Nesting
Denise
BlogHer Community Manager
April 2010
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
And here’s the problem with the Cybils – and with any awards really – books that don’t really “go together” are judged in the same category. How do you put Where the Mountain Meets the Moon in the same category with something like Farwalker or Dreamdark? 11 Birthdays is a completely different type of “fantasy or science fiction” than Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, which is different from The Prince of Fenway Park, which is different than… it goes on.
Folk tales should not be up against science fiction.
Modern fantasy should not be up against folk tales.
Bah.
Can we just give every book in the Fantasy & Science Fiction (Middle Grade) a prize. They’ve all been excellent. Every single one of them.
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon felt familiar – like I’d read it before, or like I’ve read all of those Chinese folk tales before, in one book – or maybe like I know Minli. If you do read aloud with your kids, this would be a nice one – short chapters and within most of the chapters are stand alone tales that are being told within the story. So if you’ve really only got just two minutes to read, there are a lot of easy stopping points – and you can drag the book out for a long time, if you have kids who like that.
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The Prince of Fenway Park
I didn’t expect to like The Prince of Fenway Park, much less love it. But – it rocked. I mean it really did.
I know a good bit about baseball but I’m not a fan. I only watch it when we go to dinner at Booby’s and I’m facing a TV that is playing a baseball game. So really, why would a kids book about baseball appeal to me at all? Well… it was a fantasy. It had great characters, and I’m not just talking about the Hall of Famers (and those who should be in the Hall of Fame) but the cursed creatures who lived underneath Fenway Park – those characters were brilliantly written.
I was almost sorry to see the book end.
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So Punk Rock
A mix between a YA novel and a graphic novel, So Punk Rock And Other Ways to Disappoint Your Mother was funny. A little predictable – but funny. Did you read Fat Kid Rules the World? The book about making the fat kid a rockstar drummer? Well… yea. Happens again. Predictable like that. All of the characters do/learn pretty much what you’d expect but the Jewish kid twist makes it just different enough that I didn’t feel like I’d heard this story before. Fifty times.
Three graphic novels
None of these are on the Cybils list, one is a sequel, one was just plucked from the library shelf, and one was a recommendation from… I have no idea who or where.
First, book two in the Gunnerkrigg Court series – Research. Excellent, as I expected. We learned more about Annie’s past and more about The Court and more about the Forest, too. I can’t wait for the third book.
Next, Fables: Legends in Exile. Don’t be fooled by this book, it’s probably not appropriate for the younger graphic novel fan. Prince Charming is a rogue and there’s a relatively graphic sex scene – it’s in Prince Charming-ish prose but younger kids won’t get it and will ask you what the heck that means, middle-ish age kids will get it and snicker or and maybe uncomfortable by it. I found it funny as hell. The whole book was funny – a young librarian told me that there was talk of making this into a TV series, no idea of that’s true but it would be terrific. I’ve just reserved book two, can’t wait to visit the Animal Farm…
Last, and a wee bit disappointing, Scheherazade. I might have just had really high expectations for this book, a compilation of comics written/drawn by women. How awesome, right? Well, yea. It was awesome but the drawings left me bored in some cases and the stories left me scratching my head. There were some great comics tucked away in here, though. And I am glad I read the book. Not every comic can speak to every person, I’m ok with that. (It was nice to see Sarah Varon’s Robot Dreams tucked inside – we read this book ages ago and really loved it. I think I’ll grab Chicken and Cat from the library next week.)
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1930’s Mini Challenge – I’m In
Damn Sassymonkey for posting this about the 1930s mini challenge. And damn the 1930s mini challenge for being so tempting!
I think I’ve decided on my three books:
The Gaudy Night – I haven’t read Sayers in a long time, so she’s in.
Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day – Because I never got around to reading it and I meant to.
The Brontes Went to Woolworths – I hope this one is good, I’m going to have to buy it since it isn’t available at my library. I’ve heard good things… fingers crossed.
TW wants to do the challenge but she can’t find any books she wants to read – so I may end up making a change here, if she comes up with something better.
Regardless, I’m doing it.
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The Poison Eaters
I think I might have to stop saying things like, “I don’t really like short stories” because the last few books of short stories have been pretty darn good. Then again, not everyone can tell a story like Holly Black… The Poison Eaters was excellent. I don’t think there was a single story that I didn’t like. A couple of them, I LOVED. The story set in the Philippines was perfect. The story about the three sisters, fabulous. Every single one of them – fabulous.
The Clue of the Tapping Heels
I hate the name of this book, The Clue of the Tapping Heels. I dunno why. I just don’t like it. TW looked at the cover last night and said “Hey! I read that one!” Well of course she did, TW has a thing for tap dancing.
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