Cybil Challenge

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 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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Stupid Fast

2012, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Young Adult /

Here’s another book from the Cybils Shortlist that I didn’t think I would like. Stupid Fast – there’s a guy in a football uniform on the cover. Total turn off for me – but, it was good. Really heartbreaking but good.

I really liked the descriptions of Fenton’s growth spurt – I’m guessing there are a lot of teenage guys who can relate to this. And a lot of parents who might gain insight into how a kid feels when everything changes that way.

Moral of the story, for adults – DO NOT LIE TO YOUR CHILDREN.

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Everybody Sees the Ants

2012, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction, Young Adult /

I didn’t think I was going to like Everybody Sees the Ants. The whole Vietnam – POW/MIA – escapes to the Laos jungle thing just seemed… not my thing.

And at first, it wasn’t. The dreams were weird, through the whole book – but particularly at the beginning. Luckily, Lucky is a great character and the supporting cast – particularly the characters in Arizona, are excellent. (The Vagina Monologues pieces, hah. Totally amused. Not sure Lucky would really have reacted that way – but hey, it’s fiction. We can dream…)

A book I thought would take me a few days to read because I didn’t really love it – ended up causing me to stay up til midnight to finish it all one one sitting.

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Bunheads

2012, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Young Adult /

I’m finally getting back into the swing of reading from my TBR list and my Challenge lists. Bunheads, a Cybils shortlister, was the last of the URGENT MUST READ NOW books that was due back to the library this week. Thankfully it was a short, easy, fun read. A very fun read actually. Except I probably will never be able to watch The Nutcracker again. TW thinks this is perfectly fine since she does not like The Nutcracker. I, however, don’t mind going to the ballet every 10 Christmases or so. In fact I had just been thinking it was time to see The Nutcracker again. Darn.

I also think Bunheads will make a really fun TV series.  

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Anna Dressed in Blood

2012, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I read almost NOTHING while I was in Hawaii. I had only a few non-fiction books with me and ebooks and none of the ebooks were holding my attention so I asked TW to bring me a book when she came – she did. She brought Anna Dressed in Blood and I was happy. However, I only read about 15 pages of it during that last week of our trip. I was just too tired to read at night and/or too focused on JMP to read.

But on the plane, I did read a bit and made it about 2/3 of the way through. I liked it but I wasn’t sure I loved it. We got home and I read a few more chapters and I really, really liked it a lot – but love? I wasn’t so sure. And then last night, I started reading and I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. I was exhausted and not feeling great but I had to find out what happened so it was after midnight before I turned off the lights – satisfied, very satisfied and in love with this story.

For anyone who loved ghost stories as a kid and loves horror fiction now – you must read this. Ignore the fact that it’s YA, if you’re not generally a YA reader. Fabulous, fabulous story.

Poor, poor Anna.

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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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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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Feynman

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Non-Fiction, Young Adult /

I was not cut out for Physics. I just wasn’t. And digging into the topic in graphic novel format and reading about an interesting guy like Feynman didn’t change that. Elly picked it up and said – this is science-y. Yes, yes it is. I’m sure there are teens who will like this book. I don’t know quite who they might be but I’m very sure they are out there.

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