Young adult book reviews, programming, and general obsessions and interests

The YA librarian

Obsessively reading YA as often as time permits!

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You Never Forget Your First….

It is rare that I so closely identify with a voice in a book, it is never quite right. Add to that an award sticker and I am almost inclined to scoff, to preemptively assume the book will have a voice that is completely inaccurate. My experience with award winning books is a feeling of superiority from the writer, where the teenage experience becomes unauthentic, tainted by adulthood.

Why we broke up by Daniel Handler, art by Maira Kalman one of this years Printz honor books is not unauthentic in the least. In fact I find it so authentic, and others do too, that the comments I see most are ‘predictable’ ‘same old story’ etc. To me the reality is that this story comes off as predictable because it is my story, Min’s feelings for Ed are my feelings for that first intense love. The way things play out and some of the characterizations, jock falls for ‘arty’ or different girl, can be somewhat contrite but I felt like Min was so authentic and she really came through for me in terms of how she expressed both her feelings of first real love and then her feelings of first real heart ache.

The first page talks about the box of stuff Min is returning to Ed, she speaks of the box in terms of it’s weight, it is full and heavy. The book itself is heavy, Like a brick tome of a book that with its weight in your hands you can feel the weight of Min’s heart ache.

I literally just finished this book and I had to just get some semblance of my initial feelings down before sleep robs me of my current feelings for the story, in case the morning after leaves me feeling different….

Updates and Apologies :)

So generally speaking I have been extra super quiet lately. Which is not like me at all, I have not been tweeting or even utilizing facebook all that much.  Generally the excuse is that life has gotten in the way. Our furniture arrived from the movers in November and so for the past two months we have been moving in and unpacking. Which has been a nightmare, our new house is very small and we have to think about our priorities and what we need versus what we have. I mean I don’ t know that we need a Belgian waffle maker but I really miss Belgium and occasionally I need a Liege waffle! (not often though!)

          In the book world I have not really been doing a lot of reading either, which bothers me I look at my stack of books to read and I feel an acute twinge of guilt.

Another thing that has been consuming all of my time, aside from work, is my participation as a second round judge for the Cybils.

We have been diligently working to determine the winners in the Easy Reader and the Early Chapter book category. Which was as difficult as I anticipated, being given a short list selected by the first round judges meant that we had the best of the best to choose from and they were all so good! The fact that we came to a decision at all is a miracle because it is really hard to narrow the field to a single winner in each category. All of my co-judges were so well read and passionate in the field of youth literature that I have come away with an immense respect for all of them.

So now everyone has a few days left before the winners are announced. I am sitting with my knowledge of the winners and I hope everyone loves them as much as we did.

I will be posting reviews of all the short listed titles from each category following the announcement.

In the mean time I am taking my new found free time to read

  A Clockwork Angel by  Cassandra Clare

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Happy Reading Everyone!

The Night Circus

The Night Circus

So far I am loving the alternating viewpoints and looking forward to see what happens next!

Internet vortex

Super preoccupied with all the random things going on in my life…no excuse really so I apologize for any neglect felt by any readers, *sorry readers*

Updates! I am still job hunting my present position has a projected termination of April fingers crossed something comes up between now and then or its back to Starbucks for me…

In the mean time staying busy…currently reading all the shortlisted contenders for the early reader/early chapter Cybil award. No spoilers but there are some really amazing books and this is so much harder than I anticipated, but a wonderful experience. Winner coming soon and then I will post my reviews of some of the titles.

Another project on the horizon for me as a means to staying relevant and informed in the field of early literacy and child development I am considering becoming a discovery toys education consultant. So you all will likely see a bit of shameless promotion with regard to that in the future… Take pity remember I will be bagging groceries or steaming milk for cappuccino in a few months.

Well I will leave you all now I am off to read my signed copy of TFIOS or more commonly known as The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, whom I love as an author and Internet persona.

So happy reading everyone and DFTBA

Review: Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

  • Pub. Date: October 2010
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
  • Format: Hardcover , 528pp
  • Sales Rank: 16,237
  • Age Range: Young Adult
  • Series: Nightshade Series #1
  • ISBN-13: 9780399254826

Annotation: Calla has always known her future and the future intended for her pack. She has accepted her impending union with the Alpha of the other pack, Ren. Until someone makes her question her path, where is her choice, and why can’t she choose love?

