Very Merry Poppins

Horn Book 2006 Fanfare (click)

The good ol' HB posted its best books of 2006. I've read four of them, three fiction and one non-fiction, and am adding some of the others to my list. Just not doing well on picturebooks this year.

To make it official

Just so you know, we'll be taking the month of December OFF and resume bookreading in January. A poll will go up later this week to choose the January book, giving you plenty of time to acquire and read it.

I'm going to clear out the Wish List books that have been voted down a few times and pepper it with some fresh blood. Add your own suggestions, please! What genres are we missing? (Nonfiction?)

Is getting the book a major obstacle for anyone? I'd love for more people to participate and, if that's the problem, we can easily switch to strictly paperbacks. I'm guessing that time is the issue, though.

If you know someone who might like to join, please invite them.

Better late...

Click the title to be whisked away to five (5) video segments of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards!

I haven't read ANY of those books -- not even the picturebooks! I miss hanging out with Simmons people at the bookstore and making intelligent picturebook conversation.

I found somethin' in the woods, pa...

The Body of Christopher Creed has a great hook -- there's the Title of Death and then Torey's Mysterious New Start at a new school where people don't stare at him. My mind jumped to all sorts of conclusions in that first chapter and was screaming with questions. Did Torey find the body? Was he responsible for the death? What really happened? Is Torey a reliable narrator? Etc. etc. It is an intriguing story -- even if Torey is a dumb nickname for a male high school jock.

I liked it, generally, though it's flawed; it reads like the first novel it is. Most of my frustration came from the writing style, with forced-seeming slang and oh-so-awkward dialogue. Plum-Ucci can claim some excuse for this, because, dude, Torey wrote the book; blame the amateur style on him. (As an English teacher, I'd mark Torey down for using "weird" and "weirdness" far too often.) That's not a valid excuse for me. If I'm cringing about the overuse of "DUDE" by page 23, that's probably overkill. Plum-Ucci was just trying too hard to be one of the cool kids. "Turbo-slut" was new to me, though the Urban Dictionary has three definitions; I thought she made it up.

Question: Is a high school student likely to remember a random (albeit dorky) kid using the word "winsome" way back in second grade? I'm not surprised that Chris Creed knew and used that word as a wee, nerdy second grader. What is out of character is self-professed dumb-guy Alex recalling that useage yonks later when he doesn't seem like the kind of person who even know what "winsome" means as a high schooler, much less a seven-year-old. There were multiple times when the personality of a character didn't match up with their actions or words.

I obviously have many bones to pick with Plum-Ucci's style issues. Moving on to structure, (oh boy!) the letters at the end were convenient devices. The last one successfully left me with a feel-good finish, but I don't think they were necessary. Hard to say now if I prefer the story without, but I don't know. Other opinions on Torey's replies?

The American Indian ghost stuff was...weird. No idea where that came from. I was very disappointed that immaculate decomposition is pretend. Or it is as far as I can tell; there are no references online.

I have many critiques about the book, but I did enjoy it. It's a thriller with a not-too-heavyhanded message.

We're all mad here.

Su Blackwell's art (book/cut sculpture) includes cutouts of copies of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Secret Garden, among others. Incredible.

It's what's in the bank

I was browsing Powells.com and discovered Random House is coming out with a 10th anniversary edition of The Golden Compass.

What?!

I adore this book (and already own two copies of each book in the trilogy) but this seems...is the word I'm looking for "money-grubbing?"

RH's site explains

Pullman created 16 pages of new materials (archival documents, scientific notes, and found letters of Lord Asriel) just for this edition, whcih [sic] has been illustrated and hand-lettered by renowned Bristish [sic again! Bad Random House!] artist Ian Beck. The deluxe edition also features a ribbon bookmark, colored endpapers, and Pullman's own chapter-opening spot art.

But with the movie coming out next year (and following movies in following years) there will be hideous MOVIE COVERS and all sorts of promotional garbage.

Can I get away with reading a library copy of all these new materials? Doubt it. RH wins and gets my money.

Meg Rosoff's top 10 adult books for teenagers

I've only read two of those and think it is cruel to have Catch-22 on this list. I should read some James Bond.

Over at Bookshelves of Doom, the conversation (spurred by Fuse#8) is about ChildLit books one does not like as an adult. I think we could build a HUGE list on that topic.

John Green article about "kiddie lit"

Presumably this is by the guy who wrote Looking for Alaska (unless there are two YA authors named John Green?). Written well, and interesting too, even though it's a few years old. And it made me feel smart because he says stuff like "You've probably never heard of..." and, of course, we have!

Kevin Crossley-Holland Interview and MORE!

Our favorite Simmons brunch guest has been busy!

