The Thriller Challenge
Just in case you didn’t know, Halloween at my library is a big deal. Because I make it a big deal. My Teen Advisory Board has planned ‘killer’ Halloween celebration programs for the past four years: Alien Autopsy, Monster Mash, The Book Drop Demon Library Wing, and finally The Thriller Challenge. I think this year was by far my favorite! Participants got a Thriller Challenge passport as they entered the door. They were then challenged to collect stamps for their passports by doing as many activities as they could stomach including the Killer Buffet, Crawly Creature Touch, the Scary Cemetery, Tombstone Treat (craft) and the famous Michael Jackson Thriller Dance. Pictured below are the teens in the Scary Cemetery. They made several children scream in terror as the Grim Reaper sliced open our Michael Jackson impersonator! Great fun!
Still scary even with the lights on!
Alternate Reality
The original purpose for creating this blog was for a graduate school assignment (as you will see by amount of insanely long book reviews also posted), but I feel like it would be a good thing to keep it going.
I still plan to post reviews or my thoughts about what I’m reading (including how the books smell), but you can also keep up-to-date about this on my Shelfari page (just search for “Rikki S”). However, I also plan to add interesting vittles about my life as a youth librarian.
This week, I feel like I am in an alternate reality. School just started and being literally across the street from the local high school (elem and middle aren’t far either) you can imagine we get a lot of students (and often miscreants) visiting the library after school. This week, I came prepared!!
I had several neat-o board games ready and a whole speech planned for those kids that come to the library only to cause trouble. Often they just have nothing to do (“I don’t like reading! I have no homework!”) and become disruptive by talking to their friends. So, if I explain the situation to them, that I would like to NOT kick them out everyday this school year, and provide alternative things to do, they should be fine right?
Well, theory still needs to be tested. This whole week the kids have come in after school and done exactly what they’re supposed to do! They sit and read, talk quietly, or do their homework! OMG! Wha?? I feel so, what’s the word? Not like ’emasculated’ (because that’s for guys!) but like I’ve had my librarian-ness taken away. I had it all planned! Oh, well. Less work for me is a good thing. I’m sure the day will come when I have to whip out the speech (and the board games).
Another reason to feel in an alternate reality: I have a new boss!
Getting a new boss can be one of the most stressful situations. Ever. You wonder, “is this person going to be better than my current boss? Worse? Is that even possible?”
I am happy to say that Cindi is shaping up to be a wonderful boss. She’s a lady with a plan and it’s SO exciting! Not only is she super fun to be around, well organized, and totally qualified, she brought us donut holes on her first day. And not just any donut holes. The best donut holes I’ve ever had! Who knew Tim Hortons “Timbits” were so amazing? I sure didn’t! We’ve never had them around here (farm country) until very recently.
Oh, happy day! My boyfriend thinks I’m totally mad and wants to commit me.
Hope is a yellow pencil
Sold
By Patricia McCormick
New York, Hyperion, 2006, 263 pgs.
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year old girl living in Nepal. Her family is dirt poor and her father has a gambling problem. Despite her desperate poverty, Lakshmi enjoys taking care of her goat and her cucumbers. When she gets her period for the first time, her mother, Ama, tells her how she must now act around men and in the world. It’s a rough life for women in Nepal, but Lakshmi still looks forward to the day of her arranged marriage to Krishna, a boy from her village. When a monsoon washes away her family’s crop, Lakshmi is proud to be offered a job as a maid in the city to help take care of her family.
I wish the story could end there. I don’t want to say what happens next.
Lakshmi was sold into prostitution by her stepfather. Lakshmi doesn’t know what awaits her at the “Happiness House” in India. She remains strong and fights the evil mistress of the brothel, Mumtaz. First Mumtaz tries to beat her into submission so that she will take “customers.” When that doesn’t work she tries to starve her in her room. Lakshmi is used to starvation so when she remains obstinately abstinent, Mumtaz drugs her and her undoing is complete. Even though her situation is beyond imagination, Lakshmi remains hopeful. She forms friendships with the other girls and finds happiness in the smallest things such as a boy giving her a yellow pencil and a man holding her like his sweetheart.
