Children’s Literature

Two Cybils — Middle Grade SciFi & Fantasy

2012, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

We’ve been listening for Icefall for months. It started a little slow for me but by the end of the first disk, I was hooked. I loved Solveig and Hake. And  Alric. And Munnin. I loved the storytelling, too. And I hope there really will be a sequel. I’d like to find out what happens with Solveig and Hake next.

Tuesdays at the Castle is a book I’ve probably checked out three times and never managed to read – once it was lost for the entire check out time in Elly’s room. I don’t know why I kept putting off reading it, I loved the castle and the children – particularly Celia, obviously.

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Between Shades of Grey

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Young Adult /

Whatever you do, do not confuse Between Shades of Grey (a YA novel) with 50 Shades of Grey. They are not the same book and you do not want to buy your pre-teen/teen the wrong book. (Elly noticed the audiobook case in the car and was appalled that we would listen to “THAT BOOK” in the car – the very same car that we use to drive CHILDREN around in. Which made us laugh and talk about how NOT sexy this book is. It also caused us to reserve 50 Shades of Grey in audio… but another post about that, once it arrives and we’ve listened to it, in the same car that we use to drive CHILDREN around in.)

It’s not a bad book. It was just troubling to listen to on audio.

The book is about Lithuanians deported to Siberia and kept in camps and prisons where they suffered horrible, horrible things. So that’s interesting – we see a lot of books about Nazi Germany and the atrocities perpetrated on Jewish people but not so much about the NKVD and the people of Lithuania, Finland, and Estonia.

What wasn’t so good was that as Lina is telling the story, she suddenly flashes to telling a story from her memories of home. It’s jarring. Difficult to figure out what the heck happened, when you’re driving along in the car listening along. In print, I would assume it’s easier to tell when you’ve moved into memory.

TW also mentioned that she did not really like Lina – the 16 year old girl who tells this story. I didn’t dislike her but I was surprised that she didn’t grasp some stuff earlier – or ever. She wasn’t dumb, she was just clueless for longer than I’d have liked.

This is a Cybils shortlist book – and that’s fine. I don’t NOT recommend it. I do feel like it’s one of those books that teachers and parents think children should read but a book that children probably wouldn’t pick up on their own. It’s something that will feel a little too much like homework to them.

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The Mysterious Benedict Society Series: Books, 2, 3, 4

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Young Adult /

I read the first Mysterious Benedict Society book ages ago and then never read any of the others. When Sassymonkey mentioned book 4, The Mysterious Education of Nicholas Benedict, I decided to catch up and reserved the rest at the library and then I read them all straight through.

The Perilous Journey and The Prisoner’s Dilemma were much like the first book – the four children work together to defeat Mr Curtain and his (mostly) evil henchmen. The Ten Men are creepy. Very creepy. And the kids are very smart. Mr Benedict still has necrophilia.  

The Mysterious Education of Nicholas Benedict is a prequel – and gives us a lot of missing info about how Mr Benedict came to be Mr Benedict. This one’s a little different than the other three books, obviously, but there are still good kids (though not necessarily gifted kids) and the most of adults in the story are not so much bad – they’re just flawed and need someone to help nudge them along the proper path, thankfully there’s Nicholas to sort them out.

Fun series. I’m glad I caught up this way.  

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The Great Wall of Lucy Wu

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction /

From the Cybils Shortlist, The Great Wall of Lucy Wu – it was cute. Very cute. Also, sweet.

I like that Lucy – short Asian girl – loved basketball. She wanted nothing to do with Chinese school or traditional Chinese food or speaking Chinese (any more than she already spoke Chinese.)  I also love that her parents finally came around to her basketball playing – because it’s good for her to develop leadership skills. I also like that Lucy understood that this was not really the reason she had hoped her parents would come around.

And of course, I love the relationship that Lucy developed with her Aunt. I just with her Aunt had shot a few hoops with her – that would have made the story even better.

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Magical Mischief

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Magical Mischief was a cute middle grade fantasy – about a magic bookstore. Or actually, a bookstore where magic resided – and caused all sorts of problems.  We’re left hanging at the end – how do you actually MOVE magic from one place to another, particularly if it does not want to go… and I suspect the magic will not want to go.

