Michael Simmons

My PermaBound rep gave me a copy of Simmon's Vandal. I liked Pool Boy (13 Mar 2006) a lot, and Vandal was not a disappointment. Boy who sings in a KISS tribute band (and is appropriately arch about it) is terrorized by his older brother, who can't make a good decision to save his soul. Interesting depiction of how the family deals with this, and the ensuing tragedy. The end let me down a little because it didn't wrap anything up, but then, that's realism! Do recommend. Will look for other titles by this author.

Kathryn Reiss, etc.

Pale Phoenix (1994) was a good time travel/mystery/suspense book. It hasn't gone out a whole lot, but I think I can recommend it. It is also a nice, small size which makes it fun. I think I have a copy at home of Time Windows, also by this author, but not at school.

Also read Robert Kimmel Smith's Squeaky Wheel, and liked that. Fairly light story of boy struggling with the aftermath of his parents' divorce. Really liked this author's Jelly Belly.

Ann Rinaldi's Girl in Blue was a bit of a twist on the girl-disguising-herself-as-boy-to-go-to-war story; she gets found out three months in but then becomes a spy for Allan Pinkerton. That was great fun. Hard to go wrong with Ann Rinaldi. I've liked everything of hers that I've read, with the possible exception of The Coffin Quilt.

Rostkowski's The Best of Friends I will keep, since it is an interesting depiction of life during the Vietnam Conflict, but Peyton's Prove Yourself a Hero and Rodowsky's Sydney, Herself have to go. Not only were they boring, but they have stupid cover art. I'll try to get them out today, but I have my doubts. Nah. I would feel bad foisting them on students. That's a sure sign that it's time for something to be retired!

Sic transit Beany Malone

It snowed on Sunday, and I felt like hibernating. Instead, I hauled a stack of Lenora Mattingly Weber's Beany Malone books out and started reading. I don't know why these books still appeal to me so much. Written starting in 1943, they capture everyday family life in that era. The last one was published in the late 60s, and reading them all in quick succession can give one the bends (wait-- weren't we just in WWII?), but they are wonderful. Life isn't easy for Beany, but I always loved the way she perservered. I like the Katie Rose books as well; depending on how long the cold that settled in my head lasts, I may read those too.

The great philosophical debate is whether or not to let my 13 year old daughter read them. Lura Green has a great essay on this type of books, and includes the line "the nostalgia I felt for Jane's movie-and-a-coke dates was so intense it was as if they were something not that I had read about once, but that I had actually experienced and lost. " That pretty much describes what reading these books does to me.

What would they do to my daughter? Hmmm.

Bridge to Terebithia

So the question is: How did a book (1987) that has been used for years to help children come to terms with unexpected death suddenly become a fantasy where the children " battle the Dark Master for the salvation of the magical land they call Terabithia"?
http://movies.aol.com/movie/bridge-to-terabithia/25017/main

I had to reread this book after seeing a trailor for this version, because it seemed to bear no relationship to the book I remembered. Luckily, I have plenty of copies here in the library. I think some fantasy fans who grab it will be confused and disappointed; the book is concerned more with the running abilities and impoverished background of the main character, and with the death of his friend at the end. Hmmm.

Makes me wonder what they will do with Annette Curtis Klause's Blood and Chocolate (1997), which has been much advertised, although there was enough blood, gore, and nudity in the book to make a Hollywood film without much problem.

Ann Rinaldi

If you have to pick up a historical fiction book, you can't go too far wrong with this author. I read Sarah's Ground last night, which was a very fascinating story about the real girl who was in charge of George Washington's house at Mount Vernon during the Civil War. And interesting mix of historical eras, with a little romance thrown in as well.

Other titles that I particularly liked-- Wolf by the Ears, about the purported children of Thomas Jefferson with one of his slaves, and Or Give Me Death, about the wife of Patrick Henry, who was mentally disturbed. The Quilt Trilogy is also worth picking up. Second Bend in the River, about a very young girl in early 1800s Ohio who has a crush on the much older Indian chief Tecumseh, was odd but good as well.

Usually these books cover the period from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War.

Maureen Johnson

Loved 13 Little Blue Envelopes. Bought my own copy. Have three here at the library; they are never on the shelf.

However, I haven't liked Johnson's other books. Very disappointed. The Key to the Golden Firebird, although I liked the cover art, started in with ... don't even remember, so it didn't pull me right in, and then articles of clothing started being removed and undergarments were mentioned by name, so I stopped reading. I'm sure this will increase the circulation of this book at the public library, but I'm not buying a copy.

