KidLit Loot

2008 has gotten off to somewhat of a rocky start for me, but when I feel blue I just look at my new kidlit gear and it cheers me right up.

For Christmas, a friend and coworker got me this fantabulous Babymouse t-shirt. I don't know if I've expressed my love for Babymouse on this blog, but I really do love her. And now I can show the world!! Mua ha ha! (Wondering where you can get your own Babymouse gear? Cafepress has got you covered.)

Front:
Back:


And I went out shopping today with a couple of friends and found me a Knuffle Bunny at Borders. I had to have it. I'm so happy he's mine. He'll have a place of honor in my cubicle tomorrow when I go back to the grind...

(He's made by YoTToy, but I don't see the small one on their site... they do have a bigger KB, a Pigeon, a Leonardo, and tons of other great book characters, though...)

Cybils shortlists and various other things

Head on over to the Cybils site to see shortlists for Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Picture Books, Poetry, and Middle Grade Novels. The rest will be up January 7. I don't know about you, but my to-read list just got longer... ;)

Also, be sure to head over to A Fuse #8 Production for the Golden Fuse Awards.

Here's to reading lists and to new LJ feeds (I hope... if it is working properly...)! Happy New Year!

Stardust

I just watched the movie Stardust and I thought it was fantastic. I'm a big fan of the book and I think they really got the tone of it right. The casting was spot on. It's beautiful and funny and... just pretty much awesome. If you're a fan of the book, I can't recommend the movie enough. Even if you haven't read it, you should still check it out if you like fairy tales for adults.

And if you haven't read Stardust, I really don't know what you're waiting for. Go. Read. Now. You can thank me later. ;)

My Reading Resolutions

I generally don't make New Year's Resolutions because I think that if there's something you really want to change, there's no time like the present! But, as 2007 is coming rapidly to a close, there are a couple of reading resolutions that I'd like to keep in mind for 2008.

1. I want to read more non-fiction. The great majority of what I read is fiction, but I'd really like to branch out and read some really great non-fiction titles this year. New and old, kids and adults... My goal is 2 a month, but I'm hoping that I can surpass that. I'm off to a good start because I'm doing booktalks in March on Women's History Month, so I already have a big list of history and biography books to get to. Let's hope I can keep it up all year! (And, of course, the Cybils lists are an awesome resource for suggestions...) (I am not the only one with this resolution... and check out an awesome list of appealing non-fiction for YAs over at The YA YA YAs.)

2. I want to read and review all the Caudill nominees. I read 15 of the 20 nominees for 2008. I want to be 20 for 20 in 2009. And, if possible, I'd like to be done with them by the start of summer so I can give recommendations to the kids and (hopefully) teachers who will be hounding after them this summer. (Last summer, our local school district gave a continuing education credit to any teacher who read a certain number of the nominees, so they were in high, high demand all summer. Woot!)

There is a slight possibility that I might be on the next Caudill committee, which would give me a third reading resolution... but we won't count chickens before they hatch, so we'll forget about that one for now. And, of course, I'm doing the Printz Award Challenge and the Expanding Horizons Challenge (so excited about both of those!).

So, you've heard my 2008 reading resolutions... do you have any of your own??

Book Review: Freak

Freak by Marcella Pixley. Grades 6 and up.

Miriam Fisher is a seventh grade freak. It wasn't always this way. Miriam can remember long hours spent playing Star Trek with her sister and being happy with being who she was. But now her sister Deborah's in high school and she's suddenly gotten popular and stopped caring about music and school. And Miriam is left to deal by herself. When the artsy Artie comes to stay with their family because his parents are going on sabbatical in India, Miriam's dreams are coming true. She's been in love with Artie for a long time and she just knows that he'll be the one who will get her. She knows they're meant to be. But things don't turn out the way Miriam expects. Ultimately, Artie's stay just makes everything worse (especially because he's in love with her sister... just like everyone else). She's bullied at school. Tortured, really. And she can't tell her parents because she knows they wouldn't do anything and they have enough to deal with. Miriam has to find a way to deal, how to stick up for herself... or she just might self-destruct.

