The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

genre: middle grade

When it comes to trouble, the Herdmans take the cake. If it can be burnt, hit, stolen or lied about - they've done it. So when they decide to go to church and join the annual Christmas Pageant, not one soul is thrilled. Is it possible to completely destroy the nativity story? The Herdmans seem determined to find out, although when the big day finally comes, things aren't quite what people expected.

I read this one out loud to my three children (10.5, 8, 5.5) and they were huge fans. There were moments of hysterical laughter and some lines are still being quoted. The ending nearly had me teary and I think my kids (at least the two older ones) GOT it. My only caveat is that, for me, parts were so outrageously "sacrilegious" that I felt sort of bad reading them to my kids! It also has more than a few cuss words that I just edited out as I read. Everyone enjoyed it enough, though, and it got us thinking enough about what Christmas is all about, that I think we'll be reading it again next year.

My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

genre: young adult

Our cast of characters:

TC: a Red Sox loving baseball fanatic with a penchant for social activism

Augie: a fan of female stars from classic movies, doesn't know he's gay yet, best friend of TC

Ale: recently moved to Boston from DC, daughter of a former ambassador, has hidden musical theater skills and tries her darnedest to avoid the advances of the darling TC

I don't want to tell you whole lot more than that - I want you to discover it on your own. Through homework assignments, journal entries, texts and chats we follow these three through their most excellent year, as they learn about themselves, about love and about what it means to be a family. Wishes come true, musicals take place and heart strings are TUGGED, let me tell you. For such a clever and witty novel, it's got so much heart. The Augie storyline is heartfelt and so accepting that it felt a tiny bit over the top, but better that than things swinging the other way. There is some disbelief that needs to be suspended, but I was so enthralled with the story that it wasn't hard. A charming piece of work that surprised me and thrilled me.

book 38 for the 2101 young adult reading challenge

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

genre: young adult

When Amy decides to be cryogenically frozen and sent into space with her parents on the huge spaceship Godspeed, she does not anticipate being woken up early...really early, when the Godspeed is still 50 years from landing on earth's new colony. The world that she awakens to is like a claustrophobic bad dream, with a tyrannical ruler named Eldest, people who just seem...off, way too many things that don't make sense and confining metal walls are the only thing between her and the terror of space.

Can Amy trust Elder, the boy who is next in line to rule? Who unplugged her and could that mysterious person do it to someone else? What else is Eldest hiding from Amy and everyone else?

This was an incredibly intriguing book. Such interesting and legitimate questions, so many mysteries that are unraveled, completely surprising me (which we all know I love) and some wonderful science fiction twists. The position these people are put in, completely alone in a theoretically self-sustaining environment, puts so many restraints on how things can play out if the people on board are going to actually make it to that colony on the other side of the universe. A really enjoyable read for me - 4.5 stars, the only reason it's not 5 is that I wanted a little more from the romantic storyline, although it felt very believable.

A great book for young adult sci-fi lovers.

book 37 for the 2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens

genre: middle grade
unsolicited from publisher - thanks!

What do you get if you throw together The Series of Unfortunate Events, The Lord of the Rings, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and a little bit of Harry Potter type magic? You get this book, an adventure story, a fantasy story - a story of orphans and wizards, hidden books and midnight chases.

One winter night, four year old Kate and her two siblings are separated from their parents for a secret purpose - and while she wants to believe they are still alive, ten years of orphanage swapping begins to wear on her faith. When the three children are taken to their newest home, it's apparent before they even arrive that things are not quite what they seem and soon they are on an adventure that will change their lives - and possibly save the world from evil.

There is a lot about this story that I liked - the believable camaraderie of the siblings, the Tolkien-like storyline and a few of the minor characters are just FUNNY with their sarcasm and irritation. For a middle-grade fantasy, I'd say it's a fine work, since I can't think of anything I'd change (except maybe tighten it up and shorten it a little, but I think that's me as an adult reader talking - for a younger audience the explanations and timing might be just right). The ending certainly left you knowing at least two more books are on their way, with some good and interesting questions left unanswered and some clear adventures yet to come.

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld

genre: non-fiction graphic novel

Seven Stories.

Seven lives that are, irrevocably, changed by Hurricane Katrina.

In A.D. New Orleans, Josh Neufeld puts pen to paper to tell, in graphic novel format, the true tales of seven different people who survived Katrina - either by evacuating, by being rescued off a roof, by ending up being transported by bus to Houston via the Convention Center or by just holding tight.

From the beginning, it's like a train wreck - you don't want to look, but you can't help it. You want to scream at them, with our wonderful hindsight, to GET OUT but of course, who could have imagined such a disaster? So, it's not easy to read or look at. It makes you uncomfortable. It makes you worry about how you would handle situations like these people actually faced, in real life. It makes you question the actions of our government. It tunes you in to the fact that sometimes, there is damage that just cannot be made right, that even if you get the electricity back on and a bed to sleep in again, that when your world is literally washed away, you will just never be the same.

Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien

genre: young adult

The night after sixteen year old Gaia's first delivery as a midwife, she returns home to find her parents missing - arrested - by soldiers from the Enclave. At a loss as to what information her parents might have, Gaia is determined to help them, but finds herself in a web of intrigue involving the "quota" of babies that must be handed over to those from within the Enclave every month. She is forced to decide quickly to either take her chances among those in the Enclave and rescue her parents or to live a life seeped in an injustice that she is only beginning to understand.

Un-put-down-able. Dystopian young adult fare that gives a new twist on the formula, with the advantaged living a privileged life behind walls, dependent upon the masses without. While occasionally the world O'Brien created had some holes in it that left me asking myself annoying questions (how they are able to have some technologies and not others, etc.), I was so engaged in the story that I let them slide. I loved the babies and birth thread of the plot, the twisted ethical logic of the "bad guys" and that it truly surprised me on more than one occasion (those made up for the few more predictable things). Gaia is a tough cookie with some deeper emotional issues and I liked all the people she was able to find to help her on her way.

Instead of being annoyed when it ended clearly unfinished, I'm just already looking forward to its sequel. It deserves 4.5 stars in my book.

book 36 for the Young Adult Challenge 2010

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

genre: young adult

When Clay gets a random package of cassette tapes in the mail, he has no idea that the contents will take him to the brink of serious emotional trauma. The tapes are from Hannah, a girl from school, who only a few weeks before had taken a bunch of pills and committed suicide. The tapes, created for specific people at school to pass to each other, are the reasons WHY. Why she gave up hope and why she couldn't find a way out.

Oh, it's painful. As painful as I'd imagined when I was first told about this book. I didn't WANT to read about suicide so I put it off - but when I finally picked it up, I read it in a day. I had to know. Who could have helped her? How does a person get to that point? It's so eerie, this malicious bullying that can happen in whispers and in hidden corners, but that can absolutely turn a person inside out.

And what the book is best at showing you is that sometimes, it might not look like "bullying." Sometimes our actions just have repercussions that we cannot even imagine and when something might seem like a "joke" or when someone else gets caught in the crossfire of our own problems with people, the results can be disastrous to a fragile adolescent sense of self worth.

I need my daughter to read this when she gets a little older, like fourteen. I want her to read it to see how her actions can affect others and what it might look like if someone she knows (or if she HERSELF) is getting to such a low point and how to look for help. Not that Hannah is perfect - she makes some pretty dumb choices - but rumors can do crazy things to your mind when there is no way to dig yourself out from under them. I just wanted to reach in the book and hug her and tell her that she wasn't really alone - and I loved the narrative style of the book that shows so clearly how two people can see the exact same things so differently.

I have a feeling that this book will stick in my brain.

book 35 for the Young Adult 2010 challenge

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation by Tim Hamilton

genre: graphic novel

When I first read Fahrenheit 451 as a teen, I was already an avid book lover, so it frightened me then, with the palpable hate of the written word. This time, though, reading it as an adult in 2010, what frightened me more was how close our society has come to Montag's - the walls covered with tv? People interacting more with that tv and about that tv and it's programs than with actual people? THAT freaks me out on a completely different level.

It's a brilliant story - a world cut of the exact same cloth as our own, astonishing really, how close to right Bradbury got it. The masses have rejected books and reading, it's easier to not really think and just have fun - to watch the parlor walls and live a life insulated from any sort of bad news or philosophies that might tempt you to want to make an effort. It doesn't help that life is so fast paced, either - books take too much time and energy. Not only that, but there are so many ways to offend and be offended, that if you just stop reading - everyone is happier, right?

OH how it makes you think. I want to shake myself up from the inside out, remind myself of how lucky I am to have a world full of ideas and authentic feelings at my fingertips. The drawing are pretty sci-fi, they felt like the 50s and the burning scenes are intense. The adaptation did a fine job of giving you the plot with some actual quotes from the book as part of the text. This quote absolutely floors me:

"It’s not books you need, it’s some of the things that once were in books. The same things could be in the “parlour families” today. The same infinite detail and awareness could be projected through the radios and televisors, but are not. No, no, it’s not books at all you’re looking for! Take it where you can find it, in old phonograph records, old motion pictures, and in old friends; look for it in nature and look for it in yourself. Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us."

(the part in italics is not actually in the text of the graphic novel, but it's too good not to include :)

I love the idea of books stitching the patches of the universe together for me. If you have no inclination to actually read the whole of Fahrenheit 451, I would pick this up for sure. If you are a true lover of books, you need to know this story.

