for readers who have graduated from Early Readers. It's full of pictures and silly fun and prehistoric creatures and stinky feet-- it's sure to be a big hit.

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Clementine Friend of the Week

Clementine, Friend of the Week Sarah Pennypacker

It's Clementine's turn to be Friend of the Week. Not only is she in charge of the milk money, being line leader, and feeding the fish, but at the end of the week, all of her classmates will write a booklet about her.

Clementine wants to make sure that her classmates have good things to say about her in her booklet, so tries to find nice things she can do for them-- free tattoos at lunch, promising they can use all of her dad's crazy holiday decorations for their bikes at the big bike rally...

But then she and Margaret get into a HUGE FIGHT.

And, even worse, Moisturizer goes missing. Clementine completely forgets about Friend of the Week as she tries to find her kitten, only to remember after she thinks she let everyone down.

Clementine's voice and way of looking at the world continue to positively delight me. And her illustration work in this series continues to be my favorite Marla Frazee work. (I like her best in black and white.)

Clementine always makes me smile and even though she cried a lot in this book (as would you, if youre kitten went misisng!)  she still made me laugh.

Another great addition to a super-strong, super-awesome series.

Book Provided by... my local library

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My Life as a Book

My Life as a Book Janet Tashjian

Derek is looking forward to this summer, even though he knows he's not going to have some huge adventure like they do in book and movies. But his summer takes a turn for the worse when his parents make him go to learning camp to help him with his reading. But, when he's not dodging his summer reading assignments, Derek likes exploring and playing with the animals at his mom's vet project. While in the attic, he finds an old newspaper that his mother doesn't want to talk about, which might just give him his grand adventure after all.

One thing Derek does to help with his reading is to draw cartoons of the words he doesn't recognize, and this margins of this book are filled with cartoons of some of the harder words, all drawn by Tashjian's 15-year-old son, Jake who regularly draws cartoons of his vocabulary words.

Overall, this is a fun story (I mean, there's a MONKEY. How can you not love a summer story that involves a MONKEY) but I could have done without the dead-babysitter-newspaper-article subplot. It quickly eclipses the rest of the plot and turns the book into a "I had a grand adventure that nicely wrapped up just in time for school" summer story, which Derek was very explicit in the beginning his summer wouldn't be. And yeah, cool, he got what he want. But most kids feel that way at the beginning of the summer and most of them don't get a grand adventure and there was enough going on in an otherwise funny book that this rather tragic storyline didn't necessarily gel in that well.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Body of Christopher Creed staying in schools!

I haven't read The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci so I can't really comment on content and how good it is. (But it is a Printz Honor, so that counts for something.)

It's being used in the Appleton (Wisconsin) Public School District as required reading in 9th grade. After reading it, the students talk about gossip and bullying and the consequences.

It's been challenged.

The reconsideration committee (which is always convened, but hasn't had to meet since 1984!) says to keep it. The superintendent has the final say and we'll see what he says, but I'm hoping he keeps it.

And not just because censorship is bad and un-American.

But because I used to be a 9th grader in Appleton public schools. I was in honors English and the way my hazy memory works, we read several short stories and poems, and we had to read a novel of our choice every quarter and write a really long book report on it. We spent a lot of time on grammar and the subtleties of language, connotation and denotation, and word choice. It drove me batty at the time but is actually one of the more useful things I learned in school.

We only read 1 novel-length book as a class the entire year. We only read this book because all 9th graders were required to read it, followed by a mandatory unit on suicide and why we shouldn't do it.

The book was the super-relevant and relate-able Romeo and Juliet. Now I'm a nerd and was in honors English so I didn't mind. (I had also already read it a few times.) It's a good classic that's easy to introduce at that age and if you're college-prep honors track, I think a grounding the classics is good. Many of the girls found it one of the more enjoyable "school books" we had to read. I was just happy because we were reading something and not deconstructing the differences between glitter, flash, and sparkle. Or having pop quizzes where we had to write down ALL the prepositions in 3 minutes. Even then, we spent most of the unit analyzing meter. What I remember most is realizing that Romeo and Juliet are both really, really annoying characters who make horrible life decisions.

