Well! The notable books discussions for YA and Children are all over, so I'm onto reading ADULT LITERATURE! And how! Not only is the language archaic, but my, my, my Moll Flandersis a racy read! I'm reading it for Knit the Classics, and am enjoying it so far, but I must admit that it reads a bit like some lady just prattling at you, and sometimes, I tune her out and then later realize that I have no idea what happened in the previous 5 pages and need to go back. Oh well.
But, here is the last of the kiddie books I read:
Saffy's Angel
Indigo's Star
Permanent Rose
All by Hilary McKay, these are the stories of the Casson family, an eccentric bunch of kids with an artist mum (who paints and sleeps and "escapes from life" in the garden shed) and a REAL ARTIST father, who escapes from family life and obligations into his posh London studio and apartment. There are 4 kids: Caddy, Saffron (Saffy), Indigo, and Rose, all named for the colors on a paint chart... except for Saffy (Who, as we find out early in the first book, it turns out, is not really a sibling, but rather an orphaned cousin). They have crazy mad adventures and a good sense of family and togetherness, but the amount they're allowed to get away with (Rose paints large murals on all the walls, for instance) and the frank discussion on adultry, divorce, and hedges around sex (like when they try and find out who Saffy's father is) might make some parents a bit squemy, unfortunately. They do have a very British sensibility. I love love love love these books and am anxiously awaiting the release of Caddy Ever After which Amazon is slating for a June 6 release. CAN NOT WAIT!!!!
The Scarecrow and His Servant Philp Pullman
Yeah... I really didn't like this one. I mean, it was well-written, but I just didn't get into the story. If I were a kid, I would have LOVED this book, but it didn't hold the same appeal as a grown-up (not that I'm one of those either, but you know...) I will fully disclose that all the other librarians at the table loved it and thought it was a fantastic original fairy tale. I was just "meh". Basically, a scarecrow gets hit by lightening and comes to life and wants to go home again and enlists a young boy as his servant and they meet brigands, actors, soldiers, and lots of birds. A mad adventure that I just didn't get into.
Son of the Mob : Hollywood Hustle Gordan Korman
Well, you know how much I loved Son of the Mob and this is the sequel. Vince has gone all the way to California for college to escape the um, vending machine business and of course, it follows him out to the coast. Nothing more spectacular than the first, but if you liked the first one, this one's fun!!!!
Amazing Grace Megan Shull
This is just a fun, sweet, teen chick lit novel. Grace Kinkaid is a young tennis superstar who decides that she's had enough and drops out of the game and her multi-million dollar endorsements to go live with her "aunt" on a small island in Alaska, where she learns how to be a normal kid. Well done and not too deep, I really liked this one.
Also, I just went ahead and ordered Bhangra Babes (I know you were on the edge of your seat, waiting for that one!). I also got ordered Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers in the new paperback version, mainly because I realized that if my books don't match, then I can make them really not match and just get the hardcover of Startled by His Furry Shorts which comes out next week and I'm all excited. I also see that they're rereleasing all the paperbacks with the new covers. Part of my really really wants to replace the copies I have with the new ones, and then they'll all match, but even I'm not going to actually do it, because that's money that could be spent on NEW books, but hey. If I had that type of money to throw around... but I don't, so whatever.
Also, I'm really enjoying the new Nancy Drewgraphic novels. They're not good at all, but I really like them. I also checked out old school Nancy Drewbecause I've never read any and just want to see how it compares.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Oh! The Decisions!
I really need to do some more reviews. I've read some absolutely lovely and wonderful things in the past week.
BUT! I'm lazy at the moment and want to talk about something else.
So, I absolutely loved Narinder Dhami's Bindi Babesand Bollywood Babes. I checked them both out from the library. Now, on TUESDAY there is a new one coming out--Bhangra Babes. Now, it will take a few months before the library gets this on the shelf, I'm sure. (I mean, the Lauren Child books are much more popular and circ a heck of a lot more, and But Excuse Me That is My Book [which came out on JANURARY 19th] is just now in processing). So... I don't want to wait 3 months for Bhangra Babes. Do I just buy it then? If I buy it, do I have to buy the other two? Do I want to own all three? What's the point of owning the third if I don't have the other two?
