Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Winner of the 2009 Printz book, Jellicoe Road, from what I can tell, seems to have gotten some very mixed reviews online. It didn’t find its way onto too many Printz prediction lists, and I’ve heard talk from some that they think it is more of an adult book, or even that it has a plot too complicated to follow. These are balanced out by those who loved the book.

Jellico Road is not an easy read. It is definitely written for someone who is a skilled reader. I found the plot complicated, but not overly so, and truthfully, it was only for the first quarter that I wondered how the pieces fit together. After that all the disparate pieces begin to fit together in a way that was emotional and beautiful and made me tear up many a time.

I won’t say it didn’t give me pause once or twice. There were some supernatural elements that didn’t quite work for me, I thought Taylor should have put together her history a bit quicker, that there was probably a coincidence or two too many in the plot, and that in her desire to be loyal Hannah did Taylor a grave disservice.

However, the strengths of the novel far outweighed any problems I had with it. The characterization was superb. I felt like I knew these characters. I loved their interactions and their relationships. LOVED them. Seriously, I loved Taylor and all her friends. Simply put, the friendships are beautiful. The emotion contained in this book was incredible and overwhelming and believable in all the right ways. And the dialogue couldn’t have been more top notch.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Everybody and their mother has already reviewed Graceling so I won't add to much, other to agree with the masses that this was, indeed, a spectacular new fantasy. The author created a new world that was well thought out, rich with history, and because of that the reader becomes completely immersed in that world as they read.

It reminded me a lot of Tamora Pierce, which I think is a high compliment. It featured an independent woman as the main character, a romance that was based on mutual respect, constant plot development, and action that almost never stops. All the while featuring superb characterization.

I'm glad I got to read this before the year ended, although perhaps a little closer to the sequel would have been good!

Mock Newbery

Our library system is holding our first Mock Newbery. Alison and I worked with a committee to select a variety of titles to make it to this final list. Judgment day is January 12.

Ain't Nothing Like a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry by Scott Reynolds Nelson

Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look

Brooklyn Bridge by Karen Hesse

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Savvy by Ingrid Law

Smiles to Go by Jerry Spinelli

The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West by Sid Fleischman

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor

We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

I picked this one up because it is nominated for this year's National Book Award.

Evie is 15, busy practicing smoking with chocolate cigarettes with her best friend Gloria, lusting after a boy who is clearly in love with someone else, and just generally being a normal teenage girl in 1947 Queens. When her stepfather surprises her mother and her with a vacation to Florida, it seems fun and exciting. It turns out to be anything but.

From the beginning, you can tell that no one is really who they say they are. Her stepfather and Peter (the hunky war "buddy" that Evie falls hard for) have something shady in their past. The Graysons act suspicious and don't offer much personal information to the group. In short, there is atmosphere as thick as the Florida heat in this book. Glances, quiet conversations, secret notes, clandestine meetings. All clues to what is really going on with her family and the other vacationers at the out of season hotel they are staying at. Evie picks up on the undercurrents, even if it takes her some time to figure out their true meaning.

The author did a bang up job of creating the setting and building atmosphere. The characters all kept their secrets, but they still managed to be multifaceted, fully realized, and incredibly interesting at the same time. Evie figures out much of what has happened, but that doesn't mean she knows the full extent of everyone's participation.

Without giving away some major plot points, I wanted to mention that I really loved how the author tied in post-war profiteering into the story. It was original and a theme that snaked its way into the wider story in unexpected ways.

A big thumbs up.

Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher

Ruby is an ordinary 15 year old school girl from a respectable family in the 1940s. But then her father dies, her mother’s arthritis gets too painful to keep working and Ruby has to quit school to work in one of the meat-packing factories to support herself, her mother and her younger sister. Not that it supports them very well – she makes barely enough to feed them and their debts are piling up. Then she meets Paulie. A local boy with a bad reputation who tells her about another way to make money. Soon she’s swept up into a romance with Paulie and working as a taxi-dancer at a local club.

A taxi-dancer you say? Taxi-dancers worked at clubs where men would buy 10 cent dance tickets and purchase dances with the ladies that worked there. The woman would get 5 cents for each dance plus tips if she was lucky. What the job lacked in societal respect it more than made up for in money. Because the job was not considered respectable many women lied about their profession so that they could keep the esteem of their families and friends. Taxi-dancers were not prostitutes, but they did provide an “illusion” of intimacy and love so that they could earn more money.

