Some realistic fiction

Fantasy really isn't my favorite thing, so when I got a new order of books in, I was so excited that I HAD to read a few of the titles that I bought without reading, which is something I try not to do. Then, of course, a few fantasy books snuck in anyway!

Sheldon, Dyan. My Worst Best Friend.
Gracie has been best friends with Savanna for a long time, but doesn't understand it. Savanna is popular and pretty, while Gracie is quiet and unassuming. Gracie is also a much better friend, and when Savanna gets involved with a college boy and starts using Gracie to hide this fact, Gracie starts to realize that living with Savanna's lies and manipulations isn't something that she wants to do anymore, especially when Savanna tries to sabotage her budding romance.

Strengths: LOVE Sheldon. Her Planet Janet has a line about middle schoolers having amnesia that I quote all the time. She understands the trauma that friend problems can bring, and captures the whole experience of not liking your best friend brilliantly. This will be hugely popular.

Weaknesses: The cover will date quickly with the skinny jeans and the whole belt-over-shirt thing. And I wouldn't have made Gracie quite so wimpy.

Franklin, Emily and Halpin, Brendan. The Half-Life of Planets.
Any book that starts with the sentence "I am not a slut" is probably not going to be a middle school book (especially when the f-word is flung around later in the book), but I was enthralled nonetheless. Because Liana has kissed a wide variety of boys (and has impressive cleavage, which we hear about a lot), the girls in her school think she has loose morals. Because of this, Liana decides to spend her summer not kissing anyone. Then she meets Hank, a music-obsessed guy who is great fun to be around, if a little hard to understand at times. Hank has Asperger's Syndrome (now sometimes called a disorder, and sometimes just put under the category of Autistic Spectrum Disorders; labels change so quickly.) and isn't very smooth when it comes to reading other's body language or social expectations. Emily brings him out of his shell a bit, and the two become involved even though Liana is still overly concerned about her reputation.

Strengths: This was great; a book with a character who has a disorder, but the whole book is not about that. Hank's attempts at understanding his world and himself are part of the larger story.

Weaknesses: Just a few tweaks would have made this middle school appropriate. Argh.

Weyn, Suzanne. Empty.
Don't read any further, or read this book, if you are still working through peanut butter and tuna reserves that you stockpiled after reading Pfeffer's The Dead and the Gone. The US has run out of oil, and is involved in a war in Venezuela because they are withholding oil-- but it turns out that they are short, too. Add a horrible hurricane on top of it, and things get bad in Sage Valley. Gas goes up to $80 a gallon, and Gwen's brother is working the black market. Niki's father loses his job and his sanity. Tom tries to get by as well. Will normalcy ever be restored? Can the world learn to get by without oil?

Strengths: Very, very depressing but powerful. Makes you wonder why we don't have disaster plans. Or more peanut butter in the basement. A nice, short science fiction addition to any collection.

Weaknesses: A little didactic, and the appearance of an experimental "green" house with hydroponic garden comes out of the blue a bit.

Berry, Julie. The Amaranth Enchantment.
It says a HUGE amount about the quality of this book that I was enthralled even though it was a sort of medievalish fantasy. I've read so many of them, but this was intriguing in the was that Two Princesses of Bamarre and Ella Enchanted were intriguing. The orphaned Lucinda is slaving away at her uncle's jewelery store, suffering under his wife's abuse, when Peter, a young thief, breaks in and demands to spend the night while he is fleeing someone. He also steals a jewel from Lucinda that belongs to Beryl, the Amaranth Witch. He then sells the jewel to Prince Gregor, whom Lucinda finds very appealing even though he is betrothed. She tries to steal the jewel back, setting in motion a series of events that manage to improve her lot in life because they uncover secrets.

Strengths: I immediately liked Lucinda and wanted to know more about Beryl. The magic was light enough that it didn't overshadow the characters. Nice twist at the end. Good cover.

Weaknesses: Never really understood what world Beryl came from, but it didn't matter all that much with the other things going on.

George Clooney and the Gravedigger Pirates

Nielsen, Susan. Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom.
Nominated for the Cybils middle grade fiction by Sandra Stiles

Violet is not happy with her family situation. Her father left her mother for a younger actress and now lives in California with her and their twin daughters. Violet's mother has sated a string of undesirable men and is currently going out with Dudley Wiener. In order to stop this, Violet works on a plan to write to George Clooney, whom her mother once met, and get him to marry her. This is actually a fairly brief bit of the story-- most of which is concerned more with daily life. (Washer is on the blink, so Violet doesn't have a clean shirt for school, she refuses to talk to her father on the phone, her mother's friends at work discussing the men that they date.)

Strengths: Even with more divorce now than in the 1970s, most of the books I have on broken and blended families are older titles. Violet's anger seems real, even when she encourages her younger stepsisters to eat cat poo.

Weaknesses: The George Clooney angle seems a little fake, and will date the book, but is a bit fun.

Kennedy, Kim. Misty Gordon and the Mystery of the Ghost Pirates.
Nominated for the Cybils by Jason Wells

Misty has a hard life-- her parents make their living buying the estates of people who have recently passed away, and haul their purchases around in an old ice cream truck. When Madame Zaster dies and Misty gets some of her belongings, including her diary and a pair of her glasses, she gets sucked in to a plot to destroy the town, and must find three Greek statues left in the care of descendants of the town founders to avert disaster.

Strengths: I liked Misty and her friend Yoshi, and there was decent plot and character development.

Weaknesses: I got really distracted in an unpleasant way by the oddities the author threw in. Yoshi's father works at an insane asylum? And there is an escaped inmate named May Nays who goes crazy around (you guessed it) mayonnaise? Every time something like that popped up, it made me cringe, and then I started to anticipate the cringing. Quirky character names are not endearing.


