keeping track of my goals

A while back I made a loose-ish goal to read more of the books I order for the library – I read all these reviews and I agonize over what to order and how to spend my budget, and then the books come in and I want to read them ALL.  So I sort of panic and my to-read shelf is full and sometimes I read a bunch of the new books and sometimes I don’t read any.

So I thought I’d set myself up with a steady diet of about five per month (in addition to older books, YA books, adult titles, etc.)  I went through my January order and picked five that sounded good and various.  The first one I’ve gotten around to is Arthur Slade’s The Hunchback Assignments, although I’m actually listening to the audio version.  So far it’s creepy, but not too creepy, nicely historical without an overwhelming amount of detail (making it good, I think, for readers looking for creepy rather than historical).  And some intriguing minorly fantastical elements.  Plus, the audio version, read by Jayne Entwistle, makes the voices distinct and atmospheric – nothing detracts from the story.

Now the question is, what were the other four books I planned on reading?

All the Broken Pieces

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg

This is one of those books where you admire the craft, you are moved by the story, and you’re not quite sure of the best audience for the book. The main character is a bit young relative to the emotional intensity of the story – not that it couldn’t be read and appreciated by upper elementary/middle school readers, especially if any of the issues resonate with them, but it might be a harder sell to high schoolers because of Matt’s age.

The story has good tension and pace – I think the verse format helps with that – and there are some interesting side characters, particularly the young veterans. The conflict with a classmate is resolved a little too quickly, but the emotional content of the story rings true.

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Once Was Lost

Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr

Sara Zarr has a way with realistic stories – she makes them gritty enough to feel firmly based in reality, without turning them into after school specials, despite the issues she addresses. In this story, we’ve got an alcoholic mother, a pastor father who takes better care of his parishioners than his daughter, an abducted teen. Zarr tells her stories clearly, in a way where you aren’t wowed by any specific sentence, but you believe in the characters and their world. This quality also holds true for her reading of the audiobook – she doesn’t make any attempts to do voices or inject extra drama into the story, but speaks clearly and lets her words speak for themselves.

The plot seems to center around the search for the missing girl, and this creates great tension and suspense, but since we hear the story from Sam’s perspective, the story is much more about how this affects her, and how the issues raised by the abduction trigger issues in her own family. Her father’s emotional distance is heightened by his involvement in assisting the family of the missing girl, and there are emotional parallels between her mother’s time in rehab and the how the missing girl’s family deals with the situation.

I was happy to see that Sam’s faith is dealt with realistically and not dismissively. She truly struggles with her faith and doubts, and there are no easy answers – not something you see everyday in a YA novel. Highly recommended to any teen looking for a solid, realistic novel.

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Hold Still

Hold Still by Nina LaCour

A haunting but not depressing contrast to Thirteen Reasons Why. While the central issue is Caitlin dealing with her best friend’s suicide, and there are certainly heartbreaking points in the story related to that, it’s as much about Caitlin finding her place emotionally and artistically. Photographs and photography are woven into the story quite nicely, and the design of the book complements this artistic angle. It’s more character and situation driven than plot driven, with good supporting characters – Caitlin’s photography teacher is particularly memorable. A good sense of place, too, and I loved how Caitlin used building a treehouse as part of her way of dealing with grief. Recommended to teens looking for a thoughtful story.

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Pigface Psychopomp!

Perhaps my favorite thing about Flora’s Dare (by Ysabeau S. Wilce, sequel to Flora Segunda) is the language.  And not just the fake-swearing language, either (exclamations of “pigface!” abound).  The names are just as delightful as the first time around – I just met a character named Tiny Doom, which ranks up there with the Dainty Pirate.  Throw in a fantasy version of San Francisco (or at least that’s how it reads to me), magic and monsters, a city under the rule of the Birdies, a high rate of bacon and waffle consumption, a girl who’s outgrowing her stays, a kilt-wearing populace, an army general for a mother, a best friend taken over by the outlaw version of the red shoes (in this case, a pair of sparkly red boots with a five inch heel), and some stuffed pigs that I suspect of being more than they seem – well, sign me up.

I took my time getting around to reading it, though, and now I’m in a rush before it’s due.  And it’s a long one with a slightly meadering plot, like the first one.  Still, I couldn’t resist.  Pigface, I ought to be reading, not blogging.