Thankfully, this story has a happy ending; I don’t think readers could handle anything else. Lakshmi is rescued by a kind American and taken somewhere much better. But will she ever be all right? I don’t think it is possible for her to ever have a ‘normal’ life and that is horribly sad. I applaud Patricia McCormick for the amount of research she did to write this book. I know I wouldn’t have the strength to do it. Writing the book in poetry is a brilliant move because it gives such an awful topic transcendent beauty and life. As beautifully written as it is, I think this book would be a tough sell to teens. I don’t think anyone really wants to read about such awful things (especially women) but they should. Books written in verse can also be intimidating to teens. In light of this, I give this book a 5Q but a 3P VOYA rating.
Neil of all Trades
The Graveyard Book
By Neil Gaiman
New York, HarperCollins, 2008, 307 pgs.
The opening chapter of this book is nothing short of brilliant and I’m sure it made Quick Pick lists just for this reason. “There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.”Whoa! Easily one of the best opening sentences I’ve ever read in a novel. The story begins with the man Jack creeping up the stairs after he has just murdered three people, a man, a woman, and a small girl. He’s making his way to the attic to kill the final member of the family who is a toddler. (How awful!) Fortunately, the toddler is no longer in his bed when the man Jack reaches it.
The toddler has toppled out of his crib and is already on his way up the hill to the graveyard gates. Once inside the graveyard, he is discovered by a lovely ghost couple who decide they must adopt him under the circumstances. The man Jack follows him into the graveyard but is led away by a mysterious man with powers of persuasion.
This mysterious man, Silas, becomes the toddler’s guardian. The toddler is named Nobody Owens (Bod for short) and grows up within the gates of the graveyard with his guardian, adopted parents, Mr. and Mrs. Owens, and a whole slew of ghosts. The remainder of the books describes the adventures Bod has at various stages of his childhood. On more than one occasion, he goes far beneath a hill to the oldest grave in the cemetery. Here lives a bizarre creature called the Sleer who guards a small treasure, is best at generating extreme fear and is looking for its “Master” to return. Bod also has a dangerous adventure through what is called a “ghoul gate” that takes him to a nightmarish place called Ghulheim.
Bod has few “live” friends in his childhood but turns out all right nonetheless. He learns the skills of ghosts including Fading, Fear mongering, Haunting, and Dreamwalking. Slowly, Bod discovers the secrets of his past and about his murdered family. He wants to find the man responsible so that he may be finally rid of him and no longer be sequestered to the graveyard for his own protection. In a not so surprising (to me anyway) twist of events, Bod finds himself in the hands of the man Jack who was been masquerading as a nice, helpful man named Mr. Frost. Bod leads his pursuers, the secret order called the Jacks of All Trades, to the place he is most powerful, the graveyard. Here he dispatches the remaining Jacks very masterfully using his mad graveyard skills and has a final confrontation with the man Jack Frost who killed his family. Jack Frost has taken Bod’s “live” friend Scarlett captive in the grave protected by the Sleer. Bod convinces the Sleer that Jack is their “Master” and they must “protect” him by wrapping around him and sucking him into the very earth. Tada! It’s all connected.
I’m a fantasy lover so I thought this book was great. However, perhaps I’ve been reading too much lately because I was not surprised in the least when the kindly Mr. Frost turned out to be the man Jack. I wish I would have been surprised but introducing his character so late in the story made it completely obvious to me who he really was. That’s really the only flaw I see in this book. It’s a great story with a really different kind of premise. A boy raised by ghosts? It doesn’t get much cooler than that. I love the whole ‘haunted’ quality of the book without the nasty, scary bits that usually go with ghost stories. The blue cover complete with gravestone is very inviting, indeed and I hope lots of children will read this story. I give it a 4Q and 4P VOYA rating.
