FINISHED:

Wilson, N.D. (2007). 100 cupboards. New York: Random House.

[Henry's parents go missing so he has to move in with his uncle, aunt, and cousins. In the middle of the night, one of the walls in the attic bedroom where Henry is staying begins to crack, revealing a bunch of little built-in doors. Eventually, Henry and his cousin Henrietta find a key in one of the little cupboard doors which opens up the impenetrable door to his grandfather's old room. AND, in grandfather's room is a cupboard door big enough to crawl through - the pair discover that turning a couple of knobs built into the cupboard-filled wall changes where the door in grandfather's room will lead. Liked this one a lot - especially the whole idea of a wall filled with little doors that each open to some other world/dimension: wind and the smell of the forest come through one of the doors, and through another one can be seen yellow walls and the occassional glimpse of a pantleg. Fascinating.]

STARTED:
Wilson, N.D. (2009). Dandelion fire. New York: Random House.

[Moving right on to Book 2 - reading it to see if I deem it worthy to be on the ACL Distinguished Books List for 2009...]

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FINISHED:

Huxley, Aldous. (1932). Brave new world/Brave new world revisited. New York: HarperCollins.

[Um, this is SO not the book I remember reading in high school English class. Come to think about it, maybe I only read the chapters that I had to do a presentation on. Lots of stuff to think about... Read a bunch of Revisited, but ultimately gave up. I honestly had thought that it was a novel as well - while it is certainly an interesting and thought provoking essay, I just needed to start reading some light fiction again..]

STARTED:
Wilson, N.D. (2007). 100 cupboards. New York: Random House.

[Have heard great things about this one - need to read the sequel, Dandelion Fire, for ACL distinguished list, so I figured it would be a good time to read it.]

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FINISHED:

MacDonald, George. (1969). The light princess. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[Well, it doesn't seem like it would fly all that well with youth today. As I started to read it I thought, "This might make a good, short read-aloud..." and then quickly reconsidered. The language was SO antiquated and odd. Many times I not only tripped up on the words, but had a difficult time trying to figure out who he was talking about and/or what was happening. Yes, it's the story of a princess who is born without gravity and discovers that in water she feels "normal". Soon, the evil princess who cursed the disability onto the princess does a spell to drain the lake and kingdom of all it's water. It is then that a roaming prince who has become smitten with the princess volunteers to sacrifice himself to save the princess and kingdom.]

STARTED:
Huxley, Aldous. (1932). Brave new world/Brave new world revisited. New York: HarperCollins.

[An old classic that I remember reading in high school English class and have been wanting to revisit now that I'm older and wiser.]

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FINISHED:

Barnes, John. (2009). Tales of the Madman underground. New York: Viking.

[Have yet to write my ACL review. Can't believe it took me SO LONG to finish...]

STARTED:
MacDonald, George. (1969). The light princess. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[Have been wanting to read this short story (here, with Maurice Sendak's stunning illustrations) because Tori Amos is writing a musical based on it.]

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FINISHED:

Choldenko, Gennifer. (2009). Al Capone shines my shoes. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[My ACL review:

After Al Capone does Moose a favor by getting his autistic sister into a special school, Moose receives a note in his laundry saying, “Your turn.” How could a 12-year old boy living on Alcatraz Island in 1935 with his prison guard father help a notorious con? And, should he even help Capone or will this keep him under Capone’s thumb forever? In this worthy follow up to Newbery Honor-winning Al Capone Does My Shirts (Putnam, 2004), Choldenko puts the focus firmly on family relations, friendship, and budding young love. Moose’s gang of friends on Alcatraz are all here again, this time around getting more fleshed out and involved, and the storyline surrounding Moose’s sister Natalie is deftly handled: Natalie, now at the Esther P. Marinoff School, has a firm teacher who gets her to become more socially engaged thus showing Moose, his family, and some of the island inhabitants who don’t understand Natalie that she is capable of much more than they thought. Choldenko, who lives in the Bay Area, includes an author’s note about autism in which she insightfully parallels being autistic with living in a prison, as well as living on an island by oneself, and a note which examines the reality versus the fiction of some of the novel’s events. (NOTE: a captioned map of Alcatraz is to be included in the final printing but was unavailable in the uncopyedited reader’s copy used for this review.) Readers who got caught up in Moose’s adventures on Alcatraz the first time around will love this well-paced sequel.]

STARTED:
Barnes, John. (2009). Tales of the Madman underground. New York: Viking.

[Reviewing for ACL. So far, it's quite good (it got MANY starred reviews...) but a bit over-the-top...]

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FINISHED:

Meyer, Stephenie. (2005). Twilight. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

[Well, I personally didn't see what all the fuss was about. It took me WAY longer to read than it should have, and, although I can't stand to label it as such, it really came across as WAY too girly-romancey. A lot of talking about feelings and gazing into each other's eyes thoughtfully. I can easily see, though, how so many teen girls LOVE it: Edward is the quintessential "bad boy" type - forbidden and dangerous! - who is too beautiful to resist.]

STARTED:
Choldenko, Gennifer. (2009). Al Capone shines my shoes. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[Reading an ARC of this anticipated sequel - reviewing for ACL...]

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