Do I need to just NOT worry about this? Probably. Will I stop? Probably not.
BUT! I'm lazy at the moment and want to talk about something else.
So, I absolutely loved Narinder Dhami's Bindi Babesand Bollywood Babes. I checked them both out from the library. Now, on TUESDAY there is a new one coming out--Bhangra Babes. Now, it will take a few months before the library gets this on the shelf, I'm sure. (I mean, the Lauren Child books are much more popular and circ a heck of a lot more, and But Excuse Me That is My Book [which came out on JANURARY 19th] is just now in processing). So... I don't want to wait 3 months for Bhangra Babes. Do I just buy it then? If I buy it, do I have to buy the other two? Do I want to own all three? What's the point of owning the third if I don't have the other two?
Do I need to just NOT worry about this? Probably. Will I stop? Probably not.
Monday, April 03, 2006
And more bannings...
When Jeff Comes Home by Catherine Atkins is restricted in Irving, TX middle schools--students must have written permission to check it out.
Three Wishes : Palestinian and Israeli Children Speakby Deborah Ellis has been removed from the curriculum in an advanced reading program in York, Ontario, Canada.
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is challenged in Marion County, FL
It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girlby Charleen Touchette has been unsuccessfully challenged in the Woonsocket, RI public library.
The King Never Smiles : A Biography of Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadejby Paul M. Handley isn't even out yet, but the country of Thailand has pre-emptively banned all imports AND is blocking access to the Yale University Press website.
The Lovely Bones: A Novelby Alice Sebold has been unsuccessfully challenged in Malibu, CA. I might have mentioned that before, but I can't remember...
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Yes, I'm Anal. Shut Up.
Ok... so... I think we've had this conversation before, where I need all my books to "match" on my shelf. This is the reason that I'm retroactively buying the early Harry Potters, I want all mine to be hardcover.
This is why I waited so long to get Something Rotten, I needed all my Thursday Next's to be paperback.
This is also an issue with the secret love of my life, Georgia Nicolson Every spring, a new book comes out AND at the same time the new comes out, they release the old one in paperback. So I'm a bit behind. But I broke down and checked Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers from the library, fully intending on buying it when it came out in paperback, which happens on April 25. Except... except...
Look at the previous Georgia Books.
Look at the hardcover Boy Entrancers.
Look at the paperback!!!
And look at the new one!!!
This is why I waited so long to get Something Rotten, I needed all my Thursday Next's to be paperback.
This is also an issue with the secret love of my life, Georgia Nicolson Every spring, a new book comes out AND at the same time the new comes out, they release the old one in paperback. So I'm a bit behind. But I broke down and checked Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers from the library, fully intending on buying it when it came out in paperback, which happens on April 25. Except... except...
Look at the previous Georgia Books.
Look at the hardcover Boy Entrancers.
Look at the paperback!!!
And look at the new one!!!
What's a girl to do?!
And even more stuff...
I swear, when the children's notable book discussion is done on Wednesday, I'm reading the fattest, most complicated, most adult-type novel I can find. I love children's lit. I love YA lit, but man. That's all I've read for the past month and a half! War and Peace here I come! I think. The problem is, in my library, all classics are classified as YA anyway. Gah. I don't know. Ideas?
Anyway... more stuff I've read recently (and this is all in the week. Gah. I've been busy reading. I want to be busy knitting. le sigh
A Dance of Sisters Tracy Porter
Y'all know I love ballet books. This is a young YA/old children's book. A good bridge book between the two age classifications... and I liked most of it. Porter knows her ballet. She knows her crazy Russian ballet teachers. She knows the struggle of it. Delia is the younger sister in a messed-up family (Dead mother, distant father, rebellious witch-craft practicing older sister) and a promising young ballet dancer. This is the story about the relationship between the sisters, which was nice, but not as well done as Delia's struggle with ballet. Overall I liked it... kinda. The ending seemed really quick. To the point where I think Porter must have gone: "Holy crap! this is already 200 pages long! Must end now!" My other caveats are here. Where I totally give away the ending.