This is a gripping portrayal of bullying. It started out as kind of a quiet read. I figured it was going to be mostly about characters, not so much with the plot. This book is definitely all about characters, but there's plenty of plot in there, too. By the middle of the book, I was so worried about Miriam that I actually wrote that down on a post-in and stuck it in the book.

The writing is gorgeous and Pixley's got the outcast perfectly. Take this passage about sitting on the school bus:

The only place on earth I hate as much as the lockers is the school bus. The school bus is a physical map of who's cool and who isn't. No one tells you where to sit. There isn't any seating chart. But if you know who you are, you know where to go. Here's how it works: the more popular you are, the closer you sit to the back of the bus; the more of a loser you are, the closer you sit to the front. It's as easy as that. (p 25)

Obviously, Miriam is sitting in the front of the bus. And here's what makes the book even more wonderful to me. Miriam is socially awkward. She talks waaaay too much whenever she's sitting with Artie. She writes a poem on a napkin with a ketchup packet when she doesn't have her notebook with her. And she keeps going on about e.e. cummings when Artie is reading Neruda to her sister. It's definitely cringe-worthy. Even so, no one deserves the treatment she got in the book. I was rooting for her the whole way and there are images in this book that will stick with me for a long time.

It would make a Great book discussion book. There is so much to talk about with this book. And I wouldn't be surprised if it got some Printz attention.

Also reviewed by: hiplibrariansbookblog, Booktopia, and Teens Read Too. And it's been nominated for a Cybil in Middle Grade Fiction.

Audiobook Roundup: Fun Family Listens for Families with School Age Kids

Yep, it's that time again. Another Audiobook Roundup. This time, I'm going to post about some audiobooks that I'd recommend for families with elementary school age kids. I thoroughly enjoyed all of these and I think both kids and adults will get a kick out of them. So if you're looking for something to spice up a road trip or recommend to those families taking trips, look no further!

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban. Zoe Elias dreams of playing the piano at Carnegie Hall. She's certain that just given the chance, she might turn out to be a prodigy. She's picturing playing recitals on a grand piano while elegant people dressed in their finest sit in the audience. Imagine her surprise when, instead of the piano she was so hoping for, her parents get her an organ. An organ that comes with lessons from Maybeline Person and her book of organ songs... Hits from the 70s. It's laugh out loud funny and be sure to scoop this one up if there's a young musician in the family. Or if there isn't. :)


Millions by Frank Cotrell Boyce. Fourth grader Damian might not be the smartest boy in school, but there are two things he knows for sure. Firstly, he knows everything about saints. Secondly, he knows that if he ever wants something, all he has to do is remind people that his mum is dead and he will be given something. When a bag full of money falls out of the sky three weeks before England's switchover to the Euro, Damian thinks the money must have come from God. He tries to think of a saintly way to spend it, however big brother Antony has other ideas. What follows is a rip-roaring spending spree interspersed with hilarious and touching moments.


George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl. George's grandmother is really evil. She's so nasty to George that George decides to mix up his own medicine for her in the hopes that it will blast the nastiness out of her (or make her explode... whichever). He puts everything in it from motor oil to shampoo to sheep medicine and spices from the kitchen. When he gives it to granny, surprising and amazing things start to happen. Narrator Richard E. Grant has a fantastic grandma voice and kids and adults alike will be astonished by the things that go into George's marvelous medicine.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. A cold-hearted china rabbit is lost on a family vacation and goes through many different hands and homes until he ultimately learns how to love. A word of warning: parts of this book are quite sad. However, it has excellent narration. Judith Ivey does great voices for all the different characters. It's really quite amazing that one person can make all those different voices.

Soup by Robert Newton Peck. This story was a favorite of mine when I was in elementary school. It's set in the 1920s and third-grader Rob has many adventures with his rambunctious friend Soup. Another funny book, Rob's escapades will have you giggling all the way to grandma's (or wherever you're going). A word of warning, there's some content that might be questionable. At one point Rob and Soup make acorn pipes and try smoking... at another point they're discussing the only Jew they know, the guy who runs the local junkyard and is purportedly liable to cheat you. Hopefully these scenes will spark a discussion, but they may upset sensitive parents who aren't expecting them.