MacHale, D. J. The Light (Morpheus Road #1)
Nominated for the Cybils by Karin Lackman

Marsh is struggling with the death of his photographer mother and the increasingly bad behavior of his best friend Cooper. It's bad enough when Cooper gets caught scalping counterfeit tickets and gets sent to the family cabin for the summer, but when Marsh starts being stalked by one of his own drawings, the Gravedigger, and Cooper disappears, he must find some way to survive. Aided by Cooper's snarky but pretty sister Sydney, he tries to find out not only what has happened to Cooper, but also why he, Sydney, and many others seem to be experiencing hallucinations that become all too real and try to kill them.

Strengths: The emotions in this are refreshingly real. After feeling breezes and seeing symbols appear on the shower door, Marsh wisely decides that he needs to consult his father and get some professional psychiatric help. How many other characters in fantasy stories think that? His anger and disappointed with Cooper, and his sadness when Cooper disappears, also ring true. Never fear, though, there's lots of creepy psychological horror interspersed with lots of action and adventure. This will be a BIG hit with the students. I'm shortlisting this one.

Weaknesses: Meanders a bit, and there are more questions at the end of the book than at the beginning. Yes, it's a trilogy, but it's hard to wait.

I do not concur with Kirkus reviews that this is too long for middle schoolers or that Marsh is portrayed as an immature 16. I thought MacHale did a great job at creating realistic characters, although the romance between the sister and Marsh seemed a bit forced.

The Carpet

You know, I'm still coming to terms with the carpet. It is not as bad as I thought it would be, but it still makes me slightly dizzy when I run across it if I'm looking down.

I thought that everything I wore would clash with the carpet, but today I managed to wear a sweater that matched.

And my Bluebird leader would be very proud that I was able to sit on the floor in a skirt!

Guy Friday-- Boys through the decades

Again, the disclaimer that I was never a 12-year-old boy. I also didn't read a whole lot of books about boys, preferring strong girl characters, but since I read a lot, I did come across a few. Homer Price was one of my favorites-- Homer would be about 80 were he still alive, but the book is still in print. All of these are, which says something about their staying power. I didn't include ones like the Danny Dunn series, which is defunct, or the Hardy Boys, because they morph with every decade.

One of my most treasured books is one sent to me by Donald J. Sobol. I have very fond memories of reading the Encyclopedia Brown mysteries with my mother. And I was voted down when I wanted to name Norbert "Henry Reed". (Bonus points: from which of my favorite books does the name "Norbert" come? Hint: It's a girl book.)

What books did the boys out there read? Certainly there were more in the 1970s that I missed.

McCloskey, Robert. Homer Price (1943)

Cleary, Beverly. Henry Huggins. (1950)

Robertson, Keith. Henry Reed, Inc. (1958)

George, Jean Craighead. My Side of the Mountain (1960)

Sobol, Donald J. Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective (1963)

Fitzgerald, John Dennis. The Great Brain (1967)

Rockwell, Thomas. How to East Fried Worms (1973)

Byars, Betsy. The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown (1988)

Pilkey, Dav. The Adventures of Captain Underpants (1997)

Winkler, Henry. Niagra Falls or Doesn't It? (2003) Hank Zipzer

Working down the TBR pile

Noyce, Pendred. Lost in Lexicon.

Nominated for the Cybils by Rebecca Raibley

Cousins Ivan and Daphne are bored at their Great Aunt Adelaide's house, so she sends them on an adventure into the land of Lexicon, where they must find the missing children of the town after saving the inhabitants from a plague of punctuation. In order to do this, they must solve many word and number puzzles and rely on their intelligence and ingenuity instead of rotting their brains away with screen time.

Strengths: This was well-written and intelligent, and the characters, while a bit whiny in some points, likeable.

Weaknesses: Couldn't help but think that this was a Phantom Tollbooth imitation. While I agree with the premise that children have too much screen time, it was not that intriguing a book.

Dyer, K.C. Facing Fire.

Nominated for the Cybils by James McCann

After accidentally setting fire to her school, Darby gets an opportunity to spend time with family friend Fiona in a coastal town. She has plenty of time to explore, and after visiting a lighthouse finds that she can travel through time by stepping through windows. She once again visits the past, as she did when she she traveled back in time in A Walk Through a Window. Things are complicated when she and Zander, a new boy, travel back and get involved in helping former slaves from getting sent back to the US.

Strengths: Always love time travel, and this is convincingly done. Well-written and atmospheric. Nice to see something from a Canadian author!

Weaknesses: It would have been helpful to read the first book, and this was still a bit slow. It read very much like the books that I read back in the 1970s; if the cover hadn't been so great, I would have thought I had picked up an older book.

Lyga, Barry. Archvillian
Nominated for the Cybils by Kirby Rundell

After getting caught in a meteor shower in a field, prankster extraordinaire Kyle is out of commission with some horrible flu-like symptoms, but soon discovers that whatever occurred left him with super powers. Of course, the powers aren't as great as Mike's, a boy who was found in the field afterward and is now going to Kyle's school and getting national acclaim for using his powers to save people. Kyle detests Mike, especially when Mike starts monopolizing Kyle's friend Mairi. Kyle tries to sabotage a day honoring Mike, but his pants laser malfunctions and his Azure Avenger is accused of being a Blue Freak. Undaunted, Kyle keeps trying to undo Mike, whom he believes to be an alien with evil plans.

Strengths: Interesting science fiction twist, with funny scenes and a nice love interest.

Weaknesses: Kyle is a supercilious, obnoxious character, and I didn't feel any sympathy for his plight or his quest. Also, the book did not reach any conclusions. It's one thing to hint at a sequel and another to leave the book in such a state that one is required to finish the story.

The books above were all review copies provided by the publishers.

Haddon, Mark. Boom.

