Just started two books: The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau, as highly recommended by some of my 7th graders; Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman, the HIGHLY anticipated (by me) sequel to Seraphina. Also reading a book translated from Taiwan: The Man with the Compound Eyes by Wu Ming-Yi (but really want to read the original text.)
Category Archives: Book Notes
Candymakers
by Wendy Mass
A delightful concoction of implausible coincidences, innocent spying, interconnectivity, and childish pleasures. I can’t quite stomach the excessive amount of sweets being served as main meals but I imagine my younger self would have been quite fascinated. The candy making process and rules are highly entertaining, and perhaps even informative! As most Wendy Mass books, this one is all about how to appreciate one’s life and accept one’s lot while still strive to expand understanding of the world around. No wonder my students love it so much and it appeals to both genders and mystery and friendship book lovers.
Filed under Book Notes
West of the Moon
by Margi Preus
One of my favorite folk tales is East of the Sun, West of the Moon, and many children’s books have been inspired by this tale, such as East by Edith Pattou, a beautiful fantasy reimagining. I enjoyed reading this book by Preus, but due to my own preferences for “real” magic and fantasy, I found myself unsatisfied by the dreams/magical realism/faux fantasy elements in what is really a tale of immigration. That said, I appreciated greatly Preus’ ability to give deep and complex emotions to Astri and her deft hand at portraying vivid landscapes and adventures.
Filed under Book Notes
This One Summer
by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
Love the art in this bock, especially the skillful and creative ways many emotions are conveyed through imagery and hinted via lines and swirls. This is a quiet graphic story that eloquently showcases the interior life of a precocious prepubescent mind. Many of the double spreads are breathtaking and heartbreaking. It feels like a privilege to be allowed to peek into the minds of Rose and those around her.
Filed under Book Notes
The Player of Games
by Iain M. Banks
This second volume of The Culture series by Iain Banks kept me entranced throughout its sprawling telling of a brand new “universe” in my reading world.
Banks created a Utopian future where ownerships of objects, places, or people (as in, exclusive relationships) are no longer the norm and where sexual identities and preferences are all treated equal: in fact gender changes and and having partners in both genders are considered common place. In such a “Culture,” how do people entertain themselves and what matters and what matters not? Fun questions to ponder and explore. However, most of the story was set in the off world of Asad which bears similarities to our own human world — or perhaps the more barbaric ages of our world. Asad’s social structure is highly organized around rules and punishments — and there are some very cruel ways that criminals are dealt with (also what constitutes a “crime” can be quite shocking.)
I enjoyed reading the many theories of how the games are constructed and played and the author kept me guessing as to what the outcome would be. Thanks to my role playing game friend Brian who introduced me to this book! I’m onward to the first book of the series: Considering Phlebas.
Filed under Book Notes
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances
by Neil Gaiman
This is typical Gaiman: disturbing and unsettling little scenes, interesting observations of human natures, everything floating in between waking and dreaming. My favorite are the longer tales, “The Truth Is A Cave in the Black Mountains,” “The Sleeper and the Spindle,” and “The Black Dog.” The first two are folk/fairy tale reimagined, while the last one is an American Gods’ short with Shadow’s adventures continuing. Another small dosage to hold us over for the sequel to American Gods? Calendar of Tales with its many weird crowd sourced tales is also highly enjoyable. Oh, I can’t wait to actually WATCH a special episode (of the 11th doctor and Amy Pond) made based on “Nothing O’Clock.”
Filed under Book Notes
Over There at SLJ’s Battle of the Kids’ Books…
As one third of the Three-Headed-Battle-Commander, I’m now directing my and your attention toward this year’s Battle of the Kids’ Books, hosted annually by School Library Journal.
It is a way for us to highlight many outstanding titles from the previous year, be they award winners already or sleepers until now. Read all sixteen books, follow the judges’ decisions, vote for the Undead, and make your opinions heard in the Comments!
Filed under Book Notes
It Is Done! BFYA 2015 and Top Ten
It has been a year of rigorous reading and note taking and thinking hard on the 2014 YA fiction for me and my 14 fellow committee members.
Now the list is finalized: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/2015-best-fiction-young-adults
And the top ten YA fiction of the year (out of more than 600 submitted titles) are:
The Carnival at Bray. By Jessie Ann Foley.
The Crossover. By Kwame Alexander.
The Gospel of Winter. By Brendan Kiely.