Listen or read (click title) the Q & A about his new book, Gatty's Tale.

Did anyone here read his Arthurian trilogy? I only read the first one.

Also, Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is filming. Photos here. Nicole Kidman plays Mrs. Coulter; excellent casting, I think! Daniel Craig, the new James Bond, is Lord Asriel. Lyra is played by an unknown; no photos!

Furthermore, it looks like the November book is The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci, widely available at your library and in paperback.

Finally, I want to point out that Eunice added her part to the Nick and Norah discussion. Do check it out --

"The Unreal Deal"

Anita Silvey has an article about the "new breed of teen heroes " and the shift in teen reading on SLJ.com. Click the above title to read it.

What did you prefer read as a YA? (Old school) Realistic or (new wave) genre fiction?

I did not realize she published another book: 500 Great Books for Teens.

Perhaps we can each make our own list of (recent) Desert Island Picks soon...I like Silvey's.

'ware bears

The Canning Season was not my first Polly Horvath. I've read at least three of her other books, including The Trolls, my first and favorite. Horvath is Canadian and known for wacky, off-kilter characters, particularly adults, who act in unpredictable and bizarre ways.

One of my concerns about the group reading The Canning Season is that it would be too strange, but, believe it or not, Horvath toned down the irresponsiblitity and craziness of the adults in this book. Was the wackiness too great for anyone? I do love me a bit of quirky.

Did it strike anyone else that this book is not just for young readers? I know people go on and on about books that can be read on multiple levels, but I kept running across parts that I thought kids would not necessarily understand. --- that's not a bad thing; I liked it. The story is also morbid and dark! Ratchet's mother is cruel, Harper's aunt is cruel, the house is surrounded by lethal bears, and then there's the whole story of Tilly?Penpen? (I forget) tripping over her mother's head. Despite this (or because of?), Tilly and Penpen have a healthy view of death.

Horvath does not skimp on the language. She uses big words, curses; the two aunts speak freely in their antiquated manner. I forgot about her use of "fuck" until I read through the Amazon reviews and saw that Horvath lost some fans because of it. In my library, the book is shelved in the YA section, which I agree with. And I LIKE that the aunts have a little sass and say "inappropriate" things (Tilly just can't help herself) -- they are not old pushover spinsters, but fiercely independent women who live as they see fit, regardless of the opinion of others. They may be naive about technology and current affairs, but they are happy and loving people.

(Really, I thought people would be more upset about Harper's repeated use of "Christ" as an explitive than "fuck.")

Any thoughts on the ending? I thought it moved a little too fast, and wrapped up a little too neatly, but I liked it.

Next up

POLL OVER!

The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci wins!

Rev your engines

Okay! There's been a sorta hiatus, with busy lives and more pressing tasks than La Rumpus, but I hope people can find a quiet moment for good books and gentle discussion. Ahhh.

Discussion is scheduled to begin tomorrow, but I'm not yet finished with The Canning Season. Will do ASAP. How are you coming along?

I'll post a November Book Poll this weekend -- please vote!

Genius Grant for Mr. Cathedral

Your favorite deconstructivist and mine, David Macaulay, won a MacArthur Fellowship! That means he gets "$500,000, paid in quarterly installments over five years."

Interview on NPR (audio to be posted later today).

Nick and Norah and the Infinite Heaviness of Being 18

I did not expect this book to stir up huge artistic and philosophical questions for me about children’s literature and what it is/should be/is capable of being, but uh… it did. Sorry – this may not be the best way to start off the discussion! Feel free to start another post/comment thread if it’s hard to talk about other aspects of the book under this umbrella.

Ok. Here is how I feel about Nick and Norah:

1) It’s extremely well-written. I found both the first-person narratives convincing, deft, surprising, funny, and (almost) never seeming as if they were trying too hard. Written by two different authors? You’d never notice.

2) It’s very, very well-observed. Again, both Norah and Nick come across as almost shockingly real human beings – in particular they are utterly believable as 18 year olds born in a specific time period, living in a specific place, obsessed with specific things. All of the music references are spot on (Green Day evokes being 7 years old, Toxic is “vintage Britney” -- hee) and the thought processes and emotional landscapes of all the characters are played out with skill and verve. The book captures precisely what it is like to be in your late teens and figuring out the endings of intense relationships for the first time.

3) It’s totally absorbing: the collapse of the whole novel into one night (or rather the expansion of one night into the space of a whole novel) works, in the sense that change (emotional change) is magnified, easy to observe. You do plunge right into the world of the characters and every small detail seems significant. It’s exactly that feeling you get when you are 18, that this is the night that is going to change your life. They’re engaged in what’s happening with every hair on their bodies, and I’m engaged too.

