FINISHED:

Albert, Melissa. (2018). The Hazel Wood. New York: Flatiron/Macmillan.

[.]

STARTED:
Adeyemi, Tomi. (2018). Children of Blood and Bone. New York: Henry Holt & Co./Macmillan.

[Another title (like the one above...) that we're reading for our SFPL Mock Printz next month.]

*

STARTED & FINISHED: 
Froud, Brian. (2011). The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths [Vol. 1]. Los Angeles: Archaia.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Schlitz, Laura Amy. (2017). Princess Cora and the Crocodile. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

STARTED:
Eagar, Lindsay. (2017). Race to the Bottom of the Sea. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Hatke, Ben. (2016). Mighty Jack [Book 1]. New York: First Second/Roaring Brook.

[.]

STARTED:
Wiesner, David and Donna Jo Napoli. (2017). Fish Girl. New York: Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Marciano, John Bemelmans. (2016). Mischief Season [Witches of Benevento, Book 1]. New York: Viking/Penguin Random House.

[.]

STARTED:
Shevah, Emma. (2016). Dara Palmer's Major Drama. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky.

[Re-reading to review for ACL.]

*

FINISHED:

Phelan, Matt. (2016).  Snow White.  Somerville, MA: Candlewick.


[.]

STARTED:
Barnhill, Kelly. (2016). The Girl Who Drank the Moon. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Young Readers.

[.]

*

FINISHED:

Ryan, Pam Muñoz. (2015).  Echo.  New York: Scholastic.

[SO PLEASED to now be able to list this one here on the blog.  Obviously, as it was on of our Newbery Honor books, it's one that I read A NUMBER of times last year.  Also cool to now read it to just... read it.  No more note-taking and intense scrutiny.  Just able to read it for the FANTASTIC piece of fiction that it is.]

STARTED:
Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. (2015). The War That Saved My Life. New York: Dial/Penguin.

[Re-reading before meeting the author at the ALA Annual conference.]

*

FINISHED:
Lin, Grace. (2012). Starry river of the sky. New York: Little, Brown and Company.


[.]

STARTED:
Hartman,  Rachel.  (2012). Seraphina.  New York: Random House.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 

Losure, Mary. (2012). The Fairy Ring: Or Elsie and Frances Fool the World. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.
 [.]

STARTED:
DiTerlizzi, Tony. (2012). A hero for WondLa. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[The first in the series was my favorite book of 2010.  Been anticipating the followup for awhile!]

*

FINISHED:
Joyce, William, and Geringer, Laura. (2011). Nicholas St. North and the battle of the Nightmare King. New York: Atheneum/Simon & Schuster.

[.]

STARTED:
Scieszka, Jon [ed.]. (2011). Guys read: Thriller. New York: Walden Pond/HarperCollins.

[Reading for ACL...]

*

FINISHED:
Newbery, Linda. (2010). Lucy and the Green Man. New York: David Fickling/Random House.

[Review forthcoming...

Here:
When her grandfather dies and his cottage and garden are sold to a redeveloper, Lucy worries that the Green Man (aka Lob), a shadowy being that lives in the garden who only she and her grandfather can see, will have nowhere to go. Lucy keeps Lob’s memory alive by making pictures of him and talking about him to her friends, though after continually being made fun of she eventually gives up hope of ever seeing the Green Man again. Meanwhile, Lob begins to travel, feeling mysteriously compelled in one direction, eventually coming upon an elaborate garden show in London. There he meets and goes home with an old gardener, Cornelius, who is able to see him, ending up helping to tend Cornelius’s community garden plot. In the end, coincidentally, Lucy and her family are awarded a plot in the community garden right next to where the Green Man has settled. Newbery’s tome is rich on mood and poetic flow: chapters are laid out over the course of a calendar year, marking a change in seasons; Lob’s thoughts are often expressed in a larger font and verse (“Work here’s done. The road’s calling. South. South. Head south, to the glittering city, the snaking river, where roads run together like the centre of a web. The road leads south, the rushing trains, the humming and buzzing in the wires. Walk. Walk.”); and there are quite a few impressionistic ink-pen drawings throughout. Though I really liked the tone and flow of this one, I fear that it may be too esoteric and, thus, have limited appeal to its intended crowd.]

