The Magnificent 12: The Call

1 Comment / 2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

The Magnificent 12: The Call might have been the perfect book to read after Stolen. Another Cybils shortlister, it’s a middle grade scifi/fantasy that’s pretty darn funny. The only rough moment in the book was when Mack and Stefan found themselves in the Australian Outback (not the restaurant) – there was a little post-traumatic stress syndrome or something (from reading Stolen the night before.)

I cannot wait for the next book – and I’d really love a book just from The Golem’s point of view. Now that would be funny. I’m a little concerned by just how long it might take to get through this entire series. Are we going to meet one new member of the Magnifica in each book? Two? Or are we going to move a little faster now that we’ve got the basic elements of the story down?  If we’ve got to have 12 or 13 or 14 books to defeat The Evil Foe… that’s not going to work, middle schoolers won’t stick with the series through college. It’s good but it’s not that good.

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Stolen

2011, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Fiction /

Figures the first Cyblis Shorlist book from the YA category I read would be Stolen. It just figures. I should have known better. I had plenty of warning. I should have read Liz B’s post before I reserved this one. Or maybe it’s good that I didn’t, I might have decided not to read it at all – even though that would mean totally blowing my own challenge. It’s that kind of book.

Liz B. sums it up nicely, it’s a Printz Honor book (and on the Cybil’s shortlist, I assume) for three reasons, — writing, setting, characterization. Both Gemma and Ty are very real, in both their strengths and weaknesses.

But is that enough? I don’t know. It’s a terrifying book because the reader, even one as old as I am, falls into the trap of if not liking Ty – at least recognizing the beauty of him and of what he wants to do out there in the middle of nowhere. The painting. His connection to the land. And that passion extends to Gemma, which is where it all goes wrong. A teen girl (or boy) reading this book might just be lulled into believing Ty’s passion towards Gemma are good – they must be because of his overwhelmingly good passionate feelings about the land.

I worry about this book, for teen readers, because I don’t believe that most of them have the maturity to see Ty for what he was – a very dangerous, abusive, criminal. And that is enough for me to warn readers away from this. I wouldn’t hand it to my teens. I’m very sure that some of them would get sucked into feeling sorry for Ty – feeling attraction for Ty – believing what he felt was LOVE and so it must be ok.

It’s not. It’s not ok.

As troubling as “Romantic Hero: Edward Cullen” is, this book goes so much further. It makes the entire “Marry me/Change me” plot seem like a happy lark through the park for women.

Please don’t let there be a sequel. I am terrified of what that might look like.

I don’t think I will ever forget these characters or this story. Sign of a great book – certainly. Without a doubt. It deserves its awards. Read it at your own risk – but definitely read it before your teenagers do.

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Four Cybils from the Children’s Shelves + a Bonus Cybil from Last Year’s Shortlist

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Fiction, Non-Fiction /

National Geographic Readers: Ants – pretty pictures but kind of boring. I imagined my brother, the ant fanatic, reading this when he was little. I think he’d have been bored though he probably would have been amused by the jokes at the top right corner of some of the pages. If you have a kid who hasn’t yet taken an interest in ants, this would be a good beginner ant book.  For those who’ve already dug into the ant pile, skip this one.

Fly Guy Meets Fly Girl – Ahhhhh, so much potential, such a let down. OK it’s not as bad as all that. I just wished for more. Just a little more personality from the flies. Or something. I’m not saying don’t read it, I’m just hoping the other books in the series go a little deeper, make me laugh a little more. So much potential.

Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa. Well. It is what it is. A little girl with a horse. The horse talks to her (and she to it) but the other animals do not seem to speak. This is what I’ve never really understood about some of these talking pet books. I’m also confused because Cocoa always starts out kind of grumpy and maybe not very smart but within a few sentences, turns around completely. It seems like if Cocoa is going to be a grump she should grumpily admit that the dog is nice, or the baby owls are cute – not to jump wholeheartedly into love when three seconds ago she was grouchy. I know, I’m an adult over-thinking a picture book. I can’t help it. I want perfection in my children’s lit. Heh.

Last, but never least, the man (and pig and elephant) who never disappear  — no matter how much I might wish they all would. I say it every year, I like Mo Willems (or I used to) but people. Please. Does he have to be on the Cybils short list every year? And is he really only writing Elephant and Piggie books? Because GAH! I’m so done with them. Or I was… until We Are In a Book. I can’t believe I’m saying this but…. Awesome. Brilliant. Willems, Piggie and Elephant (and the Cybils selection committee) have redeemed themselves this year. But please. That does not mean this series should be on the list next year.  Enough already. Except “Banana!” hahahahahaha.

