Tag: Books

Book Review: Sassy: Little Sister is not my Name

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January 18, 2011

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Little Sister Is Not My Name (Sassy, #2) Little Sister Is Not My Name (Sassy, #2) by Sharon M. Draper

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book Source: Checked out from my library

I’m trying something new. If my family can’t call me by my real name, I’m not going to talk to them.

Sassy Simone Sanford is nine-and-a-half years old. She’s the smallest person in her family and the smallest person in her fourth-grade class. But she has a big personality and plenty of flair. In this first volume in a series aimed squarely at 3rd-5th girls, Sassy introduces herself, her friends, and her family, including professional storyteller Grammy.

When I think of Sharon Draper, I think of books like The Battle of Jericho and Out of My Mind, so this sweet and fluffy series is a nice change of pace. Sassy’s world is a pleasant one – her big issues include her frustrations with having to wear a uniform and the fact that her whole family tends to call her “Little Sister”. The descriptions of her classmates indicate that her school is highly diverse, and everybody seems to get along splendidly. Recommend especially to girls growing out of Junie B. Jones and Clementine.

A little note: I don’t know why GoodReads has this listed as book #2. It’s the first book in the series.

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Picture Book Knits: Three Little Kittens

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January 16, 2011

7:00 am

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Three Little Kittens by Jerry Pinkney

Caldecott medalist Pinkney adds some very special knitterly touches to the classic nursery rhyme about those careless kittens. Busy playing outside, all three kittens lose their lovely hand-knit mittens, and Mama tells them they cannot have any pie. The kittens quickly go out and find their mittens, then get pie all over them! After washing and drying those messy mittens, the kittens are ready to head back outside to play.

Music is provided on the inside of the dust jacket to sing the words of the book (sadly, nearly inaccessible in my library copy, as the dust jacket is covered with plastic and firmly fastened to the cover; some libraries will likely remove the dust jacket entirely), and the text definitely works better sung than simply read.

The best part of the book, though, is the artwork. Pinkney’s watercolor and graphite pencil illustrations form double-page full-bleed spreads with wonderful details. On the title page spread, the kittens peer out the window at three birds, one of which is wearing a knitted hat with earflaps and a pompom on top! In the next spread, the reader sees Mama Cat knitting, her mitten pattern open on the floor. And, of course, one of the kittens’ favorite playthings appears to be a large ball of yellow yarn.

A sweet addition to any picture book collection, with details that will be especially appreciated by knitting parents.

(Source note: I checked this book out from my public library.)

Book Review: Jumpstart the World

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January 13, 2011

7:00 am

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Jumpstart the WorldJumpstart the World by Catherine Ryan Hyde

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book Source: Checked out from my library

Lately I’ve been noticing how people have these ways of accidentally letting you see what’s important to them.

Just days before her sixteenth birthday, Elle moves into a new apartment. Alone. Except for a one-eyed cat she’s just rescued from the pound. Her mother would rather pay to put her teenage daughter up in an apartment in New York City than risk losing her boyfriend, Donald. The first neighbor Elle meets is Frank, an older guy who sparks an unexpected attraction in Elle. When she learns that Frank is a transgender man, it throws her into a whirl of confusion.

Jumpstart the World is a story of growing up, becoming independent, and finding one’s role in life. To teens dreaming of the day they get to move out of the family home (like the small group she begins to befriend at her new school), Elle’s situation looks great at first, but it quickly becomes apparent that being alone might not be all it’s cracked up to be. In first-person (but not present-tense!) narration, Hyde maintains a voice for Elle that reflects a slightly-more-mature-than-average, little-bit-prickly, sixteen-year-old girl wrestling with issues of love, friendship, and family. The book opens with Elle remarking on her mother’s frequent use of the words “beautiful” and “ugly” as an indication of what her mother considers important, and I was struck by how often Elle uses “weird” or “weirdly”, underscoring how much she thinks about what is normal and what is not. The focus throughout the book remains tight on Elle and her immediate situation. Details about her previous home life are sparse (whatever happened to her father?), and although the novel is written in past tense, it’s clear that these are very recent events. This realistic contemporary novel has clear appeal to anyone who has had that outside-looking-in feeling, and the conclusion of Elle’s story is both satisfying and hopeful.

