Happy Halloween

Not enough people got my costume last night, but I figured you bookish types would.

Happy Halloween!

October Jacket Flap-a-Thon

October. That wonderful month of changes -- at least here -- when the world turns from Summer to Fall, when the mind turns to the holidays.

When life gets incredibly busy and there isn't enough time to sit and read. Though I did get a fair amount read this month, surprisingly.

On to the best of the bunch:

The Summer I Turned Pretty (Simon&Schuster): "Some summers are just destined to be pretty. Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer -- they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along."

The best of the YA romance books I read this year: short, sweet, and captures the book perfectly.

Sweetness in the Belly (Penguin Press): "An evocative and richly imagined story of a British-born Muslim woman's search for love and belonging in two very different worlds. When Lilly is eight years old, her pot-smoking hippie British parents leave her at a Sufi shrine in Morocco and inform her they will be back to collect her in three days. Three weeks later, she learns they've been murdered. Lilly fills that haunted hollow in her life with the intense study of the Qur'an under the watchful eye of the saint's disciple she was entrusted to. Years later, her journey from Morocco to Harar, Ethiopia, is half pilgrimage, half flight. In Harar, even her traditional Muslim head scarves cannot hid her white skin in her strange new surroundings; the world farenji -- foreigner -- is hissed at her at every turn. She eventually builds a life for herself teaching children the Qur'an, and she finds herself falling in love with an idealistic young doctor.

I often complain about adult blurbs, but I think this one is spot on in capturing the tone and plot without being overlong.

Liar (Bloomsbury): "Micah will freely admit she's a compulsive liar, but that may be the one honest thing she'll ever tell you. Over the years, she's fooled everyone: her classmates, her teachers, her parents. And she's always managed to stay one step ahead of her lies. That is, until her boyfriend dies under brutal circumstances and her dishonesty begins to catch up with her. But is it possible to tell the truth when lying comes as easily as breathing? Taking readers deep into the psyche of a young woman who will say just about anything to convince them -- and herself -- that she's finally co me clean, Liar is a bone-chilling thriller that will have readers seesawing between truths and lies right up to the end."

Great! Intriguing, without giving a single. detail. away. Perfect.


Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking and Other Natural Disasters (schwartz and wade books): "Alvin Ho does not think the great outdoors is great. It is super-duper scary. here are a few reasons why: 1. Flash floods. 2. Meteorites. 3. Lots of creepy trees. 4. Pit toilets! Luckily, when his dad suggests -- gulp! -- a camping trip, Alvin is prepared. He has: 1. A portable generator. 2. Night-vision goggles. 3. Toilet paper. 4. More toilet paper! So grab your mosquito netting and your heavy-duty flashlight and experience the great outdoors with the one and only Alvin Ho."

How can you not love Alvin? Really. And I love that the blurb writer loves him, too.


Other books read this month:
The Key to the Golden Firebird
Mission Control, This Is Apollo
Nothing But Ghosts
Ice
A Civil Contract (DNF)
Trail of Crumbs (DNF)
The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z
The Stand
The Princetta
Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree
Something, Maybe
Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love

Lips Touch Three Times

Ninth Grade Slays
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Practicing the Piano

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Practicing the Piano

But She Does Love Being in Rectials
by Peggy Gifford
ages: 7-11
First sentence: "It was just after 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 7, and Moxy Maxwell was still in bed."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I love Moxy.

I'm not ashamed of this because Moxy is awesome.

Very few books make me laugh, chortle, snort, guffaw, and giggle. Moxy makes me do all of those. Perhaps that's because my sense of humor is not very sophisticated -- I mean why does this chapter crack me up every time:

Chapter 29: In Which We Learn What Was Inside The Envelope. Inside THE ENVELOPE was the note.

That's it. Entire chapter. Cracks me up every time. As did the dog barking ("barking and barking and barking" written very small over and over... in the shape of a dog.) and Mark's pictures, especially his titles. ("My Sister Looks Better with a Cape Over Her Face") Or the other best chapter:

Chapter 7: The Hook. The Hook is the part of a story that makes you, the Reader, want to keep reading to find out what happens next. Ideally, the Hook should come as early as Chapter 1 -- Chapter 2 at the latest. Any later, and the author risks "losing the reader." Which means you, the Reader, might put this book down for just one second to get some gum and never come back. So please hang on -- even though it is already Chapter 7, Something Really Big is about to happen.

And, yes, Chapter 8 is called Something Really Big.

There is a plot: Moxy is to be in a piano recital. Playing "Heart and Soul" with her little sister, Pansy. Except there's two problems: Moxy has a hard time stopping playing when the song's over (it's too short... really, if she's going to Be On Stage, then she ought to make the most of it), and she's a bit too distracted getting together the Perfect Outfit in order to, um, practice. Yes, there are escapades (this time involving fake ermine trim and an explosion of Green Grass Powder Shake powder) and problems (what happens when it's actually time to go On Stage??)

It's so much fun, I was sad when it ended. Hopefully, though, Moxy will have many many more adventures. If only to entertain me, the Reader.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
ages: adult
First sentence: "Dear Sidney, Susan Scott is a wonder."
Copy won in a contest sponsored by A High and Hidden Place
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Sometimes, when I read a book, one word keeps popping in my mind. For this book, the one word I constantly thought was charming. Utterly, unabashedly, and unreservedly charming.

The book reminded me in many ways of 84 Charing Cross Road, and it wasn't just that it was an epistolary novel. Shaffer and Barrows got a feel for the time (post-war), the place (England), and the people. That, and it's a book about readers and community and belonging, all of which I totally love. It's got a bit of everything, too: romance, literary illusions, soaring descriptions, history. It's a war book, an epistolary novel, a romance, a work of historical fiction.

It's nearly perfect.

Perhaps the only thing holding it back was the hype. I'm always suspicious of NY Times best-sellers, and while I think this one proved my suspicions wrong, I do think that I wanted more out of it. I wanted it to be more soaring, to be more than it actually was. Perhaps that's the nature of the book, though: to get so involved in it that you want more at the end. Whatever the reason, I did enjoy the journey: I just wanted something more out of it.

But what I did get was thoroughly captivating.

2009 Challenge #6: RIP

The good thing about doing one book for many challenges is that you finish them up quicker. I set out to read two books for Carl's challenge, ended up reading four, and only one of the two I had set out to read.

I had a grand time, though.

The four I read:

1. The Stand, by Stephen King
2. The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins
3. Great Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
4. Ninth Grade Slays, by Heather Brewer (I did get a vampire book in!)

My favorite? Toss up between The Moonstone and The Stand, though I'm glad I read some Poe.

Thanks, Carl. It was fabulous, as usual.
Wish me luck!

Ninth Grade Slays

The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, #2
by Heather Brewer
ages: 10-13
First sentence: "Jasik gripped the photograph in his hand and scanned the face of the boy."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

We pick up again with Vlad at the beginning of his freshman year. His one goal over the summer was to call Meredith (the love of his life), but... he chickened out. So, where does that leave our teenage vampire? Depressed. Bummed out.

