Bookami

Creepers by Joanne Dahme

Courtney is unsure about what her life will be like in the 18th century house her parents have just bought in Murmur, Massachusetts, and her skepticism is not all about being the new girl in town.  Ivy covers every inch of the home, and a historic cemetery runs along one side of the property.  Courtney thinks it's all pretty creepy, and it only gets worse when she meets Margaret and Christian Geyer.  The Geyers inform her that her house rests on the foundation of a home that burnt to the ground not long after a spell was placed on it 300 years ago.  The house will continue to be haunted until the original inhabitants are laid to a peaceful rest.  Courtney thinks this is just a local story to scare outsiders, but soon the ivy seems to be following her, and she can't help but wonder if she has a role to play in this mystery.

Oh, what a pretty package this book has.  Green is my favorite color, and I too felt as if the ivy were calling to me.  Then I picked the book up and was so impressed by its weight, the quality of the paper, the way every page is touched with a hint of green.  Sadly, my love affair with this novel began and ended with the packaging.  While the basic story is sound if not slightly predictable, I found Courtney to be just a bit too sweet and agreeable.  It's the summer before her freshman year in high school, and her parents have moved her to a new place where she knows no one.  Wouldn't she have at least one or two smart-ass comments roll off her tongue?   This book also needed another pass with the editor.  While the ivy plays an important role in this ghost story, the constant references to it became tedious.  Additionally, in places the sentence structure is awkward, and there are some grammatical errors.  I know that few books are perfect, but these problems were enough to distract me from the story. So while Creepers has a beguiling appearance, readers should beware that the story does not live up to the package.

Losers by Matthue Roth

So I'm sort of on this kick of teen guy fiction right now.  It's all John Green's fault.  I'm having a hard time waiting for Paper Towns to come out so over the weekend I re-read Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines, which then led me to pick up Hero Type, and now I've just finished Losers.  While not quite as literary as a Green novel or as socially forward thinking as Hero Type, Losers won me over with its almost cool main character and crisp, descriptive phrases.

Jupiter Glazer is fourteen, a Russian immigrant, a high school freshman, almost friendless, and poor.  His accent and crazy name make him a target when all he'd really like to do is walk down the halls of his Philly high school with anonymity.  He is expected to come home each day to work in the elevator parts factory where he also lives with his well-meaning, clueless parents.  Jupiter would love to find a place to hide for the next four years, but then a brief conversation with a waitress gives him an idea.  What if he could lose his accent?  He spends his first high school weekend doing nothing but listening to all sorts of American music.  By Monday his accent is gone, and with the luck of meeting a few key people and being in the right place at the right time, Jupiter finds himself on the fringe of the cool kid crowd, and not totally hated by the rest of the student body within a month of entering North Shore High.

While Losers may not have the most original plot, Roth certainly knows how to turn a phrase and draw in his audience.  Take his description of the diner where he meets the waitress:

"The Country Club was the most revered and upscale of all the dirty, deep-fried, oil-hanging-in-the-air and waitresses-who-call-you-"hon" places you can imagine.  They even had a dress code there.  It ran along the lines of "No Shirt, No Service, " but it was still a dress code."

This paragraph totally had me craving a visit to Waffle House for one of their totally greasy but still fluffy light omelettes and an order of butter drenched grits. I'm not sure an original plot is all that necessary when you can make a reader's mouth water.  As the volumes of YA novels published each year continue to grow, it's going to be less and less about what happens, and more about how you say it, and I think Matthue Roth knows how to say it.

Hero Type by Barry Lyga

Kevin Ross, Kross to his friends, is all over the news these days.  It started when he saved Leah Muldoon, his secret crush of two years, from a serial rapist and murderer. Kross plays it cool by telling everyone he was just in the right place at the right time, but everyone in Brookdale is so proud of him.  Signs all over town rave about his courage.  The mayor has given him both the key to the city and a sweet deal on his first car, complete with two Support Our Troops magnetic ribbons.  And that's when it all falls apart.  Kevin's Dad, a former military man himself, tells Kevin to get rid of the ribbons, but unfortunately a photographer catches Kevin throwing the ribbons away.  Kross is still getting lots of media attention, but this time it's not for being a hero.