Godless Pete Hautman
Basically, one boring summer, Jason wonders what if the water tower were God? And so he starts a church worshipping the water tower and it's fun and then gets totally out of hand. His friend Shin takes it way too far (and is a true believer?). The local bully tries to subvert it to make them go along with his reckless ways and in the end, it all blows up in Jason's face. As you know it must. Well written and award winning, I loved this book excpet for this one thing. It asks tough questions about the church and organized religion, but never really questions whether or not there is a god, but just what his/her form is and the proper way to worship.
Who Am I Without Him? : Short Stories About Girls and the Boys in Their LivesSharon Flake
Despite the title, this is actually a good book for boys and girls. A collection of short stories about teenage looooooove and relationships, it's a fast read and some of the girls are really really really stupid over their boys in ways that only 15 year olds can be. I will say that this is about mainly urban, black teens (but a range of classes) and it didn't speak to me much as someone who grew up white in a small city. Parts of teenage stupid loooooooove are the same the world over though and those parts really got me thinking about how stupid we used to be.
Body Bags: A Body of Evidence Thriller #1Christopher Golden
This is a forensic thriller. Pulpy. Not great literature. I couldn't put it down. I may or may not go on and read some of the other titles in the series. I'm not sure yet. Basically, freshman in college Jenna Blake gets a job as a pathology assistant in the morgue. People are dying from some weird disease that turns their brains into mush, and makes them go on murderous rampages before dropping dead, including her advisor on the first day of class. Conspiracies that only Jenna can see and figure out ensure. My main problem with the book is that it got some details really really wrong. These are small details. For instnace, at one point Jenna puts on a "baby doll tee with spaghetti straps". Um, baby doll tees don't come with spagetti straps. That's a tank top, not a baby doll. Not a big deal, but if he can't get a t-shirt right, I wonder about the science. That and she has dial-up in her dorm. No one in the late 90s had dial up in the dorms. T1 baby! Woo!
When We Were SaintsHan Nolan
This is a beautifully written and moving novel. Archie lives in the country on a farm in rural Appalachia, is home schooled, and never gotten along well with his bible-thumping grandfather and is a bit taken aback when his grandfather's last words are "you are a saint". Is it prophecy? Or a curse? Enter Claire, who has visions on the Virgin Mary and a plan for them to become saints. Powerful stuff that questions the true believers, the estatics, and what it means to be a saint. Could be good teaching stuff if paired with the writings of St Clare and St Francis of Assisi. Could also be seen as really offensive and sacriligeous by the more sensitive.
The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch Joseph Delaney
This is the first book in a promising new children's series. Tom is the seventh son of a seventh son and is apprenticed to the Spook, a lonely job of protecting people from super natural trouble. So Tom begins learning about Boggarts and Witches, Ghasts and Ghosts and how to bind them and talk to them and whether they are good or bad... spooky, kinda scary, well-written and just plain good, I look forward to the next installments!
The Old African Julius Lester, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
A beautiful, subtle, moving, and magical tale about slavery and the strength of the human spirit and collective memory. And the pictures by Pinkney make this a book to be savored and poured over time and again.
Maritcha : A Nineteenth-Century American GirlTonya Bolden.
God, this book sucked. There's no way around it. Maritcha is a middle-class free-born black girl in Manhatten that was born in 1848. Although she did eventually sue Rhode Island for the right to attend public school, she was not overly remarkable and this could have just been a nice book that looks into a segment of America in history that we don't really ever see or talk about. But! It is poorly written. It reads like Bolden doesn't know how to write for children (which is weird, because she does) and so just dumped down the story. Take the case of the New York draft riots in 1863:
A march on the draft office followed the rally and before long--mayhem! Telegraph poles--hacked down! Rail tracks--yanked up! Wooden fences--ripped apart!
Instead of fully coneying the destruction and horror, it sounds almost silly and does a great injustice to the reader. That and the font is really hard to read. More than once I read 1863 and 1868.
Anyway... more stuff I've read recently (and this is all in the week. Gah. I've been busy reading. I want to be busy knitting. le sigh
A Dance of Sisters Tracy Porter
Y'all know I love ballet books. This is a young YA/old children's book. A good bridge book between the two age classifications... and I liked most of it. Porter knows her ballet. She knows her crazy Russian ballet teachers. She knows the struggle of it. Delia is the younger sister in a messed-up family (Dead mother, distant father, rebellious witch-craft practicing older sister) and a promising young ballet dancer. This is the story about the relationship between the sisters, which was nice, but not as well done as Delia's struggle with ballet. Overall I liked it... kinda. The ending seemed really quick. To the point where I think Porter must have gone: "Holy crap! this is already 200 pages long! Must end now!" My other caveats are here. Where I totally give away the ending.