But…

4) Despite all that, I wasn’t entirely satisfied by the book. Or rather, I was satisfied in the sense that I thought it succeeded in the task of wholly and realistically creating a rich, full picture of one night in the lives of two interesting people. But to me, that’s the entirety of the novel’s achievement. It never tries to connect this night to anything larger, never reaches beyond the intensely personal, self-obsessed, superficially philosophical universe of these characters. While I was reading it I swirled deep into memories of what my life was like when I was that age, but I never felt that the book gave me anything I could carry away with me beyond a pleasant sense of nostalgia.

I guess what I’m saying is that I never felt challenged by it. I kept on thinking, “yeah, yeah, this is just what it’s like.” But never, “Wow! I never thought about it that way before,” or “Hmm. This makes me think of X,” or “This really brings up something fascinating about what happens when two people really connect – I’m excited about taking that idea and reading parts of my life, or the world, or another story, with it in mind.”

And I think for me that tends to be the difference between (a lot of) YA literature and the adult novels I love and that make my heart skip a beat – the YA books seem to be focused on faithful observations of teenage life, on making experiences come to life for their reader; the adult novels seem to expand beyond observation to comment on the lives they observe, and to ask questions about what they might mean.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m being stupid and there are many, many YA books that do that too that I’m not thinking of right now. But sometimes, man, I just want to read a picturebook here. They seem to me to be so much deeper than YA novels. ;-)

P.S. Just coming back to say I really did like the book -- it just made me wonder about some stuff.

September's Book

We're reading The Canning Season by Polly Horvath.

Et tu?

What excellent taste we have in this month's book. Click on the link for a teaser -- not spoilers, but if you aren't already interested in the book, maybe this will help. If you don't want any hints, just look at the picture and read the bottom panel.

I finished it last week and it was a positive experience (that's all I'll say for now).

Peter Continued?

There's an article in the NYT about the Peter Pan sequel; the book comes out October 5th. Any thoughts? Does anyone plan on reading it?

I've seen the Dave Barry prequel books, but haven't read them. I'm pretty snobby about follow-ups that are NOT written by the original author.

Crossover

If you read Bookslut, you probably already saw this article about YA crossover books, but I thought I'd link to it anyways.

Do adults feel embarrassed looking at books in the children's section? I always figured they could pretend to look at something for a daughter/son or niece, etc. I never felt bad about it.

For next month -

There were four votes for next month's book and, by the slightest of majorities, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist is September's title.

Random House set up an impressive website with excerpts and downloads and links to both authors' websites.

I hope people are still reading Wrecked. Please add your comments to the discussion entry below or begin a new one. And add a couple titles to the Wish List if you have ideas. I'm going to try and find some paperbacks, which should be easier to track down.

Wrecked

NOTE: We are locked in a tie for next month's book! Please vote if you have not yet done so!

The only other E.R. Frank book I've read is America -- has anyone else read her other stuff? That was a harsh story. Wrecked struck me (ooh, bad pun) as incredibly sad. I cried a lot.

This blurb leans towards the Reader's Response form of criticism, with lots of personal info thrown in, just an FYI.

Anna's relationship with her parents is fragile. She has little to no meaningful interaction with her mother and her dad has anger/control/fear issues. The brother-sister relationship between Anna and Jack has had its ups and downs, as you do when you get older and just don't pick on each other all the time, instead seeing the other as a person. Frank shows these with lots of flashbacks; I thought they were done well and did not seem forced.

This was a hard book for me to read. I liked it, I liked Anna, I liked Ellen. The hospital scenes with Ellen freaked me out. Her collapsed lung and breathing tubes were too much like my mom's; even the name was the same.

And her father's anger -- his need to control; his insistence that his children recognize that they are wrong and he is right; his obsession that things be done his way, even when it is ridiculous, such as picking up leaves by hand. I know what it is like to be on the receiving end of that. Those parts of the book were disturbing to me and very real, even though my dad isn't quite like that anymore.

The family situation becomes unbearable when Anna has the accident. That's the tipping point, that throws it all out into the open and Anna starts to crumble.

Therapy was not a quick fix. Frank knows what she is doing with that; if you read the flap copy, it explains Frank is a clinical social worker and psychotherapist who focuses on trauma.

I don't know if this book resonated with me because of my mom's recent death and the similarities between my dad and Anna's. The final page did not satisfy me -- yes, we know there is still progress to be made, but it didn't fit. Seemed tacked on. I wanted the dad to leave.

The silence of the stopped scream -- poetic and terrifying.

Moving right along...

It is time!

I have a hunch where the poll results are going to fall...I really wish this book was better; it got great reviews in The Horn Book; that's why I recommended it.