If ever there was a literary character that deserved to go postal, it's Kevin Ross.  He truly is the poster child for dysfunctional teens everywhere.  For starters, when he tells people he was in the right place at the right time to save Leah, it's true, but that's because he's basically been stalking her for two years.  And sure, it's his Dad who tells him to get rid of the ribbons, but Kevin is too nervous to ask his father about his own time in the military.  He knows that his father's discharge from the army seems to have made him a bit mental, but he'd rather tip toe around the subject than talk to his Dad about it.  Oh, and Kevin's parents are divorced because of his father's fragile mental state, and now his mother lives thousands of miles away in California with her partner, Rita, and Kevin's younger brother.  Add to all of this that Kevin is kind of short and skinny, has major pizza face, has very few friends, and lives in a basement apartment cluttered with all the junk his Pop picks up along his garbage route, and a rampage would certainly not be out of the question.  With so many issues swirling around Kevin's persona, Kevin could easily become the creepy guy you hope you don't have to sit by on the bus or get stuck with as a lab partner. He could easily become a serial killer himself, but Kevin is smart, funny, and about as all-American as you can get.  Life in Brookdale, Maryland is not easy for Kevin, but each day he gets up, goes to school, faces his opponents, and along the way learns to accept a little help from a few friends.  I'd say that's pretty heroic, wouldn't you?

Looking for another novel not afraid to tackle some sociological issues?  Might I suggest The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart.

Identical by Ellen Hopkins

Reading copious amounts of YA as I do, I often find myself thinking that teens are just so shallow and clueless.  With all of the information and resources available today, how can so many of them choose to have unsafe sex, do drugs, drink while driving?  Then I read an Ellen Hopkins' novel, and I feel over-whelming amounts of sympathy for today's young adults.  Yes, I suppose many of them do make unwise choices when it comes to their well-being, but I can't help but wonder if this is because so many decisions are not yet left to them.  When you're 16 or 17, adults still decide what it is best for you, and often it's an adult's harmful actions that lead a teen down the wrong path.

Before the accident, Kaeleigh and Raeanne were the identical twin daughters in an all-American family.  Kaeleigh and Raeanne took care of each other, and their loving parents took care of them. 

After the accident, each sister finds herself having to live with a terrible, dark secret.  Secrets too horrible to be shared even with your mirror image.  For Kaeleigh, she's her mother's substitute.  Politician Mom is always on the campaign trail, and Daddy is lonely.  For Raeanne, she is the forgotten daughter and left to herself, she chooses pot, alcohol and sex to dull her pain.  The girls can't hold these secrets inside forever.  One sister will have to save the other, and in the process, hope she saves herself.

In gritty, engrossing, elegant verse, in Identical Ellen Hopkins has given readers another mesmerizing tale about a life out of control and the long path back to redemption. 

My One Hundred Adventures by Polly Horvath

My One Hundred Adventures is a cross between Jim Lynch's The Highest Tide and Joan Bauer's Hope Was Here.  Surprises await in every chapter, making the reader want to quickly turn to the next page.  By the same token, Horvath is so in-tune with her 12-year-old protagonist and the daily music of her summer days in a small Massachusetts beach town, that I found I also wanted to stop and read passages over and over again.   

Jane is ready for adventure.  She has spent all her years with her three younger siblings and her single mom in a wonderfully cozy house by the sea, but she is aching for something more.  She's ready to leap into the "know-not-what" this summer.  And leap she does with a first time solo ride in a hot-air balloon, a trip to the fair with her possible father, an almost road trip to California with an elderly neighbor, and a new friendship with Nellie, preacher and hopeful healer.  Just by summoning a little positive energy and opening her front door, Jane's dreams for 100 adventures begin to come true.

So I've stopped and started this review a couple of times now, and I'm still feeling like I can't quite do this novel justice, but maybe that is the highest compliment a reviewer can pay an author.  This is not a cookie cutter novel, and I can't just write a quick review.  Early in the novel, Jane is thinking about her desire for adventure and how her siblings are just too young to understand her wants, and notes that she is "twisting all alone."  What a wonderful expression, and it's exactly how I feel about this novel.  It's there swirling in my head.  I want to know more about Jane and this adventurous new life she's leading, yet I believe the ending to be just about perfect the way it is.  I'm "twisting" for more, and at the same time I'd be crushed if one word was changed in this mystical, lyrical novel.  I guess I'll just have to read this perfect novel again to satisfy my desire for more.