Must be high school.

Vlad has new challenges this year: there's the leftover problem the vampire community has with his existence. There's a vampire slayer kicking around Bathory. There's the training his uncle wants him to get with a uber-vampire in Russia. There's the teen angst of not knowing whether or not Meredith likes him.

There's the problem that the book (still) has too much set up and not enough pay off. That Vlad is annoying, the dialogue stilted and the action uninteresting. Which means, even though I read every single page, there wasn't much there for me to truly like.

Sigh. That's what really slays, y'know.

Library Loot #42

I'm still running around like a crazy person this week, and this time (horror of all horrors!), the library got shortchanged. We popped in to return books and pick up my Cybils holds, and threw in a few picture books (and other books) on our way to the checkout counter.

Next week will be better.

For A/K:
Dora Saves the Snow Princess (Dora the Explorer)
Hug Time, by Patrick McDonnell**
Score One for the Sloths, by Helen Lester/Illus. by Lynn Munsinger**
Batter Up Wombat, by Helen Lester/Illus. by Lynn Munsinger
Read It, Don't Eat It!, by Ian Schoennherr
Super Duck, by Jez Alborough

For M:
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy , by Gary Schmidt
The Outlaws of Sherwood, by Robin McKinley*
Rules of the Road, by Joan Bauer

For me (and anyone else who wants to read them):
William S. and the Great Escape, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Practicing the Piano: But She Does Love Being in Recitals, by Peggy Gifford (which is NOT a Cybils book, for shame!)*
A Season of Gifts, by Richard Peck
Anything But Typical, by Nora Raleigh Baskin
Also Known As Harper, by Ann Haywood Leal
Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies, by Erin Dionne

The roundup is either at Reading Adventures or A Striped Armchair. Obligatory FTC note: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I'll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it's SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I'm going to keep doing it.

*Ones that M eventually read.
**Picture books we really liked.

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love

by Lauren Tarshis
ages: 9-13
First sentence: "Emma-Jean Lazarus knew very well that the seventh-grade boys at William Gladstone Middle School behaved like animals at times."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

I don't know, after the events in the first book, if I really, truly expected Emma-Jean to be less quirky. I don't think I did. Which is good, because she wasn't.

This time, in Emma-Jean's life, love abounds. It's May, it's time for the spring dance (both of these books revolved around dances). And it's the girls turn to ask the boys out. Everyone's pairing off, except Emma-Jean and Colleen. (Colleen wants to; Emma-Jean is considering it, to a certain extent.) And so, when Colleen gets a secret admirer note in her locker, she tasks Emma-Jean to figure out which boy it is. Brilliant deductions, quirky observations -- but not over-the-top like in the first book.

Emma-Jean also has her first crush, which she takes on in Emma-Jean-style:

"A crush?" Emma-Jean said. This sounded very serious. She pictured a boa constrictor wrapped around the neck of a lemur.

"An infatuation," her mother clarified.

"Is it the same as being in love?" asked Emma-Jean warily....

"No," [her mother] said. "Being in love is one of the most powerful experiences anyone can have. I think that's why we have crushes when we're younger. Maybe it's how we get ready for real love."

This seemed logical to Emma-Jean. After all, many important life skills -- walking, talking, cooking, identifying birds in flight -- were learned in stages and honed through practice.

It's a sweeter book than the first one, funnier, and the plot works better. I found myself actually falling in love with Emma-Jean's quirkiness in a way I didn't the first time around. Quite charming.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I've been asked to make sure y'all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

2009 Challenge #5: The End of the World II

Yahoo! I finished another challenge! This one was hosted by the illustrious Becky, and while I didn't manage to squeak in under the deadline, I did finish it. (Okay, I thought the deadline was the end of October. Sheesh. That one was my fault.)

The books I read:

1. Life As We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer
2. The Stand, Stephen King
3. Extras, Scott Westerfield
4. The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood

My favorite: for pure terror, Life as We Knew It. And for a great introduction to a popular author, The Stand.

Anyway. Thanks, Becky.

The Stand

by Stephen King
ages: adult
First sentence: "Hapscomb's Texaco sat on US 93 just north of Arnette, a pissant four-street burg about 110 miles from Houston."

This one definitely takes some doing to wrap your brain around. It's huge (even though I read the "original" version -- the one that was published in 1978 -- and not the "definitive" version -- the one that King went back and added 200 pages to). It's sprawling. It's weird and wild and wacky. It's dystopian, political, religious, horrific, gross, amazing.

It's... well... Stephen King.

This was my first experience with King (aside from his Entertainment Weekly reviews, and reading The Lawnmower Man in 6th grade, which I don't remember at all). And what an experience. I was blown away by the sheer craft of the man: not the plotting (which I felt dragged in spots), but the imagination (warped) and the world building, and the characterization, and just the fact that he. made. this. book. work. Not many people could imagine something so sprawling and huge and you'd be able to say that in the end.

The basic plot (in case you haven't read the book, or seen the miniseries, which I have to admit I'm curious about now): a superflu (something which threw me for a loop: "Government heath officials emphasize that this is Russian-A flue, not the more dangerous swine flu.") virus gets out and, because it has a 99.4% mortality rate, wipes out most of the population of the country. How or why you survive isn't known; you either don't catch it, or you're dead. The first part of the book is the horror: watching people die terrible, horrible, gross, pathetic deaths not only is difficult, but incredibly unsettling. Shoot: it's terrifying, especially with H1N1 floating around. King is brilliant in this part: he gives people names, occupations, dialogue, a history... and then kills them off. It's brilliant watching the spread of the virus, and terrifying how it affects the world, and the reader.

Then, once everyone who is going to die is dead, the book changes tone. It becomes a political book as the survivors gather -- either around Mother Abigail in Boulder, Colorado (the good team) or around Randall Flagg, aka The Dark Man (the bad team), in Las Vegas. There's a whole section, and this is where the book (for me, at least) lags, about setting up a community, how the Free Zone works, about the human race's urge to gather and organize and build. There's this one character, Glen, who is the sociologist (he's the Hermione of the book) who explains everything. And explains. And explains. Yawn.

Then -- because having a horror book and a political commentary isn't enough -- King decided to turn religious on us, and has a showdown -- though not in the way I expected -- between the good and evil forces. Once the focus switches away from the community in Boulder, once Stu, Glen, Ralph and Larry -- they're the leaders, of sorts, of the Free Zone -- begin their quest as commanded by Mother Abagail on her deathbed -- and once we see what the Dark Man's been up to in Vegas, the action picks up again. Perhaps King is only brilliant when he's twisted? I was fascinated with the downfall of Randall's society, with twists and turns of the plot, and with the climax.

Then -- and why do authors feel a need to do this? -- the book went on for 50 more pages. Yeah, sure, I suppose we need some sort of denouement, some sort of resolution, but honestly, 50 pages worth? (I was actually glad I got the 1978 version by this point.)