STARTED:
Nix, Garth, and Williams, Sean. (2011). Troubletwisters. New York: Scholastic.

[Have never read any Nix and was intrigued by the cover art on this one.]

*

FINISHED:
Bulla, Clyde Robert. (1962). The ring and the fire. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell.

[.]

STARTED:
Hardinge, Frances. (2006). Fly by night. New York: HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Archer, E. (2011). Geek fantasy novel. New York: Scholastic.

[[Reviewed from ARC.] Ralph is an American tech-geek hired by his aunt and uncle to come to their aging British castle to, ostensibly, help them set up a wireless network. Upon his arrival, Ralph meets his three cousins and another aunt, Aunt Chessie, whom the rest of the family has seemed to ostracize. Ralph eventually comes to understand that his mother and her sisters are fairy godmothers of a sort, imbued with the ability to grant each child one wish. However, after a mishap with Chessie’s son many years earlier, the women have sworn off that part of their nature. Naturally, each of Ralph’s cousins ends up making a wish which Aunt Chessie is only too happy to grant, and which ends up transporting each of them to an alternate reality. One cousin’s wish involves mobilizing a bunch of fairies to rebel against their oppressors, another is a riff off Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen”, and in the last Ralph must travel to purgatory and the underworld. Archer (actually author Elliot Schrefer) has written a novel for which the title is perfectly apt: the author has thrown in every fantasy creature, setting, and convention imaginable and, thus, comes across as just too ambitious. By the time you get to Ralph finding a teddy bear with a mirror in its paw which he then wraps around his head in order to view a wintery “otherworld”, you know that Archer has gone overboard. A bit of redemption comes toward the end of the novel when the narrator begins to cross the line and starts to interact with the characters, setting up a plot twist that will likely surprise most readers, and turning the novel into a meta-fictional whirlwind with a rather unconventional denouement. Rather bloated, unfocused and confounding, though, Archer’s novel, even with its exploding bunny rabbits, is just overdone.]

STARTED:
Yee, Lisa. (2011). Warp speed. New York: Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Gidwitz, Adam. (2010). A tale dark & Grimm. New York: Dutton/Penguin.

[[Reviewed from ARC.] Not your standard Hansel and Gretel retelling, the twin siblings wander their way through a series of “adventures” that are actually riffs on other Grimm’s tales, always hoping to find a good home where they will be taken care of by a good parent. Initially, the pair runaway when they hear that they may be sacrificed by their noble parents in order to save the life of a long-faithful servant, and then find themselves living with a man and woman who seem to have wished their seven sons into birds. The siblings are eventually separated, and Gretel gets caught up with a mysterious (murdering) stranger, while Hansel, after being cut out of the body of a beast, travels to Hell in order to steal three golden hairs from the head of the Devil (which plays out like a scene from Red Riding Hood). The stories are told in the detached and repetitive style of classic fairytales (“’Terrible,’ said the man with the beard. ‘Terrible,’ said the tall man. ‘Terrible,’ said the woman.”) allowing the frequent, contemporary author interjections to stand out and take on a more animated tone. Each chapter acts as a self-contained tale within the larger story, beginning with “Once upon a time…” and concluding with “The End” (although it is more often than not followed by “Almost…”). Indeed, in this, his debut novel, Gidwitz has taken numerous liberties with the Grimm canon, mixing and matching tales while adding his own slant/perspective. Some make take issue with Gidwitz remarking in the introduction, “Once upon a time, fairy tales were awesome. So why are all the versions of the stories you’ve heard so mind-numbingly boring?”, but his point is just that we have Disney-ized classic stories and taken out all of the juicy, gross, brutal parts that older children might revel in.]

STARTED:
Funke, Cornelia. (2010). Reckless. New York: Little, Brown & Company.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Black, Holly, and Justine Larbalestier, eds. (2010). Zombies vs. unicorns. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books.