The Dreadful Revenge of Ernest Gallen by James Lincoln Collier

Gene Richards is being haunted by a voice.  He'd like to ignore it, but this voice is pretty persuasive, and it tells Gene that his Grandpa and a few other Magnolia residents did a bad thing a few years back before the Depression.  The specter aims to get his revenge, and he thinks Gene is the perfect soul to carry out his plans.  Gene isn't sure what his Grandpa did, but as some mysterious accidents start occurring to some neighbors, Gene knows he can't let his Grandpa become the next victim.

So I love a good mystery or thriller.  I love reading them as an adult, and I loved reading them as a kid.  That's why I was pretty excited to see James Lincoln Collier's newest novel, The Dreadful Revenge of Ernest Gallen.  I thought the cover had a perfect ghost story cover, and Collier is no slouch when it comes to writing a good, historical novel (he co-wrote with his brother, Christopher, the Newbery Honor book My Brother Sam Is Dead).  All in all, a perfect Sunday afternoon sort of book, or so I hoped, but it just wasn't the case.  The book starts out well enough.  You're introduced to the big ghost on page three, certainly a wise move when hoping to catch a reluctant reader's attention.  Gene is likable.  He's just trying to balance his life between school, playing ball, and earning a few pennies delivering groceries.  He's got good friends, and his Mom and his Grandpa love him very much.  The historical details are interesting, but not overwhelming.  It seems Collier even researched how small town newspaper articles of the time were structured because it's hard not to notice the stylistic differences from today's papers.  I was certainly thinking this book was a home run until I got to the last twenty pages and realized that the mystery was going to have to be solved really quickly and likely not to my satisfaction.  Without giving the ending away, let's just say that it is not Gene who gets rid of the ghost.  Gene is the main character.  The whole novel is about how he's got to save his Grandpa.   How is it that some adult gets to come in and save the day at the last minute?   In real life maybe kids do just want some adult to swoop in and solve all their problems, but in a fictional world with a young boy as the protagonist, shouldn't he get to be the hero?  Isn't that what most 10-year-old readers are going to hope for and expect?

The Frandidate (Franny K. Stein Mad Scientist #7) by Jim Benton

Like the other six books in the Franny K. Stein library, The Frandidate is another marvelous invention born from the mind of Jim Benton. We never grow tired of Franny's crazy antics and creations in my household, which is especially impressive when you consider that I have two sons, and well, Franny is a girl.  I guess mad science is truly a topic enthralling to both genders.  In this seventh book, Franny decides to run for class president.  Typical for a mad scientist, Franny's thoughts on how to improve the classroom are slightly extreme.  Franny's ideas for exploding chalk for a wrong answer written on the chalkboard or robots who force you to eat a healthy lunch don't go over well with her classmates.  The other candidates' speeches about new playground equipment or less homework win greater support with the students.  Franny realizes that she is going to have to please all of the students in her class and sets out to invent a suit that will allow her to become whatever another person wants her to be.  If a classmate loves bunnies, wearing the suit, Franny becomes a bunny.  If a student loves basketball, then Franny can become their favorite basketball player.  It's all very simple for a mad scientist, and Franny wins the class election by a landslide.  Soon the power has gone to her head, though, and Franny decides that she can just as easily become the President of the United States. It takes a quick thinking lab assistant and a truth seeking mom, to save Franny and the rest of the world from a little mad science gone wrong.  Lucky for Franny that the members of her cabinet are so well chosen.