Ruby is poor and forced to make hard and difficult choices. She doesn’t necessarily make the right decisions, but when she makes a decision she owns it. She deals with the repercussions and grows and develops as a character in ways that are completely believable. Christine Fletcher has done what is so difficult to do in a historical fiction – create a character that could actually have existed in the time period she is writing about (thankfully Ruby does not suffer from overly spunky convention breaking syndrome).

Fletcher is also able to describe the casual racism that was common during that time period. Taxi-dance halls were one of the only places Asian men could mix freely with white women. They could buy tickets just like the white men, although that didn’t guarantee them a dance, many taxi-dancers would simply pretend not to see them. There were also after hour clubs called Black and Tans where African American, whites, and Asians would gather to enjoy jazz, swing and other types of music. Ruby stars off rather horrified at the casual mixing of races and then slowly opens her mind as she gets to know people of other ethnic backgrounds. I thought that the race issue was handled very deftly and helped to show what the prevailing thoughts of the time period were.

Readers will be drawn into Ruby’s story from the first page. They will see Ruby develop from a naïve and innocent school girl into a savvy streetwise woman. The taxi-dance clubs, as well as the women who worked there make for a compulsively readable book about an era that readers likely won't know anything about. I can’t recommend it enough.

Just as an added note – Christine Fletcher has a fascinating author note where she explains how a great-aunt’s life inspired the story. Absolutely amazing. And she also has a great wealth of information about taxi-dancers on her website.

Other reviews:
Yayaya’s (Who have also compiled a slew of links.)

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Oh my good gracious. I have found a book that is now in stiff competition for first place in my 2008 favorites.

Todd Hewitt is the last boy in a town full of men. He has a month left before he turns 13 and in the eyes (and laws) of Prentisstown become a man. He can't wait. Only it doesn't turn out quite like he thought. He discovers disturbing pockets of quiet in the swamp. Quiet that shouldn't be there. Quiet that no one has known since all the settlers of New World were infected with the Noise virus that makes it possible for everyone to hear everyone else's thoughts. Secrets begin to rise to the surface, ugly, violent, dangerous secrets. Before he can blink, Todd must escape in order to survive.

The Noise germ that has infected all the men (it immediately killed all the women) has also infected all the animals. Todd has a dog named Manchee that he can talk to and they can hear each other's thoughts as well. Hearing the thoughts and spoken words of every man and creature is a loud cacophonous ever present sound. Hence the name - the Noise germ. It is almost unbelievable how the author manages to present what could be a confusing situation. He uses fonts which almost appear like illustrations as a physical representation of what being infected with the Noise virus feels like. It is so effective. He also uses italics for thoughts in many cases. And even more amazing he creates personalities for creatures (like squirrels and alligators and sheep - oh the sheep!) so their thoughts are exactly what you think they would be. And Manchee the dog is pretty much what you would expect. He is loyal, thinks about pooing a lot, loves to chase, and is the sweetest thing that will completely steal your heart. When I could tear myself away from reading (which was very difficult) it was to pet my dogs and tell them i loved them.

There are so many twists and turns to this story it would be easy to accidentally let loose with spoilers and that would be tragic. Luckily, the back cover of the galley (which says what I presume will be the inside flap) doesn't give away anything. I can safely say that it is almost non-stop action that will leave you breathless as you wait to find out what happens next. Todd learns some hard lessons. My favorite was that people fall from grace, what's important is not that you've fallen, but that you pick yourself back up. READ THIS!!! Seriously. Read it!

Other Reviews:
Educating Alice
Guardian Review

Black Rabbit Summer by Kevin Brooks

It was supposed to be one last get together before everyone moved on to college. It was supposed to be about reminiscing. It was supposed to be fun. It wasn't.

Probably because the five “friends” aren’t actually friends anymore. So they get together, get drunk, get stoned, and start to get on each other’s nerves. Then they split up and once they’re seperated things begin to fall apart. People argue, people go missing, act suspiciously, lie, and are never seen again. Everyone is a suspect.

The main protagonist, Pete, attempts to figure out what has actually happened. Not an easy task when no one is willing to share what they know. This is where Kevin Brooks’ writing really excells. He slowly reveals hints, secrets, little tidbits of information so that you’re sitting on the edge of your seat and are unable to put the book down. This is how a thriller is supposed to be.