Nothing New

I finished Burning City the other day but haven't gathered my thoughts about it yet. Is Erica the only other person who has finished it?

Nonetheless, I did want to post that Locus had a whole young adult fiction issue in May. I'll have to buy it once I have a Texas address; it looks pretty good.

Also, I love Roger Sutton's comment about The Giving Tree in a recent blog entry.

Hooray for Miss Libby!

One of Simmon's Own has a book on the presses RIGHT NOW!

Take a looky-look! I don't remember who took Publishing in the fall of '03, but Alisa Libby was a demure presence among the rather whiney new recruits. She's been working away on Blood Confessions, and when I last saw her on the T, she had the first color-cover galleys.

Just a lil cheerleading for one of our Simmons alumn! Who's next, ladies?

WHOOPS

Okay. Blogger and Blogpoll, usually happy bedfellows, are fighting right now.

I lost all the comments from that last poll when I tried to set up a new poll. Here's what we are gonna do:

Vote by comment. Makes it public, but also keeps the site from eating itself. Hopefully this will not be a problem for long.

WHICH BOOK FOR JULY?
Burning City by Ariel and Joaquin Dorfman

A Room on Lorelei Street by Mary E. Pearson

Wrecked by E. R. Frank

Sorry -- I couldn't make it work otherwise. I'll rescue the previous comments and add them.

Grind those gears, Shawn!

I don't know what I want to say about this book, but no one else is initiating discussion (and it's been a while since I have), so I'll just start rambling.

Wow. That's my impression of this book. I felt it extremely strongly within the first ten pages, twenty pages, thirty pages—and even at the end, I'm still thinking "wow" (although a little less strongly). This entire premise is fascinating to me. I loved Shawn—his voice, his personality, his honesty, his earnestness—and I loved being in his mind (especially since no one else ever is or could be).

It's so wonderful to think about Shawn being a secret genius, being so with it inside, being so aware and alert, but it's also so sad, to think that no one will know, no one will know him, no one can hear what he wants to say.

The debate of the book—is Shawn's life worth living—is so conflicting and confusing for me to wrap my head around. I love that Shawn likes his life, that he's happy, that he wants to live and doesn't want to die. But I also agree with the dad that Shawn is trapped inside his own body. Because I believe that when you die, it's not the end of you (wait, this isn't going to turn into a religious hedgehogs v. nonreligious hedgehogs argument, is it? KIDDING), part of me really does think that Shawn would be better off dying and being able to be free, fly and soar like he does during his seizures, all the time. He could communicate and have people know him, and he could really be the Shawn that we saw through his narrative. [Obviously we have different versions, if any, of an afterlife, and I'm just imagining mine.] Am I a horrible person for thinking that? Mind you, it's not that I think Shawn's father should kill him. I just can't help but wonder if Shawn would be better off in another world, in another time. He think he's happy now, but I think he could be happier. It's a moot point, since he isn't in another world or another time and he's living life here, but it's still really difficult for me to process, his quality of life and his happiness.

I don't think Shawn's father does or will go through with it. I think he's torn and conflicted, but I don't think he will ever resolve that enough to actually go through with it. It's like Trueman says in the author's note: "I can't say 'yes' to any of these questions. But I can't say 'no' either." And I don't think Shawn's father would go through with it if he can only answer "I don't know." I'm still trying to decide what I think of Shawn's father, though. I know he loves Shawn. But an absent father doesn't gain a whole lot in my mind, even with that.

Before I make any kind of excuses for what I've already written—controversy, controversy, controversy!—I'll stop. Thoughts?

Helloa!

Well, there were only three votes but that's a majority when that's all there is.

June's book is Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman. It has been out for several years in paperback and won a Prinz honor so it should be easy to find or cheap to buy. Except in Alabama, of course.

I hope people's lives slow down a bit so they can read!

Cause I`m the miggida miggida miggida Mac Daddy

Oh, wait, that's the wrong Criss Cross.

Re: The Newbery Award Winning Book --

Good stuff!

I liked the sketches, photos and other visuals that were sprinkled in the story—not enough to be considered an illustrated novel, but they added another dimension. And you know those kids, always doodling on stuff.

I forgot about the wishing-on-a-star scene at the beginning until near the end. I liked the circular structure and found the ending to be satisfying, albeit unlikely. With all the narrative voices I thought some could have been more developed but the characters were well drawn. Some too perky at times.

Must read Perkins's other non-picturebook book, All Alone in the Universe.

Jump! Jump!
uh huh, uh huh

June Bug

Sorry I've been behind on everything -- it seems we've all taken a bit of a hiatus, but hopefully we can get back to our regularly scheduled discussion. Before I post anything about Criss Cross I want to get the ball rolling on our next book. Each of these is available in paperback.