Words that kill
Thirteen Reasons Why
By Jay Asher
Read by Joel Johnston and Debra Wiseman
New York, Listening Library, 2007, 8 compact discs
Clay Jensen is excited to receive a package. When Clay opens the package and puts a mysterious tape in his dad’s old tape player, he is no longer excited about the package. On the tapes he hears the voice of Hannah Baker, a girl in his class who committed suicide less than two weeks ago. Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons, thirteen people, who changed her life and led her to suicide. Clay is stunned. He had feelings for Hannah. He can’t remember ever doing anything to hurt her. He must have received the tapes by mistake…but he must listen. He has to know how he contributed to her death.
As Clay keeps listening he becomes sad, angry, depressed, and furious. He hates Hannah for doing this to him but he also likes listening to her voice again. He misses her. As Clay travels around town with a map Hannah sent to him before her death marking significant places in the story, he listens to her talk about betrayal, deceit, peeping toms, a car accident, rape (not her own), and the rumors that changed her life forever. She makes everyone on the tapes understand how people are connected, how the words we use and actions we take, no matter how seemingly small, can destroy someone from the inside. And cause them to give up on life.
Clay did not fail Hannah, not really. When it’s his turn on the tapes she openly admits he did nothing wrong and the she only feels bad they could not have had a better relationship. However, he is part of the story and must suffer her death like everyone else. In the end, Clay is able to let go of Hannah and become a better person because of her story.
Listening to this book instead of reading it was nothing short of incredible. The readers do an amazing job of conveying the emotional intensity of such a tragically realistic story. I kept hoping the end would be happy, that Hannah would turn up somewhere alive, but knowing that wasn’t going to happen. There are topics in this story that are so important for teens to understand and to read about. It would be a great companion novel to What Happened to Cass McBride which has similar themes. Teens must understand that their words can hurt others in the worst ways. I commend Asher for writing such a powerful novel. I give it a 5Q and 4P VOYA rating.
An abundance of boring math.
An Abundance of Katherines
By John Green
New York, Dutton, 2006, 227 pgs.
Who knew there was a place for anagrams, math theorems, acronyms, romance, and fake swear words all in the same book? Using his uncanny knowledge of ‘Teenglish’ (teen language) once again, John Green created another decent of literature with An Abundance of Katherines. Main character, Colin, dates 19 girls all with the name Katherine and gets dumped by all but one. Apparently, Colin is a glutton for punishment and like a moth to a flame flocks to girls with that particular name, perhaps with a hope that maybe this time he won’t get dumped.
Colin grew up as a bonafide child prodigy. Unfortunately, Colin’s classmates eventually caught up to his genius and upon his high school graduation, Colin is just a really smart kid. After being dumped by Katherine XIX, Colin and his only friend Hassan decide to go on a road trip. Hassan is garish, and frank about everything and never hesitates to call Colin a sitzpinkler – a German slang word for wimp that literally means “a man who sits to pee” – when the occasions calls for it.
Their road trip is a journey of self discovery that lands them in a tiny spit of a town called Gutshot, Tennessee, home of the grave of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Here they meet the Lindsey Lee Wells, a sweet girl with true southern hospitality (sort of). Lindsey’s mom is wealthy and owns the only profitable thing in Gutshot, a tampon string factory, and she is kind enough to offer Colin and Hassan summer jobs and a place to stay. Colin spends most of his free time working on a mathematical equation or theorem that will be able to predict the outcome of every relationship – who will be the Dumper and who will be the Dumpee and exactly how long the relationship will last.
Many romps in the woods, interviews with interesting people, and crazy hunting excursions later, Colin thinks he’s worked out the theorem. He so badly wants that Eureka moment, something that will make him unique, and live up to his supposed genius. However, Colin’s theorem falls through in a very pleasing way for the reader (and for Colin). He falls in love with Lindsey Lee Wells who is not a Katherine (yay!) and who will most likely end their relationship in about three days (according to the theorem). Since everyone likes happy endings, their relationship lasts for more than the expected amount of time and Colin couldn’t be happier with his life as a not-unique guy.