I will admit though that the book is a big book. Maybe more of a tome. Don't let that scare you off. Once you start reading, once you know that events, terrible violent events, are just moments away (and that isn’t more than a few chapters in), I promise you will not be able to put the book down. At least I couldn’t. The bad guys are wonderfully menacing. The writing is dark, atmospheric, hinting of mysteries that can’t entirely be explained. And the ending is sort of typical Kevin Brooks, resolved, but no happy little bow - there are definitely things left to speculate about. Which is sure to frustrate some readers. I, however, am of the school that I don’t want to be talked down to. I don’t want every minutia of mystery explained to me because the author thinks I’m too stupid to figure it out myself. Kevin Brooks never dumbs it down. Just another reason to love him.

****SPOILERS****

I especially liked the friendship between Pete and Raymond. I liked the weirdness of Raymond and how he had a black rabbit that he thought talked to him. And I loved how his disappearance is never really explained. Did he run off? Was he murdered? Was it the man with the moustache or was that just the drugs making Pete hallucinate? Was it a travelling carnie serial killer? And how much did I love being able to write that? Did Black Rabbit really talk to Raymond and then Pete? Or was Raymond just projecting his wants and desires onto the rabbit because he couldn’t express them any other way? Who mutilated his rabbit? All questions that are left unanswered.

****End of Spoilers****

Other Reviews:

Chicklish

Bookwitch

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (Part 2)

Part 1 can be found here – reviewed by Joanna (read this first).

Joanna was spot on when she said that this book is a manifesto on feminism and activism. Frankie is known to her family as Bunny (short for Bunny Rabbit) because she’s sweet and innocent and in need of protection. Or so they think. Frankie is tired of being underestimated, tired of being swept aside, tired of being inconsequential. And she’s far too smart not to get her own way.

This book was so well written – it almost reads like a book someone researched on a historical figure, more humorous of course, but it presents Frankie as a person of consequence whose history has been recorded for posterity. That alone just tickled me.

From the inside flap:

“Frankie Landau-Banks:
No longer the kind of girl to take “no” for an
answer.
Especially when “no” means she’s excluded from her boyfriend’s all
male secret society.
Not when her ex-boyfriend shows up in the strangest of
places.
Not when she knows she’s smarter than any of them.
When she knows
Mathew is lying to her.
And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.”

That about sums it up. What got to me too was that in many ways Frankie is also just an ordinary teenage girl. She pines after the good-looking older boy, snags him, and then tries to fit his idea of what he’d like his girlfriend to be. But where Frankie differs is that this fuels her anger and she acts out in unexpected ways. There is, of course, another boy of interest, but the book doesn’t play on any of the usual clichés. Well done, E. Lockhart, well done.

One more thing – I just have to say how furious Mathew and his group made me. They were so charming in some respects and such total turds in others. I wanted to smack them repeatedly. It was great!

Other Reviews: Bookshelves of Doom, Little Willow, 3 Evil Cousins, and about a million more. Everyone seems to have loved this book.

Me, the Missing, and the Dead by Jenny Valentine

Lucas is fifteen yeas old. His dad has been missing since he was ten. No one actually knows what happened to him. They found his abandoned car, but no dad. No one seems to care all that much anymore except for Lucas. He really wants to figure it out. Did his dad die? Or is he a cold-hearted jerk who abandoned his family? He doesn’t have much to go on until the fateful day he steps into the minicab office and spots Violet. After he meets her, everything starts to come into focus.

“Before then I’d never thought what it was actually like to be an old person. I’d just weave in and out of them on the pavement, and smirk with my friends at their funny hair and high-waisted trousers and the way they make paying for something at the checkout last for ages just to have someone to talk to. One minute the thought never crossed my mind, the next I was really and truly concerned about what it was like to be old and stuck in London, where everyone moved faster than you and even the simplest thing could end up taking all day. It was her. I know it was. It was my old lady, the dead one in the urn.”

So yah, Violet is dead. Lucas finds her in the minicab office and conspires with his grandmother to get her off the shelf so he can take her home. Clearly Lucas is not your ordinary teenage boy.

This book was absolutely hilarious and the writing was superb. The way that Lucas describes people, it is nothing short of wonderful. The book is a bit of a mystery, with Lucas slowly discovering what his dad was really like – there are clues littered throughout from belongings, to clues hidden in his grandfather’s Alzheimer stricken memory, but also is very much a coming of age story. The plot is actually quite intricate with interesting coincidences bringing increasing amounts of information to light.

And the ending…oh the ending. It was so fulfilling.

Run out and read this book!