Nominated for the Cybils by Kara Dean

Jim and his friend Charlie have a fairly normal life, hanging around Jim's housing estate watching his unemployed father work with model airplanes, or around Charlie's posh place because he's been grounded. When they sneak a walkie talkie into the teachers' lounge to find out whether or not Jim is going to get kicked out of school, they hear a couple of teachers talking in a strange language and determine that they are space aliens. When men in suits start warning the boys off, Charlie investigates further and gets kidnapped. Jim and his sister take off to Scotland to find him, and Jim gets taken by the aliens, who are trying to repopulate their world by stealing science fiction fans. Not wanting to be away from their planet, the boys manage to escape and save the world from destruction.

Strengths: This was funny and very British. A nice short read with amusing characters and a fast-paced alien invastion plot, this will be perfect for my 8th grade students who need a science fiction book. The cover is very appealing.

Weaknesses: I didn't want to like this one, but I did. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is by this author, and is very high on my list of overrated books that everyone wanted to read that I thought were really, really awful. This one was good. A little like Cosmic but without the huge sagging bit in the middle.

Merlin and Milo

Barron, T.A. Merlin's Dragon: Ultimate Magic

Nominated for the Cybils by Barb Langridge

In this third book in the series, DoomRaga, who is serving Rhita Gawr, a wicked overlord, is behind the war in Avalon, and Basil the giant green dragon, with the aid os a magic map he recieves from elves, pins his location to the Haunted Marsh. First, Basil must fight Lo Valdeargh and destroy a seige weapon of the flamelons that traps him in a net, but he escapes with the help of Marnya, a dragon of whom he is very fond. Fighting off a swarm of flying leeches with the aid of Merlin, Basil and he compatriots head off to the marsh where they see that Rhita Gawr is infusing his spirit into DoomRaga by means of a thread of power. While trying to prevent this transfer, Marnya is killed, but the fight does not end well for Gawr once Basil, Merlin, Merlin's son Krystallus the elf, and all of the combined spirits of Avalon gang up to blind Gawr/DoomRaga so Basil can defeat him... at least for now. Maryna is rescusitated, Merlin heads off to earth to help with Camelot, and peace reigns in Avalon, at least for the moment.

Strengths: This was well-written and easy to follow even though I have missed book two. There was a lot of fighting, which many students like, the characters were easy to understand, and the plot was uncomplicated. After reading fantasy for a month and a half solid, let me tell you that an uncomplicated plot is something very rare in fantasy, and I appreciated it.

Weaknesses: The first book is not circulating in my library. The Lost Years of Merlin books are falling to pieces, but I had forgotten I even had Merlin's Dragon. This is a shame, but there must be something about it that's not appealing to students.

Silberberg, Alan. Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze

Nominated for the Cybils by Elizabeth Bird for Middle Grade Fiction (so not my committee, but again, needed a break from fantasy all the time!)

Milo is fitting in pretty well at his fifth school in several years. His neighbor, Hillary, is too friendly but helpful at times; he has a best pal, Marshall; he even has a crush on the gorgeous and untouchable Summer. He knows he's a bit of a dork, and is trying to make 7th grade a successful year despite his bald on purpose math teacher, the fact that Summer doesn't know he exists, and the overwhelming feeling of missing his mother, who has recently passed away.

If there were any justice in this world, this would win the Newbery. Not that it's the most fabulous book, but it's incredibly readable and would make both students and teachers happy. It's essentially a funny book, complete with fun drawings, and Milo gets himself into all sorts of middle school scrapes. But he misses his mom. A lot. These moments are realistically included at random moments of the story in a way that's not maudlin or instructional. I'd almost like to see a series for Milo, and if Mr. Silberberg could get Milo on a sports team, it would be perfect!

Strengths: All over the place. Student appeal, message, writing, format of book.

Weaknesses: The inside cover blurb is instant poison: "Brimming with heart, humor and ultimately hope, [this] is a powerhouse of a novel that will stay with you well after you've turned the last page." True. But that's the way language arts teachers describe Bridge to Terebithia or Jacob Have I Loved. Bleah. Not a way to get kids to read the book!

Think I have fewer than 40 Cybils books to read, but it is getting a little desperate because there are some that are not held by any libraries in Ohio! I have a pile for over Thanksgiving, but am also stocking up on some books that were not nominated for the science fiction and fantasy award just in case. Or maybe I'll clean the basement. Or watch some movies.

Wizard of the Mirrorworld

Funke, Cornelia. Reckless.
Nominated for the Cybils by Angela

Jacob has escaped from his dull life to Mirrorworld for years, finding magical objects and selling them. When his younger brother also ventures into the world, he gets injured by the Goyl and starts turning to stone. Not just any stone-- jade, and this fulfills a prophecy that a jade Goyl will help the evil king become invincible. Jacob decides to enlist the help of the Dark Fairy to reverse the curse. Accompanied by Clara, Will's girl friend, and Fox, a young shape shifter girl who prefers her animal form, Jacob must get help from many who have helped him in the past in order to save his brother and get on with the sequel, which seems almost assured.

Strengths: The twists on Grimm tales are well done and fresh, and the suspension of disbelief is complete-- little explanation is given for the existence of Mirrorworld or any of the creatures within it.

Weaknesses: The language is very rich and stilted in some places, and students without a strong knowledge of German folklore may be confused.

Duane, Diane. A Wizard of Mars
Nominated for the Cybils by Liz.

Nita and Kit are back for the ninth time, and this time because of Kit's interest in Mars, they travel back and forth from there. However, Kit gets stuck back in an ancient version of Mars, and things escalate until even Earth is threatened. Since it has been three years since the previous book (Wizards at War) and because many of the characters from these books show up, I found this extremely hard to keep straight in my mind. So much is going on. The first book in the series, So You Want to Be A Wizard (1983) also was hard to follow, but I've liked all the other ones. Will have to admit that, like most of Garth Nix and D.J. MacHale, the details of this one have Tefloned right out of my brain. Almost didn't purchase this, but have had three students this year eager to read it.

