Young Adult

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Young Adult /

Could the title have been any longer for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian? I think it’s a little much. I also think the hype for this book is a little much.

It’s a good book. I enjoyed it. But it has gotten a lot of press and a lot of really great reviews from YA critics. I’m very glad the Cybil judges didn’t make it the YA winner, Wednesday Wars was better (though Off Season was not.)

Anyway – it’s about a kid on an Indian reservation who is smart, really smart. A teacher advises him to get off the Rez – now. So he does – by going to the white school in town. This leads to any number of problems, but also a lot of good things. Maybe it gets so many rave reviews because we don’t see a lot of books about teen Indians on reservations? Whatever. It was good but not great. Read it but don’t buy it. And if your kids are assigned the book and don’t fall in love with it, don’t be surprised by that.

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Wednesday Wars

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction, Reading Lists, Young Adult /

I have been in bed almost all day. Sort of an accidental participation on Bring a Book to Bed Day due to some combination of exhaustion and a cold or something. I slept a good bit but I also read quite a lot.

I finished Wednesday Wars, which I discovered when I was looking at the list of YA finalists for Cybil Awards.

I laughed my way through it. I laughed a lot more than TW did when she read it. Possibly because of the “rats” or possibly because of the Shakespeare. Or maybe it was all of the death threats a 7th grader can get.

Great book.

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Fan Boy and Goth Girl

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

I ran upstairs and stole the audio version of The Astonishing Adventures of Fan Boy and Goth Girl from Prince J’s room since he wasn’t here to listen to it (though his cd player was coming on every afternoon and playing disc 2 over and over and over again.)

I’m so glad I trudged the stairs and braved the messy room to get it. Fantastic YA. Really great story. Great characters. About 10xs better than King Dork, (and there are an awful lot of similarities between the two stories.)

Please tell me there will be a sequel.

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Stuck in Neutral

2 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Printz Award Challenge, Young Adult /

Stuck in Neutral is a YA book from the Printz Awards list from 2001 and I loved it – until the end, but let’s not talk about the end.

I would love to see an entire series about Shawn – he’d be a bit of an anti-hero. All of the things he sees, doesn’t quite understand and wonders about. All of his insights. There are some amazing opportunities for a writer to help teens sort out situations, questions, ideas.

But then there’s that whole ending thing. Is Shawn still available for a series? I don’t know and I don’t like it.

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Monster

2 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Printz Award Challenge, Young Adult /

Another book from my Printz Award challenge, Monster, was not my favorite book from 2000 but I understand how and why it won the award. It’s a good thing I’m not the one sitting on those award committees.

I was a little afraid I wouldn’t be able to enjoy Monster at all because it was written in the form of a screenplay, because the kid up for murder is into film making, and I really dislike reading screenplays. But the story was compelling enough and I cared about the kid enough to muddle through all of the screenplay-ese. The book reminded me a lot of Upstate, a book TW and I listened to on audio a few months ago. Another young black teen in jail and going to trial for murder, you know the type society tends to label as “monsters”…

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Edge Chronicles: Clash of the Sky Galleons

2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

#9 in The Edge Chronicle series, Clash of the Sky Galleons has the same problem that all of the other books in the series have. You’d think that if you read all of the books in numerical order that you’d be reading a chronicle of events, in order. But no, not with these. There are huge gaps between where you left off and where you pick up again and then another book will go back and fill in a huge gap that was left much earlier in the series. I could live with that without being grouchy if the prologue reminded you of what had happened so you knew you were you jumping back in, but the prologues never do that. It’s frustrating.

Otherwise, good book. Lots of blood and guts and a lot of the good guys die, which I like and a nice final paragraph (well final before the epilogue.)

I thought I was reading #10 and thus possibly the last book in the series, but this is #9 so maybe there’s one more… and that will be the final? I sort of hope so because I’m not sure how much longer I can keep reading these with all of the jumping around.

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Hard Love

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Printz Award Challenge, Queer, Young Adult /

More YA! Is this one on the Printz list? Is that why I read it? Or is it some leftover reserve from a GLBT YA group of books I reserved? I’m not sure but I read it and it was pretty amusing. I’m not a huge ‘zine fan but I understand the drive people feel to create them and to read them. Not being a ‘zine person or a teen, I’m not qualified to say Hard Love was an accurate representation of the ‘zine scene but it feels like it.