I like this novel although its greatest weakness is that it’s rather slow moving. I love the spicy footnotes, anagrams, and acronyms, but could care less for the math. (yuck!) I think this story really will appeal to teens but if boys, the intended audience, are expected to read it something has to be done about the girly cover! I think it’s great but no self-respecting teen guy is going to carry it around. The characters are well developed and usually pretty amusing. I give this a 3Q and 3P VOYA rating.
Maus Debunked
The Complete Maus: A Survivor’s Tale
By Art Spiegelman
New York, Knopf Pantheon, 1996, 296 pgs.
I actually must start this post by saying what I had expected to get from reading this two part graphic novel. Maus I and Maus II have been so highly acclaimed it was actually quite bizarre that I hadn’t read either one. I had heard so much about them that it felt like I had already read them. I knew it was a brilliant, new look at the Holocaust and concentration camps. I knew there was strong symbolism and that the Jews were drawn as mice and the Germans were drawn as cats. I knew it was a powerful story created to be more accessible for young adults.
After reading it here is what I did not know:
This graphic novel is a frame story; many of the scenes are set in a more modern time. The author, Art Spiegelman actually writes/draws scenes in which he is talking about writing the book with his father, Vladek, and then he actually draws/writes the stories his father tells him on his visits. Art puts in a very personal story about how his father and mother met and then he adds how his father was insistent that that particular story not be in the book! Art promised he wouldn’t put it in and then there it is anyway. Funny! (but also a bit disrespectful) The interaction between Art and Vladek is so crisp and real that I felt that the story was being told just for me and I was ‘watching’ it just as it happened, rather like a documentary film.
I also did not expect the books to be about more than the concentration camps Art’s mother and father were sent to. Vladek tells the story of how he served time in the Polish Reserve Army and was actually in a Prisoner of War camp long before he was sent to Auschwitz. There’s also a scene in which Vladek discovers a short comic written by Art about his mother’s suicide. Art’s entire comic is printed right in the middle of the Maus story in completely different illustrations and text styles and then we got back to our original story to see Art and Vladek talking about it.
I am exceedingly glad that I finally read the Maus tales. I don’t care about what the critics said about the historical facts not being exactly accurate or about Art being totally selfish and ‘cashing in’ on his father’s pain. That’s complete nonsense. Everything in this book has a deliberate purpose for being there just the way it is. Spiegelman makes his readers think and feel. This is a definite winner for older teens and all adults. I give this a 5Q and 4P VOYA rating.
Lies really ARE bad.
What I Saw and How I Lied
By Judy Blundell
New York, Scholastic, 2008, 281 pgs.
World War II has just ended. Evie and her mother are happy to have the man of the house, Joe Spooner return. Evie’s mother Beverly married Joe shortly before the war began and they finally have the opportunity to live together as a family. Joe is a successful businessman but receives mysterious phone calls from people who seem to want money from him. After one of these phone calls, Joe decides to take his wife and step daughter to Palm Beach, Florida for a surprise vacation. In Florida, Evie begins to realize that her family is not as innocent as she thought. A handsome ex-GI named Peter Coleridge takes interest in Evie and she immediately falls for him despite his mysterious connection to her father, Joe.
Meanwhile, Evie’s mother is still treating her like a little girl, not the lovely teenager she’s becoming. There’s quite a bit of talk about clothing styles and what little girls wear as opposed to grown-up girls, which is a sign of the time in which this story takes place. Beverly doesn’t want her to wear dresses or lipstick, even though she loves to flaunt her own beauty. When Evie takes matters into her own hands and dresses in Beverly’s clothing, she feels better. However, when her mother and Mrs. Grayson (a guest of the hotel in which they are staying) interrupt her, they laugh and decide to give her a ‘makeover’ as if she’s their little doll. Evie feels very embarrassed by what they do to her and is feeling very low. On this particular night she meets Peter, who dances with her and makes her feel special.