BUT. It wasn't really relevant. None of us connected to it on a personal level. We all saw it as an easy way to work in a mandatory unit on suicide with a book that we should all read. We saw it as a nice-try-but-kinda-stupid gimmick.

And I bet today's 9th graders feel that The Body of Christopher Creed being tied to units on bullying is also gimmicky. But I also bet it's a book they connect to much more deeply and because of that, no matter how gimmicky, the tie-in lesson will have more impact and stay with them much longer.

And, with current issues we have with bullying and suicide and the current "It Gets Better" campaign* those are lessons we need to be keeping in schools in every form that we can.


*And to all my younger readers-- IT DOES GET BETTER. Mama always said that maybe if we stopped telling students that high school would be the best years of their lives, we'd cut the teen suicide rate drastically. I agree. My high school experience was pretty good, actually, all things considering, and those years are still some of the worst in my life.


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Hex Hall

Hex Hall Rachel Hawkins

First off, shout-out to Green Bean Teen Queen for writing the review that made me finally pick up this book. I had read several reviews and where it seemed nice, nothing made me think "I must pick this up now!" until I read

If Harry Potter married Samantha from Bewitched and had a chick lit baby, with a smidge of A Great and Terrible Beauty, and a dash of Nancy Drew’smystery solving, you would get Hex Hall.

I mean, how could I not pick it up after that (totally accurate by the way) description?

Sophie Mercer is a witch that's been raised by her mortal mother. When a love spell goes wrong, she's sent to Hecate Hall-- aka reform school for witches, fairies, and shapeshifters. Sophie quickly realizes she's out of her depth because she doesn't know anything about the Prodigium and their ways.

Or the fact that the father she's never met is the Head of the Council, aka the guy who sentenced them all to Hex Hall.

But when the Mean Girls are also the only dark witches on campus (besides Sophie) and Sophie's only real friend is an outcast vampire with an unnatural like for hot pink, and her main crush is head Mean Girl's boyfriend? Oiy.

Things go from bad to worse when dark witches start turning up dead with all of their blood drained and all the suspicion is on Jenna (the vampire). Sophie knows Jenna didn't do it, but can't figure out how to prove it...

Overall, it's a fun mystery with a few really cool twists. I love how Sophie covers her fear and vulnerability with sarcasm. I also like how she deals with the situation she finds herself thrown into-- she doesn't totally fall apart, but she also doesn't slide right into it. She strikes the right balance to make her believable without being weak.

I had a very hard time putting this one down and am rather impatiently counting down the days until March, when Demonglass comes out!

Book Provided by... my local library

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Nonfiction Monday: Project Seahorse

Project Seahorse Pamela S. Turner, photographs by Scott Tuascon

Once again, the Scientists in the Field series hits it out of the park.

Project Seahorse is a program that helps set up Marine Protected Areas off the coast of the Philippines. Seahorses are in trouble because there is a great demand for them-- dried seahorses are an important ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine and are also used for curios and knick-knacks. Live seahorses are very popular to use in aquariums, even though they are extremely hard to keep alive in captivity.

In addition to learning a lot about seahorses and coral reefs, Turner also shows why Project Seahorse is so successful as an organization.

The reason Project Seahorse works is because they work very closely with the communities who depend on the reefs for their livelihoods. By working closely with all of the players, they create very important buy-in, so everyone's on board with the project. One thing Project Seahorse works for isn't a complete ban on the seahorse trade, but a more sustainable one. Not only do they work with the fisherman, but also aquariums and Chinese medicine practitioners.

They also take a very interdisciplinary approach their conservation efforts. In addition to observing reef recovery by diving and counting and observing, the scientists also interview the fisherman to see if/how their catches are improving and work closely with them, not just for data, but so that they continue to support the project.

They hope that not only with the reef recover (and it's very much starting to) in the protected areas, but as it recovers, it spills out of the protected boundaries, bringing recovery to the unprotected areas as well (and the fisherman hope so, too.)

Also, the pictures are just FANTASTIC. Seahorses are weird little creatures and there are lots of cool pictures of them, but also of the other fish and life along the reef. Stunning. (My favorite was in the very back, of the weedy seadragon.)

As always, there is also a list for further reading, watching, and researching, as well as tips kids can do right now to help.

Another great book to show why this series is so awesome.

