FINISHED:
Medina, Juana. (2016). Juana & Lucas. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

STARTED:
Mittlefehldt, Rafi. (2016). It Looks Like This. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[Reading for ACL to see if I deem it to be "distinguished".  When, while trying to entice someone to read it, they said it had to do with a boy in the Midwest who was dealing with coming out to his not-so-understanding family, I jumped up and said, "Sounds familiar.  I'll take it!"]

*

FINISHED:
Sepahban, Lois. (2016). Paper Wishes. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

[.]

STARTED:
Martel, Yann. (2016). The High Mountains of Portugal. New York: Spiegel & Grau/Penguin Random House.

[.]

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FINISHED:
Crowder, Melanie. (2013). Parched. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.


[.]


STARTED:
Rowell, Rainbow. (2013). Eleanor & Park. New York: St. Martin's Griffin.


[Heard SO many wonderful things about this one.  And it takes place in 1986... when I was a teenager who listened to all of the bands that Park likes...]


*

FINISHED:
Hunter, Erin. (2012). Survivors: the empty city. New York: HarperCollins.

[After surviving a catastrophic natural event that has left the city in ruins and caused all humans (a.k.a. longpaws) to evacuate leaving the city desolate, Lucky escapes from the cage in the “Trap House” where he found himself and sets out to fend for food and shelter.  Lucky eventually comes across, and grudgingly agrees to “lead”, a diverse pack of wayward dogs who were all pets before The Big Growl and now don’t know how to survive on their own, and ends up training his long-lost sister to become the leader of the group.  In this dystopian dog story (dystopian stories aren’t just for humans anymore!), the Erin Hunter consortium (in this case, Gillian Philip) turns its eye to canines after its success with cats (Warriors) and bears (Seekers).  This one continues to spread the messages of Earth preservation and spirituality found in the other series, but the plot wanders as aimlessly as the pack of dogs, a lot is left unexplained (What caused The Big growl?  How did all of the human evacuate so quickly?  Why was Lucky in the the “Trap House” to begin with?), and there are some ridiculous exchanges between the pups.  For instance, when one of the dogs suggests putting the food they have scavenged into the cold river and calling it a “cold-box”, one of the other dogs remarks, “But can we call it our ‘river-store’?  Instead of a cold-box?”  The first replies, “Well, I don’t see why not.  That’s a much better name anyway.  More… more doggish.”  Sure, because it seems more “doggish” for an animal to have a complicated system of bartering goods than to be able to recognize a basic sensation and a simple shape…  That said, it is interesting to get to see Lucky turn from staunch loner to reluctant leader over the course of his journeys (as seems to be par for the course for Hunter’s protagonists) and ultimately try to get the former “pet dogs” to be self-sufficient.  A cliffhanger ending ensures that Hunter enthusiasts will pick up the next installment when it is released this coming spring.]

STARTED:
Meloy, Colin. (2012). Under Wildwood. New York: Balzer + Bray.

[Reviewing for ACL... but this doubles as a pleasure read because I loved the first book...]

*

FINISHED:
Eichler, Glenn. (2011). Mush!: Sled dogs with issues. New York: First Second.

[.]

STARTED:
Hartinger, Brent. (2005). The Order of the Poison Oak. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Reisfeld, Randi. (2012). What the dog said. New York: Bloomsbury.

[Grace has retreated from school, friends, everything since her policeman father was murdered in a drive-by shooting a few months back. Her older sister, Regan, is only concerned with getting into the Parsons School of Design and convinces their mom to let her get a rescue dog - the hope being that by enrolling the dog in classes to train it to be a "helper animal", that it will look good on her college application. At the pound, a homely dog, Rex, chooses Grace to be his owner by TELLING her to pick him. Can Rex, the talking dog whom only Grace is able to hear, help her figure out the circumstances surrounding her father's murder, and eventually move her through her grief? Well, of course...]

STARTED:
Marrone, Amanda. (2010). The multiplying menace: a magic repair shop book. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[Reviewing for SFPL...]

*

FINISHED:
Glass, Linzi. (2010). Finding Danny. New York: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins.

[Bree is an only child whose parents are both in the news business: mom is a TV news reporter who’s working her way up to newscaster, and dad is a journalist who travels the world to be on the frontline of world events. In an effort to alleviate Bree’s loneliness her parents give her a fluffy dog named Danny to love and take care of. When Bree’s mother, in a rush, accidentally leaves the yard gate open, Danny escapes and Bree is introduced to the “dingy, smelly, and full of sadness” world of LA animal shelters. Here she meets a wayward “hippie” waif, Rayleen, who can’t seem to stay in one place for long but who loves and takes in abandoned and found dogs. Meanwhile, Bree is dealing with typical preteen worries: are her best girlfriends drifting away? Does she even WANT to spend her friend’s birthday at the spa? Does the most popular (and UBER-richest) boy in school actually like her? While the introduction to young readers of the world of animal shelters is a valuable one, the effect is drowned in the self-congratulations of the wealthy who are drastically out of touch with the real world and who feel that they have done their part to help the less fortunate. [I mean, the characters in this book live in gated “estates” and go to a gated high school, their parents all involved in the Hollywood film and TV business.] Bree’s brilliant (and pat) idea is to host an adopt-a-thon for all of the dogs that are slated to be euthanized in the next week and, of course, somehow, EVERY dog gets adopted. Will Bree be around every week to keep all of LA’s stray dogs from being put-down, or has her one good deed for the underprivileged given her ample karma points? Clichéd and self-serving with a picture-perfect ending. Blah.]