Godless Pete Hautman
Basically, one boring summer, Jason wonders what if the water tower were God? And so he starts a church worshipping the water tower and it's fun and then gets totally out of hand. His friend Shin takes it way too far (and is a true believer?). The local bully tries to subvert it to make them go along with his reckless ways and in the end, it all blows up in Jason's face. As you know it must. Well written and award winning, I loved this book excpet for this one thing. It asks tough questions about the church and organized religion, but never really questions whether or not there is a god, but just what his/her form is and the proper way to worship.
Who Am I Without Him? : Short Stories About Girls and the Boys in Their LivesSharon Flake
Despite the title, this is actually a good book for boys and girls. A collection of short stories about teenage looooooove and relationships, it's a fast read and some of the girls are really really really stupid over their boys in ways that only 15 year olds can be. I will say that this is about mainly urban, black teens (but a range of classes) and it didn't speak to me much as someone who grew up white in a small city. Parts of teenage stupid loooooooove are the same the world over though and those parts really got me thinking about how stupid we used to be.
Body Bags: A Body of Evidence Thriller #1Christopher Golden
This is a forensic thriller. Pulpy. Not great literature. I couldn't put it down. I may or may not go on and read some of the other titles in the series. I'm not sure yet. Basically, freshman in college Jenna Blake gets a job as a pathology assistant in the morgue. People are dying from some weird disease that turns their brains into mush, and makes them go on murderous rampages before dropping dead, including her advisor on the first day of class. Conspiracies that only Jenna can see and figure out ensure. My main problem with the book is that it got some details really really wrong. These are small details. For instnace, at one point Jenna puts on a "baby doll tee with spaghetti straps". Um, baby doll tees don't come with spagetti straps. That's a tank top, not a baby doll. Not a big deal, but if he can't get a t-shirt right, I wonder about the science. That and she has dial-up in her dorm. No one in the late 90s had dial up in the dorms. T1 baby! Woo!
When We Were SaintsHan Nolan
This is a beautifully written and moving novel. Archie lives in the country on a farm in rural Appalachia, is home schooled, and never gotten along well with his bible-thumping grandfather and is a bit taken aback when his grandfather's last words are "you are a saint". Is it prophecy? Or a curse? Enter Claire, who has visions on the Virgin Mary and a plan for them to become saints. Powerful stuff that questions the true believers, the estatics, and what it means to be a saint. Could be good teaching stuff if paired with the writings of St Clare and St Francis of Assisi. Could also be seen as really offensive and sacriligeous by the more sensitive.
The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch Joseph Delaney
This is the first book in a promising new children's series. Tom is the seventh son of a seventh son and is apprenticed to the Spook, a lonely job of protecting people from super natural trouble. So Tom begins learning about Boggarts and Witches, Ghasts and Ghosts and how to bind them and talk to them and whether they are good or bad... spooky, kinda scary, well-written and just plain good, I look forward to the next installments!
The Old African Julius Lester, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
A beautiful, subtle, moving, and magical tale about slavery and the strength of the human spirit and collective memory. And the pictures by Pinkney make this a book to be savored and poured over time and again.
Maritcha : A Nineteenth-Century American GirlTonya Bolden.
God, this book sucked. There's no way around it. Maritcha is a middle-class free-born black girl in Manhatten that was born in 1848. Although she did eventually sue Rhode Island for the right to attend public school, she was not overly remarkable and this could have just been a nice book that looks into a segment of America in history that we don't really ever see or talk about. But! It is poorly written. It reads like Bolden doesn't know how to write for children (which is weird, because she does) and so just dumped down the story. Take the case of the New York draft riots in 1863:
A march on the draft office followed the rally and before long--mayhem! Telegraph poles--hacked down! Rail tracks--yanked up! Wooden fences--ripped apart!
Instead of fully coneying the destruction and horror, it sounds almost silly and does a great injustice to the reader. That and the font is really hard to read. More than once I read 1863 and 1868.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)