FINISHED:

Hale, Shannon. (2005). Princess academy. New York: Bloomsbury.

[All of the younger teenage girls in Miri's mountain village are forced to attend a "princess academy" as it has been told that the prince must marry a girl from Mount Eskel. There, Miri learns the value of friendship and family, how to read, the true value of the linder rocks that her people have been quarrying for years, and to be happy with what she has and where she is. There's some weird, somewhat underdeveloped stuff about "quarry speech" - or, how Miri's people can communicate with each other wordlessly - and I wish that a lot of the stuff that got packed into the ending - stuff about how important it is to be literate, and how Miri intends to start a school in her village - would've been explored more. I never really found myself WANTING to pick it up and find out what happened next, which is never a good sign. BUT, all that being said, it was enjoyable and I could see recommending it to just the right kid.]

STARTED:
Myers, Walter Dean. (2007). What they found: Love on 145th Street . New York: Wendy Lamb/Random House.

[Reading for ACL to see if I think that it should be deemed "outstanding" and "distinguished".]

*

STARTED & FINISHED:

Wiesmuller, Dieter. (1997/2000). The adventures of Marco and Polo. New York: Walker & Company.

[STUNNING illustrations in this tale of a monkey who visits the Arctic and is led around by a penguin. After finding the Arctic too cold, the monkey takes the penguin to HIS home in the warm jungle. A sweet, simple story with repetitive elements and a great message about making friends and really making an effort to understand who they are.]



Kitamura, Satoshi. (1999). Me and my cat? New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

[I just love this guy's illustrations. The story itself is about a boy and his cat who switch bodies for a day. Funny with an irreverent touch.]





Lobel, Arnold. (1966). Martha the movie mouse. New York: Harper & Row.

[Can't believe that I've never read this one by the Master before. A cute tale about a mouse looking for a new home who finds it in a movie theatre. When a film breaks, Martha takes it upon herself to fill the void in entertainment by dancing for the filmgoers. Rhyming text and Lobel's winning illustrations make this one a gem.]

STARTED:
Pullman, Philip. (1985). The ruby in the smoke. New York: Dell Laurel-Leaf/Random House.

[Started reading this over my Coachella weekend. Still need to make it through Princess Academy as well. I'm not much of a person for mysteries, but I'm liking this one. Pullman, as always, is a master storyteller.]

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FINISHED:

Choldenko, Gennifer. (2004). Al Capone does my shirts. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.

[Ok, well, I wasn't completely WOWED by this one. Not even sure that I would consider it a Newbery Honor book. Parts just seemed a bit overwrought and overly dramatic, and I never really ever got the sense that it was truly 1935 in San Francisco. There was one mention of brushing his teeth with his finger after mixing some kind of toothpaste powder in his palm, but, otherwise, I never felt like it was taking place in the past. Pretty interesting touch to have a character with autism, since I doubt that has ever really been explored in a historical children's book, and I appreciated the main character's dedication (and utter frustration) to his autistic sister, but still wasn't really won over that much. Great recommendation for kids who live in the area, though.]

STARTED:
Hale, Shannon. (2005). Princess academy. New York: Bloomsbury.

[Keep hearing about this one and seeing it come and go at the library. Hate to be sexist, but I just felt like reading something a little "girly"...]

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FINISHED:

Babbitt, Natalie. (1975). Tuck everlasting. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[Been thinking about the future and what it holds for me lately and writing keeps coming up as a possibility - that said, this one is pretty close to the kind of novel that I could see myself writing, especially odd since I just mentioned to someone the other day that I'd likely write in the "magical realism" genre. I love the fact that it's about the Tucks, who can live forever, but is told through Winnie's eyes (except for the Prologue and Epilogue...) and the fact that it is incredibly IMPRESSIONISTIC - meaning that the writing leaves the reader with a lot of room to write in details for themselves. I watched the movie (Disney, 2002) last night and really like it as well. A great adaptation that stayed really true to the themes of the book and actually, for me, expanded on certain themes. The bad thing about the movie is that it took away from the impressionistic sense of the text by filling in some details that the book left out, but is still one that I would show in conjunction with the reading of the book. The language is marvelous, and the interviews with Babbitt on the DVD and at the end of the paperback version that I read made me LOVE her and feel a real connection with her as an (aspiring?) writer and human being. Will definitely pick this one up again and explore her other works.]