I’ll Give You the Sun. By Jandy Nelson.
Jackaby. By William Ritter.
Noggin. By John Corey Whaley.
The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim. By E. K. Johnston.
Vango. By Timothee de Fombelle.
We Were Liars. By E. Lockhart.
The Young Elites. By Marie Lu.
Filed under Book Notes, Field Reports
BFYA 2015 Nominations – Final List
We did it! Our Committee of 15 nominated 113 titles to be considered for Best Fiction for Young Adults, 2015. You can find out what the titles are with short annotations on the official ALA/YALSA site.
Here’s a simplified list with just titles — Any surprises? Favorites? Comment away :)
| Al Said, Adi | Let’s Get Lost |
| Anderson, Jodi Lynn | The Vanishing Season |
| Arnett, Mindee | Avalon |
| Aronson, Marc | One Death, Nine Stories |
| Bassoff, Leah & Laura DeLuca | Lost Girl Found |
| Brezenoff, Steve | Guy in Real Life |
| Caletti, Deb | The Last Forever |
| DeWoskin, Rachel | Blind |
| Fine, Sarah | Of Metal and Wishes |
| Foley, Jessie Ann | The Carnival at Bray |
| Fombelle, Timothee de | Vango |
| Giles, Gail | Girls Like Us |
| Gold, Jennifer | Soldier Doll |
| Griffin, Bethany | The Fall |
| Hosie, Donna | The Devil’s Intern |
| Kiernan, Celine | Into the Grey |
| King, A.S. | Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future |
| Knudsen, Michelle | Evil Librarian |
| LaMarche, Una | Like No Other |
| Maas, Sarah | Heir of Fire |
| Magoon, Kekla | How It Went Down |
| Mathieu, Jennifer | The Truth About Alice |
| McGovern, Cammie | Say What You Will |
| Mesrobian, Carrie | Perfectly Good White Boy |
| Miller, Lauren | Free to Fall |
| Moracho, Cristina | Althea & Oliver |
| Nix, Garth | Clariel |
| Parker, Natalie C. | Beware the Wild |
| Parsons, Mark Huntley | Road Rash |
| Pearson, Mary E. | The Kiss of Deception |
| Polonsky, Ami | Gracefully Grayson |
| Ritter, William | Jackaby |
| Smith, Andrew | 100 Sideways Miles |
| Smith, Jennifer E. | The Geography of You and Me |
| Spears, Kat | Sway |
| Stiefvater, Maggie | Blue Lily, Lily Blue |
| Talkington, Amy | Liv, Forever |
| Tregay, Sarah | Fan Art |
| Walrath, Dana | Like Water on Stone |
| Zarr, Sara | Roomies |
| Aslan, Austin | The Islands at the End of the World |
| Fredericks, Mariah | Season of the Witch |
| Kizer, Amber | Pieces of Me |
| Phillips, LInda Vigen | Crazy |
| Schrefer, Eliot | Threatened |
| Smith, Sherwood & Brown, Rachel Manija | Stranger |
| Tintera, Amy | Rebel |
| Willey, Margaret | Beetle Boy |
| Alexander, Kwame | The Crossover |
| Almond, David | The True Tale of Monster Billy Dean |
| Anderson, Laurie Halse | The Impossible Knife of Memory |
| Armentrout, Jennifer | Don’t Look Back |
| Bedford, Martyn | Never Ending |
| Blankman, Anne | Prisoner of Night and Fog |
| Brown, Jennifer | Torn Away |
| Brown, Skila | Caminar |
| Burgess, Melvin | The Hit |
| Carleson, J.C. | The Tyrant’s Daughter |
| Colbert, Brandy | Pointe |
| Combs, Sarah | Breakfast Served Anytime |
| Dellaira, Ava | Love Letters to the Dead |
| Giles, Lamar | Fake ID |
| Graudin, Ryan | The Walled City |
| Green, Sally | Half Bad |
| Griffin, Adele | The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone |
| Han, Jenny | To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before |
| Hattemer, Kate | The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy |
| Herbach, Geoff | Fat Boy vs. the Cheerleaders |
| Howe, Katherine | Conversion |
| Hubbard, Jenny | And We Stay |
| Johnston, E.K. | The Story of Owen: Dragonslayer of Troneheim |
| Kephart, Beth | Going Over |
| Kiely, Brendan | The Gospel of Winter |
| Kuehn, Stephanie | Complicit |
| Kulper, Kendall | Salt & Storm |
| LaCour, Nina | Everything Leads to You |
| LaFevers, Robin | Mortal Heart |
| Lloyd-Jones, Emily | Illusive |
| Lockhart, e. | We Were Liars |
| Lu, Marie | The Young Elites |
| Maciel, Amanda | Tease |
| Maguire, Gregory | Egg & Spoon |
| Nelson, Jandy | I’ll Give You the Sun |
| Neri, G | Knockout Games |
| Oliver, Lauren | Panic |
| Paige, Danielle | Dorothy Must Die |
| Philbrick, Rodman | Zane and the Hurricane: A Story of Katrina |
