Beautiful Creatures review

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl. December 1, 2009. Book published by Little, Brown and Company.  Copy from my library.

Ethan Wate lives in small town Gatlin, South Carolina. He can’t wait to graduate from high school and leave Gatlin, he doesn’t want to become one of the “stuck” people.

Not much happens in Gatlin until Ethan begins to be haunted by a girl in his dreams. A dream of a girl falling whom he couldn’t catch. Then a new girl, Lena, moves to town. She’s niece of the creepy town shut-in. She’s definitely not like the rest of the girls in Gatlin. She drives a hearse.

Ethan is drawn to Lena and he’s not sure why. Lena has powers and secrets of a curse that has haunted her family for generations. Lena and Ethan become friends and later realize they are more connected than they ever imagined.

The authors have wisely used the South and it’s superstitions as a strong character in this book. While they could have delved deeply into the traditional superstitions of the South, they incorporate it so well in this book that it adds so much to the atmosphere of the book.

With so many supernatural books out and some people suffering from vampire fatique, this is a refreshing book that will satisfy those looking for supernatural fiction but not vampires.

The first 3/4 of the book really had me gripped but the last 1/4 seemed to lose a bit of steam. I think because I knew what would happen in the end. It was still a very entertaining and satisfying book. I’ll definitely be recommending it to teens. I’ve learned lately that I need to intersperse realistic fiction with the supernatural fiction or I get supernatural book fatigue.

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Once Was Lost Review

Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr. October 2009. Book published by Little, Brown Young Readers. Audiobook from Listening Library. Copies from my local libraries.

Sam is experiencing a rough time in her life. She’s the daughter of a pastor, her mother has recently entered rehab after a DUI and to complicate things, a girl from her church goes missing one Sunday.

Sam begins to question everything she ever believed in, including her family and her faith.

I wasn’t sure if I could recommend this book to teens who are seeking “Christian fiction” but I was pleasantly surprised. I’ll be adding to my list of Christian reads. It’s definitely not preachy and one that fans of realistic fiction will enjoy.

I listened to this as an audiobook and at times Sara Zarr’s voice was so soothing that I would loose track of what was happening in the story. This is one where I ended up reading the book when I wasn’t listening to it.

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Monster of a book

When I was in school I dreamed about all of the time I would have to read once I was out of school. I’d worked in a public library before heading to Library School so I knew the dangers of the new book. What I didn’t expect was wonderful galleys from a friend who works at a publishing house, all of the books that would catch my eye in reviews and those that were mentioned at a YA conference. Now I long for the days when I spent my entire day reading during school breaks. Funny how the grass is always greener somewhere else. One thing I do have to say is that reading now is much more fun. I can read whatever I want!

I’ve recently added book trailers to my library’s website for teens hoping to create  excitement for some of our new books.

Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey. September 2009. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. Copy from my library.

I was intrigued by this cover once we received it at our library. Hearing about it at a recent conference made me want to read it but the book trailer definitely sold me on it.

In 1888, Will Henry is the orphaned assistant of Dr. Pellinore Warthrop. Dr. Warthrop has a very strange specialty, monstrumology, he studies monsters. Late one night, they are visited by a grave robber who brings with him a most unusual creature. As Will Henry, the doctor and the grave robber soon realize this creature is a deadly monster an “Anthropophagi.” The monster has no head but instead has eyes where a man’s shoulders are with a mouth where a man’s stomach would be.

After the visit by the grave robber, they soon make a gruesome and deadly discovery of multiple Anthropophagi near the graveyard. Reminiscent of Frankenstein, fans of teen horror and Cirque du Freak will eat this book up. The language of the book gives it the feel of a 19th century novel but there are all of the elements that 21st century fans love.

Having been a fan of R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike as a teenager. This is one I can’t wait to book talk.

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Lets Do the Time Warp Again!

I first saw this idea on Abby the Librarian’s blog, who saw it on a Fuse #8 Production, who saw it on post at Ten Block Wall. I thought I’d give it a shot because there are so many times I think to myself, Damn, I wish I had that book when I was younger.

