Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins

I was at Borders Books a few months ago looking for this book. When I couldn't find it, I asked for help. The clerk told me that the store didn't carry that type of book. I have wondered ever since what kind of book she thought this book was. It certainly isn't whatever she thought. It makes me smile to think about how easily we can all find ourselves expressing inaccurate opinions out of ignorance.

Repossessed, a Printz Honor book for 2008, is actually a clever tale about a minor demon, Kiriel, who is in search of a short break from the fires of hell. He inhabits the body of Shaun, age 17, who is just about to meet his end by stepping into the path of an oncoming truck. Kiriel just wants to know what it is like to experience various aspects of humanness. Since Shaun was going to die early anyway, what was the harm of taking over his body for a while?

While reading the first half I found the book to be both funny and tedious, alternating. Shaun (now Kiriel) is experiencing his body and world anew. Many of the scenes are quiet humorous (and sometimes crass) while at other times I felt I was just reading through a checklist of experiences: wind on skin-check; taste of food-check; comforts of a warm bath-check; sneeze-check; aroused by girl-check. However the second half of the book becomes quite poignant as the demon comes to understand love and the connections between people. The ending poses the thought that perhaps we bind ourselves in our own personal "hells" by decisions that we continue to make on a daily basis.

A.M. Jenkins has created a very readable and enjoyable little book. I will definitely recommend it to my teen readers, especially boys. There are quite a few sexual references which I think boys in particular will appreciate.

Young Adult Lit.; 3.5 stars out of 5.

How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford

I enjoyed this quirky, coming-of-age novel immensely and I think it would work for all teen readers. However, the hot pink book jacket and pink chapter dividers certainly give the wrong impression of this book. I'd guess by the cover that the book was going to be some frilly "girl" book or some teen romance novel when in actuality it is a sensitive book about two people, Jonah--aka Ghost Boy, and Bea--Robot Girl, who are simpatico in nearly every respect.

Bea, a recent high school transplant from New York, finds herself drawn to Jonah, a misfit in her new school. Jonah introduces her to the bizarre but engaging Night Light, a midnight radio show haunted by some of Baltimore’s loneliest weirdos. As much as I wanted them to become a couple, their relationship isn't meant for romance, but is a tumultuous, deep friendship. "The heart of this novel is neither cold and metallic nor full of romance and delusion. Instead, it’s very human." (Booklist)

Like Jonah's and Bea's friendship the reviews on this book are very hot and cold. I fall on the hot side. I found the book engaging. I liked the characters and the unconventional storyline. I look forward to recommending it to my teen readers.

Young Adults; 4 out of 5 stars.

These books are screaming my name...

I have piles of books everywhere. Books that are screaming (or whimpering) at me to be read. My piles seem to grow larger every year rather than diminishing. For every book I read at least another three are added to my stockpile. If I act rather unhappy or ungrateful when I receive a book as a gift, or a book I suggest we read for book club isn't selected, it is only because I am either picturing that book on a pile or because I know that I won't be able to take a book off the mountain of books accumulating next to my bed.

In the above photo you see me pondering over which book I should read next from one of the three mounds of books I have at home alone. But since I am a librarian I am surrounded by heaps and heaps of books all day long with hundreds of them calling out to me. The books that are upright are the books I am currently reading. I always have three or four books going at a time, sometimes even more. The books in the shortest stack are all books I have started but never found the time to finish. The books in the other two stacks were gifts or purchased by me and I really do want to read them...but when?

"Anne, pick me. Pick me. Read me next." Did you hear that? The books are calling out to me. Here's what they are saying...

Helene Cooper's The House at Sugar Beach is set in Liberia. "You lived in Liberia. Your whole family has read it. Must finish."

Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. "You know you love everything written by Kingsolver."

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. "Everyone talks about this book. You are half way done. Come on, finish it!"

Emma by Jane Austen. "You purport to love Austen so much yet you can't even remember the last time you read Emma."

Stones into Schools by Greg Mortensen. "You were completely inspired by Mortensen's first book, Three Cups of Tea."

Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer. "Krakauer. Need I say more? Did you notice, by the way, that you have two copies of this book in your piles? That has got to be a sign."

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster. "You know you want to... read lit like an English teacher, that is."

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson. "Argh. Why is this book in the pile? You didn't even like the first book in the series?"

John Barnes' Tales from a Madman Underground. "Printz Honor book for 2009."

Rosewater and Soda Bread by Marsha Mehran. "Ha-ha. I know you will read me next because I am a book club selection and you are leading the discussion. Gotcha!"