It was an uneven book: when it was on, it was brilliant; when it was off, it was incredibly boring. But, now that I've forayed into the world of Stephen King, I have to admit I'm curious to read more. He's an amazing writer.

Warped and weird, yes. But definitely amazing.

Sunday Salon: the Zen of Blogging

For the first session last Saturday at KidlitCon, MotherReader took us through a series of introspective questions about blogging and our fundamental purpose. I thought it'd be interesting to share the questions, as well as some of my thoughts (from my jotted notes) on them.

1. Why are you blogging? Initially -- and it's still my main purpose -- I started blogging as a way to keep track of what I read. But, in the (nearly) five years since I started, some of my reasons why have changed. This is what I wrote down: because I love the community and the friendships; because -- honestly -- I like free books (well, I do); because I like to write about books; because it's fun!; because I want to share my love of books, and spread the word about books I love; and because I love it when there's a good discussion, a give and take of ideas.

2. What do you have to share in your blogging that is unique to you? I had a harder time with this one; I really don't see much of what I do as "unique": there are other bloggers out there doing exactly what I do, and are much better (and more "popular") at it. But, I realized over the course of the weekend that I need to just embrace my unique traits -- that I'm a mom of four girls and that I live in Kansas! -- even if they're not what I would have chosen for myself. The other things I think I have to offer are my honesty, and just being a fan of what everyone else does.

3. Who are you blogging for; who is your audience? I'm selfish: I am bloggging for ME, first and foremost. After myself, I am blogging for other readers, whether or not they are parents looking for books for their kids, or other lovers of whatever it is I love. And then, I'm just looking to spread the word about the fabulous writing in middle grade and YA books out there, to whomever will listen.

4. Where do you see your blog among the other blogs? Again, I had a hard time with this one. From the start, I've never quite fit in a particular "category". Mine is a review blog, definitely. But of what? I read too much adult fiction to be truly kidlit, and I read too much kidlit to be a truly adult blogger. I'm too eclectic to fit in anywhere, and while that's frustrating sometimes, I don't think I'd have it any other way.

5. When are you going to revisit your mission? Um, it would actually help, I think, if I had a mission. I do seem to revisit why I blog about once a year or so, when I catch the blogging "flu". I have been seriously rethinking things (it's a work in process), including the idea of quitting altogether, as I've approached my 5-year anniversary. Bear with me as I try to figure things out. MotherReader did stress that it's important to keep in mind not only why you're blogging, but to revisit that regularly, to make sure that it's still a fitting reason, and to see if you're achieving what you've set out to do.

6. How are you going to change or support your blogging mission? Again, I think what I need to do here is perhaps come up with something specific. I don't know. I am going to go through and refine my blogging policies and procedures (something that's not only a side effect of the conference, but of the FTC guidelines) -- as soon as my life settles down! I do need to be more specific about what books I am willing to accept from publishers/blog tours/authors, for sure. Other than that, I'm still thinking.

So, any general thoughts? What would your answers be to these questions?

Something, Maybe

by Elizabeth Scott
ages: 13+
First sentence: "Everyone's seen my mother naked."
Review copy given to me by the author at KidlitCon 09.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Hannah has the most obnoxious parents on the planet. Her mother spends the day in various states of undress chatting over webcam with fans of her long-canceled TV show. Her father is Jackson, reality TV star, philanderer, and all-out jerk. Hannah has spent the past five years, ever since she and her mother moved to Slaterville after the death of Hannah's stepfather Jose, trying to be invisible. And she's mostly succeeded.

Except that means she doesn't really talk to her crush (her "soul-mate"), Josh, whether at work or at school. However, her invisibility (or her terribly outrageous parents) doesn't stop Finn -- obnoxious, irritating Finn -- from talking to Hannah. It's everything she can do to keep it all together when it seems everyone around her is slowly falling apart.

Well, actually, that's not quite right. Something, Maybe is a straight up romance, the kind of book that you'd expect from Sarah Dessen or Maureen Johnson. And as a straight up romance, it works wonderfully. Yes, it's a bit predictable -- I figured out how the ending would go and there was really no surprises, even with her incredibly wacky parents -- but, it's a good, solid, enjoyable, fun, and yes, hot (or at least I found it to be hot) romance. Aside from the parents, I found the relative lack of disturbed, broken, or otherwise damaged characters to be quite refreshing. They're pretty normal teens doing pretty normal teen stuff. Works for me.

And you can't ask much more of that out of a YA romance, can you?

Lips Touch Three Times

by Laini Taylor/Illus. by Jim Di Bartolo
ages: 12+
First sentence: "There is a certain kind of girl the goblins crave."
Review copy picked up from the ARC exchange table at KidlitCon 09.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Wow.

Oh, I knew Laini Taylor had a fabulous imagination, having adored both Blackbringer and Silksinger, but, really: wow.

This one is three short stories in which the only connection is the act of kissing. Taylor explores what that "means", but because it's Laini Taylor, the exploration is not what you'd expect. Or maybe you would, if you'd read her other stuff. In short, it's weird, wild, entrancing and just plain fabulous. Without giving too much away...

The first story, "Goblin Fruit", takes something that every girl wants -- to be noticed by the popular, cute boy -- and turns it ever-so-slightly sinister. Kizzy has a weird immigrant family, one that she's embarrassed about. It's all she can do to avoid their practices, beliefs, superstitions, especially those of her (now-dead) grandmother, who believed quite strongly that there are goblins out there waiting to capture your soul. Kizzy tries to live a normal life, even from the sidelines of her high school, but she wants. Wants -- to be popular, to be in the arms of the cute boy -- so badly it's palpable. So, when Jack Husk -- beautiful, amazing, wonderful Jack Husk -- shows up and pays attention to her, she goes with it. It's got a bit of an open ending: what really does happen to Kizzy, but it doesn't really matter. In this story, it's the getting there that counts.

The second story, "Spicy Little Curses", was my favorite. Taylor played off of Hindu religion and myth on this one, not only setting the story in Imperialist India, but giving us a devil in Hell who thrives off of making life (and death) miserable for humans. There's a human liaison to Hell who tries to temper what this devil does, but one day -- in exchange for twenty two souls -- she allows the devil to curse the daughter of the Political Agent. The curse: if she ever speaks, she'll kill everyone in the sound of her voice. She manages never to speak, but of course, she grows up into a lovely young woman and a soldier falls in love with her. There is not a happy outcome (again, of course), but the twists and turns and the language (oh, the language!) make it simply a joy to read.

And, finally, "Hatchling". It's the longest of the three stories, the most developed, the most interesting world-building that I've read in a while. Taylor takes were-lore and vampire-lore and develops it in a new and fascinating way in giving us the Druj. Not quite werewolves (and yet they shape shift), not quite vampires (and yet they use and abuse humans for their own pleasure), they terrorize and terrify humans. Mab was one of those, and for some reason, she managed to escape from the Queen. She was pregnant at the time and with her daughter, Esme, she has been in hiding ever since. Fourteen years later, Esme wakes up one morning with one blue eye and one brown eye. This not only terrifies Mab, but leads Emse to the destiny that she never knew she had, changing the way the Druj interact with each other and the world in the process.