Curse of the Darklings

Crilley, Paul. Rise of the Darklings (The Invisible Order Book 1)
Nominated for the Cybils by Virginia; review copy recieved from Goodman Media
In Victorian London, Emily Snow's life is hard enough. Her parents have both gone missing, so she and her brother William live in a horrible boarding house, and she goes out every day to try to sell watercress to buy food. When she happens upon a fight involving piskies, things get worse. While she is befriended by the piskie Corrigan, she is stalked by the evil Ravenhill and has to enlist the help of her friend Jack when the fey queen, Kelindria, wants her to complete a task in order to regain her brother. Then things get complicated. Pursued on all sides by evil water witches, Ravenshill, the fey on the side of Kelindria AND the fey on the side of the possibly evil Dragda, Emily and Jack have to work out what is best for the humans, who belong to The Invisible Order, an institution founded by Christopher Wren in order to keep the fey at bay.

Strengths: Good use of Victorian London setting, innovative use of different fantasy creatures, plenty of action and suspense.

Weaknesses: It was hard to tell who was good and who was evil, which makes for a more intriguing book but is also a bit hard to follow.

Vernon, Ursula. Dragonbreath: Curse of the Were-Wiener.
Nominated for the Cybils by D.M. Cunningham.

Danny Dragonbreath and his friend Wendell are concerned after Wendell is attacked by a school hotdog and starts itching and growing hair on his back. Upon investigation, the hot dogs are found to be feral were-wieners, and the product help line is not much use, other than to tell the boys that they have a limited time to stop the wieners from turning all of their victims into lycanthropic minions. With the aid of rats and a previous nemesis, a blob of potato salad, the boys manage to defeat the main wiener and restore order to their school. Until the next time.

Strengths: This made me laugh out loud several times. Vernon has a good feel for things that will make ten year olds AND adults laugh. The illustrations add some zip to the story, and the format is excellent for younger or struggling readers. I can see these being wildly popular in elementary school. Really enjoyed this.

Weaknesses: Falls on the elementary side of The Pilkey Line. There is no way I'm going to have a book in a middle school library with the word "wiener" so prominently displayed!

Mail with a side helping of guilt.

Part of me was thrilled when I got a huge box from Simon and Schuster last night, until I realized that out of the dozen books, I had read 10 and had two sitting on my pile. I filled out all of my forms telling the Cybils what books I had, but I feel guilty. To assuage that, I will post the links to the books in the pile that I have already reviewed.

This is why normally, I just read books from the public library.

Appelt, Kathi. Keeper.
Bracegirdle, P.J. Unearthly Asylum (The Joy of Spooking)
DiTerlizzi, Tony. The Search for WondLa
Dowell, Frances Roark. Falling In.
Haberdasher, Violet. Knightley Academy.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Sabotaged.
Landon, Kristen. The Limit.
Myklusch, Matt. Jack Blank and the Imagination Nation
Trivas, Tracy. The Wish Stealers.

Need to read:
Catanese, P.W. Dragon Games / (Books of Umber #2)
MacHale, D.J. The Light (Morpheus Road)
Scieszka, Jon. Spaceheadz (Which I thought I reviewed but hadn't.)

Also received Pendred Noyce's Lost in Lexicon and K.C. Dyer's Facing Fire.

Giveaways: Happy Haul-idays from Chronicle Books

Chronicle Books has launched the Happy Haul-idays promotion. There are two ways to win!

For bloggers:
Post a list of the books you'd like to haul in in a $500 Chronicle books spending spree and you could win your list.

For everyone else:
Visit participating blogs and leave a comments for your chance to win. Lists of participating blogs will be posted on our site starting on Monday the 15th.

Go here for more details
http://www.chroniclebooks.com/happyhaulidays/

Here is my wish list for the Blendon Library. A bit hastily compiled, but I LOVE the stuff that Chronicle publishes. It's just that most of it I have bought for myself or gifts!

http://www.chroniclebooks.com/index/main,wishlist/code,nm3y3v3a/

Weekend Reading

Kimmel, Elizabeth Cody. Crossing Over (Suddenly Supernatural)
Nominated for the Cybils by Jenny Schwartzburg

The always delightful Ms. Kimmel continues her story of Kat Roberts, who can talk to the dead just like her hippie-eqsue mother. With her trusty side-kick, the cello playing Jac, she manages to enjoy a school field trip to Canada while fending off several ghosts and sending them on their way to the light. Further complicating matters are the snotty Brooklyn Bigelow and the enigmatic but oh-so-attractive Ben Greenblott. Brooklyn just makes life difficult for Kat with her barbs, but Ben makes her heart flutter. Will Ben be able to accept Kat, ghosts and all?

Strengths: The writing is funny, facile, and fresh. Kimmel is just so much fun. Adored Lily B., and we've worn out about four copies in my library! Kat comes through as a wonderfully normal, impetuous middle schooler who just happens to have a supernatural gift.

Weaknesses: Supporting characters are somewhat one dimensional. Jac develops a little more, but we've seen her mother several times, and I'm starting to feel sorry for her. Why is she so uptight?

Harris, M.G. Invisible City (The Joshua Files)
Nominated for the Cybils by Kathy M. Burnett

Joshua's life has just taken a horrible turn for the worse-- his father has been murdered in Mexico, supposedly by the husband of his mistress. This sends his mother into such a spiral that she eventually lets Joshua go to Mexico with his martial arts buddy and a slightly older girl from his hometown of Oxford that he just met. They manage to meet up with the suspected mistress-- who turns out to be Josh's half-sister. Things are very complicated, because not only is Josh being stalked by federal agents, it turns out that he is descended from ancient Mayans and is the only one who can access a sacred book that kills anyone else that touches it. He visits the hidden city of his ancestors and manages to solve several mysteries.

Strengths: This has a lot of action and adventure, quite a few clues to figure out, and a fresh and innovative fantasy world.