Summary: Calla, the alpha wolf of the nightshade pack, is promised to Ren the alpha of the Bane pack. It has always been planned, her union to Ren and with it the creation of a new wolf pack. This union is how it is done, how it has always been done. The guardians control the packs ensuring the best mixing of the wolf traits. Calla has always known her fate.

Shay is new to town and while hiking in the woods he is attacked by a grizzly bear. Before the bear can kill him a white wolf appears and fights off the grizzly. Losing too much blood from the bear wounds he can scarcely believe his eyes when the white wolf shifts into the form of a beautiful blonde girl with the golden eyes of a wolf. The beautiful wolf offers her blood to Shay and forces him to drink. Her blood saves him, his wounds heal and she pulls away abruptly. Shay feels drawn to her and she seems drawn to him as well, and just as he tries to move toward her he feels her fist connect with his jaw and everything fades to black.

If only saving Shay in the forest was the last Calla ever saw of the human boy but when he turns up at school there is something about him that keeps her coming back for more. Even though she knows it is forbidden she craves his touch. Meanwhile Ren is begging for the opportunity to touch Calla and she keeps pushing him away respecting the rules surrounding their intended union, the need for her purity. Even with Shay she draws the line, but how long can she resist the two temptations before it becomes too much or before someone fins out about Shay. She believes she has no choice, but Shay wants to give her one.

Evaluation: I really enjoyed this book once I figured out what was going on. Initially however there was very little back story and I felt thrust into the mythos of this world with its wolves and guardians. Sticking with the story pays off however and slowly everything comes together. Throughout the story you feel the intensity of Calla’s emotions as she is pulled between her illicit interest in Shay and her duty to her pack and her union to Ren. The pacing of this book was slow for me initially and then everything careens out of control as the story reaches its end. Just when everything falls apart and you are dying to find out what happens to Calla and her choice between Ren and Shay and her pack the book reaches its conclusion and you are teased with the impending publication of book two Wolfsbane. Great story overall, interesting take on the werewolf genre. I am eager to see where things go from here.

Cover Judgement:

The hardcover has a really intense cover. It is true to the floating head Young adult cover craze but there are some nice additions. The ‘T’ in nightshade has an intriguing type font that made me think something vampiric would come up with the shape inclined to make me think of a stake rather than a cross. Additionally the golden eyes of the girl in the picture are intense and the blood drenched calla lilies definitely leave a good impression. This book has definite eye catching appeal and I would pick it up based on the cover alone.

Silence versus Soliloquy

Sorry for the radio silence everyone! I have been kind of overwhelmed. Learning that my job position will be eliminated in a few months and having to return to the job search has been taking up much of my time. Additionally still don’t have internet at my house, this will change hopefully at the first of the year!

So aside from that tedium I have also not been reading at my normal pace! My furniture from our military move arrived a few days after thanksgiving and now my house is a disaster which distracts me from reading anything!

However I have been reading a few things. My focus has been on Easy Readers and Early Chapter books. I have been trying to prep for my role as a second round judge for the Cybil award and part of judging the literary merit of book titles for me is being familiar with the genre.

I have already been given the short list and I am working my way through a number of awesome titles. None of which I can share with you all yet, so I will tease you with my knowledge.

In preparing to make a final decision on the award winners though I have had to consider what criteria I see as important for figuring out the title with the highest level of literary merit and ‘kid appeal’.

In short what I came up with was the following

  • Illustrations should enhance, clarify and otherwise add to the story. Especially for this age group transitioning from picture books and beginning to read on their own. The Newbery award has a great indicator for judging books with pictures.
  • Appropriateness for the age level and experience of the reader, with concepts and situations they can understand.
  • Diction is also essential in these titles. For a beginning reader the words have to be approachable, sentences also need to be a length that new readers can grasp and get through. I think shorter sentences can also help with pacing of the book and keeping interest.
  • Finally overall approach-ability of the titles, the overall package. The size, the length, the illustrations, the overarching feel of the book and how it might resonate with the readers.

Looking forward to sharing reviews of these book titles with all of you. Be on the look out!