Shiva's Fire by Suzanne Fisher Staples

genre: middle grade

This is an Indian story, a magical story, about a girl named Parvati who is born with the fire of music inside her. As she grows, the strangest things seem to happen in her presence and soon it is clear that her heart is full of the dance - classical Indian dance and her destiny leads her to a school that can develop her talents.

I always appreciate books that will educate me, introduce me to a world I'm unacquainted with - and while I've read books about India before, the nuances of Indian dance and how deeply threaded it is with both religion and culture were totally new. Parvati is a mild character, confident in her abilities, sensitive to both people and animals and yet, as she comes of age, she begins to have a mind of her own. The idea of destiny is a key component of her world and she has to figure out how to mesh what she wants with what she believes she is destined to do.

While I tried to decide if this was a middle grade or young adult novel, I came across this problem: the romance is too subtle and unfinished for a young adult book and all the unfamiliar Indian terms might be too much for a younger middle-grader, although there is an extensive glossary and pronunciation guide in the back. So, it's rather in-between. Lovers of dance, of Southern Indian culture will appreciate this and not mind that sometimes the plot is slow because of all the rich details that the author includes. For me, I know that parts of it will stick with me but I wasn't blown away.

book 34 for the young adult challenge (since I'd put it on that list :)

Reading Swap Challenge!!

One of my favorite things to do is just THINK about what book I'll read next! When Melissa of Book Nut and Tricia of Library Queue decided to try a swap of books between the three of us, I WAS IN! Apparently this is called a Reading Swap Challenge, wherein I give each of them a list of five books I think they need to read, and they do the same for me! Isn't that FUN? Now I just have to have them read before 2012.

I love that these two know me - they both put a book on there by authors they know I've meant to have read but haven't (Nix, McKay and Prachett). What I also love about this idea is that I already trust the taste and judgment of these women, so at least I know these books will be not lame, which with some challenges I've done has been a problem :) In fact I am weaning myself of challenges this year to really try and whittle down the giant drawer of books that I own but have not yet read.

SO. I am going to for sure read all the books on the lists they made for me, and hopefully some off the lists of books they made for each other :)

FOR ME:
Book List from Tricia at Library Queue:
The Only Alien on the Planet ~ Kristen D. Randle
The Wednesday Wars ~ Gary D. Schmidt
Sabriel ~ Garth Nix
The Shadow of the Wind ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Letters to a Young Poet ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Book List from Melissa at Book Nut:
A Song for Summer, Eva Ibbotson
The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Winifred Watson
Saffy's Angel, Hilary McKay
My Life in France, Julia Child



Book List for Melissa from Tricia:
The Lincolns ~ Candace Fleming
Unwind ~ Neal Shusterman
Crossing to Safety ~ Wallace Stegner
Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie ~ Jordan Sonnenblick
The Power of One ~ Bryce Courtenay

Book List for Tricia from Melissa:
The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
Paper Towns by John Green

Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen

genre: young adult historical fiction

For Letty and Cordelia, two friends in rural Ohio, New York City is a dream full of possibilities in the last glitzy years of the Jazz Age. What they find when they get there, of course, is the shock of reality: speakeasies and bootleggers and everyone has an angle. Soon they both begin to search for what they wish for most: a place on the stage for Letty and a glimpse of the father Cordelia's never known.

Along with a flapper named Astrid, with her own story, Bright Young Things is a story of opportunities lost and found - where three girls on the brink of adulthood make some seriously misguided choices, takes some crazy chances and sometimes succeed, sometimes fail.

I liked the time period and I think that part was well done - that era is pretty fascinating, with alcohol being illegal but everywhere, and with women really beginning to being to drop all the old conventions of behavior and dress. I even thought the general plot was engaging. I think my problem lies in the fact that it waxed melodramatic too much for my taste, like it wanted to be gritty but fell a little short. The dialogue and circumstances felt somewhat cliche and while it was certainly romantic, it just wasn't as rollicking of a ride as I'd hoped. I liked the characters enough to want to find out what happens next, but I think that instead of reading the sequel, I'll probably just try to find a review with spoilers.

book 33 for the 2010 young adult challenge

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

genre: stage play

One word? Hilarious. I laughed out loud. We have Jack and Algernon, friends, both of whom regularly assume different identities so as to easily move between town and country without causing a scene with their relatives. They both end up madly in love with women who can not possibly truly love them unless their name is Ernest.

Of course there are interfering aunties and squabbles over muffins - not to mention babies in handbags and private cigarette cases. Truly, the play is dripping with whimsy - puns on every other page. All the main characters feed off of different ideas of marriage and "earnestness" - a lack of earnestness is considered wickedly exciting while husbands and wives are ridiculed as dull. Despite that, all anyone really wants is a marriage (either for themselves or for their relations).

I think there is actually some deep stuff going on in this play - Wilde is passing judgment on Victorian ideals and mindsets, but for all that, it's just a pleasure to read. And to watch. I highly recommend it.