Banned Books Week

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is still a book that resonates powerfully with me today. It's one of my favorite books of all time, and it's a book I cannot imagine NOT having read. It's one of those books that sticks to the soul with me.

It's always surprising to me how often people are willing to challenge the written word. Forget about the violence and sex on TV, the sexualization of youth on film, or lyrics of music, it is books and the thoughts behind them that so many people, from parents to individuals, are willing to challenge as being the dirtiest of the dirty, the worst of the bunch. Why is that?

The written word has so much more power, force, and well, longevity than many things so it makes sense, but I find it so sad that people cannot deal with different ideas, concepts, and characters. I know I am a better person because I have been challenged and changes by the books that I have read over my lifetime thus far. Wouldn't we all benefit from a different point of view, a new way of looking at the same situation?

Google Maps has an awesome page about all the places books have been challenged between 2007-2009. And it's a lot. Obviously the power of the written word is still scaring people even in a world where more content is going digital and becoming in many ways, more ephemeral.

Do you have a favorite book you like to read in honor of Banned Book Week?

If you somehow missed the new Stephenie Meyer news...

The Host has been optioned for film.

As someone who actually liked The Host more than the Twilight saga, by far, I'm somewhat excited to hear this news. I still think SMeyer is drastically overrated, but judging by the reactions from the middle school kids at my book talks today, she is still HUGE amongst their set.

Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely has also been optioned for film. I'm one of the few who neve read past the first in the series. It just did not work for me and to be honest, I found the entire book boring. However, I'm sure it's going to make a somewhat successful film.

I am pleased that all these YA writers are getting attention and kudos. If movies help to turn people to the books, that's a great thing.

Books on my horizon...

I'm doing a series of book talks at a local middle school this week and I wanted to share some of the books I've chosen to talk about. Feel free to give me any feedback or suggestions if you have some fun titles that may appeal to a group of mostly reluctant readers, going by what the reading instructor has said. This past spring when I did some book talks at a few high schools, I noticed that I had brought mostly depressing/apocalyptic, really sad stuff. Why, I have no idea. Those were the titles I found most interesting. This time around, I'm focusing on mysteries, more on purpose than unwittingly. So, the titles include:

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. This has turned into one of my favorite books of this year and it's nice and short, short chapters that make readers think they are going further than they purpose have, and it's so interesting! Friendship, mystery, a historical setting (of sorts), really good stuff.

Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett. When a book of unexplainable occurances brings Petra Andalee & Calder Pillay together, strange things start to happen: seemingly unrelated events connect, an eccentric old woman seeks their company, & an invaluable Vermeer painting disappears. Before they know it, the two find themselves at the center of an international art scandal. As Petra & Calder are drawn clue by clue into a mysterious labyrinth they must draw on their powers of intuition, their skills at problem solving, and their knowledge of Vermeer. Can they decipher a crime that has left even the FBI baffled?
First, I love this cover. Maybe that's just me but it has a great Lemony Snicket-esque cover. Again, a mystery but a really good one. Plus, a book where kids are solving a mystery even the FBI is having trouble with?? I find that when kids can outsmart adults, most tweens/teens love it.

How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier Welcome to New Avalon, where everyone has a personal fairy. Though invisible to the naked eye, a personal fairy, like a specialized good luck charm, is vital to success. And in the case of the students at New Avalon Sports High, it might just determine whether you make the team, pass a class, or find that perfect outfit. But for 14-year-old Charlie, having a Parking Fairy is worse than having nothing at all-especially when the school bully carts her around like his own personal parking pass. Enter: The Plan. At first, teaming up with arch-enemy Fiorenza (who has an All-The-Boys-Like-You Fairy) seems like a great idea. But when Charlie unexpectedly gets her heart's desire, it isn't at all what she thought it would be like, and she'll have resort to extraordinary measures to ditch her fairy. The question is: will Charlie herself survive the fairy ditching experiment? From the author of the acclaimed Magic or Madness trilogy, this is a delightful story of fairies, friendships, and figuring out how to make your own magic.

My one concession to girly I guess but this book had a great response at the book talks I did back in April and May that I thought I would try it again. And it never seems to be checked in at my library so I think that's a great sign.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I don't think this book needs an introduction! I'm sure most middle school kids have read this book but I know there are some who haven't and it's a great series. Plenty of action/adventure/mystery, a male character which guys often relate to better than some of the female protagonist stories I talk about. Plus, the movie is coming out in February. I like doing at least one book that has a movie tie-in because if the kids aren't reading, they are watching tv and movies and will eventually recognize this book. I may as well be the one to introduce it to them!

