Prime Baby

Prime Baby Gene Luen Yang

Thaddeus K. Fong knows something's not right with his baby sister. At 18 months, all she says is "ga." His parents don't see this speech delay as an issue, but when Thaddeus discovers that she says "ga" in prime numbers... well, clearly she's an alien.

Of course, she isn't really. She's an inter-dimensional portal so alien slugs who are Missionaries of smiles and happy feelings. They knit a lot of socks. How can Thaddeus save the world from these guys?

It's a bit bizarre and pretty funny. It was originally serialized in the New York Times Magazine. The age range is a bit weird. We have it in our teen section (and our teen acquistions librarian said they had a really hard time deciding where to put it, children, teen, or adult) Thaddeus is 8. And acts like he's 8. But a lot of the humor will be missed on your average 8-year-old. There are a lot of great 1-liners in here. "My mother's womb is a Trojan horse, I tell you."

It's really short and I kinda wanted MORE, but I think the length would have worked really well in its original serialized format.

Overall, a fun, super-quick read that proves sometimes, it's not always sibling jealousy. Sometimes, your baby sister really *is* an alien.


Book Provided by... my local library

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Eternal Smile

The Eternal Smile: Three Stories Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim

Three stories, joined together by the same twist ending. The first one, about a knight on a quest to win the princess's hand, didn't do much for me. I liked the second a lot, but because it reminded me of Duck Tales, but with frogs. I really liked the third, because there was a different twist to the twist ending. But, for some odd reason, I read the third story first. I don't know if I would have liked it as much if I had read it third.

The stories are all about taking control of your life, but done in a not-overly-subtle way. At times, it seemed manipulative. I'm a big fan of Yang and Kim, but this one just didn't do it for me.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Award Season

My Kiki Strike t-shirt as arrived! I also won a Looking Glass Wars shirt at our Mock Caldecott a few weeks ago. Pictures will come soon.

So... if you didn't know, the ALA announced their Youth Media awards on Monday. That includes such things as the Caldecott, Newberry and Printz, among others! Check out the full list of winners here.

Anyway, some of ALA's favorites were my favorites, too!

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

A graphic novel won the Printz! This is a beautifully told (and drawn) story. It starts out with the tale of Monkey and his adventures (because who doesn't love Monkey?) We then see the story of the author, trying to fit in at a new school where he is the only Chinese kid. Eventually, another Chinese kid transfers to the school and, after a rough period, they become friends. Then we get the story of Danny, an althete and cool high schooler, who looks white until his cousin Chinkee (every awful Chinese stereotype you've ever seen) comes to visit and blows his facade away. The book flips between these tales until they come together at the end. Funny and moving, I highly recommend.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This is one of my favorite books of last year and a Printz honor book. Death narrates this tale of a small girl in Munich in WWII. Death is serious, and funny, and really sick of war. He's not a big fan of humans, and usually doesn't notice them, but he notices Liesel.

Liesel is sent to Munich as a foster child. She knows her mother is giving her up for reasons that have something to do with Hitler and that her dad was a Communist. In Munich, she makes unlikely friends and learns to read from a stolen book. There is power in stealing books. There is power in reading.

This book is beautiful and deep and stirring. I will warn you that I cried so hard at the end that I woke up Dan who was sound asleep.