Bookami

My Life in Pink and Green by Lisa Greenwald

I read something recently in Runner's World that started me thinking about my blog again.  In the monthly column The Newbie Chronicles, Marc Parent notes, "If you intend to quit running and you plan to somehow make the quitting stick, you have to be determined about it.  You have to be focused and extremely consistent.  You have to quit every single day for the rest of your life."  For the latter part of 2008 and for all of 2009, I've been pretty consistent about quitting this blog business, and then I read a charming debut novel by Lisa Greenwald.  My Life in Pink and Green is a contemporary Pollyanna, and I just couldn't help but sing its praises.

Lucy Desberg is a girl that knows what she wants.  She wants to create her own cosmetics line and become the next Bobbi Brown or Laura Mercier.  She wants to save her family's pharmacy from bankruptcy. She wants her friends to have confidence in both their inner and outer beauty.  And if she can help save the environment while she's accomplishing the rest of her goals, so much the better.  There's only one problem.  Lucy is 12, and she's finding it's pretty difficult to make the adults in her life take her ideas seriously.

Lucy is such a wonderful, optimistic character.  You could almost find her positive attitude annoying if it weren't for the fact that her ideas about beauty, friendship and going green are so perfectly modern.  Just like everyone else, I've been watching the news and feeling as if I should hole up and put all my money under the mattress.  I've been going to the library a bit more, and the bookstore a lot less.  Thankfully, with its pitch-perfect cover, My Life in Pink and Green screamed out that it was going to be worth $16.95, and boy was it!  I can't wait to read what Lisa Greenwald writes next. 

Love reading debut authors?  Visit www.classof2k9.com  This site highlights new voices in middle grade and YA fiction.

Masterpiece by Elise Broach with Illustrations by Kelly Murphy

For those readers not quite ready for the intensity of Balliett's Chasing Vermeer or The Wright 3, Masterpiece offers budding sleuths a sweet, pleasant history-mystery.  James Pompaday lives with his mother, stepfather, and baby brother in an apartment in NYC.  He is a thoughtful, shy eleven-year-old boy who rarely warrants, good or bad, the attention of his family.  For his birthday, his dad gives him a pen and ink set.  While he tries to act excited, James is unhappy with the gift and sets it aside.  Ah, but one boy's junk is one beetle's treasure, and that is where Marvin comes in.  Marvin and the rest of his beetle family live under the kitchen sink in the Pompaday's apartment.  He often finds himself feeling bad for James and decides to provide him with a spectacular gift.  With the ink and his amazingly agile beetle legs, Marvin leaves James the most detailed miniature drawing.  James, of course, gets all the credit for the picture, and before they know it, James and Marvin find themselves in the middle of an elaborate plan to help recover a famous stolen miniature by Albrecht Durer.  Thus, an unlikely friendship is born.

While not as fast-paced as Chasing Vermeer or The Wright 3, I found I enjoyed the simplicity of Masterpiece.  Broach doesn't knock you over the head with facts about Albrect Durer, nor are her characters nearly as obsessive as Petra and Calder in Balliett's works.  Broach has written a satisfying linear mystery with a bit of beetle charm and wisdom to entice even the most reluctant readers.

Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass

When I was 14 my older brother was dating a lovely girl, who also happened to be named Amy.  She called for him one afternoon, but he wasn't home, and I picked up the phone.  Somehow never having met Amy, she and I managed to have an hour long conversation.  While her relationship with my older brother didn't last, our friendship has managed to do so through high school, college, career, marriage and children.  I often find myself thinking what if I hadn't answered the phone that day or my brother had been home.  It's amazing to think how some of the best happenings in our lives are completely random, and Every Soul a Star does an excellent job of reminding readers to be open to the randomness and beauty of life.

The novel alternates between the voices of three unlikely friends.  Ally, short for Alpha, is an astronomy wiz who appreciates all the wonders nature has to offer.  She has lived most of her life at the Moon Shadow Campground, where this summer thousands will converge to view a rare total eclipse.  Bree is a prom queen wanna-be who acts kind of silly, but is a lot smarter than she would have people believe. Nature and camping are so not for her.  Jack is over-weight, unpopular and kind of lazy.  His only reason for being at Moon Shadow is to get out of summer school.  All three have reasons to hate what has been thrown their way this summer, but as the eclipse gets closer, they come to realize that this may be the best summer they've ever had.

While using some sort of rare astronomical event as the focus of a middle grade novel isn't new, I still found Every Soul a Star to be refreshing.  Mass does a wonderful job of making the voices of her characters distinct.  In addition, novels structured like this can often be a bit repetitive as events are repeated from the perspective of another character, but Mass does not do this.  She lets the novel flow naturally, giving the reader an opportunity to suppose what the other characters might be thinking.  If I had one complaint about this novel, it would be that I would have liked to know what happens to Ally, Bree and Jack when the summer ends.  I'll even go so far as to admit that I would have loved to have Jack and Ally somehow end up at the same school.  Yes, I know that would have been totally sappy, but somehow after reading about a total eclipse of the sun, it just didn't seem that implausible anymore. 