Thank you to those who contribute to the Wish List! Please keep adding more!

Better late...

Sandpiper, short take on

I found this to be a quick read, mainly because Wittlinger (again) does a great job with the voice of her characters. Sandpiper is the third of her books I've read and they are all compulsively READABLE and cover important issues without being heavy-handed or didactic. They are real.

Oral sex is addressed without vulgarity, open and honestly, though I was a little surprised to have that in my face BOOM! so soon on page two. Piper is aware of her sexual power -- and how it changes her relationship with her dad, his inability to deal. I've never read that in a book before.

Piper's poems were believably from a teenager's pen and relevant. Not syrupy. I liked the nods to other poets.

The only thing that irked me were Derek's corny lines. The note he left: "It's your turn now, Sandy. See you soon!" He talks like a Soc from The Outsiders.

The dawnzer is a lamp. It gives lee light.

NPR did an interview with Beverly Cleary, who grew up in Portland, Oregon and based many of her books there. Yay Portland!

FYI: The children's library in Portland's Central Library (one of my favorite buildings) is dedicated to Cleary and there's a sculpture garden in Grant Park with Ramona, Henry Huggins and Ribsy.

What's your favorite Beverly Cleary book?

I've always loved Socks (because it's about a cat and I liked how they cleaned Socks up after his fight and forgot about their dumb baby for a while) (you see, I've NEVER been a baby person) but my favorite Ramona was always Ramona Quimby, Age 8 when she got a whole egg broken on her head. I still have all my old Dell Yearling paperbacks, $2.50 a pop.

May Announcement

Votes are in!

The May book is Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins.

BTW, I finished Looking for Alaska last night and added a comment on that post if you want to comment. If you are a commenting sort of person.

Tally up the votes!

Looking for a movie?

According to IMDB.com, Looking for Alaska is going to be a movie. I still haven't read it, but when I do, I fully intend to join the message boards and argue about whom should play Miles.

Did I use "whom" correctly there?

Also, courtesy Bookslut.com, here's an article about sex in YA books. I sell lots of these books at work -- those young Southern Belles gotta get their info somewhere...

That time again

POLL OVER!

Among May's possible books is the 2005 Newbery Medal winner, Criss Cross.

Discussion for Sandpiper begins April 15th.

Not So Much Looking For; Kind Of Obsessing About Alaska

I read Looking for Alaska in pretty much one sitting a couple of nights ago, and had an interesting fluctuating reading experience.

1) I started out unimpressed with the writing, the characters, and the situation. I was bothered on page 1 by the phrasing of the sentence, "To say that I had low expectations would be to underestimate the matter dramatically," which I thought would be more accurately and stylishly rendered as, "To say that I had low expectations would be to dramatically overstate the case." And I immediately felt that the book was going to be a John Hughes-esque "problems of privileged white kid" book, which usually I don't mind too much but this time I could sense what felt like the narrator's pretension immediately, due to his obligatory Eccentric Trait* (memorizing last words). As an Eccentric Trait, I actually liked this one quite a lot, for dramatic purposes -- but I didn't buy that Miles had had this obsession for years and never thought about why.

2) I read on and felt mild interest in Alaska, the Colonel, and the cast of peripherals -- they seemed slightly annoyingly intellectual, mostly because they're seventeen and everything is dramatic and important and full of epiphany, but that's pretty realistic. I liked them ok. But then I finally noticed the countdown section headings, realized Alaska was going to die, realized that she was going to die WAY before the book ended, and instantly flashed forward to all of the scenes in which her (short, passionate, but ultimately ordinary) life would inevitably be infused with weight and import by her untimely and tragic death. I hate it when characters' lives are given import by their deaths. I am past the age when dying young seems romantic and incredibly significant. I am much more interested in what young people do and how they live when they're alive than how their peers react afterwards. And I could see at least 80 pages of reacting ahead of me.

3) I read on further, and at some point, perhaps 30 pages or so after Alaska's death, when I was fully resigned to reading the rest of the book and had gotten over being annoyed with its structure, something shifted and Miles and the Colonel and Takumi and Lara and even the Eagle started to grow on me. I think it's because they acknowledged that how they felt and what they thought about Alaska's death was not so much about her as about themselves, which was pretty honest and true and made me forgive them somewhat for being obsessed with analysing it (and everything).