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd. Ted and Kat watched their cousin Salim board the London Eye, but after half an hour it landed and everyone trooped off—except Salim. Where could he have gone? How on earth could he have disappeared into thin air? Ted and his older sister, Kat, become sleuthing partners, since the police are having no luck. Despite their prickly relationship, they overcome their differences to follow a trail of clues across London in a desperate bid to find their cousin. And ultimately it comes down to Ted, whose brain works in its own very unique way, to find the key to the mystery.

Another mystery but I really liked the relationship between Kat and Ted. That sibling tension is there and is something any kid can relate to. Heck, I can relate to it! I love this cover too, makes you look twice I think.

There are a few more titles but my brain is tired after working today. Working alone at the children's desk too. Sheesh, luckily it didn't get too crazy until near the end of the day.

What do you think? Do I have a good selection at least started? Any good suggestions to share? Let me know!

And is anyone watching the Emmy's tomorrow night?? I know I'm looking forward to them. NPH is hosting!

New book news from Jennifer Echols

I really, really enjoyed Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols. I requested my library purchase this book back in February when I came on board and it has been going out like crazy ever since. I rarely see it on the shelves so I know it's hitting the right note with many of my teen readers.

Well, Echols has a new book coming out in July 2010 (seems so far away!) It's called Forget You and here's what she has to say about her book:

Zoey’s life in her Florida beach resort town is happy and organized. She’s the captain of her high school swim team, and she works for her dad at his popular water park. Then her dad has an affair with one of his employees, and her mother has a breakdown. But Zoey begins a committed relationship with a hot lifeguard, which makes her feel stable, even if things aren’t perfect at home. Everything is still under control.

Until she has a car accident that she can’t remember. She should have been with her boyfriend that night, but he doesn’t seem to know anything about the accident—and he doesn’t seem to care. The person who does care, and knows more than he’s telling, is Doug, Zoey’s darkly handsome arch-enemy who saved her from the wreckage. As Zoey begins to piece together what happened that night, she finds her sense of control over her life was only an illusion. And she inches closer to discovering the darkest secret of all: why Doug has fallen in love with her.


Sounds good doesn't it??

Review: King of the Screwups by K.L. Going

King of the Screwups by K.L. Going had me hooked from page one. Synopsis: Synopsis

Liam Geller is Mr. Popularity. Everybody loves him. He excels at sports; he knows exactly what clothes to wear; he always ends up with the most beautiful girls in school. But he's got an uncanny ability to screw up in the very ways that tick off his father the most.
When Liam finally kicked out of the house, his father's brother takes him in. What could a teenage chick magnet possibly have in common with his gay, glam rocker, DJ uncle who lives in a trailer in upstate New York? A lot more than you'd think. And when Liam attempts to make himself over as a nerd in a desperate attempt to impress his father, it's his "aunt" Pete and the guys in his band who convince Liam there's much more to him than his father will ever see.

What makes this book so wonderful is Liam, the main character, and his Aunt Pete, a Glam rocker who dresses in ladies clothes and plays '70s music. He is about as outcast from his family as it is possible for a relative to be and when Liam is sentenced to live with him after his father kicked him out, well, it's a match of Mr. Popularity versus Mr. Outcast.

Liam is just a heartwrenching character. He just wants to do things right but he has such a skewed vision of what is right and good because of his father, that the things he truly excels at, well, he thinks those things are not important. Unfortunately, I see this as the plight of a lot of teenagers who are not valued for what they excel at. Liam's father is an ass, there is no doubt about it. I don't think he loved Liam at all. It was refreshing to see Liam bonding with Pete, even when he did not want to.

Aunt Pete has no idea what to do with a teenage boy but he wants to try and he wants to do it right. The spirit of this novel is fun and also realistic and sad. You can't help feeling bad for Liam, though at times I also wanted to give him a swift kick in the butt so he could see that there are people out there who do care for him, he just isn't see them because he does not know how to understand true and genuine emotion.

I think the "lesson" of this book, though I hate labeling it with such an after school special term, is what Liam's neighbor and part nemesis tells him: "You can't create love, Liam. You just have to take it wherever you find it. And while it took quite awhile for Liam to see the importance in that statement, he finally came to value something he should have been valuing all along: himself.

But I may be making this book out to be too sappy. It has a lot of funny moments in it, great humor, high school hijinks, and plenty of anger. It was a really good book and I'm going to have to read more of K.L. Going's stories. This was my first experience with this author, but it was a good one.