Round up is over at Write About Now. Be sure to check it out!

Book Provided by... my local library

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Poetry Friday: All the Broken Pieces

All The Broken Pieces Ann E. Burg

My fingers stumble
through the scales
and through
"The Gypsy Camp."

They crowd the keys,
landing in two spots
at the same time.
They slip, clank, and clash
into sounds
that aren't music.

Watch, Jeff says calmly
when my fingers freeze
in frustration.

Jeff's fingers are
bigger than mine,
but they know how
to touch each key,
one at a time.
They unlock each sound
separately.

Jeff doesn't make mistakes.

His fingers brush
across the piano keys
like branches
of the tamarind
swaying in the wind.
How can such big hands
make such quiet music?

Matt is the son of a Vietnamese mother and the American soldier who left and didn't come back. He was airlifted out of Saigon without his mother or brother and adopted by an American family.

In his experiences on his baseball team, where a teammate blames Matt for a brother's death, and in working with a Veterans group, Matt comes to face the life he lived before and now only lives in his nightmares.

I've often talked about how I feel many verse novels could be written in short paragraphs and that's true here, but the sparsity of the text because of the verse format helps show Matt's isolation and confusion.

Round up is over at A Wrung Sponge!

Book Provided by... my local library

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Booking Through Thursday

Today's Booking Through Thursday question asks:

Name a book (or books) from a country other than your own that you love. Or aren’t there any?

There are a million! Off the top of my head, here are a few favorites:

Harry Potter bu JK Rowling (from England)

Feeling Sorry for Celia: A Novel by Jaclyn Moriarty (from Australia-- I love all of her books)

The Garlic Ballads: A Novel by Mo Yan (from China-- Mo Yan is one of my favorite authors)

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (from Japan-- I like her other books, too)

Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by Faiza Guene (from France)

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.

Year of the Historical: The Body at the Tower

The Agency 2: The Body at the Tower YS Lee

YAY! Mary Quinn is back! And James is too! AND IT IS AWESOME. And if that's not enough to excite you, what is wrong with you?

Ok, I should say more. Mary has disguised herself as a boy, Mark, to investigate a murder and some other irregularities at the building site of St. Stephen's Tower (which houses Big Ben). James is back from India, greatly weakened by malarial fever, and investigating the same thing, but officially. The tabloids are poking around and brickies aren't men that like to be messed with. There are tangled webs of beer, love, stolen goods, blackmail and more to be worked out. Not to mention the issues between Mary and James.

A gripping mystery with an even grippy-er romantic subplot (I have such a crush on James. SUCH A CRUSH!) I also love how much detail Lee works in about Victorian London without ever overwhelming the story. I mean, she even manages to work in the stench, the way the streets teemed with life, what it was like after dark in less savory neighborhoods. She really makes London come alive in a remarkable way.

This series is AWESOME and I can't wait for book 3! CANNOT WAIT!

Book Provided by... my local library

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Cum Laude

Cum Laude Cecily von Ziegesar

5 students meet at Freshman orientation and muddle their way through their first semester at a small liberal arts college in Maine.

This isn't nearly as juicy and scandal ridden as von Ziegesar's Gossip Girl series. There are fewer characters. While there's still a lot of sex, booze, and drugs, it's more in line with regular college partying. There are overprivileged characters to be sure, but middle class ones as well. I love how well she captured life at a small college in a small town. The little details are done really well and it will ring true for anyone who went to a small college. This takes place during the Bush/Clinton/Perot election. My college election was Bush/Gore/Nader but everything still felt right and rang really true.

I especially liked the storyline with Shipley and her brother and I want to see what happens with that. I like that Shipley and Tom had talents that you wouldn't expect of them. Eliza and Tragedy made me laugh.

This is a slower, less trashy but still juicy, and still just as literary (but not as overtly so) story than Gossip Girl. I can't tell if it's going to be a series or not. I kinda want it to be, because I really want to know what happens next, but I also get the sense that if it is, it will be 8-10 books and jump the shark around book 4. We'll see what happens.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Thirteenth Princess

The Thirteenth Princess Diane Zahler

This is a slightly different take on the fairy tale "The Twelve Dancing Princesses." There were twelve princesses, when the king wanted a boy. When the queen died giving birth to the thirteenth princess, the king demanded that she be removed from his sight and sent to live with the servants. When Zita was 7, she first learned the truth of her parents. After that, she gets to know her sisters, the princesses know Zita is one of them, but must hide their interactions in fear of the king. Shortly after Zita turns twelve, the princesses start falling mysteriously ill, and that's when we enter the familiar realm of the fairy tale. Zita works with her friend the stable boy, his older soldier brother, and a hidden witch to rescue the princesses from dark magic that makes them dance every night.