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W… W… W… Wednesday for January 12, 2011

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January 12, 2011

9:20 am

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W… W… W… Wednesdays is a meme hosted by Should Be Reading.

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?
 

My answers:

What are you currently reading? I’m one chapter into Possessing Genius: The Bizarre Odyssey of Einstein’s Brain by Carolyn Abraham, the first book on my Off the Shelf Challenge list. I’m enjoying it so far.

What did you recently finish reading? I was up until 1 this morning finishing Shine by Lauren Myracle. It’s a gripping young adult mystery set in rural North Carolina. Strong characters and just enough misdirection kept me glued to my nook screen. I read it as an e-ARC via NetGalley; the book is due out in May of 2011. Full review coming soon.

The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus

What do you think you’ll read next? Next up is another NetGalley e-ARC, The Hunchback of Neiman Marcus by Sonya Sones. Scheduled for release in April 2011, this is Sones’ first novel for adults. I’ve been a fan of Sones’ writing since reading Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy when I was in Library School.

See today’s other W… W… W… Wednesday entries at Should Be Reading.

Book Review: Grounded

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January 11, 2011

7:00 am

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GroundedGrounded by Kate Klise

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Daralynn Oakland should have been in her father’s plane that day. Instead, she was sitting at home, grounded by her mother, when a state trooper arrived to tell them that the plane’s engine failed, and that Daralynn’s father, older brother, and younger sister died in the crash. After that, nothing can be the same. Her homemaker mother stops cooking meals and takes a job preparing bodies at the local funeral home. Her grandmother loses interest in anything except playing with the 237 dolls well-wishers sent Daralynn. And her single, sophisticated Aunt Josie becomes infatuated with Mr. Clem, a new man in town with some awfully big ideas. Daralynn is just beginning to cope with her grief and the changes in her life when she stumbles on a mystery to solve.

The tiny town of Digginsville comes alive through carefully selected details, such as the K-12 school that is home to the “Mighty Moles” and Doc Lake, where Daralynn enjoys fishing for catfish stocked by the Department of Conservation. The year is left vague, but it is clearly a few decades ago, indicated by the fact that Uncle Waldo has been home from Vietnam for just six years before the crash, and a mention late in the book of events “twenty-two years after” that year. The voice of the first-person narrator, who sounds like an adult recalling her childhood, rather than a current sixth- or seventh-grader, reflects this perspective without calling too much attention to it.

There is some heavy material here, but Klise uses a gentle touch with her quirky characters. Their journey from life B.C. (“Before Crash”) to A.D. (“After Death”) is not without humor or adventure. Recommend to fans of Wiles’ Each Little Bird That Sings and LaFleur’s Love, Aubrey.

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More Debut Titles!

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January 8, 2011

7:00 am

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Remember my nice little list of 12 titles for the Debut Author Challenge?

Yeah. That list is getting a little longer.

During the week after Christmas, I got a box from Hachette. Inside the box were four ARCs of 2011 titles. One was Julie Anne Peters’ She Loves You, She Loves You Not, which I read right away and reviewed. Peters is an established YA author – one I admire and whose work I enjoy quite a lot – so that one wouldn’t count for the Debut Author Challenge. The other three books I tucked away to read after the New Year, since they were all debuts!

The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill
The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill

Dark Parties by Sara Grant
Dark Parties by Sara Grant

Forgotten by Cat Patrick
Forgotten by Cat Patrick

And then, of course, I stumbled on someone else’s list of TBR debuts, and I saw a few that I just couldn’t resist adding to my own list:

Yes, 2011 is looking like a very good year for YA debuts. And May B. by Caroline Starr Rose (April 2012) looks really good for next year.

Book Review: She Loves You, She Loves You Not

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January 6, 2011

7:00 am

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She Loves You, She Loves You Not...

She Loves You, She Loves You Not… by Julie Anne Peters

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book Source: ARC sent from Hachette by request

The physics law works not only on objects but on people. Because of Sarah’s action, her force and thrust on your life, you went flying into space and spinning out of control.

At the beginning of her Junior year of high school, Alyssa thought she had things under control. She got along with her stepmother and her half-brother. She worked hard and got good grades. She was out to her friends Ben and M’Chelle and the other members of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, and closeted to everyone else, especially her homophobic father. When she met and started dating Sarah, it seemed like everything would be fine if they could just keep their relationship a secret from their families. But secrets have a way of getting out, and now Alyssa has been disowned by her father and sent to stay with the mother she barely knows.