Sorry, this is not really a discussy post. So I will end with an Interesting Question which occured to me while I was reading this. It is multiple-choice, which means everyone has a chance to be right! :-)

When you read YA fiction, is it:

a) A contemplative, nostalgic experience -- it makes you remember your adolescence and reflect on it.
b) A consuming, nostalgic experience -- it makes you plunge back into your adolescence and feel all those heady emotions over again.
c) A detached, universalizing experience -- "Boy, kids are dumb, and amusing," you think. "I was dumb and amusing then too, because being a teenager is always like that."
d) Other (please explain): ____________________________________________________________

I am sometimes a) but mostly c), I think. I have a hard time fully engaging with YA fiction these days because I'm far enough away from adolescence to see it as absurd, and not far enough away to really miss it. You?

* I didn't buy the Colonel's Eccentric Trait (memorizing countries, capitals, populations). It seemed forced and made-up.

Recommendations: YA books that are really long

I have an 11-year-old friend who is consuming books like teenage boys consume pizza. She's looking for book recommendations, and her mom is hoping they'll be long enough to keep her busy for longer than a day. She loves just about anything she reads. Some favorites: The Tale of Desperaux, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Wicked, and she just finished The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. I'm pretty sure she's already read the Redwall series, and she went through all the Harry Potters in about a month. Any ideas to keep her busy?

The Final Reckoning

Be sure to vote for the April book -- scroll down a couple entries. That poll will close in a day or two.

I had to share.

It's one of his favorite books. He mostly likes to say what he thinks is the title, then open it up and flip through the pages a lot. He also likes to go back to the cover many times. I think it's because he's developing a thesis about the art.

Planning ahead

Poll over!

Sendak's Opera ready to go -

Sendak reads from Brundibar (NYTimes).

Did anyone read it? I'd love to see the opera.

Early Bird

Hmmm.

I really enjoyed Will Weaver's writing, and I found Paul to be a very fully realized character whose journey is compelling. Yet this book sits uneasily with me, and I know it's because a thread of faith runs through it that I don't share. Is it possible that I cannot read a book suffused with religious belief without becoming uncomfortable? Is it because it's a contemporary book that I otherwise identify with in many ways? I am saddened by my difficulty with this book, and I think it comes from external sources. I feel uncomfortable with the direction religious conservatism is taking this country at the moment, and that's filtering through to my experience with "Full Service," which I don't think would have made me so uneasy if I'd read it several years ago. It's the same feeling I get when I see the American flag on bumperstickers -- it's a symbol that's become corrupted and that I can't perceive on its own terms anymore, at least not without some difficulty.

More soon. Would love to hear from religious book club members.

Edited to add: Honestly, I liked this book so much, especially because at first it seemed like it wasn't going anywhere, and I adored how specific and detailed Paul's observations of people and cars and things were, even when (in the case of mechanics and car parts) I couldn't visualize what he was saying. I was very impressed with how restrained and yet rich the writing was. And yet, at the end, I found myself just -- I don't know, hoping he would come to a different conclusion. I don't know why. I think it says much more about me than about the book, which is very intelligent and interesting. Stupid Reader Response experience.

For the few

As far as I know, only three people read Black Hole. I debated not doing a poll, but I want to see how it comes out.

Interview with Charles Burns

Bookslut posted this link. Thoughts? I'm still looking forward to hearing from our newest members. :-)

That was quick

The March book is Looking for Alaska!

NOTE: Be sure to get the copy by John Green, not the book of the same title by Peter Jenkins. You want the book about Alaska the person, not Alaska the great wiiiiide wiiiiild whiiiiiiite way.

ADDENDUM: I just realized this book is set in Birmingham, AL; I'll let you all know if Green's representation of setting is accurate -- ie. sweltering and gross.

I court not the votes of the fickle mob. - Horace

Okay, some explanation is in order.

First of all, Eunice's bribe did not come into my possession by the agreed time. As a result, Criss Cross is not on the list.

Really, though, I thought about it and with all the Newbery hubbubble, figured it would be somewhat difficult to get our hands on copies of the book. Library hold lists are long and even if you wanted to purchase a copy, bookstores are likely to be out of stock (if they carried it at all) and backorders will be in effect. So, I did the drawing as I normally do, no shenanigans, and Criss Cross did not pop up; it will remain on the wish list. Reardless, the books we are voting between look wonderful and I'm having a hard time deciding which to vote for.

Non-Amazon Reviews:
+ An Innocent Soldier at Arthur Levine and The Horn Book.
+ Looking for Alaska at Teenreads.com and at Reading Rants.
+ The Wish List at Bookmunch.

News from Bloomers

Bloomers called me out of the wild blue to ask me to see a play with her, since David skived off last minute. She wanted to prod me on my way to a new job, and we got a chance to talk a little about the ALA committee. She is very excited about Criss Cross. And she has a pair of those ear bag warmer things. I know that's a random detail, but can you see her? Ear bags! She managed the earrings and the ear bags with surprisingly deft fingers.