On a different fantasy note, I’ve been listening to Kristin Cashore’s Graceling in the car – a full cast recording.  I’m hooked, even though I mostly remember how it all works out.  It’s fun to see the clues laid.  Unfortunately I’m not quite a fan of the voice for Katsa herself, but the narrator is great and as always the full cast deal makes it easy to tell who’s talking at any point.  Also, I knew that Cashore’s current project is called Bitterblue, but I’d forgotten exactly who Bitterblue was, so it makes for some nice imagining about which part of her story will be told in her own book.  Also, I’m appreciating the character overlaps between this book and Fire.  To mention them would be to spoil it – and I recommend them both.  Start with Graceling, then move on to it’s prequel, Fire.

Monday goals

So, it’s been a week since the ALA Youth Media Awards were announced (you know – Newbery, Caldecott, Printz, etc.) and it’s been a week of discussing and reading opinions on blogs and listserves and the like.   I haven’t actually done any reading of the award winners (cough), but my holds have started rolling in and I’m looking forward to getting started, once I clear one or two things off my shelf (things that absolutely cannot be renewed one more time).

All of the blog reading and discussing has got me thinking about the books that I never get around to reading – the ones that win the not-as-famous awards, the books that are getting some attention but not as much, the awards that get overlooked.  Liz has a post about the Schneider medal, which I noticed (and ordered) this year, but would I have noticed as much if I hadn’t already been familiar with the teen winner, Marcelo in the Real World? And if I hadn’t heard buzz about the middle-school winner, Anything But Typical? I dunno.

Then, oh boy, there are the recent cover controversies – the ongoing issue of characters being depicted as white when they are in fact not.  It’s bad enough when you don’t feel like the cover illustration/photo suits the book or matches the character’s personality, but whitewashing?  Ugh.  Again, Liz has a good overview of the cover issue, and Colleen has passionate summary with plenty of links and some great discussion in the comments.

After toying around with the idea for a while (am I really organized enough?) I thought I’d join the POC Reading Challenge.  While I’d like to think I read books with characters from a variety of racial backgrounds already, this will be a way to make sure.  Plus, as a librarian – as someone who’s ordering books and putting them into the hands of children – I feel some responsibility to make sure there’s access to quality and variety in my collection.  I need to know what’s out there, be able to talk it up, and do my little part to show publishers that variety is needed.

A slightly unrelated goal is to read all of the award winners from this year (I took off the life-time acheivement awards and the Arbuthnot lecture – I’ve read books by all of the winners, so I figure that counts – Walter Dean Myers, Jim Murphy, and Lois Lowry).  Yikes.  Did I just say that?  Let’s see what that list would look like (taking off the ones I’ve already read):

• “The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg” by Rodman Philbrick
• “Going Bovine,” written by Libba Bray
• “The Monstrumologist” by Rick Yancey
• “Punkzilla” by Adam Rapp
• “Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal,” written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
• “My People,” illustrated by Charles R. Smith Jr.
• “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” illustrated by E. B. Lewis, written by Langston Hughes
• “The Rock and the River,” written by kekla magoon
• “Book Fiesta!: Celebrate Children’s Day/Book Day; Celebremos El día de los niños/El día de los libros,” illustrated by Rafael López
• “Diego: Bigger Than Life,” illustrated by David Diaz, written by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand
• “My Abuelita,” illustrated by Yuyi Morales, written by Tony Johnston
• “Gracias Thanks,” illustrated by John Parra, written by Pat Mora
• “Return to Sender,” written by Julia Alvarez
• “Federico García Lorca,” written by Georgina Lázaro, illustrated by Enrique S. Moreiro (is this in Spanish?  I might have to cross it off my list – we’ll see when our copy arrives)
• “Django” written and illustrated by Bonnie Christensen
• “Anything but Typical” written by Nora Raleigh Baskin
• “Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken”  written by Kate DiCamillo and narrated by Barbara Rosenblat (audio)
• “In the Belly of the Bloodhound: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in the Life of Jacky Faber,” written by L. A. Meyer and narrated by Katherine Kellgren (audio)
• “Peace, Locomotion,” written by Jacqueline Woodson and narrated by Dion Graham (audio)
• “We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball,” written by Kadir Nelson and narrated by Dion Graham (audio – I’ve already read the print version)
• “I Spy Fly Guy!” written and illustrated by Tedd Arnold
• “Little Mouse Gets Ready,” written and illustrated by Jeff Smith
• “Mouse and Mole: Fine Feathered Friends,” written and illustrated by Wong Herbert Yee
• “Pearl and Wagner: One Funny Day,” written by Kate McMullan, illustrated by R. W. Alley
• “The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors,” written by Chris Barton, illustrated by Tony Persiani
• “Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11,” written and illustrated by Brian Floca
• “A Faraway Island”  written by Annika Thor, translated by Linda Schenck
• “Eidi,” written by Bodil Bredsdorff, translated by Kathryn Mahaffy
• “Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness,” written by Nahoko Uehashi, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, translated by Cathy Hirano