I know I didn't quite capture the wonderfulness that is this book. But it truly is amazing.

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree

by Lauren Tarshis
ages: 8-12
First sentence: "Emma-Jean Lazarus knew very well that a few of the seventh-grade girls at William Gladstone Middle School were criers."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Quirky.

Really. That's the best way to describe both Emma-Jean Lazarus and this book.

See, Emma-Jean is a seventh-grade Spock. She's highly logical, rational and prefers to just observe her classmates rather than actually participate in the drama. That is, until one day she stumbles upon Colleen crying in the bathroom. Colleen has a problem: the popular, yet mean Laura is trying to undercut Colleen's friendship with Kaitlin. Emma-Jean realizes that she can fix it, and so... she does. Which sets off a chain of events, including Emma-Jean getting ambitious enough to (try and) fix other problems, that eventually lead to Emma-Jean interacting (at least a little bit) more with her peers.

It's not much of a plot, and it does fall prey to the typical middle school stereotypes (why do all the popular girls have to be mean?). Yet, I think, because of who Emma-Jean is, and the way she is, the book works. It's sweet and funny and rings true to middle school. I'm not sure if kids would like it (I should try it out on C and see what she thinks) -- it is quirky, after all -- but as an adult, I was completely charmed by Emma-Jean and her story.

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking and Other Natural Disasters

by Lenore Look/Illustrations by LeUyen Pham
ages: 7-10
First sentence: "You will know some things about Me if you have read a book called Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Is it too much to say that I still adore Alvin?

One of the tricky things about sequels, I think, is getting it right the second time. Writing a book that is just as adorable, just as funny, just as interesting as the first one? Not an easy task. And yet, Lenore Look (with much help from LeUyen Pham) does. Alvin is spot-on, hilarious, adorable, fun, sweet, and plain great to read.

This time, Alvin's dad decides that he hasn't done a great job of instilling a love of nature in Alvin (spurred by a time-traveling adventure of Alvin's with Henry David Thoreau), and plans a camping trip. As you can imagine (well, if you haven't read the first one, you can't), this does not bode well with Alvin. Camping is bad. There are natural disasters. Bears. Sleeping outside. Germs. Trees. Inside is a good place to be.

And yet, after some wonderful mishaps at school (oh, how the recess camping "game" made me laugh...), Alvin and his little sister, Anibelly, go camping with their dad. After some prepping by older brother Calvin and getting Uncle Dennis's super-duper awesome Batman ring, Alvin's still not quite ready...but ends up going anyway. And,well, has an Alvin-tastic time: aliens, thunderstorms, bear traps, and best of all, sleeping out under the stars.

That doesn't mean it was "fun" for Alvin. For me, though, it was a blast. (Maybe it's because I didn't actually go camping?)

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I've been asked to make sure y'all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

Library Loot #41

Follow up from last week: thanks for all the recommendations! I've saved them all, but didn't check any out because M has decided that she's interested in Chaim Potok, and has moved all the books we have of his upstairs to her room. She seems to be enjoying them, too.

So this week is fairly small...

For A/K:
Dora Climbs Star Mountain (Dora the Explorer)
When the Moon Forgot, by Jimmy Liao
The Nine Lives of Rotten Ralph, by Jack Gantos/Illus. by Nicole Rubel
Wag a Tail, by Lois Ehlert
Dinosaur Starts School, by Pamela Duncan Edwards/Illus. by Deborah Allwright

For me (and anyone else who wants to read them):
The Beast of Blackslope (The Sherlock Files), Tracy Barrett
Born to Fly, by Michael Ferrari
Operation Redwood, by S. Terrell French
Neil Armstrong is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me, by Nan Marino
Strawberry Hill, by Mary Ann Hoberman
The Last Newspaper Boy in America, by Sue Corbett
Winnie's War, by Jenny Moss

The roundup is either at Reading Adventures or A Striped Armchair. Obligatory FTC love: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I'll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it's SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I'm going to keep doing it.

*Ones that M eventually read.
**Picture books we really liked.

The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z

by Kate Messner
ages: 10-13
First sentence: "Forty one minutes to cross-country practice."
I received the ARC from Bloomsbury.
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Seventh grader Gianna Zales loves art and running, especially cross-country. However, she's not so good at deadlines, and her spot at cross-country sectionals is in jeopardy: if she doesn't get her science project -- collecting and cataloging 25 different leaves -- completed and in on time, then her spot is going to go to arrogant, popular Bianca. Which Gianna doesn't like, because in her own words: sparkly girls don't run. Runners do.

Over the course of a week, her best friend Zig tries to keep her focused and spending time searching for leaves, except it's not as easy as it sounds. A funny thing called life keeps getting in the way, whether it's her father's job -- he runs a mortuary -- or her beloved Nonna's increasingly alarming inability to remember things, or her mother's rising stress level and denial about Nonna's problems.

It's a quiet book, funny at times, as Gianna struggles to not only complete her leaf project in time but to deal with the impending change with Nonna. What Messner does best with the book is give a sense of place: the sights, sounds, smells and feel of a Vermont fall literally popped off the page. Messner also helps by intertwining Robert Frost poems amid the science and running: it broadens the scope of the book and grounds it in ways that it wouldn't be without the poetry connection.

The only real complaint is the stereotypical plot: Gianna is neither popular or unpopular, in spite of her running prowess, and has to waffle between being friends or not with the two outcast girls, Ellen and Ruby; the friendship-but-is-there-more with Zig; the overbearing and irritating mom; the popular versus nerdy conflict with Bianca (two guesses who gets to go to sectionals; it's not difficult to figure out).

Still, even though it was pretty predictable, it is an enjoyable read. Enough so, that I'm looking forward to what Messner has to offer in the future.

(Just for the record: because this is a Cybils nominee, I've been asked to make sure y'all know this is my opinion only, and not that of the panel.)

Childhood and A Love of Reading

This ran in Estella's Revenge back in August 2007. I thought I'd reprint it here for National Day on Writing and post it to the gallery A Lifetime of Reading. Enjoy.

It's no secret that I enjoy -- no, love -- middle-grade and young adult fiction.

This is not a passion that I have always had. It's not that I didn't read as a child; I did. A lot. But after I got through the usuals -- Little House on the Prairie, Harriet the Spy, Anne of Green Gables, the Ramona books, Tales of Fourth Grade Nothing, and probably others I can't remember -- I read a lot of junk. Or, what I would now consider junk.

Then, by the time I hit 7th grade, I'd left YA fiction behind for Piers Anthony, Ray Bradbury and Edgar Allen Poe (my morbid phase). From there, it was the Agatha Christie obsession that lasted for several years. And by the time high school hit, it was mostly reading for English classes; I'm not sure I read for fun between 10th grade and sometime in college.

