French Milk by Lucy Knisley

French Milk is Lucy Knisley’s travel journal from a month spent in Paris. She went with her mother in January 2007, a few months before she graduated from college. The book is a combination of comics and photographs of their trip. It’s mostly day-to-day tourist stuff – dinners, shopping, museum visits – with some time spent worrying what she’ll do when she graduates, thinking about facing adulthood, and considering art.

While there’s not a whole lot of story (being a travelogue), Lucy’s voice is so perfect, that you kind of start to feel like you know her, and like maybe you should go visit her in Paris. And have a croissant. Or at least pick up a pen and start drawing a travel journal of your own. Good for those with wanderlust. (Unless you’re trying to get over it.) I’ll look forward to more.

2008 Books We Can't Wait to Read

Here's our start to what we are looking forward to in 2008. I was inspired by all of the blogs I read and then some. The books below aren't all my picks and the list is woefully incomplete. I hope some of my teammates chip in with theirs. We'll also have to see what folks mailed back from ALA. (How girly is this list? *sigh*) Still, a sad lack of GNs I think. I know they're out there... First Second has to have something amazingly cool coming out.


New Stuff from Favorites:
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (I already blogged this, but I'm anxious to see what others will think.)
Lock & Key by Sarah Dessen
Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson
How to Be Bad by E. Lockhart , Sarah Mlynowski and Lauren Myracle
The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Hurricane Song by Paul Volponi
Love & Lies: Marisol's Story by Ellen Wittlinger
Andromeda Klein by Frank Portman
Ever by Gail Carson Levine (she talked about this at the Texas Book Fest in November.)
The Fortunes of Indigo Skye by Deb Caletti
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson














Patti suggested a YNF!!

Out of Line: Growing up Soviet by Tina Grimberg




















The GNs:
Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci & Jim Rugg
Jellaby by Kean Soo

Extra Crunchy Specials:
Jumpy Jack & Googily by Meg Rosoff & Sophie Blackall (Illustrator) - Just looking at this makes me so happy!







Also, Frankenstein Takes the Cake by Adam Rex - both Frakenstein Makes a Sandwich and PSSST! are my son's favorites. Can't wait to see this one.










The X-Files:
Justine Larbalestier's book about the [parking] faeries! Maybe not until '09, but we can hope.

Bleach, vol 1: Strawberry and the Soul Reapers by Tite Kubo

Bleach is a manga serialized in Shonen Jump so you know it has boy appeal. It’s also on adult swim, which is how a staff person at my library came to recommend it for purchase. I like manga well enough, but one problem I do have with the format is that I don’t have the patience to read 20+ volumes. Although this isn’t a particularly strong argument seeing as that for 2 years I collected individual issues of Fables. But back to the review.

Ichigo “Strawberry” Kurosaki is 15 years old and he’s sees dead people. He usually helps them out with a task, like beating up vandals who wrecked their memorial flowers. Ichigo’s dad runs a local health clinic. His mom is deceased and he lives with his crazy dad and two younger sisters. He is surprised with a visit from a (cute, 300+ year old) Soul Reaper named Rukia Kuchiki. Her job is to help souls move on by way of a Konsô, or soul funeral. I’m not certain but this seems to mean giving them a loving whack with her sword. But there are 2 types of souls! Dilemma! Good spirit ghosts and bad spirit Hollows, who attack the living and the dead to devour souls. Soul Reapers also have the job of vaporizing Hollows via spells and a aforementioned big old sword.

In their first meet up, Rukia tries to transfer some power to Ichigo, but ends up transferring all her power/Dark Force to him. And there is the drama and the comedy. Ichigo, who’s a little cocky but has a heart, has to learn from Rukia and together they have to fight THE EVIL. There’s more drama about what will happen to Rukia if she doesn’t get her power. I believe it’s that she may become “human” forever. The scene where she tries to open a juice box is hilarious. So far I really like this manga. I have read vol 2 and there’s a scene, with Chad, that brought tears to my eyes. It surprised me, too!