STARTED:
Choldenko, Gennifer. (2004). Al Capone does my shirts. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.

[I've had this one checked out to me for WAY too long - it's been on the list to read for awhile and it's time has finally come.]

*

FINISHED:

Baccalario, Pierdomenico. (2007). Ulysses Moore: The house of mirrors. New York: Scholastic.

[There's just something about these books (this is the 3rd in the series) that is compelling to me. Can't really articulate it, though. The amazing thing is that this books is 244 pages and it took me NO TIME AT ALL to read. And, honestly, I'd have a hard time telling you exactly what happened in it because, well, not a whole lot happened. It all took place in a day, and the 3 kids (it's ALWAYS three kids - 2 boys and a girl) ran around town trying to figure out who this mysterious clockmaker guy was and what the deal is with all the doors and keys in Kilmore Cove - a place that they are finding out wants to be kept hidden from the world. The book is called The House of Mirrors but the house was in one chapter and in that chapter it got demolished. Of course, the sequel is coming and I will read it because these things are like candy - just quick and satisfying even though, like I said, nothing really happens in them.]

STARTED:
Babbitt, Natalie. (1975). Tuck everlasting. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[Classic that I've always wanted to read - and have known that I should read.]

*

FINISHED:

Balliett, Blue. (2008). The Calder game. New York: Scholastic.

[REALLY pleased with this one. Will definitely push for it to be on this year's Distinguished List with ACL. Thought that Balliett did a FANTASTIC job of working the concept of Calder sculptures into the RELATIONSHIPS between characters and the TEXT itself. The three main kids, Calder, Petra, and Tommy, are jockeying for position amongst each other and their individual relationships with games, words, and found objects (respectively) all play as delicately balanced, always in flux, Calder mobiles. The language is much richer than Balliett's previous two works, and there's still a sense of magical realism here that Balliett does so well.

p.s. It took me SO long to read because I'm a real fan of this series and wanted to savor every word. It paid off.]

STARTED:
Baccalario, Pierdomenico. (2007). Ulysses Moore: The house of mirrors. New York: Scholastic.

[Clearly the publisher has given up much hope for this series. While the first two books in the series were little hardcovers (think: Series of Unfortunate Events) and filled with great illustrations, this one has gone straight to mass market paperback and there really aren't ANY illustrations at all. We'll see if the text holds up with the previous entries...]

*

FINISHED:

Conford, Ellen. (1976). The Alfred G. Graebner Memorial High School Handbook of Rules and Regulations. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.

[Hilarious - I mean, laugh out loud - stuff from someone that I will need to read more from. There were times where I really thought that I was reading a David Sedaris short story... Vignettes about a girl in high school and the crazy stuff that happens to her. In one story she's recruited to sell contraband school supplies, in another she's trying her hand at writing for the school literary journal - edited by a couple of radicals who only want material that questions "the Man", and in another she's pretty sure that her Home Ec teacher is uncomfortable talking about sex because she isn't getting any herself. Really pleased with this one - great, timeless humor from a novel that came out in 1978 (there are more than a couple references to the main character's distrust of computers...) and one that I would recommend and read again.]

STARTED:
Balliett, Blue. (2008). The Calder game. New York: Scholastic.

[It's not even on the shelves in stores yet!! I saw a review copy come in to the library and put a desperate post-it on it saying that I wanted to read it. The only bad thing is that it is an uncorrected proof - thus, it's not the final layout and the Brett Hellquist illustrations are sketches of what the finals will look like...]

*

FINISHED:

Wiles, Deborah. (2007). The Aurora County all-stars. New York: Harcourt.