It wasn't until about 12 years ago that I discovered all that I had missed.

It started innocently enough, in a conversation with a friend who asked if I'd ever read Beauty by Robin McKinley. No, I replied, I hadn't. She loaned me that, along with Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series, and I was hooked. Soon, I was picking up children's books from the library (my oldest at the time was still a baby) and the bookstore and devouring them. Because I realized something: these books, these kid's books, were good.

I think somewhere along the line, I was convinced that books for young adults, for children, were considered immature, and if you were an adult (or wanted to be), then you needed to get out of the kids section. I think this is a common perception; I have been asked numerous times if I read middle-grade and young-adult fiction because I'm "prescreening" books for my kids. My blog has been dismissed by some because I read too many kids books. (Ironically, it's also not that respected in the kidlit world because I review adult books, too. There's no winning.) The assumption is that there just can't be anything in these books that I, as an adult woman, would enjoy or be satisfied by.

Yet, I have often found that it is the adult books are less than satisfying. Authors that write for adults--or at least, those that want to get noticed by big-name reviewers--tend to either get lost in the words of the book, rather than developing characters or storylines; or, they heap on so much "adult" stuff (sex, language, violence), that in the end I'm left wondering where the story was. For me, for the type of reader I am, the story and the characters are critical to the success of a book. I enjoy a beautifully written book, but the words themselves rarely draw me in (perhaps this is partly a result of my education in journalism rather than English). However, it's all about the story.

And the truth is, some of the best stories out there are being written for children and young adults. There's the obvious examples of J.K. Rowling or Philip Pullman or Roald Dahl. But it goes deeper than that. Ann Rinaldi spins convincing and interesting historical tales, usually featuring some strong and admirable heroine. Christopher Paul Curtis tells stories of being black in America that are engaging and challenging at the same time. Rick Riordan has come up with a brilliant idea of bringing the Greek myths to life (even though his series has the obvious Harry Potter comparisons). And Francis Hardinge's debut book, Fly By Night, had me hanging on every word until the end.

In addition to the stories that are being told by current authors, I've managed to discover jewels that I passed over as a child. I never read The Hobbit or Treasure Island (I was too judgmental; they were "boy books"). I rediscovered All-of-a-Kind-Family and The Westing Game. I found out what choice opportunities reading The Mixed of Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Tuck Everlasting and Railway Children were. Or the challenge in reading The Devil's Arithmatic.

Yes, my life wouldn't have ended if I'd never read any of those books. But, my life wouldn't have ended if I'd never read How Green Was My Valley or Zorro either. The point is that my life was enriched by reading those books. They brought me something that I, in turn, wanted to share with my family and friends. They had the power of a good story, well told.

And in the end, that's what has brought us together as people since the beginning of time: the ability to tell stories and learn from them. Whether or not they're supposed to be for kids.

The Princetta

by Anne-Laure Bondoux
ages: 12+
First sentence: "A few months ago you summoned me to the Council Chamber."
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!

Malva dreams of adventure. She's the crown princess of Galnicia, and she loathes being a puppet in her parent's grand plans. She hates sitting, looking perfect and pretty and dreams of escape. So, on the night before her engagement party (to some stuffy old prince), she and her maid escape from the castle.

Thus begins The Princetta, a book in the tradition of Grand Fantasy: high adventure, romance, princesses, noble sailors, evil revenge-seeking counts, giants, sirens, mystical lands, battles, storms... in fact, it reminded me a lot of The Princess Bride. Except, it didn't quite work.

I don't know if it was the translation -- it was originally written in French -- or the story. But, honestly, about halfway through the book I started skimming because it was boring. There was a lot of telling, rather than showing, and Malva -- for all her feisty ideals -- wasn't terribly interesting. For all the characters to juggle, it was managing okay, until they got to the mystical Archipelago, where they were to get Tested and Tried. The book was only half done, and I had no idea how it was going to manage for the rest of the (overlong) 430 pages. I skimmed enough to get the gist of it, read the ending (which wasn't predictable at all, which surprised me) and called it quits.

I do wish it had been better, though.

There and Back Again: Kidlit Con

Oh, my.

I have absolutely no way to even begin to wrap my brain around KidlitCon, or even figure out remotely how to report on it. So, how about a few Book Nut awards?

Most awesome blogger in the whole world for putting this fabulous conference together: MotherReader, of course.

Best announcers: FatherReader and TeenReader and KidReader. Nothing like a lot of humor (and organization and creativity) to make a charity raffle memorable.

Best panel (even though it wasn't, really): The FTC sent a representative to talk to us about the guides/regulations. Great round ups/discussions at A Chair, A Fireplace and A Teacozy, Galleysmith, and Charlotte's Library (among others).

Best presentation (since it wasn't a panel): Greg's discussion of social media and how it can work for you. It was geared more towards the authors in the room, but it was very fascinating and interesting and helpful and useful. It's all about connection. Really.

Best people to hang with: everyone. But, specifically...
Michelle at Galleysmith,


Maureen at Confessions of a Bibliofore,


Charlotte at Charlotte's Library, Jennie at BiblioFile,


and Abby at Abby(the)Librarian (yay for finally meeting her!).


They totally made my day.

Best laugh: Varian Johnson. I want to have him and his wife over for dinner because he's interesting, fun, and his laugh just makes me want to laugh.

Best idea: getting involved. There's so many ways -- that goes for you non-kidlit people out there -- to share a love of reading. I won't go into them now (one for the future that I want to participate in, and should have last year, is Share a Story, Shape a Future), but there is one relevant participation thing: tomorrow -- October 2oth is National Day on Writing. The lovely ladies at A Year of Reading have set up a forum called A Lifetime of Reading for you to submit your stories about your reading experiences. It doesn't have to be fancy -- just go through old blog posts and find one about reading that you'd like to share. And then do it. :-)

I could go one about the fabulous time I had and how much I want to go back, and how exciting it was to meet everyone (including my Nookish friends Corinne, Cami and Kelly, even though they weren't actually at KidlitCon)

and how many people lived up to what I thought they'd be, and how weird it was being known as the person from Kansas with four girls (just embrace it, don't fight it!)... but I won't.

I am going to try really, really, really hard to go next year, though.

Trail of Crumbs

Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home
by Kim Sunee
ages: adult
First sentence: "Let me start by saying where I am."

Perhaps I was influenced by Corinne's and Lilly's reviews of this book. Perhaps if I hadn't read those, I would still have had the same reaction to the book. As it was, I couldn't make it even 50 pages into it.

Many of Corinne's and Lilly's complaints are mine: Kim Sunee is unsympathetic, she tells more than shows, she's not even very good -- for a food memoir -- at describing the smells, tastes, and feel of the food she's cooking, eating or enjoying.

Honestly, I skipped around, read the ending, and chalked it up to me being much less hip, much less interested in self-discovery than the book wants from me.

There are better food memoirs out there, and better ways to spend my time.