I did really enjoy this book. I'm a big fan of Twelve Dancing Princesses stories. That said, there was so much else going on to flesh out the book--Zita's friendship with Breckin, her relationship with her sisters and how Zita's relationship with the king is different than that of her sisters, the persistence of magic despite it's banishment... there's so much there, I think it would have been a lovely story with a slightly different, completely original plot.

Zahler's has another fairy tale coming out in February, A True Princess, which is a version of "The Princess and the Pea" that I'm looking forward to!

Book Provided by... my local library

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Princess For Hire

Princess for Hire Lindsey Leavitt

Desi knows she's destined for greatness-- something much better than spending the summer in a groundhog costume handing out coupons in front of the Pets Charming pet store. When she sees an ad to be a princess, she can't resist.

It turns out that she has Magic Potential and sometimes even princesses need a break. When royals need to get away from their lives for awhile, they call Facade. A bit of magic rouge will transform the sub to a physical match with the princess and the sub will step in for a few days so the real princess can escape.

Desi wants to make an impact, so she tries to help the princesses solve their problems when she's pretending to be them--sadly this is very against the rules. And while Desi can try to solve the princesses' problems, who will help her solve her own?

Very fun with awesome comebacks, ultimate humiliations, and some cool magic technology. It's a fun, light read that shows some of the darker sides of princessdom (Facade runs out of subs when no one wants to go to horrible Lady Carol's wedding). I also liked the internal politics of Facade. I think this will be a series*-- there's definitely room for more continuing adventures but they aren't necessary. However, if they come, I will probably read them.

*Charlotte reviewed this last week and she says there are two more coming.

Book Provided by... my local library

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The Illustrated Mum

The Illustrated Mum Jacqueline Wilson

Have you ever read anything by Wilson? She's huge in her native England and has a steady following here. I've listened to a few of her books on audio and this is the first I've actually read. But, with everything by her I'm familiar with, I'm always stunned by her ability to really get at dark, hard topics but in stories that are appropriate for kids and not totally depressing.

Dolphin thinks her mum, Marigold, is the best. She has witchy green eyes and tattoos all over her body. Dolphin's sister, Star, used to like Marigold, too. But lately Star's been growing up and thinking that Marigold needs to grow up too. She needs to get a job, stop drinking, and just be normal. When Star's father shows up, she takes the chance to move in with him, leaving Dolphin with Marigold.

Star's always taken care of Dolphin and Marigold and when Marigold's behavior gets really bad, Dolphin quickly realizes she's in over her head.

As an adult, my heart broke for Dolphin. Marigold is very unstable and can't provide for her children-- Star takes her to get the welfare check because Marigold would just go out and spend all the money, while Star uses it to buy food. But all the other adults in Dolphin's life have failed her. They look down at her because she's from a bad family and wears weird clothes and needs a bath. They never reach out and try to help, they just judge her and make everything worse.

At the same time, this is a hopeful story, with great friendships and learning to accept change and loving someone no matter how they fail you.

My only complaint was that the end was a bit abrupt-- not that it suddenly got super tidy (it's deliciously ambiguous for adults, probably not for younger readers.) But rather it ended and my first thought was "is this copy missing pages?"

Still, it won a ton of awards in England (including the Children's Book of the Year Award and the Guardian Award for Children's Fiction) and overall it was really excellent.

I will be seeking out much more of Wilson's work.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Year of the Historical: This Means War!

This Means War!> Ellen Wittlinger

Juliet's best friend Lowell isn't talking to her anymore-- it's not ok for boys to be friends with girls anymore. Her parents are always fighting-- their small grocery store is suffering with the new supermarket that just went in on the outside of town. Then Juliet meets Patsy, one of the many new kids who have moved to town with the build up at Lathrop Airfore Base. Lowell and Juliet's fractured friendship quickly escalates into a girls vs boys war with a series of escalating tests to see who's better. The war between the kids and the tension of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which happens in the middle of it, is a parallel that works well, but gets rather heavy-handed as the book goes on.