So many books. So little time.

What books are in your piles or are screaming your name to be read? Please add a comment to this blog. Let me know I am not the only one who has books talk (or talk back) to me. If you've never entered a comment before, it it easy. Just use your gmail account to enter. If you don't have a gmail account, it is super easy to create one and they are free. You can post a comment as anonymous or use your first name. Don't worry if the comment doesn't show up right away because I have to "approve" them first. I look forward to hearing from you. I sure hope some of my teen readers join in the discussion. I'd love to know what books are in your piles.

Discussing books with teens

OK. I admit it. I am shamelessly promoting a product for a company without an endorsement. The product is called Table Topics: Book Club Edition and I used them this past week to get teenagers in my Library Club to talk about the books they are reading. They worked really well.

Our club decided to read two books and hold a small version of a book club during our scheduled club time.
The two books we read were: Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell and Shattering Glass by Gail Giles. The kids really liked both books but I've only read Shattering Glass so I joined the discussion for that book. Only one student in the group had finished the book, yet the cards allowed us to talk about the book, open up the plot, wrestle with the characters, and learn more about the book than we would have had we just done book talks or if I led the discussion. Even the kids who hadn't finished the book had insightful comments to make and everyone decided to finish reading the book based on our discussion. Best of all we had fun together. I was just a member of the group not some know-it-all-librarian in charge.

Here are a few sample questions that really were great conversation starters:

• Will this book be relevant 30 years from now?
• What one question would you like to ask the main character?
• What life lessons are found in this book and do you agree with them?
• If you were a teacher what question would you ask on the final essay?

I often remind myself how much I enjoy talking about books with other people who have read them. Teens are the same. They enjoy sharing their insights and want to disucss controversial topics from their books.

Shattering Glass had a lot to offer teens looking for a good book to discuss. The main themes of the book were popularity and following the leader. Students could identify with the daily issues of negotiating life at a high school while trying to maintain a clear sense of identity. Things don't go so well for the characters in the book. Hopefully things will go much better for my students now that they've had a chance to discuss the mistakes the characters in the book made. I like to think so anyway.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

I hope you will allow me a bit of time to gush!

I have fallen in love with an 11-year-old chemist-detective, Flavia de Luce, who has a penchant for poisons. Flavia is the most engaging, precocious, lovable literary heroines to come along in a long time.

Flavia has to make her own excitement in life since her older sisters are not interested in the same things until she discovers a dead man in the cucumber patch. Things get interesting for Flavia as she hurries to solve the murder and free her father of suspicion. The book is as imaginative as Flavia is fearless.

I listened to the audio-book read by Jayne Entwistle. If you've read my blog before you know I am an avid audio-book listener and this reading ranks near the very top of my all-time favorites. Entwistle does the voice of Flavia perfectly. She sounds like a kid, albeit a precocious one, but definitely a kid. I am often shocked that publishers don't consider that most adult voices do not sound like kids voices so their narration just sounds wrong, but that is not the case here. In fact, I am completely charmed by Entwistle's interpretation of Flavia.

Alan Bradley, the author, was the 2007 CWA Crime Debut Dagger competition winner. Bradley a 70+ year old writer from British Columbia submitted the 3,000 words he had completed about Flavia to the "Daggers" because his wife had heard a Debut Dagger runner-up on the radio and thought he should try for it. “And that is how I came to win. It’s all a bit of a blur since, I can’t remember exactly how many countries have bought the book based on that first chapter, but it is a lot,” Alan says. He was offered a three book deal based on one chapter of Sweetness but I understand that it is likely that there will be a least five Flavia de Luce novels in the series. Amazing!

I've included a link to an excerpt of an essay posted on Amazon.com by the author, Alan Bradley, on how Flavia entered his life and positively demanded that she have her own book. I think reading this essay actually sealed the deal between me and Flavia. It was full, unapologetic love after I read it. In a nutshell Bradley talks about Flavia as though she were a real person that he has to negotiate with.

Here are a few of my favorite lines from the book (out of many):

" I still shivered with joy whenever I thought of the autumn day that Chemistry had fallen into my life." p. 8

"...it occurred to me that Heaven must be a place where the library is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. No...eight days a week." p. 58

"Directly above me, the sun was a great white zero, blazing down upon my empty head." p. 286

"Wrapped up in the music, I threw myself into an over-stuffed chair and let my legs dangle over the arm, the position in which Nature intended music to be listened to..." p. 263

Re-reading the quotes makes me smile again. I have a feeling that this book will make a lot of people smile. As you can tell my recommendation comes with no reservations.