Sweetness in the Belly

by Camilla Gibb
ages: Adult
First sentence: "The sun makes its orange way east from Arabia, over a Red Sea, across the volcanic fields and desert and over the black hills to the qat- and coffee-shrubbed land of the fertile valley that surrounds our walled city."

This was a buddy read with Kailana -- and if it seems a little weird, it's because she has the first half of the conversation up on her blog. Go visit it, then come back for the second half...

Melissa: That's funny. I don't know of many white Muslims, but I do have friends (who are white) who are very interested in Islam, so I knew a bit about the religion going into the book. I do like the portrait that Gibb painted of the religion: how there are some extremes (like the female circumcision, which was very difficult for me to read!) but most Muslims are just trying to find their path back to God. I liked how she looked upon Christians as "misguided". That made me chuckle.

Kelly: Yeah, I have always had trouble with female circumcisions. It is so horrifying to hear described, and I know I never want to experience it first-hand! In other cultures the male circumcisions can be pretty graphic, too. Then it is less about religion and more about making the men feel less manly, but still, I will never understand the practice!

Melissa: Me, either! I got into an argument with my husband over it: I compared it to foot-binding in China (he disagreed that there were similarities), and wondered why women put their girls through such things for the sake of a "good marriage". I've never encountered this in a book before (pretty sheltered reading, I guess): it was horrifying. One of the other things I liked about the religion is how much of it was cultural; how much of her religion when she got to Britain was almost more Ethiopian than what we'd consider (as an outsider) to be "Muslim".

Kelly: It is actually China that is one of the places that would cut off men's manly parts to make them better servants... And, women put themselves through that because it has become a norm that it is what is desired. So, it really is the men's choice as much as the women's. Women are worthless in many cultures if they don't marry, and men won't marry them if they don't abide by cultural norms for what a woman is supposed to be!

Melissa: Very true. And very unfair! So... one of the things I noticed about the book was the language. Usually, it stands out to me and grates on me when a writer is so very effusive? technical? with language -- like they're trying to be flowery and trying to show that they have a mastery of it -- but this felt very natural, very poetic. I loved it. What did you think?

Kelly: Oh, so happy you brought this up because I never would have thought to. I totally agree, though. Flowery writing is something I have never been a big fan of, but Gibb did it so well that I didn't even pay attention. Normally I would also find writing like that slows the book down, but once I got into the book I found it was over with really fast. For the style it was actually a pretty fast read. I was impressed. I learned a lot, too, which was great. She says in the note in the back that it is mixed with fiction, so obviously not a true story, but I think she captures well what a character in Lilly's position would be thinking. Would you agree?

Melissa: I totally agree. I have had problems with current "classics" in the past because the way the writer's written the book is distracting from the story and the characters. I like the way you put it: that Gibb captures well the character of Lilly. I also felt like she gave a real sense of what it was like to be living in Ethiopia; the feel, the rhythm, the smell. It almost felt like I was there.

Kelly: I know! I really felt like I got a sense for everything, which is always a good thing in a fiction novel. Was there anything that you didn't like about the book?

Melissa: Aside from the circumcisions and the medical stuff in general (I have a weak stomach!)? No. I think that's one of the things that really surprised me about the book: there wasn't anything that stood out as being really negative? How about you?

Kelly: I know! It is great, huh? I have read a bunch of good books in a row. I think I have another book by her on my TBR pile, so I am really looking forward to it! I can't remember what book actually won the Giller the year she was nominated, but it must have been some book for her to lose to it! Medical stuff doesn't really bother me, but I am bothered by the ways that women try and make themselves 'appealing' for men. Anything else that you want to mention?

Melissa: You have a stronger stomach than I do! You'll have to let me know how her other book is; I'm not sure the library here has anything else by her. It was good reading this; thanks for introducing me to her books!

Kelly: Welcome! I am glad this worked out so well!

Library Loot #40

I've been really bad lately in getting books for M. It seems the last month or so, she's been handing me the stack of books back without having read any of them mostly because they don't sound "interesting." So, when she came home from the library on Saturday having checked out Orson Scott Card's Hart's Hope (verdict: interesting, but very disturbing), it occurred to me that maybe she's moving beyond the teen section.

So: what do I give a 13 year old girl to read that isn't too graphic (violence, language, or sex) that is a bit more challenging/interesting/intriguing than the teen books I've been bringing home? She tends toward the fantasy, but she also likes historical and realistic fiction, too.

For A/K:
Monster Baby, by Dian Curtis Regan/Illus. by Doug Cushman
Bella & Bean, by Rebecca Kai Dotlich/Illus by Aileen Leijten*
Dora's Costume Party! (Dora the Explorer) (I was really happy all those weeks when the Dora books weren't in. Sigh.)
One Wolf Howls, by Scotti Cohn/Illus. by Susan Detwiler
Who Wants to Be a Poodle I Don't, by Lauren Child*
The Terrible Plop, by Ursula Dubosarsky/Illus. by Andrew Joyner
Just How Long Can A Long String Be?!, by Keith Baker

For C:
Still reading "grumpy Harry". I'm glad she's so determined.

For M:
The Strongbow Saga, Book One: Viking Warrior, by Judson Roberts
Magic Street, by Orson Scott Card
The Memory of Earth, by Orson Scott Card

For me:
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, by William Goldman
Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China (P.S.), by Peter Hessler
Ninth Grade Slays: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, by Heather Brewer
Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree, by Lauren Tarshis
Emma Jean Lazarus Fell in Love, by Lauren Tarshis

The roundup is either at Reading Adventures or A Striped Armchair. Obligatory FTC love: the links are provided through my Amazon Associates account. If you click through and actually purchase one of these books, I'll get a teeny, tiny payment. But, since no one ever does, and it's SO much easier using the associates account to put up these links, I'm going to keep doing it.

*Ones that M eventually read.
**Picture books we really liked.

Liar

by Justine Larbalestier
ages: 13+
First sentence: "I was born with a light covering of fur."
Review copy sent to me by the folks at Bloomsbury.

The hardest part about reviewing a book like this is not giving anything away. The hardest part about reading a book like this is knowing what to believe.

There are unreliable narrators -- characters who don't understand what's going on around them, who whether willfully or unknowingly misinterpret the information around them, while the reader fully understands what's going on. Then, there's Micah. Micah is a liar, something for which she's very up front about.

However, that means everything in the book is suspect. Everything.

I think the basic plot -- that Micah's "after hours" boyfriend, Zach was brutally killed -- is pretty much sound. But everything else, from the opening sentence to the final paragraph, is suspect. How much is truth? Micah tells you that she's telling the truth, but as the book unravels, there are lies. So you wonder: is she lying about lying? You can't trust her as a narrator, and yet you have no information other than what she gives you. Everything in the book is on shaky ground, and you're left at the end wondering what really happened.

It's a compelling look at... what? Lying and truth-telling, yes. But other things as well. But you could also go meta here: it's exploring the role of a narrator in a book, the role of a reader and the agreements the reader makes with the narrator/author when opening up the book. It's an exploration of a girl trying to fit in, but... how?