It was really hard not to compare it to Countdown, which came out at the same time and also deals with a damaged friendship and the Cuban Missile Crisis, and I think Countdown does it much better. This Means War really didn't do much to me--there was something about the writing that I can't put my finger on that kept me from really getting into the story.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Nonfiction Monday: Disasters

Disasters: Natural and Man-Made Catastrophes Through the Centuries Brenda Z. Guiberson

Guiberson takes readers on a tour through 10* disasters, largely American, throughout history-- everything from the effects of smallpox on the new world** to the 2004 earthquake and tsunami to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. While many disasters seem natural, Guiberson points out how they were also partially manmade (the Dust Bowl, the Johnstown Flood, Katrina)

Guiberson gives the reader background leading up to the disaster, a full account of the disaster itself, the aftermath, and also ties it in to life today. For instance, the section on the flu pandemic of 1918 contains information about Bird Flu (H5N1) why we worry about it today, and what we're doing about it-- paying close attention to direct applications of the lessons of 1918. Overall, her writing is clear and concise offering a great age-appropriate introduction to readers without dumping down the material or downplaying the horror or blame.

There are also a lot of visuals-- photos, drawings, and maps that add to the text. It would have been even better if the modern photos were in color (obviously, the ones on the San Fransisco Earthquake wouldn't be!) but that's a minor wish, not a criticism.

Overall, a great introduction to some major events in world history-- many of which happened in an instant and took years and decades to recover from.

*The two disasters I didn't manage to work into the review text: Chicago Fire and Titanic

**She gets props for including the information that once Europeans realized that Native Americans were extremely susceptible to smallpox, they used it as weapon to try and wipe out the population.


Round up is over at MotherReader. Be sure to check it out!

Book Provided by... my local library

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Jekel Loves Hyde

Jekel Loves Hyde Beth Fantasky

Good girl Jill Jekel is entering her senior year with a host of family secrets that are about to explode. Tristen Hyde is hot, British, nice, but with a violent past. Working together, if they can ignore their feelings for each other, they might win a chemistry competition that would pay for Jill to go to college, but even more, save both of them.

The basic premise is that The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was based a real story. Jill's the descendant of good-scientist Jekyll, but Tristen is descended from the monster Hyde, and all of the men in his family carry the Hyde curse.

Jill had a tendency to really annoy me. She linked to whinge and moan about how plain she was and no one would ever like her (not just boys, but friends too.) Part of me was like "of course no one likes you, all you do is think about how unlikable you are!" And she was a little... too good without motivation. There's good girl, and then there's Jill, who's expected to be in bed at 9:30 every night (even though her mom isn't around to enforce this rule and she's a senior in high school. I was a good girl, too. But at 9:30 I wasn't in bed, I was watching ER.) Her parents didn't seem strict enough to enforce these hardcore rules, but they seemed to be there-- a lot of Jill's goodness seemed imposed on her instead of self-directed, but I couldn't see where or why it was imposed...

BUT! THAT SAID! I did really like this one. Fantasky unfolds the dark secrets of Jill's family very deftly-- I couldn't put the book down. Plus, the romance with Tristen is well done, even if it is another weak-plain-girl-likes-monster. And while Tristen pushes Jill away for her own protection, he ACTUALLY PUSHES JILL AWAY. Not the whole 'oh, I love you, but I might kill you but I love you and am being a jerk so you'll come back and I don't have to feel guilty about it.' I have a hard time accepting Tristen as a good guy-- even when he's not the monster... some things give me pause, but... I can't help it, I do have a bit of a crush on him even though my head knows I shouldn't.

Not as good as Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side (mainly because, in order to set up the proper Jekyll/Hyde dichotomy, Jill was a bit of a dishrag and Jessica was awesome) but I still really enjoyed this one.