Review: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead is a sweet gem of a story. Synopsis:

By sixth grade, Miranda and her best friend, Sal, know how to navigate their New York City neighborhood. They know where it’s safe to go, like the local grocery store, and they know whom to avoid, like the crazy guy on the corner.

But things start to unravel. Sal gets punched by a new kid for what seems like no reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life. The apartment key that Miranda’s mom keeps hidden for emergencies is stolen. And then Miranda finds a mysterious note scrawled on a tiny slip of paper:

I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own.
I must ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.

The notes keep coming, and Miranda slowly realizes that whoever is leaving them knows all about her, including things that haven’t even happened yet. Each message brings her closer to believing that only she can prevent a tragic death. Until the final note makes her think she’s too late.

I think Abby the Librarian's book review of this book best sums it up for me, especially with that special feel of the 1970s and of classic stories like Harriet the Spy and The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. This book also relies heavily on A Wrinkle in Time and let me just be totally honest here, I have never finished A Wrinkle in Time. As a kid, that book bored me to tears, and as an adult, I haven't really given it another try, too many negative feelings from childhood about it I guess, kind of like The Red Badge of Courage, my least favorite book of ALL TIME.

However, not having finished Wrinkle did not stop my enjoyment in this book at all. In fact, I thought When You Reach Me was all kinds of phenomenal. Even though I kind of figured out the mystery steps ahead of Miranda, I was so captivated by her piecing together this mystery that I didn't care. She is very smart and filled with a genuine caring for people. Her friendships ground this book, even as the fantasy portion of it allows your imagination to just take off.

I still distinctly remember the day this book came through the new book cart in my office area. I took a look at the cover and thought, wow, this is going to be an interesting book. What do a key, a shoe, a mailbox, and all these other objects have to do with the story? What is this book going to share with me? Well, don't pass this up. It has a rather nostalgic feel to it that pulls you right in to the story. Miranda is a great character, a bit naive, still dealing with conquering being occasionally hurtful, trying to understand what doing the right thing is versus just standing passively by. There are several important lessons packed into this story but I don't think a fifth/sixth/seventh grader is going to be distracted or turned off from the story by them. The "lessons" meld seamlessly into the plot. Rebecca Stead really held me captive in this story. I started it when I woke up about 9am today and I finished by 12. I couldn't put it down. The short chapter styles work well with this book and will help some of the more reluctant readers feel like they are making headway in this story.

The chapter headings are also cute in the way they fit with the plot and Miranda's mother's invitation to be part of the 20,000 Pyramid.

This is a very fast read, and a good one. Those don't always go hand in hand. Here's a small snippet of one of my favorite parts of the story:

"Yes, but--the end can't happen before the middle!"
He smiled. "Why can't it?"
"I don't know--it's common sense!"
"Common sense! Have you read Relativity? You know--by Einstein?"
I glared at him.
"Einstein says common sense is just habit of thought. It's how we're used to thinking about things, but a lot of the time it just gets in the way."
"In the way of what??"
"In the way of what's true. I mean, it used to be common sense that the world was flat and the sun revolved around it. But at some point, someone had to reject that assumption, or at least question it."
"Well, obviously somebody did."
"Well, duh. Copernicus did! Look, all I'm saying is that at the end of the book, they don't get back five minutes before they left. Or they would have seen themselves get back--before they left."

I was left feeling at the end of the story that anything is possible, in the very best sense. And that's a good feeling to have when sometimes it doesn't seem that way on a day to day basis.

Brand dropping--tired of it.

I'm currently finishing up Julie Kraut's Slept Away. It's an ok story, if a bit too slow at times. But, what really grates on me about this book is the constant use of brand dropping and celebrity dropping. It puts the book too much into the present for me. Scandals come and go and in a year (or sooner!) most of us won't remember or care about what happened to this celebrity or that celebrity. This isn't the only book I have seen this happen in by any means. It happens regularly in the adult fiction and romance I read and it bugs me. I do think it's a bit too prevalent in Slept Away though. It was ok at the beginning because I think it helped to establish Laney's character, that of a popular and privileged NYC student. But now it has gotten to the point where I know the character and her personality and I'm ready for a bit more growth I guess.

And did I mention she named her dog Perez? That just bugs me. It shouldn't, and it's a very minor point in the story, but it just doesn't work for me.

The story is enjoyable when I'm seeing Laney being shaken out of her cosseted lifestyle however. And in a point in the book's favor, I really like how Laney connected with another bunk mate, Sylvie, even though in the real, non camp world, they probably wouldn't run in the same social circles. Laney isn't a snob, even if she is a bit of a crowd follower. It's an ok story but if the author had cut down on the constant cultural references, I know I would have enjoyed it more.