The longer the Spooner’s stay in Florida, the more lies unravel. Peter confesses to E vie that he and her father, along with other American soldiers, stole things from a German warehouse; things that once belonged to the Jews and were confiscated by German soldiers. They take these things, candlesticks, rugs, jewelry, etc., because they want to make it rich back home. Joe ends up with all the money and Peter wants his share, a share Joe is not willing to part with. On top of this, the Graysons are kicked out of their Palm Beach hotel because it is discovered that they are Jewish causing the business deal between Joe and the Mr. Grayson to buy the hotel to turn sour. Finally, in a not so surprising twist of events, Evie discovers Peter has been having an affair with her mother and her world is torn apart.
The pot is about to boil on the morning when Peter, Joe, and Beverly rent a boat for a pleasure cruise despite an incoming hurricane. Evie is left behind and ends up at a hurricane shelter fearing her family and beloved are dead. In the morning, she is informed her parents are alive but Peter is missing and probably dead. Next is a whirlwind murder trial for Evie’s parents. Evie is almost sure they killed Peter but lies on the witness stand to kept her parents from going to jail.
I don’t know that I would have made the same decisions as Evie at the end of the book. To me, her parents were so low they deserved to go to jail. Her father was a lying thief and her mother a cheating, self-centered, you-know-what. Why did she lie to spare them? Evie seemed so angry and disgusted with them at the end of the book I was really surprised she did what she did. She undermined her own good reputation to save their pathetic ones. Of course, Evie does try to make things right with the Graysons and takes them a huge stash of Joe’s money as reparations for what he did to their people. I was slightly disappointed in this book. It was rather slow-going and predictable, with an ambiguous ending. However, the cover and title are very appealing and I think many teen girls will read it. I give it a 3Q and 3P VOYA rating.
“Zoo Wee Mama,” it’s middle school drama!
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
By Jeff Kinney
New York, Amulet, 2007, 217 pgs.
“Zoo Wee Mama!” Diary of a Wimpy Kid deserves to be on the Teens Top Ten list. Greg Heffley , the main character in this novel in cartoons, is in middles school. So, the target audience is really ‘tweens’ and I think just about every library has this book catalogued in the juvenile section. Obviously, this fact makes no difference to teens of all ages; they love this book!
In the story, Kinney brilliantly matches hilarious cartoons with his text to realistically depict the life of a middle school student in America. Every stereotype associated with this age group comes out in full force – the growth spurts, thinking the opposite sex is suddenly not so icky, playing dirty tricks on your siblings and friends, exaggerated embarrassment and paranoia, silly superstitions, playground bullies, it’s all there! (Is a stereotype really a stereotype if it’s so true?) I found it very easy to relate to “the Cheese Touch” anecdote in this book. Greg describes (and draws) in detail a gross, moldy, nasty piece of cheese that’s been on the outdoor basketball court “since last spring.” All the students were afraid to go near it until one day “a kid named Darren Walsh” touched the cheese and “the Cheese Touch” was born. Much like the game Tag, “the Cheese Touch” can be passed from person to person if you touch them. The only way to avoid the cheese touch is to cross your fingers. Oh, memories! This actually reminds me of the ridiculously pointless game teens picked up in Bluffton just last year. It’s called “The Game” and as soon as you think of “The Game” you’ve lost the game and you have to admit to everyone that you’ve just lost “The Game.” But there is no actual game that people are thinking of, it’s this silly idea of “The Game” they’ve invented that they aren’t supposed to think about! There are, of course, rules associated with “The Game” but I was never able (or willing) to fully understand them. I have a sneaking suspicion this whole “Game” started in middle school…
I digress.
In the story, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Greg does a lot of typical, often horrifying things middle school students do. He runs for Student Council Treasurer, makes a haunted house and terrifies a small child after taking $2 from him, tries to listen to one of his older brother’s CDs with a Parental Warning on it, is forced by his mother to be in the school play/musical The Wizard of Oz, and basically anything else he can think of to become popular (or avoid being unpopular). Greg also wants his readers to understand that his “diary” is not actually a “diary,” it’s a “journal,” because a boy with a “diary” in middle school would be social suicide and cause for a serious pummeling.