I’m going to leave it to Jenn H & maybe Laura to clarify anything I missed here. Bleach, it’s not anything special since it has its own TV show, but I am enjoying it.

Printz Award Winners

The YALSA Blog has posted the winners for the various media awards. Here's the list for the Printz.

PRINTZ HONOR:
DREAMQUAKE (teenreads.com)
ONE WHOLE AND PERFECT DAY (Front Street Books.com)
REPOSSESSED
YOUR OWN SYLVIA

PRINTZ WINNER: THE WHITE DARKNESS (teenreads.com)

To say I'm shocked is an understatement. It's always exciting to see what has been chosen. Jenn H blogged Feathers & Repossessed in one sitting back in September! She nags both a Printz Honor and Newbery Honor in one week. Also, it appears that DREAMQUAKE is the 2nd book in a 2-part series. Weirdness!

Right Behind You by Gail Giles

Kip was 9 years old when he murdered Bobby Clarke. He threw gas on Bobby’s baseball glove and lit it on fire, the fire spread to Bobby. It took Bobby 3 days to die.

Kip has lived with the horror of being a murderer ever since. It has been several years since Bobby’s death. Several years of intensive therapy at the juvenile mental health facility where Kip has lived ever since that awful day. Several years during which Kip has internalized his shame and guilt and unworthiness as a human being. On the eve of his release Kip and his family assume new identities and move to Indiana to start again. But how can you start a new life when your old one is still haunting you?

This is a story of morality, penance, and redemption. The central issue the book deals with is whether or not it is possible for a person to make amends for an act of cruelty or whether that one act, even when committed as a small child, shapes your worth as a human being for the rest of your life. Does intent matter when the end result is the same (as in manslaughter vs. murder)? What has to happen in order to balance the scales – and is it even possible? Is it up to the individual or is it up to the community?

Giles deals with these questions masterfully. I couldn’t put this book down. That’s not to say it’s a perfect book, but it is riveting nonetheless. Kip is an incredibly likable character. He is consumed by guilt and tends to sabotage his life when it seems like it is going too well. He feels that he deserves to be continually punished. He’s surrounded by a loving family that wants him to live a new life and helped along by some extremely competent mental health professionals, but he still feels as though this one action shadows his every subsequent moment.

(*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*) What I found so interesting is that Kip always, always, always refers to himself as a murderer. It takes Kip many years to understand that although he did something that was horrible and has to live with the results of his actions, it doesn’t necessarily mark him as ruined person. He is the only one who can decide if the course of his life will be about this one action or whether he’ll be able to move past it. This was one of the strongest parts of the novel – even though others (like Kip’s parents and psychiatrists) understand that it was more an impetuous violent act with disastrous consequences, Kip can’t actually move on until he, himself, can accept that fact. And not just accept responsibility (because he’s always accepted responsibility), but more accurately accept that he is more than that one action – he is everything that happened before and after. Kip sums it up perfectly, “I’ve been waiting to forget that I murdered Bobby Clarke. Or forgive myself…I figured out that I can’t forget. I can’t really forgive. But I can live. LIVE with it.” Which is what this reader had been desperately hoping for the entire book. (*END OF SPOILERS*)

Michelle and I are soon to be discussing this title at our book club at the local juvenile detention center and I can’t wait to hear their thoughts on Kip and his life. I wonder if they’ll think he was responsible for his actions at 9 years old. If they’ll think the community was right to vilify him to such a degree. And I’m especially curious about what they’ll think about his friends’ reactions when they find out about past. It should be a very interesting conversation because this book is nothing if not completely discussable.

This I Believe, ed. by Jay Allison

I just finished listening to the audiobook of This I Believe, a compilation of essays from the NPR show of the same name. People were asked to send in essays of a few hundred words about the principles that guide them. There’s a combination of famous people (Isabel Allende, John McCain, Penn Jillette, Bill Gates), some from the original edition of the show in the 50s (Martha Graham, Jackie Robinson), and a bunch of just regular people who submitted their essays to the website. When I started listening, I was expecting to enjoy the famous people’s essays and zone out during the regular people’s, but I was so wrong. The regular people’s essays are so moving, so inspiring, so clever, and they make some of the famous ones seem like generic high school graduation speeches.