| Pratt, Non | Trouble |
| Quintero, Isabel | Gabi, a Girl in Pieces |
| Reinhardt, Dana | We Are the Goldens |
| Reynolds, Jason | When I Was the Greatest |
| Rutkoski, Marie | The Winner’s Curse |
| Sedgwick, Marcus | She Is Not Invisible |
| Sharpe, Tess | Far From You |
| Shepherd, Megan | Her Dark Curiosity |
| Shinoda, Anna | Learning Not to Drown |
| Smith, Andrew | Grasshopper Jungle |
| Smith, Lindsay | Sekret |
| Strasser, Todd | No Place |
| Taylor, Laini | Dreams of Gods and Monsters |
| Templeman, McCormick | The Glass Casket |
| Tripp, Ben | The Accidental Highwayman |
| Venkatraman, Padma | A Time to Dance |
| Vlahos, Len | The Scar Boys |
| Waller, Sharon Biggs | A Mad, Wicked Folly |
| Walton, Leslye | The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender |
| Westerfeld, Scott | Afterworlds |
| Whaley, John Corey | Noggin |
| White, Kiersten & Jim Di Bartolo | In the Shadows |
| Wiles, Deborah | Revolution |
| Wolitzer, Meg | Belzhar |
| Wood, Fiona | Wildlife |
| Winters, Cat | The Cure for Dreaming |
Filed under Book Notes, Field Reports
School Library Journal’s Best Books of 2014 are…
School Library Journal’s Best Books of 2014 are announced. Four categories: Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Nonfiction. Use the list to buy books for your library, find gifts for your loved ones, or for your personal reading pleasure: http://www.slj.com/best-books-2014
November 30, 2014 · 3:45 pm
Peace Corps Volunteer’s Africa Book Honored by Smithsonian
Fellow former Sierra Leone Peace Corps Volunteer Monica Edinger was honored yesterday at the Smithsonian for her children’s book – Africa is my Home: Child of the Amistad. It tells the story of a child captured into slavery on the Amistad ship and her eventual return to Sierra Leone.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art (NMAA) held their 22nd annual Children’s Africana Book Awards (CABA) in Washington, DC. CABA was created by Africa Access and the Outreach Council of the African Studies Association to honor authors and illustrators who have produced exceptional books on Africa for young people.
Four books were honored in this category for young people, including a book authored by Desmond Tutu. Not bad company to keep, Monica. Congradulations!
I introduced her book on the blog last September. Check it out. Looking for an Xmas gift for a child in your life? This would make a…
View original post 9 more words
Filed under Book Notes, Field Reports
Listening to a short story collection of Mark…
Listening to a short story collection of Mark Twain and am so delighted. The Diaries of Adam and Eve is simply brilliant! Also almost done with The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone by Adele Griffin.
November 3, 2014 · 10:35 am
Fight Club
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
I never watched the entire Fight Club movie — only bits and pieces. Now I have to find time to watch the movie in its entirety to see how they managed to adapt this superb novel into its very successful screen counterpart. Granted, I probably do not wish to see all the gruesome and gross scenes literally translated for film, although those are the scenes that definitely appealed to my reading self. Whether it’s intended by the author or conjured up by my own protective mechanism, the over-the-top crazy schemes and bloody messes always seem to take on a humorous tone — sometimes light and oftentimes really dark, but always laugh-out-loud hilarious. I can see re-reading it in a few years just to trace the narrator’s slow unraveling and downfall and see all the telltale signs of the final reveal along the path. Can’t help but giving it a five star, highly recommended rating!
Filed under Book Notes
Finished The Young Elite by Marie Lu and…
Finished The Young Elite by Marie Lu and Fight Club by Chuck Palaniuk. Starting The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone by Adele Griffin and The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Stories by Mark Twain.