If you like this novel, you might also enjoy Love, Stargirl and Smiles to Go by Jerry Spinelli.

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.

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?

It's Only Temporary by Sally Warner

So this was a fun, enjoyable read.  Kind of a cross between Harriet the Spy and the much heralded Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but unless I post my review, It's Only Temporary has zero reviews on Amazon while Diary of a Wimpy Kid has 143.  Why is this?  I don't think it's price.  Sure, It's Only Temporary is $3 more, but it's still within the price range of most intermediate hardcovers.  Both have quirky cartoon art, and both novels chronicle the day to day life of their middle school-aged protagonists.  The only major difference that I can see is that It's Only Temporary has a female main character while Diary of a Wimpy Kid has a male protagonist.  I know that it's harder to get boys to read, but I don't think that means It's Only Temporary deserves less attention because it's a story about a girl.  It's not as if Jeff Kinney is the first author to write a story about a whiny, sarcastic young boy.  I mean in many ways isn't it just a more realistic step up from Captain Underpants?  It seems to me that boys and girls have similar feelings about school life, and I have a pretty good example from which to pull this observation since I have a twin brother.  Sure, how we responded to situations was often different but if asked our feelings about a particular event, we often felt the same.  When I liked a boy and he didn't like me back, I was sad.  When my brother liked a girl who didn't like him back, he was sad too.  I'm not saying that I didn't like Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  It was hilarious, but does it deserve to be called ground-breaking just because it's told from the perspective of a guy?  No, and I certainly hope that as my sons get older, it won't be shoved down their throats as required reading just because it's an illustrated book about a guy.  I'd like to think our education system can do better by all boys. 

A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg

When I first saw the cover of this book, I thought what a wretched, institutional image.  Definitely one of those books that will make it on all kinds of required reading lists, but few kids will pick up on their own.  This book will have to be sold one book at a time by booksellers, teachers and librarians, but the effort will be so worth it.  Shana Burg has written a stunning debut novel, one that will have young readers on the edge of their seats and older readers thinking back to the first time they read Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird.

The Civil Rights Movement is about to take hold in Kuckachoo, Mississippi thanks to Addie Ann Picket and the garden Old Man Adams bequeaths to all the white and Negro people of his community.  The garden will help feed all Kuckachookians and make the colored folk not quite so dependent on Mr. Mudge's store.  When it comes time to harvest the garden, though, someone has ruined the crop by planting butter beans over everything else.  Typical of a small southern town in 1963, a colored man, Addie Ann's Uncle Bump, is blamed, and it is up to Addie Ann and a few good souls to set what things they can right.

This novel could have easily bored the reader with too many historical details.  It could have easily become a woe-is-me novel for Addie Ann and her family, but thanks to brilliant pacing, a scared, but courageous heroine, and a hopeful, but realistic ending, it instead becomes a novel worthy of the Newbery.

Three Intermediate Novels

So many books so little time would have to be my motto lately.  There are so many books I want to read that as soon as I finish one book, I start to read the next without writing a post.  Shame on me is all I can say, but I do intend to make up for it by writing three reviews for the price of one today.

Smiles to Go by Jerry Spinelli

"Beware of solipsism." What an amazing line for a 10+ intermediate novel.  It does seem to me that at about age 10 is when the selfish phase starts.  That we have this sense of "the self is the only reality." This is certainly what is happening to Will Tuppence.  Will begins his 9th grade year with varied interests.  He's a champ chess player.  He's a decent skateboarder.  He has two really great friends, Mi-Su and BT, and they all play Monopoly every Saturday night.  His way younger sister, Tabby, pesters and worships him simultaneously.  He lives the rationale life of a Physics geek, but then it is discovered that protons actually die.  Nothing will ever be the same in the world of science or in Will's life.  His reality is changing.  For one, BT made it down Dead Man's Hill.  No one has ever been able to do it before, and Will is truly afraid to even try.  Then, he sees BT and Mi-Su kiss at a stargazing party.  Will likes Mi-Su, and what is BT doing kissing her?  As Will becomes obsessed with how to get Mi-Su to like him, he stops playing chess, he can't keep his cool at the weekly Monopoly games, and dealing with his little sister just becomes too much of a pain.  But then Tabby gets hurt, and Will discovers there is more to life than just worrying about a girl.  It's okay that BT kissed her first.  It's okay that he can skateboard down Dead Man's Hill.  Will needs to live in the here and now, and appreciate what he has even if it comes in the form of a 5-year-old little sister.  If the laws of Physics can change, so can Will.