Weaknesses: This was rather complicated, and keeping all of the story lines straight would be difficult for younger children. I would definitely put this at 6th grade or above, especially since we witness the death of several characters.

Marcos, Crystal. Bellyache: A Delicious Tale

Nominated for the Cybils by Brenda

Peter is working with his grandfather, who owns a sweet shop. He is told to eat just three pieces of candy, but goes overboard and ends up with a stomach ache. He receives a mysterious package and ends up in a world where the people are all Candonites-- made of various types of candy. He stays with the mayor's family for a day to try to learn that he should have exercised restraint, but when he is set to return home, he and another visitor must save two local children from the evil Goaltan and the Peblars even though the local children were mean to them.

Strengths: Fun and innovative descriptions of the Candonites' world. I especially liked the restaurant. Extra points for sending the book nicely wrapped with two bookmarks and a business card: some of the review copies I have received come only with terse notes that make me feel like the Cybils are imposing by asking for books that we can't locate anywhere!

Weaknesses: This tends toward the didactic, and the subplot of rescuing the children seemed a bit tacked on.

Butler, Darren. J. Merlin's Curse.

Nominated for the Cybils by Diane Hamilton of Onstage Publishing

Lucy is tired of transferring schools and having to deal with difficult children. It's not much different this time, except that she meets Shelley, who invites her to investigate a neighbor's attic to find things for a garage sale fund raiser. The two girls find rings that turn Lucy into a cat! While they figure out an antidote, they also realize that Merlin turned the evil Princess Pendalyn into a cat, and she is stalking them, trying to figure out how to regain the rings and return to her original form.

Strengths: Easy to follow plot, good chemistry between the characters.

Weaknesses: Unattractive artwork throughout, awkward writing at points, and a variation on the Merlin tale that seemed unlikely. I think the gibberish of the spells made the story seem less convincing to me.

Book Fair Report: Everything is cleaned up and most of the paperwork done. Whew. I was a little nervous about the cash drawer balancing, since Scholastic has a fancy new cash register now, but it did. Time spent in retail never really leaves one, does it?

It's Book Fair Time!

My school is having conferences, so that means book fair! This year, we decided not to move it out into the hallway because it looked so nice in the library.

Book fair means long days-- I won't get home until 8:30 tonight, so I get very little reading done.

Friday we don't have school, but I will taking teenaged daughter to the University of Cincinnati for a college visit.

Have decided to go back to original code names for my resident readers (aka children)-- the teenaged daughter started out life as Hortense; the surly 9th grade boy was Norbert; and 7th grade Picky Reader was Ermintrude. Those were the names that were bandied about before they were born, so when their real names were revealed, everyone was greatly relieved and didn't complain!

The Nightmarys

Poblocki, Dan. The Nightmarys.
Nominated for the Cybils by D. M. Cunningham

YES!!! What do my students ask me for day after day after day? Scary books. Mysteries. Murder. I've had to explain that really, not a lot of middle grade authors write about murders; it's frowned upon. And so my four copies of E.E. Richards The Devil's Footsteps and my R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike books are reaching unsanitary states of preservation. NOW, however, I can start stocking up on Mr. Poblocki's scary stories.

Timothy July has problems. His brother has been injured in the military and his parents aren't talking about it. He has to work on a school project with a weird new girl, which has made his best friend angry. To top it off, he keeps having weird nightmares... while he's awake. And he's not alone. His best friend almost drowns when he thinks the monster from his favorite video game is in the pool with him. The new girl, Abigail, has dreams, too, about two girls at her previous school who were bullying her. Even Abigail's grandmother has them, and it turns out that she might be the key. When she was young, her friend was kidnapped by the creepy Professor Hesselius, who wanted to use the friend to fuel a powerful corpse. Timothy and Abigail find out about this through a book written by the grandmother's relative, and begin to realize that the source of the dreams is an artifact in the local museum. Will their fears take over, or will they be able to ignore them and destroy the artifact?

Strengths: Creepy. Super creepy. I made faces while reading the first gruesome chapter, and the descriptions of Timothy being chased by a painted dragon are awesome. It's perfect that it's horror AND mystery.

Weaknesses: Might be too gruesome for elementary students; does use the term "butt munch" which may irk parents, although you have to love "fart slap". Ever so slightly confusing with all of the stuff going on, but still a great read.

Kirby, Matthew J. The Clockwork Three
Nominated for the Cybils by Kristen.

On the flip side, this book was NOT what my students are asking for. The whole Steampunk thing? Not a sell, except for the Philip Pullman Clockwork (1996), and that ONLY because it's 2 points long and over the 5.0 level for Accelerated Reader. This is in the Scholastic book fair.

Three children in the late 1800s intersect-- Giuseppe, an orphan living on the streets at the mercy of an evil padrone who makes him beg and steal while trying to get together enough money to make it back to Italy; Frederick, a boy whose mother abandoned him at an orphanage who has some technical skills and is apprenticed to a clockmaker; and Hannah, a girl working as a maid in a fancy hotel because her father is ill and she is supporting her family. Hannah is taken up by a woman in the hotel who approaches Frederick to make an automaton, and also gets drawn into a mystery involving a possible treasure hidden in the hotel. Each of the children helps the other toward their goals-- Giuseppe to escape his padrone and get back to Italy, Frederick to become a journeyman clockmaker, and Hannah to help her family. All are aided by a little bit of magic.

Strengths: Well-developed characters who work well together, fair amount of action.

Weaknesses: Weak beginning: "When Giuseppe found the green violin, he did not think it would help him escape." Way too much description of opera and squirrels. I wanted to like it, but I just couldn't. Something too dense with the prose? This historical era works for Barnaby Grimes, but not as much here. I feel bad, because I usually agree with Kristen's recommendations!