I keep thinking about how important this book is to me now, but also how meaningful it would have been to me at 16 or 17, but in a completely different way, and what a different experience reading it will be for me in ten or twenty more years. I want to buy copies for people I know, because I suspect that this kind of flailing around, trying to get a hold on My Personal Belief System is fairly universal. (I’m sure it’s not everyone, but I’m not entirely convinced I want to be too friendly with people who never change their ideas about anything.)

I’m torn, though – the audiobook is amazing. They actually have all of the writers reading their own essays. Seriously. You can listen to Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger, and Helen Keller. Helen Keller! But the book would give more time to sit and stare off into space after each essay... I think I’d recommend getting the audio if you can, but read it, read it, read it. And give it to a teenager that is trying to figure things out.

Other reviews:

Mother Reader

First book of the New Year: Incantation

It took me a while to post, but I thought I would review the first book I finished in 2008...

Alice Hoffman's newest YA novel takes place in Spain in the year 1500. Estrella deMadrigal lives in a small village with her grandparents and her mother. Her life is idyllic, with a best friend who is like a sister and a special relationship with her mother. Her grandfather is a respected town elder and teacher, and her mother dyes are treasured for their beautiful shades of blue.

Her perfect life is shattered when persecution of Jews, both known and hidden, erupts into violence and betrayal. She comes to question everything she has thought she knew about her family, her village, and herself. Hoffman's lyrical prose and use of the Kabbalistic termanology starkly illustrate the horror of religious persection and witchhunts. Estrella's journey to find herself and her future will move teenagers and adults alike.

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

HP7, What I Was, Fourth Comings, and The Sweet Far Thing are the books of 2007 that I just couldn’t wait to read. The Sweet Far Thing in particular is one that I kept careful tabs on as the release date changed and Libba Bray’s (oh so very rockin’) blog went into hibernation as she worked on the book.

An 832 page-final-installment-of-an-award-winning-fantasy-series is no small undertaking. I am also referring to reading it. I started before Christmas and had to stop when I left for vacation and knew I would 1-hate carrying it around and 2-not have time to read anyway. I read this book hungrily. Gemma is a rich character and I love love love to read her. I couldn’t stop turning pages and yet it felt like I was making no progress. This is exactly how I felt reading HP7. What more could she put in our path? Another twist! Another mystery! That was who?! I almost couldn’t take it. If you’ve read my previous posts, you know that I am a page sneaker. I page snuck for this book. Fowlson, folks, Fowlson! He freaks me out.

But I did get spoiled unexpectedly. I read Libba Bray’s blog with Bloglines. I hearts Bloglines. I came to her post about answering questions in the comments section and thought, great – I’ll go back and read that when I’m finished. The next day I read her post thinking all would be fine because spoilers would be in the comments, but somehow Bloglines showed two lines which revealed 2 words that rocked my reading. It’s probably karma for being a sneaker, but darn it if I didn’t want to see what is perhaps the biggest of the big spoilers.

Like Harry, I was often frustrated with Gemma’s behavior towards the seriousness of having to decide what to do with all the magic. Whereas Harry had great sidekick help from Hermoine and Ron, Gem has Felicity, Pip & Ann. Fee and Pip continue their irksome self-absorbed whining. Ann, a little better, is often swayed by the others. Additionally, like Harry, Gemma doesn’t know who to trust or what information to trust. It’s to the author’s credit that she works this so masterfully. We are in the same boat as Gemma (though there are hints which I defy most readers to pick up on) and what a wild ride it is to uncover the truth. We have a few new characters, but the best developments involve the characters we know, or think we know. My head still hurts just thinking about how stressed out I was over this. As I mentioned before, the barrage of new information can be wearisome, but the story is addictive.