Dr. Frankenstein's Human Body Book by Richard Walker & Penny Preston

In the past I've reviewed very little non-fiction, but I'd like to give a call-out to Dr. Frankenstein's Human Body Book.  The premise is that you, the reader, need to assist Dr. Frankenstein in his quest to create a living, breathing human being.  The book does not contain tons of bells and whistles, i.e. flaps, maps, stickers, etc.  It's brilliance is born out of fabulous illustrations and photographs, a good, clean page layout, and concise, interesting text.  While the book may be written for 8 to 12-year-old students, the other huge bonus is that the book has durable board book like pages that can surmount the destructibility of younger readers .  The only drawback is the book's price.  It's $24.95, but I think $19.95 might have been more suitable.  Even with the higher price point, though, the card-stock pages and padded cover are going to allow this book to survive more than one reader per household, giving it a bit of added value.

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

I had just started buying YA for Borders when The Lovely Bones was published.  The main character in Sebold's novel is just 14, and as the story is told from her point of view, I had quite a few people ask me why the novel was shelved in adult and not YA.  My response to this question was that The Lovely Bones was without hope, and that I believed that children's literature for all ages had to have a  hopeful component.  This doesn't mean that I believe all children's novels should have happy endings, but it does mean that I think kids' books should at least provide some sort of lesson.  For instance Ellen Hopkins' Crank is as dark a novel as any I've read, but the reader certainly grasps at the end of this cautionary tale that drugs are bad and will ruin your life.   This is not the case with Living Dead Girl. There is no lesson to be learned from this novel.  The main character's only crime is that she  fights with her friends over her new cream soda lip gloss.  

Alice is just 10-years-old when she is abducted by Ray during a school field trip.  Now 15, she has spent the last 5 years being physically and mentally abused.  As Alice becomes less and less the little girl that Ray desires to have as his own, he dictates that she find him a new, younger, more perfect girl.   Could this be the release that Alice has prayed for, or is it the last step to losing her soul?

I wanted to blame Alice for her abduction.  Shouldn't she know better than to go off with strangers?  Then I would remember that Alice at 15 would know this, but Alice at 10 thought Ray worked at the aquarium, and she had been hurt by her friends.  She was vulnerable, and that's exactly how I felt after reading this novel.  I felt tense and vulnerable, like it would be easy to become a shut-in and never trust another person again. Yet, there is a glimpse of redemption in this novel.  Alice has suffered irreparable damage, but when the opportunity arises for her to pass on the pain to another young girl, she doesn't do it.  There is no happy ending for Alice, but she does allow another little girl to have the possibility of one.  So while I'm not sure that this book should be shelved in YA, Alice still has her humanity at the end of the novel, making her an acutely moving and hopeful character.

Back to School, Back to the Bookstore

So my oldest has gone off to kindergarten this week.  Today is his first full day, and it allowed me to make a quiet run to the bookstore, and I was amazed at just how many books have been published in  the last month.  I used to visit a bookstore at least twice a week, but recently I have become addicted to this little item called the Sony Reader.  I never thought I could learn to love reading electronically, but in many ways I think electronic readers are the best things to ever happen to the publishing world.  As I hear about most new books while on-line, I can download the book immediately.  No more writing the title down and hoping I remember to take the list with me.  If I don't feel like reading a particular book, I've always got another one at my fingertips.  Plus, I don't have to worry about damaging a book as I carry it around with me.  Not to mention, electronic readers help the environment.  For me the only downer to the Reader is that there just aren't quite as many children's books available for download, which is why I have been so bad about writing reviews lately.  Of the 10 books I read in the last month only 2 of them were children's books.  I, of course, read Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer.  Like many readers I was sort of disappointed.  With Edward and Bella married, all of the passionate tension went out of the writing.  It was kind of like the first time Ross and Rachel got together on Friends.  You think you want them together and living happily-ever-after, but the chemistry is so much better with them apart.  I kind of feel bad for Meyer having to take so much criticism for the novel.  There was no way she was going to make all of her readers happy.  Would readers have preferred a Gone With the Wind type ending?  I doubt it.

The second book is one I read aloud to my boys in anticipation of the movie coming out this holiday season, and it has not been disappointing in any way.  Kate DiCamillo's Newbery award-winning novel, The Tale of Despereaux,is utterly brilliant and perfect.  My 3-year-old doesn't always understand what's happening plot-wise, but he loves listening to the words.  As DiCamillo writes, "stories are light," and I'm sure my sons' dreams have been lighter for having heard Despereaux's tale.