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The Dreamer

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction, Poetry /

I really liked The Dreamer. I liked the way the author inserted strong questions pulled from the story being told – very Neruda-like. Inclusion of some of Neruda’s poems at the end was a must – and greatly appreciated since I was wondering where I might find Neruda poetry on my shelf at 11pm when I finished this book, last night.

This is a very, very nice way to introduce young readers to Pablo Neruda.

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Wonderstruck

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Favorites /

I’ve been putting off reading Wonderstruck because it’s a really, really big book for a middle grade graphic novel. I was waiting until I was in the right mood for reading what I imagined might be a book that wasn’t easy to follow – black and white pictures, and lots of ‘em. Even though Elly read it ages ago and said it was good… I put it off.

Then a couple of days ago, I realized it was not JUST a graphic novel, but a graphic novel and a written novel. Well shoot, I could have handled that weeks ago.

So I picked it up last night and LOVED it. Brilliantly done – two different people, from two different eras. One child’s story told in words, another child’s story told in images – until those stories merged. Brilliant. Why haven’t I read Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret? I must read it – soon.

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One Cybil – One Not

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge /

How could I not love Sylvie, the little flamingo who decided she wanted to try being all sorts of different colors by eating things other than little pink shrimp. Cute. Very cute. I liked it.

Blackout was nice, too — and this was the Cybil. I liked the illustrations better than the story – which was just a little predictable.

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War Horse

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction /

Heck.

I finally wrote my month in books wrap up for March and noticed I never blogged about War Horse. Which means my counts are off there, too. Sheesh. I’m on the ball, aren’t I?

OK so War Horse? Was there a movie made from this book? I thought there was and that’s why I reserved the book at the library. I figured if folks were watching the movie, the least I could do was read the book. Which I did. And I’m still not sure there is a movie. So. Whatever.

I sort of liked the book. Sort of. Mostly. There were just a couple of parts that kind of bugged me, stylistically. No big deal. A horse book is a horse book is a horse book, basically. But in this case…. The horse didn’t die. Well some horses did but not THE horse. Oops. I spoiled it for you. Sorry.  People die! There’s a war, after all. It will be sad enough, but not TOO sad (as most horse books are TOO sad, this will be a nice change for you.)

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Graphic Novels Galore! (Three Cybils, Two Not.)

2012, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Young Adult /

I went on a graphic novel spree because the week was crazy and those were the easiest things to read when I was super tired and super busy. Some were really good, some not so much, some pretty darn weird.

Tiny Titans: Adventures in Awesomeness – it was more like a comic book than most graphic novels. Short panel stories, single panel posters, word searchy type games. Reminded me a lot of comics from my childhood. But – I don’t really love the Tiny Titans. I just can’t get into them. Then again, I’m not a middle grade graphic novel/comics person, am I? (This was not a Cybils shortlister – I reserved it after seeing it on the recently reviewed list on the library website)

I picked up The Hidden in a drive-by walkthrough of the new release books at the library. Really, it just jumped into my bag. Elly said it was creepy and weird – she was right. Frankenstein gone really really bad but in a good graphic novel sort of way. I loved it. Very creepy and not for little kids. This is an adult (or YA at the very least) graphic novel and not a Cybils shortlister.

Remember American Born Chinese? Well Level Up was written by the same dude – and I liked it. Not as much as American Born Chinese but I definitely liked it. The GI doctor story line was fabulous since we really appreciate good GI docs around here. The Cybils have this one as a YA graphic novel but I can see some middle schoolers getting into it, too.

Bad Island was another kind of creepy graphic novel. A whole lot of bad things can happen to a family that gets shipwrecked on a bad island – when the island isn’t so much an island as it is an alien with evil alien creatures living on it. The dead snake thing – lol – funny in a disgusting sort of way.  Another Cybils YA lister.

Page by Paige was my favorite of this bunch. A teenage girl moves to NYC and she’s dealing with figuring out who she is and what she wants and making friends and all sorts of nifty, frustrating things like that. And, she journals her way through. I loved the artwork. I think this was Elly’s favorite of the bunch, too.  And, yep, this one was on the YA Cybils list as well.

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