The Bermudez Triangle started out pretty well-- teens with summer jobs and at camp-- but when the main character got back from camp and found out that her two BFF's were, um, dating, I decided that I would pass on this title as well. I don't ever have students who come in and ask for books with those circumstances.

Devilish I will buy, even though it wasn't as good as Envelopes. Girl as private school finds out that her somewhat geeky best friend has sold her soul to a demon in exchange for a somewhat better life. Girl offers her soul instead; complications ensue. I am thinking that a sequel is in the offing. Demons always sell well, and it is certainly much less gory than Darren Shan's Lord Loss.

If you want to find out more about this author, whose good book is so wonderful that you must read it, check out her website at
http://www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com

I will read Girl at Sea when I can find it!

Why new books are better than old books

First, I don't really believe this on a personal level. I collect teen fiction from the 1950s, but it's hard to get students to check out old books. I have a shelf that I set books on for students to grab quickly, and All Alone in the Universe by Lynne Rae Perkins has been sitting there for two weeks. It's not that old (1999), but there's something about it that the students don't like.

Then there's the book I read last night, David and Max by Provost. Cheesy cartoony cover art. (There is a whole day that could be spent on why Richard Cuffari's illustrations doom a book, although I personally like them.) Previous slight water damage that made the book crinkle alarmingly when I opened it. Nearly twenty years, 9 times out of the library. Could spend the whole day recommending this book, and it would still sit here. The story is perfectly good. I enjoyed it. But nothing really happened. Boy's grandfather, who lived through the Holocaust, thinks he finds a friend with whom he grew up but who was thought to have perished.

It makes me sad. Are my students just spoiled? How many books from the 1950s did I read when I was in middle school? None. Well, other than Beany Malone. And I was a huge L.M. Montgomery and Alcott fan. But I read Paula Danziger and Richard Peck and authors that were fairly new at the time. That is the way the world works, I guess. I am not an archive. I fear that if these two books aren't going to circulate here, they are going to have to be on their way to different homes where they might be more appreciated. **Sigh**

Cathy Cassidy, my new favorite author!

Adored Dizzy. Had to buy a second copy, the first one is out so much. Read Indigo Blue (10/20/2006) from the public library, and liked it so much that I ordered Scarlett sight unseen, which I try not to do. I was not disappointed. Not only did it have a pretty, shiny cover, but it was a great story about blended families, teenagers who are creating their own rough times and not quite able to stop doing it, AND an "exotic local" (Irish countryside). I don't think any of these books ever get shelved-- they go out when I am still waiting to check them back in.

I wrote to Ms. Cassidy, sending her a filled-up circulation card, and she was wonderfully kind and sent me a copy of Driftwood, which isn't available in the US! I will be sending it to the rebindery for a nice hard cover, because it was an excellent story about, well, about a lot of things. The foster child's difficulties in adjustment and being bullied at school are quite timely, the romances are intriguing, and the whole book just made me sigh. I have a line of 8th grade girls who are demanding they be lent the book before they move on to high school.

The only problem I have with these books is that, like Julie Edwards' Mandy, they seem to have an indefinable quality that makes them appealing. I love them, but find it hard to express just why. Luckily, most of my students will accept this, and check the book out. There's just no brief "hook" I can use to describe them, which, considering I get children to check out Paul Zindel's Reef of Death by telling them I stopped reading it after the man's legs were bitten off and I couldn't stand it anymore, might not be a bad thing!

The natives are restless. Must go check out books. This is the other reason I have not been able to muster coherent thought to post.

Teenreads.com ROCKS!!!

I use Teenerads.com rather extensively for reading reviews, and one early morning I entered a contest (had to pick five books you would give as gifts or somesuch), and I WON one of the five gift baskets (randomly picked, not because of my exquisiste prose!). It has hot cocoa mix, socks, candy, a gingerbread house kit (why do people even try to eat those? Bleargh.), a candle, etc. and ten BOOKS! I got to read Pretty Little Liars, which was intriguing but not appropriate for middle school, Hattie Big Sky, which was a great historical/survival novel, and Lenhard's second Chicks with Sticks, which I liked even better than the first one. I figure that since actual teenagers will be reading the books and benefitting from them, it's not really cheating that I won. It just said you had to be over 13, and I'm certainly way over 13!