I'd go on, but really, as Justine Larbalestier says, it's better left spoiler free. Once you've read the book, head over to the spoiler thread and leave your two cents on what it all means.

I'm still reeling from it all. Fascinating.

Get Your Nominations In

Two days from now -- Thursday, October 15th -- is the last day to nominate your favorite children’s and young adult books published in the last year for a Cybil Award. The book(s) you nominate need to have have been published sometime between October 15, 2008 and October 15, 2009. You are allowed to nominate one book in each of the following categories:

Easy Readers/Short Chapter Books
Fantasy & Science Fiction
Fiction Picture Books
Graphic Novels
Middle Grade Fiction
Non-Fiction Picture Books
Non-Fiction: Middle Grade & Young Adult
Poetry
Young Adult Fiction

Click on the category title to see the list of books already nominated in that category. I'm really not very good when it comes to coming up with lists of books that haven't been nominated. Click here to see Sherry's list of books she'd like to see... I can tell you that right now we only have 92 books on my panel's list, which is about 40 short from last year. (Does that mean there aren't as many good Middle Grade books published this year?) I have noticed that we're missing the latest Moxy Maxwell and Heavy Medal Newbery favorite A Season of Gifts on our list. If you haven't spent your nomination in the Middle Grade Fiction category, consider one of those two. (Or others. I'm sure there are others...)

At any rate, you only have two days left to get your nominations in!

On Comments and Commenting, Part 2

This has been on my mind ever since Mother Reader asked me (along with Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect, Mary Lee at A Year of Reading, and Jennifer at BiblioFile) to be on a panel for the KidlitCon, and then asked "How can I get people to comment on my blog? Or link to my blog? Or notice I have a blog?" Honestly, the first thing that came to mind was commenting.

You want people to know you're out here in the bloggy world? You want people to read what you write? Comment on blogs. All sorts of blogs. Follow links from your favorite blogs and comment on those blogs. Follow the links of the people who comment on your blogs and comment there. The only way people will know you're out there is if you tell them you are. And the best way to tell them you're out there is by comment love.

And I admit: I love comments. I feel bad when a post of mine doesn't get any -- it looks so neglected and ignored without any. And, to be really honest, I do wonder if what I wrote wasn't "good" enough or "interesting" enough to merit any comments. Then I get all self-conscious: am I just shouting into the void? Is there anyone out there reading what I'm writing?

Yet, I find that I'm really bad at leaving comments. It's not that I'm not reading what you write: I am (mostly). It's just that I have -- we all do -- a limited amount of time in the day, and dividing it up between running a family, reading books, blogging about those books, and reading other's blogs, the thing that gets pushed to the bottom every time is reading other's blogs. I could spend all day wading through my feed reader, commenting on every blog, and I'm sure it'd make me hugely popular (well, I'm actually NOT sure about that) and I'd get a ton of comments (then again, maybe not). But, I don't have that kind of time, and that's not where my priorities lie.

And so to bring these two blogging poles into balance, I have developed a battle plan: comment on the posts and the blogs that aren't getting much love. I find that if a post has more than 20 comments, or a blog that I read consistently gets 30, 60, 100 comments, I don't feel a need or a desire to comment. What I probably wanted to say was probably already said by someone else (I hardly ever read through comments when they get over 25, anyway). It's at that point that I don't feel like I'm really contributing to the conversation, instead becoming just another yay- or nay-sayer in the crowd.

But on the smaller blogs and smaller posts, I feel I can make some sort of difference. Add that one comment that will make the post author's day. (Because, believe me, I know how it feels.) Even if it's just a "good review!" comment.

Which brings me to "good review" comments: do leave them. I know that my reviews get read, but I feel bad for the ones that don't get any comment love. I don't know why -- like somehow my reviews are my babies, and I feel bad that they're being rejected because no one liked it enough to say "Hey, great review." Or even, "That sounds terrible/interesting/unique/stupid."

Commenting is one way to get involved in the wider community -- and leaving comments will most likely make someone else's day. But, we do realize: we all have a limited amount of time, and not every post will get a comment from everyone. It's just nice when it happens.

So, leave a comment: do you live for comments, or are you more like Liz: you know there are readers out there, and it really doesn't matter if they comment?

Ice

by Sarah Beth Durst
ages: 12+
First sentence: "Once upon a time, the North Wind said to the Polar Bear King, 'Steal me a daughter, and when she grows, she will be your bride.'"
Review copy sent to me by the publisher at the author's request.

Cassie has spent her life knowing two things: polar bears and ice. It's because she grew up with her father at a remote research station in northern Alaska. There was one other thing she was told: her mother was the daughter of the North Wind, and she was currently residing in the troll castle in exchange for defying the North Wind and having a daughter (who she promised would marry the Polar Bear King). Cassie figured it was just a fancy way for her dad and grandmother to tell her that her mother had died.

Until, on her 18th birthday, she discovers that the story was really true: she encounters Bear, who comes to take her to his castle and marry her.

Thus begins Sarah Beth Durst's latest book, a modern adaptation of the fairy tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon. There have been other adaptations of this tale, but Durst takes it in a couple of new and intriguing directions. First, by setting it in modern day, it makes the fairy tale end of it seem more surreal. There aren't supposed to be talking bears or magic in our modern, scientific world. Durst makes this work by introducing a vaguely religious aspect to the book: Bear and his kind are munasqri: beings who have powers in order to capture souls of the dying and deliver souls to the born of the creatures they oversee. It's an intriguing concept: one that allows for magic without making things overly fairytale-ish.

The other thing I found interesting was that the marriage between the main character and the bear took place near the beginning of the book, rather than being the reward for finding the bear. The basic elements of the tale were there, except that Cassie is married -- and pregnant -- for most of the book. It added something more to the book; it's almost more believable that Cassie would go to the ends of the earth and beyond for her husband rather than someone she just discovered she loved (though there's some of that, too), especially because she's carrying their baby. As a mother and a wife that particularly touched me. I'm not sure how much teens would find it interesting -- M really enjoyed reading the book, though -- but I did appreciate it for the picture of a loving, healthy relationship.

Durst opts for a more quiet tone than in her previous two books. There is no supreme adventure, a race against evil -- though interestingly enough, evil takes a similar form in this one as it did in both of her other books. No, it's a quest, a journey in the traditional sense: Cassie is searching for her husband, questing to prove to herself that the impossible can be done, learning that she not only can do what she thought she could -- both physically and emotionally -- and overcoming all in the end.

An excellent addition to this fairy tale's adaptations.

The Summer I Turned Pretty

by Jenny Han
ages: 12+
First sentence: "We'd been driving for about seven thousand years."

Belly lives for summers. Summers are when she is most alive, most at home, most in her element. Summers are when magic happens. Summers spent at the beach house, with her mother, older brother Steven, her mother's best friend Susannah and her two boys, Conrad and Jeremiah. They are Belly's world every summer.

