STARTED & FINISHED:
Gillman, Melanie. (2017). As the Crow Flies. Chicago: Iron Circus Comics.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Ness, Patrick. (2017). Release. New York: HarperCollins.

[.] 

STARTED:
Williams-Garcia, Rita. (2017). Clayton Byrd Goes Underground. New York: Amistad/HarperCollins.

[Getting some Newbery buzz...]

*

FINISHED: 
Pullman, Philip. (2017). The Book of Dust: Volume One: La Belle Sauvage. New York: Knopf.

[.]

STARTED:
Meloy, Colin. (2017). The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid. New York: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Pullman, Philip. (1995). The Golden Compass [His Dark Materials: Book 1]. New York: Ballantine/Random House.

[.]

STARTED:
Tagame, Gengoroh. (2014). Endless Game. Berlin, Germany: Bruno Gmünder.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Gidwitz, Adam. (2016). The Inquisitor's Tale. New York: Dutton/Penguin/Random House.

[.]

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

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Sedaris, David. (1997). "C.O.G." from Naked. Boston: Little, Brown.

[.]

STARTED:
Jinks, Catherine. (2013). How to catch a bogle. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

[.]


*

FINISHED:
Martel, Yann. (2001). Life of Pi. New York: Harcourt.

[.]


STARTED:
Fairlie, Emily. (2012).  The lost treasure of Tuckernuck.  New York: Katherine Tegan/HarperCollins.

[Reviewing for ACL...]

*

FINISHED:
Hautman, Pete. (2012). The obsidian blade: The Klaatu diskos: Book 1. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[[Reviewed from ARC.]


Tucker Feye lives with his mother and preacher father, Adrian, in small-town Hopewell County, Minnesota. One day while fixing a shingle on the roof, Adrian gets sucked into a swirling disk and disappears, only to return a short time later denouncing his faith and with an odd girl in tow. After his parents then leave to find a cure for a mysterious illness that has overtaken his mother, Tucker moves in with his Uncle Kosh and decides to see what these swirling disks are about, jumping into one and getting transported to the top of one of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. Though the novel’s first third has a sense of eerie mystery, once Tucker begins being transported through space and time via the portal disks, things get kind of convoluted and a tad confusing. There are a couple of different kinds of “beings” that Tucker encounters who aren’t clearly drawn or distinguishable, and one is never quite sure how all of the portals and their various worlds are interconnected. However, a compelling discourse on faith and religion in the digital age is here (“The greatest plague of all is upon us: The Digital Plague.”), as well as questions on the nature of time and space (“Is a future, once observed, still changeable? Or does the fact that we have observed it make it an immutable part of our personal past?”), adding to the novel’s mind-bending appeal. The first title in a trilogy, this one smacks of a lot of set-up, leaving a whole lot unanswered which one can only hope will be resolved in the next installments. That said, Hautman’s sci-fi tale is smart and thought-provoking with an intriguing cliffhanger ending that hints at jaw-dropping things to come.]


STARTED:
Wright, Bil. (2011). Putting makeup on the fat boy. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[Been in the mood for a young adult title with some strong gay characters.  This Stonewall Book Award winner should fit the bill...]

*

FINISHED:
Augarde, Steve. (2010). X Isle. New York: David Fickling Books.

[.]

STARTED:
Soo, Kean. (2009). Jellaby: Monster in the city. New York: Disney/Hyperion.

[Going to blast though a couple of graphic novels that have been sitting by the side of the bed for far too long...]

*

FINISHED:
Kopp, Sheldon B. (1972). If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him! Ben Lomond, CA: Science and Behavior Books.

[.]

STARTED:
Beaudoin, Sean. (2011). You killed Wesley Payne. New York: Little, Brown & Company.

[Reviewing for ACL.]

*

FINISHED:
Pullman, Philip. (2010). The good man Jesus and the scoundrel Christ. New York: Canongate/Publishers Group West.

[.]

STARTED:
Sachar, Louis. (2010). The cardturner. New York: Delacorte/Random House.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Shan, Darren. (2010). The thin executioner. New York: Little, Brown & Co.

[After being publicly humiliated for his perceived weakness by his executioner father, Jebel embarks on a mythic quest to ask a fire god for invincibility in hopes of being able to return to his home and win a competition to be the new town executioner. Accompanying Jebel is a slave, Tel Hesani, whom he knows he will eventually need to sacrifice in order to appease the god, though along the way Jebel learns tolerance and the fact that it’s the journey, not what’s at the end of the road, that really matters. Shan, author of the popular vampire series Cirque du Freak (Little, Brown, 2001) has penned a (trademark) gory homage to Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which includes cons, cannibals, and involuntary graverobbing. Most characters are a bit one-dimensional and the quest story is nothing new, but Jebel’s paradigm shift in regard to what he has always learned is traditionally “right” or “normal”, and the examination of religious differences (though somewhat heavy-handed) are important lessons. Plenty of blood is shed through realistic human-on-human stabbings, slicings and beheadings which should satisfy young adult horror fans [Reviewed from ARC.].]