Book Provided by... my local library

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The Cardturner

The Cardturner Louis Sachar

Alton's Uncle Lester is old, sick, and very rich. All Alton's parents can concentrate on is how much money they'll get with Uncle Lester dies and who else might get the money instead of them. The main contenders are Uncle Lester's housekeeper, his new age nurse, and the Castaneda family (and everyone knows that whole family is bonkers) whom Uncle Lester seems to really like for some reason.

Uncle Lester is also a big bridge player, but is blind and can no longer see the cards. When he gets in a fight with Toni Castaneda, Alton is asked to be his cardturner. All Alton has to do is tell Uncle Lester what cards are in his hand and play whatever card he's told to play. Nothing more, nothing less.

Along the way, Alton learns a lot about bridge and some deep family history and secrets, and how the stories get mangled as the family gossip travels from generation to generation.

There's been lots of good buzz about this and it's as awesome as everyone says. I totally want to learn how to play bridge now. There is a lot of bridge talk in the book, but Sachar labels it as such and gives us permission to skip the bridge-y parts and offers up a relevant summary at the end. I didn't skip the bridge-y parts, although I appreciated the warning when they were coming and the permission to skip ahead.

It also says some interesting things about mental illness. I can't go into it without some major spoilers and I really don't feel qualified to comment, but I hope someone out there does feel qualified to comment and does comment because I've been thinking about it ever since it was revealed that Toni is schizophrenic and what form her illness takes for her and there's that whole "is she or isn't she" feeling to it, especially when the truth about other "crazy" characters comes out and what happens at the end and... sorry for the vague paragraph. I'm just still wrestling with some of these ideas and don't want to spoil anything, but I think a lot of people have already read this, so then maybe you know what I'm talking about. Wink wink nod nod.

ANYWAY

My favorite part was finding out how the Castaneda family was linked to Uncle Lester and what exactly happened there, deep in the past.

It's hilarious and heartbreaking and oh so wonderful.

And seriously, as soon as I can con 3 other people to join me, I'm going to start playing bridge.

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.

Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl

Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl Daniel Pinkwater

Big Audrey is from another plane of existence. You can tell, because she has cat whiskers. She makes her way to Poughkeepsie where she finds a job and place to stay at a bookstore devoted to UFOs. The owners think she's an alien and she doesn't correct them. While in Poughkeepsie there are several adventures featuring real aliens, hops to other planes of existence, giants, and a mystery from the past.

It's very episodic and very weird and nutty, often just for the sake of being weird and nutty, and it just didn't do anything for me. I tend not to enjoy highly episodic plots anyway and the weird nuttiness never gelled into something for me. I kept reading to see where it was going and when it finally got there... eh.

This is one of the those books though, where it wasn't the book, it was the reader. I think the right reader will find this to be the most brilliant thing ever written and enjoy it thoroughly. I just wasn't the reader for this book.

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.

Jane

Jane April Lindner

This is a retelling of Jane Eyre. I've never been a huge fan of Jane Eyre and I must say that I enjoy this retelling much more than the source material.

Jane Moore is a freshman at Sarah Lawrence, but after her parents die in a car accident, the stock they leave her turns out to be mostly worthless and she's forced to drop out. She finds a job at a nanny agency and given her quiet, plain nature and lack of interest in pop culture, she's assigned to the moody rockstar, Nico Rathburn.

The main criticisms I've read or heard of this book are that there's no spark and the love affair seems weird and rushed and that locking up the not-quiet-ex wife in the attic and some other plot points doesn't make sense in modern times.

I'm not going to fully disagree with either of these, although I bought the love affair much more in this version than in the original. I never saw the love between Jane and Rochester until Jane's like "I LOVE HIM!" and I was like "Really? I mean, I know you do because I know enough about this book to know that you two end up, but... really? Where did that happen?" I also have NEVER understood Rochester-as-romantic-hero. (I also don't understand Heathcliff.) I do, however, like Rathburn. Lindner goes to great lengths to make Rathburn more bark than bite, moody and secretive, but actually very nice, just protective of his family and privacy. In the end, he ends up being a bit more Darcy than Rochester (and Darcy's a man I can get behind.)

And... locking up your not-quite-ex-wife because she's schizophrenic and mental institutions are horrible places? They're nicer than a locked attic room, and come with trained medical professionals. That part and some others (just dropping out of school instead of loans? Haiti?) require a little more suspension of disbelief, but I gladly did it. Lindner follows the original fairly closely and not everything transfers well to the modern day. To make it work better, there would have to be huge differences with the source material, and that's not where Lindner chose to go.