Fablehaven

A student (who also loaned me Leven Thumps, which I could NOT get through) loaned me Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. I was a little apprehensive, but it sucked me right in. Didn't help that it bore some resemblance to my aborted fantasy novel that no one would want to read (the world really does not need any more YA fantasy novels, unless they involve football playing werewolves, but I've said that before), but I did enjoy it. I wanted to smack the main character who insisted on going into the woods when his grandfather TOLD him bad things would happen, but the plot wouldn't have gone forward quite as nicely.

If I'm finding small things to nit pick about, I must have liked it. The web site (fablehaven.com) is cool, but not complete yet.

Melody Carlson

The 7th grade girls Looooooove problem novels. They especially want drugs! Abuse! Makes for much cheery reading. However, most books of this sort are more than disturbing, which is why I went ahead and ordered several of the "Color Me" series by Melody Carlson without reading them. She is a Christian author, which can get really annoying. Color Me Silver was not too bad, but Faded Denim sent the quasi-anorexic main character to a church camp and it got preachy and boring. Haven't worked my way through the other ones, though. On the plus side, she lists resources for help at the back, and there are no objectionable scenes-- well, no gratuitous nudity or swearing.

Speaking of just plain gratuitous, I finished Peyton's Darkling last night, which was a prefectly serviceable story about a girl from an impoverished family who gets a horse and manages to race it, and buried deep in the middle she has a semigraphic fling with the neighbor boy! Not bad enough to remove, but rather a shock.

Pierce and Pfeffer

Read The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce and it was not as bad as I thought. The girls who are liking Meyers' Twilight and can handle higher fantasy will enjoy this. A slave girl whose mistress is stolen by an almost-vampire is also kidnapped and forced to serve his wives and gargoyles. Inexplicably, she falls in love with him and attempts to save him after saving his wives. The author was 23 when she wrote this, which explained, for me, the slight oddity of the prose. Not my cup of tea, but fairly well done, and the students will like it. Working on the sequel-- A Gathering of Gargoyles.

Also read Kid Power, by Susan Beth Pfeffer, which I enjoyed. Light, realistic fiction about a girl who wants to earn money to by a bicycle and sets up an odd jobs business to do so. Even though this was written in 1977, I think it translates well. I'm dusting it off and pushing it!

Rick Riordan is a Demi-god!

Finally, a copy of The Sea of Monsters was returned and there were no students who had it on reserve. I had it in my briefcase to take home and read, but I happened to talk to a student at lunch who had not known there was a sequel. He was right in the middle of McNab's Traitor, but he was practically jumping up and down with excitement, right there in the cafeteria, to find out there was a book after The Lightning Thief. (And remember, this is an 8th grade boy!)Made me promise to bring in SoM today, so I finished it at 5:00 a.m.

I didn't mind. THAT'S how good it is.

How can you not lot a book with chapter headings like "We Hail the Taxi of Eternal Torment"? From a pedagogical perspective, I love that Riordan weaves in so much Greek mythology; from a librarian's perspective, I'm glad that he makes the books fun so they check out quickly; from my own personal perspective as a former Latin teacher, I just enjoyed the books. 

Sooooo excited to hear there is a third, The Titan's Curse, coming out in May. (Check it out at http://www.rickriordan.com/children.htm)

And no, I haven't read anything else. We have a Japanese teacher staying with us for three weeks, so it's been a bit hectic and I'm a bit behind.

More Paulsen

The Cookcamp was an easy read-- a lot of people eating pie. A whole lot. Not a lot of a plot, but it has a whopping 6 AR points, so I'm sure boys will read it.

Call Me Francis Tucket was great! I haven't read the first in the series, but this could stand alone. Lots of adventure, eating raw meat-- I've recommended these even though I hadn't read them, and I think they are quite serviceable.

Nancy Werlin's Black Mirror I picked up again because her other titles are so popular, but it still didn't do anything for me. This is why I don't buy things just because I like the author. Another case in point-- Meg Cabot's Ready or Not.

Jean Ferris' Of Sound Mind was a good problem novel that handled the problems of deaf culture very deftly. Not something the children will ask for, but it was so good, and they do get assigned problem novels.

Monster-Blood Tattoo

Wow. Cornish needs to get out more. There are over 100 pages of accompanying maps, glossaries and diagrams with this book. It seemed good in theory-- monster killing being always popular-- but the boys looking for a quick read are not going to find it in this. I am checking with my hard core fans to see what they think, but I couldn't slog through it. Had to use the glossary too much.