October 26, 2014 · 1:45 pm
Fiished Trouble by Non Pratt In the Shadows…
Fiished Trouble by Non Pratt, In the Shadows by Kiersten White and Jim Di Bartolo, and She is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick. Just started The Young Elites by Marie Lu. Also in the middle of listening to Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk.
October 24, 2014 · 9:44 am
The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Even though there were passages and descriptions that are overly lengthy, as a whole, the story moves at an effective and at times breathless pace. Highly affecting! I am so impressed with how it set up so many prototypes, from physical descriptions to potential advanced technologies, for modern alien/alien invasion stories. A real classic!
Filed under Book Notes
Low-Key Mayhem at New York Comic Con, 2014 – Episode 3
Since I thought (wrongly) that there were few panels or featured entertainers of interest this year when I went through the massive program lineup prior to the Con, I was mentally prepared to treat NYCC 2014 as my personal shopping spree opportunity. It turned out that I spent a lot more time in the A1 area with good presentations than walking the show floor for merchandize browsing. Still, one cannot help but collecting fun and funky things. Here’s a catalog of almost everything I got. Descriptions and notes are attached to the images. (Hover over each image to see the beginning of the note. Click on an image to read the full note and also start the slideshow mode.)
Deathnote Clock necklace
Interior of the Deathnote clock
Loki necklace :)
Tardis Leggins! Shiny.
Dragon from Game of Thrones, Kidrobot booth. Black box.
Kidrobot Booth — Nebula and Ronan from Guardians of the Galaxy bobble heads.
Bag of stickers with unusual graphic designs and a necklace. Same booth.
TOKIDOKI black box Cactus Kittens and a little unicorno.
Tokidoki Comic Con exclusive: Donutella, Gold. Vinyl.
Great collection of fantasy artwork
Editor and designer of White Clouds Paul Tobin’s sketch inside the book. Also bough the Smaug book and had him sketch a dragon head for a friend.
First Hobbit movie companion
I asked Nick Kelly for a weapon and Paul Tobin for a Hobbit.
Max Brooks’ Historical nonfiction GN, autographed.
Augmented Reality in 3D.
Cover of SHIFTER under Augmented Reality, screen captured with my phone.
Cover of SHIFTER under Augmented Reality, screen captured with my phone.
Star Wars Fan Art posters – #1
Star Wars Fan Art posters – #2
Star Wars an Art posters – #3
Star Wars Fan Art posters – #4
Filed under Book Notes
Recently finished books Brown Girl Dreaming by Woodson…
Recently finished books: Brown Girl Dreaming by Woodson; Revolution by Wiles; Americanah by Adichie; Egg & Spoon by Maguire; Illusive by Lloyd-Jones
October 5, 2014 · 11:28 am
Kirkus Prize Finalists — Very different from National Book Award Long List
Kirkus Book Reviews announced the finalists for the Kirkus Prize for several categories today. The finalists for the young readers are:
EL DEAFO
by Cece Bell, illustrated by Cece Bell
THE RIGHT WORD: ROGET AND HIS THESAURUS
by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
THE KEY THAT SWALLOWED JOEY PIGZA
by Jack Gantos
THE STORY OF OWEN: DRAGON SLAYER OF TRONDHEIM
by E.K. Johnston
THE FREEDOM SUMMER MURDERS
by Don Mitchell
AVIARY WONDERS INC.: SPRING CATALOG AND INSTRUCTION MANUAL
by Kate Samworth, illustrated by Kate Samworth
Some observations:
- Kirkus: 6 titles – NBA: 10 titles
- Kirkus: 3 out of the 6 titles (50%) are NOT fiction and 1 more that is a mixture (lots of scientific information in an imagined environment) – NBA 2 out of 10 (20%) is NOT fiction with quite a few titles set against very realistic or historical backdrops.
- Kirkus: All 6 titles are suitable for a sixth grader or younger – NBA, at least 3 titles pure YA and most are of interest to older readers.
- Kirkus: 1 Graphic Novel – NBA no Graphic Novel
The two lists definitely complement each other!
Filed under Book Notes, Views
Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us
Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us by Claude M. Steele
Although so much of the book seems like Common Sense to me, it’s always great to be reminded of our own biases and strategies that can alleviate tension and reduce misunderstanding and thus foster a positive learning environment for our students. I felt my time worth spent on this volume.
Filed under Book Notes
