Cybil Challenge

The Jupiter Pirates (2 Of Them)

2015, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

One of the Jupiter Pirates books is on the Cybils shortlist and since there are only two published (so far) and they’re middle grade scifi, I figured I’d just reserve them both. I’m glad I did. They were both a lot of fun and super quick to read.

The captain of the ship is a woman (a mom) and her husband is the first mate. There are three kids competing against each other to be the captain when their mom retires but they also have to work together because they’re crew. The female child is the one who’s most into “firepower” — that’s a nice change from the girl being the smart, bossy one.

I can see the first book (or the second) being a great action movie for kids. Great characters, interesting plot, lots of special effects. Someone should option these now.

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While We Run

2015, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

The first part of While We Run was confusing. When we left Abdi and Tegan, they were casting the info about The Ark project and when we pick up, Abdi and Tegan are spouting all sorts of pro Ark project madness.

I’m not sure I liked this one as much as the first book — I liked Tegan quite a bit less and I liked all of the supporting characters more. It all worked out, (mostly), though.

Is there supposed to be another book? I’m not dying to read another but I’ll probably give it a try if there is one.

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Pointe

2015, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Young Adult /

Oh boy. Pointe was a problem book with all the problems. ALL OF THEM. TOO MANY PROBLEMS.

But, errr, I didn’t put it down once I got past the second chapter. It was compelling — trying to figure out how all of this mess was going to come together to make an ending to the mess. Sheesh.

Yay for diversity in YA but boo because another ballerina with anorexia? Really? Along with the sexual abuse and the over-privileged drug use and it turned out to be just another typical YA novel, really.

I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it, either.

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6 Poetry Books from the Cybils Shortlist

2015, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Poetry, Young Adult /

I really wish the Cybils didn’t put children’s poetry in with the middle grade/YA poetry. It seems… not right. Whatever. It is what it is and we’ll just go with it, I guess.

So I read six. Finally.

– Dear Wandering Wildebeest and Other Poems From the Water Hole was fine. I didn’t love it. I didn’t hate it. It was fine.

– Firefly July was a cute seasonal poetry book. Nice mix of poetry from typical favorites and lesser known poets.

– Hi, Koo!: A Year of Seasons was fun. It was haiku but not the traditional haiku, which I appreciated. I was also amused by the hidden A, B, Cs — though that’s probably not super useful, I was just amused by it.

– Santa Clauses was better than I expected it to be. More haiku, which I wasn’t thrilled about but ended up liking quite a lot.

– Voices From the March on Washington was super interesting. (Again, why this and Brown Girl Dreaming are in the category with these younger children’s poetry… ugh.) I liked it very much. Kids who aren’t into poetry might like this. I highly recommend it.

– Water Rolls, Water Rises Water Rolls, Water Rises was excellent. I was surprised by how much I liked this one. I think it might have been my favorite of the bunch.

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Greenglass House

2015, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Greenglass House is from the Cybils shortlist and we listened to it on audio.

I had a little trouble settling into the story in the beginning because I didn’t particularly like Milo. Also all of the folks arriving at the Inn all at once made for a bit of confusion. Weird names, hard to keep people straight, but it all settled down and started making sense.

Even the ghost part. (Oddly, TW didn’t realize the ghost was a ghost until Milo did. I was surprised by that.)

I liked the mystery. I liked the role-playing game aspect. I liked the adoption storylines. I did not love the storyline that had Clem and Georgie trying to steal the guy’s heart. That bothered me. Which is probably the reason why I didn’t give the book 5 stars (TW asked me about that a couple of days ago and I couldn’t really tell her why… now I can. I really loved both of those characters until the reason they were both at Greenglass House came out. I didn’t like that. I didn’t think it was necessary. I don’t particularly want kids to read that and think that this is how young women behave. Or should behave. Or even consider behaving. That’s now how relationships work…)

Anyway. Good book. I enjoyed it.

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3 Graphic Novels

2015, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge /

Look at me finishing up a category from the Cybils shortlist. (Unfortunately it’s an easy category. Hah.)

The Dumbest Idea Ever was ok. A little long and I didn’t much like the kid. Or his friends. The illustrations were good, though.

Hidden: A Child’s Story of the Holocaust was very good. I liked it a lot. I can see a grandmother telling that story to her grandchild but not to her son.

Ballad was beautiful. Really beautiful. But, I did not love the story that went along with it. It was too choppy and I don’t think it needed to be. Definitely worth reading just for the illustrations.

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Alice + Freda Forever

2015, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Feminism, Non-Fiction, Queer, Women, Young Adult /

I impulsed selected Alice + Freda Forever because I liked the font on the cover. I was also interested in reading more about this case. I’ve heard about it in passing but knew very little about it, really.

It was interesting. A little dry considering the subject matter. There was a lot of crazy going on back in the late 1800s and it wasn’t all just the Alice kind of crazy. Just sayin’.

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