The Castle Corona by Sharon Creech.

The funny thing about the Castle Corona is that no one in the kingdom, from the peasants to the king himself, seems to be happy with his lot in life. Peasants Pia and Enzio dream of riding white horses and eating rich food in the castle, the members of the royal family dream of being free to do as they like without so many responsibilities holding them back. Through the course of The Castle Corona, each character will find a place and figure out how to get what they want. The only question is how it will all come together...

A thoroughly enjoyable audiobook, especially for families who love fairy tales. Narrator Jennifer Wiltsie gives each character a distinct voice, which is especially noticeable when two of the characters are having a conversation or interrupting each other. Jaunty music starts each disc and adds to the story rather than distracting from it.

These are some of my favorite recent listens. What are some of yours? (PS: Who's excited about the first Odyssey Award coming up?!)

Blast from the Past

The Friday before Christmas was a day filled with weeding. We didn't have many patrons coming through. Many of my tasks required contacting other organizations and I decided they could wait until after the holidays. So I weeded. And in doing so, I ran across a book I had completely forgotten about. A book that was one of my favorites in the fifth grade or so. A book I read many a time.

Secrets of the Shopping Mall by Richard Peck. It's about two kids who somehow end up living in a mall at night and the mannequins come to life. Real quality literature, I know. But it was one of my favorites.

A little farther down the shelf, I ran into another favorite of mine. Sister of the Quints by Stella Pevsner. I got that one from some sort of book-of-the-month club. It's about, well, a sister of a set of quintuplets.

Seeing those two books brought back all kinds of memories and I started thinking about other little-known books that I read over and over again as a kid. Here's what I came up with:

Tough Luck Karen by Joanna Hurwitz. Nothing seems to go right for Karen. But by the end of the story she's able to turn it around. I don't even remember much about the plot, just that Karen is a great character.

Sugar Isn't Everything by Willo Davis Roberts. Amy's been feeling pretty terrible lately. She has no energy, she's always ravenous and thirsty, and she hasn't grown at all since last year. One day she collapses in the bathroom and she's diagnosed with diabetes. She has to learn how to take care of herself and deal with her own anger. Um. I don't have diabetes. I just loved this book.

Christopher Pike books. Man I loved them so. So much, in fact, that I belonged to a Christopher Pike fan email list. I was a big fan of his adult books The Season of Passage and The Listeners and Sati kind of changed my whole view of religion. Favorites of his teen books included The Midnight Club, The Last Vampire, and The Tachyon Web.

I found a book in my school library in 7th grade that was the first serious book (that I remember) that really made me think. It was Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien. A nuclear holocaust leaves one girl all alone in her valley. When a man shows up wearing a radiation suit, she's relieved at first, until she realizes that he's a bad guy and she has to figure out how to escape.

It's so funny to me the seemingly random books that I latched on to. I was a voracious reader, but I was re-reading a lot of the time. I'd pick a book from my bookshelf at random to read on the school bus or while waiting for my flute lesson. I guess I should also tell you that in the 8th grade I watched the movie Newsies over and over until I could recite all the lines from heart even without the movie playing.

Book Review: Kimchi & Calamari

Kimchi & Calamari by Rose Kent. Grades 4-7.

There are orphans in many kids books. Orphans and foster kids. Lots and lots of them. Most of them don't have a happy family life. So it's refreshing to find a book about a kid with a solid, caring family. That is not to say that family life is always easy for Joseph Calderaro. Sure, he has an extremely loving set of parents. And he has a pair of younger sisters who are annoying sometimes, but whom he loves and watches out for. But the fact is that he was born in Korea and adopted into the very Italian Calderaro family. And in this book, that causes him a little trouble...