Werewolves and Bogwitches

Toft, Di. Wolven.
Nominated for the Cybils by Nicola Manning

Nat is promised a dog by his mother and grandparents, but he doesn't plan on the mangy, smelly, wolf like creature that Farmer Tate is selling. If he doesn't taken Woody, however, he knows the dog will die. What he doesn't know is that Woody is a shapeshifter who has escaped a horrible government institution. Things become complicated when Nat has to fend off the bullying of Teddy Davis (who gets his comeupance!), the evil intentions of Lucas Scales (who is a werewolf), and the questionable help of Ophelia Tate. The government may have disbanded the experiements at Helleborine Halt, but Woody and Nat are still imperiled by them.

Strengths: Oddly appealing. Read this one over my morning tea. Perhaps it was the sympathetic treatement of Nat getting his new dog, or the fact that the words flabbergasted and lugubrious were used in the first two pages (unlike the nameless and horrid e book I read last night that had a comma fault within the first three words!), but I really enjoyed this. It's very English, too, had lots of action, bullies being put in their place-- just good stuff. There is a sequel, Wolven: The Twilight Circus out in the UK, and another, Bad Wolf Rising, coming in the spring.

Weaknesses: Never found out enough about Nat's father, but perhaps that is taken care of in the sequels.

Fagan, Deva. The Magical Misadventures of Prunella Bogthistle.
Nominated for the Cybils by Saundra Mitchell.

Prunella is trying very hard to be as evil as her grandmother, an accomplished bogwitch, but she just doesn't have it in her. When Barnaby almost comes to grief in her yard, she ends up helping him escape, and then, having angered her grandmother, runs away with him to help find the Mirable Chalice, whose disappearance is bringing devastation and grief to the uplands. Prunella also intends to find the fabled grimoire of Esmerelda, in order to learn how to become more evil. As she travels the countryside with Barnaby, however, she finds that she enjoys helping people more than hurting them. There are plenty of twists in the quest to find the chalice, and a nice, gentle romance/friendship between Prunella and Barnaby.

Strengths: Again, enjoyed this one more than I thought I would. The quasi-medieval setting usually annoys me, but there was enough of a twist to it that it worked. The characters were flawed but well-developed, and the cover art actually reflects the way the they are described in the book!

Weaknesses: Not sure if I have an audience for this in my library. Maybe fans of Pierce's Alanna, but I'm finding it hard to think of a student who would want to read this, which is a shame.

Weekend Reading

Frazier, Sundee. The Other Half of My Heart.

From the author of the excellent Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything in It, this is another excellent book about multifaceted characters who also happen to be biracial. Keira and Minni are twins, but Keira looks more like her mother, who is black, and Minni looks more like her father, who is pale and red haired. They live in a predominately white community, so their grandmother thinks it would be a good idea for them to spend some time with her in North Carolina, participating in the Miss Black Pearl Preteen pageant. Keira thinks this is great, but is worried that her grades will be a detriment. Minni, who has wavy red hair and is often thought to be completely white, is uncomfortable with her light skin and starts to understand how difficult things have been for her sister. Spending time with their strict, uptight grandmother is not pleasant, but they start to understand more about her. The best part of this book is the consistent message from the girls' mother-- the girls are themselves, not a color or a label, and they each have unique qualities that they should embrace.

Richards, Douglas E. Trapped (Book 1: The Prometheus Project)
Nominated for the Cybils by Robin Prehn.
Review copy provided by Paragon Science Fiction.

Ryan and Reagan have moved to the most boring place on earth because of their scientist parents' new jobs. After overhearing their parents talking about some secrets going on, the two sneak over to where their parents work, break in using their parents' passwords, and find out that there is a massive alien city whose technology their parents' company is studying. When their mother is gravely injured, they have to investigate the city and find out a way to go back and prevent this from happening. Even though the company is reluctant to let the children into the city at first, once they save their mother, they are welcomed as apprenticed scientists, and the stage is set for the next two books, Stranded and Captured.

Strengths: There is a lack of straight science fiction that is more alien/spaceship based than futuristic dystopia. John Christopher fans will like this one.

Weaknesses: The writing tends to be didactic (the children have to figure out puzzles to get their parents' passwords, there is a lot of scientific description of things like why ice floats), and there is a little too much emphasis on the adults in the story.

Bladek, John. Roll Up the Streets.
Nominated for the Cybils by Lisa Barker
Review copy provided by Kane Miller

Jake moves to a new town where his parents have jobs at Mr. Rumbleguts' factory. Jake, and his new friend, Sammie, seem to be the only ones who realize that the two stinks. As in, smells really bad. The two track the source of the odor to glowing yellow goo that seeps out from beneath the streets, and find that it is a biproduct of Rumbleguts' corndog and Planet Janet doll factory. No one else seems to be bothered by this, except their teacher, Ms. Frampton, who warns them not to eat the corndogs but has a run in with Rumbleguts' goons and then seems to think the corndogs are great. There is a weird and devious plot afoot, and it's up to Jake and Sammie to figure out what is going on.

Strengths: I liked Jake and Sammie, and this fell on the middle school side of the Pilkey Line. (On one side of Captain Underpants, the humor is elementary, on the other, middle school.) There were a lot of good laugh-out-loud lines, and there is always a demand for goofy mysteries.

Weaknesses: The goofy narration (complete with footnotes) got to be a little wearing for me. This would have succeeded more if the plot had been goofy, but not the names.


Boyce, Frank Cottrell. Cosmic.
Nominated for the Cybils by Eric Carpenter.

For some reason, this author's Millions and Framed did not do it for me, so I was a little leery of this. Turns out, however, that I may have to go back and pick up the other two books, as this was great fun. Liam is tall for 12 AND is sporting some facial hair, so he gets into all sorts of trouble, almost taking a car for a test drive and generally be thought of as a man of thirty. He uses this to his advantage when the DraxPhone company has a contest for fathers who want to take their children to the ultimate theme park-- he enters and claims that his friend Florida (with whom he sometimes hangs out at the mall, pretending to be her father!) is his daughter. He has one of the winning entries, so tells his parents his school is going on a long field trip, and is whisked off to China with Florida... and ends up going in a real rocket. Of course, the Drax Corporation isn't necessarily using the children for good, but they aren't overly evil, and everything turns out okay.