A mere 29 books!  And several of them are early readers or picture books.  Totally possible.  The question is how long it will take to cross them all off my list.  Also, several will fit into the POC Reading Challenge.

I’m not sure if I’ll attempt the Alex Awards, but that would be a good list to familiarize myself with – and it never hurts to have some adult titles to recommend to adults, too.  So much harder than recommending to kids!  You can tell where I belong.  Here’s the Alex list, in case I’m feeling even crazier:

Alex Awards for the 10 best adult books that appeal to teen audiences

“The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope” by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
“The Bride’s Farewell” by Meg Rosoff, published by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group
“Everything Matters!” by Ron Currie, Jr., published by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group
“The Good Soldiers” by David Finkel, published by Sarah Crichton Books, an imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux
“The Kids Are All Right: A Memoir” by Diana Welch and Liz Welch with Amanda Welch and Dan Welch, published by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House
“The Magicians,” by Lev Grossman, published by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group
“My Abandonment” by Peter Rock, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
“Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel,” by Gail Carriger, published by Orbit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group
“Stitches: A Memoir” by David Small, published by W.W. Norton & Company
“Tunneling to the Center of the Earth” by Kevin Wilson, published by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins

Leaving the Bellweathers

Leaving the Bellweathers by Kristin Clark Venuti

A fun and off-beat story full of improbable characters and storylines, wordplay, endangered animals, eccentric parents, crazy triplets, an oath of fealty – you get the idea. It’s become a cliched comparison to say that it reminds you of Lemony Snicket, but it’s such a quick way to get the point across – the quirkiness, the wordplay, the narrative style – it’s definitely in that vein. While I didn’t necessarily find it a satisfying story, there’s no reason it shouldn’t appeal to kids who want something to read after polishing off A Series of Unfortunate Events.

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Crossing this title off my to-read list also fits in nicely with my goal of reading more of the books I buy for the library – I ordered this one a few months ago, but still.  I like to be able to tell people things about what’s on the new book shelf without resorting to what I learned from reviews.

Ballad

Ballad: The Gathering of Faerie by Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
As with Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception (which you really ought to read before this one, because although this plot is mostly independent, the characters and set-up will make a whole lot more sense if read in order), I loved the snark. Here, the story is mostly from James’ point of view, while Dee is more of a background character. The other point of view is that of Nuala, a sort of muse-fairy. It’s still got the romance and drama, the undercurrent of fear, the can’t-trust-’em fairies, the nerds, and the awesome quantity of snark. Some people might like these stories more for the fantasy elements, but I could care less – Stiefvater’s characters, in all their nerdy, snarky glory, make for my favorite kind of light, fun reading.

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Almost Astronauts

Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is one of those non-fiction books where it’s hard to tell whether you liked it for the story it told or the way it told the story. Here, I think both are effective. The story is certainly one that needs telling – the history of discrimination against female pilots in this country, particularly in regards to the space program, and Stone’s way of telling the story engrosses the reader – building up her case, citing examples of institutionalized sexism, making you feel for the women involved, describing the fitness and isolation tests, and finally the story of how women were ultimately welcomed to NASA. It’s a great book for kids interested in becoming pilots or astronauts, and also a great way to learn about our country’s history of sexism.

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Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The whole book is a beautiful package – a strong, likeable heroine, a adventurous quest, light fantasy, lovely illustrations, and a story that’s entirely appropriate for younger readers who want those fantasy elements but aren’t ready for anything too dark or scary. It’s a great novel for kids who are drawn to folktales, and it would also make a great gateway book to folktales, especially with Lin’s list of further reading at the back of the book. I really couldn’t find fault with anything here, and I was quite pleased to see it win the Mock Newbery AND take home a Newbery Honor. I also suspect it would make a great read-aloud for a family or classroom.

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