Finally, underneath this excellent fantasy (and hot romance!) story resides a solid foundation of social awareness. Gemma’s observations on sex roles, class, politics and war are very much central points of this book. I am sure many teens will be far more captivated by the fantasy and romance than the social commentary, but I hope it isn’t entirely lost on them. I hope that the messages of free will, justice, and their own power to make change in the world find a way into their lives.

*fun bit* check out this Victorian Fact Sheet and the books the author read in preparation for writing.

Useful Fools by C. A. Schmidt

Alonso is 15 years old and completely in love with Rosa, the daughter of the doctor who works at the public health clinic in his town. He looks forward to every Saturday when they both assist at the clinic. However, both their lives are irrevocably changed when Alonso’s mother is assassinated by revolutionary forces. Alonso must flee with his remaining family to another town to escape further persecution from the revolution.

Yet even in a new town Alonso is not safe. He gets into contact with his best friend Rodolfo who has suffered at the hand of the Peruvian police. Because of his losses due to police brutality, Rodolfo has become enamored with the revolution and encourages Alonso to join him fight against the government. Alonso soon finds himself in a serious moral dilemma. Does he turn his back on his friend who has helped out his family? Does he join the people who assassinated his mother? Or should he do nothing and become a potential victim again?

The Book has several strengths - chief among them the characters of Alonso and Rosa. They were compelling characters that helped to keep the story moving along. Their romance was not only very sweet, but also helps to set up the political and cultural climate of class divisions and revolution. The story shifts back and forth from their perspectives. This adds an element of suspense, especially as their lives become increasingly endangered due to rising violence. Readers will want to finish the book if only to see how their relationship is resolved.

Regrettably, there were also some weaknesses. I found it hard to believe that Alonso would be swept up in the movement and join the revolutionary group that had just murdered his mother. Especially since the revolutionaries only conversed in tired clichés and unconvincing rhetoric. It was also somewhat difficult to understand the political and cultural landscape of Peru. Useful Fools is set during a time of incredible political unrest when average people were caught between a corrupt police force and revolutionary terrorists. According to the author’s note nearly 70,000 Peruvians died during this time period. Unfortunately, this author’s note comes at the end of the story. Readers who are unfamiliar with Peru’s political history might find it difficult to grasp the various political background necessary to fully understand the story. It would have been much more helpful to have this note at the beginning of the novel to familiarize readers before they began reading.

Get Well Soon by Hulie Halpern

I was initially reluctant to read Get Well Soon. I thought it sounded too similar to It's Kind of a Funny Story by Vizzini which I had really enjoyed. I'm glad that I actually sat down and read this. Although there were certainly similarities - both books featured teens admitted to psychiatric hospitals, both authors employed humor to lighten very serious issues, both featured possible romances, and both teens benefited from their stay in the hospital. Even so, the stories ended up reading differently from each other and seemed to compliment each other rather than compete.

Anna is admitted to a hospital by her parents. She's seriously depressed, she's obsessed with her weight, she doesn't want to go to school anymore and she's not leaving her room very much. On arrival to the hospital she's allowed a pencil and paper where she begins writing a letter to her best friend documenting what is happening to her in the hospital. Initially she is confused, scared, and distrustful of the staff and hospital environment. With each passing day Anna begins to work through her depression. She makes connections with the other teens hospitalized with her, she opens up during her counseling sessions, and she begins to understand that all the thoughts and ideas that she has internalized might not actually be true.

Anna has a voice that seemed spot on to me. She's immature, insecure, but increasingly able to find humor in situations that previously sent her into tailspins. Her narration isn't always reliable and you wonder if there is more going on in her therapy sessions than she's relaying in her letter. You get the sense that she is experiencing continual growth and will come out of the situation better than she entered it.

A fast read that will appeal to a wide variety of readers. I could see lovers of realistic fiction, girls who just want a funny story, as well as girls who are more into chick lit all enjoying this book. And its short enough to appeal to reluctant readers too.