Strengths: Liam's perspective of the world of adults was hilarious. I especially liked how he uses the book "How to Talk to Your Teen" to study up on how to act like a father.

Weaknesses: This dragged in the middle for me, when there was a competition among the fathers to see who would go up in the rocket. Since we already know that Liam is chosen, I just wanted to get on with the story. Also, this would have been a stronger story if there had been more emphasis on the space trip rather than Liam's ventures into the world of adults.

D'Amato, Jennie. Barbie: All Dolled Up.

There has been a huge demand for Barbie books in my library recently. No idea why. The Dorling Kindersley book is fine for the pictures, but this had more in the way of historical development of the doll, which I liked. I know, I know. Barbie is evil. So why is it that we can't look away? Warning: this does contain some small pieces of paper like a replica of the Barbie fan club letter, and these are apt to get lost. If you need a Barbie book, this is a good one, even though it made me feel old. Barbie just turned 50, and I vividly remember getting the Sweet 16 Barbie for Christmas!

Keenan, Shelia. Animals in the House: A History of Pets and People.

This 112 page hardcover appeared in my Scholastic book fair and was quite an excellent history of domesticated pets. Well-illustrated, there aren't a lot of words on each page, so it's really not that long. It covers pets in general, and then has sections devoted to cats, dogs, pocket pets, and exotic pets as well. This will be a great addition to my "fun" nonfiction section that gets a work out every year when the 8th grade teachers assign their nonfiction project. A good addition to any middle school or elementary collection where pet books are popular.

Gross, creepy and nasty, all in a horrible binding!

My brother, who claims never to have read a book in high school, read nothing but the Guinness Book of World Records when we were young. This was back when it was a hefty paperback with tiny print.

The books today are large, colorful-- and fall apart the minute that you touch them. I have books from the early 1990s that are still in good shape, but 2009 is in little pieces. They are not cheap, either, with a price of almost $25.00 through Follett. The people at Guinness World Records really should feel horrible about this. Sure, they sell a lot of these through Scholastic book fairs, but aren't these volumes supposed to be used to settle bar bets? How long would these hold up there?

At any rate, boys seem to LOVE this sort of book, so when the budget allows, I do try to buy these. It doesn't seem to matter how old the volumes are; the 1993 edition circulates every bit as well as the 2011 one.

And students, "Guinness" is not pronounced like "genius". It's pronounced "GIN- ness" with a "g" like in "gun". And in our library, they are located right under the television. When they aren't all checked out.

More Fantasy

Landon, Kristen. The Limit.
Nominated for the Cybils by Enna Isilie

Matt's family has a good life. His father is a high powered wheeler and dealer who golfs a lot; his mother likes to shop. Matt and his two sisters don't want for anything. He's a little worried when there are rumors of a girl being taken by the government and sent to a workhouse when her family goes over its spending limit, but that couldn't happen to him, right?

Wrong. All it takes is one shopping trip, and the government officials come for Matt. They take him away to the Federal Debt Rehabilitation Workhouse, but since he's a bright kid, he gets put on the top floor, where he and several other children work on computers to earn money for the government. They are minimally supervised and seem to have unlimited credit to buy food, toys, etc. Life is good, until Matt's sister also ends up in the workhouse, and she and many of the other children are getting headaches. Will his family ever get out of debt? What is the government up to that is unsavory?

Strengths: This was a great premise with a strong start. It's a teen fantasy, really, and Matt revels in his life in the workhouse even after he realizes he's digging his family's debt deeper. There is some action at the end.

Weaknesses: This could have been even better-- we spend a little too much time luxuriating with Matt, and the government plot isn't as evil or all pervasive as I would have liked. The anti-consumeristic message loses its way a bit.

San Souci, Robert. Haunted Houses: Are You Scared Yet?
Nominated for the Cybils by Gladys

This collection of ten short, scary stories is fairly diverse; there's a haunted dollhouse, a story set in Mexico, a legend of a Japanese woman haunting a tea house. There are some ghosts, kids with a Ouija board and a haunted mansion. Nice illustrations, nice theme, probably will circulate well, and yet, I didn't find the book all that scary. I have all of San Souci's other collections (Dare to be Scared, A Terrifying Taste of Short and Shivery), but nothing really grabbed me about this one. That said, I'll probably buy it, as well as Triple Dare to Be Scared, which I somehow missed.

Interview with Lisa Rowe Fraustino

Today we are visting with Lisa Rowe Fraustino, the author of The Hole in the Wall, which is being released on November 8th. Thanks to her wonderful publicist, Barbara Fisch at Blue Slip Media who had a copy of the e mail I lost, here is the interview in a timely fashion!

Ms. Yingling:The Hole in the Wall has a very strong environmental component. Is the strip mining based on something you have lived through? If not, what drove your interest in this issue?

Dr. Fraustino: Happily, I’ve never lived as close to strip mining as my characters in The Hole in the Wall had to, except in my overactive imagination when I was writing the book. But I lived in northeastern Pennsylvania for many years, where a history of underground coal mining had left its toll on the land.

In the news we often heard stories of big holes opening up in people’s backyards due to mine subsidence, sometimes even swallowing up vehicles and houses. An underground fire smoldered for years under a nearby town, impossible to put out. And plenty of older people in the area who had worked in the mines as children were now suffering physical ailments like Black Lung Disease.

So it was always in the back of my mind that mining could lead to unintended harmful consequences long after the mined material was all used up, and the people who had profited most from the industry weren’t the ones who suffered through the damage.

Then I found out that more and more companies were using “mountain top removal” strip mining methods because machinery made the job easier and required fewer workers. By tearing the topsoil off and getting the coal out that way, companies could make more money, keep the costs of coal lower for customers, and even lower the health risks for workers—but with a terribly high cost to the environment and the neighborhood.