She's been the tag-along little sister for most of her life, but this summer, the summer she turns 16, it's different. This summer, for the first time, people -- boys -- notice that she's pretty. It's also the summer that everything changes, because whether Belly likes it or not, nothing can ever stay the same.

Han has perfectly captured two things: 1) a hesitancy to grow up -- Belly wants to be older, wants to be included with the boys, and yet she can't quite seem to let the past, the way things were and have always been go quite yet; and 2) the need, desire, want of every girl to have at least one boy (preferably the boy they secretly adore) to acknowledge that they are pretty. Sure, there are other things going on here -- divorce, angst, cancer -- but really, the book all boils down to one girl, one summer, and her conflicting desires to change and yet stay the same.

It tugs at the heart strings, but not in a manipulative way. Perhaps, though, it's a better nostalgia book for adults or older teens. One has to have gone through these emotions at some point in their life (and what girl doesn't?) in order to truly "get" the book. Aside from that, though: it's a beautiful portrait of a girl and the summer that changed everything for her.

An Argument for Bias: An Open Letter to the FTC

To Richard Cleland, Federal Trade Commission:

As I'm sure you're aware, a lot of book bloggers have reacted strongly to the inclusion of book blogging in the "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising" which have recently been released by the FTC. They, like me, are wondering how it will apply to the work we do. We are also somewhat frustrated at your apparent lack of understanding regarding how book reviewing and book blogging works. It is these latter concerns -- with which I mostly agree -- that has prompted this letter.

As I understand the guides, the FTC is concerned about the consumer's perceptions of individual reviews of "products". I can understand this concern, especially when it comes to utilitarian products.

When I am reading "reviews" (though as one book blogger, Mother Reader, observed, "how does how one 'review' a bookshelf or swingset or tungsten rings?") of clothing, shoes, strollers, computers, cameras, or cars, I want to know how well they work. I want to know which brand or item is going to give me the most for my money. It's reasonable that such things are "reviewed" on the basis of their form and function, because their value comes from how well they perform those functions. Reviews of those products need to be clear about any bias which might have come into the review, because being biased or dishonest about the performance of a product will diminish the value of those products in the hands of consumers. In short, it makes sense to regulate and oversee reviews of these kinds of commercial products: they have a definite utilitarian value which can be easily compared.

But books are different. Sure, they can be perceived as a product: they are physical in ways that, say, movies are not. There are publishers and authors who benefit from their production and sale. However, this is not what book reviewers are reviewing. You will not read a review of a book that says, in essence: "This book is about 6 by 8 inches, with 288 pages. There's a nice smell about it, and the pages turn excellently. It also makes a great doorstop." There is usually no (or very little) mention of the physical or utilitarian aspect of the actual book. There is also almost never any mention of which "brand" of book -- be it Bloomsbury, or LittleBrown, or HarperCollins -- is better than the other.

Rather, what we are reviewing are the ideas, the outpourings of a person's imagination, in the book's story. And for that, we often want bias. When it comes to books -- or movies, music or art -- biases (of some sorts anyway) can be helpful. It can mean that you’ve read a lot of other books (some of which you got for free, some of which you bought on your own, some of which you checked out from the local library), that you’re familiar with the author, that you understand what the publisher is trying to accomplish. This will enable you to be more sympathetic (and thus give potential readers a chance to learn something new) or more critical (and thus warn potential readers away when a book is really just more of this or more of that, and not as good).

Ultimately, a book review involves a question of taste. We book reviewers are reacting to the book in ways that a stroller reviewer doesn't react to a stroller. Sure, you can look at the "construction" of a book -- Are all the words spelled right? Does the sentence structure make sense? Is it cleverly or beautifully assembled? -- but, ultimately, what a review really boils down to is the reviewer's taste in stories. And taste cannot be regulated or influenced by free products.

Ask yourself what the consumers of book reviews--which include book bloggers themselves--are looking for. As readers of books, we actively search out not only multiple opinions on each and every book (if we're so inclined), and we look for opinions of people whose taste (which we have determined over time) closely matches our own. It doesn't matter if the review they find is in The Washington Post, the Wichita Eagle, Bookslut, or on an individual's blog. Generally speaking, all readers want to know is whether they will have a positive experience with the story the book contains. So, we find people with like-tastes and read and come to trust (or, in some cases, distrust) their reviews, searching out (or avoiding) the books they recommend. It doesn't matter if they got the book for free from Random House, or through a blog book tour, or because an author emailed them out of the blue; what matters is how they reacted to the story, and how we as consumers of book reviews are able to measure their taste against ours. As commenter Nicole said on this post in response to a comment about the bias inherent in blogs, "There is no tradition of 'unbiased' blogs, and any reader would know, going into a blog, that it is just a biased person giving an opinion. Sounds like the consumer has all the knowledge he needs."

Although the print media has a reputation for being "unbiased" in their reviews, in all actuality they are not any more unbiased than individual bloggers. In my role as book editor for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, I receive books -- many unsolicited -- from publishers for review in the journal. I consciously seek out reviewers who are knowledgeable about and are involved in the issues surrounding the topic of any given book, which increases the likelihood of their giving a "biased" review. This happens in ways both "positive"--in that they see the author has agreed with the reviewer's own or work or has added something to the discussion which the reviewer thinks to be valuable--and "negative"--when the reviewer sees the author approaching a topic or area of study in a manner they think is ignorant, irresponsible, or counter-productive. I do not think this bias hurts the journal, and I do not think getting a free book biases a reviewer in favor of the book, whether that book comes from me, as an editor, or directly from the publisher. In fact, I think that if we actively discourage people from reviewing -- or receiving -- books they have a vested interest in, there would be far fewer reviews -- and far worse ones.

After all this, I do know that it's not really bias itself which you're attempting to regulate. In terms of the regulations, it doesn't matter if a particular blogger likes John Grisham or John Green. What does matter is if that blogger got the books directly from Grisham's or Green's publishers (or agents or publicists) instead of walking to the bookstore and buying a copy. But I'm here to say 1) that the variety of biases available throughout the book blogger world makes for a better and broader marketplace for those books (to say nothing of the "marketplace of ideas" which that variety contributes to), and 2) that the practice of obtaining getting free books needn't affect that variety -- on the contrary, it probably expands it. The reviewer who likes John Green will like his work whether or not the book was free. Same goes for the reviewer who dislikes his work. Because, unlike cameras or cars or strollers, books don't have a set physical value. Sure, a book may sell for $19.95, and the publisher, author, and agent each get a cut. But, honestly, that's not the real value of a book.

The real value to all readers of books is the ideas, and the experience of reading stories which contain those ideas. I'd like to think that the consumers of our blogs -- our fellow readers -- understand that concept. It's not the possession of the physical book that ultimately determines what I think of it, it's the reading experience. And, honestly, can one put a monetary value on or regulate an experience?

Sincerely,
Melissa Fox