Also Happy Holidays to everyone, hopefully we all get a moment of peace to sit down with a good book!

Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Annotation: A ship charts a journey of 300 years with a cryogenic cargo of the worlds best and brightest. Amy the daughter of two new earth essentials has a problem, she has been woken up 50 years too early. To make matters worse someone on the ship is murdering the frozens.
Summary: Across the Universe works in alternating chapters to tell the story of Amy and Elder. Amy is from Earth, her parents are a high ranking military officer and a leading scientist in the field of genetics. Their rank afforded them the opportunity to bring Amy, a “non-essential” or cargo along with them. They have been cryogenically frozen and expect to wake up in 300 years on Centauri Earth, the new earth.
Elder is the leader in training aboard the Godspeed, a shop with 2,312 generation passengers. Generation passengers are those people that are born on the ship and their function is keeping things running in the form of maintaining  the livestock and food resources that will be used on Centauri Earth. Over the course of 250 years there have been some changes. The leaders of the ship have elected to help the generation passengers become better through training a single leader in the understanding of what they term the three causes of discord.
The ships current leader Eldest leads the ship, trains his future replacement Eldest, but there is something else going on. Someone is trying to sabotage the cryogencially frozen people in the cargo hold.
Somehow Amy is unfrozen. Then others are unfrozen, but they are not as lucky as Amy who survives improper thaw.  Now it is up to Amy and Elder to figure out who is sabotaging the frozens and the other secrets that seem to thrive on this ship. The ship is full of lies.
Evaluation: I enjoy science fiction this is my first space opera style sci-fi book. The world building of life on the ship was well done with the concepts of how the ship works and what they eat being loosely explained but just enough that things aren’t confusing and I can picture it. The only thing that was beyond comprehension for me was the size of the ship. It is supposedly the size of a small island like, guam. The story itself flipping between Amy and Eldest is easy to follow and though there are some questions about Elder initially it did not detract from the story. The way Amy is portrayed comes across as something of an ‘every-teen’ and Elder has a certain future quality to his thoughts and actions. The story progresses nicely hooking you early in the reading. My only qualm is that the ending felt rushed and some things were wrapped up to neatly too quickly. As I neared the last page my reading was in a state of disbelief over the sudden changes in how characters responded to situations. Their responses seemed too perfect and simple also it ends with very little in the way of true cliff-hanger and while I am excited for the next book I am not counting down the days to its release. The end and the way the characters seemed to change from how I perceived them in the whole book suddenly at the last minute in the last few pages just really lowered my interest in the continuation of the story.
Overall though I found it to be a good book and I am hoping that some of the wrap ups at the end of this book will be unwrapped and fully developed in book two.
Cover Judgement: 

I was really drawn to this cover. The purple galaxy and stars and the two faces in profile

intrigued me. As an added bonus if you remove the dust jacket from the book there is a diagram for how the ship would be laid out, a blueprint of sorts. That alone was quite helpful in imagining the ship and how it would function.

The cover at right is the paperback edition. This cover is a lot less arresting. I get a vague sci-fi feel from the long metal stylized hallway as well as the hatch that appears to look out on the universe, but for me it doesn’t compel me to pick it up the way the cover at left does. The cover at left also imparts more of the romantic/sexualized undertones of the book.
Next book currently scheduled for release in January 2012 is A Million Suns
The plot of this one appears to improve on the ending of Across the Universe. Barnes and Noble has the description for this new book in the series starting with things in chaos on Godspeed. I hope that is the case, since it would be a lot more arresting than things starting with a perfectly in order ship where Elder stepped in as leader and everything went smoothly. Makes me more intrigued to get my hands on this new book.
Beth Revis the author of the Across the Universe series will be at YALL Fest 2012 at Blue Bicycle Books on Nov 12, 2012.  This is one of the books I read as a personal challenge to have read a book by every author in attendance at this years YALL Fest. I only have 3 books left to read and there will be more reviews posted in the upcoming days leading up to YALL Fest!

It doesn’t hurt to ask!

So for anyone in the Charleston, SC area (which is near me if you are wondering) there is an upcoming fest that is FREE and has tons of YA Authors signed up!

YALL FEST!

Interactive map of Charleston.