One last book from the Cybils shortlist – except it is a book from last year’s shortlist. The book I reserved last July, the book that never came. The book the library website said was ON THE SHELF for six months. The book that was NOT on the shelf where it was supposed to be. (Parents in Glenview who take their kids to the library, a little clean up would be appreciated. Restack those books in the right place, please.)  I had given up hope for The Day-Glo Brothers. I also couldn’t quite bring myself to buy it. And then suddenly, there it was, on my pick up list. Yippeee! And thank goodness, it was interesting! I’ve never wondered how Day-Glo paint was invented. Have you? The guys behind the Day-Glo, great story.  It’s written for a pretty young set, and I wish it was written a little “older” – it’s missing just a little bit of depth that would have been nice.

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Cybils Short List – One Poetry, One Graphic Novel

2011, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Comics & Graphic Novels, Cybil Challenge, Poetry /

I was really looking forward to Borrowed Names – a book about mothers/daughters, a book about Laurie Ingalls Wilder, Madam C.J. Walker, and Marie Curie (and their daughters). And I did like it but more than half the book was the store of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder. The Walkers and Curies felt shorted – which is too bad because I particularly liked the Walker and Curie sections of this book.

Twin Spica – a little girl wants to be in the first class of the Tokyo Space School. There are problems, of course, it’s a graphic novel after all. The girl’s mom was injured and killed when she was a baby – when the first Japanese rocket crashed into earth after lift-off. Elly read this one before I did and she liked it. I read it and… I liked it too, once I settled into the traditional backwards method of reading (it always takes me about three pages to get used to reading right to left, lol) – but I didn’t get the end. I don’t know if it’s because it was almost midnight when I finished or if I missed a heading that explained what the heck was going on but… I think I need to re-read the last three pages. Maybe that’s the intro to volume two? I don’t know. (FYI to those looking for middle grade graphic novels – there’s some family violence in this book. The father slaps the daughter a couple of times. And there are cases where the kids fight with each other, but in the context, the fighting makes sense (three kids locked in a small room together and told to place dominos – millions of dominos – in line within 7 days …. Or they flunk the test. It’s one of those controlled environment tests for space programs. Totally stressful, read Packing for Mars if you’re confused by this. Heh)

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Four Non-fiction Books in January and February

2011, Books in Bed, Non-Fiction /

I’m playing catch up on my book blogging. First, because I simply fell behind. Second because three of these books I don’t really want to blog – yet. I’ll be blogging those over on BlogHer later this month. But I do want to keep a record of them here so…

1)      The Art of American Book Covers is a beautiful book. I think I need to own this one. Just so I can flip through the pages and imagine holding those old, beautiful books. LOVE.

2)      Shop Smart, Save More – interesting look at what led to The Grocery Game.

3)      Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America’s Cheapest Family – hah, I’m a sucker for these kinds of books. This one was extra fascinating (also extra frustrating for me since I kept growling “Patriarchy”…)

4)      Supershop Like the Coupon Queen – interesting, slightly updated, look at the original coupon queen (who I do remember from day time tv in the 70’s and 80’.)

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Full Dark, No Stars

2011, Books in Bed, Fiction, short stories /

When I reserved Full Dark, No Stars I didn’t know it was short stories, so that threw me right off the bat. Then the opening story, about rats (among other things) creeped me the hell out. Which is what I expect from a Stephen King novel. So I’m not complaining but UGH. The next story – was a hard read. A woman is raped and then seeks revenge. Hard, hard story but beyond that, I found some of the lesbian languaging to be “off” – at the end of the book, King talks about writing real people and not pulling punches and writing about things people would never really do. Well I hear him and normally I think he does a good job of this but in this case, it didn’t feel true to the character(s) for some reason. So color me unhappy with the second story. The rest of the stories – excellent in every way. Just creepy enough, amusing when they need to be and hardcore evil when they need to be that, too.

Overall, good stories. I’m not sorry I read them. But the rats, ugh.

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World and Town

2011, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction /

On New Year’s Eve, TW, Michelle and I went to the big magazine in stand in Evanston to see if we could find some fun, quirky magazines to play with. We found some and we also found some old standbys – like Bookmarks. Inside Bookmarks were a lot of books I hadn’t heard of, including World and Town by Gish Jen. I thought this one sounded interesting so I reserved it at the library and… why have I not read Gish Jen before?

I love her writing. I love her characters. I love this story. As I approached the end of the book, I put it down in favor of some non-fiction because I just didn’t really want the book to end – even though I wanted to keep reading it. I kind of just wanted to keep reading it forever.

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The Spooky Girl

2 Comments / 2011, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Women /

The Spooky Girl  is another of those books I picked up from the shelf because the cover was interesting and so was the title. And it was a fun book, sad in places – as you’d expect from a book about a young woman who died before her time. It also contained a very important lesson for those of  us who live in the internet age… make sure you have important addresses and phone numbers of people who should be contacted in the event of your death somewhere besides your cell phone. Odds are high that if you get hit by a bus, your cell phone is not going to survive and your friends will never know what happened to you because your next of kin won’t be able to contact them to let them know. That would suck, wouldn’t it? Bad enough to get hit by a bus and have your cellphone destroyed (that makes me weepy just thinking about it) but to have your friends just assume you’ve skipped out on them. Tsk tsk.

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