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...]

*

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.]

*

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.]

*

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...]

*

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...]

*

FINISHED:

Barshaw, Ruth McNally. (2007). Ellie McDoodle: Have pen will travel. New York: Bloomsbury.

[As suspected, this is kind of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" for girls.]

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

[It's time...]

*

FINISHED:

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

[Is it me, or did this one have pretty obvious product placement in it? Praising the fact that the Gap sells t-shirts in a wide variety of colors? Are we REALLY supposed to be able to follow along and solve the clues with Amy and Dan? The two of them seem to be taking leaps in logic and connection - so how are we supposed to keep up? Sure, I figured out the code in the hieroglyphics on a few pages where the page numbers should be, but if I got the cards and all would it really all make some kind of sense??]

STARTED:
Barshaw, Ruth McNally. (2007). Ellie McDoodle: Have pen will travel. New York: Bloomsbury.

[Looks fun.]

*

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:

Rodgers, Mary. (1982). Summer switch. New York: Harper & Row.

[Entertaining, but nowhere near my favorite of hers. I was also surprised by the homophobic slurs throughout...]

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

[Read the first book in the Bartimaeus trilogy and thought that it was excellent (been meaning to read the other two... but they're a bit intimidating in their size...) - this one's been getting great reviews.]

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