From Betsy’s post excerpted on Abby’s post:
The Premise: You have a time machine. In this time machine you may take seven books. Your mission is to visit yourself, in the past, and to give yourself the books you wish you would have read as a kid. They can be old books or new books, it doesn’t matter. But they must be books you’ve run across as an adult, loved, and you know would have appealed to (or been good for) little you.

Keeping it down to seven was tough, but here goes.

Ages 2- 5

I am quite sure I would have fallen in love with any book illustrated by Christopher Denise, but I think I would have developed a particular fondness for Oliver in Oliver Finds His Way by Phyllis Root. Besides being immediately smitten with the utterly adorable Oliver, I was a bit of a scaredy cat and might have benefitted from reading about a little risk taking with a happy ending 🙂

 

Ages 6-9

I wanted to be a park ranger when I was 7, so I feel like Deborah Ruddell’s recent collection of poems in A Whiff of Pine, A Hint of Skunk would have had me entranced for hours and I would have most likely memorized every poem and recited them as I went on “hikes” through my suburban neighborhood. I also know for a fact that I would have fallen head over heels for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

 

Ages 10-12

Considering this was my most self conscious phase (and rightly so, I was an awkward little thing), I definitely would have handed my 12 year old self The Goats by Brock Cole. This is one of my favorites of all time and while it is a bit older than the others I am listing, I didn’t encounter it until I was an adult. I was riding on Chicago’s blue line and actually started to cry halfway through the book. I think the younger Kate would have appreciated being reminded that despite the sudden bleakness of adolescence, there is still plenty of empathy and beauty in the world. Similarly, I think the more recent The Kind of Friends We Used to Be by Frances Oroark Dowell would have shed some light on the utterly bewildering behavior of some of my peers and would have perhaps lessened the sting of the fallout of some bad friendships.

Ages 13-15

Sarah Dessen, Sarah Dessen, Sarah Dessen. I wish I could bring all of her books with me on this time journey, but since I can’t, I think I’d take Just Listen. While I don’t share Annabel’s most traumatic experience, I could have definitely related to her struggle for perfection while feeling like a complete odd duck. Plus, I never really let myself explore the genre of romance when I was this age for fear that my stupid brothers would get their hands on my books and make fun of me. They swear up and down today that such a thing would have *never* occurred, but I have my doubts. I’d make sure to hide this one under the mattress.

Ages 16-17

Hands down, Audrey Wait! by Robin Brenway, if only to get my seventeen year old self to stop taking everything. SO. DAMN. SERIOUSLY. I mean, lighten up, kid, it only gets better from here, I promise 🙂

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Bulletin monthly features

The Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books’ 2009 Guide Book to Gift Books is now available for free download at the BCCB website. While this is a great resource for book buyers and gift givers, librarians and teachers will also benefit from the annotated recommendations to great books from the past three years. Enjoy!

Also be sure to check out the Bulletin’s monthly online and FREE features, including:

The Big Picture – An in-depth look at selected new titles and trends. This month we look at Breathless by Jessica Warman.

The Dozens – A monthly theme-based booklist freely available for download. This month, we focus on aviation history.

The Bulletin Stars – Check out what we starred this month.

For subscription information, please see http://bccb.lis.illinois.edu/



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Liar by Justine Larbalestier

The fact that I didn’t like this book that much is making me feel like a bad librarian because everyone’s been raving about it.  I honestly spent most of the book feeling immensely frustrated…partially I think I just wanted Larbalestier to decide between realistic and supernatural fiction.  The combo here didn’t do much for me.

It’s hard to talk about this book without giving things away, but I can say that I was compelled enough by Micah to want to know what her deal was.  I realize of course that part of the point of the book is to try to figure out what was going on with Micah, but my problem was that the lack of definition between truth and lies meant that I could never really care about Micah or what happened to her.  And in the end, I was really put off by the total lack of resolution.

Also, I think there was some subplotting here about being bi-racial and not fitting in, but honestly, I was a little too distracted by everything else to think all that much about it.