Adult fiction appropriate for teens. 5 out of 5 stars.

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

Winner of the National Book Award(Children's Division) for 2008 this suspenseful thriller will not disappoint. Set in post-WWII, Evie Spooner discovers that adults aren't always what she thinks they are and this revelation causes her to have to grow up quickly.

Here's what the reviewer for Booklist says about the book: "Evie must sort through secrets, lies, and her own grief to find the truth. Using pitch-perfect dialogue and short sentences filled with meaning, Blundell has crafted a suspenseful, historical mystery that not only subtly explores issues of post–WWII racism, sexism, and socioeconomic class, but also realistically captures the headiness of first love and the crushing realization that adults are not all-powerful."

I recognize that most teens today want stories that they can relate to so this may not be the first book that they pick up but if they do it will appeal to all types of readers- those who like reading mysteries, romance, and/or historical fiction will all find something to enjoy in this book. One thing that I really appreciated was how Blundell used slang and verbiage from the decade. It made it seem very authentic.

YA Lit, Audio-book format, 4 out of 5 stars.

Celebrating Jane Austen

It happens to me about once a year...I get the Jane Austen bug and the only treatment is full immersion in anything Jane.

This year instead of rereading actual Austen novels I read several modern novels about Austen characters or in her style:

-Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler--A modern Austen fan hits her head in a diving accident and wakes in Regency England in the body of Jane Mansfield and finds love with a very Austenish man. Not high literature, for sure, but I enjoyed this and have found some other fans among my teen readers.

-Rude Awakenings for a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler--Hum. Wonder what this will be about? Right. Jane Mansfield, from Austen's time period, hits her head in a riding accident and awakes in modern times in Los Angeles. I didn't care for this one as much as the first book but it did have a bit of charm.

-The Diary of Captain Wentworth by Amanda Granger--The diary of Frederick Wentworth begins eight years before Persuasion when he meets, courts, and falls in love with Anne Eliott, then picks up eight years later when he once again comes in contact with Anne. I enjoyed this book quite a lot. It helped me to imagine details only hinted at in Persuasion.

-These Three Remain by Pamela Aiden--The third book in the trilogy taking Pride and Prejudice from Fitzwilliam Darcy's point-of-view. I read the first book in the trilogy, An Assembly Such as This, several years ago and really didn't like it. The reviews on the second book, Duty and Honor, were not good, so I skipped it. I did like this book, however. I think its strength lies in the details it adds to P & P which explain why Mr. Darcy changes so much between the first proposal and his meeting of Elizabeth at Pemberley. It also adds characters not found in Austen's book that add interest and intrigue to the man, Darcy.

The Jane Austen Companion to Love--a cute little book put together for Valentine's Day, no doubt. It contains actual quotes on love and relationships from Austen's novels and letters. It also contains marvelous illustrations from Charles Edmund Brock and his brother Henry Brock who provided illustrations for many popular books in the late 1800s. (See illustrations top of page.) Here is a quote from the introduction which goes along with the theme of this blog: "Jane is at the same time accessible and untouchable, and she has inspired a veritable industry of sequels, adaptions, movies, and miniseries."

This is Jane Austen Week at my school. Lunchtime activities related to Jane Austen all week include watching the Masterpiece Theatre version of Mansfield Park, trivia games, and awards.

Thank you, Judy Moomaugh

"We like to think that we plan what happens to us, but it is chance, surely, that lies behind so many of the great events of our lives- the meeting with the person with whom we are destined to spend the rest of our days, the receiving of a piece of advice which influences our choice of career...these may be put down to pure chance, and yet they govern how our lives work out and how happy- or unhappy- we are going to be." Isabel Dalhouse in The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday by Alexander McCall Smith.

Not long ago I was reflecting on the changes in my life since I moved from the classroom to the library. As my husband is fond of saying, the career change to become a librarian saved my life...at least my professional life. These recent musings led me to think about how a comment made by a friend and former colleague, Judy Moomaugh, was the catalyst for changing the course of my life. I resolved to locate Judy as I'd lost touch with her several years ago when she moved to California. About a week later, before I had the chance to act on my resolve, I learned that Judy had died a few months earlier. Of course I was tremendously sad and shocked. And now I will never have the opportunity to thank her for the role she played in changing my life.

I hope this blog post, even to a small degree, serves as that belated thanks. It also serves as a reminder: Don't procrastinate about letting people know when I'm grateful for a contribution they have made in my life.