[Which is cooler: zombies or unicorns? This anthology of 12 short stories, 6 featuring zombies (on whose side editor Justine Larbalestier firmly falls), and 6 featuring unicorns (the team led by editor Holly Black), aims to settle this debate once and for all. The stories themselves run the gamut: a girl rescues a newborn unicorn from a carnival sideshow at a time when unicorns are running wild and murdering with their poisonous horns; a take on a babysitter horror story where a college student ends up sitting for a famous actress’ adopted, reanimated children; a man is beheaded after being accused of sexually assaulting a princess, but when the princess gives birth is becomes clear that the baby’s father was actually a unicorn; and a group of high school students are determined to have their prom despite the fact that their town is becoming overrun with zombies, many of whom are their family members and fellow students. Interestingly, two of the zombie stories are written in 1st person and are not explicitly about homosexuality, but in both there are references, or a sense of equation, between homosexuality and being a zombie. In one of the stories, after the female narrator and a female friend become “blood buddies” with a bit of zombie blood, the friend cryptically says, “Like, if Dr. Bill saw you and me next to each other, he’d figure out what we were.” Each story is preceded by a witty tete-a-tete – palate cleansers that involve the editors stating their arguments, relating to the upcoming story, on behalf of their preferred beast. For the most part, every story is a compelling gem – some funny, some eerie, and some just plain bizarre – making the debate of “zombie or unicorn” that much more difficult.]

STARTED:
Railsback, Lisa. (2010). Noonie's masterpiece. San Francisco: Chronicle.

[Reading for ACL Distinguished.]

*

FINISHED:
Sedaris, David. (2010). Squirrel seeks chipmunk. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

[.]

STARTED:
Telgemeier, Raina. (2010). Smile. New York: Graphix/Scholastic.

[.]

*

Christmas Book 2009

Kohara, Kazuno. (2009). Here comes Jack Frost. Venice, CA: Roaring Book Press.

[LOVED her Ghosts in the House from last year. Though this one lacks some of the quirky fun of her previous book, it's still graphically amazing, this time rendered in cool blues and white. A great winter tale that I'm pleased to include and preserve as part of my Christmas picture book tradition.]

*

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.]

*

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.]

*

FINISHED:

Marriott, Zoe. (2008). The swan kingdom. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

[Liked it, but thought that it dragged in the middle. Lots of stunning descriptions, but not a whole lot of dialogue to move things along. Will post my ACL review when it is finished...

And here it is:

After her mother, Queen of the Kingdom, is viciously mauled to death by a mysterious beast, Alexandra’s father suddenly marries a woman who seems to have all of the Kingdom locked in a spell. Alexandra is then sent to another land to live with her aunt, all the while trying to get back and find her three older brothers who have all disappeared – most likely turned into swans. Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s tale “The Wild Swans” (first published in 1838), Marriott’s take plays out as an extended fairy tale for a new generation of readers. Loaded with stunningly descriptive passages, the novel actually feels a bit heavy in this regard with very little narrative action. As Alexandra is making her way back to the Kingdom, there are whole sections without any dialogue at all to move things forward as Alexandra can not speak or else she’ll ruin a spell to save her brothers. This all serves to make the ending somewhat anticlimatic compared to all that comes before it. Still, the language is lovely, and fans of fairy tale fantasy with strong female protagonists will be delighted.]


STARTED:
Bray, Libba. (2007). The sweet far thing. New York: Delacorte/Random House.

[Reading this one to see if I deem it "outstanding" for ACL. At over 800 pages, it's a BEAST.]


STARTED & FINISHED:

Stamaty, Mark Alan. (2004). Alia's mission: Saving the books of Iraq. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

[Read this one for obvious reasons. Such an amazing and inspiring story about a woman who feels so passionately about books and preserving history that she moves books out of the library in Basra and into her home in an effort to save them from possible bombing. Presented in a fantastic comic book/graphic novel format which ought to attract young ones to this story of bravery during wartime.]



Holm, Jennifer L., and Matthew Holm. (2007). Babymouse: puppy love. New York: Random House.

[Another great Babymouse adventure. In this one she goes through a series of pets (which all end up "lost" under her bed where they have a party together) before bringing home, caring for, and training a lost dog. FUNNY FUNNY FUNNY. The Babymouse series continues to please.]




Harper, Charise Mericle. (2005). Fashion Kitty. New York: Hyperion.

[Just couldn't resist this one - was especially drawn in by the glitter on the cover. A funny little graphic novel about a cat who realizes that she has special powers - especially the power to help people who are having a "fashion emergency". Had a bit of trouble telling one character from the other, but it was a swift little treat. Comes with mix and match panels in the middle.]

*