The book was well written and I have no doubt that there’s and audience out there for it but I wasn’t that audience.

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Stepping out of my comfort zone

Like most people, I have a particular type of book that I lean toward: usually its fantasy, it always has a strong female protagonist, and it tends to be over 400 pages. You might be surprised to know (as I was!) that not everyone likes these types of books, gasp. So as a reviewer and a librarian I have been asked to review and recommend books that I would normally not otherwise even glance at. When I first started doing this, I was a bit unsure of myself. I mean, if I haven’t read much in a genre, how can I give a quality evaluation of a book? Maybe all historical fiction novels have long winded expository explanations, maybe all nonfiction books are uncomprehendingly boring, and people just happen to like that. Who am I to judge? Well, as my editor so wisely pointed out to me, I sort of get paid to do just that, a position I am still getting used to. Nonetheless, once I stepped out of my comfort zone, I realized my preconceived notions of other genres most likely originate from my adolescent years in which The Sign of the Beaver was considered intriguing historical fiction (apologies to anyone who enjoyed that book, but it turned me off from signs, beavers, and basically all of nature and history  for a very long time). All of this is a very elaborate introduction to books I am reading or have read lately, and many of my compatriots will be pleased to know not a single books is over 400 pages.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
I spent most of the time reading this book waiting for a flaw, an imperfection that would legitimize my initial “ew, that is going to be so sweet, I’ll get diabetes” reaction. There was not a one, people. Sure, the spunky female heroine defying the gender norms of the day has been done before, but not like this. Calpurnia is delightfully complex, at once a tomboy who loves nature, a jealous sibling, a young girl seeking approval, and at times even a fashionista who enjoys the luxuries of nice gloves. Her relationship with her grandfather in believable in its lovable awkwardness and strange intensity, and the fact that (SPOLER ALERT) the guy doesn’t die, isn’t an alcoholic, and is just an all around quirky character was a relief. Kelly could have gone a million different ways here, all which would have turned the story into a saccharine tear jerker, but her careful restraint and  effort to stay true to Calpurnia makes this book a real treasure. I sure hope the Newberry committee is looking at this one.

Leo and the Lesser Lion by Sandra Forrester
After Bayliss recovers from the boating accident that killed her adored big brother, she is intent on leading a purposeful life as she struggles with survivor’s guilt. The story is set in the South during the Depression and while it is a bit kitschy at times, the overall story is a heartwarming tale of one family’s struggle with grief. I cried. Alot. but I also laughed quite a bit too, because Bayliss is one of the smartest, funniest girls I have seen in fiction for this age group in a while. I particularly enjoyed when she decided the best way to atone for her survival was to become a nun and the best way to do that was to read about saints only to discover that the only parts of the saints’ lives she really enjoyed reading about were the times that happened before the saints repented – in other words, the sinning.

Truce by Jim Murphy
This man should just write the history curriculum for high schoolers, he makes history come alive. He just rocks. This latest work is about the spontaneous Christmas truce that happened on the battlefields of World War I, when soldiers on both sides came out of the trenches to celebrate the holiday in No Man’s Land. Murphy does an excellent job of giving enough background on the war itself while focusing on this one momentous piece of history. I cried again, and nonfiction has never, ever made me cry unless it was out of boredom.

The Story of Snow by Mark Cassino
Absolutely gorgeous illustrations accompany this delightful treatise on the nature of snow. This is the perfect kids nonfiction book: plenty of info, varied text sizes, beautiful pictures, and an appealing subject. I had no idea that snow actually requires a fleck of something that is not snow to become snow. Weird. It makes me look forward to winter.

Did you notice how my opinions suddenly needed less text at the end there? Yeah, I tire easily….

 

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The Incestuous World of Popular YA Lit

The New Yorker ran a really interesting article in its October 19th edition called “The Gossip Mill,” by Rebecca Mead.  A subscription is required to read the full article online, but if you’re a YA librarian or YA lit enthusiast, I highly recommend getting your hands on it (perhaps at your local public library?!).

