What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

15-year-old Evie Spooner is a bit awkward and wishes she could grow up a little bit a lot faster.  She wishes she could be more like her mom, Beverly, whom she sees as a beautiful (albeit over-protective) mother and housewife who is capable of making practically anything look elegant.  Being a housewife is more of a recent thing for Beverly, though.  During WWII, Beverly had to work in a local department store to help support her family, but her husband/Evie’s step-father is back from the war and is able to take care of his family again.  Joe’s appliance stores are doing really well, and he is happy to be back home in Queens, but the sudden appearance of a war buddy [Peter Coleridge] gets Joe acting strangely.  Apropos of nothing, he decides to take Evie and Beverly to Palm Beach.  The town is mostly shut down because they’re there during the wrong season, but they manage to find a room at Le Mirage — where they end up meeting a glamorous couple, Mr. and Mrs. Grayson [also from New York City].  Secrets slowly unfold, as Evie sees and hears things she shouldn’t…  But, by the time Evie figures out what’s going on, she is already caught in the middle of a web of lies.  This is a great mystery, especially for people who enjoy historical fiction.

Happy Reading!

ALA Youth Media Awards 2013

There are a host of book awards that are given out by the ALA every year, but I am only posting three categories on my blog.  Why?  Partially to help them get more web traffic on their own website [http://www.ala.org/news/mediapresscenter/presskits/youthmediaawards/alayouthmediaawards] and partially to make things easier on myself… but mostly because the three that I am posting are the three that I was most curious to hear about this year.  I certainly appreciate that all of the awards are important, but I am posting about the William C. Morris YA Debut Award (which honors a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature), the Odyssey Award (for excellence in audiobook production), and the Michael L. Printz Award (for excellence in literature written for young adults).  Makes sense based on what I review, right?

DRUM

ROLL,

PLEASE!

2013 William C. Morris YA Debut Award Winner

Seraphina

by Rachel Hartman

 

 

2013 Odyssey Award Winner

The Fault in Our Stars

by John Green, read by Kate Rudd

 

 

2013 Michael L. Printz Award

 In Darkness

by Nick Lake

 

 

2013 Michael L. Printz Honor Books

Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Dodger by Terry Pratchett

White Bicycle by Beverly Brenna

Happy Reading!

It’s Teen Read Week!

And that means a few things:

1. The Teens’ Top Ten list has been announced.
2. I will be posting a book review a day, today through Saturday.
3. Our library will be hosting it’s 5th Annual TRW Lock-In — with a Hunger Games theme!

Happy Teen Read Week!

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

There have been a couple of occasions when I read a book after it won an award and found myself feeling a little let down.  I expected too much and didn’t see why the award committee picked that book over all of the others I had loved in the previous year.  That is very definitely NOT the case with Ship Breaker!  I loved every minute of this book and my only complaint was that I didn’t have the time to read it from cover-to-cover in one sitting.  This action-filled adventure has well-developed characters, provides plausible (if frightening) outcomes for current global issues, and leaves readers begging for a sequel.

The world has run out of oil and global warming has melted the polar ice caps; this is certainly not the world as we know it.  Most people live in poverty and take whatever work they can find, no matter how dangerous, just so they can continue to survive.  Nailer has found work with a “light crew,” which means wriggling through the duct work of beached tanker ships along the Gulf Coast to scavenge for scrap metals, like copper wiring and fixtures.  As long as he makes quota, and doesn’t get too big to fit through the ducts, he can stay on the light crew.  Nailer does his best to avoid his alcoholic/druggie father as much as possible, but still begs Sadna (his best friend Pima’s mother) to save his dad as a violent hurricane blows through town.  After the storm, Nailer and Pima cannot find their parents but manage to stumble upon a shipwrecked clipper ship.  The ship has enough scavenge to make them both filthy rich, but there’s one problem — the “swank” girl trapped inside.  Do they kill her to keep their claim on the ship, or do they rescue her and add to their burden?  Anyone who picks up this book is in for one heck of a ride!

Happy Reading!

Printz Award Annoucement

The American Library Association (ALA) announced the winner of the 2011 Michael L. Printz Award today.  Named for a long time Kansas YA Librarian, the Printz Award honors the best books for young adult readers. The committee defines young adult as ages 12-18 and looks for books that meet literary excellence and were published between January 1 and December 31 of the preceding year. All forms of writing including fiction and nonfiction are accepted.

This year’s winner is Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi.  Since I have not read this book, I will have to get myself on the wait list so I can read it and find out why it won!  The committee also chose four “honor” books:

1. Stolen by Lucy Christopher
2. Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King
3. Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick
4. Nothing by Janne Teller [click the title to see my review]

Congratulations to all the winners and Happy Reading to all of you!

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

Ok…  Bad librarian confession coming up.  I sometimes shy away from the Newbery Award winners because, while the award committee is recognizing the books’ literary merit, many kids don’t clamor for them.  I only picked up this audiobook because the one I had requested was not here yet, the one I was listening to was over, and I had already listened to most of the other ones that were checked in…  But I really LOVED it!  I know, I know.  Librarians are supposed to know better than to judge a book by its cover or any other silliness like that, but historical fiction never used to be my thing either.  Until now!

Sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Inez Brooks has been bounced from one family member to another for so long that she calls herself “Hattie Here-and-There.”  She does the best she can to get by without feeling like she is too much of a burden, but some family members have been less than loving toward her, and she is just looking forward to a time when she can find a place that really feels like a home of her own.  When her Uncle Chester (her mother’s brother) passes away, he leaves her with a Montana homestead claim — giving her the chance of a lifetime!  As long as she can “prove up” on the claim, it will become her own.  Proving up, nevertheless, is an amazingly difficult task.  She will need to put up miles of fencing and plant/grow/harvest 40 acres of crops in less than a year — all the while living in a small shack which barely protects her from the elements.

This is not just a story about homesteading and survival, though.  It’s a story about what it was like for the Americans “at home” during World War I.  It’s a story about the true meaning of friendship.  And, it’s a story about how a person’s definition of “home” doesn’t necessarily have to mean a particular house or town.  Inspired by the life of an actual homesteader named Hattie Inez Brooks Wright [Kirby Larson's grandmother], this story runs the gamut from hilarious, to depressing, to aggravating, and back to heart-warming.  It is rare for a book to latch right on to my heart as quickly as this book did, and I only hope that my admission of guilt will help a few more people to look beyond their own reading prejudices to find some amazing books they may have missed.

Happy Reading!

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Taylor Markham was only 11-years-old when her mother abandoned her at a 7-Eleven on Jellicoe Road.  Luckily, a kind young woman named Hannah found Taylor there and took her in.  Taylor is now 17-years-old, still lives at the boarding school where Hannah first brought her, and is having an extremely difficult time dealing with Hannah’s sudden/unexplained disappearance.  Obviously, her prior experience of abandonment has made this current situation even harder to bear.

In addition to her personal drama, Taylor is also responsible for being a student leader at her school and for leading a group of students in the traditional game of “territory wars” — against “the Townies” and “the Cadets.”   Sneak attacks, physical violence, and property/land negotiations between the three groups of students are to be expected.  Things are way more complicated than they have ever been before, though, because it’s more than just a game to Taylor.  She is starting to have feelings for Jonah Griggs, the leader of the Cadets, and she thinks that Jonah may also be the key to figuring out the true identity and location of her mother.

Lots of back-story, Australian terminology, and a dual narrative can make this a rather difficult story to follow.  The fact that it won the Printz Award, though, is more than enough reason to push yourself through the confusion toward an, ultimately, satisfying ending.

Happy Reading!

The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean

The only reason I picked up this book is because it won the Printz Award. At first, I had no idea why this book would have won anything because it was so hard to get into the story… Granted, I think this may have been because I had such high expectations before I even started reading, but that’s beside the point! What matters is that I ended up LOVING this book by the time that I finished it! Why? Because there are so many levels to the story. Some people may want to read it for the surface information about a trip to (and survival in) Antarctica. Some people may be intrigued by the fact that Sym’s imaginary boyfriend is Captain Lawrence “Titus” Oates (an Antarctic explorer who died 90 years before her own voyage). Some people may like to see the interesting dynamic between Sym, Sym’s mom, and “Uncle” Victor — a family friend who is helping them out now that Sym’s father has died. Still, others may be intrigued by the unfolding mystery surrounding Victor’s purpose of the trip. No matter what, though, this is a book to check out!

Happy Reading!

And the winner is…

For a complete listing of the ALA Awards, or for further information about any ALA awards, feel free to check out the ALA website. On my blog, nevertheless, I am only announcing the main awards that I think my Tween & Teen readers probably recognize/follow.

Newbery
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz

Printz
The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean

Sibert
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of course, there is also the JHunt Award. This is a YA literature award given by the members of the Adbooks listserv community, including yours truly! Now that voting is over, let me just say that I am THRILLED with the results.

JHunt
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Happy Reading!

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Markus Zusak is brilliant. (Which is why TBT won the 2006 JHUNT Award.) This book is not about the Holocaust, per se, but it takes place in Nazi Germany during WWII. Death is our (often humorous) narrator, and Liesel Meminger is the main character whose life Death is recounting. The story begins with Liesel, her brother, and her mother traveling by train — to bring the children to a foster home. When Liesel’s brother dies, en route to the foster home, they have to stop and bury him. In the graveyard, Liesel notices a small black book [The Gravediggers Handbook] in the snow and she steals it. She does not yet know how to read, but will eventually use this book to learn how to read (with the assistance of her foster father, Hans Hubermann). Through the years, Liesel continues to steal things, including more books (obviously). But it is not the thievery I find so interesting. It is the unique perspective of this girl — who both hates the fuhrer and must publicly obey/worship him; whose daring actions save the lives of several people she loves; who continues to live, thrive, and survive, despite her many brushes with Death and the people dying all around her. Her status as a fictional character notwithstanding, she inspired me — challenging me to be more positive about my own life circumstances.

Now, I’m not gonna lie… This book is sad. I’m talking, showing up at work with red, teary eyes and worrying people that something is wrong in “real life” sad. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read (or listen to) this story; it just means to have a hanky or a box of tissues handy when you start getting near the end.

Happy Reading!