STARTED:
Beam, Cris. (2011). I am J. New York: Little, Brown.

[Reading for ACL Distinguished.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:
Riddell, Chris. (2008). Ottoline and the yellow cat. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:

Stead, Rebecca. (2007). First light. New York: Wendy Lamb.

[.]

STARTED:
Baccalario, Pierdomenico. [trans. Leah D. Janeczko]. (2009). Ring of fire (Century quartet: Book 1). New York: Random House.

[I think that I may be the only one who got into the Ulysses Moore books - and I just found out today that there are MORE than the ones that got published by Scholastic in the U.S.! Unfortunately, the remaining titles in the series are only available in Spanish. I really like this guy's plotting, sense of environment, and use of faux scrapbook items (i.e. photos, receipts, maps, ticket stubs, etc.) to tell his stories. I just hope that they don't stop translating this series into English mid-way through...]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

McCarty, Peter. (2007). Fabian escapes. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

[Ugh. How many times and ways can I say that I LOVE this guy's illustrations? This is his latest and I'm already WAITING IMPATIENTLY for the next one. The story here is a bit disjointed, with the dog (Hondo) going out for a walk and the cat (Fabian) going for an adventure by jumping out the window, but the look is just so soft yet textured. Hondo and Fabian themselves are so darned adorable, and I dare any cat owner not to go "Awww!" when looking at the picture of Fabian rolling in the dirt. Oh, and the illustration of the three dogs "playing" chase with Fabian - with the dogs smiling and Fabian looking a bit terrified. Super cute. Nice, simple language and situations make this one a great potential read-aloud.]



Shulevitz, Uri. (1995). The golden goose (the Brothers Grimm). New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux.

[Love Shulevitz and his illustrations, but the story in this one isn't a particularly "happening" one to me. So, a fool goes to cut down a tree and a golden goose appears. Everyone that touches him inexplicably becomes stuck to him, and then, inexplicably, gets unattached. Um, ok. What's the point here? Not sure if it's the fault of the Brothers Grimm, or Shulevitz's retelling. Should probably consult the source material before making too much of a judgement...]



Cate, Annette LeBlanc. (2007). The magic rabbit. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

[Heard such good things about this one a few months ago when someone reviewed it at ACL, but I found it kind of bland. Again, nothing really happens here: magician loses his rabbit - rabbit is all alone - rabbit eventually finds his way home by following a trail of stars. Am I missing something? Sure, the illustrations are great, and there may not be anything cuter than the picture of the magician and the rabbit watching a movie on the couch together (look at the rabbit's adorable little feet!), but even the way that the two get separated seems forced and too easy. Now, this isn't all to say that I would never use this in a storytime or recommend it to a parent looking for a sweet story about friendship, but it just didn't do so much for me personally as a reader.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

Abadzis, Nick. (2007). Laika. New York: First Second.

[Graphic novel about the first little dog in space. I read it because it's being voted on in our ACL group to see if it is outstanding enough to be on the year-end Distinguished list. The woman who gave it to me to read was, literally, crying just thinking about how Laika dies in the end. I thought it was really good and a compelling read. The Russian names get a bit confusing to follow, but, otherwise, it's much recommended reading.]



Wolf, Allan. (2007). Zane's trace. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

[Read for ACL review. Will post review when I get done with it. Done:

An epileptic teenager with a family history of mental illness, Zane Guesswind abandons the walls of the bedroom on which he has scrawled the thoughts that haunt him with a Sharpie and steals his brother’s car for a final road trip. While on the road to his mother’s gravesite where, upon arrival, he intends to shoot himself, Zane surreally deals with elements of his past such as his father’s abandonment of the family, his mother’s suicide, and the history of the gun that his mother used in her deed – a Revolutionary War pistol that has been passed down through his family line. Along the way, Zane picks up a hitchhiker named Libba who may be more familiar to him than he realizes, and has dreamlike conversations with his ancestors who appear to him as drive-thru fast-food workers and motel desk clerks. Despite the (often) unsettling details of Zane’s life, the underlying message here of confronting and dealing with family demons in an effort to pave a new future for oneself is a vital one that will ring true for many teenage readers. Told in brisk, narrative prose poetry, this disturbing road trip novel is nihilistic at times, likely a bit too much so for most tastes, but is worth the ride. Included is an extensive author’s note detailing the authenticity of the locations described along the way in the novel, as well as biographical references, internet sites for further information, and a number of suicide prevention resources.]



STARTED:
Michaels, Rune. (2007). Genesis Alpha. New York: Ginee Seo/Atheneum.

[Reviewing for ACL.]

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