I am super excited it seems like every few days they add another author to the list, who I really like! Additionally the event supports literacy in the low country. The first day of the event is focused on small round tables with authors and young adults in the form of local high school and college students. Which is brilliant!

Check out all the cool authors currently signed up: Author List 

So the title of this post “It doesn’t hurt to ask”, Why you may ask? Well Yesterday I left work to go see the movie Horrible Bosses (hilarious!) The trailer is potentially NSFW, so plug in the headphones and close the door :)

Prior to leaving work I sent a last minute email to my boss (not a horrible boss) and said I think I need leave for the 11-12 of November because the Awesome that is YALL Fest will be in Charleston and I MUST BE THERE!

The unexpected reply you may ask?

“I am not sure you need to take leave for that, I believe that relates to your job and you could attend on the clock”

AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I truly believe this makes my boss far from horrible and is actually pretty amazing! So I might get paid to go and I am stoked beyond belief and this further cements the idea in my head of how amazing it is to be a librarian!

In preparation for the epic opportunity to attend YALL FEST I am going to need to catch up on some reading. I have read books by most of the authors signed up to attend, and some I have had on my to be read (TBR) list for a LONG time, but I am rearranging my TBR to read the following books before Nov. 11-12:

The first one on the list is a super recent addition  because of some hype from a youth  librarian I follow on twitter, her ecstatic tweets had me extremely curious, and then her review closed the deal. So I will stop by the library to pick it up tomorrow.

This book seems like a well timed read for me around Halloween but I want to finish it sooner so I can add to my spooky stories display.

The rest of my list is not in a particular order aside from, what is readily available at my library and what I have to put on hold or ILL

On the upside I work much better under pressure! So here is my challenge 10 books in 31 days, definitely a reachable goal but it will take some dedication on my part.

Additionally I will also be reading a lot of Early Reader/Early Chapter Books to support my side gig as a Cybils judge! If you want to make my job harder you can (I hope you will), nominations are still open until the 15th of October.

Anyone else going to YALL Fest?

CYBILS

Some people dream of being in the NBA or climbing Mt. Everest, I dream of books, and things related to books. So for me the news I received recently had me literally speechless, additionally I was sworn to secrecy so my speechlessness was appropriate.

Now I can tell you my secret! I was selected to be a judge for this year’s Cybils! Which is a blogger award given for the year’s best children’s and young adult titles. The huge honor has me super stunned and excited, this will be my first time on a book judging panel (is that the right term LOL) and hopefully not the last! The category I will be judging is Early Reader/Early Chapter books which is described as:

“These are the books that help kids make the leap from hogging Mom’s lap at storytime to sneaking a flashlight under the covers.  It’s an important transition, and including this genre was an acknowledgement that these books didn’t properly fit with either picture or middle grade books.  They’re in a class by themselves…”

The kind of books that made me feel like I was really reading all by myself and gave me confidence and ignited my reading interest. These books helped me move  from “Mom can you read to me” to “Mom I am out of books, can we go to the library?” Which leaves me with a level of love and respect for the genre, which I hope to lend to my judging efforts. I can’t wait to see the nominations come rolling in (in a matter of hours now!)

I am also equally excited to join the ranks of all the Cybil judges in this category and then all the other judges, what an epic conglomeration of book blogging passion! I feel like I have made so many new friends who share my passion for books, reading, and literacy.

That in mind, don’t be surprised if you see some new reviews on the blog aimed at the younger crowd again! Consider it a nice variation on things, it is always good to change it up right?

 

Review: Hush: An Irish Princess’ Tale

Hush: An Irish Princess' Tale
Hush: An Irish Princess’ Tale by Donna Jo Napoli
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

This was a really enjoyable read. I had trouble getting into it at first, the story starts off a bit slow and meanders through some character development…THEN all of the sudden it picks up speed and before I knew it the story was over and I kind of missed the characters. I love Melkorka the main character an Irish Princess taken in a raid to collect slaves and the story of her journey on a slave ship. The details were exacting enough to imagine and the historical accuracy was notable but not noticed. I am not generally a historic fiction reader but this story really worked for me and I have not been let down by this author yet. Actually will probably seek out more of her books.

View all my reviews