Two important things to share:

1. She expressed, once again, how much she loved having us Simmons grads in her classes, what a good group we were, etc. She sends her love.

2. She's a Grandma!! At last! Wee Jacob came early, and healthy despite the earliness.

The Winners

Here, find listed all the winners and honor books for the 2006 ALSC Awards. Lynne Rae Perkins (Criss Cross) and Chris Raschka (The Hello, Goodbye Window, written by Norton Juster) got the early Monday morning phone calls this year. Both these books were on Bloomers's list; I wonder if she wanted them to win?

Actually, the Horn Book ALA Awards site has nicer formatting and it explains each medal with a blurb.

Please feel free to add whatever looks interesting to the Wish List. I will set up a poll for March's book later this week.

A new award debuted this year, the Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal. It recognizes the best beginning reader books.

Winner:
Henry and Mudge and the Great Grandpas written by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Sucie Stevenson (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

Black Hole -- Interpretation, Fun Fun Fun!

Ok. What do y'all think this book is all about? What is this disease supposed to mean, and why is the title "Black Hole?"

-- Susan suggested an AIDS metaphor. I think that's a totally valid and important reading and I hope she says more about it.

-- I think this book works like Buffy (apologies for making a tv-reference, but it really makes sense to me) in that it takes quintessential adolescent experiences that usually only take place on the inside, playing out in a complex but invisible emotional landscape, and turns them into something physical. Feel like your boyfriend turned into an evil monster after you slept with him? Guess what, he really did! Feel like your overbearing mother pressures you to succeed because she longs for her lost youth, and that she'd switch bodies with you in an instant? Guess what, she really would! Because she's a witch! Anyway, I think Black Hole does the same sort of thing. Feel like you have a horrible skin-eating disease that makes everyone ostracize you? Guess what, you do! Feel like you're a monster? You are. Now what are you gonna do?

-- Other ideas?

A Hole That Is Black

Ahhh, Black Hole. A black hole, indeed. I found this book disturbing, fascinating, intriguing, and freaky, all at the same time. I couldn’t put it down, but almost in a car-accident-and-I’m-rubbernecking kind of way. This is going to be a diarrhea post. I’m just going to say everything that’s on my mind about the book. Feel free to start your own post if you want to steer the discussion in one particular direction, especially one that I’ve not considered.

• The characters seemed pretty consistent. I felt for Keith and his earnestness.
• I wanted more of a story that followed the beginning, middle, and end rules. Is the ending of Keith’s story (cuddling with Eliza in the motel, exchanging “I love you”s, and then he says “I’m gone”) and Chris’s story (floating in the water, alone on the beach) copouts for Burns? Do the endings mean anything? Do the readers deserve more? Do we deserve to know more about what happens to these two, what decisions they make regarding their future? They are both in limbo, in an unstable state, when we leave them. That might be purposeful (their whole lives are unstable), but I was curious to know more, to know how they survived and how they lived.
• The story jumped around a little too much. I think we could have seen some of the flashback scenes as they were really happening, instead of as they were remembered in a character’s mind. I think I could definitely tell that this was pieced together over a time period instead of written from beginning to end, as most novels. Also, looking back, I’m a little confused about the order of events. In the second “chapter,” Keith finds a female skin in the woods. In the third chapter, Chris appears to be living in the woods already and sheds her skin. But those events seem totally out of order (in the next chapter or two, Chris goes skinny dipping and doesn’t even realize she’s showing symptoms of the bug). Is this just a result of the piecing-together, or did I miss the significance?
• Even though it’s a graphic novel, it still needed to be proofread. There were misspellings (Rob’s last name is spelled two different ways), misplaced commas, missing commas, incorrect possessives (“it’s” instead of “its”), etc., that I found a little distracting.
• The whole book was extremely sexual, with all the vaginal imagery and the actual sex scenes. Even the slit in the frog’s body at the very beginning was extremely sexual. I’m sure the significance of the imagery is that “the bug” was passed through sexual contact, but is there more significance than that? Just that everything comes back to sex, to intimacy, to the human body? There was some phallic imagery, too, if I recall, but certainly not as much as the vaginal stuff (the cut on Chris’s foot that keeps coming back).
• Did Keith know what he was doing when he slept with Eliza? Did he realize that her tail was a symptom of the bug, or did he just think she was “different”? Was he so desperate for love/affection/belonging/getting laid that he willingly “caught” the bug?
• When Eliza was telling Keith how she came to live with those guys in the house and then have her artwork trashed (which she did herself), she was saying how she couldn’t bear to live with her stepdad for another year. So we hear about the different options she tried, including sleeping in the woods with friends. And then one frame shows her come across a guy strung up on a tree, dead (leading to her decision of not living in the woods). What was the significance of that? I had thought all the weirdness of the skeletal figures was that one guy (Rick – and they were probably harmless?) and all the murders were Dave. So did that murdered guy in the tree mean anything? Also, at the beginning of the book, the people around the campfire are talking about how that one girl Lana disappeared and how Roy found that arm. But that was before Dave was obsessed with Chris, so were there really other murders going on in the woods? If there was more than just what Dave did, I felt like I didn’t know enough about it and I was cheated a little bit.
• I found the AIDS metaphor pretty real and current today, with the alienation, the thought that it could never happen to you (the way Keith’s friends are making fun of the yearbook they find), the need to escape but yet not really being able to... Did it simplify the disease at all?
• Was the love between Chris and Rob real? Was the love between Keith and Eliza real? Were they all just desperate to find someone who would accept them, someone who would love them, someone who was also sick, someone who wouldn’t judge them, someone with whom they could escape?