Peters skillfully presents Alyssa’s intense emotions as she processes her anger and grief over her first love. The first-person present-tense narration gives her a compelling voice, bringing the reader into an immediate intimacy. While Alyssa tries to move on in the present, getting to know the mother who left when she was a baby, she recalls the last year in flashbacks. These flashbacks are written in second-person, an odd stylistic choice that unfortunately breaks up the flow of the narrative. That weakness aside, this is an excellent portrayal of first love and first heartbreak that will be familiar to anyone who has lived through it, regardless of orientation. Peters’ new novel is a welcome addition to a growing segment of queer YA literature – stories in which the character’s orientation is not the central issue. Alyssa is already comfortable with her sexuality. The challenges she faces are the more universal problems of growing up: recognizing an idealized parent’s flaws; learning to relate to parents as fellow adults; becoming a person with an identity separate from that of the family. The story of her relationship with Sarah – a romance between young people that is looked upon with disapproval by their families – is a classic tragic tale. Her struggle to move forward and allow herself to fall in love again speaks to anyone who has ever had a broken heart.

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Introducing Trillian

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December 26, 2010

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For Christmas, I got my very own nook!

Wow, you can really see the difference between the e-ink upper screen and the lower touchscreen. That’s my red shirt reflected there.

I’ve named it Trillian, and of course I gave it a “Don’t Panic” screensaver.  The wallpaper is Dore’s Don Quixote in his Library.

With Trillian in hand, I’ve decided to take on a third reading challenge for 2010.

I’m going for the “Addicted” level – 12 e-books in 2011. I don’t have a list prepared for this one. We’ll see what I download.

Book Review: Henrietta Horbuckle’s Circus of Life

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December 23, 2010

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Henrietta Hornbuckle's Circus of LifeHenrietta Hornbuckle’s Circus of Life by Michael de Guzman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

All her life, Henrietta has been on the move. Born into a traveling clown circus, she lives with her parents in an RV, part of a caravan that journeys from city to city, putting on shows. She loves performing as part of the act, and she is mystified by the idea of ever leaving the circus and settling down somewhere. But Filbert’s Traveling Clown Circus has had some tough times, and some serious changes are coming Henrietta’s way.

With a smooth flowing narrative voice and short chapters, the book pulls the reader quickly into Henrietta’s world. It is packed with details about the clowns’ vagabond lifestyle, from how the Hornbuckles’ RV is arranged to how dinner is prepared to how Henrietta and her father work out a new routine. For curious readers, it is a fascinating glimpse into an entirely different lifestyle. Fans of realistic fiction will appreciate the way Henrietta faces both the everyday challenges of life on the cusp of becoming a teenager and the much bigger issues that are altering life as she has known it.

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Book Review: Scumble

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December 22, 2010

7:00 am

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ScumbleScumble by Ingrid Law

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Like his cousin Mibs in Savvy, on the eve of his thirteenth birthday, Ledger “Ledge” Kale is convinced he knows what his special talent will be. And, like Mibs, he is mistaken. Instead of the expected super speed, he discovers that he has a gift for making things fall apart. After his uncontrolled talent wreaks havoc at his cousin’s wedding, his parents make an abrubt decision to leave Ledge and his sister in the care of their uncle on his ranch outside Sundance, Wyoming, while he learns to “scumble” – rein in – his savvy.

Law brings back characters from Savvy and introduces new ones while maintaining the tall-tale style and quirky turns of phrase of her Newbery Honor book. Here, the stylistic flourishes are little heavy-handed, especially in the early chapters; the language just doesn’t flow as naturally in Ledge’s voice. The book moves a little slowly at first as well, but things pick up considerably in the second half. Law’s colorful characters are definitely her strength, drawing the reader into the story even when plot turns challenge the suspension of disbelief. Ledge is a believably awkward, likeable teenage boy, just beginning to leave childhood, and the reader wants to know what happens to him and the people he meets in Sundance. There’s a touch of romance, but nothing too sickly sweet in this adventure. As “companion novels”, both Scumble and Savvy stand on their own, and there seems to be a hint of a possible third volume near the end.

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