Joseph's trouble starts when his social studies teacher assigns an essay. This particular essay is about family heritage. Although his father is always telling him stories about his Italian relatives, Joseph wants to write his essay about his own heritage. His Korean heritage. The problem is that he doesn't know anything about his birth relatives and his mom and dad don't either. What results is a funny, thoughtful story about the meaning of family.

Joseph feels strange when his dad gives him a corno, a goat horn pendant that's a traditional Italian symbol. He feels equally strange when he visits the home of a new Korean boy at his school and he doesn't know to take his shoes off when he goes in and has trouble using chopsticks. The truth of the matter is that Joseph isn't just Korean or just Italian... he's a mixture of both. He's an "ethnic sandwich" as he describes it. And as he starts to figure himself out, he'll realize that maybe he can have the best of both worlds. Kimchi and calamari.

For another funny, thoughtful book with an adopted Asian protagonist, check out Zen and the Art of Faking It by Jordan Sonnenblick.

For more reviews of this book, check out The Longstockings, MotherReader, Becky's Book Reviews, Jen Robinson's Book Page, and Library & Literary Miscellany. There's also a post on Fuse #8 with Rose Kent's thoughts on adoption. Kimchi and Calamari is nominated for a Cybil and it's on Anderson's Mock Newbery list. Whew!

Book Review: The Poison Apples

The Poison Apples by Lily Archer. Grades 6-9.

Alice, Reena, and Molly meet at an elite boarding school in Massachusetts. Though on the surface they don't seem to have anything in common, they eventually discover that they all have evil stepmothers. And when I say evil, I mean Evil with a capital E. The girls bond over their unfortunate family circumstances and form a club called the Poison Apples with the aim to get revenge on their stepmothers.

Really, the revenge part (and even the Poison Apples part) is a very small part of the story. The evil stepmothers are used as a device to get the girls to the school and bring them together. It works. It's a bit unbelievable how evil the stepmothers are (and how totally clueless the fathers are), but each time one of the stepmoms did something heinous, I'd find myself actually yelling out loud at the book. So, y'know, I was pretty into it.

The story is told through the alternating voices of each girl and one of the things I loved best about this novel is how Archer manages to give each girl a totally different voice. And these girls are very different. I liked each of them for different reasons and I was rooting for them to become friends. Boarding school girl cattiness, a dreamy English teacher, a bit of adolescent romance... and you've got a fun chick-lit book perfect for light reading over the winter break.

The alternating viewpoints and friendships between such different girls really reminded me of Bass Ackwards and Belly Up by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain. Another readalike might be The Sisterhood.

Be sure and check out the review and interview with Lily Archer over at The YA YA YAs. Also, you might want to glance at the Bookslut in Training column Finding Your Way (November 2007) and another review at Krystel's Book Blog.

Book Review: The Luxe

The Luxe by Anna Godbersen. Grades 9+

Oh the intrigue!

I got completely caught up in this luscious novel of scandal and love triangles set in 1899 New York. The book opens with the funeral of Miss Elizabeth Holland, New York's darling, pure young lady. So sad for her life to have been cut short, and the funeral being held on the very day she was supposed to marry the dashing Henry Schoonmaker... well, it's tragic indeed...

But as the novel unfolds we learn the events of the fortnight leading up to the funeral... When it comes to relationships between the characters, there is more than meets the eye.

Okay, yes. The ending was predictable. I knew almost exactly what would happen by page 75 (I made note of it). However, I give Ms. Godbersen all the more credit for keeping me interested and entertained through 375 more pages even though I already had figured out the ending. That's a lot of pages! The point of view switches between many of the characters, so you see things through Elizabeth's eyes, through Henry's, even through Elizabeth's maid's. The jacket flap informed me that Ms. Godbersen is at work on a sequel and I, for one, can't wait.

The Luxe is Gossip Girls set in Victorian NYC... this will definitely please fans of the drama, and all the sex occurs off-stage (though boozing and smoking abound).

(And I wasn't even going to review this because so many awesome people have already done so, but I just couldn't stop thinking about it, so here you go.)

(Also, take a look at that gorgeous cover. I love everything about that cover and it totally and completely fits the book.)