I know that’s a lot to muddle through, but this book is a lot to digest. So I’m just throwing it all out there. Anyone care to pick up a topic and discuss?

Go Bloomers, go!

Here's the booktalk list. She must have listed them in the order she presented them, which must have been nice for her audience. Of course, one can only wonder what her segues could have been, because this list doesn't seem to have a useful order.
Enjoy, dears.

Transformations in Style and Content: Selected Children’s Books of Distinction in 2005

Banyai, Istvan. The Other Side. Chronicle.

Juster, Norton. The Hello, Goodbye Window. Illustrated by Chris Raschka. Hyperion.

Myers, Christopher. Lies and Other Tall Tales. Collected by Zora Neale Hurston. HarperCollins.

Grey, Mini. Traction Man is Here! Knopf.

Meddaugh, Susan. The Witch’s Walking Stick. Houghton.

Philobolus. The Human Alphabet. Photos by John Kane. Roaring Brook.

Woodson, Jacqueline. Show Way. Illustrated by Hudson Talbott. Putnam.

Lester, Julius. The Old African. Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. Dial.

Lester, Julius. Days of Tears. Hyperion.

Nelson, Marilyn. A Wreath for Emmett Till. Houghton.

Barbour, Karen. Mr. Williams. Holt.

Sidman, Joyce. Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems. Illustrated by Beckie Prange. Houghton.

Rosen, Michael. Michael Rosen’s Sad Book. Illustrated by Quentin Blake. Candlewick.

Poole, Josephine. Anne Frank. Illustrated by Angela Barrett. Knopf.

Muth, Jon. Zen Shorts. Scholastic.

Say, Allen. The Kamishibai Man. Houghton.

Young, Ed. Beyong the Great Mountais: A Visual Poem about China. Chronicle.

Shulevitz, Uri. The Travels of Benjamin Tudela. Farrar.

Bartoletti, Susan. Hitler Youth. Scholastic.

Erdich, Louise. The Game of Silence. HarperCollins.

Lanagan, Margo. Black Juice. HarperCollins.

Zevin, Gabrielle. Elsewhere. Farrar.

Gerstein, Mordecai. The Old Country. Roaring Brook.

Birdsall, Jeanne. The Penderwicks. Knopf.

McKay, Hilary. Permanent Rose. McElderry.

Yancey, Rick. The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp. Bloomsbury.

Perkins, Lynn Rae. CrissCross. Greenwillow.

Lynch, Chris. Inexcusable. Atheneum.

Partridge, Elizabeth. John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth. Viking.

Marsalis, Wynton. Jazz ABZ. Illustrations by Paul Rodgers. Candlewick.

Sabuda, Robert, and Matthew Reinhart. Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Dinosaurs. Candlewick.

Seeger, Laura Vaccaro. Walter Was Worried. Roaring Brook.

Jenkins, Emily. That New Animal. Illustrated by Pierre Pratt. Farrar.

Best, Cari. Are You Going to Be Good? Illustrated by G. Brian Karas. Farrar.

Bee, William. Whatever. Candlewick.

Agee, John. Terrific. Hyperion.

Girmay, Aracelis. changing, changing. George Braziller.

Votes are In

...or at least six of them are, and that's a great turnout!

February's book is Full Service by Will Weaver, one of The Horn Book's Best Books of 2005.

Embarrasingly, the only other book on the list I've even looked at is Prehistoric Actual Size by Steve Jenkins, though I plan to read Hilary McKay's third Casson family book Permanent Rose and The Minister's Daughter by Julie Hearn. I may add one of those to the Wish List...

My copy of Black Hole arrived yesterday (along with the ReadyMade book, hooray hooray) and that is one solid chunk of a tome! Not as thick as Blankets but quite substantial. Can't wait to start.