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The Serial Garden

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Classics, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, short stories /

I’ve read a couple of Joan Aiken’s stories before and I’ve always been interested in reading more, thank goodness for The Serial Garden – a compilation of Aiken stories. Nice. Loads of fun. Except for The Serial Garden where I gasped at the ending (TW didn’t find this nearly as troubling as I did) or The Goblin Music where I couldn’t believe the goblin child … well I won’t spoil it for you.

Another great Cybil Middle Grade Fantasy/Science Fiction selection. I have no idea how a winner can be picked from this group. They’re just too bloody good.

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Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

2 Comments / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

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

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

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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The Poison Eaters

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, short stories, Young Adult /

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.

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11 Birthdays

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Young Adult /
11 Birthdays http://www.amazon.com/11-Birthdays-Wendy-Mass/dp/0545052408/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF… was tons of fun. I loved it – but I’m a big fan of the movie Ground Hog Day, so it makes sense that I would love this book. Two kids relive their 11th birthday over and over again until they can fix something that went wrong.

It’s a lot of fun – easy to read – by the end, you’re frustrated for them, having to do it over and over again even after they think they’ve fixed what needed fixing.

Excellent Cybil shortlist book. Kids will have a lot of fun with it.

Sent from my iPad

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Written in Bone

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I know I said I wanted the Claudette Colvin book to win the Cybil but I’ve changed my mind after reading Written in Bone.

I didn’t mean to even read Written in Bone last night. I carried it over to my bedside table thinking I’d read it after I finished Demon Chick. But, as I set it down, I flipped it open, saw the photos, and decided to read just a bit of the intro… and then I couldn’t put it down.

Great photos. Interesting stories about finding graves of early settlers in Maryland and Virginia – trying to piece together who the people were, how they lived and how they died. Really fascinating stuff. I should have been an archaeologist!

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Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Women /

Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice was a good book. Finally a book about bus segregation that digs deeper than MLK and Rosa Parks. Oh I know there are other books out there but they are rare – and they are rarely written for school age kids. Breath of fresh air, that’s what this book is. I’d like to see it win the Cybil. Colvin and the others who are often overshadowed by Parks and King deserve more attention.

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I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

I vaguely remember the 6 Word Memoir meme that went around the internets, awhile back. It came, it was interesting, it disappeared. After reading I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets, I’m kind of sorry that it did disappear. I found the 6 word memoirs written by teens to be moving, interesting, and funny – all at the same time, sometimes.  I found myself remembering how that felt, thankful that I never felt THAT way, laughing because I saw myself or my kids in another six words.

I’m not sure this is Cybil win worthy BUT, it might be. And if it somehow won, I wouldn’t be sad. This is a book I’d like to own. To just have it sitting around the house, to pick up, read, and think about for the rest of the day. It’s that kind of book.

(By the way, the 6 words written by the teen stars were pretty boring compared to the regular kids’ writing.)

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After

2010, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

After was the toughest YA book I’ve read in a long, long, long time. 16 year olds who get pregnant are troubling – they’re downright depressing when they throw their babies in dumpsters. Sounds pretty horrid doesn’t it? Well it was – and it wasn’t.

Devon is a good character. The characters around her, also well written. When the book was over, I didn’t hate any of them and I was glad I read the book. It’s hard. Very hard. But it was just about impossible to put it down once I’d made it through that first, horrible, chapter.

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The Missing Ink

1 Comment / 2010, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Favorites, Fiction, Mystery /

I saw The Missing Ink on a blog (I don’t remember which one) – and Sassymonkey mentioned it that same day. I put it on my library reserve list because, it’s tattoos! And while I don’t have any, my kids do. It seemed fun.

The book was waiting for me at the library one Saturday. A Saturday that TW and killed time during Prince J’s flute lesson by going to the local independent bookstore. The Missing Ink was on the shelf. I bought it. I thought it would be a great book to take on our trip to Florida – we could both read it and leave it behind for Michelle. I don’t think either of us ended up reading it on the trip, but we did leave it behind. Instead, we both read the library copy that I’d picked up. And we both enjoyed the book quite a bit.

Brett is a great tattoo shop owner. The people who work in her shop are interesting. Las Vegas is always interesting and the perfect place for Tattoo Shop mysteries to take place, don’t you think? There’s a great character, Sylvia – older woman with maybe a wee bit of dementia. She owned a competing shop before passing it along to her son. I love Sylvia. She needs her own series of books.

Looking for a beach read – try this one. It’s light and amusing. Don’t take my word for it… Sassymonkey liked it too.

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