The book itself, pretty interesting. Nerdy but cute boy from dysfunctional broken gets hooked on ‘zines, writing and reading them, and falls for a lesbian ‘zine writer. She sort of falls for him too but, guess what – she’s still a lesbian! Awesome. Heart break all around but also some growing up and some resolutions to the dysfunction (at least on his part) begin to happen.

Not a fun book, by any means, but not one of those really really depressing YA situation novels either.

(oh! It was a Printz Award Honor Book, cool.)

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King Dork

3 Comments / 2008, A to Z Challenge, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

We’ve been listening to King Dork in the car for ages. It’s taken much longer than I had originally expected because it’s far too mature to really listen to with small children in the car – so that cut out most of the time I’d originally allotted for King Dork – the drive to/from Charleston. Ah well, it’s finished – finally. The epilogue and the glossary almost killed us, though listening to the glossary was a lot more amusing than if we’d read it. Also, specific to the audio – the music at the end was terrific but hearing “devil head” read out loud to indicate the instances of “devil head” icon appearances within the text was not much of a pleasure. That part just didn’t work for me. (If you read the book in print and didn’t listen to the songs, check out Frank Portman’s website for mp3s.

Now, about the book. I put it on my A to Z list and was sure I would have read it early in the year. I didn’t. And then I saw sassymonkey’s review and I put it off even more. So, I was prepared to be unimpressed and now that I’ve finished, I’m not sure I am impressed. I am, however, amused. Very very amused. The number of times TW and I laughed out loud cannot be counted on two hands. Laugh out loud funny in a lot of places but a little (ok a lot) slow in others.

I think I have to drop this into my “favorites” just for the Catcher in the Rye commentary. Now, I need to go reserve Brighton Rock at my library because I do not think I have ever read it. (Have you?)

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Skellig

1 Comment / 2008, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Favorites, Fiction, Printz Award Challenge, Young Adult /

When I opened the beat up cover of Skellig pretty much the first thing I saw was the list of awards the books has won. I wish those lists were in the back of the book, not the front. I think the list turns off kids because they’ve been forced to read an awful lot of really bad books that have won (or been short listed) for all of those awards.

It would be a shame if a kid put Skellig aside without getting passed the list of awards. It’s also a shame that Skellig didn’t actually win the Printz award. I haven’t read Monster yet but I can’t imagine it is better than a book with homeschooling vs public education and a man/owl/angel. It’s also a very quick read, which I think is a plus for young adult books.

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My Printz Award Challenge for 2008

2 Comments / 2008, Books in Bed, Printz Award Challenge, Young Adult /

The Printz Award Challenge suggests you read six of the Printz Award winners or honors. Six isn’t very many so I’m going to read them all (a few, I have already read) before the end of 2008.

2007
American Born Chinese (10/11/8)
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; v. 1: The Pox Party (10/1/8)
An Abundance of Katherines (I’ve already read this one)
Surrender (10/12/8)
The Book Thief (I’ve alrady read this one)

2006
Looking for Alaska (10/11/8)
Black Juice (10/23/8)
I Am the Messenger (10/27/8)
John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth, a Photographic Biography (7/4/8)
A Wreath for Emmett Till (10/29/8)

2005
how i live now (6/8/8)
Airborn (11/27/8)
Chanda’s Secrets (10/18/8)
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (11/6/8)

2004
The First Part Last (11/9/8)
A Northern Light (11/17/8)
Keesha’s House (11/8/8)
Fat Kid Rules the World (11/8/8)
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things (9/28/8)

2003
Postcards from No Man’s Land (6/1/8)
The House of the Scorpion (6/15/8)
My Heartbeat (5/16/8)
Hole in My Life (5/27/8)

2002
A Step From Heaven (4/24/8)
The Ropemaker (5/7/8)
Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art (4/9/8)
Freewill (4/9/8)
True Believer (4/18/8)

2001
Kit’s Wilderness (3/23/8)
Many Stones (3/27/8)
The Body of Christopher Creed (3/27/8)
Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (3/25/8)
Stuck in Neutral (2/3/8)

2000
Monster (1/29/8)
Skellig (1/5/8)
Speak (I’ve read this one)
Hard Love (1/10/8)

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