[Read it to see if I thought that it was one of the best books of last year. Um, I REALLY liked the messages and the focus on Walt Whitman's words and the statements about racism... and those pushed it over the edge for me. It all felt the tiniest bit underdeveloped - as if the book could've been a few dozen pages longer, beefing up some of the characters and their motivations - but I'd definitely recommend it.]


STARTED & FINISHED:

Venable, Alan. (2008). Take me with you when you go. San Francisco: One Monkey Books.

[A woman that I've met at the library knows the guy who wrote this and got him to send me a free copy. It's about two young siblings, a brother and sister, who are on a quest to find their parents. Told in a folktale style that made me HUNT for an author's note in the book - SURE that this must be an adaptation of an existing tale - this one REALLY surprised me. At first I wasn't sure that I could make it through it, but then I couldn't put it down. It all seems a bit random, but is really sweet and quite clever.]

STARTED:
Conford, Ellen. (1976). The Alfred G. Graebner Memorial High School Handbook of Rules and Regulations. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.

[Shelving at SFPL Main Children's Center, I see books come and go and this one has continually caught my eye. The title, the jacket, the summary on the jacket flap - just sounds pretty funny.]

*

FINISHED:

Price, Charlie. (2007). Lizard people. New York: Roaring Brook.

[Here's my ACL review - it was OK, but lacked a certain something:

While high school student Ben is checking his mother into a mental hospital ward after she claims that lizard people are taking over the Earth, he meets another young man, Marco who is doing the same with his mother. Through ongoing storytelling sessions, Marco tells Ben how he has traveled through time to the year 4000 via a wormhole in the trunk of a tree in his backyard, all in an effort to gain insight into mental illness and bring a cure back to 2007. The author does a solid job keeping the reader guessing as to the authenticity of Marco’s tale, especially when details of Ben’s own life start to show up in the story, and things get even more intriguing as no one else seems to have even heard of Marco causing Ben to question his own sanity – could his mother’s mental illness have been passed on to him? Not for the faint of heart, this is a young adult novel that refuses to shy away from the gritty and awful side of drug abuse and mental illness giving us a gritty picture of one young man’s struggles with his drug addicted, bipolar mother, his absentee/alcoholic father, and, ultimately, his own sanity. Fairly satisfying overall, but one wonders what the novel could’ve really been like if some of the supporting characters – especially Ben’s father and his best friend’s sister, Z – were more thoroughly fleshed out and their reason for being more thoroughly stated.]

STARTED:
Wiles, Deborah. (2007). The Aurora County all-stars. New York: Harcourt.

[A much lauded book from last year - I'm reading it to see if I feel the same way about it.]

*

FINISHED:

MacLeod, Doug. (2006/2007). I'm being stalked by a moonshadow. Honesdale, PA: Front Street/Boyds Mills.

[Will post my ACL review when it's finished. And, here it is:

While “rendering” their house out of animal manure, Seth, an Australian teen, and his hippie parents find themselves at odds with the town environmental health officer, Mr. Raven, setting off an ongoing feud between Seth’s father and the official. Naturally, Seth, a budding playwright who is unnaturally preoccupied with muscles on women, falls for Mr. Raven’s daughter, Miranda, hoping to woo her by following a list of “22 Ways to Know If He Is Mr. Right” (included in an appendix at the end of the novel) which he finds in a copy of a girls’ magazine. Though this is little more than a typical “wacky stories in a teen’s slice of life” novel, it should be noted that the humor here is often wonderfully dry and some of the supporting characters, especially Seth’s brother – a fingernail-painting hypochondriac who believes he may be a nudist – and members of Seth’s drama class, are humorously drawn with consistent wit. Hardly anything out of the ordinary, this is still a charming little novel, first published in Australia in 2006, that ought to leave any reader occasionally chuckling out loud. Included in this U.S. edition is a forward from the author titled “A Warning to Americans” explaining some Australian colloquialisms.]


STARTED:
Price, Charlie. (2007). Lizard people. New York: Roaring Brook.

[Also reviewing for ACL. Trying to actually get them done well before the next meeting...]

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