Thank you, Judy Moomaugh. Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm for books and libraries with me. Thank you for gently steering me in a new direction merely by saying, "I think you'd make a wonderful librarian, Anne." Thank you also, for taking the time to mentor and guide me towards the steps I needed to take to embark on this new journey.

For Judy
Chance comment by you,
Change of direction for me.
Libraries and books.
Professionally renewed.
Your encouragement changed me.

Thank you, Judy Moomaugh.
Rest in Peace.

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library." Jorge Luis Borges

P.S. I found the image of Judy on Google Images. I apologize that the only picture I could find of Judy doesn't show her smiling because when I think of Judy I remember her warm, friendly smile.

Maze Runner by James Dashner

What is the deal these days with authors writing tantalizing books that require a sequel or two for the whole story to unfold?

I believe that this opening volume of the Maze Runner Trilogy will appeal to readers of The Hunger Games, though I doubt they will be as rabid about it. When the protagonist of this Dystopian novel, Thomas, enters the maze glade through an elevator, his memory is wiped out. He joins other teens who have constructed a survivalist society on a glade near the maze. All the teens, or Gladers, have had their memories wiped out, too. No one knows why they're there, or where they came from. Every day special runners venture into the constantly shifting, monster-infested maze searching for a way out; for answers to their existence. Several of the teens who have been "stung" along the way give horrifying hints of a ravaged world outside the glade and this makes for exciting reading and poses a dilemma. Do they really want to leave the glade if things are actually worse outside? The climax of the book occurs with over 30 pages left in the story making the last few chapters seem like they should be first few chapters in the next book. Either way, I was left with a feeling that I want to read on so that I can figure out the answer to the question, is WICKED really good?

I listened to this book on audio CD as I traveled back and forth to work but found myself reading the book in between car trips because I was so anxious to learn what happened next.

3.75 out of 5 stars (It's my grading system, I can break up the stars into small increments if I want to! Ha!)

Book Talks

Today I learned something about doing book talks...you know, those quick, short, pithy introductions to books done mainly by librarians...well, I figured out that students are more likely to check out a book if I leave myself out of the talk altogether. In other words, if I don't give my own personal evaluation of the book, kids seem to go for it more readily. I guess it is not cool to select a book that the librarian likes, but it is fine to pick one that she just talks about.

Here's a few practice book talks. See if these make you want to read these books.

Hunger Games (by Suzanne Collins): the most popular book at our school this year; an adventure story about the Hunger Games in which 24 teenagers are forced to play in a gladiator-type setting. The winner is the last person alive.

Unwind (by Neal Shusterman): To end the war between the Pro-Life and Pro-Choice armies, a deal was struck making abortions illegal but parents can retroactively "abort" their children after the age of thirteen if they misbehave or act up by sending a request to the government to have them "unwound". When teenagers are unwound they aren't really dead, but they aren't really alive either. This is an action story of several kids who have been sent to be unwound.

Fat Kid Rules the World (by K. L. Going ): This ISN'T a story about a kid on a diet, though there is a fat kid in the story. This is a very funny story about life, friends, and rock-n-roll.

The Chocolate Wars (by Robert Cormier): This book has been one of the most banned or censored books since it was published over 25 years ago. Why? Because it is a story about boys, especially one boy, who defy authority and go against what adults tell them to do.
This book is about power, conformity, and refusing to give in to pressure.

Dreamland (by Sarah Dessen): Many girls enjoy books by this author so much that they will read all them in rapid succession. This story is about a girl who falls for a "bad boy" and the abusive results of that relationship.

Blue Bloods (by Melissa de la Cruz): What do you read if you are finished with the Twilight series but still want more tales about vampires? Try this book which is the first of a four book series. Set in New York where the most famous and elite families (or blue bloods) also happen to be vampires.

Highest Tide (by Jim Lynch): You'll recognize descriptions of places and events mentioned in this book as this hilarious coming-of-age story is set in Olympia and the author is from Washington. Sea monsters, giant squids, earthquakes, The Evergreen State College, and a familiar-sounding cult make this book pure fun.

The Haunting of Hill House (by Shirley Jackson): Some people say this is one of the scariest books ever written. Let's just say this, don't read it right before you go to bed.

Son of the Mob (by Gordon Korman): Can you imagine a funnier scenario? A son of a mob boss wants to date the daughter of an FBI agent but dates just don't go well when there is a dead body in the trunk. This book is laugh-out-loud funny.