In The Hole in the Wall, Odum Research Corporation isn’t mining coal, but something unknown that causes strange things to happen in Kokadjo. And Sebby, the narrator, is stuck right in the middle of the mystery.


Ms. Yingling: You have written a wide range of fiction, from historical to fantasy. What do you enjoy writing most or feel you write best?

Dr. Fraustino: The variety itself is what I most enjoy. For me, writing the same kind of story all the time would be like having my favorite sushi rolls for lunch every day or singing my favorite karaoke songs every night. They wouldn’t stay favorites very long!

With each new book, I love to take on a new challenge and figure out how to do it. Each genre has its own pleasures and difficulties. With historical fiction, I love doing the research and figuring out how things would have happened for my main character. It’s easier to plot than other forms because the “story” is already right there inside “history.”

Fantasy is the flip side of that. The writer makes things up that never happened, but details still need to feel real and true. That’s harder for me to do. But I worked very hard to bring to life the fantasy elements of The Hole in the Wall and had a great editor helping me.

Ms. Yingling: Several of your short stories have been included in anthologies. Do you write a lot of short stories? Are these harder to get published than novels?

Dr. Fraustino: I love writing short stories and am always excited when the opportunity comes up to submit one to an anthology. Unfortunately, there’s not a big market for them, so I haven’t edited a new anthology or written a new short story in a long time. Some day I’d like to publish a collection of my own short stories.

Ms. Yingling: You are a university professor—how do you keep in touch with what young adults like to read?

Dr. Fraustino: My students are great at helping me with that. Some of them still read young adult literature for pleasure, and they often have brothers and sisters in middle school or younger. I assign students to go find recently published children’s and YA books to share with the class. And I also keep up with what’s going on by reading reviews, visiting bookstores, and sneaking peeks at the covers of books I catch kids reading in public.

Plus, I’m still young inside and write to please the reading addict I was as a kid.

Ms. Yingling: Were you a big reader as a teen? What kind of books did you like?

Dr. Fraustino: As a teen I read everything with words on it, literally (right down to the toothpaste tube in the bathroom…actually, I still do that). During the school year I’d read one book a day, and in the summer I’d read up to three books a day. After I finished the new adult books my relatives always had around, I’d reread my beloved paperback children’s and YA books like Mr. Popper’s Penguins and Queeny Peavy. But my favorites were the sweeping sagas by James Michener, biographical novels by Irving Stone, and any historical fiction or biography of queens.

Ms. Yingling: Should we be looking for any more of your work in the near future?

Dr. Fraustino: I sure hope so! But I can’t say for sure what it will be. Sebby’s readers will have to let me know what they think of this book.

Sit in on a session of Dr. Lisa’s Class! Visit Lisa’s web page at http://lisarowefraustino.com/?page_id=276 to read “Place & Plot.” Other class sessions can be found at http://lisarowefraustino.com/?page_id=249.

A Hole in the Wall!

Fraustino, Lisa Rowe. The Hole in the Wall.
Published November 8, 2010. ARC received from Blue Slip Media.

Sebastian lives a difficult life in the hills of Pennsylvania. His father drinks too much, his mother worries, and everyone smokes. The house they live in was not in good shape, but now that the Odum company is strip mining, the foundation is settling more, the water is of suspect quality, and even the coats in their closet mildew. Jed, Sebastian's brother, ran away because he couldn't deal with things anymore. Sebby tries his best to look on the bright side, but he's having trouble in school, wearing out his shoes, and to top it all off, the family chickens, who provide the money for the rare moments of fun in the family, are laying rock hard eggs.

This is where things start to get strange. When Sebby's mother makes cookies out of the eggs, they turn rock hard, too, and eating the raw cookie dough does horrible things to Sebby's stomach. When Sebby and his sister Barbie try to find out what is causing all of these problems, they get drawn into a cover-up of a pending environmental disaster engineered by the owner of the Odum company. In the end, the children save the day, and begin to restore their community, as well as their family.

This book will be popular with students who like problem novels, and the environmental message is strong. There is a fair amount of action toward the end. It was an interesting book, and I will look for more books by this author.

Here is a link to a You Tube Video that one of Dr. Fraustino's students created:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBhA4_z3U-Y

Dr. Fraustino has also graciously included me on her blog tour, and I have brilliantly LOST her interview answers! I am going to blame the children for this one, since I know I had them saved on the computer at home.

There's a great guest post from this author over at
Outrageously Wonderful Literature From the Middle Grades

as well as a nice review over at A Journey of a Bookseller and Bookworming in the 21st Century, both of whom are WAY more organized than yours truly! Watch this space for more on this new book coming out in a few days!

Celia's Robot

Chang, Margaret. Celia's Robot.
Nominated for the Cybils by Doret

Celia's dad is a computer scientist, and her mother tours with a classical music group. When she is out of town, Celia's world devolves into chaos because she doesn't get up in time, keep her room clean, or do her homework, especially since the family housekeeper has quit. To remedy this, her father designs a robot babysitter for her. It not only wakes her up, but has sorting skills that help her clean her room. Since it's more fun to work with a robot than to fight with her mother, Celia's world calms down. However, there are evil scientists after her father's robot, and with the help of a neighbor boy whom she has previously found obnoxious, Celia uses her smarts and skills to outwit him and save the day.

Strengths: Supportive, multicultural family (father is Chinese-American and mother is of European descent), interesting robot descriptions, some mystery.

Weaknesses: Bad cover. Celia is ten, but this makes the book look very young and it's not. Also, the voice feels inauthentic and a bit didactic. This is something I don't usually notice, but Celia sounded more like a stressed 35 year old mother than a ten year old, and the books that she is reading are an odd assortment (The Long Winter and The Two Towers?) Students might not notice this, but it distracted me.