STARTED:
Houtman, Jacqueline. (2010). The reinvention of Edison Thomas. Honesdale, PA: Front Street/Boyds Mills.

[Reviewing for ACL.]

*

FINISHED:
Pfeffer, Susan Beth. (2010). this world we live in. New York: Harcourt/Houghton Mifflin.

[.]

STARTED:
Hunter, Erin. (2010). Seekers: The last wilderness. New York: HarperCollins.

[For some reason, she's got me hooked on this series of hers...]

*

FINISHED:

Heiligman, Deborah. (2009). Charles and Emma: The Darwin's leap of faith. New York: Henry Holt.

[.]

STARTED:
Mull, Brandon. (2006). Fablehaven. New York: Aladdin/Simon & Schuster.

[Was drawn in by the cover art the very first time I laid eyes upon it.]

*

FINISHED:

Abbot, Tony. (2005). Kringle. New York: Scholastic.

[Ugh. Extremely disappointed in this one. Number one, it spent way too much time on just one part of his life - fighting goblins, who were building some doomsday device, while trying to save some kids - instead of (I had HOPED) making fun stories up to explain some of those things that we all know about Santa... maybe I was just expecting something more kid friendly... More importantly, I was disappointed that it got all "religious-y". NEVER did I imagine, picking the book up, that there would be a character who talked (for multiple pages) about the STORY of the "Christ child". That said, I would NEVER recommend it to a child at the public library as it isn't as "inclusive" as I assumed it would be. I guess he was truly going for the SAINT Nicholas thing...]

STARTED:
Barry, D., & Pearson, R. (2008). Science fair. New York: Disney Editions.

[Haven't read any of their Peter Pan novels and thought this one looked like it would be fun.]

*

FINISHED:

Crutcher, Chris. (2009). Angry management: Three novellas. New York: Greenwillow/HarperCollins.

[ACL review to come...

An overweight teen takes a facially scarred girl to Reno to confront the mother that abandoned her with an abusive father; a goth girl who writes for the school paper fights censorship and falls for the school jock while looking out for her foster sister; and a gay, African American student in a white, rural school finds a pink noose on his locker. These three short stories comprise Crutcher’s latest which also happens to bring back and throw together characters from some of his earlier novels. It’s all quite timely and important, but at the same time overly ambitious, incredibly didactic and message-y: even a devout Christian gives a monologue on how racism and homophobia are wrong (“Jesus didn’t care whether you were some other color than pasty white, or whether or not you were gay. His Father made them and He loved them all.”) In addition, there is a bracketing device involving a teen counselor which goes nowhere and has very little to do with the stories themselves. While it’s appreciated that Crutcher has brought up for discussion a number of pressing issues, it feels a bit overstated and preachy.]

STARTED:
Westerfeld, Scott. (2009). Leviathan. New York: Simon & Schuster.

[Reviewing for ACL.]

*

FINISHED:

Stroud, Jonathan. (2009). Heroes of the valley. New York: Hyperion.

[LOVED. Recommending for the ACL 2009 Distinguished Books list.

Here's what I wrote for the review:

Many years ago, the twelve House heads of the valley banded together to fight off the evil, subterranean Trow. Now, many years later with the Trow at bay, Halli Sveinsson, a stubby and unattractive youth who happens to be in line for the head of his House, sets out to seek revenge against those from another House in the valley whom he witnessed murdering his uncle. Stroud, author of the celebrated Bartimeaus Trilogy (Hyperion, 2003-2006), has crafted an engaging adventure story brimming with action, intrigue, murder, legend, and mystery that borrows heavily from Viking lore. Surprisingly, there’s also a good amount of humor to be found here which serves to make the characters all the more human and believable. A romance bubbles between Halli and Aud, a young “princess” of her House, and Aud helps Halli to question all that he has been taught about the hero of his house, Svein – whose tales are told at the beginning of each chapter. As it turns out, all of the other Houses in the valley have similar stories about their heroes who participated in the conquering of the Trow, each claiming that their House’s hero was the greatest of them all. In addition, the very existence of the Trow is questioned; although no one has actually seen one in generations, everyone has just taken for granted that they exist based on lore. These plot points bring up the timely and important idea of questioning our heroes and what our elders have always told us to worship or fear. What (or who…) are the real demons that haunt us? And isn’t it true that we don’t have to live in the shadows of our heroes but all have the ability to be ones ourselves?]

STARTED:
Watson, Jude. (2009). Beyond the grave. New York: Scholastic.

[Only on Book #4?!? Not really sure why I keep reading these... I guess I just hope that there will be some big payoff in the end which will make it all worth it. If they weren't so short and light I would've given up a long time ago.]

*

FINISHED:

Pullman, Philip. (1997). The golden compass. New York: Del Rey/Ballantine.

[Really liked this again the second time around. Just wanted to make sure that I remembered it all before seeing the movie - which, just looks stupendous - like it has a really unique visual style. Can't imagine that it's going to be a huge success as I'm sure word of mouth will be, "It's pretty but it didn't make a lick of sense."]

STARTED:
Sanderson, Brandon. (2007). Alcatraz versus the evil librarians. New York: Scholastic.

[Reviewing for ACL.]

*