Looking for gangs and abuse...

Well, not me personally, but for books involving these, but books that are still appropriate. Susan Shaw's Black-eyed Susan was very good and I will be ordering two copies. A young girl falls into mental illness to escape her mother's cruelty, snapping out of it only when her sister becomes the target in her absence. The author also did The Boy from the Basement, which is popular.

Martinez's The Parrot in the Oven did not have enough gang action, which is why I was reading it. Will pass.

Liked Joseph Bruchac's Jim Thorpe: Original All-American. A biography done in the first person was a little odd, but very effective. I already have one student waiting for it!

Fitch's Kicks seemed dated and while it dealt with drug abuse, just had too many inappropriate things in it, like Plum-Ucci's The Night My Sister Disappeared, which used the f-word five times. Really. A good mystery, but that and the pregnancy perhaps caused by incest were just too much.

Woodson's Lena just seemed insubstantial. It is also a sequel to a title I don't have.

Scary and Funny

Two titles: Dean Vincent Carter's Hand of the Devil and Laurie Gwen Shapiro's Brand X: The Boyfriend Account.

The first was about a giant killer mosquito and its psychopathic handler who lures a reporter to a remote island. There's some blood and gore (the mosquito is toxic and dissolves is victims), lots of creeping about and stalking of prey, but it was also fairly clever. Wove in a Vietnamese folktale to excuse the mosquito's (aka the Devil's Hand) killer ways. Creepy. I think I'll buy it. The cover and title alone will insure circulation.

Also liked the second, a more intellectual pink book. Girl gets internship with ad agency, has some academic and business success (although not to an unrealistic degree), but is also concerned with her crush on a boy. Her cohorts at the ad agency help her "brand" herself to catch the guy. A little predictable (he turns out to be a jerk), but realistic. Fun.

See? I don't hate everything.

Scholastic Book Fair

Zipped my way through several titles in the book fair:
McCaughrean, Geraldine. Peter Pan in Scarlet. Quite good. A worthy sequel to the original-- stays true in tone and language, and is fun in its own right. A winner. I'm looking forward to her Odysseus, Theseus, etc.

Friend, Natasha. Lush. Loved Perfect, hated this one. Just didn't go anywhere. The girls love books about substance abuse, but somehow this one just didn't do it.

Levine, Gail Carson. Fairest. Again, loved Ella Enchanted, adored The Two Princesses of Bamarre. This story, however, started weakly and continued this way, AND had these odd, annoying, made up words and names that were like a phonograph record needle scratching across the record, and the book was not good enough to overcome even this slight flaw.

DuPrau's Car Trouble was great fun and exactly what I wanted for one of my students-- a "pink" fluffy book for boys. Why there isn't more humorous fiction for boys, I don't know.

Must have read other things, but I'm a little tired and don't remember!

Gary Paulsen

Okay, Hatchet was good. The rest of the Brian books I could handle. Mr. Tucket circulates frequently in my library. But The Island? The Monument? Dancing Carl? What in the world was he thinking? No one ever comes up and says to me "May I have a book about social outcasts in small towns who find others who are even more outcast than they are? If it included philosophical musing, all the better!" I may have to move on to another author for a while. I flinch now while just passing the Paulsen shelf.

I think that some of the other titles will be better. They can't be worse.

Assorted books

Not liking anything by Lauren Myracle. Must be the writing, because the books always sound intriguing. The latest, Rhymes with Witches uses the word that does FAR too much, and the first two pages are devoted to graphically described uncomfortable underwear. Combine that with e mails, name dropping, and general shallowness-- no. I like pink, but not this.

Stork's Behind the Eyes was okay, just not what I was looking for. Boy is sent to private school to escape gang violence. Might have bought it until the roomate revealed the stash of porn. Sigh.

Sloan's Tale of Two Summers also wasn't what I wanted-- I wanted a pink book for boys. Something light, fun, breezy, but masculine. Unfortunately, this wasn't it.

And another disappointment-- Vande Velde's The Book of Mordred. A hefty tome, it just couldn't keep my interest, and I'm afraid it would gather dust on the shelves.

The good news is that I did like the two Katharine Paterson books-- Of Nightingales that Weep and The Master Puppeteer. Great for the multicultural unit that is coming up.