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).
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Sunday, September 10, 2006
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).
I finished it last week and it was a positive experience (that's all I'll say for now).
Monday, August 28, 2006
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.
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.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
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.
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.
Friday, August 04, 2006
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.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
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?
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?
Monday, June 26, 2006
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.
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.
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.
Monday, June 19, 2006
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?
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?
Monday, May 22, 2006
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!
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!
Thursday, May 18, 2006
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
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
Monday, May 15, 2006
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!
Thank you to those who contribute to the Wish List! Please keep adding more!
Monday, April 17, 2006
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.
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.
Monday, April 10, 2006
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.
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.
Friday, April 07, 2006
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.
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.
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