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Another book that has a great author note. This one is right at the beginning letting the reader know that she drew on her childhood love of mythology, in particular the story of how Athens was punished and had to send their children year after year to the labyrinth in Crete where they'd be eaten by the Minotaur. Combine that basic idea with reality tv ala survivor and you've got yourself a kick ass premise.

Every year a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 to 18 are drawn randomly to fight in the Hunger Games from each of the twelve districts. This is a televised event and unfortunately for those drawn to participate there can only be one winner. And the only way to win is to be the last person standing...as in the only person left alive. You might make alliances, you might try to avoid killing, but if you want to win you know that all twenty three other people will have to die.

Yowza!

This novel is set in a dystopian future earth. The author manages to pack in a lot of social commentary without it ever feeling heavy handed or didactic. There is a reason the games are called the Hunger Games, in fact more than one. This future that Suzanne Collins has created is bleak. At one point there was an uprising against the capital and it failed. The result was continual military presence, strict rules, and widespread poverty. The capital is very much interesting in squashing any sort of unrest or rebellion and so the districts are continually punished year after year by having to have their children join the draw. You can even have your name put in more than once if you'd like to earn more food for your family (reason #1), the more family members you keep alive the more entries you have. Entries that compound over time. This means that the poorer you are, the hungrier you are, and the more entries you're likely to have (reason #2). If you are so unlucky as to participate in the games you'll soon find that food is scarce and difficult to come by (reason #3). And finally, if you're lucky or unlucky enough, depending on how you look at it, to actually win the games you'll win your entire district more food alleviating everyone's hunger until the next year's games begin (reason #4). Of course you'll be a murderer and might not have all your faculties anymore...but what can you do?

This book starts with a bang and never lets up. You've got drama, action, violence, surprising kindnesses, betrayals, and more. It is the first book in what promises to be an awesomely awesome series.

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

Jenna is smart, popular, happy, and dating. A far cry from her elementary days when she was an unpopular social pariah. She's come a long way and it isn't by chance - she's worked hard for it. Changing her appearance, changing her attitude, working on making herself someone people would actually want to be friends with. And its worked - she's got a couple of great friends and a boyfriend that the other girls at school covet. So when Cameron, her best (and only) friend from elementary school suddenly reappears in her life she's not sure how to react. Not only did he disappear one day without even a good-bye, but how to explain his role in her life without outing herself as the loser she was and might still be under all that polish.

Sweethearts ripped my heart out. That's how I felt when I was reading. Like the author put a clamp on my heart and kept tightening it. Jenna went through some terrible times in elementary school. She was ruthlessly teased by her classmates - and man, the teasing was so spot on. Even though this is a work of fiction, someone out there has done these exact things. I hurt for her. She was a girl without a support system. Her mom worked hard and went to school at night leaving Jenna alone most of the time. The only thing that made her life worth living was Cameron. They had a special friendship that was absolutely beautiful to read about. They were there for each other in every way, at least they were until the day he disappeared without any explanation. And when that happened my heart broke right along with Jenna's.

So the fact that Jenna is so worried when Cameron reemerges is completely understandable. She has internalized so much of the psychological trauma that she experienced on the playground she's felt like a loser ever since, albeit now she's a secret loser - no one at her high school realizes it. Her feelings of conflict were very believable. One the one hand she is dying to know what happened to him, why he disappeared, where he went, why he came back. But on the other hand she doesn't know how to explain his importance to her new friends without letting them know that she was a social outcast. And she's afraid that if she tells them that they won't like her anymore. That's basically the crux of the novel. Its not a love story per se, but a story that deals with love, friendship, support, acceptance, and courage.

The character development was superb. We learn about Jenna first as she's the main character. I loved how the author dealt with her present and also showed us memories of her past. Cameron, her childhood friend and sweetheart, is an emotionally damaged boy who even though he is frustrating is still swoon worthy. Not quite as swoon worthy as Marcus Flutie from Sloppy Firsts, but he's still high up there on my teen swoon meter. Jenna's stepfather was another strong character that I fell in love with simply because he was so calm and supportive.

The book didn't end like I thought it would, in fact I'd say it was rather unpredictable. And completely realistic. Not something you often find in YA literature where authors too often want to tie everything together and end on a happy everything is perfectly resolved note. That's not to say the book doesn't end on a high note, it just isn't perfectly resolved. Which made me love it all the more.

2008 is shaping up to be a year with some amazing books. I can't tell you how happy I am about that.