This article definitely makes you wonder how authentic Cecily von Ziegesar’s praise is on the back cover of The Luxe…not to mention why the website for The Luxe thinks readers will also love Gossip Girl and Vampire Diaries.  Seriously…it’s intriguing stuff.  I couldn’t put it down.  These people are marketing geniuses.

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Catching Fire

This book is all the rage right now and totally deserves it!  I could not get my hands on an ARC, so my review is perhaps slightly later than those of other blogosphere librarians.  Nonetheless, here we go…

Catching Fire picks up back in District 12, just prior to the Victory Tour. Relations between Katniss and Peeta are strained as are those between she and Gale. Gale is now old enough to be working in the mines which leaves very little free time to hunt with Katniss. And, based on her performance in the games, he’s no longer at all sure where they stand–and neither is she.

What Katniss can be thankful for, however, is her family’s new found comfort in Victor’s Village and her safety from ever hearing her name called at a reaping again.

The 75th annual Hunger Games is upon Panem though and that means it’s time for a Quarter Quell. Every 25 years, the Capitol throws a wrench in the Hunger Games–the year Haymitch went they sent double the number of tributes and everyone is curious about what this year’s Quarter Quell will bring…

There is always a danger that the second book in a trilogy will be little more than a bridge…a lull in the action…just enough to keep readers coming back for the ultimate climax in book three and little more. Thankfully, Catching Fire is not that kind of book.

I thought the pacing here was pretty much equal to that of Hunger Games. Katniss and Peeta continued to develop as characters, and we learn very important information about Haymitch’s role in the history and future of the Hunger Games. The political unrest in Panem is compelling and the action in the arena is, as usual, adrenaline-pumping.

I don’t know how I’ll wait for the third installment!

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Evaluating a series

Last year when the three of us on this blog were in Information Books for Youth class, we spent an entire class period talking about evaluating a geography series. All I can say now is, “Thank you, Betty!” (In reference to our amazing instructor.)

Our library received a very generous donation from an organization in town so we’re using the money to bring our world geography section up-to-date. Sadly, the 900s in our library are extremely outdated. I spent some time just browsing the shelves looking for the newest books on the shelf, possibly not the most efficient way to evaluate the collection but it was easier than using the “browse shelf” feature of our catalog. Most of the books were 8-10 years old and a significant number were over 15 years old, which is really unacceptable. The nonfiction section of the children’s collection is in serious need of weeding and updating!

My search began with looking for reviews. Finding reviews for a specific series can be a real challenge, especially if the series started almost 10 years ago but has revised editions that haven’t been reviewed. Also the School Library Journal and Horn Book databases available through the State Library don’t go back extremely far. After not finding what I wanted, I went to amazon.com to see if there were professional reviews posted. I found one professional review but I wasn’t satisfied. So I found two series that I was interested in and went to the large library system where my husband works and checked out about four of each from the different series.

Then the real work started. I typed up a checklist from my class notes and gave all four books in each series a hard look. I really fell in love with one series, the photos were beautiful, it had a lot of interesting information, the facts about the country were easy to find, etc. Then when I started to look at the other series, I wasn’t as impressed at first. That is until I couldn’t stop reading the book and learning all about Jordanian culture and family life, something that was just glossed over in the other series. The two series are for approximately the same age group but if a student’s assignment is to compare our country to another country, the second series will probably give them more than just the geography aspect of it.

My next step was deciding what titles to purchase with the amount of money the children’s collection receives. We wanted to stick with titles that were quite new and not a few years old that will be outdated within 2 or 3 years. For countries such as Iraq, a book that doesn’t cover the war is already outdated. Fortunately, I happened upon an updated series from Scholastic, found reviews and added those to my list.

In the end, I ended up ordering a smattering of different books from the three series: National Geographic’s Countries of the World, Scholastic’s Enchantment of the World and Scholastic’s True Books, Geography: Countries.

I’ve had moments of feeling like a real librarian over the three months I’ve been at my job but for some reason, this experience is what made me realize why I spent two years in school. I can’t wait for the next nonfiction challenge, I’m sure there will be a lot more!

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