I’m amazed at how well Kinney remembers what it’s like to be in middle school. I would have a hard time channeling that time in my life. I’ve oppressed most of it. Reading this book is a rare treat, though, and it’s almost impossible to put down. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard or so much while reading a book. I’m anxious to get my hands on the two sequels and I’m sure I’ll gobble them up, too. The cover is very appealing and the title is awesome. Who wouldn’t want to read the diary of a wimpy kid? The only weakness in this book is Greg himself. He is actually a very selfish kid that does really awful things to his friends, family and classmates – his friend Rowley in particular. I suppose in the end, Greg sticks up for Rowley by hiding the fact that he was forced by bullies to actually eat “the Cheese.” This loyalty comes only after Greg has sold Rowley out several times, played tricks on him, and broken his hand during a dangerous game he invented. I am not convinced that Greg has learned a lesson and will be nicer to Rowley in the future. However, these complaints are those of a reader and not a critic. I give this book a 5Q and a 5P VOYA rating because we very literally can’t keep it on the shelf!
One England: Two Separate Countries
Emma: Volume 1
By Kaoru Mori
La Jolie, CA, DC Comics (WildStorm), 2006, 183 pgs.
The eponymous character of this manga is a tragically shy girl with glasses living in Victorian England. Emma works as a maid for Kelly Stownar, a retired governess. In the opening chapter of the novel, a former student of Mrs. Stownar drops in for a surprise visit. William Jones comes from a very wealthy merchant family and takes an instant interest in Emma. He leaves his gloves behind on purpose just so that Emma will go racing through the streets after him, consequently giving him some alone time with her. The two go for an evening stroll together and love begins to bud. William continues to make excuses to see Emma but never makes a formal declaration of love. When his friend Prince Hakim from India comes for a visit with full elephant entourage, William’s pursuit of Emma gets put on the back burner mostly because Hakim seems to have suddenly fallen over himself for Emma, too. The reader finds that Emma has many suitors and has refused them all, giving little hope to William.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Stownar would like for Emma to get married before she dies and asks Emma is she is in love with William. Emma doesn’t say anything but Mrs. Stownar (and the reader) can see in her face that she does. Near the end of the novel, Mrs. Stownar falls down a flight of steps and hurts her leg. William and his father visit her because it’s just the thing to do in this time period. During their visit, Mr. Jones announces that there is a woman of the upper class interested in marrying William. William is shocked by this news and refuses to be party to an arranged marriage. His father asks him if he is in love with someone else that is high born because anything less would be unacceptable, of course.
Unfortunately, here is where the story ends. The final three frames are the most powerful in the entire book. Mr. Jones says, “Great Britain is one, yet within it are two countries…these two classes of people speak the same language…but live in two different countries.” The second to last frame is William’s stunned face and the final is Emma, walking away. You don’t get more ‘separation of social class’ than that.
I have never seen a manga series like this before. Kaoru Mori is an Anglophile and it shows in her rich, highly detailed and historically correct illustrations. I had wondered if this was a retelling of Jane Austen’s classic novel, Emma, but this Emma couldn’t be further from Austen’s! To my knowledge, Austen’s Emma is not shy at all, does not wear glasses, and is a matchmaker who doesn’t have time for suitors of her own. However, I am intrigued by Mori’s Emma because she has the potential to change and show her true character. She has a kindness and gentleness that shows through in this volume and I hope in later books her feistiness will show. However, like a typical Victorian novel, a great weakness for this manga is that not a lot actually ‘happens.’ I think boys (my boyfriend in particular) reading it would be bored out of their minds. Like Austen’s writing, many things are implied, satirized or only hinted at. This gives it a bit of mystery, but I also kept thinking, “Ok, where’s the big, racy love scene? Where’s the giant explosion? The shocking twist?” Despite that, I know a lot of teen girls who would go totally nuts over this series. This particular volume is really tame and I would recommend it to teens age 12 and up. I give this a 4Q and 3P VOYA rating.
The Book Sniffing Librarian 