So... final verdict? I actually loved it. I certainly liked it much better than the original and I just couldn't put it down. Knowing the original material, I didn't mind the really mind some of the wackier plot twists that I would have if it were a completely original work.

Very much love.

ARC Provided by... a coworker, who picked it up at ALA.

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Mockingbird

Mockingbird Kathryn Erskine

Caitlin's brother was murdered during a school shooting. Caitlin's father has been a wreck ever since. Caitlin misses Devon so much. Devon was the one who explained the world to her, who helped her be normal. When Caitlin hears the word "closure" and looks it up in the dictionary, she decides that's what she and her father need and is off to find it, even if her father isn't entirely ready yet.

In what is already an emotionally powerful story about grief and survival, the extra layer added on is the fact that Caitlin is on the autism spectrum. While she understands what happened, she has a harder time understanding how others are feeling about the tragedy-- both family members (like her father) other survivors, and general community members. She also has a harder time expressing her feelings, so some of the adults in her life don't understand that she understands that Devon's gone and they don't understand how she's processing her grief.

It's beautifully written and I really like that although Caitlin's place on the autism spectrum is a large part of the novel, it's not the central focus. This is a book about a family trying to heal in the face of unspeakable tragedy with an added layer of how Caitlin's mind works. Extremely well done in all aspects, I've hear it mentioned for Newbery and while I'm still rooting for One Crazy Summer, I would love to see this one on the list (and it's probably a shoo-in for Schneider).

Book Provided by... my local library

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Nonfiction Monday: The Time Book

The Time Book: A Brief History from Lunar Calendars to Atomic Clocks Martin Jenkins, illus. Richard Holland

Well, there are just a few more days left to nominate your favorite titles for a Cybil award! And, just in time, I found a few of the files with my reviews of last year's Cybil's nominees!

The Time Book offers a very short introduction to time, both as a concept and the history of how humans have measured it. It talks about how plants and animals deal in seasons and days, and how humans invented various calendars (and why)-- there's even a brief history of European adoption of the Gregorian calendar. It then gets into clocks-- starting with early sundials and moving to the atomic clock, with a brief diversion for time zones.

It takes some big concepts and makes them understandable and fun for young readers, all without reading like a "report" book. What really sets this apart though is the illustration and design. Holland's quirky collage illustrations often incorporate Jenkins's text, so next to a picture of Egyptian pyramids, the text is also pyramid shaped. It has a similar feel to Lauren Child or Terry Gilliams animations for Monty Python.

Nonfiction Monday roundup is over at Picture Book of the Day!

Book Provided by... the publisher, for Cybils consideration

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Griff Carver, Hallway Patrol

Griff Carver, Hallway Patrol Jim Krieg

Griff is transferring schools after an incident at his last one. He's been told not to do safety patrol again-- he takes it too seriously, but protecting the hallways is in his blood. What he finds is a shady student council election, a fake-hall pass ring, and a police chief on the take, and they're all related. Plus, the sassy girl reporter and the over-achieving sidekick.

It's all done in a very pulp crime noir dirty-backroom politics, but in junior high.

It's a straight-send up and done very, very, very well and I really liked it but... I'm not sure that kids will. They're not as familiar with hardboiled detective novels and movies like this is based on and... it's not an overtly funny story. It's not really supposed to be, but I'm not sure what's there for kids to like. And the junior high setting gets a little old for adults reading purely for their own entertainment.

So, I'm more than a little torn. Did I love the scene where Griff can't take it anymore and is drinking himself into a sugar coma instead of an alcoholic one? Yes. Was it funny... only because I know that instead of an arcade with soda, it should have been a smoky bar and shots of whiskey. The humor comes from the subversion of the setting, stock characters, and tropes. And it's a subtle thing that I'm not sure the target audience will get.

However, I hope I'm wrong.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet

The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet Erin Dionne

It's not easy being Hamlet Kennedy. Her little sister is a genius and going to middle school with Hamlet this year (her little sister is 7.) Her parents are Shakespeare scholars and like to speak in sixteenth century English and dress in Elizabethan costume. Oh, and a secret admirer keeps leaving pigs in her locker (because her name is HAMlet.) To top it all off, they're doing a huge Shakespeare unit and school that her parents are all over and it turns out that Hamlet might have the most unwanted talent of all. Plus, it's middle school, so lots of mean girls and boy drama.