Hummingbird by Kimberly Greene Angle

In the vein of great coming-of-age stories like Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt or The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, first-time novelist Kimberly Greene Angle has given readers a poignant tale about loss from the perspective of a 12-year-old girl.  March Anne Tanner is confused about a few things in her life.  Like what's up with her name?  How can she be named March if she was born in August? Then, there's that chocolate-eyed boy who lives near by.  But one thing March Anne is not confused about is how her life on her Georgia watermelon farm is always the same.  She lives there with her father, trying little brother and her grandmother, Grenna.  Grenna has taken care of most things, domestic and emotional, since March's mother passed away, but now Grenna is sick.  Life is changing for March Anne, and she doesn't think she's ready to handle it, but then a gorgeous scarlet hummingbird freakishly decides to spend Winter on the farm.  Even in Georgia, Winter is not warm enough for a hummingbird to survive.  As the family works together to keep this beautiful creature alive, March Anne realizes that maybe with the help of her family and friends, she too can survive the changes occurring in her life. 

The Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein

Zack Jennings is a fairly average kid.  He's just moved from the city to Connecticut with his Dad and a fabulous new stepmom.  Now he can even have a dog.  It's a chance to start over after the death of his mother, except there is this mean, nasty ghost who has been waiting for fifty years to get revenge on those who played a roll in his death, and the Jennings family happens to be on his list. 

While there is nothing particularly special about this horror novel, I found I enjoyed it much the way I enjoyed the movie, The Frighteners.  That's the one where Michael J. Fox has developed psychic abilities after his wife is killed in a car accident.  The movie is not exactly a comedy, but comedic moments are skillfully thrown in to mitigate any scene being too scary, and Grabenstein has applied this same device to The Crossroads.  Whether it be the over-the-top country-boy accent applied to Zack's friend Davy, the freakish burger cravings of a possessed plumber, or the crazy, dangerous antics of a lady too old to physically hurt a fly, The Crossroads makes for a fun summer read.  Oh, and the best part is that the stepmom and a librarian provide the key clues to solving the mystery of this ghost.  Who says stepmoms are evil and librarians are boring?

Gods of Manhattan by Scott Mebus

Synopsis: New Yorker Rory Hennessey just wants to keep his mom and sister safe, but when a magician opens Rory's eyes to the spirit city of Mannahatta, this becomes seemingly impossible.  Mannahatta co-exists alongside present-day Manhattan and is ruled by New York's most famous inhabitants such as Alexander Hamilton, Babe Ruth and Peter Stuyvesant.  Only Rory has the ability to see Mannahatta and reveal its magic to others, but as he is pursued in both the past and the present, he soon realizes that this gift could be more of a curse.

Review: This book has a beautiful package, talking roaches and rats, a papier-mache boy, tons of magic and a bit of New York history, and yet for all of these fabulous elements, I found the book to be a bit lacking in detail and boring.  I never think it bodes well for an intermediate reader to need to have a cast of characters, especially one that doesn't really tell you anything.  For instance under the Council of Twelve heading, historical names and their Mannahatta titles are listed, but would it not have been better to list these names at the end of the novel with a brief paragraph detailing their historical significance?  Not a New Yorker by birth, I didn't know who Adriaen van der Donck was and still don't after reading the novel.  Also, the cast of characters isn't complete.  Willem Kieft isn't even listed, and he is the main villain of the story.

Also, I never felt any great fear for Rory's life, or any of the characters' lives for that matter.  All of the scary scenes seem to be cut too short, whether they take place in current Manhattan or Mannahatta. For instance when Rory and his sister, Bridget, are looking for the magician in the Village, Rory gets bitten by a Stranger, and then the next time we see him, he is awake and totally fine. Or when Bridget wakes up and realizes she is made of paper.  Wouldn't a nine-year-old show some sort of distress at this predicament, no matter how much she likes to kick butt?  Given that this is the author's first novel for children, I fear he was a bit too conscience of his young audience. Books are only as scary as the readers' imaginations allow them to be.  It's not like watching T.V.  The author certainly could have stepped up the fright level a bit with no repercussions.

Finally, do we really need another long-lost father tale?  I know there is a planned sequel for this novel, but a mention of the father would have been enough.  He certainly wasn't relevant to this story at all, and having Rory see him on the deck of the Half Moon was a little too much foreshadowing for my taste.  Guess what, not all parents are great.  I don't understand why in the fantasy world there is such a need for all parents to be good and to have a greater reason for deserting the family.  So his dad ditched the family.  Rory still has plenty to do with his gift even without having to search and hope for his old man.  It just seems like this was an unnecessary plot device.

So while not awful for a first novel, there are better tales out there right now for this age group.  Tunnels and The True Meaning of Smekday are two that come to mind.