It's both funny and touching-- that wonderfully done coming-of-age novel when the character has to learn to accept herself and her family and friends, and life in general, and does it in a way that makes you cheer and isn't overly sappy or unbelievable. I loved the tension between Hamlet and her sister Desdemona. Dezzie is this genius kid and very smart and talks like a socially awkward adult, but, at the same time, is still 7. And sometimes Hamlet forgets that. And Dezzie's better at navigating the social scene, maybe. But I love that Hamlet is jealous of her sister, and extremely protective of her at the same time. It's such a great depiction of sisterhood.

Overall, a really great book that I very much enjoyed.

Book Provided by... my local library

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The Fizzy-Whiz Kid

The Fizzy Whiz Kid Maiya Williams

Mitch moves around a lot, and has a list of ways to make starting a new school in the middle of the year a bit easier. The most important rule is DON'T STAND OUT. But... at his new school in Hollywood, everyone stands out. All of his classmates have famous parents and they're all dreaming big. Mitch's "normalness" is making him stand out. In order to blend in, he auditions for a commercial, gets it, and becomes an overnight sensation... and lets the fame get to his head and becomes a total jerk.

At the heart, this is really a story about a new kid trying to fit in and the various struggles that entails. But, what makes this great is the Hollywood background. Williams has worked in Hollywood for years and it shows-- the good and the bad are shown here, as well as a full cast of show business people. There's the spoiled kid whose birthday party gets turned into a massive schmooze event for his parents, the little person on-set tutor with an outrageous fashion sense (my favorite character!), the animal trainer with the hilarious monkey, the little-known but hardworking character actor who's in everything, and the sleazy agent.

I also loved all the Star Wars stuff and how a special effects guy decorates his house for Halloween. I also liked the lists that Mitch makes. I actually could have used more lists!

A lot of fun and good food for thought on the price, and fleeting-ness, of fame.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Dark Life

Dark Life Kat Falls

So, I'm not as awesome a writer as Kat Falls, so I can't seamlessly build a world into a story. I'll have to explain the world, then the story.

The World-- there was a massive series of earthquakes and floods and large portions of the US slid into the ocean. The remaining population live in stack cities, with millions of people crammed into a square mile. Space is at an absolute premium. The only place there is space is on the ocean floor, where farmers homestead out land and grow food for the Topside. There's a distrust between those who live Below (derogatorily called Dark Life) and the Topsiders. In addition to a lot of cool technology that makes life on the ocean floor possible, there are also the politics at play. The Commonwealth of States has been under emergency law for the past 20-some years, ever since the Rising. Now, in the Commonwealth of States, All of the forty-five states had two representatives in the assembly to vote on the state's behalf. As a lowly territory, we got on representative who wasn't allowed to vote, and we didn't even choose him.*

The story-- Tensions between the Topside and the Territory reach a breaking point when the Seablite gang keeps hijacking the territory's supply ships. Then the gang starts attacking settlements. Meanwhile, Ty finds Gemma, a Topside girl who's looking for her brother, a prospector who's missing. Then there's the whole mystery of Dark Gifts-- people think that children born below have a Dark Gift, a super power or something because the pressure messes with their brain development. Ty insists they aren't real, but he's also chasing down secrets of his own past, and hoping the territory lasts long enough so he can stake his own claim.

It's kinda hard to explain and there's a lot there, which you don't notice until you're trying to explain it, because what Falls has written is a fast-paced action/adventure/sci-fi fest of awesome. She seamlessly works in all this info about the world and the back story and the politics and Ty and Gemma's relationship and their past and the Seablite gang and how it all ties together and... damn.

It's exciting and fun, but also just really, really good.

According to my sources, there will be at least 2 sequels, and there are definitely places this story can go, especially with the political situation, but it doesn't *have* to have a sequel, but I want one, which makes it a winner in my book.


*So basically... the Benthic Territory is DC. Ok, DC gets to choose their rep, but...

Book Provided by... my local library

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